Mark Thomson: 2007

Introducing Olive

4:22 PM

Here's Olive, our brand-new family member. She's an eight-week-old female pug. Rob's wanted one forever, and we were missing Coco a lot. She's probably going to be easier going, because she's a much smaller dog than Coco was. Only thing is, we have to house train her, and do obedience training again. She's very well behaved so far, quite an easy-going nature, occasionally...

Giant Alien Worm

3:46 PM

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Too much

9:24 AM

Not having a lot of fun at the moment with the property. It's been too much work, and I get the feeling we've bitten off more than we can chew. There's just too much land to maintain without the right equipment. Rob was talking about getting a lawn mower the other day, but I think we need a tractor.We've been through 4 sprayers...

Urgh feeling a bit rough...

10:50 AM

Went to Rob's work Xmas party on Friday. It was okay as far as Xmas parties go - some nice people in attendance. But the food at the restaurant itself was horrific - bugger all of anything, not much to choose from, and the chicken looked like it wasn't cooked properly. I've been feeling a bit rough for the last few days, and...

Sketch: Woman

11:41 AM

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Sketch: Eve

11:37 AM

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Sketch: Rally Car

11:34 AM

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dvd

Blades of Glory

10:57 AM

Funnier than expected, and most of the laughs coming from Will Ferrell's character. When he's switched on he's hilarious, but not always - Stranger Than Fiction being a recent example. The story is a sports-comedy in similar vein to Dodgeball - sports film about a ridiculous sport - and although the ending is pretty predictable, it's more about what happens along the way...

Sketch: Colored Martians

8:21 AM

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Sketch: Man

2:30 PM

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Sketch: Gun Girl

8:19 AM

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Sketch: Hack'n'Slash Characters

8:18 AM

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Sketch: Brit

8:17 AM

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Sketch: Martian

8:16 AM

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Sketch: Simpsons

8:13 AM

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dvd

Disturbia

9:26 AM

Pretty much a remake of Rear Window, it seems to be unable to decide if it's a teen romance comedy or a thriller. Little happening but teen romance, comedy, and boredom intermixed with the occasional is he/isn't he a killer plot, until the latest 30 minutes when it kicks into full-on thriller mode and goes for it. Shia is likeable as always, and...

It was easier to build the pyramids

4:20 PM

The house is progressing and we've finally got most of the details hammered out. Rob's just got some fine details to sort out this week, septic, air conditioning, and some minor plan changes to do, and we're on our way to a preliminary contract. There's been a few price shocks (just about needed the paramedic's shock paddles when I got the quote for...

dvd

They're back baby!

4:07 PM

UPDATE: Bad news everyone! Those asinine morons at Box have removed the trailer from You Tube. I guess they don't want publicity to sell their DVD's. Go figure! Till then check it out here.Ezy have a page up for it here, but no release date yet.Yay Futurama's back! Can't wait for this to come out. No word yet on when it's released in...

dvd

Sunshine

2:10 PM

Visually it's amazing, story-wise it's a mess. Nothing much happens for awhile, then a series of random events occur causing the heroes to spiral into disaster, and then it ends leaving you going 'meh! - what was the point of that??.' I don't know whether they actually picked up a looney, or whether the crew just went nuts? They make some comments about...

Cool Animated Advert

10:10 AM

Check out this cool animated advert featuring a hand drawn characters adventures, and the animator intervening to help the character through his or her day. ...

dvd

Back to the Future Part 1

1:01 PM

I still remember seeing the first part of the trilogy - I missed out on seeing it at the movies with the family, and had to wait for it to come out on VHS. Still it was a fantastic movie, and even today there's never been another film like it. The story line is so cleverly thought out and meticulously constructed, and the...

dvd

Back to the Future Part 2

10:22 AM

Usually Part 2 isn't a favourite with most people, but I like the complexity of it. Lots more time travel, technology, and general mind-bending-ness appeals to my inner geek. The effects are an impressive leap beyond the previous installment, and the different versions of Hill Valley are very well done. It's interesting to see the town evolve through the different time periods. Also,...

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Back to the Future Part 3

12:37 PM

Probably not my absolute favourite of the installments, but it's still a fun installment. I find the love story tends to slow the pace down a bit, especially after the frenetic pace of the previous part. But the continuity is good tying up loose ends while still retaining links to Hill Valley, the McFly's vs Tannen's etc, and the Wild West setting makes...

Settling in

11:27 AM

We're finally settling into our new digs. One thing's for sure we can't complain about the lack of space anymore. Everyone seems a lot happier and more relaxed - less like caged animals. I think it's going to be good for us being out of the tiny little shed. I don't want to sound ungrateful though, because our inlaws were very generous to...

tech

How to recover a malfunctioning HD

11:05 AM

The Unix utility dd is a disk copying utility that can be used from the command line to create a disk image. It can make a bit copy of the drive it's copying. If you have a drive that spins up, but does not mount because of damage, you can use the following:dd bs=512 if=/dev/disk1 of=/some_dir/image.dmg conv=noerror,syncUsing the switch noerror allows the copy...

Sketch: Bender

8:50 AM

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Sketch: Alien

8:24 AM

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We will get that killer death bee!

9:17 AM

Here's a sketch I was asked to draw. It's finally finished and is going in the post today. Took a bit longer than some of the others, because I put a lot of effort doing some gray toning (the scan doesn't show the true awesomeness of the final sketch). Now I've finished this, I'll be able to get back to Rally Mark, although...

Always on the move

9:58 AM

Well we're on the move again. Ros offered us her rental property because it's empty at the moment. Big downside though is we won't be living rent free anymore, which is a pain because we're trying to save for a house. But Rob can't take living in the two room shed for another 6 months, so we're moving again. I really hate moving...

How to use TCPDUMP

10:24 AM

This command line tool is included with all versions of Mac OS X, and is also available on many other Unix platforms. To get started, try the following command.sudo tcpdump -i en0 -s 0 -w DumpFile.dmpThe sudo command causes tcpdump to run with privileges, which is necessary to access promiscuous mode.The -i en0 option tells tcpdump to capture packets on the first Ethernet...

By popular request...

11:21 AM

Okay so I got a windup about not putting sketch photos up. So here they are. Thanks to Rob for giving me a kick in the pencil-case when I need it... They're all fan art or requests. Hopefully I'll feel motivated to produce some original characters now. Okay so I got a windup about not putting sketch photos up. So here they are....

Auckland Armageddon 2007

8:29 AM

Well after a week of insane running around we've finally made it the main event - Armageddon 2007. Just quietly I was crapping my pants because I've never gone to an event as an artist before and had to produce art with people hovering over me. I suffer from performance anxiety when people are watching, mostly because I don't feel my stuff is...

Ski your ass off

10:25 AM

Finally finished running around the place dropping stuff off. Only one more person left to visit now, so it's time for some play. Micky's gone out for a girly day with Beagle - apparently they're having pedicures. Meanwhile the boys are going to Snow Planet for an all-day snow-ganza of fun! The prices have really improved since I was last here and I...

The immense trek is over

3:35 PM

Okay so we've done 650 kilometers in 4 days. We did the mad drive up to Coopers Beach to visit Rob's Nan - it should have taken 4 hours, it took more like 5 hours by the time we followed the Twin Coast Discovery route that everyone told us to follow. Problem was it went off the main highway, took you out to...

Working for da man

4:28 PM

No travelling today - spent the day helping our good friends move furniture and tidy their house. The weather was pretty grotty anyway, with freezing cold winds and rain showers, so there wasn't a hell of a lot you could do anyway. We're heading up to Mangonui tomorrow to visit Rob's Nan, which should be nice, although we'll be in a technology-vacuum for...

Back in good ole NZ

9:07 AM

Well we're back in NZ visiting friends. Not much has changed, sure there's the occasional new building on the skyline, but the traffic is still absolutely horrendous (2 hours from the airport mid-afternoon), and there's so much wind and rain it's been constantly cold and damp since we got here. Okay sometimes I complain about the heat in Brisbane, but I'm kinda wishing...

Wicked weather

9:29 AM

It's been totally bizarre here the last few days. One minute it's stinking hot, then it's raining full on with thunder, lightning, the total package. Driving home yesterday, pleasant one minute, then got dark, started raining with seriously large drops. Mass flooding, rivers sprang up from nowhere, then the hail started. Huge chunks of frozen ice started slamming down on the car, thick...

Godzilla!

8:59 AM

Micky found this monitor outside the other day. Pretty big lizard, it wasn't too keen on being near us, so it shot up the tree. We'd circle around the tree to get a look at it, and it would move around the other side away from us. We watched it for awhile, then let it go about it's business. Looks like it's lost...

dvd

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

1:11 PM

Wow impressive stylized animation, a great story, and a helluva lot more fun than Cars. A great little animated film. It is a shame that not all the turtles are given equal screen time or character development (I'm particularly fond of Donatello, who doesn't do much in this film). Perhaps in subsequent sequels that will be addressed. It was nice that there were...

Halogasm

3:57 PM

McFarland's have posted up pictures of their new Halo 3 figures all finished, sculpted and painted to perfection. Check them out. McFarland's have posted up pictures of their new Halo 3 figures all finished, sculpted and painted to perfection. Check them out. ...

Too dang busy

1:25 PM

Just been too busy lately - too much to do at work, too much to do at home. No time for anything. Everytime I clear my workload, our client ships over another huge pile for me to work on. At home, we're busy clearing lantana and nightshade on the property still, and I've had wisdom teeth out, lots of dental fillings, and drawing/painting...

Dracula's

1:30 PM

Took our friend's to Dracula's on the Gold Coast as a special treat the other night. They thought we were going to Outback Spectacular, but were pleasantly surprised when we arrived there. Outback next time! The venue was a lot of fun, and the performers went out of their way to entertain, and be really helpful and pleasant. The atmosphere was great, and...

AVP : Requiem trailer

4:03 PM

Now this looks more like it. If they'd made the first one R rated instead of that PG-13 abomination it would have been much better. This one looks awesome! They've actually given us blood this time, and kick-ass combat scenes. Finally an actual movie for adults! Now as long as the studios don't screw it up, it should be great.Check out the trailer...

Lunar Eclipse

10:56 AM

Had a go photographing the Lunar Eclipse last night. It was a bit tricky, because it was overcast and the clouds were forever drifting in front of the moon - particularly challenging when you have to hold the shutter open to get enough light to photograph the event in the first place. Luckily I got some good shots, and it was a chance...

More Leaked Halo Goodness

10:35 AM

Please make this movie someone? If it looks this good now, imagine what it could be with some serious time, money and effort behind it. View it before its gone!And here's the first one in case you missed that before. ...

Weta amazes again

3:50 PM

The Halo movie had better get made, because if the stuff Weta keeps showing off is any indication, it would be freaking awesome! Check out this amazing Warthog they've put together, along with the authentic looking Marine guy. This looks just like the game, only better! I can't understand why Microsoft wouldn't just pony up the cash to get this film made. If...

Testing the video plugin

11:57 AM

I've never used the video plugin before, so here's a short video of our current office space, so I can test it out. Note the supremely cool Death Jr on my desk, behind the disgusting amount of paperwork to process. I took this with my new w850i - pretty good phone, but a bit disappointed with the minimal amount of memory it came...

I'm having issues

11:31 AM

I'm having some issues with my job: they don't pay me on time, I'm eight months behind on my superannuation because they haven't sorted it out, and promises in general have so far failed to materialise. I don't blame them, most of the problems are caused by clients not paying on time, although I think they need someone to manage the administration. And...

Die Hard 4.0

5:23 PM

Went to see Die Hard 4.0 last night. I was surprised it wasn't a complete abomination, as some of the reviews had suggested as much. I'm still disappointed though that they shot for a PG-13 (bizarrely it was rated M here though). It's a Die Hard movie, so you expect buckets of blood, and swearing, and violence. Bloodless violence seems a bit pointless,...

Oh the madness!

2:40 PM

Beeb is driving me mad at the moment. He's being bullied so badly at school, that he's off until they fix up the bully problem. Which means I've drawn the short straw, and I'm taking him to work with me. Ordinarily that would be fine, but since all the bullying started up, he's being quite difficult to deal with. I can't get him...

dvd

300

2:02 PM

Wow what an awesome movie! Visually its very impressive. It's certainly very stylized, and I like that it adhered to the look of the graphic novel. The CG effects are seamless, and it's quite impressive that it was shot on green screen, since a lot of the environments look so realistic. The story is well written, and well acted. It is quite graphically...