have you seen bigger?

This morning when I was driving to university I was listening as usual to The Chris Evans show on Radio 2 as per usual. I always enjoy it when Chris does the little competition between Moira and Johnny, where the two are to research and tell Chris the most absurd and ridiculous stories that have happened in the world over the last few days. This is always very amusing as Moira always wins and comes away with very funny topics.

Today however I couldn't help but laugh at a story Johnny had told about how a man has been entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for having the worlds largest mouth. Francisco Domingo Joaquim from Angola has a record breaking 17 cm wide mouth and can even fit in a whole can of juice in his mouth sideways.

At the 'Big Mouth' competition in Rome this month he competed alongside others who crammed saucers, coffee cups and beer bottles into their mouths. It was said that the Guinness Book of World Records spent almost two years tracking him down to prove his record.

I just found this story so funny so had to blog about it.

absolutely "burking" mad

Tonight I went to see the latest film release of Burke and Hare. This is a black comedy that is based on the Burke and hare murders, staring Simon Pegg as Burke and Andy Serkis as Hare amongst an all star cast including Christopher Lee, Ronnie Corbett, Tom Wilkinson and Tim Curry . The actual story is about two men who snatched the dead body's from their graves as well as murdering 17 unfortunate victims. It was then that each of the body's was sold to the Edinburgh University for dissection for medical classes for a fair profit. I will not go into details of what happened to the two men as you should see the film for yourself or if you haven't even heard of them.

The film is based on the accounts of Burke and Hare but also adds some extra parts for the value of the film. Made into a black comedy about two men murdering for money this gives a bit of heart and you actually think these guys are just a couple of guys just trying to survive and aren't really that bad at all, but in real life must of been more evil and disturbed.

I really enjoyed this film, all the actors are well suited to their characters and the two leads pull of pretty good Irish accents and both worked really well together. I read in a review of the film that David Tennant was originally playing Hare but had to pull out. I don't think it would of been as good to be honest if he had continued with the role. The one who really stole the whole film for me was the brilliant Ronnie Corbett as the hysterical Captain McClintock, showing the he is both still very funny and that he is a good actor, each scene he was in just brought something to the screen making his character one of the most likable, even though he was the one trying to hunt down the two killers.

I would recommend this film but even though I enjoyed it many probably will not, it was very well acted and showed just how much the buildings in Edinburgh have barely changed since the early 1800's apart from the roads etc. Strangely I found myself quite proud to be Scottish watching this film, but I think that was due to the music and the bagpipes playing.

I should also mention that the term "burking" came from their infamous method of killing their victims, by purposefully smothering and compressing the chest of the victim. There is a funny scene in the film that explains this.

assignment 3

A few days ago I met up with the members of my seminar group to discuss what topics we were all thinking about doing for our dissertations. Here we listened to each others ideas and all gave a few suggestions on how to improve upon their topic. The following were notes I had taken down of what people are wanting to do, (these are just quick notes):

Helen - Empathy and design. Helen is interested in the relationship people have with objects. The emotional attachments, family heirlooms, and how they are passed down.

Jarred - Consumer culture, how computer and phone apps have changed the way in which we buy things.

Yunhee - Looking at the perspectives of cultures in design, comparing countries and how each will vary from the other.

Andrew - Continuing on his wiki topic on Biosphere. How psychology can manipulate biology, how do people feel comfortable with it. Bionic arms.

Sarah - Urban cities, making buildings sustainable. Can designing an office block reduce the affects.

The topic I am interested in doing is typography. I would like to go into the evolution of how type was used before and after the computer and software came along, and hope to expand a question from this. I originally wanted to do something with branding but feel I could provide a lot more on this.

It was also today that we attended the Dissertation Workshop in Mono at the Dundee Union. Here we sat with our groups and did various exercises to help us narrow down our chosen topic, I found this helpful and interesting as it gave more insight of what I am required to do for my own dissertation.

Above is evidence of our team meeting, the workshop and my mind map. On my mind map I also have film as I thought it would of been good to look into how design is treated within the film industry, but decided against this as well as I felt it was too broad and in the end this did not appeal to me, so I then look at the area of graphic design and what stood out for me the most was typography so wanted to look more into this. This is what I would like to do and this is what I would like to out forward, either to narrow it down or expand on it further.

enchanted by a bunch of trees

Ok, so last night after weeks and weeks of moaning from the other half, I took my girlfriend up to Pitlochry to visit this years outdoor exhibition of the Enchanted Forest. The event takes place at Faskally Wood and offers visitors a unique opportunity to experience the outdoors at night with a spectacular music and light show. This year's show was on the "Force of Nature", which included earth, air, fire and water, all using the forests natural backdrop.

At first I was not impressed by the sound of this, as I didn't think it appealed to me, but after constant moaning I eventually caved in so booked them for the 20:15 showing on Sunday night. Because of living in Dundee and not wanting to drive all that way for a show that only last 45 minutes we decided to make an evening out of it and leave a bit early so we had time to have a drink and a meal (me on the cokes for obvious reasons).

When we arrived I was shocked that Pitlochry already had it's Christmas lights up and after speaking to a local even more shocked that they had been up for a few weeks now. This was because of the October festival that recently took place, and there were still a few events going on apart from the forest. Currently on just now is a Ghost trail around Pitlochry, band playing up and down the whole street, along with a rather annoying women dressed as a mouse playing a flute, she just wouldn't stop following us and would not take the hint I wanted her to leave me alone.

Eventually we arrived at the Auld Smithy Inn, having been here for tea on a long weekend away in Pitlochry last year, we knew the sort of food and service we were getting. After the meal we headed for the bus to take us to the forest and when we got there I didn't know what to think. There wasn't as many lights as I thought there was going to be, at some parts the lights just clashed together too much. the music did create a feel in some sections and the lights did look good at parts, especially when they made the leaves look like they were covered in frost. The part that impressed me the most was the air section where it was full of white, silver and blue lights and the music interacted with these very well.

The area I was least impressed with was the fire, it was the same lights over and over again with little burst of flame from time to time. The water section did improve with a little fountain display that at time really did seem magical mixed with the music and lights. Once we had travelled around the whole event we bought a hot chocolate and headed back to the bus.

On the whole I did enjoy myself but would not go back next year.

the bookeze

At the moment I am watching the latest episode of the apprentice, this week the task Lord Alan Sugar is making the contestants work in an industrial bakery but I am writing about last weeks episode where the two teams had to design and create a product to be sold to holiday goers for on the beach or by the pool.

It was the team Apollo that lost this particular task, which they rightly deserved to as well, due to their product being the most impractical and ridiculous products that has ever been made on the show, The Bookeze. The purpose of this product was that if someone was at the beach and wanted to read a book, but wanted to read without the uncomfortable sitting positions instead all they have to do is build up a book stand that will hold up the book in a wallet attached to the stand.

The problem that this problem had was that it was simply stupid, a person is to lie on their front and read from this. This would hurt a person neck with having to look up at the stand when lying on a beach towel, and it could only stand properly when placed in the sand, so it could only be used on the beach instead of at the pool. When reading the book it would be difficult as you would have to keep taking the book out and turning the pages. The stand itself would fall over easily as there was no weight or anything to help support it as it would just fall over with even the slightest touch of wind.

The idea of a product to make reading on holiday more comfortable but this was not an easier way to do so either and just how bad the team worked together, they did nothing but argue with each other and had no other idea to bring forth to the team.

This was a terrible idea that was terribly made followed by terrible pitches and this led to the team failing and loosing the task.

I intend to be disappointed by George Lucas in the order he intended

This is a blog that involves the idea that George Lucas is as you would say "milking it" off of Star Wars, basically he is cashing as much money as he can to sell more and more Star Wars products and films.

There is no denying that Star Wars is one of the biggest phenomena's ever, and there is no doubt that the original trilogy changed cinema when they were first released and created such a craze that cannot truly be described. Before I go any further I am a very big Star Wars fan and love the originals and do like the prequel trilogy, but not as much, there was not as much thought and love that went into the making of them, they were made for the sake of being made and because Lucas had not made a film in years.

When the original trilogy was released on dvd in 2005 I immediately bought it, well come on, it's a must. It is on the 4th disc which includes a documentary where Lucas says he prides himself that he was an independent film maker and that Star Wars was in a way an independent film. This is where I say, "in what way is Star Wars independent". It wasn't so bad that the prequels were made, it made a lot of fans happy to see the story of Darth Vader, but then came the cartoon movie, and the t.v. series of the Clone Wars, well there was another cartoon series just before Revenge of the Sith came out. There are also books, toys, board games, video games, costumes that Lucas gets a percentage of the proceeds.

What Lucas did in 1997 was re-release the originals with extra footage and digitally re-mastered, and it wasn't at all that impressive followed by the vhs box-set, then the prequels were released individually on dvd, then the originals in the dvd box-set, then the prequels in a box-set, then the originals released in there original theatrical release on dvd and now next year we will see the blu-ray special edition box-set with all six films, and it has been announced that Lucas intends to yet again re-release all six films in the cinema in 3D a year after each other. No doubt these will all be released in a 3D dvd box-set. And news that he is trying to raise money to make a live action t.v. series set between the prequels and the originals. So to be honest isn't it time he stopped with Star Wars, he already took Indiana Jones to far with the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and the latest movie where Steven Spielberg put Shia Labouf in the film for the sake if it.

From interviews I have seen on celebrities and actually watching the 1978 Star Wars Christmas special, some people still find it hard to forgive him for helping the channel that produced it, for. I will say that I am looking forward to the new video game The Force Unleashed II,as he barely has any involvement with this, but do hope he does not take it any further. I also doubt that it was intended to be a trilogy as if you watch the documentary it is clear he made it all up as he went along once the first film was released.

It is in the funny t.v. show The Big Bang Theory that they get it what George Lucas has done.

"Why don't you want to watched the Clone Wars t.v. series now?

Because, I want to see the Cone Wars movie first, I intend to be disappointed in Star Wars in the order George Lucas intended it to be."

A new year a new blog

It really had been a while since I had been on my blog until I had to start writing all my assessments for university again. Admittedly I should have kept it up over the summer and have no reasons for not doing so but aim to not forget or ignore my blog again.

So when I went back onto my blog I was stunned at how bad it looked. The horrible picture it had was shocking, I only had it on to see what a photo would look like on my blog background and completely forgot I had it on there and also because I didn't know how to take it of as well.

So today I finally decided to sort it out and make my blog nice and simple and easy to look at. Since I am now in 3rd year and want my blog to be an improvement from last year.