THE LONG WEEKEND

WE JUST HAD A LONG WEEKEND! We couldn't go anywhere, no money yet! but we did explore London some more and saw some really cool stuff! Soryi's boss got us some tickets for the London Eye for her birthday back in July. So we did that! Also, we went to Regents Park to go to the zoo, but the line was really really really long, at least 500m, so we didn't bother. We could peak over the walls and see some animals anyway.

Also, we went to Greenwich, where The Royal Observatory is. It's a pretty cool area, it's a pretty big hill and you have a great view at the top. Cooler than that was the actual observatory. There was a great exhibition on space that was very interesting. AND educational!

But even cooler than that was The Prime Meridian! The actual line of 0º0"0' is taken from the apex of the roof of the observatory. And there is a line that represents the meridian. And a LASER beam represents it in a cooler way. It's all very cool. A cool mix of old-fashioned and ultra-modern. Very good.

The London Eye was pretty cool too. We were in a guided tour capsule, which was informative (although I already found it all out when I was making that video) but generally it was good. The capsule is packed full of people though, who weren't interested in listening to the guide, and talked really loudly, so that was a bit annoying. I mean if they weren't going to listen why did they pay more for the guide? I dunno. Anyway it was a great view and we somehow managed to go on a sunny day!

We also went to the Design Museum to see an exhibition on the 50th anniversary of Helvetica! We were expecting a full-on exhibition, but it was actually just a series of posters in the cafe area. Which means we didn't have to pay £7.00 to get in, but also that there wasn't any original sketches that I was hoping to see. We did get to see a great set of posters though. And one was by our friend Conor & David! Their's was a genius idea! Also, Rinzen did a really nice one.

I think we did some other stuff too, but I can't really remember. We did see Orlando Bloom though. He was in the West End launching his new play or something. There was loads of people around.

IESSO

THAT OLD TOMATO

SAW THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM LAST NIGHT. And holy crap! Without giving anything away I can give you a review of the movie by saying that several points in the film where everyone let out a "f*ck me..." in sheer amazment of how cool and tough Jason Bourne is. And what makes him tought and cool? No fancy Aston Martin. No Matrini's. No Walther PPK/7s. No McClane smirks either. He usually doesn't even use a gun. Especially in the cool fight scenes. And this isn't just the third one either.

TBU was definitely better than the first movie and second too. While the first one was cool, it just looks a little dorky and dated. The second was a little boring but looked very slick. This has the best of both. The action was so fast you're afraid to breath in case it distracts you. And it's like that from the very beginning.

My only gripe is that Matt Damon's character has no memory, so he doesn't really have much to say. He's left with a kind of blank but slightly annoyed face all the time. That's fine when he's doing something, but when he's talking to Julia Stiles's character in one scene, and she's got a permanently blank face too, and it's supposed to be emotional, it borders hilarious and awkward!

Ratings? ✭✭✭✭½. Very watchable!

IESSO

PS. Included here because it has nothin to do with the review of the movie: But it was also totally cool to be in the city that the movie took place in! There were totally loads of shots of London where we were all "that's just around the corner from where you work" and "hey, I know that place!" and "I catch that train all the time!". It was awesome. And hilariously the only other time that would've been possible was when I was in New York, because movies take place there all the time! But I saw Children of Men there, and that takes place in London! Anyway, it was totally cool.

PPS. I'm not sure what the posters are like where you are, but the ones here are totally friggin' awesome! There's black and white, with a split screen effect, one side has a mid-shot and the other a close up. The text runs across both. It's really cool looking, and different from any movie poster I can remember seeing. I think the USA ones are below. And they're totally stupid in comparison. They're exactly like what you'd expect them to be like.

2 YEARS

TWO YEARS AGO the UNG (who's name is Soryi of course) and I went on our first date. And it's been a great 2 years! We've grown so close together and travelled half-way around the world. Without any major problems. Hooray!

IESSO

PS> This photo is from last weekend, not our first date. It was cold and windy on the roof of the Tate Modern.

SIMPSON

I SIMPSONIZED MYSELF, and you can too!
www.simpsonizeme.com

IESSO

UPDATES

I'M THINKING OF UPDATING MY WEBSITE soon in order to make it more proffessional. But being my weakness, I'm not quite sure how to do that without making it really boring at the same time. Any thoughts? I was thinking of livening it up with some sexy Flash animations. Nothing too extreme, just some movement when you hit a button. I can't describe very well.




Anyway I can't even get the look right, I'm still experimenting. I generally like the cut-outs, but maybe it's to kiddy. I'm thinking I'll end up using the top image, and just have the work slide across when you hit next. What you reckon?

IESSO

FLICKR

SO IF YOU WANT TO SEE LOADS OF PHOTO'S head on over to my Flickr Page. It's very worthwhile. Sort of. Not really. Anyway the photo's are organised into groups and everything. Want to see photo's of our trip to Belfast? Well you can! Sets worth checking out are the fun ones like: I Heart Things, and Stuff. They're not just photo's of places, but collections of things that are slightly interesting.

Simply click on the image above to go!

IESSO

LESS THAN MEETS THE EYE. MUCH, MUCH LESS.

WE WENT TO SEE TRANSFORMERS LAST NIGHT and I just wanted to give my review. Before I start though, I should mention that I am not a fan of the 80's TV show or movie. Not because I didn't want to be, I just didn't get into it. Anyway with that being said:

Transformers was a very good movie. The action sequences were really cool! The fighting, the explosions. All totally awesome. Even the cheesy dialogue from the Autobots was bearable. It was really cheesy though. The human characters were very poor though. VERY POOR. Not so much the acting, that was fine, but they were just unnecessary. I appreciate that Sam/Spike Whitwicky was crucial, as well as some supporting characters, but overall there just seemed like too many characters with too little explanation about them.

That's all ok too.. I don't really mind that either. But another thing that bothered me was the direction the film went. At some points it was comical and funny, which was clearly based on the 80's stuff. If this style was throughout I would've had no problems, I wouldn't have liked it so much because I was never a fan, but I wouldn't have been annoyed either. Similarly most of the film is extremely serious and realistic, and that is great! It's a movie for people who grew up with the franchise and have now matured and want a mature film dealing with talking car robots. And that's fine too! BUT the problem is that right at the height of action they'd switch to comical farce mode and completely ruin the moment.

That's really annoying, but it's still not the worse part. There is a character that really ruins the movie for me, he's called Frenzy and was based on Soundbyte, but is smaller and thinner. Without ruining anything by giving away plot details all I can say is he is basically Jar Jar Binks. Remember Star Wars was pretty awesome untill JJB started speaking gibberish, well it's that all ovre again. You'd think Hollywood would learn it's lesson after him, but there was Golemn as well (not too annoying, but slightly) and now this robot thing. Very annoying. No-one in the theatre laughed at his 'jokes'.

Is the movie for kids? No, it doesn't establish what is going on at all and is very violent. Is it for diehard fans of the original? I don't think so, most of the characters have been radically changed! Is it for hipster kids who think it's cool to like Transformers for their 'ironic' values? Probably. I went to see it because it looked like a load of fun. And it really was, don't get me wrong, it was great fun! But there were a few elements in there that were it's own undoing.

What would I give it? Mixed reviews:

✭✭½ for the movie as is
✭✭✭✭½ for the movie re-edited to remove Frenzy's voice.

IESSO

PS. YOU CAN BUY ME ONE OF THESE IF YOU WANT.



But make sure it's the 24inch one with 4GB of RAM and 1TB harddrive.

SIGH

SO I CAN FEEL IT CREEPING BACK AGAIN. I'm getting that feeling in my stomach, making me move slowly, making the world go by too fast. I can feel it making me miserable. Making me want to curl up in a ball and hiding. Yes my friends, it's my good friend depression. Being out of work (basically), broke, and feeling like I've wasted 4 months and AU$20,000 is taking it's toll on my psyche. I got another rejection today. They were looking for someone with more 'experience' and more of a 'safe bet'. Whatever that means. But at any rate it's making me miserable. Where I am now is great, the work is good, the people are nice, it's hard work but worth it, but it's only freelance, so I can't rely on it.

And today's lunch summed it all up. Having forgot to pack a lunch (I say forgot but really I just didn't have the energy because I was up late the night before working) so I had to by lunch. I planned on doing that but didn't get the time, so it was a 25p pack of chips (crisps as they say) and naturally the vending machine in the office broke! So my chips were left hanging.

Luckily some people helped me shake the machine and they were freed (until they were eaten of course). Anyway it's not all bad, I just thought it was 'poetic' or something. Also, before you 'get all up in my face' about the poor diet may I remind you that we have a fruit bowl. So I'm eating apples, pears, apricots, etc all day.

Ok, talk laters.
IESSO

ONE-WAY TICKET TO LAUGHTERTOWNE, USA

SO DINOSAUR COMICS ARE FUNNY. Today's comic (01/08/07) is particularly funny and inane (good combination bytheway!) So anyway, I'm getting the sneaking feeling that you guys aren't reading it enough. So please make sure you read it everyday. It's got all the best elements of humour, I just don't understand why you're all not just constantly emailing me for telling you about it. Unless of course no-one is reading my blog. Hmmm. Sigh.

IESSO

PS. Linus is exempt from this because he recommended it to me.