“Super sizing” is basically the hugest US-sized portion available – big burger, big fries and gallons on soda. The idea was sparked by a recent court case whereby a couple of young McDonalds customers lose a case against McDonalds. Spurlock reads in some McDonalds paraphernalia that if an individual can prove that eating McDonalds food was the exclusive reason for the obesity and ill-health then they might have a cause for compensation. It’s a fascinating film.

We follow Spurlock as he eats his last healthy, vegan meal prepared by his vegan-chef girlfriend and then watch as he tucks into thirty days of salt and sugar rich, saturated fat burgers, fries, cokes, ice-creams, pancakes and other processed crap. He gets ill, he gets fat and his liver turns to pâté. His doctors advise him to stop. He continues.

Now I’ve been living a more healthy life for just over a month now and I guess you could say I’m pretty well-read with regard to nutrition and diet as a result. I was already aware of the dangers of fast-food before I entered the cinema. Evidently other’s watching the film whilst drinking their “super sized” cinema deal coke and popcorn were a little freaked out. When it was explained to them that a super size coke contains no less than 46 teaspoons of sugar you could sense people putting their ‘drinks’ back into the convenient cinema seat drink-holders. It was enough to convince me that I’m on the right track. I’ve eliminated processed food from my diet since the end of July and I can’t see myself buying any in the near future thanks to this film. Alcohol remained my last vice but I’m getting better at the whole ‘moderation’ thing.

My own poor diet can be traced back to 1996 when I began to eat more junk. I was at college at the time and had access to more disposable income thanks to the various jobs I was undertaking. Having grown up in a similar world to Spurlock whereby my mother cooked every single night and we didn’t often go out for dinner, I was prevented from eating in any ‘fast-food’ joints. I didn’t have a taste for this kind of food. I certainly developed a taste when I got a job in Burger King in November 1996. When you work in Burger King (and I guess the same is true for McDonalds) you get a free-meal allowance which enables you to eat a Burger King ‘meal’ (burger, fries, coke) during your lunch break. Now imagine the summer holidays when you work every-day. In this instance you are a ‘super heavy user’ of fast food. That is where my health took a decline. I never became ‘fat’ but I certainly wasn’t healthy. I hate to imagine what my liver might have been like. The thing is I was getting loads of exercise – tonnes of the stuff. I cycled everywhere – too and from work, to my girlfriend’s house – everywhere. I also frequented a gym to make use of its climbing wall. Despite the filth I was eating, I was getting above average exercise. Then I started university.

University opened even more doors than college. In fact I was now also getting a taste for curry and the drinking was out of control. Puking my guts up every Friday night in drinking contests (you could get a pint of vodka and coke for £1 in Mr. G’s!). Critically, I wasn’t getting the exercise anymore but my consumption of filth was on the up. By the third year I had a noticeable gut. I wasn’t happy with it but my brain had become conditioned to high-sugar, high-fat foods and was hungry for more. The vicious circle began. We moved to Milton Keynes – a town that models itself on suburban America, where car is king and drive-through are a common site. I started work – in front of a computer. Day in day out I was non-active, conditioned to eat junk and drink lager in the evening. Thinking about it I’m amazed I didn’t blow up like a balloon. My metabolism certainly helped me out to some degree where others are less fortunate.

Eight years on from my induction into the world of fast-food I’m getting fit. I’m getting more exercise and am eating more fresh, unprocessed food than ever. Crucially, I’m no longer addicted to the taste of the junk. I tried some chips yesterday and they did nothing for me. Knowing what’s in them actually creates a bit of a psychological barrier. I’m happy with it and feeling good. Spurlock abused his body for a mere 30 days. Granted he was only eating junk-food. However, my diet hasn’t been too great on-and-off for eight years. I’m hoping that by my wedding day the last remains of the spare tyre have left me for good. In my first month of healthy living I’ve lost enough weight to be able to wear jeans that I haven’t been comfortable wearing for at least a year. I will soon need a new belt as I’m on the last, tightest hole now. This is a good sign.

I’m hoping that if enough people see Super size me, they will think about what they’re shovelling down their throats. In the UK we’re following America’s lead in the obesity steaks. This film certainly makes you think. However, the screening I attended on a cheap Tuesday at 6:30 pm was mostly empty. To add insult to injury it was screened in the smallest cinema. People are not going to flock to Super size me. It isn’t going to be a blockbuster. A lot of people wont care to see it even when it’s on TV. But if you get the opportunity, go watch it. And then read Fast Food Nation. That’s all the knowledge you need.

The effects were OK but they weren’t overly believable. I didn’t really feel too much at all if the truth be known. It just wasn’t believable enough. I wasn’t prepared for the subtitles and I don’t really think that using touches of Aramaic and Latin made for a more believable tale. I guess if the weird clichéd devils weren’t stomping around in hell it might have been better but then you get the whole end scene where Jesus rises from the dead all clean and sparkly new (save for the holes in his hands!). There are much better films about Jesus out there than this. It certainly didn’t warrant the clapping at the end from the church-organised cinema parties.

User testing is something we do on a fairly regular basis because we’re considered to be somewhat experts in the field. Different departments come from all around to drink from our fountain of knowledge. Today and yesterday have both been user testing days and plenty of students have been in and out clicking around sites whilst being studied like lab rats. I haven’t been involved in this particular session. Instead, I’ve been left to my own devices. Yesterday I took advantage of the quiet time and pumped out tonnes of work. Today I’ve done precious little. I guess if you average out my workflow from the last two days it’d be consistent with my average so that’s fine. However, I really must get a grip of school-night drinking.

We watched a DVD called Confessions of a dangerous mind. George Clooney directed it (his first I’m told) and he roped in some of his old buddies from Ocean’s Eleven to play bit parts here and there: Brad Pit, Matt Damon as well as proper characters: Julia Roberts. It’s about a guy who invented the blind date TV format getting a job as a CIA hitman for some extra pennies. The main characters played by Sam Rockwell and Drew Barrymore were excellent and hugely entertaining. As I’d never heard about this film before I didn’t have any expectations but it was great. Worth a watch if you like that sort of thing.

It just goes to show that you can’t rely on the reviews as I thoroughly enjoyed Big Fish. It was an intertwining of a terminally ill father continuing to tell the fairy-tale embellished moments of his life story to his disinterested son. Not only was it a film for all the family with different levels of humour throughout but it also had fantastically poignant and tear jerking moments too. The lady with the glass eye was pretty scary and Burton’s Big Friendly Giant was so odd to look at to the credit of the costume designers and makeup artists. As ever, the attention to detail was flawless and the uneasy gothic undertones of the set added that extra Burton magic to a great Ewan McGregor performance.

The child turns out to be so far removed from the concept of ‘human’ that it’ll either disturb you or have you in stitches. It’s got no arms or legs for a start and it’s small body is wrapped in a bandage that turns out to be it’s skin! It’s head is like that of a shrunken hippo’s head. It’s quite hard to communicate the total weirdness of this film or talk of the plot: apparently there is none. The film just ends. So for an hour an a half we’re treated to eerie sounds and music and lots of strange worm/intestinal creatures falling from the sky, a woman singing in the radiator and a factory that makes erasers for pencils out of people’s heads. The effects were surprisingly good for the time that the film was made and the prosthetic version of Henry’s head is quite realistic. The small amounts of dialogue in the film are nice and strange too and give nothing away about the characters.

This sort of film will undoubtedly divide critics. I’ll firmly in the camp that loves this sort of off-the-wall film making. Judging by the reviews on the movie database, many people hate the film for its lack of plot. You’ll just have to decide for yourself.

Make your own Eraserhead baby.

The meaning of the girl?: The Tradition of Sati in India (Here).

More to come.

Splendid discussion on The Matrix Revolutions Kottke.org.

These films have all intrigued me enough to unearth this analysis of Lynch’s body of work.