Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit – Our thoughts so far on the movies Part 2 (Prop Design)

This time Master KAF and MrsDTB are reflecting on the interesting appendices footage from The Fellowship Of The Rings. We got to learn lots about prop design and costumes. Here are some of our favourites.

The design of the Orcs armour, though at first glance may look completely impractical, when you take a closer look it is in fact very good. The armour they have is functional but not fancy (if you don’t count the occasional sharp parts!). Orc armour looks impractical due to the way we think about historical man-made armour, which is smooth without large areas of sharp ridges and usually made of metal. Ors armour is often made of leather because they needed it to be lightweight as they were travelling long distances on foot.

To be continued…

2 November, 20188 January, 2019

Book Review – Not So Normal Norbert – written by James Patterson and Joey Green

Master KAF has written this review, MrsDTB helped a bit and done the typing.

There are three main characters in the book. Norbert Riddle a normal schoolboy who in a fit of rage does a hilarious impression of the country’s dictator. He gets sentenced to the “Astronuts Camp” on the planet Zorquat 3. Drew Weaver who is in the same class as Norbert in Middle School 1022 in Region 154. He too is arrested by the Truth Police for laughing at Norbert’s impression of the country’s dictator and for occasional doodling. Lastly, Sophie Singer who meets Norbert and Drew on the ship taking them to Zorquat 3 and its crazy farm. She is arrested for constantly having music on her mind and making lots of music.

The story takes place on Zorquat 3 which is a distant planet, according to Drew “Zorquat Three is a bleak planet covered with quick-sand pits and giant, man-eating lizards”.

Norbert tries to prove himself to be normal so he can be sent back home to carry on searching for his parents. His Dad was arrested when he was 5 years old by the Truth Police. His Mother made art after her husband was arrested and ended up being apprehended as well.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

At the climax of the book, he finds his mother who reveals that his father is on one of the planet’s two moons and forced to work in a labour camp.

***** END OF SPOILER ALERT*****

Norbert does not succeed in proving himself normal so he is stuck on Zorquat Three. He ends up working on a TV show called Astronuts, near the end of the book. The show is meant to entertain everyone on the planet who has a Truth Screen which is this universe’s TV.

Anyone between the age of 6 and 12 would surely enjoy this book. It has a lot of humour but also has some serious parts (but not too serious).

This book could be considered part of the dystopian genre, which in definition means not perfect. A lot of dystopian books have rebels fighting back but in this book, everyone on the planet who is capable of rebelling even slightly will be sent away, because “different is dangerous, creative is crazy and imagination is insanity”.

30 October, 2018

Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit – Our thoughts so far on the movies Part1 (Themes)

Mrs DTB’s disclaimer: We are writing about the movies, not the books. We want to be clear about this as we know that Tolkien fans can take this subject seriously and quite rightly so!

Tolkien talked about themes not as allegorical but applicable to his work.

“I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Master KAF says: He lived through both world wars and all but one of his friends died in WW1 so you cannot blame him for drawing influence, unintentionally, from these experiences. I personally don’t think that he drew influence from them on purpose.

MrsDTB says: I think that there are lots of references to the Industrial Revolution. As he was growing up in Birmingham, the mechanisation and industrialisation of the city were underway. The cutting down of the trees at Isengard is an example of this. Tolkien was also not a fan of the motor car; in a letter to his son in 1944, he said “It is full Maytime by the trees and grass now. But the heavens are full of roar and riot. You cannot even hold a shouting conversation in the garden now, save about 1 a.m. and 7 p.m. – unless the day is too foul to be out. How I wish the ‘infernal combustion’ engine had never been invented. Or (more difficult still since humanity and engineers in special are both nitwitted and malicious as a rule) that it could have been put to rational uses — if any.”

Master KAF wonders what he would have thought about Electric Cars and whether he may have liked them better because they are not as noisy. Also, since the electricity can be generated from wind or solar, for example, it can be a lot less harmful to the environment. We are not sure he would have liked the electric bicycle though as it takes all of the physical- exercise out of the experience (so essentially it is the lazy person bicycle).

Next time we are going to write about influences to costume and set design/places.

15 October, 20188 January, 2019

More Marvellous Victorian Inventions

So MasterKAF and MrsDTB are back with another thrilling instalment of More Marvellous Victorian Inventions.

MasterKAF is hard at work reading the book, Great Victorian Inventions by Caroline Rochford, which inspired this little project of ours. Mrs DTB has also been looking through a different book, The Ingenious Victorians by John Wade which expands on the whole subject of the weird and wonderful ideas that the Victorians had in this age of innovation.

Ones we found in our house

The Tell-Tale Milk Jug had marks on the side so you knew how much milk was in the jug. It had secondary markings that revealed the quality of the milk based on how much cream there was because as MasterKAF found out, the cream rises.

The modern Pyrex Jug basically performs the same function and we use them every day.

Inventions we wish still existed

The Road and River Cycle

All-terrain vehicle: The road and river cycle was introduced in America for travelling across roads and rivers in a single vehicle, thereby eliminating the inconvenience of having to travel for miles around stretches of water.

12 October, 20188 January, 2019

Victorian Inventions at Home – Are They Still As Great?

We have been reading Great Victorian Inventions by Caroline Rochford and this time we are going to look at what was designed for the home. MrsDTB thinks its a good idea that we have a hunt for items in that chapter that we use in our home today. MasterKAF is happy to join in and so here are the results of our search:

Moveable House (1884). One of the first people to market a “moveable house” was Monsieur Poitreneau in 1884. Today we call them caravans or flat pack buildings. We have plenty of outdoor buildings but not a caravan. MrsDTB’s sister, however, is about to buy a Motorhome, making us bang up to date with the developments from this invention.

Radiators (1885)

They used to call it a House Warming Apparatus. MasterKAF says they are heckin’ useful as it makes getting through winter much easier. Can you imagine trying to get to sleep in conditions such as -5degrees? Even with global warming, it’s still pretty cold in the winter!

Inventions that we wish we had

The Automatic Egg Cooker (1892). We don’t have this in our kitchen but can’t think why! We do have an egg timer but this would be so much easier! MasterKAF said he does not care what universe you are from if you like eggs then you need this machine.

Next time we are going to look for some more inventions for the home and see if there are any we wish still existed.

3 October, 2018

Maths, functional skills or fun?

MrsDTB wonders, can Maths be fun whilst building functional skills?

It is a fair question! Many of us were not fans of maths when at school. For me, it was both a combination of the way that it was taught and the fact that very little of it was then applied in day to day life. So the subject became both boring and irrelevant in my eyes at a young age #epicfail!

It has only been in adult life that I have identified how certain maths skills help me in my work and pastimes. I now see maths applied when measuring in the kitchen or adapting recipes. When I am gardening figuring out growth times and whether I will have the space that I need for crops is essential for planning. In my musical fun, I can also see maths come alive in a way that I never did when at school.

I have no idea whether current school policy is to integrate maths or not, but it is still taught as an isolated subject leaving MasterKAF to question what the point of it all was too.

Fast-forward to now and we have a very different approach at home in our learning. Yes, we use a program to help with functional skills in a fun way and after trying many possible options we settled on DoodleMaths which is excellent. We also have a lot of fun with Cool Maths Games, a site that has exactly that content. So MasterKAF feels like he is playing but also knows that his mind is being expanded at the same time and we chat about where the maths actually “is” in the games that he chooses to play. Maths and its application is all around us if we look for it and following this path has meant that MasterKAF and MrsDTB for that matter, are no longer maths haters.

1 October, 2018

Nessy is not so bad! (This is MrsDTB talking)

After a long break, we have decided to get back in the saddle and whilst MasterKAF would never admit it, actually, he is getting better at spelling every time he uses this program. Many home educators use Nessy and honestly, MrsDTB is not sure where we would be without it ?♥

25 September, 20188 January, 2019

Workhouse – three words – hell on earth.

Who worked in The Workhouse?

Master, Matron, school teacher and a part-time clerk. The ratio of staff to inmate was practically non-existent. Punishments were harsh. Riots might have happened but there was nowhere else to go. We found out about one such riot at a Workhouse in Andover.

What were the jobs and punishments?

Jobs included:

Crush bones to make fertiliser
Breaking stones to make gravel for the roads for example.
Turning a mill, used to make flour and other products.
Cleaning the building (which was huge)

The jobs were not nice, laborious, slow, menial, boring, dull, lacking interest and sometimes painful. It must have felt degrading to do those jobs. Some people might have felt like they were dying.

Punishments such as solitary confinement were used and the first line of action was no food at the next meal. We read about one lady being sent to prison for 2 months for breaking a window.

We are really glad that we were not living in a place like that and worried that people must have suffered ill health, mental health and maybe even taken their own lives. It feels really sad.

How could you end up in a Workhouse?

You could end up in the workhouse for many reasons; because you were robbed, your house burned down, you had a run of bad luck. To call the inmates idle and profligate could have been as an insult in itself because there was no kindness or thought that the person found their way there through no fault of their own, there was only suffering. (MasterKAF is thinking like a depressed philosopher!)

MrsDTB decided to end the session here as, to be honest, it was getting very sombre! We feel very lucky to be living in this day and age and have the opportunities that we do.

25 September, 2018

JAM is good for you!

Alongside our other interests such as Victorian History and English Literature, we have begun to take creative inspiration in the coolest of ways. JAM really is made for the YouTube generation and is a big hit in our house.

So far we have signed up for the Lego course and Drawing Bootcamp and loving them. If you haven’t already seen what these guys do then it is worth taking a look and they run a very good blog here.

18 September, 201818 September, 2018

Clockwork – Episodes One and Two

SERIES NAME: CLOCKWORK

EPISODE TITLE: Southern Hospitality

EPISODE SETTING: It takes place in a Non-Time setting (since Steam Punk never happened!) based on a Wild West styled civilisation. The episode features two locations, the Clockwork itself (one of three large airships but more of that later!) and the Dry Dock, a city on the ground where ships are repaired and people meet. We will also discover that there are around 100 smaller airships housing around 3 people.

There will be some action in this episode but mainly it is for setting up the story for the rest of the season.

SETTING SYNOPSIS: This ship is in Dry Dock and Silver, the ~Chief Mechanic of the ship, is without a Crew. He is on the lookout for new recruits. He owns a repair shop and is currently fixing up a steam plane.

SCENE ONE: A Dangerous Dilemma

The episode begins at Dry Dock where a major sandstorm is blowing across the city allowing dangerous animals to come out and attack the inhabitants. The owner of the steam place, Rose, is on her way to collect it from Silver at the workshop. She is running for her life as well as for her plane because a big mutant bat is chasing after her, flying low and getting closer and closer. Rose is panicking because she needs to find the workshop and has never met Silver before.

Silver sees her coming through the window and tries to knock the back door open by kicking it with his mechanical leg. He fails in his attempt and falls to the ground hitting his head and crying out in pain. Rose, who is now just by the door, pushes it hard with both hands but it does not open. Instead, one hand smashes through the glass and she is now terrified as the bat is still chasing her. Her hand, whilst very bloody, feels a key in the lock on the other side. She unlocks the door and opens it to see Silver lying in pain on the floor. He is in pain, holding his bashed up head and Rose shouts “Oh my gosh, are you alright?” Silver groans “no” and hauls himself up locking the door again just in time to stop the bat getting through.

SCENE TWO: Plot Thickens

An evil secret alliance has been the cause of the sandstorm as they want to take over the city to gain power and wealth. They can control other creatures with telepathic manipulation and by bribery too (in the case of the more sentient beasts).

SCENE THREE: An Heroic Undertaking

The episode continues in the workshop. The Evil Alliance has strengthened their assault gaining power from the moon’s cycle and gravitational pull. It becomes clear that they are after Rose because she had previously stumbled across an important site that they were guarding.

Covering his head wound with his hands still, Silver says “I have an airship. If we can make it there, we can get above the clouds and we won’t have to worry about those things” as he tenses up in disgust. He grabs Roses hand and they run through the back door, making it to the ship. On the last step Silver trips and dents a valve on his mechanical leg freezing it stiff. He is a bit frustrated but they manage to close the door on the bottom level of the ship, a close call! Rose shouts to Silver “throw me the keys and I’ll start the engine”. She catches them and runs up on to the flight deck. Whilst she starts the engine, the raging evil bat is now hammering against the bottom of the ship trying to get in. It fails and howls in pain. Silver knows he can fix the damage but they will still be able to take off.

Once the ship is airborne, Silver limps rigidly to join Rose and says “How come you can fly this so well”. Rose replies “My father and mother owned a ship and I grew up flying around the globe with them. They taught me everything I know”. Silver is a little bit impressed by what she says. He whistles to his trusted companion, an owl who is asleep somewhere on the ship, trying to get her attention. The owl wakes up having been sleeping heavily to recover from speedily exiting the workshop when the sandstorm began. She has a few cuts and bruises from the broken glass when the window smashed in.

She finds Silver and Rose who spots the injuries saying “I’ll try to help with my wound healing balm” but she cannot find it “Oh no, I must have lost it when that bat was chasing me, perhaps he has it now. Silver is not impressed as he loves his owls!

SCENE FOUR: The Truth Revealed

The evil mastermind known as “The Nameless One” as everyone is too scared to ask for his real name, is still following our heroes having been tracking them all along. The Evil Alliance wants Rose to join them and to take over the ship too.

SCENE FIVE: The Final Showdown

The Nameless One has summoned more beasts from the sandstorm below to pursue the Clockwork. They are led by a corrupted dragon and aided by a legion of undead archers. Their arrows are able to reach the Clockwork.

Silver attempts to take a shot at the Dragon by firing one of the ships’ cannon. It misses the dragon but takes out some of the other beasts. This makes Silver irritated and he screams out a *bleeped out* word. Rose looks at him with raised eyebrows and says “Honestly, language!”. Silver says “sorry” through gritted teeth as he is sti9ll very angry but not at her.

Meanwhile Rose is concerned about her healing balm. Does the bat have it or is it somewhere else? As she rummages through her pockets again, she finds it. The lid had come off and most of it had leaked but there was just enough to heal the Owl. Silver was elated by the news saying a very grateful “thank you”. He then aims at the Dragon again, this time with his bolt action rifle. But he forgot to load real bullets, instead he loaded flares. This set the dragon alight burning its scales but not killing it. The dragon winces in pain. One of the beasts, a flying elephant spouts water toward the dragon trying to put out the flames. It fails spectacularly and somehow the weather lands in the ship’s Rain Collection Systems (RCS) which feeds the boiler and powers the ship even more.

Our heroes are now more determined than ever to defeat the dragon. Silver reloads his rifle with the correct ammunition and fires it straight into the mouth of the dragon just as it’s about to the blast flames all over the Clockwork. The bullet reaches it intended target and the dragon falls away whilst the other creatures flee. With its dying breath, the dragon roars out in fury.

Rose asks if she can join Silver as part of his crew on the Clockwork. Silver nods gently and says “Sure but you’re gonna have to do something more than being a doctor”. Rose smiles back and blushes a bit wondering what she has got herself into.

*THE END*

———————————————————————————————–

SERIES NAME: CLOCKWORK

EPISODE TITLE:

Scene One – Episode Two begins on board the ship where a giant mechanical bug attacks the ship from the outside. It unbalances the ship, knocks Rose out of her bed and knocks everything Silver is working on off the desk.

He screams, “Who dares?” as heavily amplified mechanical bug noises can be heard. Metal hitting against metal and a buzzing noise at high speed.

The bug reaches the outer door to the ship and is peering through the window.

Silver opens his cabin door and peers out of the window, shouting “So you’re the Sass-Master I am looking for?” He runs up the stairs as fast as he can and manages to take his trusty rifle from the gun rack, firing 3 shots. 2 rebound but one pierces the armoured exoskeleton. The bug now crawls onto the top of the ship and Rose sees it as she comes out of her cabin. She tries to use her special power of communication but fails, realising it is a mechanical bug, so her powers are useless. This makes her feel nervous, worried and a bit embarrassed.

Silver pulls out a knife from his boot and runs at the bug. He trips, and the knife flies out of his hand striking the bug in one of its sixteen eyes. The canned audience makes a sound as if to say “ouch, that has got to hurt!”

Silver shouts to Rose “Do you have any idea what is going on?” She replies, “Yes I do, I have seen this once before on my travels around the globe with my folks”. Silver is frustrated as he doesn’t care where she saw the bug before but instead, how to get it off the ship! He unleashes a mechanical sheep he has been working on to try and distract the bug. Instead, it runs off the side of the ship, breaks a water tank and does nothing to distract the bug. Silver and Rose look at each other thinking, “Ooh heck, it’s going to be another one of those days.”

Scene Two – The Plot Thickens – The bug has been tracking the ship since it left dry dock. It’s being controlled by the Evil Nameless One and his minions. Silver and Rose have no idea of the connection.

Scene Three – An Heroic Undertaking – The bug reaches the bridge of the ship and captures Silver’s trusted owl by grabbing him with a claw that shoots out from an inner compartment in the bug. Silver shouts “Ok, I owe him at least 30 punches by now!” The owl scratches and tries to bite the bug too but it cannot make a dent in the metal. The bug laughs, and it is at this point that we realise it is being piloted by someone inside. Silver pulls out yet another knife and runs at the bug jumping onto one of the metal cables holding the ships air tank. He jumps off and onto the bugs back doing some damage but then slips and breaks his nose! The pilot of the bug is beginning to think that he needs some help and radios for backup shouting “All airborne bugs to The Clockwork NOW!” Messages are received but are crackly and not all bugs hear the location. This causes panic in the enemy camp, especially the leader bug and its pilot. Silver runs at the bug once again and tries to cut off its communication aerial with partial success. Now the bug can only radio locally. Still, though, the Owl is trapped inside the bug and Silver knows that the only way to get him back is to get inside the cockpit and release him.

Scene Four- The Truth Revealed – The Evil Mastermind is planning to turn a nearby pyramid into a missile silo. He knows that this is something The Clockwork will try and stop so has sent the bug to destroy it.

Scene Five – The Final Showdown – Back on board, the fight continues but Silver is no closer to getting his Owl back. More bugs arrive to reinforce the leader. (Imagine you are standing in a swarm of locusts – that’s what it sounds like). Silver takes both side arms and starts shooting rapidly He causes massive damage to the swarm of bugs and takes two out completely. He shouts, “I am completely out of ammo, man the cannons”. But through the noise of the swarm Rose does not hear which makes Silver really angry. He jumps and goes into a dive roll to reach the ladder taking him below deck. He sighs, thinking everything today could have gone so much better as he sees the leader bug take off from the ship with his precious owl inside. Silver passes out from exhaustion. What will happen next? Is the owl going to be safe? Is their life ever going to get any easier? Tune in next week to find out!

-THE END-