How To Train Your Dragon review by a dragon expert - Sabine, 8, of Sydney.

What I thought about the movie “How To Train Your Dragon compared to the book” 

On Friday the 26th of march I saw ‘How to Train your Dragon’. I thought it was a really good movie. Because I have read the book before, I want to write a little description. I thought the movie was very different to the book. I think I like the book better than the movie because in the book Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third is the hero and also in the book Hiccup finds his dragon (Toothless) in a cave, while in the movie he caught him with a trap. He almost killed him but he couldn’t because somehow he knew Toothless was his special dragon. I also liked the book because there were lots of funny characters such as Fishlegs, Hiccups best friend, Stoic the vast, Hiccups father, and last but not least Big Boobied Bertha, Hiccups friend and Camacazi’s mother. My favourite part was when Hiccup trained Toothless. I like this part the best because it was really funny and silly. If you people ever get to watch it I hope you enjoy it!   

By Sabine 

Note: Sabine writes like this without any help from grown-ups. Pretty good huh? That's what you get when you read to children from an early age - comprehension. She also loves the theatre, listening to audio books, tea parties in the playroom with her friends and laughing at silly jokes. She's been listening to the many versions of my book as it evolves since she was five. _ Scriffles.


 

Dreamworks new offering still trumped Alice In Wonderland on the weekend.

Easter Tweet - Tweetie flies through the digital landscape of a human dream. Animation art.

This is an abstract representation of the character of my Twitter stream. Try doing that without words or being literal.

Inflection versus subject matter

The written word's too easy - but it to has some kind of inflection in punctuation and structure.

The musical narration starts as nonchalant and non-comital - my version of objectivity.

Subjectivity is at the other end. Of course all inflection is a posture.

This is an abstract representation of the posturing and character of my Twitter stream.

We will look back on the 20th century as the Dark Age. That means we've entered a Medieval Period.

They burned fossil fuel in the 20th century and blew a hole in the ozone layer - that's what they're gonna say about us in 3000.

Humans are so cocky - do you think that's gonna change by 3000? I'm being cocky writing this. Do you think we'll still be here in 3000?

I've been watching a few episodes of V - Jeez!
I'm insulted watching that trash - imagine how the aliens must feel watching that stuff!
No wonder ET's not interested in making contact. Why would aliens come to us as people? Why not as butterflies? We'd make them locusts. They might choose to join the dolphins. Why not?

Do you really think that a stupid iPhone or whatever the latest gadget is - iPad da-da-da - makes us so up with the times, so modern.
Gutenberg probably thought that. I don't think he even got the profits of his movable type.

So at least Apple has one up on Gutenberg - it's making a profit.

If you put yourself in the shoes of someone living in 3000, or even in 2050, or even 2030, then looking backwards at 2010 all of this is laughable - isn't it?
Keep buying stuff. Like that's going to make it all better.
DOOMED! We're all doomed. That's the thought that goes through my head when I take the plastic wrap off the plastic covered Easter egg.
Yeah it did taste good but did I need it? I ate it yes. Would have been wasteful to throw it out! ;)

Is social media good? Will newspapers survive? Doo..doo..doo.... Do you buy a first generation iPad or wait for better Wi-Fi? Do you convert existing content or purpose-build iPad content from scratch? Good questions.
But they won't define us as a race in the end. What will is culture: philosophy, literature, arts, architecture ... what will remain of this Medieval Period?
What's your perspective?

The iPad will be in a museum. Will Apple or Microsoft or Facebook or Google or Twitter still be around in 3000?
Exciting isn't it? I think so. I want a macro-telescope to zoom in for fine work close up and detail in the distance - on our timeline.
Anyone got any ideas on that one?

The flourishing of Athens happened after the human race got agriculture down pat and started to diversify into the arts: pottery, painting, thinking, writing ...

We ain't there yet kids. No where near there yet.

The new CULTURE is just a sparkle in the eyes of children - and the unborn.
The thing that we're involved in here is the formation of an economy - the digital economy.

Culture is not only unproduced it's not even imagined yet - we don't have the technology, we don't have the economy.

Which is why I like to spend a little bit of time passing on the things I learn (video editing, audio editing, music composition, writing) to my nephews and nieces.

I'm fueling the fire - it's all I can do.

Spent some time teaching Alex and Emma how to use the Soundtrack program - making music using loops.
You think kids today can't focus? Think again. HOURS of focus.

Here's the results:

Raindrops on roses and Seth Godin's Linchpin.

I'm listening to the audio book and I need something beautiful to keep in mind so I don't cry out loud. Raindrops on roses.

Over 10 years ago, I did a course at the Relaxation Centre called The Centre Within. The guy who took the two day self-development course did this little meditation thing at some point. He got you to close your eyes and imagine yourself a child again.
He asked us to remember how we learned to draw and how it didn't matter (in the beginning) if the grass was blue and the sky was green - but then we went to school.
At school the teacher then would rap you over the knuckles for not conforming : the sky is blue therefore the sky you paint must be blue.
At this point, an involuntary sob escaped from my throat. I remember it because it was a revelatory moment for me - it took me completely by surprise.
It changed my life. I decided to go to art school and study photography, I decided not to be like everyone else, I had the guts to grow my skills despite not knowing where I was going to end up - I still don't know.

Seth Godin is not going to make me cry out but I reckon reading this book might stop a lot of other people from crying out in the darkness of a long, dark night wondering what the future will bring.

He says that people who are "Linchpins" are different but "the linchpins among us are not the ones born with a magical talent".
"They are people who have decided that a new kind of work is important and train themselves to do it."

"It doesn't pay to do factory work at factory wages only to subsidize the boss." - Can't argue with that.

Spellcheck. A deer blowing a bubble, apologizing for your incontinence and - oh! - so .s.o.l.e.m.n.i.z.e.d...

The Asia Pacific Triennial closed on the Easter weekend at Queensland's Gallery of Modern Art = GoMA.

Yes, it's my second visit I've blogged about it here once before.

But this time I'm just using one of the artworks the PixCell-Deer by Japanese artist Kohei Nawa to illustrate a cautionary tale for you - beware Spellcheck!

For some reason Nawa's covered a real stuffed deer with plastic or glass bubbles.
Why? Why would he? Because he's an artist. Because he can. My apologies for the Photoshopped artwork - the original looks more like the one below.
I don't know. We'd need to ask him. There's beauty and then there's - Spellcheck!

Imagine you sent out thousands of emails this afternoon to your clients and instead of sending just one email per customer your new program sent out 13 emails to some 40 customers - blood boiling on both sides of the internet.

So you need to "apologize for the inconvenience" of 13 copies of the same email in your in-box.

But then someone emails back "apologize for your incontinence"? "We apologize for your incontinence".

Might as well be looking at a deer blowing bubbles.

Another Spellcheck victim. My friend may never use the word "inconvenience" in an email again.

She never uses the word "solemnize" in emails any more for the same reason. Now every time this marriage celebrant even thinks about writing "solemnize" she writes "legally married" instead to sneak past Spellcheck without disturbing the dear.
Do you know how Spellcheck spells "solemnize"?

What goes with Gommorah?
MY DEER me! Hee-hee. It's kinda beautiful in a horrific way don't you think?

My Samsung e3310 phone post is the most popular post on my blog. By God this phone's become a headache.

1 was so chuffed with this $150 pre-paid phone that I posted this photo when I bought it almost six months ago. 
Perhaps it's nothing but the smug trainees and salesperson who served me today that have me set against it now.
I think people should know that the support for this phone is totally unreliable - and perhaps this phone is not reliable.
It's broke and not six months old. It went flat a month ago and I couldn't charge it up. 
I took it in to Optus. They sent it away (for 3 weeks).
What really got me wild is I got a call from a chirpy girl from Samsung asking me if I got my phone back.
Unlike other sales reps who ring you at home she had no time to take a complaint - the phone still doesn't work it needs a new charger.
"That's not our problem" - or words to that effect - was her response. I need to see Optus.
Purple - no there's not colour in existence to describe my response.
WORSE this morning when I went back to Optus with a flat battery! 
A snotty-nosed boy who wears a "trainee" tag stood by watching as I complained to a salesgirl - he served me last week.
 
This sales girl lingered with another customer to try to avoid serving me - the longer she took the more upset I became.
 
I explained the problem - it's been sent away, I picked it up last week, the charger still doesn't work, the trainee got it wrong, I had to make another trip, I've brought the charger back.
She tests the charger.
I complain that trainees should be supervised a little closer.
The snotty-nosed trainee and this galling salesperson exchange smirks.
She looks down on me and, with amusement, tells me that my charger needs replacing.
DER! Darling! (That's not what I said to her)
 
What I did say is: "Are you laughing at me?"
She barely refuted the assertion at first. The trainee stood by defiantly. 
I asked to see her boss - then she realised she had made a mistake.
 
Her boss is one of the more competent managers I've encountered, a young man named Michael. Polite and helpful - faultless.
So was the young woman who sold me the phone.
She patiently waited for me to decide whether I'd buy this phone.
 
Last week, it took two trainees and a sales person longer to do the paperwork for a $50 refund than it took the sales girl who sold me the phone to take all the ID and stuff needed to buy a new phone.
This snotty-nosed trainee would have let me walk away without the refund had I not asked for it. They take a $50 deposit to send the phone away to be fixed.
After they got through the trauma of the refund - without any apologies or politeness - it was as if it was all my fault - they sent me on my way knowing that my problem had not been fixed.
These trainees sent me home with the advice that it's probably my charger because the techs could not replicate the fault - they told me that I may need to buy a new charger. 
They didn't want to test it. They weren't interested at all in helping me and I didn't want to spend a moment longer with these "little darlings".
I hate to be a whinger but there's no excuse for this kind of service - I'd call it bad behaviour not service. 
I feel like some innocent by-stander in Yes Minister.
 
 
I've been an Optus customer for over a decade I'd say but I'm on the verge of changing to another provider.
They got it wrong and until I asked for the manager I got no apology or no satisfactory help. 
They failed to inform me that I could borrow a replacement phone while my phone was being fixed.
They failed to correctly diagnose the problem.
They failed to address the problem when the phone was returned.
I think that's called giving them enough rope to hang themselves.
OH and best all all - they failed to tell me that Samsung will replace the charger for nothing because it's less than six months old!