Archive for March, 2006:

I want as many ideas as possible for an April Fools practical joke(s).

Removing and replacing cupboard doors in different locations has been done. So has unscrewing a fire door from its hinges and standing it in front of the other flats’. We’ve done the ol’ flour and washing up liquid trick. Fireworks are out of season, and we’ve shot them at windows long enough. I’m all out of paintballs, and I don’t have a fire-extinguisher to hand.

So what to do eh?

I have before midday tomorrow to pull something off…

I should have posted this sooner, but I’ve been busy and forgetful at the same time - not a good combination. Actually, the forgetfulness probably explains why I’ve been busy…

Simon purchased Undead last weekend, for the huge sum of £3.97. It’s a straight-to-dvd release, that should have gone to Hollywood, maybe even further.

This week’s quote of the week has been taken from the film, so you know it must be good.

I wanted to put the following quote on, but it would take up a huge whack of the sidebar column:

“One day your out on your boat and you get attacked by zombie fish, they munch at your face, like you’re the main course at an all you can eat crazy country boy buffet. You walk away, tell the town your story; they think your mad. Everyone thinks your mad, you think I’m mad. It happens again, this time it’s not zombie fish it’s zombie Berkeley. But this time I’m prepared, I’m ready to fight whatever they can throw at me. Still i wasn’t strong enough, the strongest ones are always the last ones left; if that’s not me, it must be you. If that was the case you wouldn’t have battled the undead and lived. You’d be the entree at a smorgasboard of brainfood.”

The bold bit is fucking hilarious. This whole film is. It’s a must see, and it beats Cheech and Chong, and the likes into a pulp.

To give you a quick outline of the plot - a mad Hill-billy Australian, named MARION has 3 sawn-off shotguns bolted together. He has been abducted in the past by aliens, and when they return to the planet he is there once again - this time saving the day. Although while he is saving the day, he is “having a turd day”.

The plot is pretty shite, but the film is full of laughs. It was funded by a few hill-billys and it shows. Lots of gore and blood, which is always good.

Check out more at the IMDB here. A few memorable quotes can be seen here. And a bit of trivia can be read here.

Just thought I’d also point out something that Simon mentioned - which is on the trivia page. The post-production rendering was done on the directors’ PCs at home, which explains the 9 month post-production time. It reminds me of the hours Adamskii had to spend rendering his animation on his amazing render-monkey.

I don’t usually give films a rating, but this film receives 9 ********* stars, one for each month spent rendering on their (most likely) Pentium MMX’s.

You may have read that I put together a Video Editing PC last week…

Well today I finally got to grips with the technology that I’d built. Prior to this, I had been using the USB1.1 streaming option on the Sony DV Camera that work has, thinking that this was the easiest option for capturing the video.

How wrong I was. After spending several hours going through various tapes, capturing footage that the tutors had taken - I soon realised how poor quality it was. I’m talking Web quality prior to editing and exporting the video.

However, a few minutes ago I got the camera back in the workshop, so I decided to utilise the new Firewire capture card I’d purchased. Immediately Premiere Elements was playing ball, whereas with the USB streaming, only Movie Maker would capture anything.

The quality is insanely better. OK it’s still limited to the DV PAL resolution (720×576), but it’s a lot lot better, without any stupid compression or pixelation.

So now I’ve got to re-capture the video so that it’s of a decent quality, ready for editing…

Althought I don’t have the game, players of Quake 4 are being told to avoid the new patch.

Apparently it can cause Widescreen monitors to break, by sending the monitor resolutions that it cannot handle.

More here.

I think it’s hilarious, and I can’t wait until the day Microsoft is sued for killing a user, due to them updating windows and the computer combusting in their face.

Original Source is the brand of fantastic shower gels, shampoos and conditioners - available from most supermarkets.

Being a bloke, I don’t know the difference between shampoo and conditioner. Being a human being I don’t know where the name shampoo came from, but I wont think about it too much. So I opt for the shower gel, and always Mint and Tea Tree flavour. I say flavour, as you could eat it if you wanted, in which case, it would have a flavour.

We went to Tesco (or is it Tescos?) on Friday evening, and I spotted a new ‘flavour‘ of original source there… Almond and Coconut!

So I picked up a bottle of it, along with the usual - Mint and Tea Tree.

And I don’t regret my choice, as I now smell like a bakewell tart everytime I have a shower. Which backs up my flavour theory.

If you’ve not tried original source, then head on over to the official website, where you can order a free sample. And no, I wasn’t paid to pimp my brand, but I should have been.