I just can't believe it and yet, it is true! Another year has gone by and it has been the
first one I've spent entirely in the UK since my relocation here in March 2008.

If I had to summarize what happened in this year, I'd say nine month of agony over my inability
to find a new job after the company that employed me went bust by the end of 2008 (like countless
others over here in the UK and worldwide as a direct result of the international bankers fuck up)!

But then, finally, in September there was the chance and unexpectedly I got an invitation to
apply for a very, I mean verrrry special job! I did and voila, I got it. I still can hardly believe
it, but I am so endlessly grateful and happy and I know that while keeping this job I won't have
to worry about an interesting and fulfilled worklife and a more or less stable and secure personal
one as well.

So, this means that the New Year to come bears within the promise of more interesting learning and
tasks in my new occupation and overall a newly gained stability and security, which is obviously
what every single human is looking and hoping for (and by law should be granted as long as they
work hard enough for it).

Now all I can do is to hope that my friends and their families might have similarly positive
events in their lives and that the New Year to come might offer us all plenty of health, happiness
and great new things to do!

Cheers mates! HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!

I finally managed to go and watch the personally NOT that much anticipated movie Avatar. I confess I was curious and I still kept some hopes for fairly good entertainment and those hopes certainly haven't been spoiled at all. But any expectation further than ... hmm better forget it.

Well, where to start? I LOVED the visuals of the very Fantasy world of Pandora! Even if living from some wellknown cliches it still delivers insuperable eye-candy of the most exciting kind! The way those natives (and the human avatars that are similar to them) look and behave is certainly a high achievement in cinematography and that can stand without any "BUT" .

But, when we come to other aspects, I can't sing only praise. Let's begin with the 3D technique of its own, which seems to be "threatening" our upcoming cinema experiences in 2010 with about 10 new "block buster hopefuls" released in that new 3D version. I confess I felt it very fitting in the surreal surrounding of the imaginary planet Pandora environment, but utterly disturbing and alienesque in all and any scenes which portrayed "real humans" in their "real environment". It somehow takes away from their fleshliness, their physical existence and especially from their depth of facial and emotional expression.

Then, my next qualm would be with the entire storyline itself, which I won't explain here in detail in order not to give too much away. I am sure many people haven't yet seen it and I shouldn't really post spoileresque reviews.

Anyway: The final twenty minutes of the film definitely made me loath it. Too obvious the turn of the plot, too much "black & white" painting of the characters, especially the baddy and, as if there was still a need to top the negative impression of the ending, there was a song at the beginning of the credits, which reminded me ever so terribly of "My Heart Will Go On", the cheesy Celine Dion hymn of the unspeakable and loathable Titanic. I guess Cameron can't help it! There are those ideas about perfect movie-making in his mind like a set of lego building blocks and a cheesy credits song is a must be for him! I hope he will spend at least twice as long in the purgatory for this as any "normal" moviemaker