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).

Cinnamon Flapjacks

These flapjacks are wheat and dairy free and probably have a low G.I. and all that other stuff, more importantly they taste great with a soft texture (bit sticky though).

Makes enough for a tray of soft chewy flapjacks, cut them however you prefer.

250g Dried Pitted Dates
2 Large cooking Apples
Thumb of ginger, finely chopped
3 tsps cinnamon
200g Jumbo Oats
2 Handfuls of Pumkin Seeds
2 Handfuls of Sunflower Seeds
2 Handfuls of Sultanas

1. Chop the dates, place in a saucepan and barely cover with cold water.
2. Heat gently stirring occaisonally, don’t let them boil, until you have a chunky syrup (takes around 15 minutes)
3. When the syrup is nearly ready add the ginger and seeds.
4. Grate the apples and add immediately to the syrup so they don’t brown. Turn down the heat to minimum.
5. Add the cinnamon and oats and stir thoroughly to make sure they are coated.
6. Add the sultanas.
7. Spread the mixture onto a baking tray and cook in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 20-25 minutes or until the oats have gone golden.
8. Mark your pieces out on the tray and let the flapjacks cool slowly.
9. Enjoy – they keep for roughly a week in the fridge.

I went to the last one just as I was thinking of taking the plunge to go freelance last year. The people and the sessions were pretty much the same but it’s good to get into a room with 100+ other freelancers, perhaps it’s just the safety in numbers. Hearing the panelists on the freelancing session talk, about experiencing the same things you have, is great for morale. There was plenty of advice (both working and financially) and I certainly felt I got a lot out of it.

Aleks Krotoski was the headline speaker for Enterprise Thursday who joined the fair for the evening session. I haven’t made the time to watch her BBC documentary “The Virtual Revolution” yet but since even my mum has recommended it I guess I will have to. Dr. Aleks is infectiously enthusiastic, and had the energy to give well thought out, passionate answers to the questions posed. Bit dissapointed that she considers “Bits” to be an albatros, but then although she’s a journalist, academic and TV presenter, she was never a geeky teenage boy.

That’s one of the best Thursday evenings I’ve had in a while and Thursdays are my favourite day! Came out of the event ready to do battle with the programming world once more and confident of victory (and met some lovely people).

Here’s the recipe I used exactly although the addition of a small potato might help thicken up the sauce.

What you need:
(Makes enough for 4 (large) servings)

• 1 Sweet Potato
• 4 medium Carrots
• 1 small Onion
• 1 Cob of Sweetcorn (frozen will do)
• 1 tin of Beans in Chilli
• 1 tinned Tomatoes
• 1/4 jar of Jalepenos

Serve with:

• Brown Rice

Instructions:

1. Fry the diced onion in a large saucepan (that has a lid)
2. Dice the Sweet Potato and Carrots
3. Once the onions have softened add the sweet potato and carrots
4. Fry for 5 minutes then just cover with water, bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer for 15 minutes (now is a good time to put on the brown rice)
5. Add the Tinned Tomatoes and Beans in Chilli and cover the saucepan, simmer for 15 more minutes
6. If the sweetcorn is on the cob then remove with a knife
7. If uncooked then add to the pot for the last 5 minutes
8. Chop the Jalepenos
9. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the Jalepenos (and sweetcorn if cooked)

Enjoy with the Brown Rice!

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?)

It’s been an interesting experience getting a blog set up for a large corporation, from educating the team from scratch to getting round technical issues. I can’t take the credit for the final design (that was Leyton Jay, whose design was much better than my prototypes) and the content has been written by various staff members especially Danusia but it does feel a little like my baby.

It’s going well so far, still early days but so far so good; there’s some good content up there and the feedback is positive. I won’t go so far as to match the tongue in cheek claims on Tom from Distilled’s take on the Rentokil deBugged launch (great graph Tom!) but it looks good.

Danusia has written a great article about her experience which contains useful insights both for ordinary bloggers and companies thinking of joining the Blogosphere (if we’re still allowed to call it that these days) which you can find here: 9 lessons I learnt putting together a new blog.

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!

This was a flash video I made a few years later in my final year at uni. We were given the song and told to make a video to accompany it. I don’t agree with all of the song, but the tone does resonate with me.

My NPWA Flash Video

The imagery at the end was taken from the protests at the G8 summit in Geneva 2001 – and I decided to dedicate it to Carol Giuliani who was killed during them.

Back in 1999 the greatest fear in the zeitgesit was that unfettered capitalism would turn into a monster. Naomi Klein’s No Logo (2001) explained how we were right to be worried – but just when it seemed that world governments would be forced to respond to the growing clamour for an ethical form of capitalism, 9/11 happened. Since late 2001 the “War on Terror” has had centre stage in our imaginations (something that probably won’t affect you, but would be terrible if it did, gets more mindshare than something that will definitely affect you, but probably in a subtle way – that’s just the way our brains deal with risk). But now that the recession is starting to affect people directly (myself included) the workings of the global economy are back in the spotlight. One thing that has changed in the intervening years is that our right to protest has been heavily eroded; the chances that police will use their new “terror” powers to discourage protest against the government seem pretty high.

My friend Benji is photographing the protests today so I’m hoping to be able to put up some links to them when he gets back.