


Friday, December 30, 2005
A bit Nippy
I’m gonna huggle up in a few layers of sweaters, light a fire, and try and get some SEO stuff done from the boat.
Sod this for a lark.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Quantum Physics: The Musical
92% of our reality is unseen. It's Dark Matter - heavier than, well, Heavy Metal - download the mp3 sampler and check the blog.
On its last mission, quantum ship Lollipop experienced a collision between parallel universes. Crew member Ensign Percy was exchanged for the Ensign Percy of the universe next door. Now the Lollipop must make it again through the quantum foam, switch back their crew members, and be the first to reach the mythical Dimension of Lost Quarters.
Why does Quantum Physics and cheese go so well hand in hand? Secretly, I have always dreamed of owning my own Hadron Accelerator and I keep a permanent search in eBay...
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Best Christmas Viral

Standing out this year was an offering from our Flash Seattle chumbs (and fellow Webby winners) at Creature.
Check out, and pass on, Pimp My Nutcracker.
Friday, December 23, 2005
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Back to Redhill

We've outstanding issues, most notably a corroded bulkhead that didn't show on the initial exterior survey. We'll be at Mills again at the end of February for more light engineering. Joy.
We've found some interesting history on Andromeda of late, 36 year old photos and every damn thing, and I'll post it here when we get round to putting it all in one doc.
Sunday, December 18, 2005
DVD Review - Land of the Dead

As with his other undead movies, Land of the Dead works on another level. This is almost a social political study of man and humanity, which happens to have some serious zombie action. The social commentary isn't subtle, some may say almost dated, but Romero delivers his iconic African American hero and a lesson in consumerism with such aplomb that most viewers simply won't notice.
Taking a step back, and hiding the cultural commentary under a blanket of prosthesis and gore, this is a film of classic FX and the product of a master craftsman. Zombies, a million of them, sliced, crushed, diced, kebabed, detonated, fried, quartered, chopped, squashed, flambéed, disembowelled, fricasseed and chowing down on an unwilling banquet of human body parts. Do look out for some prime cameos from the genre, Tom Savini, Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright, and the stunning and underrated Asia Argento co-stars.
The movie has slight air of 70’s about it. Perhaps it’s the genre, or perhaps it’s because the story picks up some 2 decades after the mysterious supernatural apocalypse that spawned this series. Now the living dead have taken over the world, and the last humans live in the self imprisonment of a walled city, partying against the darkness, as they deal with the new world around them. But all's not well. Outside the electric fences and beyond the no-mans land, the zombies are steadily evolving. Inside, a revolution plans to overthrow the cities corrupt ruling forces (the excellent Dennis Hopper in a subtle Bush parody), and the walking dead are walking into town with ideas of their own. It’s time the corpses got even.
Okay, the dialogue isn’t brilliant, but this movie can do things and get away with stuff that no other movie ever could. Embrace the cheese while its there, there’s not a lot of it. It made this old sceptic jump and made me gasp at the wonder of real stunt performers, make-up artists and FX people showing us the pinnacle of their craft.
This is a George A Romero film, simple as that. It’s ‘Mad Max’ meets ‘Evil Dead’ meets ‘Escape from New York’ meets ‘Day of the Dead’. This is the master at work. This is proper film making. Hail to the King.
Movie: 4.5 out of 5
Extras: 3.5 out of 5
Friday, December 16, 2005
The Shining 2005

Inspired by a contest between editing assistants, a young chap named Robert Ryang has created this trailer, turning "The Shining," Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror film, into a 'very-special-motion-picture'.
This is a trim bit of advertising for Roberts editing skills (see the email at the end) that'll no doupt keep him in work for as long as the server keeps streaming.
Go see The Shining.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
High and Dry

It’s that time again. It’s time for the ultra-sound part of her boat safety, and to black the hull once more. Pig and I spent most of the day wire brushing rust off her and wallowing in bitumen.

There’s a couple of things were going to get done that don’t really need doing immediately, gas locker seals etc., but if we’re sellin’ her to buy this house then I don’t want to be floggin’ 25 tonnes of Bernard Matthews finest.

We’ll be in dock about a week.
Friday, December 09, 2005
"They're coming to get you, Barbra"
AndyR got eaten outside the library (they were like drunks on a kebab). Choppa had to jump out of a window after missing one with a fire axe and doing sod all to it. I healed up a Merc in an abandoned hotel and found a 'DNA Extractor'. NicH found a book (having got 'a bit lost' in 'somewhere about as exciting as Stoke') and wandered round in circles getting nibbled at. I now sleep the sleep of the just.
Also, in related undead news, BMA toys (who are, admitedly, a bit pants) have acquired the rights to Vince Lockes seriously excellent Deadworld comics. They haven't announced the range yet, but (allegedly) work has already begun on a King Zombie figure.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
DVD Review - Quincy, M.E.: Seasons 1 & 2 (1976-1977)

Quincy was the first show using medical know-how, with crazy ‘futuristic’ notions like DNA testing, to solve the crime. This was a show with episodes well ahead of their time. A show that paved the way for many a contemporary series, with their staggering budgets, that use far more advanced forensic methods to catch their criminal.
Jack Klugman (remember him from The Odd Couple?) plays the thoroughly 3 dimensional Quincy. A crusading busy-body Los Angeles Medical Examiner, he’s an expert in his field who always finds something that everyone else has missed. There’s always some tiny clue that goes against all the other evidence and leads him, like some unstoppable terrier, to run foul of his world-weary boss Astin and blustering police LT Monahan. Quincy must have been a nightmare to work with. I pity poor Sam (the excellent Robert Ito), his assistant. But he’s got a truth to find, a crime to solve, and a narrow-minded system to fight.
Awash with 70’s nostalgia, this once primetime American import has dated gracefully. Still steeped in the same values, Quincy was just a straightforward crime series with a difference; here was a pathologist doing the legwork, and not some police officer or private eye. The world is very 70’s and lacking grey areas. Here were well-written and well-balanced crime stories from that classic 70’s mould.
This new DVD set could have been made just to fill in those gaps on Sunday afternoons where TV gets a bit pants and there’s not enough time for a movie before Eastenders. So grab a mug of tea, light a decent fire, curl up on the sofa away from the winter chills, and revel in how it used to be done.
I wonder what’s for tea?
Movie: 3.5 out of 5
Extras: 1.5 of 5
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Frappin' Larpers

This got me thinking. Where DO these people come from? Who are they-that-eat-our-food?
Set-up a UK Larpers Frappr to see if it'd attract owt. Only took 10 minutes (inc. pants logo). Bit of a marketing execise to be honest, to see if Frappr is getting any attention. Less than 2 hours later, 25 members! Crawing in Pagga bods.
Nice tool, hope they find it useful...
Friday, December 02, 2005
New Desk Toy?

I laughed so hard I spat coffee all over my monitor (on which sits a Minimates Magneto, and no Captain Depper, you smart arse, he doesn't "make the screen go all wobbly").
They do a Galactus too, but I've always had a soft spot for The Sentinels and, additionally, it would stop that Homo-Superior scum from nickin' off with my stapler...