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Toy Story 3

bG — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:24:29 +0000

Watched Toy Story 3 last night and was extremely impressed: definitely the best one in the series. I love the way terrestrial television will show the previous films in a series around the time a sequel is in the cinema.

Toy Story 2 was on BBC on Sunday so the characters were all refreshed in my mind when I saw it on Wednesday, which was really important because despite the brilliant art Toy Story is character driven. This film is very emotional, and I even have to admit that I had a moist eye by the end of the film, in fact I was grateful for the epilogue bits so they had dried up by the time I left the auditorium!

The 3D effect was pretty disappointing, there still hasn’t been a film like Avatar that actually plays to the formats strengths rather than feeling underused so I would recommend saving the money and seeing it in old fashioned 2D (plus now Odeon make you buy your glasses 3D is even more expensive).

I’m not going to spoil the story by describing what happens – all I will say is that there are plenty more moments when you spot toys from your childhood (and one’s you wish you’d had like Totoro).

Blue Marble

bG — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:48:53 +0000

I really love this picture

For Charedy Mate

bG — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:14:08 +0000

I am a bit conflicted about this post: personally I can’t stand fund raising events, my view being that if you want to donate money to charity then you should do so and do so quietly and privately. I think this view comes from my Catholic upbringing, I remember being told, “the left hand should not know what the right hand giveth”, in other words don’t crow about what a good person you are, giving should be it’s own reward and other people knowing about it shouldn’t be your motive.
Unfortunately the economics of successful fund-raising seem to contradict this, the best way of raising money seems to be to create a big hoo-ha involving celebrities and give businesses a way of proving how community orientated they are by donating money and showing off about it. I suppose that’s the way human nature works; we copy our cultural figureheads.
Before I bore the pants off you with caveats, suffice to say I’m taking part in the London to Brighton bike ride this year (TBH I didn’t even realise it was for Charity) and it seems to be the done thing to raise money for the organising charity which is the British Heart Foundation. So I’ve set up a Justgiving page for donations so please donate if you want to.

Back From Japan

bG — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:03:48 +0000

As you may have noticed here I was in Japan – well I’ve made it back in one piece!

Japan is a fantastic Country- had a brilliant time,

there’s some photos up here and when I get a moment I’ll be converting the videos and uploading to YouTube (yes they are mostly of snow monkeys!)

Off to Ireland for Dairmuid & Aine’s wedding now (4 flights in one week, is it too much?)

Big in Japan

bG — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 03:32:00 +0000

Hi – as you might have noticed Im in Japan!
Havent quite worked out the japanese keyboard, every time i try and do a bit of punctuation it all goes a bit wrong!
For updates you can follow me on twitter (http://twitter.com/beedyg)
After 2 hour stopover in Helsinki we arrived in Osaka 10am local time to be greeted by Aya holding a welcome card, shes looked after us fantastically, booking the hotel in Osaka and taking us there on the train. We re in a \n area of Osaka called Minami its the posh part of town Area of Big Brand Name Shops (thats the name given to the area by our map!).
Its amazing clean here and super efficient and modern (it does feel a little like stepping into the future!)

We:ve seen Osaka Castle (Osaka-jo) and spent a few days wandering around the town – i did hear Osaka described as the Birmingham of Japan but that:s unfair – it:s really bright and colourful, plebty to do!!

Off to tokyo tomorrow, but first theres the drinks reception from after Aya and Cellos wedding.

Oh and it is really hot and sunny and the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, weve conme at the perfect time!

Slumdog Millionaire

bG — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:40:33 +0000

I watched Slumdog Millionaire and I was very impressed. I don’t watch many films in the cinema (the cheapskate in me usually just files films I like the look of away in the “will rent from Lovefilm later” category) but I’m very glad I was convinced by my friends recommendations to go and watch this film.
From the TV adverts I’d the impression that this was some sort of rags to riches story using “Who want to be a Millionaire” as a Deus Ex machina, but instead it’s a very clever film that uses the TV show format to tell the life story of a young muslim man from the slums of Mumbai (Bombay in his early childhood). I haven’t seen the squalor of these slums conveyed with the same impact before – there are images, like the child wading through a rubbish choked river, that stick in your mind long after the film has ended. It really made me think about what the lives of people living in these conditions are like – so a little shaming and thought provoking. It also has a few scenes set from the other side of an indian call centre – which certainly made me question the way I’ve interacted with them in the past.
Although in some places harrowing, this is a great feel good film and I heavily recommend it – go and watch it now – you won’t regret it!

My First (public) Wordpress Plugin

bG — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:55:53 +0000

I’ve been doing a fair bit of stuff with wordpress at work but most of the plugins and themes I’ve written haven’t been releasable – this is my first plugin which is.

Multiple Comment Moderation

This is a simple plugin which allows you to set a number of moderated posts a subscriber to your Blog needs before their comments do not need to be pre-moderated before appearing.

It’s pretty basic at the moment, but I’ll add an options screen (so you can define the number of moderated comments needed – which at the moment is hardcoded to 3) and when I’m happy with it see if I can get it hosted at wordpress.org, which would be nice.

download v0.2 here

This actually works now – before it affected everybody, admin the post author etc now it works as supposed to (and is smaller to boot) next step to add the admin panel

The Two Wrongies | Christmas Special

bG — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:56:43 +0000

Last Friday I had one of those Brighton evenings. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of living in our fair town you’ll know what I mean; an evening where the high rents, freezing weather and constant feeling you’re too old or uncool pay off and you remember why you put put up with them, an evening where you make the most of the great pubs and brilliant night life and have fabulous eveing you could only have in Brighton. I went to see The Two Wrongies Christmas Special at the the basement, a lovely establishment where I’m pretty sure I saw a Jamie Hewlitt exhibition a couple of years ago.

It was a show in a barely renovated basement of an old warehouse. The place was clean and the bar stocked with wonderful Dark Star bottles. You might notice it’s taken me a while to describe the Two Wrongies, and for good reason. It’s easiest if I say what the effects were: by the end my jaw was sore from laughing, I’d pondered on topics usually anethema to me and was left dazed by being brought into the world of wrongness inhabitted by these two funnny, beautiful, and sometimes naked women. They have a great show, their dance is joyfully synchronised and their comedic timing is spot on. Words really can’t do them justice (and these definitely can’t) but if you ever get a chance to see them peform, grasp it like you’d grasp an imaginary partner in the air sex olympics.

New BeedyG Ready!

bG — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:12:55 +0000

I’ve finally upgraded wordpress for BeedyG and changed the layout of the site. I’ve been doing so much wordpress stuff at work that I decided that I might as well just put the whole site into Wordpress and be done with it.

For anyone who is thinking of starting their own website i would definitely recommend wordpress – it’s quick and easy to use and it is so customisable that you really are only limited by your imagination.

NB After getting the install done I think I’m entitled to go and play Fallout 3 for a few hours – Posting shall resume in the morning!