SirTwilightKing's blog

Guess what came for me today?

My new Panasonic Lumix LX-2 digital camera. I love it. Review up next week.

Cheers.

Panasonic Lumix LX-2

I recently ordered the Panasonic Lumix LX-2 from Amazon. I hope that this digital camera is far superior than my prior digital camera purchase. You can read my Nikon CoolPix P5100 review here. Here is what the Panasonic Lumix LX-2 looks like:

I am looking forward to this camera especially because of the Leica lens, however, as always I sceptical. I shall post pictures of the camera once I receive the camera and shall post a review a few days later.

For more information on the Panasonic Lumix LX-2 read here.

A Tasty Trip to Godiva Chocolatier

My mum and I were having some serious cravings for chocolate that only European chocolate can cure. We decided check out the Godiva Chocolatier shop in the mall we were in. The shop clerk was very nice and offered us some free chocolates from a new set of chocolates they offer that is milk chocolate with a creamy ganache filling. I told the shop clerk I was interested in dark chocolate and he showed me what they offered in prepared boxes or create-your-own-box offer. I chose to create my own box because I wanted a specific type of choclate. I eventually decided on an 8-piece box of cappuccino extra dark chocolates.

The shop clerk then informed my mum and I if we spend three more dollars, then we would receive a free box of Godiva biscuits. My mum wanted some chcoclate as well and bought a couple of hazelnut nut chocolates with praline filling. Considering we only spent $20 at Godiva, we ended up getting quite a bit.

A few pictures from the trip:

See the rest of the set on my Flickr account. I hope you enjoyed reading about my mum and my adventure to Godiva Chocolatier.

UPDATE: Two of my pictures from this set on Flickr have been used in this article: Chocolate Heaven 1.0

What are you eating for supper?

Tonight I did not have anything special for dinner, but what I did have was: half a burger, chips and a Lemon Perrier.

When I uploaded my pictures I took of my food this evening, I had forgotten about the some pictures I had taken last week. These were taken when I was bored sitting in a waiting room.

EXIT sign

No Mobiles sign

For more photos check out my Flickr page.

Futurama: The Beast with A Billion Backs Review

Year: 2008
Supplier: 20^th Century Fox
Cert: 12
Price: £9.98

The film starts off where Futurama: Bender’s Big Score left off, the universe has a giant rip and people are freaking out. The Professor (Billy West), Hermes (Phil LaMarr), Leela (Katey Sagal), Bender (John DiMaggio), Amy (Lauren Tom) and Zoigberg (Billy West) are trying to figure out what to do about the space anomaly. During the meeting, Fry (Billy West) introduces the Planet Express crew to Colleen (Brittany Murphy), his new girlfriend.

Amy and Kip announce they are holding a Fonfon Ru ceremony (joining of families ceremony). The Planet Express crew join the ceremony and "The Grand Priestess" performs the ceremony in Kip’s home world in the swamp. She also has five other jobs, also grand and she lives there. Colleen catches the bouquet that Kip throws, which makes Fry and Colleen believe it is meant to be with one another.

Later, Professor Farnsworth and Professor Wernstrom (David Herman) are unable to agree on who is going to lead the expedition into space at the University and have the Planet Express crew battle it out in a game of “Deathball” against grad students eager for a letter of recommendation. After the game of Deathball, Fry finds out that Colleen has a boyfriend on the opposing team as well as three other boyfriends. Fry decides not to go on the expedition to investigate the space anomaly and to move in with Colleen. Fry unable to deal with not being treated equal in a five-way relationship decides to immediately break up with Colleen. This leads to a big theme of the film with Yivo (David Cross) - a lonely planet with a billion tentacles and one eye.

Bender goes to the space anomaly with the rest of the Planet Express crew to investigate the space anomaly, but due to the fact that he is not human and the electro-magnetic field factor, he blasts the crew back to earth.  Fry frustrated with his love life decides he needs to get far away and hides in the bottom of Zapp Brannigan's ship. Fry later escaping from the lint compartment takes his spacesuit up to the anomaly and says goodbye to everything he knew and cared about and goes through the anomaly where he meets Yivo. Fry desperate for love and Yivo wanting to be cared for, come together.

The tentacles begin to break through the space anomaly and eventually reach earth. Fry as Yivo’s host speaks to New New York and tells everyone that he loves the tentacle and they need to love it too. Eventually, Fry becomes the pope, has the rest of the world invaded and everyone with the exception of Leela are invaded by the tentacle. The rest of the film explores on Yivo’s need for love and wanting to be in a serious relationship with everyone.

I found this film less exciting than Futurama: Bender's Big Score for several reasons, the film has three different “feels” to it: 1/3 feels like a film, 1/3 feels like the TV series, 1/3 feels like and episode of "Tales of Interest". I felt the section with Bender and the League of Robots was just used as filler to make the film longer and to have a purpose near the end of the film. There is a lot of American humour throughout the film, but none of it was good and are all one-liners. The only decent humour in the film was more European humour and by that I mean, fans of the series that will see things from the original series and laugh at the guest appearances by certain characters that appear in the film. Some of the other humour comes from Bender, knowing his personality and how he reacts in certain situations. Whilst Futurama: The Beast with A Billion Backs was not a horrid film, it was very average and to a good degree, the ending was almost predictable as well as partly using an event that happened in the TV series.
3/5

Picture:
The film is presented in the 1.78:1 (16:9) format. The picture was crystal clear throughout the film. There were only one or two times when some of the cells seemed a bit blurry, but it is nothing that is noticeable or would deter you from watching the film
4.5/5

Sound:
The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Unlike Futurama: Bender’s Big Score, this film actually takes advantage of all five speakers. Whilst I would have appreciated a few more sounds coming from the rear left and rear right speakers, as it would have given a more cinematic feel, I found that during action sequences the music really made use of all five speakers. The voice actors voices were always clearly audible in the centre speaker during the talking scenes, which for some films can sometimes be problematic.
4.5/5

Special Features:

The DVD includes: Commentary from the producers and cast, Futurama: The Lost Adventure (A Full-Length feature adventure produced for the video game), Storyboard Animatic, Deleted Scenes, David Cross Featurette, Blooperama, 3D Models with Animator Discussion, A Brief History of Deathball and Bender’s Game Trailer.
4.5/5

Review Round-Up:
Movie: 3
Picture: 4.5
Sound: 4.5
Special Features: 4.5

Overall: 4

Final Thoughts:

Futurama: The Beast with A Billion Backs was entertaining enough. However, I can honestly see this as three episodes of Futurama if the script was changed slightly. Fry and Colleen’s relationship could have been an episode, Bender and the League of Robots its own episode and lastly Yivo and Earth could have been another single episode. There are many video game jokes in this film which are funny if you are a gamer and it was in Futurama taste. Overall, I would say if you are a Futurama fan you will want to see this  because of the guest appearances from characters from the show, but if you are a casual Futurama watcher I would just say rent it. Last thing I will say is, I watched the trailer for “Futurama: Bender’s Game” and it looks like rubbish. It looks like a hour and a half version of “Tales of Interest” that is Dungeon’s and Dragons themed. Yet, you never know it could be good, but I will post a review of that when it is released.

 

Futurama: Bender’s Big Score Review

Year: 2007
Supplier: 20^th Century Fox
Cert: 12
Price: £9.98

The film starts with a reintroducing of each character and making fun of the FOX network for cancelling the series back in 2003. After the introduction of the characters, it shows the Planet Express crew playing limbo in one of the rooms at Planet Express and Hermes (Phil LaMarr) being beheaded by one of the swords on the wall which turns into a revamped Futurama show intro. Once the Planet Express crew arrives at the hospital, Leela (Katey Sagal) first meets Lars (Billy West) and appears to have a love interest, which enrages Fry (Billy West). After going to the Hospital, the Planet Express crew decide it is time to taking a relaxing break on a nude beach. Whilst they are lying out, they are approached by three pink soft skinned aliens that ask the Planet Express crew to sign a petition as well as provide an e-mail. The aliens say whatever needs to be said in order to get a signature and e-mail.

Bender (John DiMaggio), Amy (Lauren Tom), Leela, Zoigberg (Billy West) and The Professor (Billy West) receive spam e-mails and are all suckered into giving personal information to fake causes/prizes. However, Bender downloaded a virus from an e-mail where he thought he could get rich watching porn. Once The Professor signs over the deed for Planet Express, he thinks he will become rich beyond his wildest dreams and this when the film actually starts. The pink soft skinned aliens appear at the front door with the signed deed and Bender (with the iObey virus installed) introduces them as their new masters. The aliens use their sprongers (neck smell/sense glands) to find that Fry's tattoo of Bender is not just a tattoo, but contains a vital binary code that opens a time sphere.

The Leela and Lars relationship seems to grow even stronger the more they see one another throughout the film. Lars seems to truly understand who Leela is and care for her. The aliens decide it is a good idea to vaporize Fry in the fear that using the time sphere will destroy the universe, but before they can, Fry travels back to the year 2000. They instruct Bender to go and assassinate Fry (obvious Terminator Phone Book murderer reference here). Bender succeeds in murdering Fry in 2012, however, in 3007 Fry appears again. A montage explains how Fry lived, moved on from Leela and found his purpose from 2000-2012. Fast forward to the future, Robot Santa Claus tries to kill the Planet Express crew (because they have been very naughty), yet Lars is able to deactivate the bomb and asks Leela for her hand in marriage to which she accepts. Fry fears even more that he is going to lose Leela.

The Planet Express crew as well as hundreds of humans have to relocate to Neptune because Earth was signed over to “The New Owners”. Whilst on Neptune, they find Santa who is also powerless to the aliens. Everyone on Neptune teams up including: Zapp Brannigan and Kip, Robot Santa, Kwanzaa-bot and Chanukah Zombie to take the Earth back and a space fight with the aliens ensues.  From here I will not tell you anymore as it would not want to spoil the film for you, however, I can say: Fry's life in 2000 is explained, Lars' true identity is revealed, Hermes altercations with his body, wife, and Barbados Slim are hilariously done throughout the course of the film, more action ensues with the aliens, and Bender becomes a hero... Well sort of. I found the ending interesting because it was much like the show’s sudden endings, but still funny in Futurama comedic way.
4/5

Picture:
The film is presented in the 1.78:1 (16:9) format. The picture was crystal clear throughout the film. There were only a few instances where the picture became slightly fuzzy for a few seconds, but nothing that is noticeable or that would deter you from watching this film.
4.5/5

Sound:
Even though the film was presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, it sounded more like a Dolby Pro-Logic II Mix. The film sounded no better than the series, due to the fact that the rear left and right speakers were barely used. However, the film made good use of sounds and music, but I just wish they made it a true Dolby Digital 5.1 mix because there were moments when it could have made a big difference.
3/5

Special Features:
The DVD is packed with extra features including: Futurama Returns! (A live comic book reading by the cast), Everybody Loves Hypnotoad, Deleted Storyboard scenes, A Terrifying Message from Al Gore and several others. The only thing I felt was missing was a making of documentary.
4/5

 

Review Round-Up:
Movie: 4
Picture: 4.5
Sound: 3
Special Features: 4

Overall: 4

Final Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this film and I know it will be a treat for many Futurama fans. The film has several jokes and references to the show which Futurama fans will appreciate and notice right away. I felt that Futurama: Bender’s Big Score was worthy of a cinema release. Whilst it was not as good as The Simpsons Movie nor did it have as big a budget, I felt they did a great job. At no time did I feel it was a drawn out episode like I did with Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Colon Movie Film for Theaters. I found it funny, very enjoyable and as I said before a treat for Futurama fans that have been craving more since the series was cancelled.

 

Sarah Ferguson - Duchess of York Royal Crest Candles

A few days ago, my Sarah Ferguson - Duchess of York candles arrived. I already had the "Rose Ginger Tea" and "Bergamot" scents. However, the week prior to this one, there was a sale at Bath & Body Works which was a Buy 1 Add 1 special. Lucky me, I got to get the other three candles which I did not already have, and another "Rose Ginger Tea" which is my favourite scent. I decided to take some macro shots of each canister because they are beautifully packaged and I must buy anything that has a Royal Crest on it.

Sarah Ferguson - Duchess of York Royal Crest "Hones-ty" Candle

Sarah Ferguson - Duchess of York Royal Crest "Tranquili-ty" Candle

Sarah Ferguson - Duchess of York Royal Crest "Royal-ty" Candle

Sarah Ferguson - Duchess of York Royal Crest "Digni-ty" Candle

Sarah Ferguson - Duchess of York Royal Crest "Loyal-ty" Candle

P.S. I know the lighting probably could have been better on these, but it is hard trying to find an ideal balance between background and lighting in my flat.

Amazon UK has the best recommendations.

Today I decided to order Series 1 of "Doctor Who" (because I have been neglecting buying it for some time) as well as "Secret Diary of A Call Girl". When I received the confirmation of my order, I also received the best recommendations ever.

Click to Enlarge

Having said that, as hilarious as it might be, Amazon UK has always been prompt and curtious. I just think they need a little help in their "recommendations" they send in their e-mails.

Ring the Internet! We have a problem.

Hello everyone, I am back from a two week holiday. I have two new sets of pictures for you as well as the fact that I now have a Flickr account. To view my pictures there, click the "flickr" link at the top of this journal.

First, new "random" picture is what inspired the blog entry title.

Comcast 911! Ring the internet! We have a problem.

With my decision to make a Flickr account, I could not just upload any picture there and just display it as "photography". Whilst, most of the pictures I have up there are for practise purposes, I still want to present them in a photographic manner. Okay, having said that, here is my first experiment I tried in a waiting room. I wanted the idea for this to be something that would appear in "The Twilight Zone" and have a similar effect photography wise. I decided for the pictures that I did upload to Flickr, to be black and white as opposed to colour which took away from the never ending queue feeling I was going for.

Have a look for yourself to see the difference in the "Hell's Waiting Room" and the "Bright and Cheery Waiting Room". Here is what you do, cover the coloured side with a piece of paper and stare at the black and white version for about thirty seconds and then look a the coloured version. You will see how "cheery" the room becomes and hence my decision to remove all colour and "life" from the picture.

Waiting room as I saw it to the right of me.

Waiting room as I saw it to the left of me.

Row of lights above me. Just experimenting "photography-wise".

I also decided to experiment with my Blackberry Curve 8310 and see how the picture would look that way.

I decided to leave the colour in this one just for contrast. This picture was not that serious anyway, I just wanted to see if I could produce as nice an image as the prior one. Answer: Almost... Almost.

I will have more updates later for you and in the mean while you can enjoy the final experimentation product of "Hell's Waiting Room" on Flickr right here.

I Hope You Are Proud of Yourself.

The following entry is not going to be a fun read, but it is the truth, how I felt about the situation that occurred and will probably put you in a grumpy mood like I am the whole time.

I am not the kind of person who usually complains. Nor am I the person that ever is pissed to the point of wanting to punch someone in the face. However, on Sunday 18 May 2008 things changed for me. I wanted to put the past behinds us, I wanted to move forward and I wanted certain people to grow the bloody hell up already. A mate of mine (name withheld because I do not believe in embarrassing people) hung out on that dreadful day. The day began as usual, she was late and I expected it. Fast forward to when we arrive at the mall. That is when everything begun to go downhill at a fast pace.

Incident #1

When we went upstairs to Love Berry (a wannabe Pinkberry, yet nowhere as good) and we were informed that Tapioca drinks would be another fifteen minutes do to the fact that the ingredients had not been delivered yet. I obliged to wait for my mate so she could get her drink because I know she loves it. After a fifteen minute queue they were ready to serve drinks. She ordered her usual Tapioca drink and I ordered a Yoghurt smoothie. Then that is when the first “incident” happened. The server gave my mate her drink and a straw, to which my mate replied “Can I get another straw?”, and the woman obliged and handed her another straw. She again asked for yet another straw to which the server again kindly picked up a top (which all the straws were in) grabbed it gently from the middle and handed it to her. My mate then grabbed a napkin and cleaned that straw as if the server was the most vile wretched woman on the planet. I just ignored it, yet had I know what was coming I would have went straight home after that.

Incident #2

We went back to her house because she needed to pick up her magazine of hairstyles for her appointment at 13:00 (remember this as it is important). At some point she went to her room to “get ready” and she came out ten minutes later. More to the point, considering it was our first time going there it would have been wise to leave extra early, however, she was content with leaving at a quarter to twelve as opposed to the earlier. Here is part of the reason why I am so bloody pissed off. We (well it was her, but I am guilty by association) arrived forty-five minutes late. Yes, at 13:45 we just showed up and she did not even bother to ring the hairdresser and let him know she would be late.

He took her after he was finished with another customer. The reason I referred her to this hair dresser and salon is because he is one of the best and one of my best mates referred me to him and as picky as she is, I knew he was good. Now, two weeks prior to this appointment I had the feeling that she was not going to like the her dresser and bitch about her hair not being the way she wanted because that is who she is. Now this is what she wanted: her hair dyed dark brown (Chestnut) and insisted on having highlights the same day. Here is what she came is with: dyed black hair that had been dyed many times before and had been saturated by all of those colours. I explained to her (which she did not hear because of her selective hearing) that when you dye your hair from black to a lighter colour you have to stay pretty dark otherwise your hair will not come out the proper shade. Anyone who gets their hair dyed regularly knows that it takes a few tries to get your hair the proper shade from black as well as the fact that when you get highlights it takes a few times to not only get perfect, but also get your hair the shade you want.

She did not listen to anything I said and seemed to despise Issam (the hairdresser) for him telling her what could and could not be done. He offered her wine which she said she wanted and then never drank (Why accept it then?), she was condescending to him the entire time, she looked pissed off throughout, she was hard to work with and was not specific in every detail. Because she was so rude and had no manners that threw me off because I felt like I had to cover up for her and in doing so I said things improperly and was on edge the whole time. For example when I was queried if I wanted some wine I responded with “I don’t drink!” instead of how I would normally respond which would be “No thank you. I do not drink, but I appreciate the offer.” Moving forward... He dyed her hair and eyebrows the shade of brown she asked and after he did the highlights. He explained because her hair was in the state it was (i.e. she fucked it up majorly) that he could only do reddish brown or blonde highlights. She never specified no blonde, so he added them in there as well. Before he was even finished she called me over to basically tell me that he had fucked up her hair and that he could not dye it a certain way and everytime she dyed her hair black she could always get it to a lighter colour.

Note: Hair dying products that you purchase in the shops usually contain a stronger amount of peroxide and although you are getting the exact shade you paid for, it is really destroying your hair.

Once he finished drying her hair and cutting it, then came you know what! More bitching.  

(Unnamed Woman): Ugh, I do not know about this blonde, it is not very professional. I do not think this will be acceptable for work.

Me: It looks fine. He did a good job. You can A move your hair this way and have more brown or B move it this way and show the blonde off.

(Unnamed Woman): I don’t know (x20). I do not like it like this, I cannot have it this way for work (x10).

Issam: I can lighten it, but it looks good. If that is what you want, I do not mind doing it.

Excuse me because I need to interrupt for a moment. I rang my mum about fifteen minutes prior to let her know I would be a little late and may not get home until 18:00 or 18:30 because (Unnamed Woman) was supposed to be finished soon.

(Unnamed Woman): Yeah, I just don’t want the blonde in there.

Issam: Well it looks good, but I can lighten it.

(Unnamed Woman): *In a condescending tone* Yeah... well it will looks better this way. How much longer will it take?

Issam: Thirty minutes if it is not blown out and forty-five if I blow it out for you.

Me: *Thinks to self* No... We need to go.

(Unnamed Woman): Forth-five minutes is fine.

Me: *Pissed the bloody hell off* >=(

So forty-five minutes later after he did A-L-L of that work, put up with her half-assed wants and condescending attitude. You want to know how much he charged her for all of that hard work? $90 (£45). Yes, because he is a nice person. He did not charge her for redoing the highlights (which they normally do) and I think he gave her a discount because she was referred through a mate of mine. So guess how much she gave him? $120 for that hard work? Maybe $130? No, you would be wrong... $100? No, $90 like the cunt she is. Yes, at least that is what I heard her count up to.

At this point we were leaving and I had regained my composure as myself. I thanked him (she did not), told him it was a pleasure meeting him and told him that my best mate (the woman who was his customer for 18+ years) would be in contact shortly. He thanked us for coming and said “See you next time.” And two seconds out the door BOOM! She says “I don’t think so!” in the bitchiest I am better than you way possible. Words cannot describe how angered and outraged I was at her.

From there we walked across the crosswalk and were going to wait for a bus. She pulled out her T-Mobile mobile and had no signal and I pulled out my AT&T Blackberry and had five bars (Thank God I switched). She queried “Are you mad? You are being really quiet.” I did not give a specific response I just said “Yeah... Sort of...” She queried if we should phone for a cab to which I promptly replied “Yes.” From there we walked to a nearby hotel and I inquired if the concierge could ring a cab company for us and the concierge obliged kindly. No cabs were showing up and it was terrible. (Unnamed Woman) rang about another seven cabs and none of them showed up. Whilst we were waiting, there was a cab that stopped in front of a bank on the opposite side of where we were standing. We both looked at one another and decided to get that cab. I start to run towards it and ¼ of the way I turn round and I see her giving me a dumbfounded look and still standing on the pavement. I told her to get a move on and she began to run with me, however, ¾ of the way over someone else grabbed the cab. I was pissed because she was not running with me and I am not the kind of person to leave some one behind.

The Straw that broke the Camel’s Back

We unfortunately had to walk back across and continue waiting for yet another cab to swing by. I had to be the aggressive one and try to grab any cabs I saw. A few people phoned me whilst I was waiting for that God-awful forty plus minutes for a cab to arrive. They all knew I was extremely pissed off. Everyone I spoke to later said “I could tell by the tone of your voice.” The worst part was that (Unnamed Woman) never truly apologized, she just gave me a half-assed “Well I’m sorry...” comment without any true remorse. Finally, someone was getting out of a cab in front of the hotel and I inquired if we could take him. He kindly obliged and finally we could leave. We barely spoke on the ride home and I thought about what happened all evening and throughout the week.

Her behaviour was so terrible I had to have my best mate ring Issam that Monday to apologize for her horrid behaviour. That is just how serious the situation was.

I came to the conclusion: I do not want to have to wait for her every time I come over because being late is a sign of disrespect and not having your priorities straightened out, I am sick of being treated like I am not important and getting our plans cancelled last second, I do not appreciate not being invited to the birthday that just passed when last year I was the O-N-L-Y one there for her on her birthday when her own family deserted her (excluding her mum), I am tired of always trying to bust every bone in my body to do really nice things for her and help her out and for her to just to go out of the way to spit all over it, I am sick and tired of her acting like she is above everyone and disrespecting people, and I am tired of going to shops and she brings this huge negative attitude, so when I want to get something people at the counters either are afraid to say much of anything to me because she is there looking pissed off at them or they look at me and look at her and wonder why I even associate myself with her. 

Well you know what? Do you know what (Unnamed Woman) I am sick of all the shit you put me through, I am sick of being disrespected and quite frankly (Unnamed Woman) you do not appreciate the things I do for you. On 31 May 2008 it ends. Eight years down the drain and I hope you are proud of yourself.

I just feel bad that I will no longer be able to talk to her mum because she was my favourite because she was always honest no matter what and I respected that. I am also going to miss the little pug which I named “Sir Rupert Giles Ashford”, but unfortunately (Unnamed Woman) kept only the first name and dumped the rest.

Even after all of that, I hold no hard feelings, negativity towards you and I truly wish you the best in life.

Apologize - Timbaland Feat. OneRepublic