You may have noticed I’ve been using a new avatar here on my blog and on Twitter. During our trip to Dorset, Cristiano made a couple of cool photos of me and I had been thinking for a while to change the avatar I use everywhere. The old one was taken 2 years ago in Italy, so it really felt like time to update it. 

I liked the colours in this one, but after trying it out in a smaller size, it just didn’t pop out as much as I wanted (plus the hairs in front of my eyes look weird in small):

I really loved this sepia photo of me, but after cropping it and rescaling it, it just didn’t seem to work as an avatar:

Then Cristiano suggested changing the colours; instead of sepia, there’s now a slight overlay of the Miss Geeky red over it. I think it fits pretty good in this site:

What do you think?

Episode 85: “Shake it!”

There’s a very cool ad for the new Wario game Wario Land: Shake It! on the Wii, but sadly I can’t embed here it. So head on over to YouTube to check out (trust me, you’ve got to take a look).

[Via Geeks Are Sexy]

Interesting links for September 23rd:

• The Stargate Universe Team Assembles – A list of some of the new characters of the new Stargate spinoff, Stargate Universe (aka Voyager 90210). So who do we got? The old guy/leader, the medic, the spoilt rich girl, the Good Will Hunting type genius, the hot reckless guy and the big butch guy. Anyone else noticing we're still missing the alien?
• All of Them Witches – A fashion photo shoot with Emma Watson (aka Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies), modeling designer dresses. I love the Alexander McQueen one; it fits perfectly with the magic vibe. The rest look pretty cool too, except for the Matthew Williamson. What the hell is going on there?? She's floating?
• 60th Annual Emmy Awards: Very Good, Very Bad, Real Ugly – Ooh, Red Carpet dresses from the Emmy's and comments from the Jezebel blog. I'm absolutely adoring Olivia Wilde's princess dress (but then I'm a closet Disney princess). The Bad dresses aren't as bad as previous red carpets, but still: they aren't the most flattering dresses for those celebrities.
• Valerie Atherton’s Playground and Intellectual Department – I have no idea if this blog is real or not. It's from an 18 year old girl who was a successful tweenmodel who "grew up being told by my parents and teachers and friends that there was something special about me". I've read a couple of her "reviews", but they're more like faulty plot synopsis's. For instance about TDK: Batman has the superhero abilities of superhuman strength and flying (ehm…no), Heath Ledger knew he was dying while shooting The Dark Knight (again: no) and Spiderman, Hulk Hogan and Iron Man are popular superheroes (well, two out of three ain't that bad).

Cristiano got these two shots of me, when we were waiting for my parents at the Palace Theatre. I can read anywhere; as long as I have a book with me, I can easily entertain myself. Very useful when waiting for trains, waiting in line while shopping, etc.

I was completely oblivious when he took this shot:

With this second one I realized he was making photos of me:

I love my expression in this photo!

Btw, I was reading Guardian of Honor from Robin D. Owens (read my mini review here). I had just bought the book a couple of hours earlier that day.

Leverage is a new series coming this fall (actually December) from Dean Devlin, the writer behind Universal Soldier, Stargate, Independence Day and Godzilla (yeah, not too impressive, but still interesting).

Nate Ford (Timothy Hutton) is an ex-insurance investigator, who once tracked down stolen goods and the thieves behind them. After the death of his son, due in part to an insurance company who didn’t want to pay for the treatment, Ford is approached to “re-acquire” stolen designs from an airplane manufacturer. He’s forced to work with individuals he at one time in the past crossed paths with: Eliot Spencer (Christian Kane), a retrieval specialist; Alex Hardison (Aldis Hodge), a computer and gadget expert; and, Parker (Beth Riesgraf), a thief. Eventually they’re also joined by Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman), a horrible on-stage actress, but con-artist extraordinaire.  

Let me first make a couple of things clear. The version I watched had the music from Hustle under it. While this might make it through to the final cut, I’m guessing that was just a temporary thing. This means though that they could possibly change anything and everything in the time it takes until it eventually airs. 

Leverage is a fun new series. It’s a combination of Ocean’s Eleven, The A-Team and any hustle/thief type of show. I’ve never watched Hustle, so I can’t really say if it’s anything like that or not. I’m not even sure if Leverage is based on it or just loosely inspired (“ooh, you know that British Hustling serie? Let’s make that but with Americans!”). Like Ocean’s Eleven it’s got a good worked-out plot, but I wonder if they’ll be able to keep it interesting for an entire season. It’s difficult to bring a smart story every single week, especially if you also want to try and surprise your viewers a bit on the way. Fingers crossed they can achieve that.

This is very much an ensemble series and the actors all have a great chemistry together (I’m hoping they won’t recast). Timothy Hutton is great as the slightly older mentor figure, who suddenly is playing on the other side, although I hope they don’t focus too much on his dead son story line. Christian Kane is interesting as Spencer; somehow I wouldn’t have imagined casting him in that role, but that’s the reason why it works. I loved Gina Bellman in Coupling and it’s great seeing her on TV again. Surprisingly she isn’t even the craziest character (although she has some great moments). That honour goes to Parker, played by Beth Riesgraf, and I’m curious to see more of her backstory. Finally, the computer geek Alex. There are a couple obvious geeky jokes in that pilot, but still I really liked the character. 

The only problem I had with the show is that it felt a bit slow at times. Somethings were dragged out a bit too much and it would have worked better if those moments were a bit snappier. As I said before, that might still change and I’m hoping it will.

Just like The Mentalist Leverage is an easy to get into new TV show. There’s no real big season thread (maybe the dead son), and most episodes will be stand-alone. This will be another show going on my to-watch list, although I’m curious to see if they’ll change anything about it first.

Episode 84: Using pads for pop-up dispensers

How many hours of “work” went into making this?

EepyBird’s Sticky Note experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.

Ahoy, me hearties! Today it’s International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Yarrr! In honour o’ this most fantabulous holiday, I’d thought I’d share me favourite pirates with you.

The Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride

Aye, me mateys. Most people seem t’ forget that he be indeed a pirate, but this masked semi-hero deserves a spot on me list. “As ye wish!”

Long John Silver from Muppet Treasure Island

There have been a lot o’ incarnations o’ Treasure Island’s Long John Silver, but it’s Tim Curry’s performance in t’ Muppet version that I’ll always adore. Over t’ top and way too cheesy, but just listen to t’ song Professional Pirate and tell me that’s not a pirate! 

Morgan Adams from Cutthroat Island

A lassy pirate! Although Cutthroat Island was considered a flop, at t’ time I loved loved loved it. Last year I rewatched it though… and it’s on t’ list o’ “Movies I Used to Adore As A Kid, But Were Really Really Bad”. Geena Davis’s Morgan though remains a kick-ass heroine.

Captain Jack Sparrow

How can such a list be complete without Captain Sparrow? T’ quintessential pirate o’ recent years, he’s t’ type o’ pirate everybody loves, even though he’s double-crossin’ double-dealin’ yellow-bellied blowfish.

Shiver me timbers! What a list! So who be your favourite pirates?

Interesting links for September 16th through September 19th:

• Badvertising: Sex Sells. Or Does It? – Guess the products (and brand) from the sexy ads. Some pretty easy ones, but there are a couple of weird ones too.
• Triviagasm: What's the Real Explanation for the Roswell Incident? – Cool list of all the different explanations in tv shows, movies, etc for Roswell. One remark though: the Roswell tv series from a few years back was based on a book series, but the premise of the book (where the aliens came from) was completely different from the tv show.
• The Stretch: Find True Love in Fight Club – Funny post explaining how Fight Club could be seen as a version of Romeo and Juliet.
• The Pixar Blog: Docters building dream home – Now here's where I'd like to live when I never grow up.

This is just one of the most cutest photos ever (from Flickr user ohleah):

Here’s a close-up:

I don’t think I should be writing about them. But I had to see if there were more people out there. Others who were contacted by… the 7th Syndikate. All I know is that they’re a state-funded organization interested in me and others like me. And they are watching every single move I make.

I should start at the beginning though. Two weeks ago I received the following email from TRUST.NO.ONE with as subject “The grey jackal skips joyfully across the pond”:

Don’t turn away from your screen; they may already be watching.

We like your type. You came to our attention with your recent piece on We Will Rock You and how you secured special discounts at short notice, as well as gaining access to Brian May himself. In the next couple of days someone from our organisation will be in contact. If you don’t hear from us by then, destroy all evidence of our correspondence.
For now, it doesn’t matter who we are, suffice to say we’re a state-funded organisation interested in your skills.

Curtis TH-915

—————–www.7thsyndikate.org———————

When you went to the website mentioned at the end (7thsyndikate.org) at that time, you got a Error 707 page with this text:

You cannot display the webpage

Most likely causes:
– Civilian internet cookies
– Browser incompatible with intelligence channel terminals
– You’re not very bright

What you can try:
– Figure it out for yourself

Checking out the source quickly revealed that “bright” was a link. Clicking on that led to these messages:

A couple of days later I received another email with as subject “Step from the shadows and show us your true colours. Signals can only be hidden in plain sight”:

There is always much room for fending off the hunger demons, wine can dull the senses, stay on guard. 

Place the following message in a public communication to your comrades – dim3 ak7ion – this communication is sensitive, but shouldn’t place you in direct danger. We have agents ready to fight the fires that may rise. You could become one of them.

I wasn’t sure what to make of it. It didn’t seem there was a “next” step. Some people seemed to think it was connected to a Doppler and Monocle event going down tonight and I was convinced it was… until I received another email today:

Hi Melinda,

You’ve been activated; you will now be known as X?X?X?  The password to gain basic clearance is Asylum. You will then have to pass another test. Be patient and look for terms with which you are already familiar.

Date of next communication: 16:00, 17/09/08 

Be ready for action: 18:45, 24/09/08

This email had as subject “Be mindful of the tiger with the wooden leg. You are one of us now. You are protected”. I’ve taken out my new user name out of the above email (I don’t trust you all enough with that information).

After logging in on the updated 7thSyndikate.org page, you get a big lap of text about Nuclear Artists and a big shiny countdown counting down to the 24th September. One word popped out Dymaxion (= dim3 ak7ion) and clicking on that led to a list of Google search results of ‘dim3 ak7ion’. 

And now I’m stuck. I’m not sure what to do. Who is the 7th Syndikate? What are they planning? What is Dymaxion? And why have they chosen me?

I guess at the moment all I can do is wait until their next message.