July | 2011 | Leateds.com

Six Busy Weeks

July 27, 2011

About 2 weeks ago i started working in a new job for an internship, the funny thing it is a really short internship where a normal internship might last anything from 9 months to a year, this one is only for 6 weeks!

I am 2 weeks in and each week has been extremely hectic, from having to get up each day at 6.50am and then being in work in Maynooth for 9am to 5.30pm and then having to make a commute home where depending on which way i come home, it is usually about 7pm before i set foot in my house again.

Image by IanMurphy via Flickr

On top of having work, i still have to have a social life, i can’t just work all the time and not enjoy myself! So i have also been meeting up with friends on my way home from work in Trim on numerous occasions, i have also been to the cinema a few times and even managed to go out last Sunday night, which was probably a bad idea sine i had to get up 4 hours after i got home, but i feel it was worth it all the same!

This internship happened to fall when i was just going on my 2 week holidays from my current job, i was disappointed that i didn’t get to enjoy 2 full weeks off, but then again i have a chance at something bigger so had to jump at it. Now my 2 week holiday is up and this coming weekend i start back working on my job, this time only working weekends and i would simply be unable to make it back during the week to work.

So i will be working flat out over the coming 4 weeks, 7 days a week of work! The only day off between now and when i finish my internship is this coming Monday (Bank Holiday) which i will enjoy as much as possible, most likely consisting of a lot of lazing about the house.

Other than work this week i am still busy as i will be attending a table quiz tomorrow night and then a friend’s birthday on Friday and then going out once more on Sunday as my cousin is leaving to go back to America next week. A busy few weeks all right, but i reckon they are beneficial and will help me broaden i knowledge of IT. I will talk a bit more about what my Internship is about in the coming weeks!

Its all over

July 26, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

Its been about a week and a half now sine the final Harry Potter film has come out, i went to see the film the Saturday after the film came out, and being that it had the option for the first time in the entire series, i opted to watch the film in 3D!

I am fully aware of how much overrated 3D is, to be honest most films could do without it, usually the films i enjoy most are not 3d and i also feel the only films that actually work as 3d are cartoons, simply because they are animated and are fully created using computers and therefore can be worked perfectly using virtual cameras to make the best 3d high definition quality with eye popping effects!

Anyway that was a bit of a tangent, i saw the final installment of harry potter (Deathly Hallows Part 2) in 3d and i am glad i did. There was nothing over the top about it, nothing popped out at you, i had expected to see some spells going straight towards the audience, but nothing of the sort. They kept it simple, depth was pretty much the only factor of 3d in my opinion, and you got a greater feel of how large an area you were looking at.

The film is brilliant, definitely a great way to end the series, they seemed to of really made Neville into a huge role model and the battle scenes were great. Surprisingly though **SPOILER** when Fred died in the film, it didn’t actually show it happening! I thought this would of being a sure thing that would of had a big build up in the film, however they seemed to completely skip it until after the main battle when they panned to him lying there with his family around him, i think that this scene should have been included.

Although, like all of the other films, they had to cut parts out and it is expected that this would happen. Anyone who didn’t read the books wouldn’t have passed any remark on things like this, but i suppose as someone who read the books, you always want to see the whole lot made into a films, but others might not feel like sitting through hours and hours for a film!

Alan Rickman, who plays Severus Snape, was definitely the scariest character in the film, surprising since he was the hero in disguise and Voldemort was supposed to be the person of fear! I was wondering how they were going to tackle ending the film, in the books it skipped ahead to 19 years later, obviously the whole cast would be older and have there own family (they didn’t hang around with only 19 years) and the book ended with them all on the platform sending their own kids to Hogwarts.

When the ending came, i couldn’t help but laugh, literally out loud! Everyone in the cinema seemed to agree as they were laughing too! I was thinking they would attempt to make them look older by using some sort of computer magic, but this didn’t happen, i guess they thought if this was the last time they were going to be on screen for Harry Potter they might as well look as normal as possible. They way they achieved making them look older (only slightly older looking to be honest) was by lashing on a lot more make-up and sticking them into more formal / older looking clothes than they would usually wear!

Anyway it was a great film series and its sad to see its over, but no doubt there will be plenty of special features once the film come out on DVD. All that remains now is to go to the Harry Potter theme park in Florida, which is on my to do list! It’s a great excuse to go back to Florida again, it was great the last time and i am sure it will be just a good next time i manage to go!

Movie Monday, week 2- Old School

July 25, 2011

Cover of "Old School (Full Screen Unrated...

Cover via Amazon

Keeping this ‘movie challenge’ up this week with week 2. Over the last week my friends came down to the house, we ended up watching a film that is not new to me, but a film that is good for a few laughs. Whenever friends come over it is best to keep the films light-hearted for the most part, nothing too serious because if you are having a laugh and throw on a serious film the chance are the mood of the room will change.

I had intended on watching a different film this week, but in the end just stuck with this one. I think i will watch the original film i wanted to watch, this week, and talk about it next week!

Old School is about a group of men who are trying to regain their youth by turning one of their friend’s homes into a ‘frat’ (party) house although none of them attend university anymore. Old School is a good film to watch if you don’t want anything too serious, something that will give you a good laugh but it’s not something that is extremely stupid like a lot of films i have seen over the years!

Without spoiling the film the nearby university gets wind of the new frat house that has been set up by the group of lads, and try their very best to get it shut down, even by making them take part in a list academic events to prove they are worthy and are beneficial to the college lifestyle whilst providing a benefit to the members of the frat house.

Old School features a very strong cast of popular comedic actors including Vince Vaughan, Luke Wilson and Will Ferrell. Also Ellen Prompeo makes an appearance in the film as an old love that Luke Wilson once had from years ago, if you are a fan of Grey’s Anatomy then you would recognise her as being the lead female actor who plays Meredith Grey.

Old School picked up a rating of 5.6/10 on Rotten Tomatoes which is not too bad! The film runs for about an hour and a half and if you have not had the chance to watch the film before now i would recommend you take a look at it, it’s nothing too amazing but is definitely good for a few laughs. Here is the trailer below for it if you are interested in it!

Movie Monday! Gnomeo & Juliet

July 18, 2011

The Challenge – Movie Monday

Id like to try something new on my blog. I enjoy watching films but dont really get the time to watch them. I may only watch a film because there is something i really want to watch in the cinema or maybe a few friends are coming around so i will throw on a film. But other than that i dont watch too many films. Usually i would spend my time on the internet or watch some tv show.

Over the past few months i have bought a fair few films which i have yet to watch, some which still have there wrapping on! What i was thinking to get me motivated to watch a few more films is to turn it into a sort of ‘challenge’, similar to why my photo challenge was set up, to simply increase my use out of my camera.

If i set up a challenge for myself to watch films and then review them or talk about them in some way then i can finally get through those films i have been neglecting to watch and i also benefit by getting to add something extra to my blog on a more regular basis. I am thinking that i will start off small, with just one film a week. I will watch a film at some stage throughout the week and talk about it the following Monday.

I have a few films in mind that i want to begin with, they include; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, American Gangster, Public Enemies & Sherlock Holmes. I have always wanted to watch these films but whenever i thought of watching them i just couldn’t bother with it!

So i already know the first few films that i am going to start with but i know there are plenty of films that i have not watched that i really should have. If you have any particular favourites, let me know either by commenting here or on my twitter! Maybe i will put up a checklist and mark them off as i go along!

Gnomeo & Juliet

To kick things off i will talk about the film i watched last night, i didn’t plan on talking about this film at all when i sat down to watch it last night, but since i thought of this challenge earlier on today, i will take this opportunity to start this challenge off on the right foot!

So the film i watched is called Gnomeo & Juliet, and i am sure that you can tell from the title that it is a spin of of the popular Shakespeare play Romeo & Juliet. I always hated this play, most likely because when i was in school we had to study line for line the play and completely understand each metaphor and theme, school pretty much sucked the life out of whatever interest may have been in it. I would probably never have chosen to read the play but i would likely of watched the modern version of the film as it would give me an insight into what the play was, but again school ruined that by making us watch the old version of the play over and over again and then finally allowing us to watch the new version!

Anyway, Gnomeo & Juliet is an animated film by Starz Animation. It is a great entertaining version of the original story of Romeo & Juliet. The plot of the film simply put is, there is a war between two families who live in neighboring gardens, the two families are Montague and Capulet, Red vs Blue. They film is hilarious from start to finish, from lawnmower races to a brilliant soundtrack including plenty of songs by Elton John. And did i mention they are Gnomes!

I dont want to give away too much as i am sure plenty of people havn’t seen this film yet as it was only out earlier this year. The film has plenty of famous actors including James McAvoy who plays the role of Xavier in the latest X-men film, other actors include Matt Lucas, Michael Caine, Ozzy Osbourne and Hulk Hogan. It is a great film and i would definitely recommend you have a watch of it. Below is the trailer of the film, if you have seen it, let me know what you think in the comments below!

CosmicPanda

July 09, 2011

Over the last few weeks Google have been updating everything! All their websites from Google, to Maps to their new social network Google+ & the new look Gmail, everything has changed and i was wondering if they would touch YouTube. Today i saw that Google have been working on a huge overhaul for YouTube and from what i have seen so far, its a great update.

The new update is code-named ‘CosmicPanda’, i have had a quick look at the main new features which come with this next update to YouTube. There are 3 main parts that i would use with the new update and they have introduced huge GUI changes. The sections which have changed the most are user profiles, the video page where you actually watch the videos and then they have also updated playlists slightly.

Each user as you know have their own channel, if you are a partner with YouTube you are allowed to change the default thumbnail of each video to any image you like, with the new update to the channels it takes advantage of these pictures, the channel page shows the latest videos uploaded just by displaying the thumbnails of the videos. There are a few different options you can have for your page now, one is to simply show all the video thumbnails, another is to show a list of you playlists. Below is how the old YouTube channels look with the new version below it (click them to see a bigger version!)

A huge difference as you can see, but looking through other YouTube channels will give you a better feel of the other options that are now available to YouTube users! If you haven’t already noticed, Google have also updated the navigation bar, its much more simple looking.

The page itself where you watch all your videos has been given a big update. The video player bar is now black along with a large black strip going the full width of the screen behind the video, the black strip works on the same principle of the ‘turn the light off’ feature a lot of sites use, it makes you focus more on the content they want you to, such as the video. The related videos to the right of the page have also been changed to a list of related thumbnails. Images old and new below! (click them to see a bigger version!)

The third big change that has been made to the site is a feature of the video play page too, it is the playlist feature. Instead of having an annoying video strip along the bottom of your screen as a pop up, it has now been change to a video strip below the video. Images below old and new (click them to see a bigger version!)

I really like the changes that have been made. Another great thing that you can now do is when you are watching a video, you can click into your account page or go onto the channel of the video you are watching or onto another persons page who has a left a comment on the video you are watching, if you do thing the video you are currently watching will continue to play at the top left of the page! After you are done browsing you can click the video again and it will bring you back to the video page! One of the greatest features of this update i think, but it would be great if it worked the same way if you try to search, at the moment it does not allow it.

A great change for YouTube, you can read about these features on Googles support fourms. You can also opt in yourself if you want to have a good look at this new update, all you have to do is go to https://youtube.com/cosmicpanda and click Try it Out!