Pirates of the Caribbean

Oh, just before we begin, I hope that this week’s post count is a little more than last weeks. I’ll never be able to write on Thursday, or the weekend, but other than that,

as they say in England,

Poor Show.

Today, I’m going to ponder Pirates of the Caribbean. Not the actual pirates, who were probably gruesome evil men, who really did strike terror into the hearts of honest sailors, but the films.

I read, somewhere today, that the fourth – yes, FOURTH film will be coming out between ‘09 and ‘11. I think that the original three were fabulous, even though I’ll admit I did look at the first photos from the black pearl, and think

“Who’s going to want to see a film about Zombie Pirates?”

Hector Barbossa has now become one of my favourite villains of all time, and I want a little Jack the Monkey of my own.

But now, I think I have to draw the line. One can have, it seems, to much of a good thing, especially as this isn’t going to include Will and Elizabeth.

The early plot that has been revealed gives some ideas, though, that if Verbinski ( the director,) still manages to work his magic, a lot could be accomplished. Here are some elements:

(ready to go wow,)

Gigantic Steampunk style flying ships,

A hidden land under the sea,

The greatest pirate ever to sail the sea (who, better than Davy Jones?)

And Jack Sparrow.

This all seems to point to Atlantis to me. Anyhow.

What do you think?

Comments, please

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Photography

Another post about photography!

For two reasons. One, I’ve decided to buy a Canon Digital Rebel XT, and I’m going to become a photographer, and two, I got my first comment when I wrote about said photos. Oh, yeah. If you’re reading any of these posts, please comment. I like to feel like I’m doing this all for someone. So, just leave a note, and spread the word.

I’m buying a camera because I really want to take brilliant photographs. I want to learn how to use a SLR, and how to manually focus and zoom, without relying on automatics to do it. I want to be able to capture a moment for my children, and play it back again.

Being 15, buying a camera is actually quite a big thing. Saving is not something I’ve been particularly good at, so shelling out £299 pounds is quite radical.

(Laughing) I’m full of the ideas of what I’ll do when I get it.

Any tips on what lenses I should get, or how to find interesting subjects would be appreciated.

See you tomorrow!

Photography

There was no post, yesterday.

I tell you, someone’s going to get it in the neck.

They don’t make staff like they used to.

Todays post is simply a photo. I love it so much, and I wish I could take photos as well as this talented photographer can.

Pictures

The walls of our house are lined with pictures.They range from fancy prints we bought ages ago, to a large simply framed water-colour of some flowers over the fireplace, to , and this is what I’m going to talk about today, pictures that we (myself, and my two sisters,) painted.They range from when we were all under four, and gradually change from unrecognisable squiggles, to some blotchy daffodils to a blackbird sitting in just the way a real blackbird would sit.When friends came round, I was kind of embarrassed at first, the fact that everything around them was created by us, charting our own artistic childhood (mine dropped off at age ten – I stick with theatre and music now,) but now I never think of it. I look on it instead as a welcome. Having it around you, a sort of portfolio of your life.Oh, so you painted pirates when you were seven?Look! Is that Queen Elizabeth?What a lot of small pictures of flowers!This makes me feel proud. Today’s message is, If you have pictures on your wall, and you’re a child, be proud, that all your efforts charting your life so far are all around you.And if you’re an adult, revel in it. You won’t have them for long. 

Time Travel – And what to do about it

I was thinking a bit today about time travel. In particular, the method of winding back and forward the years, so everything moved around you in a blur as you stood still. Tiny stems of trees coming up from the leaf mold, growing mighty, and falling like soft rain around you.

Stephen Hawking makes the excellent point that we will never create a time travel device, because if we’re going to, tourists in time would be proficient now. People would be appearing and disappearing, and we’d be overrun by the equivelants of the elderly American couple in Vietnam (”Oh, you still use land cars! How quaint! And look, Hank, MacDonalds hasn’t had the great income crash of 2197!”) making patronising comments all over the place.

And I say, What the hell, because we can all dream.

One of my favourite time travel daydreams is the “Who to Save” question. Would you go back, and save Jews from the holocaust, innocent women and children from the Norman Conquest? Or would that be disrupting history? Is the fact that this man died in a concentration camp, which allowed another man to marry his fiancee necessary to your exsistence?

Anne Frank. Would you save her? Stand in The Anne Frank House, and wind back, until the small frightened girl and her small frightened family appeared before you?

Or would the fact that you were only saving one of many poor poor children be terrible for your conscience?

I’ll never know. And I’ll never have the chance to for two reasons. First, the car has pulled up outside the school gates, where I am writing this, and Second, Stephen Hawking has proved otherwise.

And he knows everything.

Everything

My House When I Am Rich And Famous

Today is about dreaming.

Day dreaming, if possible, because my dreams are usually disjointed blurs of colours and numbers and shapes.

Today, we are dreaming about houses.

My house would be on a hill, because I wouldn’t want it to flood, and it would be looking down into a valley. I wouldn’t like there to be any other houses near by, just my house on the hill. It would be large, but not huge, as that would be arrogant, and I don’t want that. Inside, it would be open plan. I’d trust my family enough that I wouldn’t mind about privacy ( I mean, all the bathrooms and bedrooms would be closed away,) and everything would take place in this large room. There’d be a big staircase in the center, going up to a gallery sort of structure around the edge, where said bathrooms and bedrooms would be. It would be comfortable, and warm and messy. One whole wall would be made of glass, over looking the valley, and the birds would fly past. The dog would amble around the garden, which would be more of a shrubbery, and everything would be good.

 Dreaming

I like dreaming

A Neat Mixture of Topics

When I first concidered the idea of a blog, one of the things that puzzled me was, how often should I write? And, more importantly, what about?

It occured to me this morning that I neat not write about anything big, or important, just things that strike me, and I find interesting, or at least deserving of a line or two. 

Today’s is one of them. 

Looking up at trees in winter may seem a little mundane for the ordinary person with 20:20 vision, but if you need glasses it is quite an experience. I was glassesless for about 8 years, and the first thing that struck me when I walked out of the shop was how great the trees looked. I nearly walked into several things because I was looking up at the trees. The branches make little twiggy hands, and look so so black silhouetted against the sky.  

My copy of Wipeout Pure, a racing game, arrived today. 

All is good. 

 With Trees and games,  

I mean, there are a lot of other bad things, 

 Like child poverty, 

 I’m going to click publish now. 

Evil Plans

Today, some evil plans. I wrote this during a history class, and passed it back to my friend Patrick, who added occasional notes, shown here in red. Here we go…

1. Kill everybody
2. Laugh evilly
3. Rule the world
4. Make Patrick (your best buddy) leader of America
5. Then, in a treacherous act, kill him! Ha-ha!
6. Realise my mistake, and hire scientists to resurrect him
7. THEN SHOOT HIM AGAIN! HA-HA!
8. Then give him a satanic funeral?
9. Nope! I bung you in a sinking ship,
10. Then I put the ship in a motorway bridge,
11. Then I blow up the motorway bridge,
12. Then I drive a tank over the ruins!

END OF PHASE ONE

1. Buy a white cat to stroke menacingly,
2. Then develop a secret monkey army
3. Backed up by some not so intelligent hamsters,
4. Have half the monkeys eat half the hamsters, and vice versa,
5. Realise the plan has become a bit bogus and cliched,
6. Hunt down Patrick’s ghost,
7. Live for ever,
8. The End

Leap Year

Today is the 29th of February.

 

I don’t often get to say that.

 

I like to imagine that inside the great machine that powers the years, that swings winter into spring, into summer, into autumn, a small gear began to whirr late last night, and an extra day was silently, and inconspicuously added to the calender. I’m sure I felt it click.

 

The days are getting longer, and I feel far better now. I don’t like sitting in a dark classroom, with that sort of drizzle sliding down the windows.

 

I think I’m definitely a summer person.

 

People who say they like winter confuse me. Okay, I love snow, and ice, and that sort of cold frosty smell, but the long night after long night just doesn’t seem appealing.

 

Each to their own.

 

 Not a bad day today, and when I got home, my copy of Sam and Max season one had been helpfully mailed through to me by Telltale Games. I just spent the last twenty minutes looking through it. Check out the Sam and Max page for more information.

 

So. On with March!