Mobile Girl

Claire and I are pretty tech connected people. We both use our desktop PC's, iPads and phones daily, and Ada is present for a lot of that interaction of man and machine.

So it comes as no surprise to learn that Ada has a fascination with mobile phones and iPads. She sees us on them all the time, and they glow with inviting colours. Claire let Ada chew on her bright red silicone phone cover when she started teething, and she still likes to play with that.

But few toys hold her attention when our phones are in sight. I sometimes let her play with my phone if she's by my side on a soft surface, but all too often, it ends up in her mouth at some point, and that's just not healthy, for baby or phone.

So, on my way home today, I stopped into my phone network's local store and asked about the dummy display phones they keep on the display shelves, and what happens to them once they're no longer needed. One of the staff immediately asked what model my own phone was, disappeared into the back room and returned with a dummy version of my phone.

He handed it to me and suggested I give it a good and thorough cleaning. I thanked him, and walked home, delighted, with an unusual gift for my darling girl.

Ada now has her own phone to chew on, play with and babble at, just like mummy and daddy does. Because it's the same model as my own phone, it looks and feels the same, and even weighs the same. It doesn't light up, but at the same time, the screen is always colourful to look at. It even shares a feature with my phone. My lock screen has a digital effect that looks like there's water between the glass layers of the screen. When you press and swipe, the bubble moves with your finger, and it looks really cool. When I washed Ada's phone, actual water got into the device[1], so now there's a bubble of water under the screen that moves when you press and swipe!

Ada loves her phone. Now if only I could find a dummy iPad as well...

[1] - Don't wash your phone by immersing it, kiddies! Also, probably don't use soap and water.

 

Yo Joe!

This is easily one of the best videos I've seen in a long time! Fantastic!

The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Olivia Wilde

Just look at that cast list!! Alan Tudyk, Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup and Vinnie Jones, to name just a few! Even WWF legend Sgt Slaughter makes an appearance! He had a GI Joe action figure back in the day, and got to voice his own character in the cartoon. Awesome!

Resolute

Some of you may be aware already that I am a big fan of G.I. Joe. As a kid, the 3"3/4' scale Joe action figures made up the vast bulk of my toy collection, aided by the fact that both myself and my brother collected them religiously. Birthdays, Christmas', Communions, any excuse we could find was channelled into the Joes. I still have my first two Joe figures, General Hawk and Lifeline. Back then they were called Action Force over here, but while they started differently, they quickly became the same thing. We had the best comics as well. While Marvel produced the superb GI Joe monthly comic by legendary Joe writer Larry Hama, Britain, and thus Ireland too, got a weekly series with a bunch of extra material to make up the page-count, and even got an awesome black'n'white 2000AD styled series, Battle Action Force.

My memories of the G.I. Joe cartoon as a child however are non-existent, as my first experience with it was in my late teens. Cheesy, flashy and simplistic in every way, the cartoons were the usual 80's stuff, fantastic when you were a kid, but absolutely dreadful now. The animated movie, released around the same time as the animated Transformers movie was marginally better, benefiting from a larger production budget and increased freedom with its plot.

In August of this year, just a few short months away already, we'll have GI Joe's first run at a live-action movie. I personally can't wait, but admit to my huge love as a strong bias for enjoying anything with the name G.I. Joe. That said, the trailer looks awesome!


But before that, we have what prompted me to write this late night meandering waffle of a love letter to a childhood toy line. G.I. Joe: Resolute is the newest effort at an animated G.I. Joe in recent years. Prior to this we had the poorly received animé inspired G.I. Joe: Sigma 6, which was probably still better than the 80's version but I'm older and wiser now and have no nostalgia for it. Also, it starred characters with the same names as the toys I played with, but with very little resemblance beyond that, either in design or attitude. Resolute on the other hand is clearly made for fans of the old series and toy line. No, this doesn't mean that Cobra will be pulling the Arora Borealis down to earth to melt the polar icecaps and flood the world (actual episode plot! "Haul Down the Heavens", episode 115, circa 1985). It's written for the fans that grew up with these characters, and are now all my age! Thus, it has cool technology, kick-ass ninjas, action, adventure, violence, and all the stuff we did in our games but never saw on TV! And it's written by Internet Jesus himself, Warren Ellis! In fact, he seems to be as excited about it as I am, which is fantastic!

Looks awesome. But will it have the same opening theme? My heart can only hope!

G.I. Joe: The Movie

As many of my friends know, despite having never set foot in the Americas, I am, and have been an huge fan of G.I. Joe ever since I was a kid. I collected Joe's almost exclusively through my childhood, in the manner I now collect Marvel Legends. Between myself and my brother Philip we had the largest collection of 3-3/4-inch figures among all our friends, including vehicles of all shapes and sizes! We called them Action Force for a while, then G.I. Joe, the Action Force, and finally, just G.I. Joe.

So when I heard that there was going to be a live action movie, I was thrilled. When I heard the blurb, I was... well, less thrilled.

A European-based military unit known as Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity (G.I.J.O.E.), a hi-tech, international force of special operatives takes on an evil organization led by a notorious arms dealer.

What the heck? European based? Acronyms? And no Cobra Commander? Urg. This was sounding terrible!

So you can imagine my joy when I read this official statement from Hasbro today on Entertainment News International:

Hasbro’s G.I. Joe Team wanted to take this opportunity to clarify some of the facts regarding the G.I. Joe live-action movie that we are developing with Paramount Pictures.

First and foremost, we are not changing what the G.I. Joe brand is about. The name “G.I. Joe” will always be synonymous with bravery and heroism.

The G.I. Joe brand has enjoyed a successful 43-year history, spanning two key generations. The first was the line of 12-inch “realistic military” figures that were popular with kids in the 1960s and 1970s.

The second generation, was created in 1982, and is based on a cast of fictional heroes and villains that make up the “G.I. Joe vs. Cobra” fantasy. The premise of this fantasy is the story of the G.I. Joe team, led by Duke, and their “fight for freedom wherever there is trouble” against the evil Cobra Commander and his Cobra force. This storyline was an instant hit with kids in the early 1980s, spawning a highly popular 3-3/4-inch action figure line, comic book collection and animated series.

This movie will be a modern telling of the “G.I. Joe vs. Cobra” storyline and its compelling characters that Hasbro created 25 years ago. The G.I. Joe team will not be based in Brussels. Instead, they will be based out of the “Pit” as they were throughout the 1980s comic book series. And, in keeping with the G.I. Joe vs. Cobra fantasy, the movie will feature characters and locations from around the world. Duke, the lead character and head of the G.I. Joe team, will embody the values of bravery and heroism that the first generation of G.I. Joe figures established.

G.I. Joe is a very important property to Hasbro and we thank all of our fans for their enthusiasm. Without all of you, the brand would not be where it is today.

Thank you.

"Yo Joe!! Looks like things are back on track! That sounds much better! I'm glad those awful rumours are 100% false", he said, trusting Hasbro to not mess everything up! Then Denis looked at his collection of Marvel Legend action figures since Hasbro bought the license, and cried. And cried and cried, long into the night...

Self Education: Photoshop

Yesterday I learned some more of the joys of Photoshop, and put together the image you see above. In doing so, I had the opportunity to learn a bunch of new skills, as well as take time out from my study, which is, I have to admit, beginning to melt my brain!

To be honest, this whole thing started as a neat, simple idea that quickly spiralled out of control. Originally it was just going to be Spidey sending his birthday wishes to a Flickr pal, but then I thought to add a party of friends. Then the idea of a handmade banner cropped up, and I played around with that for a bit.

Once I had a group set up and ready to shoot, I realised that Giant Sized Spidey didn't have a place to be, so I sketched out the basics of what I thought might work. He was then photographed separately against a green screen and removed from his own background to be placed in this image. This meant learning how to use masks, something I'd never tried before but was aware of.

Once Draft One was complete, I didn't like the text on the banner, so all of it was photoshopped out and brand new text was drawn into it on the computer! That had to be blurred, filtered, and have a little noise added to make it look smooth and part of the image as a whole. All new features to me again!

Draft Two complete, I realised Spidey now kinda just hung there, so I needed a frame. After going nuts trying to figure out how to just make a simple straight line and then put a curve in it, I almost gave up. Then I remembered about something called OOB (Out Of Bounds) a friend had used and looked that up, which taught me how to do the frame. A few minor adjustments and I was nearly there.

Thankfully I had learnt my lessons on layers from a previous project, so almost every element of the image was on separate layers, making it easy to have Spidey and the banner overlapping the frame!! But that brought up a new issue! You see, in the photo of Spidey I used, part of his left elbow was cut off. Originally I didn't mind it, as it was outside the viewing area of the image in early drafts, but now that I had added the frame, he needed to have a complete arm.

To solve this, I had to use another of the photos I had taken of Spidey against the green screen that did have the elbow but was an inferior picture. I cropped the needed part, dropped out the background using my newly acquired masking skills and grafted the missing piece onto the large image. Smudge tool and careful blurring made the area of surgery seamless! If I hadn't included this paragraph, I doubt any of you would notice the work unless you really went looking for it. It's a tiny thing, but possibly the one I'm most proud of for what I had to do and how it turned out.

A little cleaning up here and there and I was done! I'm really proud of this. Yes, I started it for my friends birthday, but I have to admit, I finished it for myself! The weird thing is, I've never met Fengschwing in real life! I only know him through Flickr. Ah, the joys of the internet!

Go check out the image in it's full, gloriously uncompressed resolution to criticise my work with confidence!

52 Weeks One Hero

Hi there, folks! Your friendly neighbourhood web-blogger here, taking over from Denis for a post. It wasn't that hard either. He leaves his account logged in, fool. All I had to do was wait until he was out and nab the keyboard!

Anyway, in his last post he talked about this whole 52 Weeks thing he's doing. Well, that inspired me to do something similar, but I figured having me turn up in the same group might not be the best idea. People might get annoyed. So I thought to myself, there are tonnes of action figures of little old me in the world, as well as tonnes of figures of lesser heroes. Surely there is somewhere that hosts portraits of toys! And sure enough there is.

Plastic 52 is all about respecting the little guy. Or gal, or monster, or car, or robot, or carobot, but you get the picture. So I joined up Denis' Flickr account to that too (he leaves that logged in as well! Will he never learn?). I've posted my first image, which, in the hopes of calming Denis down when he finds out what I've done, has him in it too.

So if any of you loyal readers have cool toys you might like to share with the world, come join us! It's a new group, so everyone's really friendly with everyone right now, which is great.

Anyway. I'm off to read some more Ultimate me. Did you know I'm dating Kitty Pryde in that universe? Man. I wish I could date Kitty Pryde. I wish I could date.

See ya in the funny pages!

The McSpuds

Seamus and Sheila have a new brother!

From Marvelous News.com.

Oh yes. He will be mine.

For those of you not lucky enough to remember or even know the Irish legend of preschool entertainment, Bosco, Seamus and Sheila were the two children of the McSpud family, a crazy stop-motion animation.