From Podcasts to Books

August 28th, 2010 by Calum No comments »

Books VS PodcastsLately I’ve been feeling that I’m over-saturating myself with Podcasts. For the past few months I was listening to a podcast every night and I feel like it was getting to me. Don’t get me wrong I love all the podcasts I listen to but I was beginning to miss reading. I hadn’t read any book for about 2 months and my library of unread books is reaching a ridiculous number. So this past month I’ve started reading pretty much every night and only listening to 2 podcasts in the week.

The simple solution would be if I listened to my podcasts during the day as that would let me read and keep up with all the podcasts I listen to, but there are certain things that I just prefer doing right before I go to sleep, like reading or listening to podcasts.

» Read more: From Podcasts to Books

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5 August: Dreams

August 4th, 2010 by Calum No comments »
Inception

Sometimes you wonder where the dreams come from.

I don’t have too many dreams, but I thought that I might as well post about the very few I do remember.

Dream 1
For some reason I was doing a training type thing in a supermarket. We would do activities in this huge area walled off with cardboard. Basically, was a boring dreams

Dream 2
All my friends and I had moved into this dorm type complex, and everyone I know adjusted well. People were reading a lot and getting on with things, but I just pissed about with Steven most of the day, rather than doing anything of worth.
Then I had a memory of a prior dream where our school had a hall with a cage in the centre, for wrestling matches, and I saw a few of them. One of them was between John and someone else, but John wore a giant furry, rainbow mask, that was supposed to be some kind of monster.
After that the match ended and the commentators, Susan and Ross Menzies rapped up. Can’t remember one of the ridiculous jokes Ross made.
Then the hall became an assembly hall, and I walked up the seats (which were steps) and joined my friends. We were seeing the school show at Graeme High School, but the hall was. Nothing like it is in reality. Miss Carol came onto stage and announced that a small girl, whom I don’t know had composed tyhe music for the show.
Star Wars began, and twisted into a indie film soundtrack. Then Randy Newman started singing over it. I cracked the joke: “it’s like Star Wars has been mashed up with a Wes Anderson soundtrack, but I don’t think it did sound like that. Then I woke up.

Just remembered there was another dream sequence, I think it was before the second dream, but I’m not sure.

Basically I was in a dorm, but it was based on my Grandparents house and a girl visited whom I developed a liking towards. Her sister was also there, who was mean and not my type. Well, the second sister took a liking to me and I never approached the first girl. It then turned into me wandering around deciding if I should go for it with not my type, mean girl, or attractive nice doesn’t know me girl. I forget if anything else happened after that point, but I don’t think anything did.

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Inopportune Spoilers

May 9th, 2010 by Calum No comments »


On 2 occasions programs and films have been ruined by the advertising and regulations held by television channels.

I have tried my hardest to avoid spoilers but if you really don’t want to know anything you can avoid reading on.

The first time this happened I was watching an episode of Lost and right before one of the main characters died. Right before the section of the show where the character died, there was a little information pop-up stating: “May contain scenes of HANGING” (If you want to see the spoiler, highlight the text). Now, I was quite taken aback that this was broadcast right before the character died. Initially you’re not sure what’s going to happen, then this little pop-up comes along and TELLS you HOW the character dies. This was very off-putting as Lost is very dependant on it’s shock factor. Lost’s best quality and probably most off putting quality to new viewers is that it constantly twists and turns and creates new ideas. To have the twist of the story pointed out to you is like opening a birthday present, but being told exactly what’s inside. Yes, you still like what’s inside, but it doesn’t have that “WOW” factor that you get from not knowing what’s to come.

» Read more: Inopportune Spoilers

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5 Directors Who Could Helm Legendary Pictures’ GODZILLA

April 9th, 2010 by Steven 4 comments »

So it’s happening: another American Godzilla film. I’m sure you all remember Roland Emmrich’s 1998 GODZILLA – I know I do. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun, entertaining film… But a Godzilla film? No way in Hell. However, despite my better judgment, I find myself excited about Legendary Pictures’ (the studio behind such great films as WATCHMEN, THE DARK KNIGHT, and WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE) Godzilla project. At least they have a back catalogue of mostly excellent films (many also from beloved source material), many in the sci-fi/fantasy genre, and they certainly seem like they’re the folks to do it, if it HAS to be done. But that’s just the first hurdle. Sure, we have a studio, but what about a director? The director is the very essence of a film. Imagine THE BIRDS or PSYCHO had they not been helmed by Hitchcock, or CITIZEN KANE minus Orson Welles. Aye, no quite the same, eh? While these examples may not be in the same league as Godzilla (well, they are for me, but that’s beside the point), the director is nonetheless an extremely crucial fixture in this project, and could make or break it. And so, coming up for my 10th anniversary as a Godzilla mega-fan, follow the jump so I can present the five (Hollywood) directors I think worthy of a crack at The Big G…

» Read more: 5 Directors Who Could Helm Legendary Pictures’ GODZILLA

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Portal 2

March 5th, 2010 by Ross No comments »

ValvePortal have recently announced Portal 2, the sequal to the original Portal – a game originally included by valve in the Orange Box.

To describe Portal breifly, it is a short game based on the Source engine (very much like Team Fortress 2 etc) where the objective is to complete various puzzles, with the aid of your Portal Gun. This is a gun that can open two portals (Blue and Orange) so that you can cross large voids, climb large gaps, and many other physical challenges. Portal is also where the phrase “The cake is a lie” came from (just incase anyone did not know where it originated from).

Personally, I am looking forward to Portal 2, as I enjoyed the short, but fun original. I’m also looking forward to having the content in Garrys Mod, a popular Source mod that I have been addicted to of late. Soon I shall hopefully have a website up for my Garrys Mod community, and I shall be making a post about that in the forseeable future.

To briefly conclude, Portal 2 is due for release some time later this year (most likely via Steam), and even although we do not have much information as yet, basing on my oppinion of the original game, I look forward to its apperance for both Garrys Mod content and for the sheer fun of the game itsself.

Ross Imlach

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Getting Into Macro Photography

January 24th, 2010 by Calum 1 comment »

Common Butterfly

I’ve been looking over most of my Photo A Day project and I’ve realised that I really enjoy taking Macro photographs. The only problem is, I don’t have a macro lens, nor the money to purcahse such a lens.

The art of macro photography is simply to take pictures of the smallest things that are in our daily lives, whether that be insects, as the more popular macro photographs are usually of, or just pictures of water droplets, and at it’s simplest, maybe just pictures of the things you use daily, whether that be a phone, a watch or even a toothbruch (If you would want a picture of that.)

I have a few options to solve this problem: I can either save up money and purchase a 60mm Macro Lens, or I could buy some magnifying filters. The filters are 30x cheaper than the lens, so I’ll probably go with that option for the moment, although I would really love the 60mm f/2.8 USM Macron, mentioned above.

Macro photography seems like it would be a lot of fun, and I already like taking pictures of nature in general, but it’s the tiny facets of nature that really fascinate me, that’s pretty much the whole reason I’m interested in Macro Photography.

Well, if you have any tips or questions on macro photography, I would be more than happy to receive/answer them,
Calum Gilchrist

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Some Voice Sampling Songs

January 10th, 2010 by Calum No comments »

Well, this is the first post of the New Year, so I thought I would take it easy and just make a quick post about one of my favourite artists and an album that is very interesting to me. The artist is Pogo, and the album is Symphony of Science.
These artists have one thing in common; they both make songs through Voice Sampling. Voice sampling is simply where you take voice clips and sounds and re-mix them to make music. Pogo makes his music almost entirely from music featured in films or television series, where Symphony of Science mainly uses voice clips from famous scientists, like Carl Sagan, Steven Hawking, David Attenborough, and quite a few others.

The main reason I wanted to make this post is because both artists have released a new song for the New Year, so I felt it appropriate to mention them.

Symphony of Science: The Unbroken Thread

“”The Unbroken Thread” is the fourth video in the Symphony of Science series, and it features David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, and Carl Sagan. The clips used in this installment come from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, David Attenborough’s Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life, The Life of Mammals, The Living Planet, BBC Life, XVIVO Scientific Animations, IMAX Cosmic Voyage, Jane Goodall’s TED Talk, and a clever Guiness Commercial. The themes present in The Unbroken Thread attempt to explore the wild diversity of life on our planet, the intricacy and origin of its mechanisms, and its close relation to all other life forms. ” – Quote from <a href=”http://symphonyofscience.com”>Symphony of Science Site</a>

Pogo: Upular

Upular is made from voice samples and sound samples from Pixar’s Up.

Well, I hope that you enjoy the videos, if you have any other Voice Sampled songs I would be more than happy to hear about them in the comments,

Back soon,

Calum Gilchrist

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…And I says to Maybel I says…

December 20th, 2009 by Ross No comments »

I hope everyone has purchased their copy of Killing In The Name – Rage Against The Machine in attempt to beat the X Factor to number 1!

Tux!

Now that homelinen has moved home (if you pardon the little joke), hopefully it’ll be faster to load and so on. As you probably know, I’m now hosting the site for Calum, and some of his other domains. If you would like me to host you a site or something, then please email me on ross@imlach.info or ross@homelinen.org and  I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Since I’m hosting it now, I think I have  the right to do this:

HOSTED BY ROSS IMLACH

I’ll speak to Calum about putting a banner somewhere on the page.. I’d like some credit you know!

Anyways, thats my little post for the time being.

Ross

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Happy Pac-Mas

December 11th, 2009 by Calum No comments »
Pac-Mas Cake

Run Away!

Some of you may know that I ended up doing Cooking for Independent Living at High School. I do not like the subject, but I guess it’s been a little useful in showing the proper methods of doing things.

Now the only reason that I mention it is because I made a PacMan themed cake. Now it’s not the exact way that I wanted it, but I still have some pride for it.

I wanted to basically make the base, cut a slice out of it and then put yellow icing on the top. We didn’t have enough time to do it, so I may do it some other time. Cake decoration is actually kind of fun. You can see the whole cake after the break, but the cake got damaged in transport so it’s not as good as it was when it was fresh.

Update: It actually tasted alright. I’ll probably be able to make a better one if I make another cake.

» Read more: Happy Pac-Mas

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FalkirkLUG

December 1st, 2009 by Ross No comments »

Well, tonight was my (and Calum’s) second FalkirkLUG meeting.  We did flash talks this evening, which are basically small 5 minute(ish) talks about a chosen subject. I’m going to assume Calum will do a post about his talk, however.

I did my talk on bash (Bourne Again Shell), which is the default linux/unix shell. If you are a Linux user, then you are probably familiar with bash, or the terminal as a whole as it is very useful (it is also a lot more powerful than the windows command prompt). If you would like more info on this, just check out the Wikipedia page or something, because quite frankly, its too much effort to type it all out!

Well, if you are a Linux user in the Falkirk area, I strongly suggest you join FalkirkLUG. All the necessary info is on the page that the image on the right links to.

All in all, I think I have advertised enough.. So yeah.. Linux + FalkirkLUG are awesome.

Ross

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