Episode 62: “Time’s up”

A week ago I did a guest blog post about Apple Spotting and I came across this video showing the product placement used in Independence Day. It’s part of a series by YouTuber JediMoonShyne, featuring the product placements in all different movies.

Interesting links for May 20th:

• The Ebb and Flow of Movies: Box Office Receipts 1986 ? 2008 – Interesting graph of the box office results of movies from 1986 to February 2008. It’s great to compare some movies with each other (The Haunting did better than The Matrix?(
• Five things humans no longer need – The title might mislead, but this is about parts of the body a human doesn’t need anymore. Including wisdom teeth. If only I was a step further in evolution…
• 15 (More) Of The Coolest Hotel Suites In The World – A list of cool hotel suites. The igloo hotel looks cool (pardon the pun), and the artsy Sicilian one just looks crazy to stay at.

Episode 61: “My name is Amy Walker”

I love the quirkiness of accents. Everyone has got one, although with some it may be more pronounced than others. After moving to London, I was surprised to hear that people could hear my accent. Well, not surprised in that they noticed I had an accent, but more amazed how exact some could pinpoint where I was from. I’ve had people recognize I’m from the Netherlands, others that recognize the Australian bit, and a couple that managed to hear both in my voice.

Anyhow, here’s a cool little video where one woman does 21 different accents:

The Incredible Hulk
I posted the teaser trailer of The Incredible Hulk a couple of weeks ago and I wasn’t that impressed by it. The more I see and hear about this movie though, the more it’s piquing my interest. I’m only wondering how many people actually realize this movie isn’t a sequel to the Hulk movie from a couple of years ago. I have a feeling not that many… [Trailer]

Babylon A.D.
Based on the novel Babylon Babies (Maurice Georges Dantec), this movie stars Vin Diesel as a mercenary escorting a woman from Russia to China. The woman, however, is carrying an organism (does this mean “a baby”?) that a cult wants to harvest to produce a genetically-modified Messiah. Vin Diesel + SF = entertaining movie, but don’t expect any intelligent dialogue. [Trailer]

Baghead
I’ve heard some great reviews about this Sundance favorite, but this trailer just seems a mess. It’s a comedy/horror about four actor friends on holiday at a cabin in the middle of the woods and a guy with a bag on his head (hence the name Baghead). [Trailer]

The Escapist
Bunch of guys that hate each other’s guts, band together to escape prison. Been there, done that, you’d think, right? For most parts of the trailer those were my thoughts at least. Until the last scene. And then I read the description a bit more closely: an underground prison in London. *theorizing mode on* Hidden prison? Future? Ooh, or maybe it’s not a prison? We didn’t see any guards, right? But what about the women? Puzzle movie! [Trailer]

The Dark Knight
Regular readers here will have read the account of my blundering evening in search of this trailer. Now here’s a confession: besides the Jokerized version, I haven’t actually watched a good high-def version of it. Why? I’m going to see this movie no matter what, so why bother… [Trailer]

Twilight
Kind of unrelated, but in my teenage years I was completely addicted to the books from L.J. Smith. If they had made a movie of any of those, no matter how bad it was, I would have gone to see it (most probably multiple times). Now I haven’t read the books this movie is based on (from Stephenie Meyer), but I can imagine the hordes of teenage girls lining up to see this film. Oh yeah, before I forget: it’s about a teenage vampire in love with a mortal girl (of course). [Trailer]

The Happening
I’m still undecided on this movie; I think it could go either way (but leaning more towards “bad” at the moment). After reading a script review more than a year ago, I know the “twist” of the movie, but I’m not actually sure if it even is a real “twist”. The original title of the movie kind of gave that away. I’m just wondering now if it’s being marketed the right way. [Trailer]

Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Worst. Movie. Ever. Okay, I shouldn’t say that before watching the actual movie, but seriously does anybody expect this to be good? Now, watch the trailer and tell me you didn’t have to cringe a little bit? It’s even more terrible than the poster made me imagine it would be. [Trailer]

Igor
John Cusack voices Igor, a hunch-back lab assistant who wants to become a mad scientist and win the annual Evil Science Fair. The idea and all the actors involved (besides Cusack, there’s Molly Shannon, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Eddie Izzard, Sean Hayes) look great and I want to like this movie, but this trailer didn’t impress me at all. [Trailer]

Australia
I loved Moulin Rouge!, but hated Romeo + Juliet, so for me it could go either way with Baz Luhrman’s Australia. I was expecting to like it, not love it, but this new trailer struck a chord with me, leaving me quite excited for this movie. Set prior to World War II, it’s about an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) who inherits a ranch in Australia and is forced to join forces with a rough cattle driver (Hugh Jackman). [Trailer]

Noise
Outside my apartment there’s one car whose alarm goes off way too often. Not often enough that it drives me crazy, but I can imagine the motive behind Noise’s main character. Tim Robbins plays David, a successful lawyer who can’t stand the noise of car alarms and decides to take action. Adopting the alter ego of “The Rectifier”, he makes it his mission to attack the wrongdoing cars. [Trailer]

The Rocker
I must admit I didn’t expect I would like this movie, but after seeing the trailer it doesn’t seem that half bad. While the jokes seem a bit cliched, the plot actually does seem entertaining. It stars Rainn Wilson (The Office) as a failed 80’s band drummer that joins the high school band of his nephew. [Trailer]

Interesting links for May 14th:

• Ausiello Scoop: Bill Lawrence on Scrubs’ Move to ABC – Interview with Scrub’s Bill Lawrence on their problems with NBC and the new movie to ABC.
• Studios’ viral marketing campaigns are vexing – I couldn’t disagree more with an article. The more times I read it the more irritated I get by it. Somehow this guy doesn’t understand the essence of these campaigns, especially when he compares it to “homework”. Then the line: “When “Cloverfield” played around with viral strategies, it was cool. Now that everyone else is copying — not so cool.” As if Cloverfield was the first one?? Sorry, but this article just rubs me the wrong way.
• Nintendogs: The case of the non-game that barked like a game – Review of Nintendogs from a game design perspective. I had kind of dismissed that game, thinking it was just a Tamagotchi on a DS. Reading this article has me intrigued to how the game actually works.
• Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out – An article by Neal Stephenson on Star Wars and geeking out versus vegging out. Interesting perspective.
• Logo Mash-up – Funny mash-ups of corporate logos. Love the Windows Vista + Volkswagen and Sony + I Heart New York.

Episode 60: “And I’m commando too, they shoot me from here up.”

These videos are almost from a year ago from the SciFi Digital Press Panel with the Battlestar Galactica cast, featuring Aaron Douglas, Michael Hogan, Jamie Bamber, Grace Park, Tahmoh Penikett and executive producer Harvey Frand. It was during the shooting of the episodes we’re watching now, but they’re mainly talking about their experiences with (famous) fans and the evolution of their characters (so no spoilers).

I still am surprised every time I hear Jamie Bamber’s accent, even though I first saw him as Archie in Hornblower. And Aaron Douglas is hilarious! He is so different to his character on the show. It’s a long video (about 46 minutes), but if you’re a fan, it’s worth watching.

I used to love my My Little Pony’s (seriously, what is the correct plural form of ‘My Little Pony’? Pony’s or Ponies?). I had one favorite: a pink pony with blue hair and the most fragile translucent butterfly wings. So fragile they broke within a month and left my pony with stupid little stumps on it’s back. Still even after that it remained my favorite (resulting in many daydreams about the princess pony that sacrificed her wings to save her kingdom).

By now most of you must have seen the My Little Master Chief, when it did the blogosphere rounds a couple of weeks ago. I wasn’t that impressed by it; I’m not a Halo fan and it was just a pony in a green space suit. Only now I’ve discovered though that the creator of that pony AnimeAmy has a whole range of custom My Little Pony’s (a lot of them from Final Fantasy, hence my interest). Here are some of my favorites:

If you want to see all of them, head on over to AnimeAmy’s gallery on deviantArt.

Interesting links for May 11th through May 13th:

• The Theology of Cylons – Interesting interview with Ron Moore, producer on Battlestar Galactica, about religious themes in the original series and the reimagined show.
• Neal Stephenson on Science Fiction | Mssv – Nice write-up of a talk Neal Stephenson recently gave called “The Fork: Science Fiction versus Mundane Culture”. Love the bit about vulcan ears and sci-fi celebrities. And I completely agree with his thoughts on geeks!
• Dave Devries: The Monster Engine – Crazy little pieces of art. Dave Devries takes drawing from monsters and superheroes made by children and bases his own designs on them.

Thanks to Michael, I have a guest blog post up on Apple Gazette. Head on over there to read: The Beginner’s Guide to Apple Spotting.

I’ve been tagged by Cristiano with this green meme. The idea? This:

… to write about the ways (I currently picked 5, but you could pick less or more) you think you purposely handle things “the green way”, and then write about the things you know you should handle better.

Okay, how green am I? First off, my good points (I’m cheating a bit and stealing some of Cristiano’s stuff):

1. I don’t have a car.

I still haven’t been bothered to get a drivers license. Why should I? In the Netherlands I had a student travel card (free public transport throughout the week, major discounts in the weekend) and here in London a car is only more trouble.

2. I try to avoid using a hairdryer.

Since my new haircut 3 months ago, I’ve used my hairdryer once. The reason I stopped isn’t actually because it’s greener, but that is a nice side effect. I’ve noticed it’s healthier for my hair if I let it dry naturally; it doesn’t get that static, dried out and greasy. Plus with the way it’s cut now, I can easily put my wet hair up without it looking too “wet-looky”.

3. I buy long-lasting milk.

Again the main reason is not because it’s greener. Normal milk tends to go bad quicker than we can finish a pack, especially the milk sold downstairs here. By the way, long lasting milk tastes just like normal milk nowadays.

4. I use candles and water bottles.

I’m not sure if this is actually “greener”, but during the early stages winter I try not to turn the central heating on that often, instead using candles and water bottles. Mainly the latter is quite useful, because typically I’m cold and shivering, but Cristiano isn’t. Using a water bottle keeps me nice and warm, while not unnecessarily turning up the heater.

5. I don’t overuse plastic grocery bags.

In the Netherlands you have to pay for every plastic grocery bag, so almost everybody brings their own bags or crates with them (I don’t see anybody here in the UK with folding crates in their car; is that something Dutch?). So even here in the UK, I still bring my own bags with me and try to fit as much in them as possible.

My bad points?

1. I leave chargers in the wall.

I’m really bad with this. I almost always leave my phone and laptop charger plugged in, even if those gadgets aren’t connected. I know I shouldn’t, but sometimes I’m plain lazy. Shouldn’t chargers though be more smartly designed to realize when there’s no gadget hanging on them? The technology should be far enough to do something like that, right?

2. I throw batteries away in the normal trash.

Like Cristiano, I have no idea here where I should throw my batteries away. Back in Holland every supermarket has a special separated chemical waste bin; you just bring your batteries in a small plstic bag and throw it there away. Here, though? No idea.

3. I take long showers.

I think this may be my major transgression: my showers are way too long. Even if I try to hurry up, I’m still in there for at least 10 minutes. Shampoo, conditioner, scrub, soap, (etc) it all takes up more time than I want (but I do need it, otherwise my hair becomes a bat nest, Amy Winehouse, anyone?).

4. I don’t use a bike.

While I don’t have a car, I do use public transport a lot. Not that much of a bad thing, but for some distances using a bike would be easier and greener. I’m thinking of bringing my old bike over from the Netherlands. It’s already 8 years old, but still looks better than most bikes here.

5. I don’t reuse the water from my water bottle.

Pretty obvious, but I still don’t do it. Every time I want to fill up my water bottle, I fill the kettle with water from the tap and turn it on. Then when that’s hot, I realize I have to empty the water bottle and “throw away” the water. I’m at least thinking about it, but I know I should change this.

So those are my good and bad green issues. I’m tagging Too Sexy For My Books, Geek Chic, Geek Girl Friday, Geeks Are Sexy and A Consuming Experience.