Thanks to the recent promotion by Handango called “Free App Friday” I got my hands on a very nice alternative to the built in calendar program on the Nokia N95 called Handy Calendar. I’ve been looking for a replacement for the default one on the mobile as while it was functional, I couldn’t help but wanting a bit more from it.
Employing several views such as Month, Week, Day, and Tasks it allows you to easily view your schedule at a glance with varying levels of detail.

For example on Month and Week all your event and birthday icons are on display to help remind you of your busy lifestyle. A neat touch is the “Busy Bar” which estimates how busy your workload is for the day as a visual reminder to stick to your tasks.

In the Day View a detailed report of your tasks are shown along with a time scale at the top to again help you with your timekeeping. Task View is just that, listing all the tasks created thus far with filters, so you can sort them out by Due Date, Subject or Priority.

(Read more…)

Just passing on the news really! Great news for those with Sky and have missed a ton of episodes on Anime Central (Sky channel 199). I was pretty gutted that I had to leave Fullmetal Alchemist and Bleach behind due to Uni commitments but am glad that a new schedule was being aired just in time for Christmas ^_^ Anime Central (sky channel 199) has recently announced a marathon line up during the Christmas period for the following anime series:

Cowboy Bebop: 21/12/07 - 23/12/07

Fullmetal Alchemist: 24/12/07 - 29/12/07

Bleach: 30/12/07 - 4/1/08

As marathons go, these are going to be abit mental if consecutive episodes are shown straight after one another all night and I’m not sure how I’m going to get through all of those episodes but I’ll give it my best (and fail miserably.) ^_^

On a side note, everyone have a great Christmas and happy new year!

After what must be years of waiting having read ‘Northern Lights’ quite a while ago (well the first time anyway) and over a year of anticipation after hearing about this film’s ‘green lighting’ I finally saw ‘The Golden Compass’.

For a start I will say don’t believe all the negative press this film is receiving, it is definitely better than expected. The visuals are stunning, I especially love the daemon effects so I definitely praise the animators for the hard work on that front, it’s hard enough to render one realistic looking animal let a film full of them and have them seamlessly blend in with their human counterparts. There were a few shaky instances in the effects which to me didn’t quite work but in a world where fantasy successfully became reality they at least had my inner child fooled.

Now for the crunch part, the film is completely full of holes. I am aware this is a very complex book to adapt (god help them *no pun intended hehe* with the next two as they are by far more complicated) but I do wish they had just done a true adaptation of the novel and not attempted to pander to everyone in leaving out the fundamentals, this book is about one child’s quest against the magisterium so why couldn’t they keep it that way. It was blatantly obvious even though extremely watered down that the film was a comment on religion and control. I found the pacing very awkward, it seems they rushed to get as many major plot advancements into 2 hours as possible which did leave the watcher wondering where the hell the film was actually going. Luckily having read the books I entered the cinema knowing the story but I can only imagine how hard the film must be for someone who hasn’t encountered Pullman’s novels.

My huge major moan now, THEY LEFT OFF THE ENDING!! How could they do that the book ends on a huge cliffhanger which apparently has been left in the can as a preview for the next film. This already fills me with dread as this will take away from most of the drama of the amazing end to ‘Northern Lights’ plus isn’t there honestly enough information in ‘The Subtle Knife’ to fill two films so why take part of ‘Northern Lights’ to bulk it up it just isn’t necessary. Adding insult to injury is the fact that the second book does follow a slightly different story *sigh* will Hollywood ever learn to leave something alone.

The casting in my opinion was top notch Dakota Blue Richards really pulled off Lyra spectacularly. Lyra was another reason I was dreading this adaptation as I can’t see her as being the easiest character to play but she did an excellent turn as the ragamuffin, stubborn, tomboy we all know and love. Nicole Kidman was excellently cast as Mrs. Coulter she fit the image in my mind perfectly but she wasn’t cold and icy enough in my opinion and I swear her role was larger. Daniel Craig to me wasn’t the Lord Asriel I imagined for a start he wasn’t stern enough and his role also seemed minute in comparison to the book. Iorek Byrnison stole the show in my opinion, I so love that polar bear. Excellently voice acted by Ian McKellen, I want Iorek cuddles *pouts*. Pan was adorable; I was panicing they wouldn’t get him right but in my eyes they did Freddie Highmore’s voice acting was again superb. It seemed with the exception of Lyra the show was stolen by the CG daemons and ice bears.

So to sum up my review the film is a good watch, very choppy and full of holes but it does take you on something that slightly resembles the first journey in the ‘His Dark Materials’ but the book is so much BETTER! It is worthy of the cinema if just for the effects and just a trip to enjoy some fantasy magic.

Hopefully they will learn from their mistakes with this film and the adaptations of ‘The Subtle Knife’ and ‘The Amber Spyglass’ will be a vast improvement on this first outing to Pullman’s universe. That said I will always keep the books close to my heart, especially my signed copy of ‘The Amber Spyglass’ thank you Phillip *grins*

Ok as I fell behind with my episode reviews I’ve decided to do them by story arc instead. The first story arc in CLANNAD was Fuuko Ibuki the little girl with an obsession with starfish, *sobs* I want to be in the starfish alliance too.

When we first meet Fuuko it’s rumored she’s a ghost, the viewer is always left guessing about this throughout the beginning of her arc, later it is revealed she was actually involved in an accident 2 years prior. I don’t want to reveal too many spoilers as it will be unfair to everyone watching. After a strange start to their friendship, I think everyone remembers the “SHOOT!” incident. Tomoya and Nagisa decide to help Fuuko with her wish to make everyone come to her sisters wedding. You just know due to her wishing so much for everyone to come that in fact Fuuko probably won’t make it to the wedding herself ( I am not revealing anything as to if she’s there or not). After all this is a Key work so anything is possible.

This arc was very fulfilling at least in my eyes it has it’s fair share of funny moments, mainly involving Tomoya bullying Fuuko when she zones out and sees starfish. I just love how this show manages to have me in hysterical giggles one second and sobbing my eyes out the next. The animation is always beautiful and if you’re like me and adore the big eyes, CLANNAD is a real treat.

Watching CLANNAD reminds me why I love Key and Kyoani’s work so much, they never fail to make me bawl my eyes out. CLANNAD it seems is no exception to that rule. Fuuko’s arc reminded me of a mix between Ayu’s and Makoto’s arc’s in Kanon. Fuuko is just so kawaii you can’t help but love her awww it’s like Ayu has come back all over again all she needed to do was walk into a tree. I just love how CLANNAD explores the idea of family as after all that is what the word clannad translates as. Nagisa and Tomoya really became a surrogate family to little Fuuko and even though she was the same age as Tomoya she always seemed like their little sister. Her strength and determination to get her wishes across even in “spirit” are inspirational to everyone, this another reason why I adore anything Key dreams up as you always feel like you have accomplished something after watching their work.

I feel very satisfied at the end of this arc and very much cried out, well until next week. If you haven’t already jumped on the CLANNAD bandwagon where have you been? I do warn you make sure you have a box of tissues handy for the last few episodes as you will be crying by the end of each story.

We won’t forget you Fuuko!!

Today marks the first of December and the insane rush to get the shopping done before you get blocked by mum’s with prams, old ladies working as a team and indeed missing the online cut-off delivery date. I haven’t even started my Christmas shopping just yet and I can envisage it being another last minute dash to buy overpriced novelty gifts for people.

You can sense the love already can’t you? Well to be honest Christmas this year should be quite good, I’ll be sharing it with friends and family and overall it should be quite a relaxed affair. Bar the shopping part.

There’s no surprise to see online shopping explode year after year because it takes out the hassle of being shoulder barged out of the way by people, the annoyance of lack of manners when you hold the door for people, mums (or people) with prams and generally slow moving folk. Prams are just evil. Its like a version of road rage as it changes people from being polite and civil to the next Michael Schumacher barging people out of the way with little regard. Well okay maybe not as bad as Schumy (I’m a fan of his after all) but its certainly close enough. Maybe I should say Alonso instead throwing all the toys out after not getting his sweeties… Its in the eyebrows you see. All in the eyebrows…

I should before this become a full on rant about things but I am just interested in how many people will be in the festive spirit when Christmas arrives? There’s no doubt that it is a good time to celebrate the good things in life with great company but I’m sure there are some pet hates as well that people have. Lets hear it!