GÆLEN MIBECK'S BLOG
From the monthly archives: April 2011
A robot just doesn’t seem complete without a number.
If I were a superhero, I wouldn’t mess about with spandex or body amour. Just give me a big cushy coat and some big baggy trousers (bloused over some big clunky boots), and I’ll go save the world. Goggles also increase one’s awesomeness by a good 200%.
I think I’m about done messing about with this blog’s theme. I’d appreciate some feedback regarding that.
Check out my new “About me” page.
Happy Wednesday!
Today I decided to have a go at painting something that exists in real life. I definitely need some practice.
As I was painting the house with the chimney, this robin came within a few feet of me. I think he was trying to retrieve a cracker, or something, from the lawn.
Right now none of the trees in my neighborhood have any leaves, and are like a great black tangle against the yellowy sky. Were I a poemy sort of person, this would be the sort of thing I’d write a poem about.
Tomorrow I’m going to see if my friends the slugs are out, and try painting them. ^_^
I hope everyone had as much fun as me and my Catholic brethren, who were partying into the morning hours :)
On a related note: I received a set of Copic markers as an Easter gift from my family. Here’s what I’ve done with them so far:
(I never tire of drawing this aristocratic amphibian!)
It seems that I’m more comfortable drawing robots than people. This is going to have to change.
Help me, I think I’m having too much fun with this ;)
By the way, check out these cool macro shots my old Shakespearean chum KryptonHeidt took the other day.
Shall I tell you the secret of the whole world? It is that we have only known the back of the world. We see everything from behind, and it looks brutal. That is not a tree, but the back of a tree. That is not a cloud, but the back of a cloud. Cannot you see that everything is stooping and hiding a face? If we could only get round in front…
-G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday
Inspired by Remomber
It’s Master Chief, the iconic spacesuit dude from Halo, that one video game I’ve never played.
I know close to nothing about Halo. I did this mostly to test out some things with editing, presentation and outdoor photography.
On a related note: Ben Caulkins (AKA Benny Brickster) has been building is own life-sized Master Chief armor. This is pretty cool, even to a non-halo fan such as myself. Be sure to check out Ben’s other LEGO stuff on his flickr photostream.
I had forgotten how fun microscale building is. It forces you to look at pieces in a different way. It also (usually) involves more building and troubleshooting, and less digging around looking for pieces.
While my siblings and I were playing in my room the other day (with LEGO, what else?), I chanced to pick up piece 50860. The more I looked at this piece, the more I realized what it looked like. It was almost the exact shape of the Prawn robot-suit’s torsoe in the movie District 9. I quickly set about building this vehicle.
What I thought of District 9
District 9 is a story about two races (Humans and Aliens) that are at odds with each other. The hero is forced to see things from the aliens’ point of view. There are robots in it. District 9 is like what Avatar could have been.
In Avatar, all of the humans are evil corrupt bad guys (with the exeption of a few), and all of the aliens are perfect both morally and phisically. This is totally unrealistic. Sure Avatar is set on another planet with glowing plants and hexapedal animals, but peoples is peoples. Peoples should feel like peoples.
In Avatar, the top badguy man was like “Let’s steal from the Na’vi!”, and all of the mercenary dudes were like “…Okay!”.
In District 9, neither the Prawn nor the Humans are perfect. The Prawn are shown killing humans for their wallets, and the humans are shown opening up fire on the Prawn at the slightest provocation.
This makes more sense and seems closer to real life.
The the objective of the humans in District 9 is to relocate all of these bugs so that they won’t be a menace to society. The humans have a reason for being mean to the Prawn, and the Prawn have a reason to fight back.
In Avatar, I had no idea what half of what they were saying meant.
Another thing that struck me about this move was the visual effects. They were amazing, but very subtle. After a while you forget that one of the main character is a puppet in a computer.
The special effects in Avatar were awesome, but they were at times more convincing than the characters and the story they were supposed to tell.
I also liked how the Prawn technology was similar, and at times compatible with human technology.
District 9 is a film about humans and aliens, but in the end it’s about neither. It’s about people.
Wikus, the main charecter, learns that “just following orders” and “looking out for number one” are what make the world such a messed up place. He gives up what he hoped for most when he returns the kindness shown him by Christofer the Prawn.
All in all, District 9 is a wonderful film, and I highly recommend it. Be aware, however, that there is a great deal of profanity, dismemberment, blood, gore, and exploding body parts.
I don’t want to give anything away, but the story did remind me of this quote by G.K. Chesterton:
“Over-civilization and barbarism are within an inch of each other. And a mark of both is the power of medicine-men.”
