Episode 5: “Light up the sky like a flame” 

2 years ago during the 2005 Emmy Awards Kirsten Bell aka Veronica Mars or Elle (Heroes) performed the title song from Fame. She’s actually not that bad. There were rumours of her taking over the role of Elle Woods in the musical version of Legally Blonde on Broadway and now I can see that she would have been perfect for that. I’m glad though that she didn’t take up the offer, otherwise we wouldn’t be seeing her in Heroes. Although, how much bad dialogue can those writers cook up for her?

Interesting links for January 4th:

• 55 Must See Movies of 2008 | /Film – Another preview list of the films coming out in 2008, ordered on release date. Mentions two films I hadn’t heard of before: Nick and Norah?s Infinite Playlist, and Synecdoche, New York.
• Phil Wheeler – Online Gallery – Pretty pictures. Mind Hacks: “They’re psychological in both senses of the word, as some contain images associated with psychology, but also often contain hidden images, visual illusions and distortions.”
• 60 Dumbest Celebrity Quotes – How dumb can some people be? “I get to go to lots of overseas places, like Canada.” – Britney Spears, “I think gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman” – Arnold Schwarzenegger,
• Top 87 Bad Predictions about the Future – Great collection of quotes from famous people about wrong predictions. Being a movie fan, I especially love this one: “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” H. M. Warner, co-founder of Warner Brothers, 1927.
• School in a cave – Photo shoot of children attending class at the Dongzhong (literally meaning “in cave”) primary school at a Miao village in China. The school is built in a huge, aircraft hangar-sized natural cave, carved out of a mountain over thousands of years by wind,
• Top 60 Japanese buzzwords of 2007 –
• Why 2008 Will Be An Awesome Year For Movies « FirstShowing.net – List of the most interesting movies coming out next year. Besides the obvious ones (The Dark Knight, Indy IV, Star Trek), there are a couple more obscure ones (Blindness, The Box, Repo! The Genetic Opera!, Zack and Miri Make A Porno).
• How to Draw a Face: A Mystery – Story about a guy whose father drew a comic “face” (at least it was a face in his fathers eyes) on his birthday cake every year and who wanted to finally know where the face came from.

Episode 4: “Right or Left Brain?”

Now I know this video isn’t really an optical illusion, but I can’t figure out what to call it then. Something like divergent perception, or so? I’m also not completely buying the whole right side/left side of the brain story (not in this case at least). I’ve seen this video a couple of times and after a while it switches directions. With most of these types of visual tricks, you can figure it out and force your brain to perceive it in another (I love jumping back and forth between the two perceptions of this image). This one though still continues to elude me.

Episode 3: “Meow” 

If you have a cat, I think this will be quite recognizable (except for the end part of course). There have been so many time that my cat has waken me up in a similar manner.

Interesting links for January 3rd:

• Jazz Up Your WordPress Admin – A list of themes for your WordPress Admin. Sadly there aren’t that many out there and the default theme is ugly. I’m using the Tiger style now, but have the feeling there should be even better ones out there.
• Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2007 – Beautiful fractal images. I wish I could have posters of some of these. I especially like Stardust, Air, Dreamtime Persistence and Mono Mania. What are your favorites?
• Law & Order: London in Development – ComingSoon.net – I never got into watching Law & Order, but some people might like the idea that ITV is negotiating a 13-episode order with NBC.

Interesting links for January 2nd:

• Raiders of the Lost Backyard: Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.com – Wow, great story of three boys in 1982 who made a scene-by-scene adaptation of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
• The Strangetastic Photo Galleries: The Winchester Mystery House – A collection of photos of a creepy mansion (with 160 rooms).
• Keys to the Kingdom: Making Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull – A great insight into the minds behind Indy IV, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Plus photos from the set by Annie Leibovitz.

Episode 2: “Roman Epic Movie”

I never realised how often Trajan is actually used, but after watching this video I keep seeing it everywhere.

Episode 1: “Silence! I kill you!”

To introduce this new daily recurring post, I thought I’d start with an old favorite: Achmed The Dead Terrorist. This made quite a splash at BarcampLondon3 a couple of weeks ago, with a lot people just yelling “I keel you!” at each other. Of course, all the people that hadn’t seen it were left completely bewildered.

I wasn’t planning to write down all my New Years resolutions in a post; why should I bother other people with what I’m trying to do better this year? The answer (of course): commitment. By having it in black on white on this blog where people can hold me accountable for my actions, I’m committing myself strongly to actually upholding my resolutions. Let’s see how that works, hey? I’ll first get all the boring, normal, unoriginal stuff out of the way.

1. Work out more, be healthier. It’s not that I want to loose weight, feel too fat or anything like that, but I feel as if I’m not at my healthiest at the moment. I think I’ve been more times sick last year than ever before and don’t want to have that same feeling this year. So more healthy food and cut back on the ice cream and chocolate.
2. Work more organized and more regularly. I’m going to try and get up everyday at the same time and to actually try and keep a detailed plan.
3. Stress less. I tend to over-think things way too much and always come up with all possible worst-case scenarios. Okay, not too bad, but then I start worrying and believing in those worst-case scenarios. I hate it that I can completely get stressed out by the simplest thing. So, I’m going to take a step back and think things calmly and logically through.

Okay, now some blog related resolutions I want to keep.

1. A Video A Day: This might be a tad ambitious, but I want to see if I can post and write about one video every day. It might be movie or Tv or geek related, but could also be just funny stuff I’ve stumbled upon. I’ll post 2 today, cause I already missed yesterday.
2. Rewind: I started this a time back as a recurring topic about old obscure Tv shows. I’ve got a list of more than 40 shows I can write about, so it’s about time I actually start doing it. I’m going to try to post at least once a week.
3. Trailerrific: A weekly recurring post about all the movie trailers that have come out that week.
4. Pageturner: A recurring (maybe eventually weekly, but not yet) post about interesting books I’ve read. Mostly fantasy with a touch of romance.

Finally, there are a couple of other stuff I want to do:

1. Start organizing events. I’ve said it before, but never have written it here yet. I want to get more involved in helping with the organization of events, like Geek Dinners and maybe even eventually a BarCamp (let’s start out small first, right?). For starters, I’m hoping I have time to organize a London Werewolf night this month and will let you all know how that works out.
2. Finish my degree and get a job. Sounds easier than it is :D.
3. Get a “real” camera and learn more about photography. I sold my camera to my father last week, mainly because he dropped his and needed a new one. Plus I was only getting frustrated with it anyway. This year I want to get a digital SLR and really learn how to shoot great photos.

So, that’s about it, I guess. Most probably within the next hour I’ll come up with all other stuff that I’m completely forgetting now, but these will just have to do.

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you’re all enjoying the holidays as much as I am. Even with all my tooth stress, I had a great Christmas at my parents place. This year I really enjoyed picking out and thinking up the appropriate presents for everyone; although, I must say, Amazon has really made it easier for me this year (last year I was still in the Netherlands and the shipping fees are really not worth it). I had also ordered Threadless t-shirts for my brother and sister back in November and strangely they still haven’t arrived yet. I’ve already contacted Threadless and they were no help at all; I have no idea now, how to figure out where my package is.

Anyhow, Santa was very generous to me this year; I got a great bunch of presents (a whole lot more than I expected). Here’s a list of all the stuff I got (hope I’m not forgetting anything):

Comics

Heroes: Volume One: Ever since the first episode of Heroes aired in September 2006, a short comic has appeared online (in Flash or PDF) every week, as a supplement to the tv-series. I only found out about it at the end of last season and never got around to catching up on all of it. Now the comics during the first season (34 episodes) have been published together as a hardcover graphic novel. A must-have for every Heroes fan.

V For Vendetta: I loved the movie and have been meaning to get the comic ever since. I just know I’ll hear Hugo Weaving whispering in my mind whenever I’m reading though.

Sin City 3: The Big Fat Kill: I’ve already got Parts 1 & 2 and I’m hoping I can complete the series before they change the look and size of the edition. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s mismatched book series.

Books

Ash: A Secret History (Mary Gentle): An interesting book about a female mercenary leader in the Middle Ages, who hears a voice in her head. The book is set up as if it was written as an actual biography of a real person by an English history professor and includes letters to an undisclosed university publisher.

The Tawny Man Trilogy (Robin Hobb): I read the Assassin trilogy a few years ago in high school and it sketches an original and imaginative magical world. I’m curious to see how the characters have changed after so many years.

The Rule of Four (Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason): I hadn’t heard of this book before, but it seems to be a history-quest mystery in the vein of the Da Vinci Code. I didn’t like the overhyped Da Vinci Code (preferring the earlier Angels and Demons), but I’ll give it a go and see how it is.

DVDs

The Prestige: I’ve seen this film now thrice this year and it still doesn’t fail to amaze me. Complicated storytelling, but still gives room for the viewer to figure it out (and conquer the movie). Plus Hugh Jackman AND Christian Bale. Double swoonfest.

The Fountain: More Hugh Jackman! One of the most thought-provoking films I saw this year. Again complicated storytelling, but this time open to your own interpretation. Got to love the space traveler in a giant bubble!

The Dark Crystal: Gelflings! Cutest fantasy creature ever (I’m counting the Ewoks now as Science Fiction creatures). I’m slowly building up my collection of childhood fantasy movies. Already got Labyrinth, still missing The Princess Bride, Return to Oz and The Storyteller tv-series.

Serenity: Do I even have to explain? My only gripe with the movie is that every time I see it, I’m saddened by the stark realization that if they had continued with the tv-series the plot and mythology of the show would have just been phenomenal. Stupidest mistake of Fox evah (along with the cancellation of Angel, Dark Angel, Journeyman, Wonderfalls, Kitchen Confidential, Futurama, Tru Calling, Roswell, The Pretender, Point Pleasant, Drive, John Doe, Freakylinks, Harsh Realm, The Visitor, should I continue? This might take a while).

Babylon 5: The Lost Tales: Actually this wasn’t my present, but Cristiano’s. But come on! After 5 years of virtually being dormant, J. Michael Straczynski is back!

Blood & Chocolate and Ultraviolet: I actually tried watching both of these films, but just had to switch it off halfway. I read the book Blood & Chocolate is based on when I was 13 and was hoping for (but truthfully not expecting) a good movie adaption, which unfortunately is not the case. Ultraviolet is a complete different story. It was written and directed by Kurt Wimmer, the genius behind Equilibrium, but the cut that made into cinemas and now DVD isn’t his, but the studio’s (they found the original too emotional). The film is basically scene after scene of action sequences (beautifully choreographed though) with incomprehensible snippets of dialogue in between. I’m desperately hoping that someday there will be a Director’s Cut, cause I can see glimpses of the brilliant film that it’s meant to be.

Other Stuff

Travel Chopsticks

Aren’t these just cute? Now I can have sushi whenever I want!

Body Shop Goodies

I love Body Shop stuff, especially the lip balm Born Lippy.

Cute Tweezers

These are just so cute! My sisters says it’s a dominatrix, but I’m convinced it’s a ninja.

Microwave Mittens

Sweet, little mittens for the microwave. They even have magnets in them so they stick to your fridge.

Travel Hairdryer

After all the traveling I’ve done this year and most probably will be doing next year, this will be nice and handy.

Business Card Holders

Now I can store the business cards of all the people I meet out there.

Hat

I love my new hat! And was straight away useful at the Fireworks last night.

Phew, quite a list, huh? All I can say is I’ve been really lucky this year and got some serious reading and watching to do. So what presents did you get this year?