Wednesday 3 December 2008

the world is spinning faster....

make it stop!

Okay, maybe not literally, but I'd be quite happy if I learned my lesson, said *enough* and took it at a more manageable pace for a week or ten.

This week, I am mostly working my buns off at work, feeling pretty bad about not seeing J and babyB as much as I'd like and missing keeping aware of what's going on in the outside world.  It feels like I'm a cycle of sleep, wake, work, home, eat, sleep etc etc.  And that's not good.  For anyone.

Does anyone else feel that this year has simply got faster in the past four weeks?  It's not that long since our anniversary, a few weeks earlier, J's birthday and yet those seem like distant (fond) memories.

I want to sing that Randy Stonehill song and be done with it all.  "stop the world, I wanna get off".  Not forever, just to learn my lesson.  Anyone got the handbrake?


Tuesday 2 December 2008

whirr, click-click, whirr

Okay, so here we go.

I really enjoy the work of the Pixar Animation Studio and finally got 'round to watching their latest creation; wall-e.  I'd kept away from the reviews, but some friends had shared varied comments with me.

So sitting down over the past two days, I took in the 90 minutes of the film on DVD (we've got a wee one, y'know).  I loved it.  

For me, it's not an obvious children's film in the way that Toy Story of Monsters Inc. were.  It's got so many levels, such a feeling of depth and of delicacy that I was enthralled!  Okay, so there's a bit of a jump when the story moves into space and a *slightly* overly tree-hugging/watch-out-for-HAL feel to the last 20 minutes. But the main characters are so genuine that you care about them, even if it's a bit conveneint how easy people get awoken from their stupor.  But the characterisation is amazing given that there is so much of the performances from inflection, nuance, gesture and sounds (not words? Per se).

I think that's one of the elements of the film that I enjoyed the most - the sounds!  The textures that can be added to the experience by the intelligent use of sound.  Makes me want to get better and do that kinda work!

As I write this post on my G1, that I've just used to walk down the street in Dargaville where J & I spent four weeks in 2005, it's not lost on me how quickly we can choose to rely on technology.  But there's nothing like real interaction to let us know we're alive, is these.

Have you seen the film? Did you enjoy it?  Let me know what you think...