Buh-bye!

One last photo to round out the Paula Tsui (徐小鳳) collection.

Buh-bye Paula!

The boys in the back

To be completely honest, I'm not actually all that fond of the next picture from a technical quality point of view.  However, for reasons which will soon be obvious, I couldn't NOT include it.

The problem was that the orchestra was on the other side of the coliseum and the lens I had on my camera couldn't zoom in enough to get a good quality picture (obv, what you see below is cropped).  Add in the fact that this was taken in the dark and handheld - well, you can see the results for yourself.

In case you're wondering - yes, those are primary school kids.

In brief, Paula Tsui (徐小鳳) had invited the school orchestra, school choir and Chinese drum team from the school where my kids study to support during her concert.  My older son was in the drum team and my younger son was in the orchestra - and now you know why I had to post a picture of the kids above!  My only regret is that the kids were all on the opposite ends of the Coliseum so I didn't manage to get any decent pictures of them performing. :(

Still, it was a pretty amazing experience for them and something which very few people get the chance to do.  A lot of hard work in preparing for it but they both had a good time so it was all worth it in the end.

For reference, the below video (not by me) is the winning performance of the Ying Wa Primary School Symphony Orchestra earlier in the year when they went to Bratislava to take part in the 5th International Youth Music Festival.

And the below video (again, not by me) is the winning performance of the Thundermakers (Ying Wa Primary School Chinese drum team) at the 16th Hong Kong Synergy 24 Drum Competition (Primary School Section) last month.

Putting on the Ritz

One of the hallmarks of a Paula Tsui (徐小鳳) concert are the fancy gowns that she wears during the show.  In fact, some of them are so fancy that the weight of the gown is such that she has to extensively practice wearing the gown and walking with that excess weight prior to the concert.

Compared to what I've seen her wear in other concerts, she was relatively reserved in her most recent concert.  Which isn't to say that her gowns weren't impressive though!

In this first picture, she has a bunch of primary school kids waving a massive white sheet to give the effect of waves. 

More about those kids in a future post but for now, a closeup of the dress she's wearing.

Concert at the Coliseum

Paula Tsui (徐小鳳) is one of the biggest cantopop icons from yesteryear.  Well, I say yesteryear but she recently held a concert at the HK Coliseum with all 4 sides open.

A bit more context on that last sentence as most of you probably have no idea what I'm talking about.  The HK Coliseum is one of the biggest indoor multipurpose venues in HK with a capacity of around 12,000 people.  It is sometimes used for big sporting events as you can have spectators sitting on all 4 sides around the center of the court.

It is also often used as a measure of how popular a local singer is.  Basically, only the biggest local stars will book the HK Coliseum and even then, not all of them will open all 4 sides if they don't think they can pack it with enough fans.

Paula Tsui, despite being 70 years old, is still popular enough to open all 4 sides.  Impressive!

Grease is the word!

One of the great things about growing up in the UK is that it has a fantastic history of musical theatre. Although there were less opportunities in Glasgow, some of the travelling musical productions would make their way up to Glasgow or Edinburgh. And of course, you could always pop down to London for a quick trip and catch some musicals or plays while you were down there.

Incidentally, musicals are also one of the things I miss most about the UK since I came to HK. Admittedly, some of the musicals do make their way to HK on occasion. The problem is that tickets generally tend to be prohibitively expensive. For example, when Phantom came to HK, good tickets were priced at well over the HK$1,000 range. Considering the relative price of other things in HK, that's pretty steep for 2 hours worth of entertainment.

All of which made me pretty happy when I noticed that Grease had come to HK and that good tickets "only" cost in the HK$600+ range. Although still expensive, it was a cost I could justify.

The show itself is very well done and really manages to capture the feel and energy of the movie. All the old classics from the movie are here although the songs are spread around the cast instead of being primarily sung by Danny Zuko. Understandable otherwise they may have had trouble finding actors willing to take on those roles.

One of the best things about the show though is how funny it is. You can tell the producers went out of their way to make this a funny show. The producers have also done a great job in realising that most people watching this on stage will have already seen the movie and be very familiar with the songs and stories. To ensure that the show remains interesting throughout, there are a couple of set pieces which play very cleverly on the audiences expectations of what would happen next based on the movie.

All in all, this was a fun show. The only downside was that the theatre they used in Hong Kong wasn't great as the seats were a bit cramped. Still, considering how long since I've seen a musical on stage, it was well worth the slight discomfort.

Shutter Island

Wow - two movie reviews in a row! Before you know it, I'll be a regular Ebert! Or not.

Anyway, this is spoiler free so even if you haven't seen it, you can feel free to read on.

Anyway, I was over in Singapore to visit family recently and on the way back, one of the movies on the plane was Shutter Island. Shutter Island is a psychological thriller by legendary director Martin Scorsese with an interesting twist at the end. Thinking back, the twist isn't really that surprising so if you are expecting a twist ending then you could probably guess what it is. Luckily, I didn't know anything about this film before I saw it so the twist caught me by surprise.

In brief, the plot of the movie involves a US Marshall (played really well by Leonardo Dicaprio - I have a new found respect for his acting talent after this movie) travelling to a mental institute housing criminally insane patients on an island in the middle of nowhere. The US Marshall is there because one of the inmates has mysteriously vanished from her cell. However, the US Marshall himself seems to suffer from flashbacks (to when he was a soldier in WWII) and delusions (constantly seeing images of dead people). Before long, events take a sinister turn and the US Marshall has to race to uncover the conspiracy on the Island before he gets locked away as an inmate.

Granted - not exactly an original plotline. However, what really makes this film stand out though is the brilliant way in which Scorsese slowly builds up the suspense and drama. The cinematography in this film is brilliant and even simple actions are done with panache and style. In particular, the switches of viewpoint from the real world to Dicaprio's delusional world are made with no warning and handled brilliantly. At times, you can tell immediately that Dicaprio is in his delusional world. At other times, Scorsese hides the switch so well that you just aren't sure what you are watching.

Watching films like this, you really understand why Scorsese is considered a legend in his field. If you haven't seen this movie, you really owe it to yourself to check it out.

Iron Man 2

Round about this time two years ago, I went and saw Iron Man with the missus on a whim and really liked it. At the time, I said that I couldn't wait for the sequel. Given that, will you be surprised to learn that I watched Iron Man 2 over the weekend?

Having watched Iron Man 2, I have to say that although I enjoyed the movie, I felt that the first movie was better. In fact, both the missus and I preferred the first Iron Man enough that we went out and bought it on DVD so that we could immediately rewatch it for comparison!

One of the "issues" I had with the first film was that I felt there wasn't enough Iron Man time in the movie. This was a result of the first film being an origin movie so they clearly had to spend a fair amount of time showing how the Iron Man armor is built. Unfortunately, even with the second movie, there isn't a whole lot of time spent in the suit.

Or rather, there isn't a whole lot of time spent fighting in the suit. There are loads of scenes where Stark is wearing the suit with the helmet up (during which time he may or may not be boozing!). Which is a shame as I would have loved to have seen some more of the Iron Man armor in action. Having said that, I have to admit that Robert Downey Jr does a really good job as Tony Stark and his performance really saves the film from being a drag.

Overall, if you enjoyed the first movie, then I think you will enjoy this one as well.

Angels and Demons - the movie

As you know, I read the novel Angels and Demons last year and really enjoyed it so I was really looking forward to watching the movie. I went to see it last week and, despite what some of the film critics have said, I thought it was a good movie. I wasn't disappointed at all and I think Ron Howard has done a good job (again). I think the movie does a great job of capturing the spirit and suspense of the novel.

Also, can you believe that I had no idea Ewan McGregor was playing the part of the Camerlengo? I guess it goes to show the star power of Tom Hanks that all the promotional material shows and mentions Tom Hanks while Ewan McGregor, who is also a famous actor in his own right now, is completely ignored.


By the way, massive spoilers ahead so don't read on if you haven't watched the movie AND read the book yet.




*****************************************

Still here? Good - hope you enjoyed the book and movie!

I had a friend who went to see this movie before I did. She hadn't read the book and was able to see the movie with a completely fresh mind. Her comment was that she really enjoyed it until she found out that the Camerlengo was the bad guy. At that point, she was so caught by surprise that she had difficulty adjusting to the new reality (or should that be new moviety?) particularly as he acts completely different (her words - not mine).

Other than being a testament to Ewan McGregors acting ability, now that I've seen the film, this statement does surprise me a bit. Although the Camerlengo is revealed to be the bad guy in the video at the end, the way he acts is consistent with how he has acted all along. He doesn't suddenly become a menacing figure. All that changes is that he now tells you his true feelings - but the style of delivery (ie the acting) is consistent with how the Camerlengo has acted all along.


Also, isn't the whole point of a plot twist to catch you by surprise? Granted, the best plot twist should have some clues so that when it happens, you go "ooh, that's why he did that earlier!" which the film didn't really have (or at least, I didn't spot them) but still. And this actually ties in with my main regret with the film (note I said regret and not disappointment).


The film version doesn't really take any time to explain why the Camerlengo became so radical. It's left to the audience to accept that the Camerlengo was a radical (even though he was a favourite of the Pope) simply because he was a radical and disagreed with the Popes view on the ideological implications of the God particle. Granted, there was a throwaway line in the film about how his parents died as a result of a bomb incident which led to the Pope adopting him (this was before the Pope became the Pope) - but as I said, it was a throwaway line in the film and its significance wasn't really touched upon (Yes, I am aware of Chekov's Gun - but I don't think it applies in this case as the significance doesn't really become clear at the end either).


The advantage of the novel in this respect is that it does explain the events that led to the Camerlengo snapping. It goes into a lot more detail about his strict mother ("Never break a promise to God" or something like that), about the impact to him as a result of the bombing (antimatter being a potentially huge bomb has implications to the Camerlengo) and critically, how he believed that the Pope had broken his vow of chastity (ie the Pope broke a promise to God) which was a critical moment in him becoming radical (or at least, that was my interpretation of it).


Of course, its possible to do this in a book but extremely hard to do well in a movie (you run the risk of bogging down the movie with details) hence why I said regret instead of disappointment. Overall, a definite thumbs up for this movie.

"I'm the best there is at what I do ...

... but what I do isn't very nice."

And with that line, the true believers among you will know that this blog post is about Wolverine.

"I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn't very nice."

And with that line, the X-Men Origins Wolverine movie craps all over Wolvie fans as it get's Logan's famous catchphrase wrong.

In case you hadn't guessed, I went to see the new Wolverine movie yesterday with the missus (don't worry, this blog post is spoiler free). By now, you probably know that the critics crapped all over this movie. And in some respects, I kinda understand why. The plot is average and the dialogue is mediocre and cliched. Basically, the new Marvel movie is your everyday Summer blockbuster.

But here's the thing. This is a movie about a guy with attitude who is indestructible and has adamantium claws coming out of his hands. Let's just say that I wasn't expecting Jane Austen. The only thing that this movie had to do right was to make sure there were loads of scenes of Wolverine kicking ass - and it delivered.

Yes, the movie had a predictable storyline. Sure, the dialogue was cliched. And so what if they took liberties with decades of established history (which superhero movie doesn't?). The key thing is that there were loads of big explosions, flashy CGI and butts were liberally kicked.

Whether you like this movie or not will depend on two things. First - can you ignore decades of established Wolverine history? Second - Can you ignore minor things like plot and treat the movie like a collection of Wolvie fight scenes? If you answered yes to both of the above, then go ahead as the movie is worth watching.

PS Smeg me but Hugh Jackman is buffed!

RPGs for kids

I've been talking a lot about RPGs lately mainly because the topic has been on my mind due to thinking about whether Gerry can play RPGs (also, listening to the podcast really brought back some fond memories). However, up till now, I've not actually talked about what resources are available for parents looking to play RPGs with yound kids - which is very remiss of me!

Anyway, before I get started, I should mention that I haven't read all of the stuff in the following links. However, from the stuff which I have managed to read, the site itself seems like a good site and worth bookmarking if you are interesting in introducing children to RPGs. They also provide links to other articles and websites where you can get even more info!

One of the below links also mentions a profound truth which applies to everything related to children - you can't force children to play RPGs (although you can try to encourage them). The best way to get children to play is to play yourself and let your kids see how much fun you are having. This is so true - children copy what they see adults doing (the best way to teach your child to be a good person is to be a good person yourself!). Unfortunately for me, I don't have an opportunity to play RPGs either...

geekdad
A good introduction to the topic can be found on geekdad. In particular, there were two blog entries where they talked about role-playing games for children.

The first blog post talks about how it is natural for kids to role play. This post is useful because it gives some tips on the types of RPG to play and how to run those games depending on the age of the children. It was this post which first got me thinking about Gerry and RPGs (although it was a while before I actually took action in terms of research).

The second blog post lists some online resources to help parents prepare for playing an RPG with their kids.

the escapist
This is a website linked to by geekdad and gives a lot of great information and resources aimed towards "the betterment of role-playing games". In particular, it hosts the Young Persons Adventure League which contains a lot of material targeted towards young role-players.

btw - If you remember the slagging that DnD used to get in the press for being a bastion of the occult, then you will love reading this article.

RPGs for kids
Another great site for introducing RPGs to kids. This site is setup by a photographer and environmental engineer (according to the bio anyway!) who have a side hobby of playing RPGs. In particular, the page I linked to gives some suggestions on which RPGs, some of which are free to download, you can play with kids.

It also has links to some articles discussing playing RPGs with kids. I haven't read all of the articles yet, but I really liked this article which gives a pretty detailed description of how the author introduced his 4 year old son to RPGs.

D&D 4e

Happy New Year!!

I've mentioned before that Dungeons & Dragons was the main RPG that I played as a kid. When I started playing, it was with the very first version of D&D. In those days, when creating your character, you could choose from Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Mage, Dwarf or Elf (in those days, dwarves and elves were a character class in themselves).

It didn't take long before a new iteration of D&D came out which was called Advanced D&D and which tightened up the rules a bit (and also allowing players to choose their race as well as class separately). After various iterations, the fourth edition of D&D was released in June 2008 (almost said "this year" there!).

In order to promote the new D&D 4e, Wizards of the Coast got together with the people behind two of my favourite webcomics - Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade and Scott Kurtz of PvP. Tycho was a regular D&D player, Scott had played D&D many years ago (kinda like myself) and Gabe had never played before in his life. They recorded the session and made the recording available as a downloadable podcast here (you will need to scroll down and find Penny Arcade/PvP Podcast Episode 1). The character sheets were also uploaded to the Penny Arcade site here.

The recording is really long (they had to split it out over 8 podcasts!). However, if you have any interest into what goes on during a typical D&D session, the podcasts give you a very good indication of how much fun playing an RPG can be.

Marvel RPG

For those of you who are keeping track, Gerry is now 3 years old. As befits a nerd like me, the first thing that I started to think about was how I was going to get Gerry interested in RPGs.
:)

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Gerry will be able to get involved in any kind of role playing until 4-5 years old. However, during my research, I came across this website - http://www.marvelrpg.net/. Basically, the Marvel Super Heroes RPG is now available as a free download.

When I was a kid playing RPGs (many many moons ago), we predominantly played D&D but we did branch out briefly into some other RPGs - of which Marvel Super Heroes was one. At the time, this seemed like a great idea. I was (and still am) a big fan of Marvel comics and the opportunity to play Spider-Man, Iron Man or any of the other big super heroes seemed like a great idea.

Unfortunately, the Marvel RPG never really took off for us (for various reasons which I won't go into here) but it did leave me with one memory in particular which stands out.

It was a long long time ago so I can't remember the scenario which we were playing or which hero I was controlling at the time. All that I can remember was that we were in our base and were "visited" by some villains. In the best Marvel tradition, a fight broke out.

Being a super hero base, our home was obviously strengthened to deal with the additional punishment of heroes practicing their super powers. As a result, the walls were made out of adamantium. In the Marvel universe, adamantium is the strongest possible substance and is considered indestructible. In terms of numbers, the strength of adamantium was rated at 1000. For comparison, many heroes had strength ratings in the 10's (although the Marvel RPG mainly used descriptors like Amazing, Incredible etc).

Anyway, during the fight, one of the heroes gets really creative and decides to throw one of the villains up against the wall. Not that I'm a violent guy but you have to admit, this action is in keeping with the time (this was during a time when TV was dominated by shows like A-Team and Knight Rider - basically, shows where people get regularly thrown through windows and walls and tables etc in slow motion).

The villain flies through the air, spinning gracefully head over heels in slow motion before going splat against the wall. Beautiful, right?

Unfortunately for us, the Power Nazi DM decided that this action ended up killing the villain and penalised us by reducing our karma.

"No way" we all screamed, "his strength was only Amazing! The villain should have had enough hit points to survive!"

The DM looked at us distastefully before replying "Ah, but the wall is made of adamantium and so you did 1000 damage to the bad guy".

Despite out pleading and cajoling that the damage should be based on the heroes strength and not the sturdiness of the wall, the DM stood firm. The villain was dead.

The stinkiness of that decision sticks with me to this day...

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

I'm sure you won't be surprised, considering I'm British, to hear that I'm a big fan of Monty Python. The Monty Python boys did some great work back in the day (arr, I feel old!).

One of their most famous pieces of work is the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail - basically telling the story of King Arthur and his search for the Holy Grail (duh!).

Anyway, if you are looking for something completely different, it turns out that Monty Python and Lego are a perfect match. Check it out.

The God Delusion

I recently finished reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. This book is brilliant and if you haven't read it, I definitely recommend it to you (if you do buy it, make sure you buy the paperback version with the additional foreword).


Basically, the book is non-fiction and details Dawkin's argument that there is no God (just in case it isn't obvious, Dawkins is an atheist). Furthermore, the belief in a personal God, ala Christianity, qualifies as a delusion (there is a great quote in the book "when one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion").


The first half of the book details his argument that there is no God. In my opinion, the first half of the book in itself merits purchase. His arguments are extremely well thought out and, despite some accusations to the contrary, do not consist of pure vitriol. The second half of the book talks about morality and particularly, the relationship between religion and morality. Unfortunately, there are a couple of areas in the second half of the book where it bogs down a bit. Overall though, he makes well thought out arguments (for the most part) in a highly entertaining and lucid manner.


Granted, the book in itself is not 100% convincing - there are a couple of arguments he makes which I'm not sure I fully agree with and there seem to be some assumptions which aren't fully explained. I guess this is due to the fact that there is a limit to how much you can convey in a book and still make it an interesting read. Nevertheless, this is one of those books which you find hard to put down after you pick it up and I cannot recommend it enough (regardless of whether you are an atheist, theist, agnostic or any of the other possiblities).


Full disclosure department - I consider myself an agnostic (and still do).

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Last night, TVB showed the pilot episode of T:TSCC on TV. I've always been a big fan of the Terminator franchise and I have to admit, I was looking forward to seeing this. Anyway, after watching the pilot, I thought I would post some impressions below. Don't worry though, I will refrain from mentioning any big spoilers below just in case you haven't seen it yet.

I have to admit that I wasn't very impressed during the first half of the show. At first, it feels like a cheap version of the T2 movie - with lots of ideas and set pieces almost being copied from the film. Nuclear explosion dream sequence - check. Two terminators smashing each other through walls - check. John Connor being a whiny git and saying he's not ready to be the messiah - check. I could go on - but I think you get the point.

In fact, I almost switched off after 15 minutes - the only reason I kept watching was because I'm such a big T2 fan. However, after a while, the pilot starts to branch off into its own plot and ideas and by the end of the pilot, I was actually looking forward to catching the second episode next week.

In hindsight, I guess I can understand why the first 15 minutes was deliberately (at least I think it was deliberate) almost copied from T2. Its been a long time since T2 was released and the familiar feel of the first 15 minutes was probably there to help people get back into the Terminator frame of mind.

Anyway, if you are a fan of the Terminator franchise (and really, who isn't?), then it is worthwhile watching if you get the chance.

Biggest missed opportunity from the pilot? Despite Summer Glau being naked twice, you don't get to see any T&A (and now you know why I want to catch the next episode - hope springs eternal!).

Angels and Demons

I've just finished reading the novel Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. If the authors name seems familiar, its because Dan Brown was the guy who wrote The Da Vinci Code.

I had read The Da Vinci Code a while ago (before they even confirmed that it would be turned into a movie) and it was a great novel. A really gripping story and extremely well written. As a result of this, I decided to try out some of Dan Browns other novels. Angels and Demons, being Robert Langdon's (the hero of The Da Vinci Code) first adventure, was an obvious choice.

And I was not disappointed. Angels and Demons is another great novel from Dan Brown. I only started reading it several days ago and I've already finished. The book is extremely gripping and very hard to put down once you pick it up - I can't remember the last time I finished a novel so quickly (although it might have been The Da Vinci Code!).

In many ways, Angels and Demons is very similar to The Da Vinci Code. The story is again about the church and an ancient cult out to destroy the church. The writing is superb - revealing just a little bit more of the story in each chapter. Just enough to keep you on the edge of your seat and make you want to keep reading to find out what happens next.

All in all, an excellent read and a definite recommendation from yours truly.

Iron Man

The missus and I went to see Iron Man yesterday. It wasn't planned - just a spur of the moment decision to head out to the cinema to see if we could get tickets. Now I know what you're thinking and I agree. I am very spontaneous. What can I say? I like to live life on the razors edge - never knowing what the next moment will bring! Its like I'm a crazy man!

Hm-mm.

Anyway, the movie itself is surprisingly good. You have to give full credit to Marvel for coming up with another good superhero movie.

It has good special effects, some really funny moments and some great one-liners. Granted, it doesn't really do anything groundbreaking from a movie point of view. However, if you are looking for action fluff entertainment for 2 hours, you really can't go wrong. Also, judging from how well the movie is doing in the box office, it seems likely that a sequel will be made.

Anyway - fair warning - there be spoilers ahead!



Whats great about the movie is how believable it is. Granted, you have Tony Stark develop a radical new power source to keep him alive while living in a cave. Also, despite being monitored on cctv 24/7, Stark is still able to build a power suit without the terrorists noticing until its too late. Also the whole "civilians in power armour flying around kicking ass while being impervious to bullets" thing is kinda unlikely. Also, I don't think that adaptive AI will be possible for a while yet.

Hmm - okay, let me rephrase this a bit better.

There were certain areas in the film where they could have really screwed up the believability (even beyond the basic premise). For example, Starks Mk I Iron Man suit is pretty much destroyed in the process of his escape. The terrorists locate his grey Mk I Iron Man suit and his blueprints for the suit and for a while, it looks as if a bunch of terrorists in a cave are going to be able to replicate the work of Tony Stark. Luckily, the film dodges this bullet by having the terrorists get wiped out by Stark Industries (under the direction of bad guy - Obadiah Stane) who then gets the best scientists in Stark Industries to design a new suit (all without the approval of Stark of course). All in all, a good solution.

Another good design choice was that they made Obadiah Stane a part of Stark Industries. If you read the comic, you would know that Stane was actually the CEO of a competing Company which did a hostile takeover of Starks company. Making the bad guy to be a friend of Starks obviously has more dramatic impact. This also has the benefit of surprise to the 1 guy who didn't know the history of Iron Man or who are useless at guessing the obvious in Hollywood movies (obviously, as a Marvel fan, I knew Stane was going to be the bad guy and betray Stark).

Of course, the obvious problem with the film is the fact that its an origin movie. As with all origin movies, a lot of time is spent on how Tony Stark becomes Iron Man which means that you really don't get to see enough of Iron Man in action as Iron Man. Still, its a good first movie and I can't wait for the sequel.

HK Disneyland

Happy Birthday to Jokemeister!!

As part of this years birthday celebration, the missus and I took a day off work last Friday and went to HK Disneyland. Just us - no Gerry.
:)

Regular readers of my blog know that I goto HK Disneyland quite often with Gerry. As a family destination, its a great choice considering that I'm only 20 minutes away by car. The place is clean and big enough for Gerry to run around in. Plus, as Gerry is so young, he gets in for free!

Anyway, for a change, the missus and I went to HK Disneyland on our own. We didn't go on many rides (more on that later) but we did watch all of the shows that were on offer. I have to admit, the shows were done very well. As a family destination, although HK Disneyland isn't very big, the stuff that is available is very high quality.

Unfortunately, although I enjoyed myself on Friday, I have to admit that, as an adult destination, HK Disneyland fails miserably. While there, we went on the only adult ride they had - the Space Mountain. And to be honest, it was disappointing as a roller-coaster ride.

The problem with Space Mountain is that the entire roller-coaster ride takes place within an enclosed dome. In order to create the effect that you are in space, the interior of the dome is pitch black with the occasional light show or star effect. The problem with this is that you can't see where you are going.

You see, in a normal roller-coaster ride, you can see the big bend or huge drop coming. This anticipation helps build your adrenaline as you can see that you are about to plummet down at ridiculous speeds before being whipped back up into the air for just enough time to catch your breath before dashing off in a huge loop-de-loop. Exhilarating right!

However, inside the Space Mountain, you can't see anything as its way too dark. The end result of this is that you end up sitting in the cart being tossed left and right seemingly at random. Which doesn't feel so much terrifying as annoying.

Ultimately, I guess whether you enjoy the Space Mountain will depend on your capacity for thrills. For example, the missus (who is not a big roller-coaster fan) still looked terrified in the photo which the ride takes of you. Her comment when she looked at me was, "how come you look kinda bored?"

Halo 3 comic - finished

Well, I finally finished my Halo 3 comic.

To be honest, I've been close to complete for a month now. The problem is that after I bought Mass Effect, all of my spare time was directed into saving the galaxy. And lets face it, completing a comic book doesn't even compare to saving the galaxy!

I have to say that the whole process was quite difficult primarily because I didn't have the right tools. Trying to create a comic using Powerpoint is hard. In addition, there were several things I would have done differently in terms of page layout etc if I had the right tools. Anyway, I'm currently downloading the trial version of Comic Book Creator again - once downloaded, I'll give it a go and see if it makes creating a comic easier.

Anyway, regardless of the difficulty, I did eventually come up with a finished product. Although I can identify quite a few areas of improvement, overall I'm very happy. If you want a copy, let me know and I'll email it to you.

Below is a page taken from the comic to whet your appetite!

The nightmare before Christmas

I mentioned last Friday that I was rushing to see a movie.

The movie I was rushing to see was The nightmare before Christmas. By now, some of you may be asking "What? That movie came out years ago!!?". If so, then you clearly didn't know that the movie was recently rereleased in a 3D format (and our company gave us free tickets to go watch it - yay!). At this point, I should mention that I have never seen the movie before so I have no idea what they changed in order to get the movie into 3D.

The movie itself was very entertaining. Its basically a musical telling the story of Jack Skellington, who is basically the pride and joy of Halloween town due to his ability to scare the living daylights out of anyone. Despite his status, Jack feels bored and listless and decides to take over Chrimble so that he can give out presents and spread good will. And yes, nothing goes according to plan.

The 3D effect is done very well and really shows how 3D tech has advanced from since when I was a kid. When I was young (admittedly, many moons ago now), 3D was basically getting a crazy set of red and green tinted glasses. Putting them on would make you feel dizzy until you actually started to watch something in 3D. Basically, it was hard to watch any kind of show as the glasses made you dizzy - however, the thing worked well for 3D pictures.

However, the most recent tech is pretty incredible. When we went into the theatre, we were given a set of what looked like black plastic shades. When you put them on, things kinda look off kilter slightly but the effect isn't particularly significant (ie you can wear them without feeling dizzy).

If you get a chance, check out the movie in 3D and the awesome new tech they use for 3D as well!


Oh ... and its a good movie.
:)