Lorem ipsum

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam lacinia hendrerit odio sed pellentesque. Sed auctor justo quis sem rutrum ut tincidunt erat scelerisque. Sed neque nisi, faucibus vitae placerat a, suscipit a dui. Donec consequat tortor id diam accumsan in congue nisl tempus. Donec cursus tellus ut mauris lacinia nec lacinia dui placerat. Mauris sed facilisis orci. Fusce neque risus, aliquet non suscipit at, varius sit amet felis. Pellentesque lacinia eros eu elit consectetur laoreet. Donec ultrices, lorem at porttitor viverra, turpis lacus blandit ante, eu imperdiet diam ante non erat. Suspendisse vel enim orci, eu interdum odio. Morbi faucibus nibh id tortor laoreet aliquet. Maecenas sed magna vitae tortor congue ullamcorper. Praesent elementum consequat diam sit amet pharetra. Sed posuere ullamcorper justo, vel ultrices neque pulvinar eget. Sed semper placerat placerat. Nulla quis tellus lorem, in dictum leo.

Praesent eleifend tortor eget sem semper ultricies. Sed leo metus, rhoncus ut porttitor at, volutpat quis justo. Fusce lobortis rutrum risus, sed tempor sapien tincidunt quis. Curabitur vitae nulla purus, a fermentum lorem. Suspendisse orci diam, vestibulum at egestas eget, gravida nec risus. Morbi vel neque arcu, vel rutrum nibh. Donec mattis ultricies tellus ac adipiscing. Nullam eget ipsum id mauris semper tincidunt. Curabitur ante neque, placerat nec ultricies et, fermentum et nulla. Vivamus gravida massa et ipsum eleifend at consequat ligula varius. Proin luctus risus in mi pellentesque blandit. Fusce aliquam sapien id massa tristique ornare. Maecenas varius neque libero.


Morbi vel odio diam, nec vehicula lacus. Proin vestibulum nunc eget arcu vulputate consectetur. Suspendisse id turpis non enim pulvinar vestibulum. Suspendisse imperdiet nibh non ipsum porttitor vitae posuere diam pulvinar. Duis nibh sem, congue ac ultrices a, tempor ut odio. Sed et erat nec velit luctus tristique. Morbi faucibus consectetur congue. In quis ante arcu. Integer a libero non tellus condimentum ornare et eu nisi. Pellentesque euismod ultrices est sed convallis.

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Film Friday: Another Earth

The New Zealand International Film Festival 2011 has been in town the last 2 weeks, and I've never been before, so I decided to see "Another Earth". I'd watched the trailer through a friend's page on Facebook and it looked decent, with an interesting premise. See it for yourself:

Contrary to what you might expect from watching the trailer, this is no sci-fi movie. As you might have noticed from the lack of action and explosions, it's certainly no War of the Worlds. "Another Earth" is really a deeply personal story about love, loss, remorse and reconciliation, following a straight course at a very measured pace.
This is definitely the sort of movie that shouldn't be described or explained in any detail before watching. It was very satisfying to just sit back and let it all unfold, without knowing what the ending might be.

The direction, production and acting were all excellent, and very refreshing after years of watching mainly Hollywood movies. Some things that stood out to me were: the indie-style title sequence, the musical saw scene, and Brit Marling's strong performance as the lead character.
I wanted to see more of the other Earth, but nevertheless I think the way they handled the story was spot-on, and the ending was a little unexpected.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this movie to other people. It's very serious, but not in a depressing way, and raises some philosophical questions about the characters' actions and what might happen if we looked up one day and really saw a new planet in the sky.

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SNOW

We heard the forecast predicting snowfall in Churchur so we went up the Port Hills and gave it a little encouragement. Who knew the snow storm would follow us home!

By midnight our backyard was filled with fluffy snow! EEeeekk!!!

In the words of little Agnes: "IT'S SO FLUFFY I'M GONNA DIE!!!"

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By Twang with 1 comment

Future Film - The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of The Unicorn

As the sun sets on the Harry Potter movie franchise (for now), another part of my childhood is being brought to life on the big screen.

The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn is based on three of the comic books written and illustrated by Hergé (The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn, Red Rackham's Treasure). Directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson, it is being produced in motion capture 3D, using techniques like those used for James Cameron's Avatar.

What I loved about Tintin as a kid was travelling with Tintin on all these amazing adventures. Looking back now, I seems really strange that a mere reporter gets to do all this crazy stuff, but then again I don’t remember ever seeing him reporting to anyone. It was also impossible not to appreciate the precise yet imaginative artwork that filled each page. Spielberg chose to film Tintin digitally so that the CGI would honour Hergé's distinctive and beautiful style of art, saying that it made him feel "more like a painter than ever before". I've been impressed by the promotional images released so far; the style looks halfway between live-action and Pixar-style animation in a way that is very faithful to the original source, albeit in 3D. It's an interesting look, and should stand out from the crowd.


Given the recent spotlight on Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2, I've been wondering how much of a box-office success Tintin will be. They've definitely got a number of factors working towards their advantage: a first-rate team, including Hollywood heavyweights Spielberg and Jackson as well as other household names like Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg and Daniel Craig. As a personal bonus, Stephen Moffat, of Doctor Who and Sherlock fame, helped to write the script. Also, the books and TV adaptations were consumed and much loved by generations of readers, including myself.

But even though the Tintin franchise (originally written in French) already has an established international fanbase, there will be many people who haven’t even heard of it, and it's hard not to think about the disappointment of several comic-book films like Green Lantern. I'm not completely sure what made audiences love Spiderman, Batman and Iron Man, but I hope Tintin shares the X factor.
My other worry is about the 3D which made Avatar so successful. It seems that it's starting to outlive its welcome, with many people dismissing it as nauseating or gimmicky. I've been turned off by it recently myself, mainly because it adds nothing of value to my assessment or enjoyment of a movie. Sure, it looks great at the time, but it’s pointless as a long-term investment in a film if you can’t view memories in 3D.


Of course, I'll probably watch Tintin in 3D, for the same emotional reasons as for the last Harry Potter film. But I'll also be watching to recapture that timeless sense of adventure and humour that Hergé communicated so well. As surely as Captain Haddock drinks rum, you can bet that this is one movie I’m looking forward to this year.

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BEARDS!

Beards ..... are AWESOME.

Beards are truly amazing and in my procrastination I looked further into them. Maybe even researched. I, like all other university students whilst researching a topic, sought the greatest internet bank of knowledge - Wikipedia. In this pool of wisdom I discovered a whole group of people that I now have the utmost respect for. Pogonologists, men and maybe a few women who dedicate their lives to studying the amazing, furry, fungal-like growth that sprouts from my face.

Instantly I thought of three beard-tastic jobs for pogonologists.

1) CSI pogonologists

When hunting those criminals on the run, with no time for a shave, the CSI team consult their friendly department's pogonologist. With the gender, age, ethnicity and height, they could give accurate predictions of facial growth, giving more up-to-date police sketches and highly advanced beard-measuring technology (yes I have just finished watching a Fringe episode).

2) Cosmetic pogonologists

Egyptians would weave gold and dye it red/brown into their beards. Babylonians used curling irons and oils to turn their beards into the hottest chin strap on the block. The cosmetic pogonologist supports the metro man in his pursuit of facial hairiness whilst maintaining that urban businessman persona. Whether the pogonologist creates design sketches or gets in there with gold and oil, it's good to know your beard is being cared for by a professional.


3) Sports science pogonologists

With the sudden rise in beard growth in sport teams (namely that of the Canterbury forward pack) there are always a couple of hairy warriors. The need for sports tailored beards is dire. With all these athletic men sporting beards (had to do it sorry), aerodynamics has become a major issue. It warms my manly engineering heart to think of completing computational fluid dynamics analyses on a full grown southern beard in a wind tunnel.



I have come back down to earth and realise it's tough for aspiring pogonologists out there. Men, we are letting them down. From about the mid 19^th century, the beard in western culture has been on the decline. We find ourselves here in the 21^st century with the 5 o’clock shadow as the mere remnant of the former glorious tradition. It is a great loss to society. We can make a change as men band together and get hairy faces.

Just remember, every time you shave you are just putting a friendly pogonologist out of a job.

Images thanks to
TheEpochtimes,Kakiasoptics , kyoto-np, LPintoS 

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Song Selection for Essays

I am a believer in the strength and power that music can hold in our lives. I am also a believer in the difficulty of writing essays. Thus I believe that there must be some way to harness the power inherent within music to amplify essay writing abilities.

The Topic Selection Phase

First thing to do is choose what one is going to write about. As you need excitement and motivation to begin, I recommend synthpop. This style of music excites you and taps into what you are passionate about and as such what you will find most enjoyable to write about! I opted for the Spanish synthpop music project Culture Kultur.

The Sources Finding Phase

At this stage you should be selecting what you are going to be using to base your opinions on. These should be academic works from which you are going to construct your argument. The suitable genre here is country or folk. While many turn away from this style of music because it is not 'cool', I find it strangely relaxing and often sets one into a more clear-minded and focused mood so that you can browse the library catalogue with ease. I chose Suzanne Vega as her songs will not be too alien to the person still unsure about folk.

The Research Phase

You need to read through your materials now. In this part, one needs to absorb information for future reference. As such there can't be an engaging song to distract your mind. Nevertheless, music quality is vital. Steve Reich is possibly one of the most brilliant musicians and composers alive today. I selected the start of 'Music for 18 Musicians' to get you started, hopefully from there you can explore his other incredible masterpieces to help you in reading those long works of academia!

The Writing Phase

This stage is self explanatory. You finally get to formulate your ideas and arguments, quote your sources and all that. This is a hard phase to support musically. You need to have passion and interest in your topic and views but also clarity of mind in order to express them coherently! I chose Beethoven's famous Symphony no. 5 first movement and also balanced it with Eric Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1. These works will help you with your work I'm sure.

The Re-Drafting Phase

As we all should know, in writing an essay the first draft is always disappointing and it is easy to get waylaid at this point. Therefore an appropriate genre would be one that stirs you up and makes you angry in order for you to get back and complete the jolly thing. Stay away from depressing music, you need to fight the fragmented sentences and awkward paragraphs and correct it! I have chosen a nice fast alternative rock song from Anberlin. Listen to the music and focus on making your essay awesome!

The Citation Phase

This is the time when you go along and check that you have used the correct format for acknowledging your references etc. You need a song to get you excited, cheer you up, make you feel sad and calm you down all at the same time! A tall order for some but I have selected Scottish Indie Pop band, Bis for the challenge.

The Submission Phase

Congratulations you are finished! You just need your name student ID and to hand it in. A perfect song would make you feel relieved, relaxed and refreshed. Thus, I chose, in the spirit of promoting grossly underrated bands, the indie pop band Tiger Baby.

Of course results may vary and you may have to find your own special mix to get that typing done. Nevertheless I only have one objective - to persuade you that by using music you can get an A!

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