This is quite a short animated feature which I wish had been longer. It features the usual cast including Jack Black, Angelina Jolie & Jackie Chan in various roles. This time around it's christmas and the kung fu panda has to travel to an important dinner with an important guest. Only problem is he has to prepare a huge dinner and he misses his mum. Also a rabbit wants a sacred spoon that will give him honour and is prepared to fight for it. It's a nice story with excellent animation & I wish they'd made it a bit longer though.

This film is directed by Tim Burton who also made The Nightmare Before Christmas and this film is in the same kind of vein. It's very sophisticated animation and apparently some of the shots are done with robots which move in a very realistic way and cost $4,000 each. The plot basically is there's a little boy called Frankenstein and his dog dies and he brings him back to life. He has to keep the dog hidden and the dog causes all sorts of mayhem ie chasing cats. His class are all competing for the school science project prize and when they find out about his invention chaos ensues as all sorts of things are brought back to life. I think kids in particular will love this. Eventually there is a happy ending and his dog is quite adorable. He grows on you as the film progresses. In fact in the end the dog is a bit of a hero. Also the story takes place in modern day america.

Starting from today I'm going to start doing film reviews. Some will be on dvd or bluray others will be cinema fims. Hope you enjoy them.

The book I read to research this post was Persuasion & Influence for Dummies by Elizabeth Kuhnke which is a very good book which I borrowed from the library. Elizabeth also wrote Body Language for Dummies which is reviewed in my post Body Language at http://daveroberts69.wordpress.com

Persuasion isn't about making someone do something against their will it's about helping them weigh up the options and make the right decision. It's sometimes called win win negotiating where you look for common ground. You try and come up with something beneficial to both of you. The best negotiaters are people who you want to do business with again. Not necessarily ones who strike a hard bargain who just get everyones backs up. There's various ploys people can use in negotiating, one of the best known is good guy, bad guy. With this someone plays a tough negotiater and another plays a nice negotiater and you have the threat of if you can't do business with the nice one you'll end up doing it with the tough one. In this scenario attribute everything the tough one says to the so called nice one and tell them this. Another ploy is wasting time if there is a deadline, most things people give in on tend to be when a deadline approaches. The solution to this is don't have a set deadline. Another ploy is to get several people on board with your idea so others can see it's good.

The book I read to research this post was St George's A Waterloo Church by Melvin Thompson which is an excellent book which I borrowed from the library. St george's church is in Kidderminster a town near Birmingham which is where I grew up although now I live in Birmingham. In 1820 Kidderminster had a population of about 10,000 but it was growing rapidly and it desperately needed a second church. In those days if you went to an anglican church you bought a pew hence only the wealthy went to church. Most people in Kidderminster went to the nonconformist church run by Richard Baxter. Also the Duke of Wellington had just defeated Napolean at the Battle of Waterloo and to commemorate it parliament passed a bill to build what were called Waterloo churches. They would have a big capacity and a large proportion of the seats would be free allowing poor people to go to church. St Georges is one of the biggest Waterloo churches in the country. Initially it seated 1,200 and had 500 free seats, this was later expanded to 2,000. It was named after St George because king George 4th was on the throne. Most of the money for the church came off the government but some had to be raised locally. By 1867 the population of Kidderminster had grown to 20,000 nowadays there's around 55,000 but additional churches had to be built. Kidderminster was the capital of the carpet industry in England & in particular there were quite a lot of Brinton's factories in the area. In 1922 the heater in St George's church started a fire and a lot of the church had to be rebuilt. There was a charity football match between West Bromwitch Albion & Aston Villa at the Kidderminster Harriers Football Ground to try and raise some money. A few years later it was rebuilt but they didn't replace the clock and stained glass wasn't put in until later due to a lack of money.

I have done a post reviewing Summertime by J M Coetzee at http://oldscratbag.net

You're all welcome to have a look.

The book I am reviewing in this post is the science fiction novel A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C Clarke which is one of the best novels I have ever read and which I borrowed from the library. This book is widely regarded by critics as his best book. Clarke was born in Somerset in 1917 & spent much of his life in Sri Lanka and he died in 2008. He wrote a paper on communication sattelites and it described it in such detail that they refused to give a patent to either the americans or russians when they were developed. Anyway getting back to this book it was written in 1960 at a time when some scientists thought the sand on the moon might be much deeper and a menace to any astronauts who might land. They thought the rock was eroded by the temperature changes and also thought the craters were much deeper than they are. Actually the sand is no more than a few centimetres deep at the most. Anyway the premise for this book is a land cruiser is transporting some tourists on the moon when there is an earthquake and it's buried under thousands of tons of rock and sand. When people arrive to dig it out they must cope with the harsh environment & also the cruiser doesn't have enough oxygen and is gradually heating up due to being buried. The way they cope with the lack of oxygen is sheer genius. Also the passengers occupy themselves by reading books and playing poker. This is a book that definitely ought to be made into a film & it does have a happy ending.

The magazine I read to research this post was The Economist which is a very good mag. This is a current affairs magazine and the cover story is that Xi Jinping is to become president of China. An interesting fact is that now 95% have access to free medical treatment compared to 15% in 2000. In Afghanistan there's concern that countries like Britain & the USA might pull their troops out to early. Another interesting fact is that in several of the arab countries both your parents have to belong to that race and be citizens for you to stand as president. Also if you are married to someone foreign you must get divorced. Egypt's constitution is a little more tolerant. In Italy Silvio Berlusconi won't be standing again for president and his party will get a successor in December. Apparently Israel may have bombed an arms factory in Sudan. Apparently they think weapons are being smuggled from there to Gazza. The socialist vote in the recent elections in Spain was very low and the ruling party extended its majority. Facebook has announced a $150 million profit from advertising on smartphones and tablets. I must admit I think the screen on smartphones is too small to access social network sites. I'd rather use a laptop.

The book read to research this post was The Berlitz Travel Guide to Mallorca & Menorca which is a very good book which I bought from a secondhand bookshop. On Mallorca there's the big city Palma with a population of 320,000 and it's a far bigger island than Menorca. Most travellers arrive via Palma Airport although there is a small airport on Menorca. There are 2 narrow gauge railways on Mallorca although they are primarily for tourists. If you go in the winter you can often negotiate a cheaper rate with the hotel although a lot close in that season.

Both these islands are part of the Balearics & you can visit anywhere on Mallorca within half a day. There is a huge cathedral at Palma which can be seen from the sea. At one time the Moors who were muslims ruled these islands. These were driven out by King Jaume the first and his army. When he died he divided the kingdom up between his sons & one of the kingdoms was Mallorca. 120 years later the ruler was defeated in a battle with the King of Aragon. In the 1930's there was a civil war in Spain between the communists and the fascists. Germany, Italy & Russia all took sides but the fascists won. During the Second World War Spain was neutral. When King Juan Carlos the first came to the throne he encouraged democracy. Spain joined the EEC in 1986 and is now a popular holiday destination.

The book I read to research this post was How to Fix Everything for Dummies by Gary Hegstrom et al which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. This book tells you how to fix any household item and is a great introduction. For specific jobs like plumbing it might be an idea to get a book on that subject. People underestimate how many things can be fixed just by cleaning. A common problem for anything with moving parts is to get gunk around the mechanism.

If you have squeaky floorboards get someone to walk up & down slowly to isolate the problem board. There are a number of possible solutions. One is to put a washer or shim under the board to raise it. Another is to tighten the screws which could have worked loose or replacing the screws with bigger ones if the thread is worn.