I am not a Trekkie, but...

...the new Star Trek movie was really freaking good. It was one of those movies that I had been anticipating for a really long time because of the trailer and I was not disappointed by its awesomeness. I kind of can't wait to go watch it again.

There were several reasons why I liked this movie, but I'm just going to mention the two that everyone seems to be talking about (with good reason) before moving on to why I, personally, loved this movie.

The awesome young crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

First, is the cast. J.J. Abrams picked a stellar cast that just meshed together so well. Chris Pine did a fantastic job playing the young badass Kirk and Zachary Quinto was a great Spock. I don't think I've seen greater facial control in an actor, ever.

Second, I was never bored. There was a fight scene right from the get go, and the pace never slowed up, so there was always something to think about in every single scene. I don't think my mind deviated from the story line at all because it couldn't. The amount of action never let it.
However, the real reason I loved this movie so much is not because of the cast or the writing. It was the effects. This movie reminded me why I want to be a special effects artist.

There's this one part, that can be seen in the trailer, where a planet consumes itself and it's probably the coolest effect in the whole movie. It's definitely the part where I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing as I took in visual effects marvel before me on the screen, then when it was done, the breathing started again with a whispered, "fucking cool".

See, told you it was really fucking cool.

Yesterday, I wasn't watching a movie. I was actually in space. On the USS Enterprise. Where there were laser gun fights, and black holes and a planet consumed itself before my very eyes. Forget the whole "suspension of disbelief" thing. Disbelief was crumpled into a ball, set on fire, then thrown out a window 40 stories up into the ocean where it sunk to the bottom where it will never be heard from ever again.

Live long and prosper, my friends.

Nicole, out.

a few things

1) Website = not going so well. Because it's for ME, I keep changing my mind. I think I'll just have to settle on something and then change it by season. That's what I plan on doing with my branding colors. Since I also cannot settle on them.

2) I need to post something on my YouTube channel. I've been neglecting it. But the song I want to do I don't know how to play, exactly. I might just end up doing an a capella self-harmonization version of it instead of trying to learn it on guitar (I can't find the tablature and cannot play a song just by listening to it).

3) I'm back in drawing cycle again. Kind of. Usually it's either music OR drawing. Right now it's both. Because I kind of have time for both. So that's fun. I drew outside today until all the bees, wasps, and other forms of NATURE made me withdraw back into my cave (my room).

4) I'm back in crappy teen romantic dramedy mood again with my movies. How do I know? I just finished watching "A Cinderella Story". That movie with Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray? Yeah. That one. I have a love/hate relationship with this particular mood of mine. I love it because it means I'm happy (because these shitty movies make me happy somehow) and I get to indulge in my oft-neglected super-duper-girly side. I hate it because it's embarassing. Also I feel ashamed to be watching such superficial films instead of artsy smart ones (like my film buff-self would) or wicked-cool actions or sci-fictions (like my visual effects geeky-self would).
HOWEVER. All will be returned on Friday when...

5) STAR TREK COMES OUT!!! I honestly can't wait. I'm not even a Star Trek fan. I don't think I've even watched a single episode. But Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are in it, so that's a draw right there. But I won't pretend that they're the only reason. I was watching the trailer one day and there's this part where THE WORLD IMPLODES and as it did MY MIND EXPLODED. The effects are so beautiful I want to cry. And that's why I want to see this movie. The boy eye-candy for the girly-girl and the effects eye-candy for the visual effects geek.

Ok that's it for now.

DFTBA!

the launch of lauranicole.ca

For a few months, I had the address lauranicole.ca redirect to this blog, in lieu of putting up a real website. However, since graduation, it's occurred to me that I'll be needing to have an actual website upon which to host my portfolio and stuff. So I finally cracked and bought a hosting package and now if you go to lauranicole.ca you'll be directed to a page with a "coming soon" flash video on it and several links (one of them leading here).

If you visit that page you'll also notice that I've given myself a deadline to finish the thing: two weeks. And I'm really going to try to stick to that deadline and have the website all worked out in two weeks for its final launch onto the interwebs. It might also co-incide with the launch of my new live webcast show. I'm not sure.

On this blog I'm going to be posting some of my progress, including images, and links to resources that I have found to help me. So here's the first bit.

I used www.videocopilot.net to help me with the coming soon page. It's in a tutorial called "Disintegration" that's really super helpful. Though the lighting was my idea. I liked the way it looked like it was a light shining through water and the words were floating off into the murky depths...

Here's some stills of the "coming soon" animation:

a haiku

In the corner of my Children's Literature exam paper, I decided to write a haiku about one of the novels we read in that class called "Bridge to Terabithia". You've probably heard of it. If you plan on reading it, however, DO NOT READ THIS NEXT PART BECAUSE IT WILL SPOIL THE ENDING.

It went something like this:

Terabithia
An imaginary place
But the girl snuffs it

This is the email I received from my Children's Lit professor today. I guess he saw it when he was marking it (as I had planned):

Hi Laura,

Thanks for the haiku. Especially "snuffs it." Laughed out loud. Nice to have you in my class again.

Glad he liked it. And glad he laughed out loud. Hopefully it put him in a good mood after reading all those boring essays about the same topic. And, you know, made him inclined to give me a good mark *grins*.

That class was the best.

OK. Off to do some motion graphics stuff.

a few of my favorite things...

Stereophonics
and the Jonas Brothers
Taylor Kitsch shirtless
and How I Met Your Mother
Wall-E and Harry
and Zac when he sings
These are few of my favorite things!

Things found in this picture:

• Paper Towns by John Green
• Stereophonics
• How I Met Your Mother
• Kenneth the Page (30 Rock)
• YouTube
• Jonas Brothers
• New York City
• Harry Potter
• Spring Awakening
• Robert Pattison
• Ukulele
• Star Wars
• Ryan Reynolds
• Zac Efron
• Taylor Kitsch (shirtless)
• Wall-E
• Daniel Radcliffe
• DFTBA Radio Hour
• 1950s Coke Ad
• Sketches

PS: I'M 21 TODAY MUTHERTRUCKERS!!!