I want...

I want to paint my picture. I want to paint it now. I don't think I've ever wanted to paint anything this much. But, I have too much work to do, so I'll just take a minute to rant about how much I want to paint.

I miss my art lessons, I miss getting messy with paint or mod rock or ink. Last year had the photography labs. I miss those too. I drew about a million stars on a piece of paper in a lecture today, mostly because I was bored, but also because I miss art.

The painting is going to be awesome, also, by the way. I have to do some more Design for Digital Devices research tonight, I might let myself stop at 8, depends how much I get done, and finish working on the background sketch. But then tomorrow and the weekend's going to be almost completely taken up with HCI... I guess I should do some work.

I miss art.

Flash Mobbing Disco Styleeee

You should all go and look at this, because, it's amazing.

(I found it here)

4am Does Not Exist (Eurostar to Lille)

I went to Lille, France yesterday with my Mum to do Christmas shopping. She booked it up months ago and I'd forgotten. Therefore I failed at buying nothing, as I did end up spending all of the Euros I took.

Anyway, I'll update this later, as I should be working.

The flickr set of photos is here, which will also be updated later. I do recommend you take a look, it has a dude on a unicycle, a giant plastic elephant's bottom AND a headless dog.

Muse-Day!

Yesterday was Muesday. Yesterday was awesome.

(See also this post)

I've never been to a gig before. I am evidently very deprived. We went to Wembley, to see Muse. Hence, Muesday.

The crowd was rather boisterous, so whilst we were near the front for the first song we did move back a bit so as not to die or something.

It was amazing.

The set list (found here) was as follows:

Take a Bow - amazing intro, people got quite into the "you'll burn in hell" part. I was a bit distracted by all the being thrown from side to side and what not, but it was still awesome.
Video@myspace Shortvid@youtube Vid@youtube Bestvidthusfar@youtube
Hysteria
Vid@youtube
New Born - I was dying to see this. I love the piano bits in their songs. Thus, the intro to this song, is amazing, and it was even more amazing seeing it live.
Video@youtubeland Video2@youtubeland
Butterflies and Hurricanes - This is my favourite Muse song. Ever. Therefore, them playing it, well. It. Was. Amazing. Just how Matt plays piano like that is beyond me.
Vid@youtube Pianosolovid@youtube Vid2@youtube
Assassin Vid@youtube
Map of the Problematique Vid@youtube
Plug in Baby - Shiny. Shiny. Shiny.
Vid@youtube
Soldier's Poem - This was pretty special. Matt told peeps to get their mobiles/lighters out. I think Wembley holds something like 12,500 people, so looking back over the crowds was stunning.
Vid@youtube
Invincible - The whole arms in the air thing. The music. I loved it. Probably one of the best songs they performed, although that said it is really really hard to choose.
Vid@youtube Vid2@youtube
Supermassive Black Hole - This song gives me a buzz, live, was just. I hate to keep using the words amazing and awesome. But that's really what it was.
Video@youtubeland Vid2@youtube
Forced In
Time is Running Out - One of the things I really liked is how they did different intros, outros and stuff. Half the time you didn't know what they were about to play because it didn't quite sound how you expected. This was one of those. I was glad they played it, I remember years ago when it first came out, it felt nice and nostalgic.
Starlight - I loved this. The clapping. The everything. I really love the lyrics to this.
Vid@youtube Vid2@youtube
Stockholm Syndrome - My favourite parts were the "this is the last time..." bits, everyone got all arms in the air-y.
Vid@youtube Vid2@youtube Vid3@youtube
-----------------------------------------
Citizen Erased
Vid@youtube
Bliss (with balloons) - Balloons. Balloons are awesome. Although they were the wrong side of the arena for us really. Bliss is also an excellent song, and this was all very excellent.
VidofBallooooooons@youtube
-----------------------------------------
Hoodoo - Shiny piano. Lots of it. :D
Vid@youtube
Knights of Cydonia - Great finale. The on screen type was a bit cheesy, but that's ok. My arms almost died at this point. I still can't really move them very well.
Vid@youtube Vid2@youtube Vid3@youtube

I checked out flickr, as you do, and thus far there are two people with sets of photos from last night - you can check those out here and here.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I want to see them again. Right now. I loved the set list too. Especially as they played Butterflies. That made my week.

Will probably update this shortly.

MY M&Ms

I want these and I want them now. Well not all of them, just the AlmonDee-licious, Mint Condition and Cookie Minster. Well maybe all of them. But fifty bucks?! FIFTY? Ridiculous.


The Big Bowl of M&Ms
Originally uploaded by snowtru.

The Prestige

We went and saw The Prestige the other day. I'm not sure if I liked it or not. It was entertaining, don't get me wrong, but quite slow in places.

Like Batman Begins, the art direction and what not was pretty decent and it had that same shine to it - I don't really know how to explain it. It was refined. The cast listing was impressive (what was David Bowie doing in there? That was unexpected.)

I just didn't like the twist, which I suppose, is entirely what the thing was based on, so I guess that's why I'm unsure as to if I liked it.

Five stars for effort, two and a half for the story.

Buy Nothing Day

"Every November, for 24 hours, we remember that no one was born to shop, we make a small choice to participate by not participating. If you’ve never taken part in Buy Nothing Day, or if you’ve taken part in the past but haven’t really committed to doing it again, consider this: 2006 will go down as the year in which mainstream dialogue about global warming finally reached its critical mass."

It's this coming week. See here for more information.

I don't think I can get away with buying nothing, I'll need train tickets, but otherwise. Should be ok. Should.

They also have this idea for a buy nothing Xmas. I like buying people presents, and already have done, so it's too late for me, but I must admit I did consider opting out of Xmas this year. Just because, the Xmas stuff was in stores before Halloween, and Halloween is a lot more fun and should not be overshadowed by the confused mess of emotions that is our modern day Xmas.

Play-Doh and Evils

Play-Doh is obviously one of the most amazing things ever. It celebrated it's 50th anniversary just this year. There's an entire group on flickr dedicated to Play-Doh (check it out for more amazing stuff like the below image). Everyone loves Play-Doh, and I'm pretty sure everyone's tasted it, just because of that amazing smell it has. (You can deny it all you want, I won't believe you).

I don't know, it might just be me, but I think it's wrong for corporations like McDonald's to get in on the Play-Doh act. I was at Toys R Us just last night and they had a Play-Doh McFlurry maker. I can't find it on their site, but it's there. The 'mercan site has the french fry one. McDonald's do and will always target kids, but that doesn't make it right. The little MickyD's checkout sets freak me out and then some too, why would you give that to your kid? "Here Bobby, have this McDonald's checkout! Aspire to be a checkout person, live your dream!"

If that was me I'd give my kid some paint, or something musical, or a book or a football or something. I mean seriously, who would give that to a child. If you would, I'd like reasons. It also makes me wonder what kind of kids would *ask* for that kind of thing. Why is that ok in society? Everyone knows McDonald's is evil, everyone knows they're bad for you... so why?

Society is strange.

I also appreciate the concept of propaganda, and that MickyD's list of crimes may or may not just be media hype, but, if there's even a grain of truth... I'd rather steer clear. And have done, for almost 18 months now. I can't remember the last time I ate real fast food, and I doubt it's something I'd do again.

Also, I miss Sesame Street. Where has it gone? WHERE!?!


Sesame Street
Originally uploaded by arkworld.

Licence to Pink

I passed my driving test just over a week ago, and my licence showed up today. Admittedly, I'm excited, but only mostly because it's pink.

This is also my excuse to go out and buy a bottle of Bailey's mint chocolate. Which by the way is cheapest at Tesco, beating Asda by about £4 (so long as the internet prices aren't lying...)

ETA: The internet was not lying - Tesco's have the new Bailey's flavours on offer. Yay for almost cheap alcohol.

ETA2: Mint choc Bailey's isn't as amazing as expected, but still damn good.

And, if Wiki is telling the truth, someone made real tomacco!

Monday, one day, Tuesday, Muesday....

After watching random clips of Muse's live performances, I'm now more than excited about next week. Live Muuuse, how spiffing. :D

Also, pianos + Matt Bellamy = amazing.

(Check the piano link for an awesome photo, also, see below for another awesome photo...)


The Haunted Piano
Originally uploaded by WisDoc.

"... or you can be the teapot..."

I found a quote in Remediation (Bolter/Grusin) which I quite liked by Meredith Bricken, I don't think it just applies to Virtual Reality, but that's just me. Anyway, I found it on the web, citing it from this linky

"you can be the mad hatter or you can be the teapot; you can move back and forth to the rhythm of a song. You can be a tiny droplet in the rain or in the river; you can be what you thought you ought to be all along. You can switch your point of view to an object or a process or another person's point of view in the other person's world."

Just a blog for bloggy things...

I just felt there should be a post here, before I trundle off to bed.

Right now, I want white chocolate spread on crumpets.