Movie Review: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) *Spoiler Free*

I was excited to see Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets for the sole reason that, based on the trailers, it was writer/director, Luc Besson's return to his visionary best since The Fifth Element (1997). Beyond that I'm not familiar with the comic series, Valerian and Laureline, that the movie is based upon.

The comparison to The Fifth Element is very easy to make as the visual style of Valerian is very similar. So much so that it could easily be another story set in a different part of the same universe.

Q.bo One - Kind of Creepy Robot Head, in a 'Foot-Bowl'

Q.bo Robot... I think this girl may
be thinking about eating robot brains?

The makers of Q.bo One are promoting their educational robot as a family friendly companion for your home but, at the same time, it is, pretty much, a robot head in an amputated foot bowl... which is kind of creepy, right? Or is it just me?

Not to mention this image of the girl (pictured) I took from their Indiegogo fundraiser page. Is she trying to eat that poor robot's brain?

Buy the Skateboard You Want to Skate - etourist Skateboards

etourist Skateboards

Most skaters like to buy and skate the Pro-Model skateboard of their favorite skater, which is fine, and you should absolutely do that. It supports the skater and allows them to continue getting free stuff and/or paid to do what they love.

It's not often that skaters think about the artist creating the graphics that appear on the decks they buy, unless they particularly like a design, in which case they might give it some attention.

As much as I've enjoyed skating pro-models of my favorite skaters, I also know that skating a deck with a design that I really like motivates me even more to skate often and progress. You just feel good skating a good looking deck with a great board graphic.

Building Backyard Skateboard Mini Ramps

Back in the day I designed and built the majority of the skateboard ramps my friends and I skated at our house. Though I had plenty of help building because what skater doesn't want to help a new skate ramp get built as quickly as possible?

The crowning glory of all the ramps I built was my backyard mini (pictured), which I've written about before in this blog.

It started out as a 16 foot wide, 4 foot high, 30 foot long mini, to which I later added 1 foot extensions. It probably had a 6 foot transition but I can't be sure. I used to draw transition templates free hand and just eyeball it until it looked right to me. I never worked off a plan either. It's not a hard structure to just plan as you go.