Fun & Games

Travel Quiz
As I go way a lot, I thought it would be an idea to base this (new monthly) quiz, on travel. Plus you have got around a month to do it.

Round 1: Movie Links
Nice and easy to start this time, simply name the films and tell me what links them together.

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

Possible Score: - 10 points

Round 2: Road Warriors
The following celebrities all feature in so called "Road Movies", the simple task for you is to name the star/s and the film they are from, except for number 3 where I just want the film.

1)

2)

3)
4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

Possible score: 23 points

Round 3: Travel Anthems

Not really travel anthems in the rock and roll sense, more of the nationalistic pride sense. Yes folks simply identify the country by these national anthems, be careful though as not all of them are the start of the national anthem ;)

1)Anthem 1
2)Anthem 2
3)Anthem 3
4)Anthem 4
5)Anthem 5
6)Anthem 6
7)Anthem 7
8)Anthem 8
9)Anthem 9
10)Anthem 10

Possible score: 10

Round 4: Quizzicles

The last round now, and again it is the quizzicles, this time with a travel theme to them.

1) Which city is the most filmed city in the world?
2) What is the name of the real station that doubles as Hogsmeade Station in Harry Potter films?
3) What other TV series is this village station famous for?
4) Which country uses the Kwanza as it’s currency?
5) Which American state flys the Union Jack?
6) The Paris to Dakar Rally is world famous, but on what date did the first one start?
7) In 1982 a famous ladys son was lost for 6 days in the desert whilst competing in the Dakar, but what was his name?
8) The Amazing Race, is a TV show in which competitors race each other over the globe, but who won the first one?
9) And on the subject of question 8, what were their professions?
10) There are 52(in my mind!) sorry 50 states in America, but where is generally known as the 51st state?


Possible score: 10


A total of 53 points on offer then, the best of luck to you all.

Travel

Saudi land of Sand,

So another trip beckons, this time to Saudi, and more than likely I am going to be away for a couple of weeks this time as I have a few places to go to.
What it also means is that I will be living on the site's accomodation, which isn't too good as normally there is no internet connections, and the accomodation is pretty ropey. But at least I will lose some much needed weight.

Which all goes to mean I am going to be putting up the quiz, either today or tomorrow depending on the risk of been caught using the net by the boss.

Joy of Joys though I still have Libiya and Indonesia (possibly) to look forward to, plus quite a few in the States (my favourite!), and some in Equador.

I just have to do a few more questions and then quiz will be posted, remember you have a full month this time to answer, not that a lot of you need it.

New Look

OK it's a Start!

Only a short post this time, I have done away with a few of the things from the old version of the site, and no longer have the click to continue thing, which was probably a bit of a pain.

Colour scheme is different too. So hopefully it is not so painful on the eyes. But not a lot else has changed really.

I hope I can put up the quiz soon, and this will be July's quiz, it's going to be based on travel, so expect a few road movie questions.

Now I am off to Will's site to check his reviews.

Entertainment

Sprucing it up

Just thought that I would change my blog, to make it a little more appealing. Also, I am getting bored with the same colour scheme all the time. Just wondered what would be a better one for the blog? It will be changed soon

But on another subject now...

Movie Review: - Se7en


It's been a while since I have seen the film Seven so I thought that I would watch it again, when it came on the TV recently. I also wanted to know if they would cut any of it, and if so how much they would cut it by. Thankfully it wasn't cut at all, although that may have something to do with the fact it went out after the water-shed. That is another thing that bugs me, why do some channels (BBC!) rip a film to shreds ruining it, yet other channels keep it intact enhancing our viewing pleasure - more on that later, anyway on with the review.


For those that haven't seen it Se7en is a film that follows 2 detectives Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman on the trail of a serial killer John Doe (brilliantly played by Kevin Spacey), who is intent on killing people and highlighting their sin, each of the seven deadly sins must be ticked off for John Doe to 'win'.


The sin of Gluttony comes first and the murderer's terrible capacity is graphically demonstrated in the dark and subdued tones with visual effects that made me think that I was glad I wasn't eating at the time.





Sommerset (Morgan Freeman) has seen just about it all, due for retirement this is to be his last case, so he researches the Seven Deadly Sins in an effort to understand the killer's modus operandi while green Detective Mills (Brad Pitt) scoffs at his efforts to get inside the mind of a killer, which could lead to his undoing.


As the detectives close in on Doe, the killings become more and more graphic, finally they catch their man, but there is still one Deadly Sin that has yet to be completed. Gluttony * Greed * Sloth * Envy * Pride * Lust, are all there, only Wrath is missing, until a square cardboard box turns up for Detective Mills.


Overall this is a very clever film, and although I knew what the twist was at the end, it still didn't ruin my enjoyment of the film. Both actors play their respective roles brilliantly, although I don't think there is enough screen time given to Kevin Spacey, he truly makes you hate him, and believe he really is totally evil.
There are a few jumpy moments in the film and not a lot of humour. Hilarity Ensues certainly doesn't in this film.

Starring: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Gwynneth Paltrow

Certificate 18

Rating: *****

Entertainment

RIP Bernard Manning





One of the UK's most controversial comics died yesterday, at the age of 76. For some Bernard Manning represented a racist pig who loved the attention of the controversy he caused with his Politcally Incorrect jokes. For others he was a comic genius who did tireless work for charity, and was just misunderstood. In my mind both are true, but why should anyone be bothered he made us laugh, and that is all that mattered.



The reason I have put the photo up I have is not to try to be offensive, it is to prove a point. Bernard Manning stuck a finger up to those in authority, and those that called him racist, he didn't care what people thought of him, he just wanted to make people laugh. But when are jokes not funny, should we really be worried about causing offence, and why do we now rather than years ago worry about what comics say?



Read on please...



When I was a lad I used to love watching Jim Davidson, another of the UK's controversial comics. He used to have is own show, and had a character called Chalkie on it, now chalkie was Jim Davidson's take of a coloured man of West Indian origin. Indeed he released a record using the voice called "White Chrissy mass". Did people care then? No we all had a good laugh, and I suspect so did 80% of West Indians.


But if he was to do the same today, there would be an outcry, in my huble opinion Political Correctness, has gone mad, and is ruining the country and yes OK the world.

Now have a look at this joke;

"There was an Englishman, a Cuban, a Japanese man and a Pakistani on a train. The Cuban throws a cigar out of the window, saying they are "ten-a-penny" in his country. The Japanese man throws a Nikon camera out, saying they are ten-a-penny in his country. Then the Englishman throws the Pakistani out the window. "

That was NOT a Manning joke, it was said at an after dinner speech by Ann Winterton, an MP in the cabinet, she had to resign after that.

There is no getting away from the fact that jokes are designed to be funny, they are not a means to be offensive toward certain races, they just reflect a way of life, and life in general. In the above example substitute "Swiss" for Pakistani, and the joke doesn't have the same impact.

OFFENSIVE WARNING!!

Some people may find the following jokes offensive, they are from Bernard Manning, and I think it shows how we stereotype people, which is what Manning played on.

"A Jewish doctor gave a man six months to live. The patient couldn't pay his bills so the doctor gave him another six months."

To an elderly man making his way back to his seat: "Was it cold in the ground this morning?"

"I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included."

Yorkshire couple go to Majorca for their first holiday abroad. Being typical Brits abroad, they don't trust the local food, and as it's a Sunday they start cooking a roast dinner.

Unfortunately they've forgotten the gravy granules, so Maureen says to Geoffrey:"I'm sure the couple next door are English, go and ask them if they've got some"

So off he goes, knocks on the door, and sure enough a bloke in Union Jack shorts opens the door

Geoffrey asks politely: "Hast thou any Bisto??"

The bloke says: "F*!k off you Spanish t*!t"

Little pakistani bloke goes to heaven & knocks on the pearly gates

St Peter answers & calls out "Name?"

Mohammed

St Peter shouts out "Anyone up here call a taxi?"

I would say there is enough material there to offend a few people, but there is far far worse, and I don't want to be banned for putting up things that are more offensive. I have added a warning which I think should cover things.

The truth is though, no matter where you go there will ALWAYS be jokes that are offensive to SOMEONE, whether they are black, white, hispanic, jewish, gay, handicapped, whatever, but the comedien Frank Carson summed it up. "A joke is what it is a joke, made to make people laugh and people will always laugh beacause it's the way I tell em"

Quiz Answers

Fantasy Quiz Answers

Well, unfortunately there were only 2 people who had a go at the quiz this time round, so to allow more time for people to post their answers, I am now gong to do the quiz once a month.
It probably makes more sense to do so.

So let see who won, well it wasn't my mum, she did manage to get all the quizzicles questions right, but finished on 12 out of 45. So the winner HANDS DOWN, was WILL who only missed one question, for an INCREDIBLE 44 out of 45.

The alien you missed will, was from the film Wing Commander.

Check the answers by clicking continue.


Round 1: Movie Links

1) Bridgette Wilson/Mortal Kombat
2) Milla Jokavich/Resident Evil
3) The Rock/Doom
4) Raul Julia/Street Fighter
5) David Warner/Wing Commander

Link: All started out as video games

Round 2: Aliens

1) War of the Worlds
2) Dark City
3) Pass the Salt or Slither
4) Wing Commander
5) Species
6) Star Wars
7) Alien
8) Men in Black 2
9) The Thing
10) Starship troopers

Round 3: Sound bites

1) 2001 a space odyssey
2) Aliens
3) Batman and Robin
4) Blade runner
5) The day the earth stood still
6) Dragonheart
7) The Fifth Element
8) Independence Day
9) Princess bride
10) Ghostbusters

Round 4: Quizzicles

1) Dragonlance
2) Jacob and Wilhelm
3) Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer
4) John Ronald Reuel
5) Labyrinth
6) Between 34 and 64, no-one really knows
7) Tribbles
8) It was never finished
9) Ganymede
10) The Ankh Morpork City Watch, from the Discworld novels

DVD Covers

DVD Covers - HEROES

The answers to the quiz should be going up tomorrow, as long as I have time to do so. Which at the moment I have got tons of!
To prove the point I have done some more DVD covers, this time for the Unsurpassed TV series "Heroes".
Now they may look the same, and the basic template is, but when you put all 5 of them together, they give you another image along the spines! Which hopefully I have got right.

See what you think...






Episodes 1 to 5

Episodes 6 to 10

Episodes 11 to 15

Episodes 16 to 20

Episodes 21 to 23

DVD and Other Stuff

Quick Post

Well I am a little bit disappointed to be honest, so far I have had only one person enter the quiz, well you only have until Friday so get a move on!

I am away again the end of this week, either Saturday or Sunday (hopefully Sunday). This time it is to Egypt, but it's only a short one this time before the longer one to do 6 systems in Saudi Arabia oh the Joy of it all. Then not long after that I will be winging my way to yet another Middle Eastern country.... LIBYA!!!!!

So to keep my mind occupied I have produced another DVD cover (seem to be doing a few lately!) This one is for all you Harry Potter fans.

Do the usual and click continue to see it small size, then click on the image to see it full size.



Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

DVD Covers

DVD Covers

As a few of you may know I enjoy making DVD covers for films, in the hope that one day a big company will spot them and sign me up to do some designs for them. Yeah and may be we will see the International Pig Airport for flying pigs be built soon too.

Anyway, jus click continue to see the latest ones;



At World's End

Transformers

Weekly Question

Will We Ever Colonise the Moon?





I am sticking with the space/fantasy theme of the quiz this week for my question, as I wanted to know your views on whether or not we will colonise the moon.

One of my favourite shows when I was a kid was SPACE 1999, to see a base on the moon really fired up my imagination, and as I watched it in the 70's, I thought that it was only a matter of time before it happened for real. Indeed I was hoping I would be one of those piloting an Eagle Transporter.


So what happend? Why are we not there yet?


A lot of it has to do with money, and the huge costs involved in sending someone into space, it also has to do with the method of sending them. Although the price has come down an awful lot, is it still viable to spend the inordinate amount of dosh required? Well a few millionaires seem to think so, as more and more are orbiting the earth.

The International Space Station is being built, and loads of nations are committed to it, and willing to use it. But are any of them considering actually building on the moon? Will we be seeing sights such as the image below on our TV screens any time soon.





Somehow I don't think we will.

But I do think that we will be needing to look somewhere to ease the increasing population on Earth. It can't sustain us for much longer, so we ar going to have to look at alternatives, forget Mars, that is just a pipe dream. We need to concentrate on things closer, and that one thing is the moon.

I cannot see any way we will be able to be on the moon in my lifetime, but I hope there might be a way in my kids lifetimes. After all they are only 7 and 2, so there is a good chance. May be they will even be living in something like this...

So I would be interested to know your thoughts on it.

For further reading try;

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_the_Moon

Fun & Games

Quiztime - Fantasy and Space



Here we go again for the quiz, and this time it has a Spacey/Fantasy theme, so hopefully it will get the old grey cells ticking!
Now Rollo, if you finish top again this time around it will be 3 on the trot, and that will give you the right to choose the theme for the next quiz.

I would offer a cash incentive as a prize, but I am not that loaded, and I am a bit of a tight wad, so it's just for fun.... for now?!?
Oh and Will, no music questions this week, so you should be pleased about that, I do have some 'interesting' soundbites though!

So just click Continue for the quiz.

Round 1: Movie Link

Not too hard to spot the link this week I think, so for an extra mark after you have given the name of the actress/actor and film plus the link, can you tell me the order the films come in starting with the oldest and finishing with the newest?

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

Round 2: Celebrity Bugs

There have been tons of films that have aliens and creatures in them, here are just a few of those. All I want to know is the film that they are from.

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)




6)



7)



8)



9)




10)






Round 3: Sound of ???

Now onto the music round, only this time there is no music. All I want to know is the name of the film that these soundbites are from. Click on the blue arrow to listen to it.

1) Sound 1

2) Sound 2

3) Sound 3

4) Sound 4

5) Sound 5

6) Sound 6

7) Sound 7

8) Sound 8

9) Sound 9

10) Sound 10

Round 4: Quizzicles

The usual set of easy questions to answer;

1) Flint Fireforge, Tanis Half-Elf, Tasslehoff Burrfoot and Strum Brightblade are all characters from which fantasy book series?
2) The Brothers Grim wrote many fairy stories, but what were the names of the Brothers?
3) HAL was the name of the computer in Arthur C. Clarkes ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ But what does HAL stand for?
4) What do the initials J.R.R stand for in J.R.R Tolkien’s name?
5) What fantasy film starred a 15 year old Jennifer Connelly, and a slightly older David Bowie?
6) How many known moons/satellites does Saturn currently have?
7) Little furry balls caused no end of problems for the Star Trek crew, but what was the name of these bothersome critters?
8) Long before Peter Jackson, Ralph Bakshi directed an animated epic of Lord of the Rings, but what was unusual about the end of the movie?
9) What is the largest moon in our solar system?

10) Commander Vimes, Corporal Nobby Nobbs, Captain Carrot, Sergeant Colon and Sergeant Anguna are all members of what illustrious group of people?