Sleepypete's Pillow

Yep – they’re so good that other studios try to copy them with films like Madagascar …

Same basic idea, make a movie that’s animated and tries to connect with all audiences but they just don’t have the combination of character, comedy, simplicity and just quality story that Pixar consistently produce.

Totally agree with you about Wall-E. We took the kids to see it, and we were transfixed. Pixar has the Midas touch when it comes to producing movies that connect with audiences of all ages. No wonder they’ve never failed at the box office.

Whenever I’m feeling a little down, I know that I’ll feel better after popping a Pixar DVD into the machine. They’re just that good, on so many levels.

… aka I’m kinda glad I got out of this game !

There’s been a big battle tonight between the alliance I used to be involved with and their sworn enemies, -A-. The report for what happened is coming on to the Eve forums here and shows why I left Eve …

It’s not a bad game is Eve, there’s plenty in there for the powergamer in me to get interested in. There’s also the ability to carve out a little piece of the universe for you and your alliance. That’s what as me keeping up with what the alliance people are up to, curiosity for how they’re getting on. Trouble is, the game itself can’t cope with the big battles that happen when that little piece of the universe is being carved out.

There’s more in that forum post, have a peek for the people complaining that they got kicked out of the game, to be unable to log in for over an hour. That’s just not good enough from a group that expect you to pay a subscription for their game … So – interesting game, shame about the implementation.

Time for me to get a little sleep now, I’ve just extracted myself from a marathon Moo2 session. It’s the Twenty20 cup finals day tomorrow, which should be a good laugh 🙂 I’ll give a little decode though on some of the terms used in that Eve forum post before I disappear …

Lag – You press a button, no response happens for a while. On Warcraft, that can be 5-10secs when a lagspike hits, on Eve it can be anything up to an hour.
Grid – A 500x500x500km cube where the action happens. Entering the Grid means loading up everything needed to show what’s there … Hefty in a big battle like this one.
Capital Ship – Big ship for space station warfare (Dread/dreadnaught)
Titan – biggest ship in the game
CCP – The organisation responsible for not fixing the lag
POS – Starbase
Bubble – Think Star Trek, think warp drive, now think sphere where da warp drive don’t work.

At least, I don’t think so …

I’m seeing the two extremes of Technobabble tonight, first up was Wall-E and now it’s Star Trek – Deep Space Nine. It’s been ages since I watched DS9 and I figured I’d give it another go. Same with Voyager, I’ve been watching that again too.

I seem to remember DS9 improving in the later series but they’re really submerging under the technobabble rubbish that really doesn’t make sense … Things like needing someone to tap a button to turn on containment fields after a hole got punched in the hull of the station. Come On People ! That kind of thing would be under automatic control … Plus if a hole in a corridor made a big gust in a command centre that should be behind a heap of closed doors, then I’m sorry that’s just asking for the old cliche “Were they born in a barn ?”

Muahaha – I guess I’ve been spoiled by higher class sci-fi like Heinlein, Banks, Weber, Clarke, Asimov and Niven. (And a few more on top of those too) However, DS9 does have the gorgeous creature that is Terry Farrell and then the too cute for words Nicole de Boer in the final season.

On the other end of the technobabble scale is Wall-E. This is the latest Pixar film, from a studio that has the gift of producing what really are kids films but can be enjoyed to the full by adults. It makes their films special. Things like the robot Eve floating around, without them needing to explain how. Different types of robots that behave as programmed machines but animated with a definite personality all their own. There’s a certain bit of magic to how they put it all on screen.

I almost said this with Hancock but I’ll definitely say it for Wall-E :

This is a Must See Movie !

PS It’s too darn hot now – hopefully that’s the sign of a good thunderstorm soon 🙂 And the person in the meeting room today who turned the air conditioning OFF needs a visit from the Huggy Jacket Men.
PS2 I miss doing Thursday Thirteens … I need a good idea for a theme to run a 13 on 😉

Still not got an Airport yet – think I may need to set my Ebay bids a little higher …

He’s a good actor is Will Smith, lots of scope and range for what he can do. He pulls off Hancock pretty well 🙂

The place where I work has two car parks to serve the site, I park in the smaller one of the two (usually). There’s a couple of rows in there reserved for Greenie people who come to work with an extra body in the passenger seat, the rest is fair game. The 2+ ones are of course the closest ones to the offices.

There’s another rule that says these 2+ spots become fair game after 9.30am, when most of the people who are tied to taking kiddies to school have completed their business.

Now because there’s not quite enough room in the car park for everyone, the gate people have usually put up a sign by 9am telling us to go to the car park at the other end of the site. That’s like, Shrug, No Big Deal, More much needed Exercise for me. Sometimes (think rainyday) the car park full sign is up by 8.45am … Much too early for a late worm like me.

With those rules, you’d think that people turning up around 9.10am and seeing the sign would turn their cars around and head to the other car park ? Well, you would wouldn’t you ? Nah … 9.15am when I appeared this morning (Flexitime is great !), there were 4 cars quite happily queuing up, itching to get those 2+ spots when they became fair game …

Seems nuts to me … Even with a longer walk across site (good for you that), I was probably at my desk minutes before they even got past the gate ! Plus I’m not that good at sitting still, after about 2 minutes waiting I’d have climbed through the windows, after wishing I had a sunroof I could climb out of.

I definitely don’t understand the Mob sometimes, or is it just that I like to crack on with stuff when others would like to sit and wait doing nothing. The 2+ idea is a decent one, as it encourages people to be a bit more economical with their parking. Not to mention it being great if you were taking a passenger in anyway … But I don’t get much advantage from that preferential treatment now because I’m no longer living with someone who works on site. (Sometimes CK gets a lift, which gets me in 2+, but our getting up times aren’t in sync lately …)

(the crazyparkqueuers probably kept their engines running too for that 15 minute wait to get 100 yards closer to their desk …)

“wall of text” – love that

I adore Will Smith, have since he as a baby rapper and now – well he often visits a fantasy or two.

I have bouts with depression as well, rarely manic – usually level and then the sadness sets in. Hormones baby! they suck when they let ya down.

I doubt that I would ever use ‘ordinary’ to describe you.

I like Enya, too, Sleepypete. Do whatever you can to get better sound!
Thanks for visiting today, via Michele.

Oh we have an Airport Express and quite love it. It works well for us re:music and its great not having to have the printer all hooked up when wanting to print stuff…

I’m here via Michele today so hello from her and hello from me!!