Getting My Geek On

So, I joined the xkcd forums. That place is FILLED with geeks and clever people...
I've been a member of many forums (e.g. Twilighted, various HP ones), but they aren't for, well, deep discussion right? I see you, BBR ;)

Twitter Etiquette: A Guide

Twitter. It's a wonderful tool with many different uses, but I find myself getting annoyed from time to time. Maybe I'm just getting old... lol but here are some rules I generally stick to when twittering.

1. I never feel obliged to follow someone, just because they follow me. If they have something interesting to say, sure. If they strike up some conversation with me, sure. But if I find what they say uninteresting, I don't see the point in following them, just for their tweets to clog up my feed.
2. Feel free to block/unfollow if you want. Blocking spammers/bots is actually recommended. Being unfollowed shouldn't be taken as an insult. Some people find themselves following far too many people to keep up with, and if you aren't saying anything that interests them then they may unfollow you. Same thing the other way around. If you aren't interested in someone's tweets, unfollow them. 
3. Follower numbers don't interest me. I would rather someone follow me because they find what I say interesting, or want to get to know me than just to have a certain number of followers. It's always nice when someone genuinely starts following you but high follower numbers are not the point of Twitter if you ask me.
4. Retweeting. The idea behind retweeting is to show your followers something from someone you follow that you found particularly interesting/amusing/etc. and want to show others, not just as a means of replying. I don't need to see your replies to people I don't follow. Especially as it comes as loads of snippets of the conversations I'm not privy to. 
5. Run-on tweets. Personally I don't mind these. Sometimes 140 characters just isn't enough space, which is fair enough. Just don't make it a habit. It leads to clogged-up feeds. Anything longer than a few tweets should be taken elsewhere.
6. Twitter is a place to vent if need be. But don't let it be the only thing you use Twitter for. People are not going to continue to be interested/sympathetic if you repeatedly post about how bad that cup of coffee was or something. It'll turn into a case of the boy who cried wolf.
7. Don't feel scared to jump into conversations in your feed i.e. to tweetjack them. They will often welcome your opinion. 

So those are my top ones that I can think of. Of course, these rules are more of a guide.
Any others that you think should be here, or ones that you disagree with?

Remember Me *Spoilers*

So I finally got to see Remember Me last night, and I have to say I think it was worth the wait. It definitely lived up to my expectations :) .


First things first, the acting was great, from each and every character. Especially from Rob and Emilie. Tyler was lost, broken, frustrated, but you didn't feel he was whiny about it. He's a strong person, but still trying to deal with a lot of crap. And Ally is the same, just with different crap. 


And the understanding of the other made the relationship between Ally and Tyler completely workable, as they could help each other. And as my sister said, at least they got to say how they felt about each other.


The relationship between Caroline (Ruby Jerins) and Tyler was so sweet, and a proper Brother/Sister relationship. The cutest bit was Tyler dancing with her. And Ruby is an amazing little actress. I can't wait to see where she goes, what she does.


Aidan cracked me up. Best line from him: "Freeennchh toooaassst..." from his bunk. 


The dad. You could palpably feel the frustration from Tyler about his dad's perceived apathy towards himself and Caroline, and towards the suicide of his brother, Michael. Tyler's unsurprised disappointment that his dad didn't go to Caroline's art show and the 'showdown' afterwards was a great scene.


Ok... the climax of the film. Woah. Killer. I twigged early on that it was leading up to 9/11, but I had no idea how it was going to pan out, but as soon as I saw Tyler in the lift to go meet the lawyer... I was like "Shit! No, no ,no!" 
Tyler then saw the pictures of himself, and his siblings on his dad's screensaver. You could see his forgiveness/acceptance of his father at this little thing.


The diary fluttering in the aftermath, the wobbly chin of his dad, of his sister killed me. I had tears running down my face. It's just so sad... he needed to reconcile completely with his dad, see his sister grow up to be an artist, marry Ally and have lots of kids, see Aidan finally settle down... Even thinking about it... lol so sad.


This film is so affecting. It stays with you long after the credits stop rolling. So glad it got made, even happier that Rob got to be in it.


Side thoughts:
Tyler in the white t-shirt in the book store. Favourite outfit...
Is there something about 22 that is unlucky...?
Completely forgot the other stuff I was gonna put here... may add it later.

What Men Should Really Be Wearing

So I have come to a conclusion. Granted I didn't think long and hard over it. There are no references or shit like that BUT I do believe all men look better when dressed like this:

The filming of Bel Ami has just reiterated the fact that there is just something about a guy in a suit like the one above (and I have always thought that Rob should wear better fitted clothes more often *ducks from thrown tomatoes*). 

I shall present more evidence:

Ben Barnes in Dorian Gray

It was watching Dorian Gray which convinced me of this fact that men should always wear suits like these. And I don't care what they say about it. We have to wear heels...

Bring it back, please... and thank you :) .

And for your viewing pleasure (and the event that put the nail in the coffin of my conclusion), a little crappy gif I threw together:

So is it just me? Have I gone a bit mad...? Probably but whatever... lol.

Ben Barnes pics/screencaps from Ben Barnes Online

The Jameson Empire Awards and Other Things

So the Nominations for the Jameson Empire Awards have come out.

I'm gonna highlight the ones I voted for in red, and the ones I think will actually win in blue. If there is just one, in blue, I voted for who I think will win.

Best Newcomer:

• Carey Mulligan (An Education) <-She is the award season's darling
• Aaron Johnson (Nowhere Boy) <- I'm not a great fan of this guy, he seems very arrogant...
• Sharlto Copley (District 9)
• Anna Kendrick (Up In The Air/ New Moon)
• Katie Jarvis (Fish Tank)

Best Thriller:

• Harry Brown
• Public Enemies
• Inglourious Basterds <-Love this film so much
• The Hurt Locker <- By the looks of clips I've seen, it does look thrilling.
• Sherlock Holmes <- Thriller?

Best Horror:

• Let The Right One In <- So I actually haven't seen any of these & didn't vote, but heard this one is great
• Paranormal Activity
• Zombieland
• Thirst
• Drag Me To Hell

Best Comedy:

• In The Loop
• A Serious Man
• The Hangover <- Supposedly hilarious
• Up In The Air <- Only one I've seen...
• The Men Who Stare At Goats

Best Sci-Fi/ Fantasy:

• Moon
• Star Trek
• Avatar <- I did love this, and it sort of has to win Best Sci-Fi
• District 9
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus <- Saw this, very weird and wonderful, very Terry Gilliam

Best Actor:

• Sir Michael Caine (Harry Brown)
• Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) <- See below
• Robert Pattinson (New Moon)
• Sam Worthington (Avatar)
• Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes)

Best Actress:

• Anne Marie Duff (Nowhere Boy)
• Carey Mulligan (An Education) 
• Zoe Saldana (Avatar)
• Emily Blunt (The Young Victoria) <- Great film, that hasn't had near enough attention
• Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds)

Best Director:

• James Cameron (Avatar)
• Neill Blomkamp (District 9)
• JJ Abrams (Star Trek)
• Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
• Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)

Best British Film:

• Harry Brown
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
• An Education
• Nowhere Boy
• In The Loop

Best Film:

• Avatar
• Star Trek
• District 9
• Inglourious Basterds
• The Hurt Locker

Now, other than telling you my vote and my predictions for this set of awards... I did have another motive to write this post.

Robert Pattinson will most likely win Best Actor. This will probably not bring me any friends by saying this but for his acting in New Moon, compared to the others in their respective films, does not lend itself to a Best Actor accolade. I'm actually surprised Jeremy Whats-his-name from the Hurt Locker didn't get a look-in.

I am categorically NOT saying that I think Rob can't act. On the contrary, I think he can, he's very good at what he does. I just do not think the Twilight films, thus far, have shown off his acting chops well, just his (admittedly quite good) ability to stand there looking pretty and brooding. And he wasn't even in NM that much... js. 

Due to the influence of the millions of fans behind him, he will probably win. But I really want Christoph Waltz to win. Every time he walked on screen, you just knew something fantastically horrible was going to happen.

This used to happen to the Harry Potter films. They are relatively good films, with actors who have improved over the course of the films. But every time they used to go up for public vote against films/actors that were admittedly better than they were, they would win because of fan power.

I don't want to stop you from voting for him though, if that makes sense. If you really think he was the best actor out of that selection then go for it. Vote for him! (And I'm not being sarcastic or anything). I would just like you to think about who you are voting for a little bit. Don't just vote on autopilot.


Now go VOTE.

The Robsten Factor

Ok... so Robsten. I normally keep out of this debate because IMHO, it honestly makes no difference to my day-to-day life, or my enjoyment of their films as to whether they are together or not. To be fair, they do make a very pretty couple... (Fig.1) but that means jack really.

 

 Fig. 1 

Now the reason I am breaking my "silence" about this topic is because of this article, Exhibit A.

Marie Claire... obviously not a broadsheet newspaper or anything. Just a glossy magazine. But the article claims that Rob and Kristen's management have told them to spend less time together, i.e. split up. 

Now, I can see several things wrong with that sentence...

1. Rob and Kristen being an item, if anything, will bring MORE publicity to their respective projects. And it'll be good publicity, too. After all... all publicity is good publicity.
2. I'm pretty sure someone's management cannot tell someone what to do with their personal lives, because, well, it's their personal life.
3. And finally, we are still waiting for any type of confirmation that they are together, even if there is perhaps quite a lot of evidence (depending on how you look at it...) pointing to it. Just saying, don't shoot me.

Now I am not saying they are together. I'm not saying they aren't. I'm just ranting about the complete BS rumours that all the rags manage to cobble together from, at the most, hear-say.

I'm getting of my high horse now. I probably won't come back to this topic, just refer to this ;)

The Oscar Noms: Thoughts

So the Oscar noms were announced today. Well they were no real surprises I suppose but here are my thoughts:

Avatar got its Best Film, Director, SFX nod as expected. Thankfully not the Screenplay one because let's be honest here... Avatar's story wasn't exactly original. Good enough to keep the audience interested, yes. Original, no.

It is blatantly going to win the SFX one. It sort of has to. I mean, did you even realise that essentially, unless it was the live action sequences, computer animated! From the scenery to the characters, everything. I was completely engrossed when I went to see this film in IMAX 3D. Well worth the premium prices...

Debatable if it wins Director or Best Film, but a strong contender.

Up In The Air... I went to see this last week? Yeah, last week. I really enjoyed it, funny, heart-warming as well as thought provoking. George Clooney managed to say the name 'Ryan' in perhaps the sexiest way, EVER. I went all gooey ;)

And Anna Kendrick was fabulous in it. Completely deserves the Oscar nod, as does George and Vera Farmiga (who struck me as a prettier Maggie Gyllenhaal). I think I want Anna to win the most, but I'd be happy for either to win.

The ending was a bit weird... which left me a little unsatisfied but it doesn't take away from the rest of the film very much.

Now, Inglourious Basterds. I really, really enjoyed this film when I went to see it. For a start, it is one of the only films out there that is mostly not in English. I'm not sure I really needed all the gratuitous violence (I had to look away at a few points) but the performances of some of the cast were amazing. In particular, Christoph Waltz. He is essentially the visible Baddie. Hitler was there, briefly, in the background, but it was Waltz's character that really gave you the heebie-jeebies whenever he walked on screen.

And if you aren't a fan of how the rest of the film pans out, Christoph Waltz should get the Oscar just for the first scene. A-MAZ-ING. Really sets the tone, and creeps you the hell out!

Without a doubt, though, the best line in the whole film was Brad Pitt managing to put a Southern US accent onto Italian. Hilarious...

Some aside notes. Up! is gonna win Best Animation most probably, and Wallace and Gromit the Best Animated Short.

Also if there was Best Set Production, Harry Potter would/should win hands down every time. Seriously, have you seen the amount of detail that goes into those films??

The Inaugural Post

So... yeah. I thought I set up one of these blog things. You know, jump on the band wagon and all that lol.

Not sure how often I'll post but I hope to make posts about things that interest me, i.e. current affairs and stuff like that. Others may just be pic dumps... or talking about fic.

Just so you know, I'm one of those people who become obsessed, like really easily. First it was Harry Potter (which I still am obsessed about to be fair) and now it's Twilight.

And no judgment please on the fact I like this:

And this:

They are both pretty hot IMHO... ;)