Wednesday, 27 April 2011

Japan's Nuclear Crisis is Our Nuclear Crisis

Watch this clip of Dr Caldicott as she explains the extent of the Nuclear Crisis in Japan and for the rest of the world. She also discusses Chenobyl and the use of uranium in Iraq's latest conflict. I know this blog is meant to be humorous but this shit is serious.

Tuesday, 26 April 2011

Harry Potter and The Two Hours of Life He Stole and Never Gave Back

"Right! One of us has to act." "Don't look at me. I can't act!"
I'd heard Part 1 wasn't good but I didn't expect it to be THAT bad. Its saving grace was Helena Bonham-Carter but blimey, those kids have gotten worse with age. There were so many poorly acted scenes and badly delivered pieces of dialogue that it felt like I was watching a High School play ... and that's where this review ends. He may have stolen two hours of my life but I'll be damned if he's going to steal another two minutes.

Friday, 22 April 2011

Easter Bunny Disorders

Autistic Bunny
Is not coming to your house ... or anyone else's house for that matter. She's too busy trying to crawl into a "furry space/time wormhole" to get her ears back after they were stolen by these older, much nastier, easter bunnies.



Depressed Bunny
Hates Easter. He just can't do it anymore. He doesn't know why but he just doesn't feel like it this year. Get your own eggs. Who cares anyway?




Bipolar Bunny
Is going through a manic phase and has been arrested for scaring children in photo shoots at local malls across the country. He's been sentenced to 3 yrs jail and full psychiatric evaluation.







Anxiety Disorder Bunny
Has had his worst fears realised. His therapist told him not to worry and that he was exaggerating but as seen here, he was right, the President is trying to eat him. He rates his current anxiety level as a 9/10 and fails to remember the techniques he has been working on. It's hard to remember when the President is biting down on your frontal earlobes.


Schizo Bunny
Wants you to know the Easter Bunny is dead. There's a new bunny in town. And yeah, he's coming to your house ... he's in your hallway right now. So you better get his eggs ready or else. He's hungry. And he didn't come here to F**K around. So hurry up. Get his eggs. NOW! That's better ... thankyou.

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

Where Did The Time Go?

You know what I mean?

And the older you get, the faster it goes. I don't know why. It just does. It's like riding an escalator that starts out slow but hits top speed halfway through. I don't think anyone's ready when it happens either. You just kind of wake up one day and realise, "Dammit! All the things those old people said to me when I was young were true."

Anyway, I'm trying to fit all this stuff I want to do into my life while I'm still here and capable of doing it. And the new age of information technology has opened so many doors of possibility and accessibility, it's intense. I'm the kind of person who has an idea, can visualise it completely but is easily distracted and demotivated by the process of getting that great idea to come to life.

It is getting progressively easier and quicker for people to do this though and I admire the affordable creative accessibility that young people have today. I finally sound like an old fart when I start talking about cassette tapes, letters, makeshift movie theatres, fanzines etc etc. In the 80's and even early, early 90's, if I wanted a certain album, I had to trek about 200km to the specialist music store to get it or order it and wait weeks for it to arrive. Now ... wow! It's ridiculous.

Sunday, 17 April 2011

Nothing is Dead. No One is Gone.


Friends:

I don't believe we will see each other in heaven some day, but in the heavens.

Take solace in the fact that all things created by the elements of the universe, to those elements return.

It is well documented in scientific circles that our planet will eventually be no more - swallowed up by the ravages of time and processes we can't control. At this time we will return to the variety of gases and particles which first created us.

Do not grieve. Take comfort in knowing that if we were magnetically and fatally drawn together in this life, all probability states our individual elements will meet together in another, as new worlds are born again.

Nothing is dead. No one is gone. Everything lives on, forever.



For my budgie Smiddy if you don't make it and for all those who I see no more. A. Tisdell 18/04/2011

Friday, 15 April 2011

Winter Washing VS Summer Washing - Who's The Winner?

 
ROUND 1

Winter Washing (Clothes)
Advantages
  • Pulling clothes out of the dryer and putting them on your freezing cold body straight away. Honestly, that's the only thing I can think of. Everything else is horrible.
Disadvantages
  • Having to go outside if your laundry is outside
  • The amount of clothes to be washed
  • How frequently you have to do it
  • Trying to get them dry without a dryer
  • Small window of opportunity to dry if sunlight is around and even then they might not dry
  • The clothes are cold unless straight from a dryer
  • The wind is too cold to dry anything
  • Electricity costs go up as you use more energy for washing and drying

Summer Washing (Clothes)
Advantages
  • Everything!
Disadvantages
  • None!
SCORE:
Summer Washing Wins 1-0

Wednesday, 13 April 2011

YouTube Presenting - A Genre All of It's Own?

I haven't watched the 'How to Make a Successful YouTube Video' (evident by the shoddy videos I have posted on that site) but I'm sure it's out there somewhere and now all these YouTube "stars" and wannabe YouTube "stars" are copying it. The format and editing style goes something like this:

Host - Someone loud (I'm Australian so all Americans are loud to me) who speaks really fast.

Time - Rush! Don't let your viewer get bored. Talk at a hundred miles an hour as if the viewer's life depends on everything you're saying. Pack as much info into your video as possible in the shortest possible timeframe. It's probably based on current knowledge of short viewer attention span but it ends up as verbal diaorrhea saturating my eardrums and causing my nose to bleed from the pressure.

Editing - JumpCuts, plenty of JumpCuts ... this used to be frowned upon in traditional TV and Film editing, now it's the norm for YouTube video presenters that want to become famous. It's uncomfortable to watch but it grabs your attention ... and makes you want to punch them in the face. It's an overused style of editing - think of something yourself you unoriginal f@#%s.

Editing - Humorous aside. Some little related piece of footage that has been doctored in some way to be funny (animation, words, overdubs, whatever) often with repetition of footage and interjected with facial expression of presenter or slow motion replay for added humorous effect. Haha, oh hahaha...

Editing - On Screen Text. Just in case you're deaf, stupid or can't keep up with the motormouth presenting the YouTube video (because you don't have the same kind of access to amphetamines that they do), they add plenty of On Screen Text that mirrors what they're saying or paraphrases it, sometimes with attempted humour.

In the end, it looks like the following two examples from two different presenters:



Kill me. Please, just kill me.

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

Uhhhh... I'm Going to Make Horror Films in India

Haunted-3D or me outside my home after watching it?
Following my previous post about Bollywood alien films, and my assertion that Bollywood needs to move into horror films instead, I decided to do some research on what horror films, if any, had been made in India. Now, I actually take back the advice of moving into horror. It's, just not YOU. You know? Sorry India, I'm not picking on you, and yes I'm clearly ignorant of what's going on over there but what I did find horrified me in ways not generally linked to the genre.

For example: check out the director of a new Indian 3D horror film aptly titled Haunted - 3D, go here and click on 'trailer' to watch the video http://www.haunted3dfilm.com/

Monday, 11 April 2011

Uh Oh! GaGa Made a Boo Boo.

This is it. The beginning of the end for Lady Gaga. Fate has struck her down in concert as a symbol of her impending spiral towards permanant insignificance. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/viralvacuum/158506/lady-gaga-falls-during-concert.glance Marilyn Manson wants his hemorrhoid back.

That's all she is. A pop version of Marilyn Manson.

But what she seems like to me is something spawned from Marilyn Manson's anus that was banded and removed but took on a life of its own.

Sunday, 10 April 2011

Pets Are the Best People

I have a budgie. His name is Smiddy. He speaks a lot and he makes a mess but he keeps me company all the time and rarely hassles me about anything. In fact, he's a lot of fun! He can say a lot of words and he dances and does all sorts of cute things.

We have our communication cues for different things. He does little things to tell me when he wants to eat, when he needs water, when he wants to go to sleep, when he wants a bath, and when he wants to get out of his cage. Meanwhile, I have cues for when I want to put him to bed and when I want him to go back in his cage and most of the time he is compliant.

We have spent many years devising this unspoken communication and respect. It's precious to me.

Sucker Punch Rocks!

If you watch the movie Sucker Punch and don't get it, you're an idiot. If you complain about lack of character development, you're still an idiot. And if you wish this movie had a small romantic narrative (which is what destroys every other Hollywood picture with an ounce of promise), yep, congratulations, you're a bonafide idiot.

This movie leaves out the unnecessary and does what is necessary: creating a dream-like world for the viewer to escape into, be entertained and made to think ... at least a little bit. It was better than I expected. I didn't think it would be able to hold my interest (so many Hollywood films are so formulaic that few do anymore) but thankfully it did and I can even say, I really enjoyed it.

Sucker Punch crosses a variety of genres to suit nearly everyone with a predilection to fantasy, soft porn, war, action, thriller, and science fiction. There's dragons, World War 1 planes, hot women, robots, big guns, small guns, plenty of chases, swords, cool moves, great music, great scenes, cool camera angles/movements and a gorgeous blonde girl with pig tails and a short skirt leading the charge. Sound good?

Thursday, 7 April 2011

Where's My Bollywood Alien Flick?

Is This A Jehova's Witness Magazine Cover? WTF is that?
The Indian film industry, otherwise known as Bollywood, is a massive success ... in India. Beyond India it probably has some success in neighbouring lands but it is yet to spread that appeal to Western audiences. Why? I'll tell you why: a lack of good alien flicks.

Wednesday, 6 April 2011

Gaddafi's Love Letters to Obama Rejected

An Insanely Jealous Gaddafi Watches Obama Carefully

It appears Libyan leader/violent dictator/hairstyle guru, Moamar Gaddafi, is pining for US President, Barack Obama and can't stop sending him love letters ... "We can confirm that there is a letter, obviously not the first," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One as Mr Obama flew to an event in Philadelphia. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/04/07/3184395.htm

This is not the first time Gaddafi has fallen in love with a US President and each occasion is being met with more severe reprisals as time goes on, Gaddafi it seems, just can't take a hint.

In 1986 US President Ronald Reagan was forced to bomb the Libyan capital of Tripoli when the CIA discovered that Gaddafi had arranged another large floral arrangement to be sent to the President as an expression of his unrepentant romantic feelings for him.

Tuesday, 5 April 2011

Just One Alien. Is That Too Much to Ask?

Could this thing really take our women?
Ever since I was a little boy I have wanted to see an alien land here on Earth and just freak people out. E.T. came close and was so real to me back in the day that I always kept a packet of Skittles handy just in case. But now when I watch it I cringe and eat all the Skittles myself.

After 30 years of waiting for aliens, I'm starting to lose hope. Now is the right time for them to show up if they're ever going to do it. I don't want some piddly little thing like Paul. Something cooler like Predator or Alien would be good, even one of the 'prawns' from District 9 would suffice. Humanity needs a challenge. A being it can't control. No, Joan Rivers does not count but I can see the comparison.

Monday, 4 April 2011

You Know You've Seen Too Many Episodes of 'Air Crash Investigation' When ...

Top Ten

10. 
You stare anxiously out the airport window and monitor the maintenance crew to see if they are using trainee engineers. If they are, you rush out onto the tarmac with your personally downloaded copy of the correct maintenance guide for that make and model of plane and force them to follow it meticulously.

Sunday, 3 April 2011

Writer's Block ... See! I Can't Even Think of A Catchy Title ...

So, I've got writer's block all of a sudden. A few ideas went through my head: Bieber's new movie, the multiverse, daylight savings ... but nothing grabbed me. I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I really want to write about writer's block either - that wouldn't be writer's block would it? Maybe I should just stop writing now. That'd be the most sensible thing for a writer with writer's block to do. But no, here I am still writing. At what point of writing is writer's block no longer writer's block? Have I reached it yet? Does a paragraph count? Maybe it's not even writer's block.