Dogville
Friday, December 24, 2004

This is officially one of the most moving, thought provoking and powerful productions I have ever seen. This film not only delves into the human soul, our thought methodologies and reasoning but it is also a metaphorical and political message to America. This is a most intellectual movie if ever I have seen one - it's poignant words leaving myself as if ending a novel. It's unique setting and style allows us to focus on the characters and the characters only. I grudgingly loved this 'epic', it was beautiful and heart breaking. Perfect acting, direction and writing make Dogville a must see for anyone with a conscience.

10/10.
IMDB

Labels: Movie

Meanderings at Christmas (long journal)
Thursday, December 23, 2004

The hour is late but tonight I feel an odd connection with language. It is as if words are pouring from my mouth and they must be written down somehow. I have a great admiration for the English language and its unbridled eloquence, although my love does not carry itself into the grammatical empire due to the short fallings of my literary construction skills. Words and sentences form in my head, yet once on screen they are long, disconnected and riddled with errors. Re-reading my passages I pick up on nuances that hint at a mere pseudo-intellect behind these meanderings. I wish for flowing and involving sentences; yet I conjure jerky and bitty connecting words and all possible beauty is gone.

I desire to be creative in my life. I have ideas, I am an ideas person - yet there is no great way of spreading the plans in my head. Common methodologies require skills and funding I do not possess - movie, music and literature. Sure, anyone can write a book but few can write a good one. A book would be the easiest of passages to go down as I am neither musical nor theatrical in the talent sense. I cannot command people, I can organize, but not command and hence direction is not my path. My mother can play piano yet I have never once successfully ventured into the musical limelight - I abandoned the trumpet when I was ten because my noises were pathetic, I played the triangle in the school orchestra - that is the extent of my accomplishments. This is not me being depressed, looking back at my life, this is me coming to terms with the skills I so dearly wish I had. It should be clear now, that the path I must take is that of literature. Yet I mourn at how bitty and nasty my previous works seems, maybe I am a perfectionist, maybe I just can't write expressively. Now I have written two full paragraphs, I will spend twenty minutes reading them over and trying to perfect them - never fully satisfied.

I find myself being a traditionalist. At nineteen (shortly twenty) and without stubble on my face this is a strange conclusion to draw. I am finding myself forever fearful at the route society and the world is taking, despite my optimistic outlook on life. Technology and science are driving us down roads with no signposts, we don't know where we are going and there's nobody to ask for directions at this speed. When will we run out of petrol? What will be at the end of the road? Maybe we should take our foot away from the accelerator and give our straining engine a rest. One hundred years ago stress was rare, these days it's almost mandatory. Technology with all its joys and wonders only brings us further stress; it seems some sort of twisted proportionality has formed. In choosing electronic engineering as a profession it seems ironic that I have this opinion.

I have run out of things to say for the moment and three paragraphs in a row have begun with the same word. I'm putting on some cogitative music to get the cogs rotating again; some slow experimental electronic drones should do the trick (Fennesz). The previous text-block was going somewhere that could lead to mixed and unstructured thoughts on paper, a short novel with the pages muddled if you will. If I present my opinions to someone I really want them to be in an understandable and likeable form. No one will ever think wise of someone who cannot form a decent argument. That's what I want, I want to be wise - I have knowledge, common sense, morals and I can spell a lot of words correctly, but does that make me wise? I'm unsure as to how you could define wise; most liken wise with the elderly and the cryptically spoken fictional characters such as Gandalf. They seem all knowing in their short yet heavily weighted words of comfort and knowledge. Does a knowledgeable person simply become wise at a certain age, or do they need to speak in a certain manner, reveal only that which is necessary and maintain a veil of mystery? I'm sure I'll learn with time. It seems the more elegantly spoken are greater revered within intellectual circles.

Interlude. My favourite novel is Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. My favourite song is Angelo Badalamenti's heartfelt orchestral "Lauren's Walking" from "The Straight Story" by David Lynch. My opinion on my favourite movie and that which I think is the best are of course different. The movie I enjoy most is "Ghost World" for reasons I do not hasten to add. I hope you have enjoyed this interlude, now it's time to raise the curtain again and return to the textual glories that are my Christmas meanderings.

My play list has reached Gas' fine "Pop" album - track two. The hour is now an hour later than when I did start this piece. Being an electronic engineer I rarely encounter an opportunity to evolve and deluge myself in literary ramblings. It is this blog and this internet that keep me writing, albeit rarely.

I no longer enjoy the conditionings society has burdened me with. I find myself desiring a 42" inch plasma TV - but what practical service can such a thing provide me when compared with a comfortable and purpose fulfilling SCART Roadster that can be bought for the same price. I do not want to be drawn towards the menacingly fanciful bodies of the thin and photoshopped when perfectly content and happy with my current relationship. I've reread that past sentence four times now. Society is feeding me dreams I do not want yet cannot deny. I guess it's time my ramblings should stop for now, I hope you have seen a little bit of me and I hope this practice adds to the potential within.

Ciao. Paul.

Labels: Life

The Santa Lobster (flash)
Thursday, December 23, 2004

Something Awful: Melido Perez - The Santa Lobster!:
"Welcome to a VERY SPECIAL flash tub.
This is the story of Melido Perez and a Christmas that almost wasn't on the sun! Based on the famous children's book written and drawn by Tom 'Moof' Davies, this week's Flash Tub is done entirely in Moof's style. You can watch this one with the family. :)
Written by: Moof
Music and narration by: Colorfinger"

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Labels: Random

TRAILER - Sin City
Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Moviefone: Sin City
The first official trailer for the upcoming Sin City adaptation. This looks so perfect. Just look at the cast list:

Jessica Alba .... Nancy Callahan
Rosario Dawson .... Gail
Elijah Wood .... Kevin
Maria Bello .... Ava Lord
Bruce Willis .... John Hartigan
Benicio Del Toro .... Jack Rafferty
Michael Clarke Duncan .... Manute
Carla Gugino .... Lucille
Josh Hartnett .... The Salesman
Michael Madsen .... Bob
Jaime King .... Goldie/Wendy
Brittany Murphy .... Shellie
Clive Owen .... Dwight
Mickey Rourke .... Marv
Nick Stahl .... Junior/Yellow Bastard

IMDB

Labels: Movie

ARTICLE - Bank Heist in Ireland
Tuesday, December 21, 2004

BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Millions stolen in bank raid: "Raiders have stolen millions of pounds in cash from a bank in Belfast.

The precise amount of money taken from the Northern Bank is not yet known but the bank said it was 'significant'.
It is understood two employees of the bank and their families were held captive before the robbery took place.
It happened at the bank's headquarters in Donegall Square West in the city.
It is believed it could be one of the biggest cash robberies in the UK.
No figure has been put on the amount stolen, but speculation has varied from between £20m and £30m.
Police were first alerted to the robbery at about 2345 GMT on Monday.
It is believed members of the gang took over the homes of senior officials from the bank.
It is understood that no-one was injured but one person is being treated for hypothermia.
The building houses the bank's cash centre, where tens of millions of pounds are believed to have been stored.
It is traditionally one of the busiest shopping weeks in the run-up to Christmas and large amounts of cash would have come in from businesses in the city.
The centre also takes in newly printed notes, sorts and distributes them."

Labels: External

QUOTE/LINK: Pitchfork
Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Pitchfork: "The most voyeuristic sensations are often felt while looking in on the least melodramatic moments. --Kristin Sage Rockermann"
I am loving this newly found reviews site - the music they rate highly is deservedly good music, the language reviews are written in give the best possible literary response to music. With indepth musical knowledge, involving and beautiful reviews that give honest opinions and pages not riddled with adverts - this site has honorably been added to my bookmarks and this blog.

Labels: Music

ARTICLE: Glasses Peircing
Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Glasses Peircing: Finally, corrective lenses bolted into your face!

"I've only had them for about a week now, but I've been sleeping and showering in them. I hadn't taken them off in four days when one of the brackets cut me while I was asleep; I'd forgotten to sand the edges and they were still razor sharp. They're back on now and seem reliable enough to take on a two week trip over the holidays; I doubt I'll need to take them off during that time. Taking them on and off is a bit of a hassle, as it involves taking a tiny screwdriver and unscrewing them while they're on my face — about a 5 to 10 minute process — which I suppose is about what you'd spend with contacts." Click the link for the full article.

It's interesting, but as soon as he knocks those glasses, that's gonna be painful.
"I'm torn between that being cool and that being utterly stupid."

Labels: External

Music Snapshot
Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Audioscrobbler :: User :: FofR

: "1 The Microphones - Drums 18:58:37 UTC, December 14 2004
2 Tim Hecker - untitled (8) 18:55:23 UTC, December 14 2004
3 Deerhoof - The Forbidden Fruits 18:53:50 UTC, December 14 2004
4 Wire - Read and Burn 18:51:16 UTC, December 14 2004
5 The Wrens - The House That Guilt Built 18:34:50 UTC, December 14 2004
6 mu - Jealous Kids 18:29:49 UTC, December 14 2004
7 The Unicorns - Sea Ghost 18:24:40 UTC, December 14 2004
8 The Unicorns - Ghost Mountain 18:21:13 UTC, December 14 2004
9 The Unicorns - Tuff Ghost 18:18:09 UTC, December 14 2004
10 The Unicorns - I Don't Wanna Die 18:15:38 UTC, December 14 2004"

LINK - Firefox (I like firefox :) )
Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Spread Firefox - Igniting the web: "In little more than a month, Firefox has been downloaded more than 10 million times."

Why Use Firefox?
"Beware of spyware. If you can, use the Firefox browser." - USA Today
"Better than Internet Explorer by leaps and bounds." - FORBES

Popup Blocking
Stop annoying popup ads in their tracks with Firefox's built in popup blocker.

Tabbed Browsing
View more than one web page in a single window with this time saving feature. Open links in the background so that they're ready for viewing when you're ready to read them.

Privacy and Security
Built with your security in mind, Firefox keeps your computer safe from malicious spyware by not loading harmful ActiveX controls. A comprehensive set of privacy tools keep your online activity your business.

Smarter Search
Google Search is built right into the toolbar, and there is a plethora of other search tools including Smart Keywords (type "dict " in the Location bar), and the new Find bar (which finds text as you type without covering up anything).

Live Bookmarks
RSS integration lets you read the latest news headlines and read updates to your favorite sites that are syndicated.

Hassle-Free Downloading
Files you download are automatically saved to your Desktop so they're easy to find. Fewer prompts mean files download quicker.

Fits Like a Glove
Simple and intuitive, yet fully featured, Firefox has all the functions you're used to - Bookmarks, History, Full Screen, Text Zooming to make pages with small text easier to read, etc.

S, M, L or XL - It's Your Choice
Firefox is the most customizable browser on the planet. Customize your toolbars to add additional buttons, install new Extensions that add new features, add new Themes to browse with style, and use the adaptive search system to allow you to search an infinite number of engines. Firefox is as big or small as you want.

Setup's a Snap
At only 4.7MB (Windows), Firefox takes just a few minutes to download over a slow connection and seconds over a fast connection. The installer gets you set up quickly, and the new Easy Transition system imports all of your settings - Favorites, passwords and other data from Internet Explorer and other browsers - so you can start surfing right away.

A Developer's Best Friend
Firefox comes with a standard set of developer tools including a powerful JavaScript and CSS error/warning console, and an optional Document Inspector that gives detailed insight about your pages.

ARTICLE - France opens tallest road bridge
Tuesday, December 14, 2004

CNN.com - France opens tallest road bridge - Dec 14, 2004:

Click Thumbnail for Large


"MILLAU, France (AP) -- Piercing the sky above the verdant hills of southern France, a stunningly modern roadway bridge hailed as the tallest in the world was officially inaugurated Tuesday.

Celebrated as a work of art and an object of French national pride, the Millau bridge will enable motorists to take a drive through the sky -- 270 meters (891 feet) above the Tarn valley for a 2.5 kilometer (1.6 mile) stretch through France's Massif Central mountains.
Designed by British architect Norman Foster, the steel-and-concrete bridge with its streamlined diagonal suspension cables rests on seven pillars -- the tallest measuring 340 meters (1,122 feet), making it 16 meters (53 feet) taller than the Eiffel Tower.
The bridge, which has an airy and fluid appearance, was designed to have the 'delicacy of a butterfly,' Foster said in an interview with regional daily newspaper Midi Libre.
'A work of man must fuse with nature. The pillars had to look almost organic, like they had grown from the earth,' said Foster, who also designed London's Millennium Bridge.
Colorado's Royal Gorge Bridge, towering 331 meters (1,053 feet) above the Arkansas River, is the world's tallest suspension bridge -- but it is designed for pedestrians. The Kochertal viaduct in Germany was the highest roadway, at 185 meters (607 feet), officials said.
President Jacques Chirac, surrounded by workers in hard hats, lifted a French flag covering a plaque on the bridge in the town of Millau on Tuesday. Fighter jets roared overhead, leaving a trail of red, white and blue smoke.
Millau is best known outside France as the place where anti-globalization activist Jose Bove dismantled a McDonald's restaurant.
The bridge, nearly three years in construction, opens to vehicles Thursday.

Labels: External

ARTICLE - Google To Digitize Much of Harvard's Library
Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Slashdot:
: "According to an e-mail sent today to Harvard students, Google will collaborate with Harvard's libraries on a pilot project to digitize a substantial number of the 15 million volumes held in the University's extensive library system, which is second only to the Library of Congress in the number of volumes it contains. Google will provide online access to the full text of those works that are in the public domain. In related agreements, Google will launch similar projects with Oxford, Stanford, the University of Michigan, and the New York Public Library. As of 9 am on December 14, a FAQ detailing the Harvard pilot program with Google will be available at hul.harvard.edu."

Labels: External

RANDOM - Morse Code Alphabet
Thursday, December 09, 2004

Morse Code Alphabet: "A .-
B -...
C -.-.
D -..
E .
F ..-.
G --.
H ....
I ..
J .---
K -.-
L .-..
M --

N -.
O ---
P .--.
Q --.-
R .-.
S ...
T -
U ..-
V ...-
W .--
X -..-
Y -.--
Z --..

0 -----
1 .----
2 ..---
3 ...--
4 ....-
5 .....
6 -....
7 --...
8 ---..
9 ----.
Fullstop .-.-.-
Comma --..--
Query ..--.."
Just because.

Labels: Random

FEATURE - From November to King
Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Today I found myself in the most obscure of situations. I was walking down the local high street, perusing in the shop windows – admiring the steel kitchen freezers and the 2 for 1 offers at Iceland. I walked onwards past groups of children coming home from school, students back from university and old ladies with their karts rushing as quickly as they could carry themselves. All were wrapped warm in their scarves and coats, for at the moment it is November and bitterly cold. I found myself ever fortunate, being present in a futuristic and technologically advanced environment. My mind wandered onto strange thoughts as I saw the latest gadgets bouncing around the hallways of the gadget shop. I thought of flying cars and five storey buses that could swim underwater. Life was grand and I was genuinely happy to be there. In following the daily tradition of walking down the high street towards the bus stop, my mind wanders to all sorts of realms I never knew existed. It was today, in a futuristic daydream that I didn’t look where I was going and fell down an uncovered manhole. I fell and I fell, twisting and twirling down a helter skelter slide. I tumbled all over the place and kept falling. As I fell I had time to wonder why I was falling. I thought about how far I was going, where I was going and I had a sneaky suspicion that I was not going down the usual hole into the sewers. This slide was painted with murals, artful masterpieces alongside school children’s doodles. Music played, a random playlist it seems, country blues spliced with television theme tunes. It was most eclectic and I knew that at the end of my fall I would be safe. I landed with a soft bounce. It seems I was traveling at a slow speed, akin to a moving sloth. It is here that I found my peculiar situation. I was in a sandy town surrounded by short small flat top houses with open windows and doorways. People were wearing strange robes and head bands. I felt quite silly in my scarf and Wellington boots. As I wandered onwards, trying not to bring myself too much attention, I noticed a crowd had gathered around a tall hill with three trees atop of it. It was a while away but I galloped across and made the ground in good speed. My heart was all aflutter, I hadn’t ran that fast or far for a very long while.

The large crowds were all angry, tanned men were jeering and grinning evilly towards the three trees on the hill. I, like a wailing police car, passed easily through the crowd, people kindly moving aside and letting me pass. I wanted to see what was wrong with these three trees, so I followed the windy road up to the top of the hill. I took this trip slowly and made sure I was composed and ready to duel with whatever evil lay ahead. My mind conjured three headed dragons, two headed snakes and an odd bald man who liked plaid shoes. At the very top I found a small gathering of important looking people, they wore what looked like an ancient version of black tie dress. I politely introduced myself to them all, yet none of them spoke back. Some were crying and I feared the dragon or snake or bald man had already destroyed the world. An old man pointed towards the middle tree.

Squinting without my glasses, I made out a poor starved man hanging on the tree. He looked ever so helpless and no one was letting him down. I felt very sorry for him and I decided I would speak to him to find out why he was hanging on the dead tree. I was stopped suddenly though, there were vibrations in my pocket and the air ran thick with the jaunty tune of a polyphonic popcorn tone. I reached into my side and withdrew my mobile; I had a new text message:

“HELP! I think my work is corrupt, should I save it as an untitled document or leave it. My computer is dying and I don’t know what to do.”

I replied telling her to use my computer and to start again. Behind me, the gatherings had fallen to their knees and were proclaiming me as a great prophet, musician and angel from God. I gave a stifled smile and backed away into the poor man in the tree, knocking off his hand made leafy crown. I apologized and he said no worries. The crowds were now chanting like a hooligan would at a soccer match, they wept and cried and asked what God wanted them to do. They asked if I was going to save their king. I thought to myself, “maybe I should have told her to save it”.

ARTICLE - Novel Vaccine Stops HIV
Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Human Test: Novel Vaccine Stops HIV: "Human Test: Novel Vaccine Stops HIV

Treatment Turns On Anti-HIV Immunity, Holds AIDS Virus in Check
By Daniel DeNoon - WebMD Medical News

Nov. 29, 2004 -- It worked in mice. It worked in monkeys. And now in humans, a therapeutic vaccine has stopped HIV in its tracks.
The vaccine is made from a patient's own dendritic cells and HIV isolated from the patient's own blood. Dendritic cells are crucial to the immune response. They grab foreign bodies in the blood and present them to other immune cells to trigger powerful immune system responses to destroy the foreign invaders.
HIV infection normally turns these important immune system responses off. But animal studies show that when dendritic cells are 'loaded' with whole, killed AIDS viruses, they can trigger effective immune responses that keep infected animals from dying of AIDS.
Wei Lu, Jean-Marie Andrieu, and colleagues at the University of Paris in France and Pernambuco Federal University in Recife, Brazil, tested the vaccine on 18 Brazilian patients. All had HIV infection for at least a year. Their T-cell counts -- a crucial measure of AIDS progression -- were dropping, meaning their disease was worsening. None was taking anti-HIV medications.
After getting three under-the-skin injections of the tailor-made vaccine, the amount of HIV in the patients' blood (called the viral load) dropped by 80%. After a year, eight of the 18 patients still had a 90% drop in HIV levels. All patients' T-cell counts stopped dropping.
The findings appear in the December issue of Nature Medicine.

'The results suggest that [these] vaccines could be a promising strategy for treating people with chronic HIV infection,' Andrieu and colleagues write. 'The significant decrease of viral load as well as maintenance"

Labels: External

ARTICLE - Halo 2 heralds traffic explosion
Wednesday, December 08, 2004

BBC NEWS | Technology | Halo 2 heralds traffic explosion: Halo 2 heralds traffic explosion

The growing popularity of online gaming could spell problems for net service firms, warns network monitoring company Sandvine. It issued the warning following analysis which shows that Traffic on the Xbox game network increased fourfold on the launch day of Halo 2. The 9 November traffic explosion has continued into December, said Sandvine. Service providers now need to make sure that their networks can cope with the increasing demands for bandwidth. As well as being a popular single-player title, Halo 2 can be connected to Microsoft's subscription-based broadband network, Xbox Live.

Bandwidth hungry

But the surge in numbers and huge demands for bandwidth should be a wake-up call to the industry which must ensure that their networks can cope with the increases in traffic, said Sandvine's chief technology officer Marc Morin.

Broadband
In a bid to cope and ease congestion, providers are increasingly making their networks intelligent, finding out who is using bandwidth and for what. It could become common to charge people for the amount of bandwidth they use. 'The explosion in Xbox Live traffic attributed to Halo 2 should be seen as a clarion call,' he said. 'ISPs need to enhance the broadband experience for these high-end users by prioritising or reserving bandwidth for games,' he added. Online gamers are bandwidth hungry One of the main factors that spoils online gaming is 'lag' in which there is a noticeable delay between a gamer clicking on a mouse or keyboard and what happens in the online gaming world. Gamers tend to migrate toward networks with the lowest 'lag'. Analysing traffic will become increasingly important for service providers if they "

Labels: External, Gaming