Showing posts with label Silver Surfer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Silver Surfer. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Surfer Girl (AGAIN)


I really like this picture. I'd like to take these sort of photos this summer. Monkey's Valley and Jeffrey's are possible spots (Llandudno is being done to death).

When I went to George a few weeks ago, I quickly drove in to Harold's Bay - it's near Mossel Bay - just to check it out. I took a few arbitrary pictures of the bay (unusable), and as I got up to leave I noticed two pretty teenagers in bikini's checking me out. I thought of going back to ask them to pose (hey, something to do - beaches can be boring), but it felt like a creepy thing to do. Driving away I thought differently. If I was on the beach, looking good, I wouldn't mind someone coming around offering to take photos (not taking without permission) and emailing them to me. I dunno. Guess it's debatable.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Developer Builds Around Woman's Home


Framed by the windows of an abandoned business one block away, Edith Macefield's Ballard home is surrounded on three sides by garbage-strewn lots. But she has no plans to move. Source: The Seattle Times

SEATTLE (AP) — When 86-year-old Edith Macefield refused a $1 million offer to move from her Seattle home, a developer started building a five-story project around it.

Macefield said that she doesn't need the money and that she doesn't want to move from her home, where she has lived since 1966. A concrete wall looms within feet of her kitchen window as the project rises.

Macefield's 108-year-old house is the last home on the block near the Ballard bridge.
Macefield said that she doesn't mind the noise of the construction site.

Construction workers watch out for Macefield, particularly superintendent Barry Martin who says it's like having your grandmother around.

From Associated Press

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Silver surfers rule the net


By Tom Dennen

Survey finds that oldies spend more time online than youngsters.

Media watchdog Ofcom’s UK Internet user figures are out – and are a typical reflection of affluent Internet users. Pensioners - ‘Silver Surfers’ – spend more time online than youngsters.
Pensioners surfing the internet are spending more time online than their younger counterparts. The "Silver Surfers" dedicate an average of 42 hours a month to the World Wide Web, compared with 37.9 hours among 18 to 24-year-olds, the survey concluded.

A greater interest in hobbies, news and local issues among the elderly is believed to be driving the trend, which sees over-65s account for nine per cent of all time spent online in the UK. The figures debunk the traditional image of pensioners as technophobes and youngsters as web wizards.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Thor and Mjolnir*


I am a huge fan of DC Comics characters and as a small boy I thought after the first Superman movie we'd see something like what we're only seeing today. It's taken a long time for the Batman, Spiderman, X-men franchises to emerge. What about the Flash, and Green Lantern, Wonderwoman, Shazam, Thor etc etc. I still don't understand why the majority of movies aren't based on comic books (eg action with superheroes). Wasn't Spiderman 2 the most successful movie of all time? Doesn't that say something?
Instead we've had pretend comic characters like James Bond (super spy), recently XXX and Jason Bourne (super spies), and on TV, Knight Rider (super car) and Airwolf (super helicopter).

It's an old trick when introducing the genre that you save the best for last. In other words, you introduce the alien or the new character in the last 3rd of the movie.

Problem is in this film (Fantastic Four, Rise of the Silver Surfer) you hardly ever see the Silver Surfer. The character himself is amazing, but unfortunately most of the time in this movie is spent preparing for a wedding. Yawn.... I've give this movie a 6, but if you're a tweeny, you might think it's worth a slightly more fantastic score.

*From Wiki.com: In Norse mythology, Mjolnir (also spelled Mjölnir, Mjöllnir, Mjollner, Mjølnir, Mjølner, or Mjölner) (IPA pronunciation: [mjolnər]) is the hammer of Thor, the god of thunder, lightning, wind, and rain.

"Mjolnir" simply means "mealer" referring to its pulverizing effect. It is related to words such as the Icelandic verbs mölva (to crush) and mala (to grind), but similar words, all stemming from the Proto-Indo-European root melə can be found in almost all European languages, e.g. the Slavic melvo (grain to be ground) and molotu (hammer), the Dutch meel (meal), the Russian Молот (molot - hammer), the Greek μύλος (mylos - mill) and the Latin malleus (hammer) as well as the Latin mola (mill).

The English meal, mill and maul are direct relatives, while mallet and molar arrived via Latin. It has been suggested that although the name reflects Mjolnir's awesome powers it might also allude to Thor's agricultural nature, as he was primarily worshipped by farmers. An alternative theory suggests that Mjolnir might be related to the Russian word молния (molniya) and the Welsh word mellt (both words being translated as "lightning"). This second theory parallels with the idea that Thor, being a god of thunder, therefore might have used lightning as his weapon.[1]


Overview
Mjolnir is the most fearsome weapon in the arsenal of the Norse pantheon and is used to slay any challengers to Æsir supremacy. While referred to as a club, an axe, and a hammer, Mjolnir was thought to be capable of toppling giants and entire mountains with a single blow.[2] Legend surrounding the war hammer’s origins vary: some relate that "The Black Elves" (that live under the ground where the roots of Yggdrasil begin to form, in Svartalfheimr; svartalf being a dwarf or "black elf"), Sindri and Brokk made it at the behest of the calculating Loki; other tales contend that it descended to earth as a meteorite. Consequently, many Norse pagans believed that lightning strikes were a manifestation of Mjolnir on earth.

Mjolnir is often represented with a bent handle (see the myth below). The rune Tiwaz, usually thought to be a symbol of the god Tyr, is thought by some to represent Thor's hammer. Mjolnir may also mean fertility, the phallus that impregnates the earth.

Sometimes Thor's Hammer is like a "boomerang". Usually, it is used as normal war hammer. There may be a connection between Thor's throwing hammer and the francisca throwing axes of the Franks.