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.

It's not that boring a life

The book that I’m reading at the moment is Kevin Smith’s Boring Ass Life. It’s pretty much an everyday diary by Kevin Smith documenting what he ate in the morning and what he does through the day. I’m really enjoying it as I’ve grown to really like Kevin Smith even though I’ve only seen 3 of his films. The main reason I bought My Boring Ass Life is because I loved all the personal stories that he talked about on his podcast: The SmodCast. The Smodcast is actually one of the two podcasts that I’m restricting myself to as Smodcast and The Mega64 Podcast are my two favourite podcasts.

I’ve been enjoying reading rather than listening to podcasts as it feels like I’m achieving something as with audio podcasts I like to do some mundane task like play a Flash game or a DS game while I listen to keep my eyes pre-occupied. I was running out of things to keep me going during audio podcasts as I can’t read while I listen to something and I can’t JUST listen to something as I use music as a background distraction to keep me entertained while I do something that could get boring. Programming and photo editing are the main time that I need to listen to music.

I’m not sure what I should read after Kevin Smith, I have about a dozen books lying around and I’m not really prepared to read more than one book at once although I’m sure it wouldn’t be difficult. I’ll maybe make an update about what I’m reading next, we’ll see. No idea if that would be interesting or not. (probably the latter.)

In the words of  Kevin Smith: “Have a Week”

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.

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.

The second time I experienced an Unopportune Spoiler was when I was watching Se7en on televison last night. Five USA movie nights were sponsored by a car company, the company name escapes me, but they decided to theme the adverts on films so they would show classic scenes from the films. Se7en is about a serial murderer who murders each of his victims in the style of the seven deadly sins. The film was very good, but the best bit was at the very end, anyone that’s seen it should know what i’m talknig about, but I digress. The advert depicted something to do with a box in the film, and what was in said box, I won’t describe it any further to avoid spoilers. Now that was the best part of the whole film, it was the grande finale and the advert just happened to be the one styled on Se7en. It didn’t ruin the film, but I definitely felt a little bit cheated by the channel for not checking that. I know it’s not entirely their fault, but it was still quite upsetting. This goes as a warning that certain films on Channel Five have these adverts and may contain spoilers for the film, so be careful.

These are only two instances of what can only be an infinite number of mistakes broadcasters make, I know it’s not as important as the Election or as funny as a presenter swearing on live TV, but it annoyed me and so I decided to write about it.

I am sure there are other instances of, what I’ve labelled: “Inopportune Spoilers” and I’d like to know if anyone has experienced anything similar to this, I would ask that it’s kept fairly spoiler free as I went through the effort to do so.

I'll take him, but not him.

5. Tim Burton (EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, ALICE IN WONDERLAND)
PROS: Lifelong Godzilla fan, would deliver a suitably gothic, dark Godzilla, awesome cast…
CONS: …terrible cast. Don’t want to see Johnny Depp as Dr. Serizawa.
GODZILLA MOVIE TITLE: THE MAGNIFICENT ADVENTURES OF THE GREEN GODZILLA

Burton has proved he can do great monster action (check out the Jabberwocky in ALICE), as well as handle projects with a suitable degree of emotional depth (consult EDWARD SCISSORHANDS and CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY). Oh, wait – if the film turned out to be a remake of the original GOJIRA, we’d get some unknown as Ogata, Helena Bonham-Carter (babe, by the way) as Emiko, Johnny Depp as Dr. Serizawa, and Christopher Lee as Dr. Yamane. Wait, that doesn’t sound too ba!$%&!?

Yep, he's the guy.

4. Sam Raimi (THE EVIL DEAD trilogy, SPIDER-MAN trilogy)
PROS: Great horror and action experience, BRUCE CAMPBELL VS. GODZILLA.
CONS: Overlong emotional subplots.
GODZILLA MOVIE TITLE: DRAG ME TO MONSTER ISLAND

Judging by the SPIDER-MAN trilogy (all three of which I think are excellent, by the way), Raimi can do justice to beloved source material as well as deliver adrenaline-fueled action and incredible set pieces. Plus he’d bring Bruce “The Chin” Campbell with him. What’s not to love? Oh aye – the distracting, overlong, and downright dull emotional subplots he chose to weave into the SPIDER-MAN films (espcially 3). Sam, we get Peter and Mary-Jane are in love but it’s fractured. Get on with it.

Moving on…

Again, him, but not him.

3. Edgar Wright (SHAUN OF THE DEAD, HOT FUZZ)
PROS: Appreciation and understanding of pulp cinema, always references stuff.
CONS: P’raps a bit too experienced in comedy
GODZILLA MOVIE TITLE: ICE-CREAM AND MONSTERS

I remember a few years back Wright announced he’d like to remake GORGO (a 1961 British Godzilla knock-off), and I remember thinking, “Aye, that sound’s (w)right”. Wright would bring a bit of British class to the project, as well as asemble a talented, unique cast (just have a look at the incredible ensemble HOT FUZZ delivered). Wright can juggle tension, action, and comedy, and bring it all together into a nice wee, pocket-sized package. Good stuff.

Just awesome.

2. John Carpenter (ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, THE THING)

PROS: Lifelong Godzilla fan, handles suspense and horror immaculately, KURT RUSSEL VS. GODZILLA.
CONS: P’raps make it a bit too scary for the kiddies.
GODZILLA MOVIE TITLE: John Carpenter’s ESCAPE FROM TOKYO

John Carpenter’s GODZILLA? I like the sound of that. If THE THING is anything to go by, Carpenter can do brilliant and genuinely scary monster action (as well as bring incredible SFX technicians with him, would would probably keep the CGI to a minimum – YAY!), as well as weave it into a great story. However, Carpenter’s directorial style may be a little bit t00 scray for kids, which I don’t have to tell you make up a good bit of Godzilla’s target audience (or at least did in the ’60′s and ’70′s. Personally, I wish they’d fuck off, but again that’s beside the point).

That's our man.

1. Quentin Tarantino (PULP FICTION, KILL BILL, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS)
PROS: Lifelong Godzilla fan, genuine appreciation of the series, always wanted to make one.
CONS: The government meetings go on long enough in Godzilla films as it is.

GODZILLA MOVIE TITLE: DOUBLE G-ZILLA

Tarantino? Oh yes. QT has proved he has a great understanding of Japanese cinema (have a look at the KILL BILL volumes), and can create on hell of a fight scene (again, KILL BILL VOL. 2, in which coincidentally the fight between Beatrix and Elle was based on THE WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS). Tarantino’s directorial style would complement the Big G, as he rampages down the street, most likely accompanied by some original Akira Ifukube recordings,while the human protagoists dash wildly to some Ennio Morricone in beautiful slow-motion. Oh yes, I like.

Well folks, there you have it. Any other directors you’d like to see tackle the project? Comment below! Bee seing you.

P.S.: Here’s five director’s I DO NOT want to see helm the project.

5. Wes Anderson – Sorry Wes, love you, but you just aren’t suited.
4. Zack Snyder – Loved WATCHMEN, but naw.
3. M. Night Shyamalan – Turns out Godzilla’s actually a cat.
2. George Lucas – He’d ruin everything. Like he does with everything.
1. MICHAEL FUCKING BAY.

Valve 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

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

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

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

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.

I have yet to taste the cake, and I’ll feel bad destroying my creation, but I do hope that it tastes good.

Another photo:

Writing was completely ruined by the bag it was in.

]]> http://homelinen.org/2009/12/happy-pac-mas/feed/ 0 http://homelinen.org/2009/12/falkirklug/ http://homelinen.org/2009/12/falkirklug/#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:16:56 +0000 Ross http://homelinen.org/?p=1235 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

Right now you won’t find much on Amp, in fact you can’t even sign up to the service yet. I will be changing this in the near future. At the moment you can upload the standard image formats and view what files you have uploaded. The UI and look of the site are horrible and need a lot of work, and a few basic features need to be added, but right now I’m quite happy that it works.

One of the first things I’ll need to do is make a page in order to view your uploaded content and share it. I would also like to integrate Twitter into the system, as that’s pretty much the whole point in the site. I am trying to think of interesting ways to seperate my simple file uploader from the big daddies like: Imageshack, Flickr, TwitPic and Photobucket.

Later on I will be adding (hopefully) video and audio support, maybe even support for reading documents you have uploaded on your phone, but it’ll be a while before I start thinking about that. I am thinking about making it open source, but I am unsure whether to do that for a web application, so we’ll see where that goes.

Well, I’ll try to keep you up to date with the development and will mention when sign-ups are open, if you’re interested in helping test or even use the site in its current state.

If you have any suggestions or ideas at all please e-mail me at: Calum@Homelinen.org all suggestions are appreciated.

Calum Gilchrist