Virtual Kingdoms

Benighted Films presents their latest production: A fan trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. You can view the Hi-def version on vimeo and the low resolution on youtube.

Low Resolution on Youtube

You can also check out the
Hi-Definition version on Vimeo

This trailer is released under the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

You can view more information about this trailer on its Benighted Films page

Greetings,

Z9484 said I could add some posts of my own, I’m afraid mine will be less computer based, but a wide variety is good right?

Well anyway, I recently went on a Redwall binge. Meaning I read every single one of the Redwall Series by Brian Jacques I could get my hands on. Again. Sixteen of them. That was not my first intention. I originally just picked up Mariel of Redwall because I had been thinking about it, but then I had to read the Bellmaker, because it has the same characters, and then I read Marlfox, because I wanted to see how much Mariel and Songbreeze are alike. And it just snowballed from there.

But this was meant to be a review of the whole series. They are a series of comic but dramatic anthropomorphized animal fiction, most of which centers around the Abbey of Redwall, it’s inhabitants, and its founder Martin the Warrior. (more…)

In recent news I have released a small LEGO stop motion music video on Youtube. The song was written and performed by a friend, Ryan Nielsen on an acoustic guitar. Space pictures are courtesy of NASA.
(more…)

Ok I apologize. Its been a while. College and working at the computer lab has been taking up most of my time lately. But I did get to take a few more pictures. So head over to Picasa to check them out.

From Labor Day Wee…

And I finished Eldest by Christopher Paolini. I enjoyed reading it. And I now have respect for the author. To me Eragon seemed like a conglomerate of all the books that Paolini had read, and I had read. I could tell where he got things from. This from Robert Jordan, that from Anne McCaffrey and Terry Brooks. Finally in Eldest it is Christopher’s own story. It still has a few problems, like his distances don’t always make sense. And a 10 mile high by 10 mile wide hollow mountain just doesn’t make sense. But I guess that doesn’t matter that much. And not too much happens in the book, it is more of a build up for the finale. It is now his world. He explains a little about the religion and background of each of the races. The world now has depth that it lacked from the first book. Eragon is now turning into an interesting character. He’s still stupid sometimes when it comes to Arya but I guess he still is a teenager. Overall I think the third book could be good unless of course he goes the worldly path like Robert Jordan and add inappropriate material. But we will see I guess.

Hi all,

I talked Z9484 into letting me post too. So here’s a quick review to get things started:

Next time you have a free 37 minutes and 35 seconds you should try listening to Miss Civilization by Richard Harding Davis. Most Librivox recordings are done by just one person but this here one is actually performed by three budding voice actors at the 2007 LibriVox World Gathering in Chicago. It may seem kinda slow at first, but if you listen a while you soon realize it’s actually pretty funny.

Check it out at http://librivox.org/miss-civilization-by-richard-harding-davis/

Ahh the summer of Harry Potter. Last Monday I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Which I thought was an awesome film. They finally did things right. I have not been able to watch HP4 yet however. I thought they got Luna Lovegood spot on. Sirius’s character also made me quite happy. Sirius in the third movie just was not Sirius Black to me.

Above is the Amazon box for HP7. I would have gone to a release party, but I had family in town so I had to be part of the 2.2 million Americans who preordered it on Amazon instead. I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on Wednesday I think. Which was awesomerific a great finish to a great series. So what do you think about it?

I updated the website finally. A while ago I know but I like the HBP cover so I didnt want to move it. The site pretty much only has what I had up before. So any ideas about other things to add are welcome.

And for some Harry Potter randomness:
I read this on http://www.potterskeys.com/ftopict-394.html
It is can be found on US-OotP page 487
“In St. Mungo’s, when they are going to visit Mr. Weasley- ‘They climbed a flight of stairs and entered the “Creature-Induced Injuries” corridor, where the second door on the right bore the words ‘DANGEROUS’ DAI LLEWELLYN WARD: SERIOUS BITES.’ If you put these words on a sign, they would read

Creature-Induced Injuries
Dangerous
Dai Llewellyn Ward
Serious Bites

Take the first word of each of these and what do you get get? Creature Dangerous Dai Serious? No – Kreacher dangerous, Die Sirius;” -shpgr1977

Absolutely Crazy! If JK did not purposely do that, that is one amazing coincidence dont you think? I did some research and found that “Dangerous” Dai Llewellyn was a quidditch player for the Welsh team, Caerphilly Catapults that Kennilworthy Whisp wrote the biography He Flew Like a Madman. I found that out in Quidditch Through the Ages. So the name existed before OotP. So “Dangerous” probably should be on the line with Dai. Only JK knows. On a side note Quidditch Through the Ages gives more info about Dangerous Dai. He was eaten by a Chimaera on vacation in Mykonos, Greece. It goes on to say that a comemorative medal is awarded to the Quidditch player who takes the most risks. Well now we know why it’s the Creature-Induced Injuries Ward.

Cedric was really only an aquaintance to Harry Potter. But he takes his death quite hard, which is understandable. Cedric’s death means to him that He Who Must Not Be Named is indeed back and he won’t shie away from killing anyone in his way. Obviously his death had an effect on Harry’s life. Look at his behavior in book 5. He gets mad easier and at his friends of all people. This could be the effect of Voldemort or just his experiences and the fact that he is a teenager.

In the Order of the Phoenix Sirius Black dies. (and yes I think its final.) How will Sirius’s death have an effect on Harry? At first he explodes with anger. Later he enters a shell of sorrow. By the end of OotP he sems to have come to terms with it at least a little. I think he will calm down in the next two books. By trying to save Sirius then Sirius died. Harry will realize it and feel guilt of course. When he accepts it he will concentrate on preparing for his final battle. Unless He Who Must Not Be Named has other plans;

I have been rereading Ootp and was thinking about the D.A. Do you think that once they get a new DaDA teacher then they will disband? They might keep it going because the trio has put a lot of effort into it. I think even if they disband they will as a majority stick together through the comming events. Like Luna for instance goes to the the Ministry. She must be going to play a larger plot in the next two books or she wouldn’t have gone. Though I cannot really fathom what her part would be.

Neville on the other hand is improving greatly, and now that he will get his very own wand I expect he will become a strong character. Who knows he might take out Lestrange or save Harry in the final battle.

The Sneakoscope given to Harry by Ron in PoA seems to work. Though it goes off sometimes when nothing apparently untrustworthy is happening. For instance on page 72 US version of PoA it goes off on the Hogwarts express. Ron, Harry, Hermione and a sleeping Lupin are the only ones in the compartment. Harry just told them that Black was after them. That doesn’t seem very untrustworthy. The only thing that I can think of is that Lupin was evesdropping on the conversation and only pretending to be asleep. Or it was just wrong. But what do you think?