Blog Censorship

I have always wondered why many self-declared “popular” bloggers has active comment moderation and no tagboard. If they are so good and well-liked, is there a need for this?

Or are they unable to accept/defend any criticisms they encounter??

There must be something I am missing..

Radio Controlled

I’ve been playing radio controlled alot recently.

At first I thought it was because I can’t afford the time to do it when school reopens, but pondering further, I realize that when I play, my full concentration is on the car, allowing me to forget about other worries. Guiding the car through the track as fast as possible also gives me some sort of mini adrenaline rush.. Feeling is shiok..

-

I haven’t been able to exercise my creativity recently. And ever since army I felt I have not been productive or creative. Is it a sign of age? An aging brain trades creativity and capacity to learn for maturity. Its scientifically proven. But I am still really childish and immature. So where does this put me? I have absolutely no idea.

-

I am still struggling to come to terms with the fact that despite knowing so many who are better than me, it is perfectly alright. I often feel worthless when encountering people better than me. Which is why I try my best in the things I do. But sometimes you are just limited by your mental capacity. Many who had worked with me say that I am smart. But am I really? I think I have just average smartness, but slightly stronger power of concentration. Much like how a harmless beam of light can be focused by a lens to light a match. But when I focus on one thing, I neglect many other things. Maybe I am just not talented enough to stay in the race for the best.

-

Because of how exposure to those who are better than me will kill me, I detest competition. Yet, by a cruel turn of fate, I have to take part in CodeXtremeApp 2010, knowing very well my own limits. I hope this experience will not throw me into another round of emo and depression, much like how NOI 2006 did to me.

Taiwan Trip

Very lazy to blog about my Taiwan trip..

I will use my gf’s entries instead:P

Taiwan Day 1
Taiwan Day 2
Taiwan Day 3
Taiwan Day 4

She’s a much better blogger than I am:P

Watch this space for day 5 and 6 entries!

Here are selected photo highlights of the trip

Pixar: 20 Years of Animation (With Photos!)

Went to the Pixar: 20 Years of Animation exhibition exhibition at the Singapore Science Center yesterday as part of Omy.sg’s blog club.

I’ve read about Pixar’s history in the book iCon: The greatest second act in the history of business that detailed Steve’s Job’s struggles after he was booted out of the very company he founded. It was during this time that Steve Job bought Pixar (although for the hardware rather than film production capability), but it was because of Steve’s funds that Pixar could survive and produce Toy Story. Everything else, as they say, is history.

All Pixar’s movies are about originality, creativity and art. This is their winning recipe that allows them to be so successful. At this exhibition, we are all given a chance to witness the behind-the-scene effort of artists and animators at Pixar.

While photography of ANY kind was not allowed, we bloggers were allowed to freely take photos of the exhibits and share it with you guys!

One of the most cool stuff in the exhibit was this thing called Zoetrope. Using 150 3D models spinning on a huge dish to illustrate how animation actually works. Of course, using a digital camera, everything is a blur!

A video of how the zoetrope looks like to human eyes:

There is also this Artscape movie, presented in super high definition using 4 projectors working together to produce an immersive experience. Artscape showcases how the illusion of a 3D environment could be created with just 2D drawings. I watched Artscape twice:P

The exhibition also showcases many “art work” that gives the visitors an insight into the amount of work Pixar put in to design our favorite scenes and characters. Here are some photos of what I think are the more interesting ones.

This is the face of the baby in a Pixar short titled “Tin Toy”, which inspired Pixar to create Toy Story.

Sketch drawing of Tin Toy

Pencil drawing of Cars with feature highlight!

Sketch of how the character should be animated

Manga version of Ratatouille?

A story board detailing the process of story boarding

All the fish created to populate the environment of Finding Nemo.

There was also a movie showcase where I watched the various animation shorts that were created in Pixar’s early days, including Luxo Jr, Tin Toy, etc.

There was also a section in the exhibition dedicated to showcasing local animation works. Surprisingly, the quality of animation done by local poly looks alot like what Pixar’s shorts created 20-30 years ago. Hmmmm…

To finish this off, the exhibition is well worth your $20 as it has many many interesting tidbits, things that you will not find elsewhere. Singapore Science Center has also spent quite a sum of money in bringing equipments to maintain the humidity of the exhibition hall (much like an arts museum) so that they can host this exhibition. However, I felt that it is more suited for budding art students or animators. I doubt that most general public/bloggers would appreciate the content without knowing the background of Pixar before hand. For kids, there is nothing particular interactive or exciting (they would have a more exciting day playing masak masak at home), and there was little focus on the “science” of the animation. However, if you would like to find out how Pixar come up with the design of your favorite characters, and the talents of those working at Pixar, this exhibition is for you.

Exclusive Preview of Robin Hood Movie @ Illuma

Robin Hood will be available in most cinemas world wide tomorrow [See world-wide release dates], but I have already watched it yesterday (10 March 2010).

Here’s the proof:P

So hows the movie? This is a quick and brief review as I am still busy packing for my overseas trip tomorrow.

THE STARS

Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Max Von Sydow, Mark Strong, Danny Huston, Mark Addy

THE STORY

This movie chronicles how Robin Hood became Robin Hood (or Robin of the Hood). Robin Longstride (Robin before he put on the hood), traveled back to England with the dead King’s crown to report the news of the Kind demise. After that, to return a sword passed to him by a dying soldier on the battlefield, he traveled to Nottingham where he “kope” that dying soldier’s wife, led a group to fight for England, and went into the forest and became Robin of the Hood.

CONCLUSION
Most of us already know about the deeds of fictional and non-fictional heroes alike; there is nothing interested in seeing Ironman or Spiderman doing their job. Imagine a movie where we see Robin Hood robbing and robbing and robbing. Nothing interesting.

While most of us know who Robin Hood is and what he does, we do not know how he became Robin Hood, and this movie shows us just that. This movie also caters to a wide audience. There is romance, war and politics.

A must watch movie if you want to find out how Robin put on his hood!

A BIT TOO OBVIOUS
During the final battle scene, no one wore a full helm except for Lady Marion who came out of nowhere on a horse. I felt this is rather obvious that the actress did not know how to ride a horse, so by having her come into battle with a helm, we can’t see the face so they could easily substitute someone else to take her role!