Model Citizen

 

 

  A few years old now this film, but after watching it last night with the kids it deserves a mention.

If there was ever a story that could be disasterous it's this. The synopsis is this:

Knoxville, who I dont particularly rate as an actor, especially after he was one of those responsible for trying to ruin all that was good about The Dukes Of Hazzard. Anyway, he plays Steve, a bit of an office loser who as the film starts is listening to self help motivational tapes at work. The result is he goes to his boss to ask for more responsibility...which he gets in the form of having to fire the janitor, a very sweet old man called Stavvi. Steve just can't do this so instead offers him a job cutting grass at his home complex. What happens next happens quickly, as Stavvi is trying to cut the lawn with the clapped out mower, he leans down to fix it and has 3 of his fingers cut off by the blade. At the hospital, without insurance, Steve has to pay $28'000 if Stavvi is to keep his fingers. After an attempt to borrow money from his loser uncle, a gambler, his uncle hits upon an idea to solve all their money issues...rig the Special Olympics.

 

 

  As said, if ever there was a film with the potential to be completeley politically uncorrect, this film was it. That it managed to steer well clear of any type of sentiment like that is amazing, but what you see is one of the most warm hearted, endeering, funny and thought provoking movies I've seen in a long time.

As Steve goes under cover at the Special olympics as a mentally challenged man called Geoffey he very quickly learns that the other athletes, real mentally challenged people, not only deserve his respect and honesty but eventually deserve a lot more than he has on offer.

  I think what struck me about the film after was just how much fun was being had by those who would be thought of as simple,tenting in their bedroom, having water fights, wheras the more sophisticated people I know have a good time by drinking until they vomit, clubbing to music so loud you can't hear yourself shout and then sleep with who ever's available. Hmmm, yeah, fun, right.

Back to the film. Well, if you've not seen this. Thought this was going to be just about the worst taste film possible.Think again, it's well worth the few quid it can be bought from on Amazon and leaves a lastingly good impression.

Rated 4 out of 5

 

 

  I've posted the info before, but with a new image just hot off the PC, I thought I'd bring it to life again:

Long story this.
Back in the 70's, when Doctor Who was the biggest thing ever on TV, but no toys were to be had anywhere, Weetabix, the cereal, came up with the idea of a 4 part board game. Collect the 4 boards and also 6 packs of cards (much rifling through packs at supermarkets by small boys trying to get the full set!). The cards would then slot into the board offering a variety of game each time it was played.
Last year I magaed to get hold of scans of the origonal boards. Very hard work! I then reworked the artwork, polished it up and added some new faces to the cards bringing it into the 21st century for the New Who fans.
The PDF's of all this work are available as a free download from a few sites arond but if you want them I'd go here:

7 Wonders

Dean at 7 Wonders was a great help to me and I would love you to visit his excellent site. A real nostalgia trip for those who remeber action transfers and cardboard cut out figures with fondness.
Anyway, the image is a very polished version of the game in play. Hope you like it, but also, hope that if your a fan of Who you take a look at this piece of history.

Copyright wise, I contacted Weetabix very early on for help who were very helpful and had no issues with what I was doing.  

DAZ3D

 

 

Everyone knows DAZ, but it's free and I've added a link for those that may need it.

DAZ Studio does it again with version 2.2! Our developers and product managers have been working around the clock to bring you this latest update, filled with impressive new features - many of which you've requested. It's also filled with great new fixes, creating a more stable DAZ Studio environment. But really the thing we think you'll be most excited about is that DAZ Studio now features Lip-Sync! You can start with some of the sound files included in this release or load files from Mimic directly into DAZ Studio. Another fantastic new feature is Smoothing Angle. It offers you the choice of which surfaces you would like smoothed, and at what angle. Learn more about it in our "What's New" section.

So go ahead, take the leap to DAZ Studio 2.2!

  Well, 1 month after ordering I finally have my Marantz IS201 Docking station.

It took so long as Marantz do NOT sell over the internet. You have to go in store and order. It's one of their safety measures for the customer having a place to go to for support. Maybe a bit strange in this day and age, but if they are that concerned over the customers satisfaction I'm not complaining. 

Why wait so long for this £100 model instead of a cheaoer Belkin version? The Marantz supports on screen menu navigation. That's right. At the push of a button you can have a screen menu on your monitor/Plasma that navigates through albums/playlists etc. If you dont want to do that, just hit the button and navigate with the iPod menu on the iPod, all by remote of course. The sound is of course superb. Also, those clever Marantz boys have made the connection area seperate so you can hide all the cables a distance off from the dock.

My only quibble, and it is a small one, is the remote seemed a bit tricky to pick up signal wise from where I wanted it positioned. But seeing as I was adding the remote codes to my Phillips Pronto Pro, which handles it effortlessly this is pretty small stuff.

Looks great, sounds great and with operation through your TV from the comfort of your armchair, superb. 

 

Unbelievable. The people in the shop could'nt seem to grasp that i was one of the few people in the world that had managed to live without a mobile phone till now.

If I was going to buy one, which i needed to for work related things, then I wanted to get one with a pretty good camera.

 

I bought the Sony Ericsson K800i

 

It's a good phone as far as I can tell, but the 3.2 MP camera is excellent. Not that great in darx situations, but for portraits and landscapes in good conditions it's as good as my 8MP Olympus.

Here's a shot of the kids inside with only natural lighting coming in.

   

I dont know, boys and their toys eh!

p.s. my iPod Dock from marantz should be ready at the end of the month, I'll write how that goes.