Reza Dolatabadi created this for his graduation project, and it’s very cool.
What if you watch a film and whenever you pause it, you face a painting? This idea inspired Reza Dolatabadi to make Khoda. Over 6000 paintings were painstakingly produced during two years to create a five minutes film that would meet high personal standards. Khoda is a psychological thriller; a student project which was seen as a ‘mission impossible’ by many people but eventually proved possible!
[via]
There was a weigh-in controversy last Thursday. Apparently, the Official Competition Scale was fluctuating too much, and it was deemed faulty. We had to change to a new scale, and therefore the competition had to be reset.
This was clearly a scheme to bring me, the current frontman in the race, down. My weight from the old scale matched the weight on the new scale, so I’m fairly certain mine was basically correct. I lost just over two pounds the first week (is chugging water before the first weigh-in cheating?) and zero the second week, but that zero was lucky the way I was living that week.
So now I’m back to a weight loss of zero, with another eight weeks looming and the first-week motivation lost. What a waste! What’s the point of losing weight if you can’t rub it in everyone’s face?
I’m determined to persevere, though. Here’s my plan for the next eight weeks:
So essentially, I won’t gorge myself on terrible food, and I’ll do an hour or so of exercise three times a week – enough to make a healthy change without really taking on anything overwhelming.
I realise push-ups and sit-ups aren’t really a good way to lose weight. I was planning to make some overall healthier lifestyle choices before this started, and these programs were part of that. The weight loss isn’t a huge deal, as long as I crush my foes.
Yesterday wasn’t a great start, but today was a little better. I went for a short jog, did the initial tests for the two training programs, and made enough turkey chili (healthy-ish) to last seven lunches.
So for the next eight weeks, this temple’s closed for renovations. Bring your laundry to the reopening, and I shall wash it on my rippled torso.
*flexes and struts away*
We started a fitness challenge at work a couple of weeks ago. The goal is to lose ten pounds in eight weeks. A lot of groups go for higher weight loss, but we didn’t want to promote anything unhealthy. Everyone puts in $20 at the beginning, and the money is split between everyone who achieves their goal. The person who loses the most gets a free dinner on the rest of the group.
I had planned to get back to healthy eating and doing a little exercise anyway, so I figured I’d join in. I’ve slowly been losing weight over the last few years, forty pounds in total, but I’ve been at the same weight for half a year or so now. I figured this would be a good kickstart for my system.
The first week I ate decently, and I actually ended up losing 2.5 pounds. This was the first full week I ate solid food in a month, with being sick twice and dentist appointments the previous month, so I thought I’d be gaining weight for sure.
Tomorrow is our second weigh-in, and I’m pretty sure I’m screwed. I’ve had two friends visit, at different times, in the last week, and any idea I had about living healthily went out the window. It was great to have them here, but it was also hard on the ol’ body. Over the weekend I had eggs Benedict for both breakfasts and a blended avocado milkshake, which was much tastier than it sounds but just as fatty. This was but the tip of the lard-ass iceberg.
This next week I’ll get back into the swing of things, I hope. I was focusing on veggies and fish, and that seemed to work well for me. I didn’t think I’d even come close on this, but now I feel like I could actually pull it off if I work a little at it.
Beirut made their television debut on Letterman a week or two ago. They sang “A Sunday Smile” from their The Flying Club Cup album. Not sure why they didn’t choose a song from their new album, but it was great anyway.
Zach Condon is the mastermind behind Beirut, and he’s accompanied by an ever-shifting group of musicians. He “combines elements of Eastern European and folk with Western pop music”, apparently, and they’re one of those bands that I think just deserve to do well.
They make some really great videos where they have a shifting handheld camera and a band jamming in different places. Here’s a couple of them:
The on topic of television, if you aren’t watching the second season of Flight of the Conchords right now, you really should be.
Joss Whedon, mastermind behind Buffy, Angel, Firefly/Serenity, and Dr. Horrible, has a new series out – Dollhouse. The series premier aired last week. Here’s the promo:
The first episode wasn’t incredible , but it wasn’t bad either. The concept really is interesting and definitely lends itself well to a varied, mysterious, and action-packed season. There were touches of Whedon-esque humour, but nothing compared to his previous series.
The great thing about Whedon is his ability to mix cool story concepts with witty, unique characters, but I wasn’t really pulled in by this first episode. The main character, played by Eliza Dushku (Faith from Buffy), is forced to take on the personalities of others without having one herself. She’s essentially a blank slate, and it’s hard to really feel much for her.
I’m guessing eventually she’ll get away from the Dollhouse (possibly with the skills from her old assignments still intact?) and the writers will start developing her actual personality, or something along those lines, and then it’ll really get good. I just hope it lasts that long and doesn’t go the way of the Firefly.
I’ll keep watching it, mainly because Joss Whedon has never made a television show, movie, webshow, or comic I haven’t enjoyed. And to be fair, I wasn’t that gripped by the first episode of Firefly either, and that stands as one of my favourite series ever.
I’ve been keeping track of the books I read for a couple of years now. I really enjoy being able to look back at what I’ve read in the past. Here’s my list from 2008, ordered latest read to oldest read because Goodreads ordered it that way, and I’m too lazy to switch it around:
That’s not even two books a month, and that includes a few graphic novels and novellas. I hope to raise that number this year, but it hasn’t been a good start so far. I need to set aside a little time in the evening to read, instead of waiting until I’m in bed and falling asleep.
I’m currently reading Terry Pratchett’s Maskerade, and I’m really enjoying it so far. It’s been ages since I read a Discworld novel, so it’s nice to reenter that strange world. I picked up Fool on my way home today, so that’s definitely been bumped up to the top of the priority queue. At the very least, I’m certainly never short of something to read!
