I can blog about train delays now – except of course if I’m stuck in a tunnel with no mobile coverage.

I’m also getting pretty sick of typing this post on the soft keyboard. In three paragraphs! Still, it’s far better than my old Palm and it’s grafitti… Enough for now!

Oh, and a photo of Dino is attached because I can!

But the comparison goes deeper than just against issues. It’s wacky. The way it’s stylised is really crazy. If you ever wanted to study colour grading, puppeteering, CGI, prosthetics or a range of film techniques you wouldn’t need to go any further. Bright, bold colours and entertaining ways of showing fruit (in individual ice-cubes, anyone?) are actually more interesting than it seems. If you can get past the long monologues of Robbie Rotten (or the original Icelandic name Glanni Glæpur), his character is insane – is he puppet? Is he human? Where does the prosthetic stop and the man begin? Why doesn’t he change clothes normally, rather than use a contraption? Why don’t they ever know it was him?

And if I ever create a hero that flips everywhere possible, is named Sporticus, and is indeed the creator and writer of the show (he was a famous gymnast in Iceland) then I’ll consider this life a life well lived. As a deus ex machina of a hero, Sporticus is just as good as Captain Planet. Maybe even better. He has a moustache and his own blimp. And doesn’t need to be summoned, his crystal on his shirt will do it for him.

So it’s wacky, it has a message. How many people my age remembers the Captain Planet theme song, I wonder? Perhaps this time in 10 years or so there’ll be a ‘retro’ nostalgia to Lazy Town, people singing the theme song and laughing (or many of the other Eurovision-sounding songs). I know I’ve got the theme song stuck in my head already. Lovely.

Hmmm perhaps I should think of some content next time.

Due to the incredible amount of spam that has been hitting the site recently, we’ve changed the comment publishing policy to be moderated before publication. So those of you leaving legitimate comments, don’t fear, they will be published.

The Dark Wizard was not just any ordinary cheesemaker. He was an insane, cheese making machine with robotic arms and milk as black as his heart. The Dark Wizard wowed the villagers with cheese so tasty it made roses smell like rotting flesh in comparison. Bobby was driven out of town, his cheese making deemed substandard and ordinary.

Bobby ventured high into the Patagonian Mountains, his life’s works and accomplishments a distant memory, his back hunched over and riddled with arthritis, his pantaloons long abandoned and replaced with plain trousers, lacking in style as they were. Onward he climbed into the deepest depths of the mountains, the chill air sapping at his strength.

It was there he found a cave which he climbed into for shelter. The cave was small and Bobby had to duck down low and crawl through the entrance. But once inside he gazed upon a wondrous sight. Bobby had stumbled upon an ancient secret, a secret that had once been guarded by an order of Religious Warriors that had long since died away. For thousands of years the secret had laid unguarded but now Bobby had uncovered it.

Back in the village the peasants grew fat and became addicted to the Dark Wizard’s delectable cheese. They craved his Gouda and Swiss, and fought over his Blue Vein. Soon dark clouds began to form around the town. The villagers became more and more agitated. Fights began to break out and soon a great fire began to rise up in the town centre. Hotter and hotter the fire grew while the Dark Wizard concocted more and more dark and delicious rolls of cheese.

Then, out of the fog, mist and smoke that had embroiled the town emerged Bobby, returned from the cave and sporting the flashiest pantaloons crafted out of the finest mole hair and embroidered with jewels and cheese making equipment the likes of which had not been seen since the time of Alexander the Great and sometimes sheep herder. The people cowered from Bobby as he passed by, his pants jingling as he walked, clutching a banjo, whose origins had long been forgotten and whose inclusion in this story was a late decision, above his head.

Slowly he began to play the banjo and the smoke, clouds and mist began to clear. Louder and louder his music became until nothing else could be heard. Then a second banjo appeared, then a third and a fourth. Higher and higher Bobby stacked the banjos until no less then 8 (and no more then 9) had been stacked. Bobby’s hands ran with blood as he furiously played the stack of banjos.

Then out of nowhere Bobby produced a roll of Tasty cheese that had been forged in the pit of a great volcano. With expert precision he began to strum the banjos with the cheese and as he did so the shaved pieces tumbled atop a salad his feet had been preparing while he played. More and more cheese was shaven until the roll had been shaven down to a perfect arrow. And it was with this arrow that Bobby speared himself a moose that had been minding its own business and lofting the moose with the arrow he strummed the banjos with the moose’s antlers.

The villagers cried out as one, as the music Bobby had produced reached its dramatic crescendo for at the final note Bobby made his Coup d’état. He thrust an Atomic Bomb into the mouth of the moose and strummed the most beautiful note the Universe would ever know… the note from the long forgotten Double Atomic Whipsnake.

As a follow up to that post I sent the screenshot I posted into Media Watch and they aired the story!

You can see a clip of the show here:
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2082207.htm

Colonel

I was looking for news coverage of the Swann/Costello debate and had to take this screenshot of the front page of the Daily Telegraph website.

The banner which I’ve circled in blue is an attack on protesters who held up a sign but got the letters around the wrong way.

Apparently this is big news for the Daily Telegraph, pointing out that handful of protesters had made an error, a big enough deal that they labelled it a “shame”. This caught my attention first as I couldn’t believe they felt like this was news worthy.

But then, I scrolled down the page to the part I’ve marked with a red circle and saw how they’d spelt Howard!

Surely even the Daily Telegraph can’t be that dumb?

On the DECO1200 front, Minisite 3 is progressing nicely. I’ve just got to decide where to put what… Not fun. But the design is done, and it’s looking exceptionally shiny (Apple eat your heart out!).

Speaking of Apple, there are rumours floating about of new MacBooks being released tomorrow… With faster CPUs and better graphics cards courtesy of Intel. The only problem for me is should I a) buy now, have a cool toy for the holidays and figure out how to use MacOS X before uni goes back; or b) wait until just before uni goes back, wait until other people work out the bugs inherent in 1st Generation Apple hardware (not to mention Leopard), benefit from the 9 cents of interest I can earn until February and then grab myself a Mac? Decisions, decisions.

In other news, I’m still waiting on bloody Australia Post to deliver my copy of Half-Life 2: Orange Box. I’ve finally got my desktop stable (my Radeon x1950 Pro killed motherboards). It apparently shipped last Monday from Brisbane. I want Portal dammit!

http://devslashtux.monproductions.com/static/2007/deco1005/index.html