unwittinglyrad

Art Of A Beautiful Game

Rad — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:31:55 +0000

The Art of a Beautiful Game: The Thinking Fan’s Tour of the NBA by Chris Ballard is a definite read for any fan of the NBA. It is a great insight to the game, far beyond what you just see on TV.

It’s actually taken me a few days and I’m still not really sure how to review this book.. it has a lot of good elements to it, I think too many to explain really. I kind of wasn’t sure what to initially expect when I purchased the book, as I haven’t read a basketball related book in a while, but lets just say it’s quite engaging and I had many late nights.

Chris Ballard who is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated takes us behind what we see the players do on TV. In his book, he breaks down and provides analysis of the games fundamental components. From shooting to dunking, blocking and even facets many people may not really care about; rebounding, assists. Sure, players in the NBA are they’re for a reason; they’re skilled. However, skill can only take you so far. Chris also goes as far as explaining the conditioning and training players go through to maintain they’re high level of skill and fitness.

The book also looks to provide analysis of certain players traits, such as Kobe Bryant’s “Killer Instinct” (which I hope gives all the haters some insight), LeBron James’ “Athletic abilities” (which are quite crazy) and Steve Nash’s “unselfishness on the court” to name some.

After finally finishing the book, whilst watching games I actually found myself looking for what was written about, and traits of certain mentioned players were quite evident. I guess if the book actually makes you think and pay attention to details whilst watching a game, it succeeds right?

Sherlock Holmes

Rad — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:38:35 +0000

When I first saw the previews for Sherlock Holmes I got rather excited for some reason. Not that I’m a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, but this movie looked to have a bit of everything in it.

So, I decided to go and watch it the other night and I must say, I wasn’t disappointed. A lot of ‘Sherlock Holmes purists’ seem to have detested the movie and it has received a lot of negative reviews, I’m not sure why. I thought Robert Downey Jr played the role of an eccentric Sherlock Holmes rather well, even down to the accent. The chemistry between Holmes and Watson (played by Jude Law) seemed to work quite well – there were lots of little humorous exchanges between the two throughout the movie.

There were some good action/fight scenes. Lets be honest, if they weren’t there in the movie, it would be boring as shit. The purists need to pull their heads out. Overall, I think the touch of Guy Ritchie, the action sequences, humorous exchanges and chemistry between the lead and supporting roles all mixed in quite well. I’m looking forward to the sequel..

Paranormal Activity

Rad — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:01:58 +0000

After seeing some previews on TV, I cannot believe people actually found this attempt at a drama/thriller movie scary, let alone credible. I may sound pessimistic, but this shit was retarded.

The movie centres around on a young couple, Katie and Micah, who are haunted by a “supernatural presence” in their home. The movie is presented using “found footage” from the camera set up by the couple to capture what is haunting them. It starts of with the sounds of footsteps, loud noises, lights going on and off, doors opening and being shut.. to which eventually Katie is actually dragged out of her room. In the story line, she has apparently been haunted by this supernatural presence for years – yet it only decided to physically do anything to her now? Okay..

If you are literally bored shitless, high off weed or just want to watch a movie that your girlfriend might cling onto you with, then this is for you. Otherwise, save 1.5 hours of your life.

G.I.JOE

Rad — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:34:38 +0000

I’m not exactly sure why I spent an hour and a half watching this movie. My better judgement should have told me it was going to be rubbish after seeing the trailer on TV.

But what did I do? I watched it anyway. I remember as a young kid, even as an early teenager imagining how and when my favourite toys would end up as movies. I was a big G.I.JOE fan, had lots of the figurines and vehicles – every weekend there would be an epic battle between the ‘Joe and Cobra (Snake Eyes always saved the day).

I thought the movie would resemble the theme(s) from the 80’s cartoons, but it didn’t. The only similarities are the names. Everything else is retarded, I can’t put it any other way. Take a look at this G.I.JOE 80’s cartoon intro and tell me what is similar? Nothing. None of the cool aircraft, weapons or machinery that I grew up loving and that made G.I.JOE what it was were carried over into this movie. Instead, we’ve been presented with some absurd pulse guns which obliterate everything, highly technological suits which enhance human performance and other junk. All this is topped off by I think some of the worst CGI I’ve ever seen, almost as if it was done on budget.

I really can’t do anything but express my frustration and disappointment, one of my childhood favourites has been raped. IMDb ratings has it at 5.9/10, almost says it all doesn’t it?

IPB: Pinned Topic background colours

Rad — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:10:25 +0000

So, through necessity I’ve figured out a way to highlight the background colours of pinned topics for Invision Power Board 2.3.x and thought I’d share my solution with everyone..

Getting the pinned topics to highlight is quite a simple procedure and takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. It involves editing two template files found in Forum Index, these are: render_pinned_start and render_forum_row. All code edits are highlighted in blue.

Step 1 involves adding a style="background:#;" to the td in render_pinned_start. This will overwrite the background property that is defined in the darkrow1 class. This edit adjusts the background colour for the Important Topics title.

style="background:#fbf2ca;">{$this->ipsclass->lang['pinned_start']}

Step 2 is the more time consuming part and involves adding some if, else statements and style code to render_forum_row. What you see below is pretty much the standard code duplicated in order to use the functionality of if, else statements.

Open your favourite text editor, then simply copy and paste the content from render_forum_row in it. Then duplicate the code from to within your text document. You then want to add your-topic-id || $data['tid'] == your-topic-id"> at the very top of your code. Replace your-topic-id with the pinned topic ID’s off your forum (you will find them if you view source).

The example in my code shows two ID variables because I have more than one pinned topic. You will need to add an additional || $data['tid'] == for each topic ID.

Where the first ends and second begins, between these two you want to place an statement. This basically tells IPB how to display topics if the ID’s from the if statement don’t match. At the end of the second , place an , this will close off the if statement which you started at the very top of all the code.

From here, all that is left to do is add style="background:#;" with your own colour code to each of the td cells above the line of code. My final step was to add style="font-weight:bold;" to pinned topic title so that it stands out more.

your-topic-id || $data['tid'] == your-topic-id">

style="background:#fffbe9;" id='tid-folder-{$data['tid']}' onclick='return topic_toggle_folder("{$data['tid']}", "{$data['state']}");'>{$data['folder_img']}
style="background:#fffbe9;">
style="background:#fffbe9;">

{$data['_rate_img']}

{$data['go_new_post']}{$data['prefix']} {$data['attach_img']}style="font-weight:bold;">{$data['title']} {$data['PAGES']}

{$data['description']}

style="background:#fffbe9;">
{$data['posts']}

<{BC_QUEUED_POSTS}>

style="background:#fffbe9;">{$data['starter']}
style="background:#fffbe9;">{$data['views']}
style="background:#fffbe9;">{$data['last_post']}
{$data['last_text']} {$data['last_poster']}

ipsclass->member['is_mod'] == 1 and $inforum == 1 and $data['tidon'] == 1">
ipsclass->vars['img_url']}/topic_selected.gif" alt='' />

ipsclass->member['is_mod'] == 1 and $inforum == 1 and $data['tidon'] == 0">
style="background:#fffbe9;">ipsclass->vars['img_url']}/topic_unselected.gif" alt='' />

{$data['folder_img']}
{$data['topic_icon']}

{$data['_rate_img']}

{$data['go_new_post']}{$data['prefix']} {$data['attach_img']}{$data['title']} {$data['PAGES']}

{$data['description']}

{$data['posts']}

<{BC_QUEUED_POSTS}>

{$data['starter']}
{$data['views']}
{$data['last_post']}
{$data['last_text']} {$data['last_poster']}

ipsclass->member['is_mod'] == 1 and $inforum == 1 and $data['tidon'] == 1">
ipsclass->vars['img_url']}/topic_selected.gif" alt='' />

ipsclass->member['is_mod'] == 1 and $inforum == 1 and $data['tidon'] == 0">
ipsclass->vars['img_url']}/topic_unselected.gif" alt='' />

District 9

Rad — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:11:20 +0000

Initially watching the first 20 minutes or so of District 9, I was left thinking why the hell does this look and feel like a budget movie? But once the plot started to unfold, my outlook changed.

The movie takes an interesting and unique approach in the form of a documentary format with fictional interviews, eyewitness accounts mixed in with live action. District 9 is the focus of the movie, a “slum” where the aliens are sanctioned off into after their large craft comes to a halt over Johannesburg, South Africa.

Early on we are introduced to Wikus van de Merwe, a field operative from the MNU assigned to lead the relocation of the aliens to a new district and Christopher Johnson, who is seemingly an important figure within the alien race. Through a mixture of circumstances and events, both characters eventually partner and work together in order to fulfill their own separate goals.

Unfortunately, District 9 is not immune from having a few holes, things that didn’t make sense and “But, they could have just..” moments in the storyline.

At face value, the average movie watcher may not appreciate the film for what it truly is. Overall, the movie is wonderfully crafted and ingenious in itself. It also deals with various underlying issues such as xenophobia and segregation of social groups which seemingly fly below the radar. Another bonus which made this movie unique for me was the fact it wasn’t molested by Hollywood.

Check out the HD trailer on YouTube. I would definitely recommend watching this one if you’re into Sci-Fi.

JDMST EOMM August 09

Rad — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 12:45:03 +0000

I’ve been part of the JDMST community for quite some time now, yet only been out to a few of the “End Of Month Meets”. Today being the nice sunny day it was, I decided to wash my car (finally) and head over to take some pics.

Today’s meet was one of the biggest I’ve seen at JDMyard, with cars up and down the street on both sides, not to mention the ones in the complex. The thing I like about the meets is there is a large variety of cars, each with their own style making photography a blast. Today I chose to snap a couple of shots with my wide angle lens, check out the set.

Love The Beast

Rad — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:36:18 +0000

Last night I watched Love The Beast, a documentary by actor Eric Bana which is based around his passion for motorsport and his beloved 1974 XB Ford Falcon Coupe.

The film documents Eric’s journey with his first car, an ownership that spans 25 years. More importantly, it tells of the friendship that he has developed with it and how it has been the centre piece that has brought himself and his friends together, time after time. After years of working on the car in his own garage, Eric decides to do a complete rebuild and restoration of The Beast, which he then enters into the 2007 Targa Tasmania Rally, which is one of the most challenging, grueling and possibly most dangerous racing events in Australia.

On the fourth day of competition, whilst taking a corner, tragedy strikes and Eric unfortunately crashes into a group of trees. Whilst both himself and co-driver are fine, The Beast did not come out as lucky, It suffered severe front end and chassis damage. Looking back on the crash, one scene shows Eric just standing there, with an expressionless face. I can only relate to it so much, having being in an accident myself. It really is disheartening experience, especially when you have a strong bond with your car.

The documentary also has cameo appearances from Jay Leno, Jeremy Clarkson and funnily enough Dr. Phil. The first two cameo’s make sense, Jay Leno is a very big enthusiast of things automotive, you simply need to look at his list of cars. And Jeremy Clarkson, well we all know who he is. Now, when I first saw Dr. Phil was in this documentary I couldn’t help but giggle a bit. My first question was, why is he in this documentary? The reasoning is eventually revealed, Eric tries to seek out understanding and comprehension of his devotion to this car. Whilst speaking with Jeremy Clarkson and Dr. Phil, some interesting points are raised.

I think to truly understand and appreciate what this documentary is about, you need to be a true car enthusiast yourself. I don’t think the general public understand how bonds, friendships and devotion are developed for cars. To us, they are more than just pieces of metal with four wheels that get us from Point A to Point B.

The last scene of the movie was a bit of a teary moment. Eric and his friends got his dads Thunderbird operational again and seeing the huge smile on his fathers face whilst driving the car for the first time in a matter of years was priceless. If you’re a car enthusiast yourself, definitely check out this movie. Take a glimpse of the trailer.

Waltz with Bashir

Rad — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:41:25 +0000

I’m not quite sure how I stumbled upon Waltz with Bashir, but I’m glad I did. This powerful, animated documentary film about the 1982 Lebanon War to put simply, was superb.

Waltz with Bashir depicts the lost memories of writer and director Ari Folman from the 1982 Lebanon War. The movie starts of with a scene that has fierce looking dogs running through the city, eventually they all stop at their location and gaze up to someone in a window of a building. The dogs in fact are a nightmare of a friend which stem back to his experiences from the Lebanon War.

As Folman is sitting in a bar listening to his friend talk about this nightmare, he is surprised that he cannot recall his own memories and events from that period. He eventually seeks out friends who he served with and other people who were also there in order to understand what really happened and piece together his memory.

Presenting the documentary in an animated form is a unique approach and gives it an entirely different feel to your standard type of documentary films. Along with the soundtrack, I can’t say anything else but how wonderfully crafted it is. The film has a certain perspective to it, it feels more like a collective of short stories from individuals which are finally puzzled together at the end of the film with Folman’s personal journey as the underlining to it all.

At the end of the film, it transitions from animation to real video footage of the aftermath from the Sabra and Shatila massacre. They were very powerful scenes indeed.

Be sure to watch this one, check out the trailer.

Looking back, Poland Trip

Rad — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:14:10 +0000

Going through my rather large photo folder on the Mac the other night, I came across some pictures I took back in 2008 whilst in Poland that I hadn’t added to my Flickr photostream.

So, after going through some of these photos, not exactly knowing why I didn’t add them initially at the time.. I’ve now added them to the set. I may be returning for another trip in 2010 if funds permit and hopefully making use of my Canon 10-22mm wide angle lens which I didn’t have with me last time, it would of come in very useful for some shots.

You’re more than welcome to check out the set if you like, Enjoy.