July 22, 2008
I think Wall-E is as good as, or possibly even better than, Toy Story. No, really. And having really high expectations of the film didn’t temper my enjoyment of it at all. This is Pixar truly back on form, after a couple of shaky efforts (Cars and Ratatouille are both entertaining, but we haven’t watched either with Kayleigh, and that says a lot). In Wall-E they’ve coupled their ability to create fantastic movies with a loving revival of the best of classic Science Fiction (with brilliant references to 2001, E.T. and Short Circuit, among others), and a piece of cinematic perfection has been created.
The film is truly breathtaking. Astonishingly beautiful animatography (what’s the word for animated cinematography), wonderful characters and a great fun storyline. The typical concern has been ‘will small children be bored, since there’s not much dialogue in the opening section’. I can report that Kayleigh watched it with us and was enthralled for the entire time. The only part of the film which failed to captivate her was when the dialogue and complicated plotlines began developing.
Many have portrayed the little robot as a sort of cross between E.T. and Number 5, and there are definite references - particularly to E.T. - but really Wall-E is more of a generic character. A hopeless romantic, like Tramp or The Beast. He’s more human than robot, because his personality is so well defined, and so naïvely lovable.
Short version: I can’t rate Wall-E highly enough. Everything about the movie was exceptional. Highly recommended. There used to be 3 great CG movies: Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Shrek.
Now there’s 4.
Today’s the Day
July 18, 2008
KayleighWatch: Monkeys! 3 of them! (from our trip to London Zoo)
We win!
Since it was a Friday, and we did have to make sure it was a child-friendly game, we were playing Alton’s 3rd variation, as first codified in the Spring session of 1758. In case you need reminding, this meant that all connections on the third parallel were out of bounds, and a player could only front-shift if they had already visited Baker Street. Otherwise, standard play.
Incidentally, I think the pub opposite the station should rename itself to ‘The Lyttleton Inn’. That’d be awesome.
(If that didn’t make sense to you, no explanation is possible)
July 13, 2008
Douglas Adams’ Speech at Digital Biota 2, September 1998
I remember reading this speech in the Douglas Adams collection The Salmon Of Doubt when I was younger. It’s long but brilliant. If Douglas Adams is just a Sci-Fi author in your estimation, reading this speech will change the way you think of him.
There’s also the original recording of Adams giving the speech which is just over an hour long and really great to listen to.
July 10, 2008
We’ve been awaiting final confirmation of our degree classifications before putting our results up on the blog - me and Ellie both got our module results back two weeks ago, and calculated our grades from that, but it didn’t feel quite right to go shouting out from the rooftops until we’d seen our final degree awards in writing.
I am now happy to say that we have our results back, and we’ve both passed, and passed well! Ellie has a 2.2, and I have a 2.1!
Needless to say, we’re both ecstatic. University has been a long (and often hard - particularly with Ellie’s workload on the illustration course) slog, but we’ve both had a great time and learned a huge amount, and done some of the best work we’ve ever done. Truth be told, I’m quite sad to have finished.
So, from Stuart Sharpe BSc (Hons) and Eleanor Sharpe BA (Hons), good night!
The Thsrs, from Ironic Sans, is a new Thesaurus which only provides synonyms which are shorter than the word you entered. Why, after all, should we use a long word when a diminutive one will do? It can lead to some entertaining results, particularly since it doesn’t seem to be an exceptional thesaurus. It couldn’t find a synonym for ‘avenue’ for instance, when I consider street, road, lane and track all to be acceptable subsitutes.
My parents used to have a thesaurus which was called ‘The Synonym Finder’. Nobody else seemed to find that as amusing as I did.
July 9, 2008
KayleighWatch: “Kay’s Got Eyelashes”
July 8, 2008
If only I could think of a more banal topic to write a blog post about.
Me and Kayleigh got new shoes today. Mine are facing the difficult task of replacing both my trainers AND my hike boots, and thus they are sort of a combination - Gore-Tex like fabric and a strong sole, but softer and more flexible than full-blown hike boots. The laces are terrible, though.
Kayleigh tried on some (extremely cute) child-size hike boots, but settled on the pink light-up Barbie trainers in the end. You can lead a child to good shoes, as the saying goes, but you can’t make her like them. Picture will follow.
We’ve learned that Kayleigh has a (possibly unhealthy) obsession with Nike. She was very excited about all the shoes and clothes that had ‘moons’ (otherwise known as ‘ticks’) on them. One to watch.
Picture Credit: www.gooutdoors.co.uk
July 5, 2008
SPOILERS! CONTAINS SPOILERS!
The Results Are IN.
Doctor Who Final Episode Bingo!
The Rules: The bingo card contains a number of predictions. If any row of 5, vertically, horizontally or diagonally, occur during tonight’s episode of Doctor Who, you may shout “BINGO!!” at the TV screen. If you are playing the ‘adults-only’ drinking game version of Doctor Who Bingo, take a drink when any prediction comes true, but if there is a bingo you must down whatever it is that you have left in your glass.
(created by Stu, with help from N-J)
July 4, 2008
July 3, 2008
KayleighWatch: I DO like Green Eggs and Ham!
