Welcome to armchaircritic, v.2. This theme is based off of the old modified theme I used, designed originally by UpstartBlogger. I’ve assigned it version 0.2 for this reason. As the second incarnation of my changes to the original theme.

There are a few niggles still, and notwithstanding all the pushing and shoving I did for IE to display it somewhere near envisioned. I’ll be getting to those in the future, since I’ve only noticed them since uploading.  I’ll also want to look at a few areas again once my eyes haven’t been staring at the mock and sandbox version for so long. There’s only so much you can see after a long time looking, and usually not the bad points. I decided to push it out there on this blog for two reasons really, one I wasn’t happy with the old version, and that was always intended to be just a stop gap. And the second,  I wasn’t happy with the old version, and that was always intended to be just a stop gap. Now I realise that’s only one point, but I thought it was such a pertinent one that I should say it twice.

That’s all for now, Smegheads. And yes, I’ve been watching Red Dwarf recently. If you’ve never seen that TV series, a whole lot of what you just read won’t make sense.

So, most people visiting from SitePoint will want to know or have already asked about the whole disney JungleBook avatar thing.

Well there are a number of reasons why actually. It wouldn’t have escaped the casual sitepointer that both avatars have been the cats from the book/cartoon. I do like cats, yes it is true. In fact, they are the best pets, but not if you have a large hungry one. Those are best in the wild, and not in zoos. Average cats, the kind that are too arrogant to go looking for food themselves make good pets. I’m preparing myself for getting a pair of them actually, and do you know you can buy special poop-palaces for them nowadays? Oh yes, your cat must have a private place to do their business, plus it comes with a air filter so that few oudors escape. Perrrfect.

So back to the disney Jungle Book. It was one of the very first films I can remember watching, and I think it sparked a life long interest not just in cats, but in adventure and far flung places of the world. I still find adventure literature really engaging, same for documentaries also. Actually finding usable stills to make avatars of, and vectorising them is a problem. I usually resort to a google image search.

So I was using the good old Bagheera avatar on sitepoint for quite a while, but when I became a mentor it just didn’t seem to fit with the colour orange, and on a passing suggestion from Raffles in my congrats thread, I started to think about using Shere Khan. So I did, and no doubt any sitepointer visiting this ere blog will already have seen it.

I watched the flick again just recently, and I have to say I really still do enjoy it. The animation was actually quite ahead of its time when it was produced, and was the last Disney film to get the real Walt Disney touch. The backgrounds are incredibly detailed and have an almost watercolour-like property to them. Although, the animation of water has come along way since they did it in Jungle Book. But, I don’t think they ever got better songs for a flick than what they achieved in JB. You have to admit, (Or at least, I will admit) that the groove to “I wanna be like you” is one dandy fine jazzy number.. and who could not love the scatting from King Louie and Baloo?

And, you gotta admit, the voices of Sebastian Cabot as Bagheera and George Sanders as Shere Khan is absolute genius.

I also have to point out that King Louie didn’t feature in the book but the similarity to how the monkey people are portrayed in the book is still evident in the film. Louis Prima, the voice and singer of the classic “I wanna be like you” was probably the inspiration behind the character.

So anyway, having deleted alot of stuff unnecessary to this post, I conclude it. That’s the most abrupt ending I can think of. Now go read something more interesting. lol.

I realise I haven’t updated this blog in about a month nearly. Hopefully normal service will resume soon. The problem I am having, apart from a lack of time, is too many topics I have half written, decided not to publish until some further research is done, and not finding the time to do the said research.

So it’s kinda swung around and hit me in the face. Perhaps I’ll just stop being picky about stuff and write a load of dribble. Here it goes:

What I’ve been doing this past month is finishing off one mamoth project and starting another. Doh. I’m telling myself now that once this next one is done that is it for a while. Otherwise I’m likely to burn out… or possibly just drink too much beer on occasion. Neither is really helpful when trying to work, so I’ll need to work hard and play hard. And that means sticking to the schedule: Working when I’m meant to be working & Staying away from the computer other times.

Yeah, I know. Radical thought…

Having got back from 5 days away at my sister’s wedding, I realised there was much that I had missed, and more than half of it was unnessesary distraction, although still the sort of stuff I like to do, such as keep up to date on tech news etc.. but I need to pinch myself and just get the work stuff done first..

I’m going to aim to get this next project done before I go away to Athens again in late July, and then, spending lazy days in Placka drinking ice coffee, or beers as the warm evenings progress, will be a reward for compelting the project and finshing the punishing workload I inflicted upon myself.

Oh and I have several new tech books to read…