I’m not entirely sure what’s happening, but there is a general sense of melaise going on.

Over the last year, my internet presence has been dwindling (not counting the blog of course) and I’ve all but abandoned all the forums that I used to frequent as I just don’t find them interesting anymore. Up until a few months ago, I’d been a semi regular reader over at Gallifrey Base, but during the course of the last couple of years, I’ve slowly turned from an active contributor to a lurker and finally to a lapsed member. I find myself thinking that forums are just not worth the bother – too much bitterness and oneupmanship going on and I have better things to do with my time than read a lot of depressing drivel.

On a lighter note, I have discovered a couple of websites that I like, some I’ve been reading for years while others I’ve found in more recent times. Tested is a great site, very wide ranging in its topic coverage, it has a lot of interesting articles and I’m particularly fond of the Adam Savage videos, including the podcasts that he takes part in. Then there’s Video Co-Pilot, an online resource hosted by Andrew Kramer who takes the time and effort to talk about (and demonstrate) digital visual effects techniques, you know, compositing, grading, effects of all kinds and I do enjoy his video tutorials very much.

Then there are blogs. These can be a very mixed bag, but there are two that I do enjoy. One is Katie Renee‘s Discovering Different, the other is Steve Neill. Both are hosted by WordPress, like mine is.

With Discovering Different, Katie talks about all manner of things, much of which I wouldn’t normally look into as a subject, but I find her writing style to be very humourous (for the most part) and so that draws me in, while Steve Neill’s blog is purely about prop and model making… which I kind of like, as you know.

So that’s my current view on the internet.

Out in the real world, there’s been a few things going on. I won’t go into much detail here, but one issue has been bubbling away for quite some time now and that is about Alex and the nursery that he attends.

There’s been some issues that I’ve not been at all happy about, but kept quiet about it because my son seemed relatively content there. Recently however, everything changed. He screams when he arrives there in the mornings. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, something happened that ended up with me and my wife, but mainly me though, telling the teachers and one in particular, exactly what I thought of them and the way in which they run the place – they are disorganised beyond belief and they seem incapable of taking responsibility for anything, instead they like to push blame away from themselves and shift it onto the shoulders of the toddlers that they are charged with taking care of. Unbelievable!

Then there are the various projects that I’ve got going here. After all the enthusiasm to get going on them, in the last fortnight, that enthusiasm has gone very slightly off the boil, mainly because I’ve been feeling so out of sorts. I’m just so tired, lacking in energy and strength. Do you know, I’ve been going to bed at 9 o’clock practically every night for a very long time now.

I’m hoping that soon I’ll get my mojo back. I’m not sure that I ever actually had a mojo, but if I did have one, I certainly don’t at the moment.

Well, I think it’s time to end today’s entry here as I don’t wish to turn this into a moanfest, so let’s have a look at someone who’s been making me laugh for years, the brilliant Hank Azaria.

Here is an amuzing, but somewhat edited scene from Night at the Museum 2 – well, it’s a trailer, so what do you expect?

And another one, see if you can see the moment Hank is about to start laughing himself as he goes wild with ad libbing.

Enjoy.

Yes, I really have made a video… I’ve been meaning to try this out for ages and today I finally got around to knocking out a very rough and ready little piece for your viewing pleasure. To be honest, it’s very close to watching paint dry as you will soon see if you click on it.

All I’m doing is showing a little update on the panels in terms of what I need to do on them. I even do a bit of work on camera just for the hell of it.

Yes, I know the quality is very low, but my camera is specifically set up for recording videos for YouTube as it was a few years ago, so the resolution isn’t very high. Also, I’ve edited it on a basic software that came free with my computer – and I’ve never used it before either, so really I’ve made all this up as I went along.

I may try to do more of these in due course, but I’ll see about that. I also need a better camera.

Enjoy. Or not.

Anyway, we decided to take them to a park, not far from our house and as we arrived, I had this sense of deja vu. It quickly dawned on me why I knew the place, despite having never set foot there before. See if you can too… but only if you know Doctor Who.

That’s your only clue.

No prizes, but I will allow you to pat your own back. I know, I’m so generous.

This is just a few yards into the park. I instantly recognised it. The undulating ground should give it away, as should the type of trees.

Clearly my kids loved the area and had to climb on everything. Children these days, no respect. Mind you, I can’t talk…

I think there may be a secret hide out somewhere nearby here. Hope the locals are friendly. Sadly, civilisations come and go.

Watch out, nasty things are about. Run everyone, run!

Speaking of seeing things before. We’ve been enjoying the new series of Doctor Who recently, well I say “enjoying” – “watching” would be a better descriptor.

Anyway, after some really dull episodes, we’ve just had two great ones – “Hide” and “Journey to the centre of the TARDIS”. Brilliant. I still think Matt Smith is the best Doctor since Tom Baker, despite the patchy nature of many of the episodes that he’s been in – Matt, that is. Anyway…

I love props, me. In particular hand held gadgets and this one caught my eye straight away. The cutter that was used to try to gain entry to the TARDIS. It’s obvious what was used as the basic donor to create the prop; a 12″ concrete cutter. I liked it so much that I actually thought of making a replica.

It took me all of two seconds to identify the exact model used, Evolution, in case you’re interested. Brand new they cost about £240. Yeah, I’ll wait until I find a knackered one before I even start to contemplate the build.

Also catching my attention…

When I first saw the new TARDIS interior last Christmas, or whenever it was, the new style of roundels looked really familiar to me, but it wasn’t until we got to the TARDIS episode last weekend that we managed to have a real good look at them up close and yep, I thought so.

The Roundels are in fact a Dalek neck ring. That’s twice now in the show that TARDIS and Dalek technology has been interchangeable.

Might have to get myself one of these to add to my Roundel collection.

That’s it, another short and sweet blog entry for today – back to fiddling with buttons and switches.