Little Miss Sunshine

Watched Little Miss Sunshine last night. Its pretty off-beat comedy about an ugly kid and her family driving across America to enter a beauty pageant. I thought it was fantastic, it has a lot of 'laugh out loud' moments, and is really sweet and moving at the same time. It also paints a scary picture of beauty pageants and how they sexualize small kids without really admitting it...
(I can't really explain more without spoiling the film)

Probably one of the best films I've seen all year.

Garbage haulage

Just spent most of yesterday driving a large fraction of my junk-footprint back to England.
It actually worked out quite well, although it seemed a bit symbolic of the difference between England and Europe.... Drove 6 hours through France to Calais without any problem, rarely more than two other cars on the road... as soon as we drove off the Eurotunnel train into England we got stuck in traffic for the next 3 hours.... Oh well, I guess it isn't too bad, although we have to do the same journey again tomorrow :o(

Electronic Crack-Cocaine....

Picked this up on a whim at the airport on the way back from England.

In principle, its a cross between Sudoku and Minesweeper... It looks really easy but is a good pure logic puzzle and is totally addictive... spent much time either doing puzzles or fighting with kat about who gets to play... :o)

Want one...

This is a lamp! not just a lamp, but probably the coolest lamp I've seen in ages.... (it comes with a variety of different pilots and abductees....

Alien Abduction lamp

want one....

One of these would be cool.... I like the idea of making cars that look funky and retro (and secretly I want to be Dick Tracy of something). Ok, so its only a concept car, but still I'm sure it will be in my price range.....

Other random things....

Click To Play

I signed up to this on a whim a few months ago... It's basically a community funded movie. The whole process is funded by the people who sign up for it, who discuss then vote for all of the production decisions... Just thought it was quite a cool idea. I'll be even more impressed if it gets made in the end... Still I feel a little philanthropic at the moment....

Link [A Swarm of Angels]

Currently listening to...

Mumm-Ra: These things move in threes
Totally blind purchase at the airport. A bit like the Thrills+The Kooks
Amy Winehouse: Back to Black
Great album, half the tracks sound like a James Bond theme song. Like Alanis Morissette (In the 'getting dumped sucks', but with funk and attitude)
Ozomatli: Street Signs
Cool mix of latin music, ransom stuff and hip-hop.

Things I love about Germany

Here's another fantastic German thing... the packstation. A really cool subsitute/enhancement of a post office... You register, validate your ID (by signing for the letter), they send you an ID number and a card to work it and a PIN. Then, when you want to buy something/get something delivered (say on Amazon). You enter your Packstation ID and the number of the nearest/most convenient packstation. Your parcel gets delivered there and put into one of the little boxes.

When it arrives, they send you a text message and an email (both free!) to tell you its there. The you can drop by the thing (which is accessible 24/7) and stick your card in to get your package. How cool is that! You don't have to go to the damn post office when its open. You can also stamp and send packages there. They also let you pay for stuff that you buy on arrival (something the post office here lets you do), so you just stick your bank card in an pay.... I love it. Its a little (big) robot postman.... and its free!

(ok, have calmed down a bit now...)

Geeky thing I did today....

Wonderful girlfriend happened to be passing the English Shop today and picked my up a can of Dr Pepper (Adam's catnip). Saw this nice little post on Instructables and decided that what my desk really needed was more weird litter on it...

(would probably make a nice ashtray if I smoked....)