On the road

Seriously, lock your children up. The roads are that little bit more dangerous.

Bought one of these (see above) little babies over the weekend. Isn't she lovely? I have my Mac, my iPhone and now if Apple were to make a car it would be the Smart car. It just fits into my life, just like the iPhone.

The Smart is fantastic to drive! It just does what it is supposed to. A friend at work, upon finding out it is automatic, said "that's not driving. Sitting and letting a machine do it for you". But that's like saying, "driving isn't real travelling. Sitting there letting a machine do it for you. Get out and walk".

My car is a great Urban Vehicle, nippy around town - which is lucky, because I work there. It also has a micro-hybrid drive (MHD) that stops the engine when you come to a standstill, starting it up once you take your foot off the brake pedal. After the initial shock of thinking you've stalled an Automatic. - "how do you stall a fookin' automatic" - it really does make sense.

I'm loveing it. Even though I really hate driving - too much like hard work - I'm enjoying the novelty of this. My favourite past-time at the moment, overtaking the bus on the way home. "out of my way, slow coach."

Peace

Transylvania - Pictures

Ok, I've finally got around to posting these images I took on my recent holiday to Transylvania...

St Catherine's Gate, Brasov. Check out the 'Brasov Hills' - Hollywood style...

Happy Halloween!

The Black Church - Brasov.

More of the Black Church...

Bran Castle - We were told this was Vlad Tepes' castle, but it wasn't. In fact he had probably only ever invaded it.

Bran from below...

The Cafe International. A chair and table with pumpkins...

This was a school - if you can believe it! At the top of the hill in Sighisoara...

Street below the Clock tower, Sighisoara.

A view of the Shoemakers guild tower, Sighisoara

Statue of Vlad Tepes, Sighisoara...

View of the Shoemakers Guild Tower, Sighisoara...

The Birthplace of Vlad Tepes, apparently...

Characters of the days of the week in the Clock tower in Sighisoara. Currently, Mercury (for Wednesday) was on display...

View of the Clock Tower, Sighisoara...

Town house in Sighisoara...

Poienile Izei. They had some great images of women who go to Hell and the tortures that are reserved for them. Unfortunately, I was only allowed to take photos outside.

The Merry Cemetery. This grave was of a man killed by a soldier during the Second World War. He was stabbed and beheaded - as the image shows. grim!!

Many of the graves in the Merry Cemetery showed how people died. This 3 year old girl was run over. However, I'm not sure if it is the best taste to show that on their grave...

Sunlight over the Carpathians 

A nice shot of the Merry Cemetery. As you can see, they're all colourful, which is remarkable that everyone in the village now does the same thing. And they're not all grim...

We saw a lot of Wooden Churches. They look like little witches hats...

This was at the outdoor museum...

A Sepia Wooden Chruch..

We were invited to go to the Festival of the Dead ceremony. This is basically where Halloween comes from. The young kids give sweets to one another. Adults place a candle and bread on the grave of their loved ones. All this whilst the priest reads out the names of all the people buried in the cemetery...

Spooky Wooden Church

A old couple in the Village of Botiza, where we stayed. Check out the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bag.

This is a pot tree. There was a tradition, during the war, that when a young soldier returned from war looking for a wife, families with an unmarried daughter and a dowry would place pots on a tree outside the house. This would inform the young man to try his luck. Now they have a more artistic, or practical use - as a pot dryer.

This is the Village of Botiza, where we for five nights. The young family we stayed with were very nice, and put up with our picky, western ways.

Image of the Angel Gabriel, on a painted monastery in Suceava.

Creepy lamp from outside the Hotel Castle Dracula. The Hotel was rubbish, but I did like this lamp...

A painted Monastery in Suceava...

An image on a painted monastery in Suceava, showing monks climbing the ladder to heaven, assisted by the angels.

However, the ladder is full of pitfalls, and one false step will topple a monk. He is then conveyed to Hell by Demons.

Doing it for the Girls

Ok, so maybe I should get around to doing the Alpha and CK wallpapers to go with the Donachiel and Mr Morningstarr* ones I've already done.

Again, the two images follow a character concept for my Morningstarr* project. The first one is Alpha, the Morningstarr* Hitman. Then there's CK, the Morningstarr* Resistance Leader.

800 x 600

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1440 x 900

Madonna - Cardiff Millennium stadium 23/08/2008

Went to see Madonna at the Millennium Stadium at Cardiff, this Saturday. Here are some of the pictures I took...

Guitar!!!

Multitasking!

Pimp my ride.

Boogey-woogey!

The full review can be seen at The Morningstarr*...

Wallpaper - Pimp my desktop

So, I've been doing some work on trying to bring The Morningstarr* to life. This is something I've been playing around with since we launched the main web site two years ago. It has had many different looks, none of which seemed to work, from animated videos to comic strips to short stories. It something I'm currently calling 'Tales from The Morningstarr*', and hopefully I'll have something soon.

I've been doing a little character developing with Zombie Mastermind, in the form of image and look. So far I have two concepts for the leads, which I've put together using photos and patience. Hopefully ZM will have a drawing or two for me soon.

these two concept drawings are based on the popular iTunes/iPod adverts that I've converted into wallpaper for those who would like to an Morningstarr* to their Desktops. So please, pick a desktop size...

800 x 600

1024 x 768

Widescreen 1440 x 900

Click on the size you need and then right click the bigger image and set as wallpaper if using Internet Explorer. For Mac users, click on image then control click the larger image and use image as desktop image.