Wednesday, March 21, 2007

End of Extras series; the avatar

1. 'Extras' series: I thought the last episode of Ricky Gervais's 'Extras' was well done as a finale, with an extra guest star or two who were completely full of themselves, Andy finally makes his agent see the 'writing is on the wall' after pathetic performance and an icky scene in the office, and of course another sick kid gets the "do I really have to be nice to them too?" treatment. Andy can be every bit as socially inept as MrBean.

Didn't expect to see De Niro show up in this series -Gervais must be really building up some serious appeal now. Entertaining cameo, with the agent finally managing a Big Catch, the meeting set up in the famous Dorchester Hotel and Bob looking at his watch then becoming fascinated with the agent's tacky novelty pen... I wonder if the new success will turn Andy into another miserable egotistical specimen? Probably. His friend Maggie was a sort of vague, guileless and very indiscreet version of Jiminy Cricket, set against Andy's delusions of achievement and tendency to patronise people -the BAFTA Awards Night episode was priceless.

2. Avatar for blog: Small but significant technical breakthrough in blog content: the avatar I'd put together over a couple of sessions had saved OK but then proved very difficult for the browser in 'Add a Picture' feature to find among other files. Tonight it eventually exported from original avatar site to my blog and ended up in right spot on the 'front page'. I'll quit while I'm winning. :)

4 comments:

Mel said...

I'm impressed... what on god's green earth is an avatar?
I've heard of them, but that's it!
Intrigued by your avatar blog post and a related post on this
& I can now safely proclaim I have some comprehension of what an avatar is! Who woulda guessed I had one already!
Check out more details for those who don't know on
Wikipedia :: avatar
Gotta love this life...

Tim said...

Hi Mel,
Avatars: looks like the Web designers have grabbed yet another old idea -the personal icon/some kind of representative image, and given it a new twist for the virtual age. It wasn't a familiar word to me either when I first came across it in an IT context, but once I saw what they were (whether animated or not) I had an "ah ha!" moment.:)

I'm enjoying the blogosphere too -it seems to 'naturally' (I use the word as loosely as possible) cater to both my love of writing and provide a daydreaming space, with lots of reference sources thrown in for good measure.

Animosiman said...

I thought an avatar was some sort of shape shifting Indian god. Usually painted blue with lots of earrings and stuff.

Tim said...

As I undertsand the term 'avatar' so far, the blue god with ear-rings, shape-shifting ability etc, as featured in so many statues, would be like the actual god's signature, just as your own signtaure represents you and even gives your name but isn't You.