Celestial Fulcrum finished

Here is the completed paint job for Hordes Circle Orboros faction their battle engine the Celestial Fulcrum.

Wildchevy

101 in 1001 project

Hey there!

Some of you observant little monkeys may have realised that I have a new page on this blog. 

Those who haven't noticed, well... I do. And here it is: clicky clicky

Basically, I have to pick 101 things that I would like to do or achieve and do as many as I can by Thursday 26th February 2015 (which would be 1,001 days from now).

The list can be as crazy: 

Tape my thumb to my palm and my tape the other fingers in twos to run around like a T-rex for a day

Honest to God, that is a genuine goal

Or as ambitious as you like:

Be part of a film

As long as it involves some work or effort on your part, and as long as they are realistic goals. No point saying that you want to go to the moon if you get motion sickness and don't like heights. 

I'm a little short of the 101 goals that I need, so if you'd like suggesting some, I'd be more than happy to listen to you! Also, if you plan on making your own one, please, let me know! I'd love to hear your goals!

And if you do plan on making one, I recommend using this website. It keeps track of all of your goals, ones that you've completed, ones that you've yet to complete and ones that are a work in progress. It's the website that started it all, so it's worth a look.

I'll update you on any goals that I manage to complete, and provide a link to the posts on the 101 in 1001 page, probably on the specific goal the post relates to itself.

Wish me luck!

Lauren xxx

A Weekend Trip to Edinburgh - Edinburgh Zoo

This is a separate post from the previous posts as there's a lot of pics to show in this one!

As a Chinese geek I must see the pandas in Edinburgh Zoo! That's my main reason for going up to Edinburgh. (^_^)v A few of my friends just thought I was crazy and obsessed! Noooo... not really... I blame the BBC for making a good programme about the panda's journey from China to Edinburgh...

Anyway, as we got off the bus, I started growing with ecstatic excitement! I started skipping along the road because I was so happy... (I think people thought what is this crazy woman doing!).

Outside The Zoo

Miss Pinky and I got there a bit early, so we had an hour to walk around before we went to see the pandas. The first animal we saw was this MASSIVE sealion sleeping on a rock with its tongue sticking out...

Massive Sealion!!

Next it was the flamingos, monkeys, bears, penguins, sleepy hippos, meerkats, otters... and so many other animals!!!!!

Forgot what these red birds are called! But they are with the flamingos! 

Monkeys, Sleepy Hippos, Sunny Bears and Penguins 

Meerkats, Otters and a Hog

Finally, it was time to see the pandas 大熊猫 (trad. 大熊貓). I think they were running a bit late, because people from the 1.30 pm showing were waiting too!

On my way to see the Pandas!

Awwwwwww.... Tian Tian 甜甜 a.k.a Sweety was fast asleep on her back...

Tian Tian 甜甜 fast asleep

Tian Tian 甜甜 still asleep

Yang Guang 阳光 (trad. 陽光) a.k.a Sunshine was munching away at his bamboo...

Yang Guang 阳光 munching away at his bamboo

Closer view of Yang Guang 阳光

Awwww, Yang Guang 阳光 is so cute

We only had 10 minutes to see them - I wish we had a bit longer. But we got to see their habitat too... Well Tian Tian's 甜甜 playground...

Tian Tian's playground

They even had a wooden panda sitting outside!

Wooden Panda

After the panda showing, we went to see more animals... Couldn't find the koala section (I think we passed it, but couldn't see it). We couldn't find the Asiatic Lions too... But we saw some of the cats (some in hiding) and the rhinos.

These two rhinos are gigantic!

This fast moving leopard was hard to get a picture of... It just would not stand still! 

Deer or antelopes... Couldn't find the description 

By the way, the hilltop is very high up - make sure you're ready for some exercise. I applaud the parents who brought their children up and for those who pushed up the prams!!

A view of Edinburgh from the hilltop - beautiful!

Finally Miss Pinky and I went back downhill and into the shop! ^_^ Some of the stuff were a tad expensive... But it's all for the zoo. Plus all that bamboo must be expensive to produce for the pandas...

The Edinburgh Zoo shop! I want that wooden panda puzzle - but where am I going to put it?

My small sovenirs ^_^

I hope to go back again, but hopefully with a baby panda being born... Next year??

Geeky Information:
Location:Edinburgh, UK
Address: Edinburgh Zoo, Edinburgh, EH12 6TS

Public Transport: Buses 12, 26, 31, 48 
Website: www.edinburghzoo.org.uk
Purchase tickets online first especially for viewings of Tian Tian and Yang Guang

View Larger Map

Risk Management in everyday life

As mentioned in my profile, and first blog I am obtaining my degree in Technical Management (emphasis in Project Management)  I have really enjoyed almost all of my courses (I hated Statistics!) leading up to my degree.  Most times I am able to "double dip" school with work, and vice versa work with school.  I am constantly applying what I learn in school in the office, and I try to use my work projects as models for discussions, and essays. 

This semester I am taking a course on "Risk Management".  At first I felt overwhelmed I not only had two (physical) text books but an essay due each week, and quiz every other week and a huge project due on week 8.    Once the course got started I started to relax a little.  I found that the process of risk management was something that I was already very familar with... and of course within no time I was again "double dipping".

Last Thursday our IIPP (Injury, Illness, Protection Program) committee we held a Safety Seminar for our staff to discuss Safety and Preparedness.  We had a Safety director from a local hospital come in to help our committee with our plan.  We went through and listed potential hazards (EQ, Fire, etc)  then ranked them in order of potential likeliness, and severity.   Once the hazards were identified, and prioritized we discussed how we could mitigate (avoid) these risks.  We identified opportunities (clear hallways of clutter), and best practices (setup regular drills)  As we were going through this exercise, all of the sudden this was sounding oddly familiar to me.... I was actually living my course lecture from the prior week.   This was Risk Management simplified.

Straight from my lecture here are the eight steps of the Risk Management process:

1. Define objectives
2. Identify relevant uncertainties
3. Prioritize uncertainties for future action
4. Develop appropriate responses
5. Report results to key stakeholders
6. Implement agreed actions
7. Monitor changes to keep up to date
8. Learn lessons for the future

For our committee we reduced these steps to three main steps.

1. Identify Risk
2. Assess risk
3. Mitigate Risk

These are three very easy steps that can be done with any project, or decision. This practice allows us to identify opportunities, and best practices and avoid painful "lessons learned!".

Tips you should know but may not...

Most of us use computers at least 8 hours a day at work, and/or spend hours surfing the Internet, blogging, facebooking, twittering etc...   So I am always surprised to learn that so many users do not know some of the very basic, almost essential computer shortcuts.  Knowing these tips and tricks will help increase  productivity and make computer experience much more enjoyable. 

I’ve decided to share a few of these tips and tricks here in my blog: 

1. Mouse shortcuts

• Shift key and mouse click-many programs allow you to highlight all or portions of text using the Shift key and the mouse. For example, place the cursor at the beginning of a paragraph, hold down the Shift key and click at the end of the paragraph to highlight the full paragraph.
• Click the Mouse wheel-The mouse wheel can also be used as a button. Just press down on the wheel.
• Ctrl + mouse wheel -  Allows user to quickly Zoom in and Out on a web page, word document, excel spreadsheet, etc. by holding down the Ctrl key and scrolling up to zoom in and down to zoom out.
• Ctrl key and mouse click - allows user to highlight while holding down the Ctrl key you can left-click to select multiple objects or highlight multiple sections of text. For example, in Microsoft Windows you could hold down the Ctrl key and click to select multiple files at once. If you wanted to highlight different parts of a paragraph or web page, you could also hold down the Ctrl key and select each section you wanted to copy.
• Reposition or re size window- Double-click the top title bar of any window to maximize a window or if it is already maximized re size it to a window. You can also double-click the icon for the window in the top-left corner of the window to close that window.
   

2. Keyboard shortcuts

• Alt + E Edit options in current program
• Alt + F File menu options in current program.
• Alt + Printscreen screen capture of active window only
• Ctrl + A Select all text.
• Ctrl + C Copy selected item.
• Ctrl + End Goes to end of document.
• Ctrl + Home Goes to beginning of document.
• Ctrl + Insert Copy selected item
• Ctrl + Left arrow Moves one word to the left at a time.
• Ctrl + Right arrow Moves one word to the right at a time.
• Ctrl + V Paste
• Ctrl + X Cut selected item.
• Ctrl+Z  undo (my favorite!)
• Ctrl+F Find (in document or web browsers) Note: in Email this shortcut will forward the emails.
• End Goes to end of current line.
• F1 Universal Help in 90% of Windows programs.
• F5 Refresh in Internet browsers, and windows folders
• Home Goes to beginning of current line.
• Print Screen Captures screen(s)
• Shift + Delete Cut selected item.
• Shift + End Highlights from current position to end of line.
• Shift + Home Highlights from current position to beginning of line.
• Shift + Insert Paste
• Shift+ Tab Moves back on fill-in stead of forward
• Windows Key +D  Minimize all active windows and show desktop

3.  Internet

• Web addresses- You don't need the http:// portion of a web page
• Quickly move between the fields of a web page if you're filling out an online form you can quickly move between each of the fields by pressing the Tab key or Shift + Tab to move back a field.
• Quickly select data from large dropdown lists If you have a drop-down box that lists every country or every state you can click that box and then press the letter of the state or country you're looking for. For example, is a drop-down box of States in the United States you could press C on the keyboard to scroll quickly to California,  type C again and move quickly to Conneticut
• Clicking the sites Logo- this ususally takes you to the home page
• Narrow down Internet Searches-If you're not finding what you want when searching the internet try surrounding the text in quotes.
• Try altnernative browers- there are other internet browers out there.
• Google Chrome
• FireFox
• Opera

4. Facebook

• Sort news feeds- by default Facebook will display feeds in news format which means those posts considered most relevent.  These results are based on your interactions with friends.   If you want to see all posts made by friends click 'most recent'
• Hide users, games, poll etc.- tired of seeing users annoying posts, game invites, polls etc... hover your mouse to the right of hte post and click the 'hide' button.   Facebook will prompt you to confirm to hide that user, or particular applicaiton.  To unhide osmeone or unblock an applicaiton click edit options in the bottom right corner of the news feeds.
• Update Privacy settings-  this is particular important if you are facebook friends with your mom, grandma, co workers or boss.  You may have content that they do not need to see... click 'Account' in the top right corner of the fb window and click privacy settings to adjust profile permissions.

What are your favorite basics-that-you-thought-everyone-knew?


P.s The best way to learn these tips is to use them.... so get on it!

A Weekend Trip to Edinburgh - Day 3

Our final day in Edinburgh. There was a bit of noise in the evening, but what could we do. At least we got some sleep!

We left before 12.00 pm (check out time) and started walking - taking a small detour towards Princes Street. We could hear a rock band rehearsing in Princes Street Gardens, and so we decided to have a look...

Sunny Princes Street - too bad about the roadworks... 

A rock band playing in the Princes Street Gardens 

Further along there were more bands rehearsing for a Heart and Soul event run by the Church of Scotland. Not much was going, so we walked a bit and did some window shopping.

Another band rehearsing

We finally got hungry, and we still had a couple of hours to kill before we got our train. We ended up in Jimmy Chung's Chinese buffet which is right next to Waverley Station (Edinburgh Station)... To tell you the absolute truth. I REALLY hate buffets! A single set menu is ok for me, and that's it! I think it cost £8.95 per person.

Average Chinese buffet food at Jimmy Chung's

This was probably an ok-ish buffet. Not as good as the ones in London though...

We still had plenty of time to spare, we ended up sitting in a park on the other side of Princes Street. It was nice and sunny... There was a Scottish family sitting in front of us having a nice picnic, so I took a random pic. ^_^ What a nice time to spend on a Sunday afternoon...

A park view on the other side of Princes Street

A family enjoying their day out ^_^ - just a random picture 

Finally we got the 3.00 pm train. Superbreak.com has a few rules and regulations about train times! It was a 4 hour and 45 minutes journey. My bottom was sore and I was extremely tired!

Waverley Station! (Edinburgh Station)

Here's King's Cross Station when we got off...

Finally home - it was a long journey!

Geeky Recommendations:

• Go to Edinburgh for a weekend trip
• Make sure you have plenty of spending money - prices are similar to London prices
• Book train trip in advance - reserving seats are better - but using Superbreak.com was ok
• Bring a raincoat and umbrella plus extra socks!
• Try Haggis, Scottish ale and Whiskey
• Go to Edinburgh Zoo ^_^

The Dictator review

There are films out there that you desperately hope to hate wholeheartedly for their rude humor and offensive nature, but, against all will and sense, you end up liking it. 'The Dictator' is one of those films.

'The Dictator' centres on the character of Admiral General Aladeen (Sacha Baron Cohen), an egotistical and offensive dictator of the oil-rich African republic of Wadiya who is desperate to remain in charge of Wadiya, much to the dismay of Uncle and rightful heir Tamir (Ben Kingsley). Aladeen has to travel to America on UN's orders after they threaten to take military action on Wadiya, on the account that its leader has been making nuclear weapons. Whilst in America, Tamir hires a hitman to kill Aladeen. The hitman only manages to cut off Aladeen's beard before he manages to escape. Without his beard, no-one recognises the political leader, exposing him into a world of work, vegan food and masturbation before he attempts to reclaim his position as leader.

Obviously, the plot isn't overly complex, and the phrase 'character development' does not apply to this movie, but one thing that impressed me were some of the insightful political jokes and their relevance to our generation (his speech towards the very end of the movie about America's similarities to a dictatorship were spot on). Of course, it goes without saying that these jokes are often offensive, but it still doesn't take away from Cohen's skills as a writer to manage to merge political relevance and comical elements to create something that engages audiences that get bored incredibly quickly.

'The Dictator' isn't the kind of film that you can analyse in depth (after all, it is just a fun piece of escapism) so I'll keep this review short. If you don't get offended easily and you liked Cohen's past movies, go see it. If however, you take offense to lines such as "Are you having a boy or an abortion?", I recommend you give this one a miss.

Cyber City Oedo 808

Cyber City Oedo 808 is a series of three stories featuring three convicted criminals that are forced to work for the government in order to reduce their sentences, each story features a different character as the lead.

The stories themselves aren't bad and I'm not offended by swearing but the producers seem to think excessive swearing makes their stories edgy ( especially during the first episode ) but honestly it just gets annoying after a while.

Cyber City Oedo 808 is worth a look but I wouldn't say it's essential viewing.

Appleseed: Ex Machina

I'd seen Appleseed: Ex Machina once a couple of years ago on DVD and I thought it was a fun movie, enjoyable but nothing special, about a month ago I picked up the Blu-ray pretty cheap and I finally got around to watching it a couple of days ago and the Blu-ray version of the movie is gorgeous, this would be a great movie to demonstrate the difference between DVD and Blu-ray formats and the fact it's a decent movie doesn't hurt either.

A look at how technology has shifted Life & work...

As I touched on in previous blogs, technology is constantly shifting the way we live and work. I found this infographic the other day and thought it was interesting and wanted to share.  Through the last 10-15 years how has technology shifted your life?

Click to Enlarge

Via PGI

View Other Infographics

DP Monthly Challange Complete!!

This has got to be some kind of record for number of posts in one week!  Hooray for mini painting!!

Here is the completed version of my DP Challenge entry, read more for a different background and lots of angles :)

Please feel free to leave a comment or two for me.  Thanks for lookin'

Follow me if you love DWARVES!!!

-Grim

'Dark Shadows' review

Folkloric creatures have never been in such a high demand as they have been recently. It appears as though audiences have been growing increasingly desperate for empathetic portrayals of monstrous characters. Ever since the Twilight saga became an international hit, our cinemas, TV screens and bookshelves have become haunted by these undead creatures of the night, to varying degrees of effectiveness. 

When audiences hear Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter together in the same sentence, their little ears pick up, expectations reach new, dizzying heights and money literally gets thrown at the box-office. After all, Burton directing a gothic comedy starring Johnny Depp as a heartbroken vampire taken out of his comfort zone and thrown into a completely new century? What's not to love? Sadly, the question on audiences lips by the end of the film was less "What's not to love?" and more "What is there to like?"

Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) is the son to a couple of highly respected and wealthy individuals in 1752, his handsome appearance and undeniable charm causing the beautiful Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green) to fall for him. After rejecting her, it becomes obvious that Angelique is actually a witch, cursing the Collins family, turning Barnabas into a vampire and burying him alive for two centuries. He is inadvertently released into the year 1972, in which he discovers that the Collins family have become disgraced by the current descendant's personal greed or supernatural quirks and overpowered by the might of Angelique's rival business. Barnabus spends the rest of the film struggling to adjust to the 20th century life (or rather, death) and attempting to restore the Collins family to their former glory.

Before any critical analysis of the film takes places, I find it necessary to point out that 'Dark Shadows' is an adaptation of a sixties soap opera of the same name. The series was renowned for its melodrama and romantic scenes, and many fans of the show are annoyed at Burton's film going down a more comedic, slapstick route. The trailer provides the audience with the funniest scenes of the film, and due to clever editing, even includes gags that do not exist within the film itself. The trailer looks funny, audiences buy tickets to go see this comedy... only to realise that it isn't a comedy, but rather a bipolar film than cannot decide whether it wants to by comedic, or romantic, or overly dramatic. None of this would be necessarily bad if the different genres were executed well, but the comedy often seemed forced, the romance came across as nauseatingly cliched and desperate and the attempt at drama often induced more laughter than the comedy itself.

The scriptwriting is, quite frankly, embarrassing. The audience were expected to deal with a multitude of irrelevant information and character inconsistencies to match, and even if they manage to cope with all that? They still have to sit through bad joke after bad joke to get to the funny scenes... the majority of which they have already seen by watching the trailer. And as far as the ending goes, I know that the film was supposed to portray the original series' sense of melodrama, but the ending seems forced and desperate, despite almost everyone in the screening being able to see the 'twist' coming.

It's impossible to deny that the cast have been blessed with some serious talent, but it becomes plainly obvious that the mixture of poor scriptwriting and direction results in these actors talents going to waste. This is especially the case for Chloë Grace Moretz as the anarchistic teenager Carolyn Stoddard. Her character, much like her, is young, but acts like a much older character. She is very sexualised and highly over-dramatic, and Moretz's portrayal of this character is incredibly grating to watch as a result, my friend leaning over to me every-time her character was on screen to whisper in my ear "She's high. She must be high". Johnny Depp is known to be a scene stealer, but sadly, his performance didn't really stand out from the rest of the cast. Of course, he still gave a brilliant performance, but compared to his other character's, Barnabas Collins didn't give him that much to work with. The audience are supposed to feel sympathetic for this heartbroken and cursed man, and simply laugh off his immorality, but the inconsistencies with his character make him seem hypocritical, ensuring that the audience questions themselves more on the reasons behind his actions rather than simply getting carried away with Depp's performance in itself. It's debatable and merely a matter of opinion, but I think that Helena Bonham Carter saved the film from slipping completely into chaos. Carter was the true scene stealer in this film, which is sad, considering her relatively small amount of screen-time. She disappears into her character of Dr. Julia Hoffman, an alcoholic psychiatrist. She provides the film comic relief as well as genuine drama. If only the film gave her more screen-time...

Tim Burton's films, if nothing else, are renowned for their gothic beauty, which is a quality that is in abundance here. The meaningful shots are missing, but considering that the film is a mixture of melodrama and comedy, there's no real need for them. The simplicity of 'Dark Shadows' direction is a refreshing change from the CGI laden 'Alice In Wonderland'. The sets were predominantly realistic and barely relied on CGI, it wasn't until the final part of the film that they really needed to use it (and even then, we really wish that they hadn't). Direction can be simple, but in order to justify the simplicity, the storyline and/or acting needs to be spectacular. Sadly, this was not the case. As a result, audience's are 'treated' to a relatively uninspired (for a Burton film, at least) piece of film-making with below par acting (for the cast, at least) whose main highlight is the wonderful soundtrack.

Some people love the film, they are able to enjoy the melodrama, the strained comedy... they are able to forget the cast's past performances and judge them purely on this film... they are able to appreciate the gothic cinematography and the simple style of direction. If you think you're able to do this, then by all means, go to see it. If however, like me, you think you'll resort to picking apart the film's plot, comparing the cast's past performances their ones in this film and become upset by the drop in quality when it comes to Burton's directing, I recommend you give this one a miss.

A Weekend Trip to Edinburgh - Day 2

Day 2 - *YAWN*... (-__-)zz

After a long night my friend and I woke up and went out for breakfast. We walked along Haymarket Terrace and came across a little coffee shop called Sandwich Culture. 

Forgot to take a pic in the day - Closes early on a Saturday! 

View from the window seat - just to point out (and if you look closely) there is a reflection of a building, which I thought was in the sky ¬_¬

We both ordered a Breakfast Box (£3.90), and it was great! Especially the brown bread baguette because it was soft and chewy. The bacon wasn't salty, the eggs and beans were just right, and the sausage was juicy. Yummy! I recommend this place if you are staying near Haymarket.

Breakfast Box - Thumbs up (^_^)b

After breakfast, we got on one of the local buses to Edinburgh Zoo (they call it Zoo only). A day pass costs £3.50. It is worth it if you decide to take a long bus trip (which was what we decided to do later that day).

A bus stop along Haymarket Terrace - not the one we wanted 

The zoo is about 4 stops from where we were. Unlike the London buses, these ones are long but they only have one entrance. Purchasing a ticket on the bus was like being on a Hong Kong bus with their coin slot machine! :D Also be careful and count the number of stops because the buses don't have a charming lady saying which stop is next.

Once we got to the zoo, we saw a lot of MASSIVE animals and for a short period of time we got to see the pandas! (More about the Zoo in another post).

Outside Edinburgh Zoo

We took another bus back towards Princes Street, and decided to stay on the bus for a little longer. I took some pics when we got off.

On a street in Edinburgh

Our next trip was to Whetherspoons. One of the biggest ones I've been to! There were a lot of football fans (and I wish I took a pic of them)! I tried a Scottish ale (Flying Scotsman) and it was great! It almost tastes like a Chinese beer :D We then ended up in another Whetherspoons (it was so busy in the other one - and there was no where to sit!). And what did we end up eating...? Haggis!!

Haggis in Whetherspoons! ^_^

I liked it, Miss Pinky didn't. I guess the Chinese will try anything foodwise! :D I ended up adding a bit of ketchup and it still tasted good to me! Reminded me of my parents cooking fried mince meat.

We ended up shopping for a bit, and came across this place... Friendly staff. Cheapish whiskey. And cheapish souvenirs!

Hector Russell along Princes Street

Afterwards, we ended up in another pub along Haymarket. I drank some of this Monkey Shoulder whiskey with coke (the barman recommended it), and it really tasted good!

Found this in The Whiskey Shop in
Princess Mall near Waverley Station

By the time we went back to the hotel it was too late to order food (actually we were so tired and couldn't be bothered ¬_¬)...

Along Eglinton Crescent - just before the hotel

So we ended up going out again and eating Indian takeaway!

Chicken Biryani

Both Miss Pinky and I prepared for night 2! (There was some noise, but we both managed to get some sleep!).

End of Day 2.