Crimes Against Common Sense

So It’s Been A While

2011-12-31T06:54:00.001-08:00

First things, well, first is traditional. I’ve failed abysmally in regards to my goal to blog once a week for 52 to consecutive weeks. I think it rests partly in my reactionary opposition to any task being forced upon me, even if the forcing is self inflicted. If I set myself a goal, with no outside pressure, I immediately begin shrivelling away like a singed hair. It’s not very conductive for personal projects, but shit happens. Well, shall we get on with addressing my goals for 2011, seeing as the year has pretty much come to an end?

1) Blog once a week, minimum – Okay, we don’t need to dwell on this. I failed.

2) Get a job in Birmingham or Wolverhampton by April – Again, I failed this one, simply because I had a hard time getting a job ANYWHERE, let alone in the West Midlands. I did manage to find 3 months employment at the start of the year, but that was a temporary contract. But I am going back to the same company, almost a year to the day later that I first started with them

3) Get Money for Hong Kong – Thanks to the amazing generosity of my granddad, I was able to go to Hong Kong with Viv and her family and I had an AMAZING time. So that’s my first success.

4) Reach a Gamerscore of 25,000 – Okay, I really didn’t think I was going to make this until the very last minute. Seeing as I’ve only obtained 100% on one game since setting this goal (Saints Row The Third, great game), I accumulated the other 4k over several other titles, including Portal 2, Arkham Asylum, LA Noire, Dead Space 2 and, most recently, Assassin’s Creed Revelations. So a second success!

5) Complete an Entire Dungeons and Dragons Campaign – I’m going to mark this as a success. Although the campaign is far from ‘complete’, it’s still on going and we’ve managed to play quite regularly over the past 9 months or so. This has included multi-part story arcs, reoccurring villains and even a pair of holiday specials.

6) Play more Risk and Magic: The Gathering – This was most certainly a success. I’ve been playing a lot of Magic with two friends from dnd, and even got a third interested, who has really taken to it. In addition to playing more Risk, I’ve played more ‘traditional’ games in general, including Setters of Catan (which I now own) and Dominion. I have the Discworld and Game of Thrones board games on my wish list for the future as well.

7) Work on a Video Game Project – This failed more through inaction. I didn’t even install any level editing or 3d modelling software after my computer blew up in the middle of the year. But I did put together a portfolio DVD, which I was quite happy with.

8) Learn Cantonese – No comment (and certainly no comment in Cantonese)

9) Improve my Blog Design – I pretty much gave up on blogging, so I gave even less thought to it’s design.

10) Buy more Books – Now this one is a great success, although not in the way I anticipated. I didn’t end up buying many more Discworld books, only having received the latest book; Snuff, for xmas. But I have bought many other books, including the first 5 ASoIaF books and the first three Dresden Files books. I plan on getting the next paperback ASoIaF book in March, and the rest of the Dresden Files titles once I finish the first three.

So, 5/10 for goals. That’s pretty good. The way I see it, if I had achieved that on one goal, it would be counted as a failure. I’d rather set ten goals and achieve half then set one goal and fail it all together.

But what about 2012? Well, I’m probably not going to set as esoteric goals for this coming year, but I will set some.

1) Work on my story that I’m writing – On some random impulse, I began writing what began as a short story. It’s a bit hard to explain the concept, but it’s basically a story about relationships, those between friends, siblings, kids and their parents, romantic ones and self destructive ones, all centred around ground of people playing a game of dnd. I’m at about 30k words and 1/3 into the story, tops, so I would like to see this through.

2) Play more ‘traditional’ games – This basically means playing more d&d, magic the gathering, risk, catan and any other board game I can get my hands on.

3) Visit Viv as often as possible – Quite self explanatory.

4) Produce a better games design CV – Again, explains itself really.

5) Read more books, more often – Do I have to explain this?

That will do, I’ll go with five this year.

Well, happy new year to all of you.

MMXI Week 12 - RIP Bertha

2011-03-25T19:00:00.001-07:00

Okay, here's the ideal plan. Today, you would've been experiencing my first video blog. But thermodynamics got the better of me. You see, if you chose to convert several 1080p video files consecutively, well, you can do some serious image to your 2.5 year old computer.
Let me sing the obituary of Bertha. Bertha was a great computer, built in November of 2008, she wasn't the apex of technology, but she was powerful none the less. She endured Portal, a degree of computer games design and several thousand rendered videos and images.
Now most computers either go out peacefully, like an old relative passing in their sleep, or a blaze of 'glory' like a spectacular car crash. Bertha, on the other hand, passed like an 80 year old who got up at 5am to go jogging, only to have a brain annurism and go face down in their organic porridge.
Its a mixed experience for me, as it leaves me without a.computer. But this is only for a week as I'm off to Hong Kong in a week. Ergo, xbox to the rescue. It's going to cost in the region on £300 to fix, depending if I decide to upgrade to a) windows 7 and b) get a bigger hdd.
I have to say I'm disturbing happy, but I think that's party due to my improved outlook on life. Things are more relative than you realise, and stressing is a waste of time. For example, rather than dropping one because of what of I cant do until my computer is fixed (my files are okay as far as I know, its my mobo that died), I looked at what I can do instead. I'm gonna read some more, do some drawing, add generally find solutions. It's an amazingly great mental attitude, that I owe in no small part to my girlfriends great outlook on life rubbing off on me.
(Quick clarification, this blog is via my phone)
But yes, that's pretty much it. No more blogs for 5 weeks ish, which doesn't void my one blog a week goal, as I intend to post retroactive blogs.

Peace and love.

Night vision photo for no reason.

MMXI Week 11–The Summer of Our Disconnect

2011-03-23T10:17:00.001-07:00

Okay, I’m sorry, I know, I know, I’m terribly late with this weeks blog entry. I have a brilliant, very simple reason for not posting. I haven’t had internet since Saturday, thanks to a technical fault with our ISP.

Okay, now the grovelling is over, what was I up to the past week? Well not very much, work mainly and biding my time until my Epic April begins.

It’ll obviously be in my next entry, but I thought I’d mention my d&d campaign I’m starting on Sunday. I’ll probably post more over on the D Twenty.

That’s it for now, sorry it’s so brief!

MMXI Week 10–Grand Promises

2011-03-14T13:44:00.001-07:00

Okay, I did originally promise something a little special, but due to lack of time (and energy) this will be postponed. What I am going to post instead is a small progress report on my goals and a brief summary of my week (well, mainly weekend).

First up, goals progress:

1) Blog once a week, minimum – Well, kind of obvious here. Ignoring late posts, I am managing to put up one entry per week. Only time will tell if I can keep it up for the whole 52

2) Get a job in Birmingham or Wolverhampton by April – this one has been pushed back until May/June due to going to Hong Kong, but I’ve also expanded it include a job in Guildford, as being closer to Viv would be nice.

3) Get Money for Hong Kong – Done and done!

4) Reach a Gamerscore of 25,000 – Not doing too badly, almost at 21k thanks to dead space. Got Bulletstorm, Portal 2, Mortal Kombat and Mass Effect 3 at the very least to help me achieve this.

5) Complete an Entire Dungeons and Dragons Campaign – This weekend I will be conducting the opening chapter of a small, but complete, d&d campaign. This won’t quite be of the same scope of my current campaign, but I hope it will be none the less fun for my players (many of which are newcomers)

6) Play more Risk and Magic: The Gathering – I’m doing very well at this, having played several games of both, even having a magic build off with Viv. Her Vampire deck thoroughly booted my Chandra deck.

7) Work on a Video Game Project – This one has sadly gone on the back burner for a while now. I have been working on general art work, which can contribute to my portfolio, so not completely frozen.

8) Learn Cantonese – No, not happening, let us not speak of this failure

9) Improve my Blog Design – Again, nothing much really happening on this front. I’m getting by with the current design, but need to work on something more personal.

10) Buy more Books – I haven’t got anything new since Viv got me the first two Discworld books, but I most certainly intend to order the last two Scott Pilgrims very soon, along with perhaps the third discworld book.

Not doing too badly me thinks, perhaps rated at about 60% progress.

As for last week, work was the usual repetition, but the weekend was amazing. I’ll give you a brief breakdown:

Friday: Got train from Bicester to Guildford, arriving late that night. After a change of plans, me and Viv ordered pizza, opened my two Magic the Gathering deck builders toolkits (more on this over at the D Twenty eventually) and watched some stuff on her new TV that I had bought her.

Saturday: After a nice lie in, we headed off into town to get some cables and food for pancakes at some point. We also had milkshakes from shakeaway. Viv had a Dave with cream and I had a Ben with nuttella. Later that day, we went to the cinema to see Battle: Los Angeles (which was very good) and then had take away (again, chicken and chips this time)

Sunday: Woke up fairly early (before 10am) and decided that we would make the pancakes. We used an amazing recipe from the Metro and served them with nuttella, blueberries, strawberries, powdered sugar and butter. There were AMAZING!
Before I caught the train home, we went for dinner at Nando’s, which was gorgeous as usual.

The only down side was my Reading-Oxford train being 10 mintutes late, so I missed the last train to Bicester. Luckily, my brother came and rescued me from Oxford station.

All in all, an amazing weekend. I’ve got to post a few more entries this week covering some magic stuff, time permitting.

MMXI Week 9–Once more, and this time with Zealotry

2011-03-06T11:04:00.001-08:00

This is most likely (in theory) going to be a more brief blog entry, as this past week has been quite uneventful. The main landmark on the chronological topology of my week was completing Dead Space 2. Now I don’t want to spoil the ending for those of you that haven’t played it yet, so I’ll just say that it’s amazing and a very powerful climax. But what I really want to talk about is some of the things that Dead Space 2 got right.

Quick time events: Most people (rightly) loathe QTE’s. The ‘press A not to die’ mentality can be frustrating and imbalanced. But in DS2, the managed to pull it off. Rather than the usual single press required in a two second window, you are required to furiously mash A in order to survive. This really lends weight to your flurried attempts to prevent a ghostly apparition from shoving a needle in your eye!
Making the player jump: Don’t get me wrong, DS2 isn’t ‘scary’ in the sense of giving you nightmares. But it does keep you on the edge of your seat. Never before have I been so terrified of an empty corridor, or a cylinder rolling down a hall.
Mixing it up: DS2 isn’t all shooting. There are some great breaks in the gameplay, the best of all being the zero-g sequences. There are various little puzzles involving solar arrays, derailed lifts and even ocular needles! All in all, they mix up the game play nicely

But what DS2 does best in my opinion is replay value. You see, I’m not one for replaying any story heavy game. Once I know the plot, I’m pretty much done, and even going back for achievements is a chore for me. But DS2 changed all this, the moment I completed the story, I went back and started a new game on Zealot (the hardest difficulty). What inspired this was the New Game+ mode, where you get all your gear from your previous play through. This levelled the playing field a bit more so that even though I’m on the hardest setting, it’s not impossible (but still a challenge).

Oh, and a special mention for the Achievement ‘Clever Girls’. Any Jurassic Park reference is alright in my books.

The other high point of my week was a back to back viewing of Tron and Tron Legacy. It was quite interesting to not only see how special effects have come along in the years between the films, but also the little references to the former in the latter. But the one thing that truly struck me was how Tron feels so much longer than Legacy, even though Legacy is 30 minutes longer and, according to my friend who had never seen it before, a lot more ‘talky’. This is a fair observation, there is a lot more exposition in Legacy, characters often taking moments to ‘develop’ and ‘bond’. But the film is still more steadily paced than the original Tron. Maybe this has something to do with the style of film making in the 80’s, particularly science fiction. I’ve noticed that a lot of classic sci-fi films feel drawn out and tedious by comparison to current films, even when they contain ostensibly more action and activity.

On a side note, a little goal update. Not done much progress towards my level, but have been doing some art work, which will work in my portfolio. Gamerscore is almost at 21,000. Still don’t know any useful Cantonese. Running a short DnD session in a couple of weeks. Planning on picking up a couple of Discworld books soon, along with the last 2 Scott Pilgrim.

Peace

MMXI Week 8–Achievement Unlocked

2011-02-25T13:35:00.001-08:00

Oh wow, I’ve managed to this blog out on time, and in celebration, I’m going to talk about something short and sweet and a little a deviated from my usual topics. This week, I bring you the 10 Commandments of Achievements. This is a doctrine of rules that I feel all developers should follow when implementing achievements (or trophies if that’s your thing). So let us begin the sermon.

First Commandment, Thou shalt give reward that dost reflecteth the work doneth for thine achievement.
I don’t want to get 20 achievement points for completing the training mission at the start of game, but only 30 for completing the game on Insane-Impossible-Haveyounolife difficulty in 1 hour using your feet. The amount of gamerscore you get should be a fair representation of the time, effort and skill that goes into obtaining it.

Second Commandment, Thou shalt not subjecteth thine players to more than one play through, especially for longeth games.
Some games are reasonably short (Portal) or have stories that can be enjoyed multiple times (Dead Space for me), but most of the time, with a story heavy game, one play through is enough. So I don’t want to see an achievement that says ‘Complete two play throughs’ (I’m looking at you Mass Effect 2). A player should never be forced to play a game more than once.

Third Commandment, No achievement shalt be missed
This one relates to the second commandment, in that I don’t want to find that I’ve played through the game but missed the only opportunity to kill the only pink flamingo that spawns once half way through level 22, with no way to go back and replay the level. The only thing worse than being forced to replay a game for an achievement is being forced to replay a game for an achievement you could have unlocked the first time round.

Fourth Commandment, Thou shalt stacketh achievements based on thine difficulty
I’ve completed the game on expert. I’ve got the achievement for completing the game on expert. Now why must I go back, considering I can take all the game can throw at me, and prove I can complete it on an easier difficulty? It makes no sense. Completing the game on one difficulty should unlock achievements for all lower difficulties. Arguably there are some exceptions, such as music games where playing a lower difficulty can be just as challenging as playing a high one. Just ask anyone who is used to playing Rock Band on hard guitar to go down to easy!

Fifth Commandment, Thou shalt not use achievement to force thine players hand.
I have my uber evil character, they’ve been evil the whole game. I’ve made them kill puppies, evict orphans, destroy churches and even leave the toilet seat up. Now why must I choose to save the kingdom rather than let it burn, just to get an achievement? Now it’s fair enough you want to reward ‘moral choices’, but reward both extremes. I don’t want to ever have my choice based gameplay influenced so i can satisfy my achievement OCD.

Sixth Achievement, Thou shalt not reward the best at thine multiplayer
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t see anything wrong with multiplayer achievements. But I do hate is achievements for say, being the top of the leader board for a week. Or for racking up the most hours online. Or for any of the hundreds of online status’ that only one person can occupy at a time, usually the person with the least amount of a real life so they have the time to sink every waking hour into multiplayer.

Seventh Achievement, Thou shalt always respecteth the sanctity of 5
Okay, I get a little crazy about my gamerscore, always aiming for aesthetically pleasing numbers like 1,000, 5,555 or 20,000. But even the most sane person gets a little annoyed when they get an achievement worth 1, 2, 6 or any other non-multiple of five achievement, fucking up the standard convention of gamerscores being a multiple of five.

Eighth Achievement, If thoust giveth away special editions, dost not allow special editions to make thine achievements easier or harder.
The are times when, no matter how badly you want, you just either can’t afford or find the that rare special edition of the game, with its various codes, props and art books, so don’t give those who did an easier time unlocking achievements. Now I’m not extending this to DLC, which can also make certain achievements easier, as DLC is available to everyone, whereas special/limited editions are just that, and not everyone can get hold of them.
Equally, don’t give players special edition codes that make it harder to unlock achievements. This includes special weapons that may disable achievements for completing the game a certain way, for example.

Ninth Achievement, Thou shalt not cause pain, to body or mind, in pursuit of achievements.
Okay, straight up, I’m looking at you Bladder of Steel. Yes, you, don’t look around, no other achievement has caused me so much suffering and anguish. I’ve had hand cramps, rages, aching bladder and even the shakes (from too much pre-setlist Relentless). An achievement should never hurt. Ever. That’s all there is to it.

Tenth Achievement, Thou shalt always track thine achievement progress
”Have I already got that bonus? I’m pretty sure I got it last round? How many of those guys have I killed, I’m pretty sure I must’ve killed more than 100. God dammit, where’s that check list” – I fucking hate this, right here, this uncertainty. I want to be able to go into the options menu and see how many skeletons I’ve killed, how many of the multiplayer bonus’ I’ve unlocked (I’m looking at you Assassins Creed Brotherhood) or see any of a myriad of possible achievement progressions I could have.

Well, that’s it, there’s my Ten Commandments of Achievements. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments. Hell, please comment! Until next time.

Nerf Zombie War–Rules

2011-02-24T11:00:00.001-08:00

Okay, since getting my latest nerf gun, the Stampede ECS, I’ve been dying to ‘play’ with it in a competitive scenario. As such, I’ve concocted the following rules for a Nerf Zombie war. The idea is to act out a zombie outbreak using nerf guns. So here’s the rules:

Equipment
Red strips of fabric (for armbands)
Permanent marker (to number armbands)
A phone with lots of credit/unlimited free texts

Additionally, each player must have:
A Nerf gun of some kind (obviously)
Ammunition
Soft foam weapons for close combat
A phone, with which to receive the game messages

Lock and load!

Prologue
Before the game begins, an inventory is conducted for all players, the game area is defined, safe zones designated and a time limit set. It is recommended that areas where none players congregate, such as libraries, lecture rooms, or other such public locations, be labelled ‘No Go’ for anyone playing.
All players are given a red numbered armband that is tied onto the right upper arm. It must be tied with a bow, with plenty of excess so that it may be easily pulled off. This will become clear as to why later.
Players may be armed with whatever Nerf guns they can beg/steal/borrow, along with all the ammunition they can carry. It is recommended that you a) keep a count of your ammunition and b) don’t bring more than you can afford to lose, as there is a chance of darts going missing, especially as you fight for your life. It is also a good idea to establish if exchanging/gifting/inheriting weapons is permitted. Additionally players may carry soft foam weapons, but care is to be exercised when using these.
All players then must disperse and find a ‘safe’ spot from which to start the game. Once an allotted amount of time has passed, say 5 or 10 minutes, a text message is sent out to all players with a random number. Whoever is wearing the armband with this number becomes Patient Zero

Characters

Patient Zero
Patient Zero is the malevolent plague bearer, the source of the outbreak. Their goal is to infect as many people as possible with the deadly plague they carry

Infectious – Patient Zero, or P0 from now on, is the only survivor who can remove armbands, thus infecting other survivors. P0 may infect a survivor in one of two ways:
1) P0 may kill another survivor first, using a nerf or foam weapon, and then remove their armband. They may then keep the armband and the player comes back as a shambler.
2) P0 may attempt to remove a survivors armband while they are still alive, without getting killed by the survivor in the process. If they succeed, the player immediately ties their armband to their left arm and comes back as a runner.

Regeneration - If P0 is killed by a survivor, they use one of their armbands in their possession to come resurrect. If they are wearing their last armband (the one they started with) they instead come back as shambler, but should they take an armband from a survivor, they may once again regenerate into P0

Hard to Kill - Unlike other zombies, you cannot execute P0 in order to prevent him resurrecting. The only way to kill P0 is to kill him while ‘alive’ in his human form once for each armband he carries, then kill him as a shambler.

Anonymous - Any player infected by P0 must not reveal the identity of P0 to another player. They may however kill P0 should they encounter them again if they re-enter the game as a survivor.

Zombie
Zombies are the living dead, the restless deceased. They are neither truly dead or alive and hunger for flesh. They are highly infectious and will turn anyone them come into contact with. There are three types of zombies:

Know your enemy OR be all you can be!

Shambler (0 armbands) – These are slow moving, but fairly resilient zombies that represent the most common form of undead. They can only walk at a s shambling pace (hence their name) but can only be killed with a head shot. It takes a shambler 10 seconds to open a closed door and they cannot open any door with a latch, lock or other obstruction.

Runner (1-4 armbands) – Once a shambler has consumed enough flesh, it begins to adapt in order to hunt more prey. Its metabolism accelerates, but it becomes more vulnerable. A Runner can move at a running pace, but they can be killed by a head or chest shot. Runners are capable of regenerating and can open a door that isn’t locked or obstructed in 5 seconds.

Predator (5 armbands) – The most advanced and deadly zombie, the predator not only is tougher, but also more intelligent. Any zombie that accumulates 5 armbands becomes a Predator. A Predator may run, can only be killed with headshots, can open locked or obstructed doors instantly, and most disturbingly are capable of using close combat weapons. Predators cannot accumulate more than 5 armbands, any armbands they do collect are lost.

Zombie Special Rules

Infection
A zombie can infect a player by removing their armband from their right arm. Once a zombie has done so, the player becomes a Shambler 60 seconds after being infected, and the infecting zombie gets to keep the armband, allowing them to evolve into a Runner or even a Predator. Armbands cannot be transferred between zombies, but can be collected by a player performing an execution.

Evolution
When a zombie infects a survivor and collects their armband, the zombie wears their acquired armband on their left arm to show their evolution. This is important for identifying Runners and Predators.

Regeneration
When a zombie is ‘killed’ or downed, if they have any armbands, they may remove them in order to regenerate. If a Runner regenerates with only one armband, it becomes a Shambler again. When a Predator regenerates, it becomes a Runner.

Survivors
Survivors are the last bastion of humanity, standing against the waves of undead. They must fight, or be food.

Weapons – Survivors have to arm themselves in order to survive. Permitted weapons include Nerf/Foam dart guns and foam/soft weapons. When using dart guns, headshots may be required, but try to avoid the eyes. As for close combat weapons, don’t be too boisterous and be careful. ‘Pistol whipping’ is allowed, but it must be done safely, in a more role play fashion.

Execution – When a survivor puts a zombie down, there is a chance they may regenerate and come back. In order to prevent this, a player may execute a downed zombie. This can only be done 30 seconds after the zombie has been downed and requires the player walking over, simulating a headshot, and removing the zombies armbands. This must be done once per armband, with 30 seconds between each armband. The survivor may then keep any armbands they accumulate this way, which are important for rescuing civilians.

Friendly Fire – While there is no friendly fire per say, a stray shot is harmless, survivors may intentionally kill their team mates, either as an act of mercy or treachery. If a survivor does so, they may collect their fallen teammates armband.

Look after your ammo and your ammo will look after you!

Civilians
Civilians are the unarmed, disorganised, panicked and scared masses. Any player that dies either as a shambler, or without being infected (i.e., headshot while alive) becomes a civilian and must head to the nearest safe zone.

Safe Zones - Safe zones are designated areas where civilians gather until rescued. Zombies may not enter safe zones and survivors may only enter them in order to rescue civilians, and may not use their weapons while doing so.

Rescue – If a survivor has spare armbands, they may give them to any civilians he finds at a safe zone, allowing them to re-enter the game as survivors. Optionally, they may even chose to re-arm the rescued survivors.

Game Rules

It is considered good etiquette to collect any loose ammo you find, even if it was used to shoot at you. It is sensible to conduct a pre-game inventory of each players weapons, ammunition and accessories, so that hopefully everyone will get back what they started with, although loses are to be expected. Don’t bring more than you can afford to lose.

If a survivor is turned and does not wish to lend their weapon to another player, they may instead carry it with them (remaining in character appropriate to their zombie status) to a designated drop off point. This will usually be the point where the game started and where non-playing members of the game will wait. A zombie carrying their weapon cannot infect survivors and is considered a shambler for all purposes. Once they are rescued, they may make their way to the drop off point to collect their weapon, but this is not without its risks.

Game Modifiers
Game modifiers are spontaneous changes to the rules that can modify the game significantly. With the exception of ‘The Cure’, all modifiers and revealed by a mass text message sent to all players. It wise for the purpose of timing to make sure all players have the same time at the start of the game.

The Cure - “The Cure” is a rare green armband placed somewhere in the designated gameplay area that prevents the wearer from from being turned. Instead, when they lose their red armband (they wear both red and green at the same time) they go straight to the safe zone as a civilian. Additionally, they may cure a survivor of their infection just after they have been turned. This requires the survivor to have a spare armband to give to their infected team mate.

The Safe Zone Ain’t So Safe! - One of the safe zones, chosen at random, is demoted to a regular game zone and is thus open. All players are notified of this by a mass text (see why free texts would be useful?) Once the safe zone is demoted, any civilians in the zone become zombies instantly.

Get to da Choppa’! – A rescue chopper is on the way, but it won’t stick around forever. There is a small window for the survivors to escape. All players are notified of the evac location and time, and any survivor or civilian who makes it to that zone before the allotted time escapes to safety.

A something like this

The Final Stand – This is it, time for humanity to make its last stand against the undead hoards. A final stand location is texted to all players and the survivors must defend it until the last man. The game will then continue until either all the survivors or all the zombies are dead. Any civilians in safe zones become zombies and the usual 60 second wait after infection is waived.

Game ‘Win’ Conditions
Although nobody truly wins in a zombie apocalypse (well, except the zombies maybe), there are certain conditions by which one side or the other may claim a small victory.
After the allotted time has expired or the chopper leaves, the team with the most points (based on the score sheet bellow) is the winner. In the case of Final Stand, the last surviving team is the winner.

Scores – Survivors
2 Points per Survivor
1 Point per spare armband in possession of the survivors
5 Points for being in possession of “The Cure” armband
10 Points for killing P0
5 Points per Survivor or Civilian who escapes on the chopper

Scores – Zombies
1 Point per Shambler
2 Points per Runner
3 Points per Predator
1 Point per armband in possession of the zombies
10 Points if P0 is alive

Well, there we go. Hopefully all you living dead lovers and Nerf nuts out there will get to try out these rules for a bit of playful Armageddon! Post in the comment section with any feedback, questions or suggestions! And happy hunting.

MMXI Week 7–Part 2 The Completening

2011-02-22T13:52:00.001-08:00

Well, here it is, my late blog entry for the seventh week of the year. There is a good reason for this; I’ve had an amazingly fun and busy past ten days. Thus I will summarise these past few days. These days of awesome began last Thursday (the same day I posted my previous entry). Due to the massive amount of stuff I did, this blog will actually link to several smaller entries, that I will try and post before this entry (so this entry actually shows up as the most recent and links back to the smaller entries.

Thursday
Thursday was the longest day of work I’ve done in what seems like forever. I was counting down the seconds until I would be free. Once 4pm rolled around, I ran off home (well, got a lift) and begun throwing together all my luggage to go down and see Viv in Guildford.
Upon arriving late that night, I had a plate of delicious pasta that Viv had cooked up and saved for me. Sadly, I didn’t take any photos as I was so eager to nom it all up. After nomming the pasta, I presented Viv with her first Valentines day gift;

Bamboo the Panda!

Needless to say this went down very well! He was taken to bed by Viv that night (after copious amounts of squeals at his cuteness).

Friday
Friday began with Viv rising early for work, as she has to do everyday due to her commute. I got up around the same time, helped her get ready for work and saw her off. I am used to rising around this time (around 6am) due to having to start working myself on a usual day quite early.

I used the rest of the day to do some laundry, cleaning and even a little DIY around the apartment. This was party to keep myself occupied, but also so that it would be nice for Viv when she got home.

Saturday and Sunday
Viv returned from work around half six that night and Valentines began proper for us. We had decided to have a Valentines weekend, as Valentines proper was Monday, when Viv would be working. You can read about what we got up to, including pictures, here.

Monday
Following an awesome weekend together, Viv had to go back to work, gotta earn the pennies somehow. I used this time to do a bit more laundry and cleaning around the flat. Then the intercom went. I was apprehensive as I don’t like answering doors/phones in houses that aren’t mine, but I picked up the receiver and answered; it was a delivery for Viv.

Upon bringing what was the largest amazon box I had ever seen upstairs, I texted Viv letting her know that something had come for her. She replied saying that I could open it! What could it possibly be?

This!

That’s last years nerf gun present at the bottom.

Not only had Viv given me some amazingly awesome fantastic presents over the weekend, she still had a trick up her sleeve! Needless to say many foam bullets flew that day! I will possibly review this item on this blog later on.

Tuesday and Wednesday

The following day, I had another couple of awesome days. Mondays highlight was playing my second game of Risk 2210 AD, this time verses Will.

Will contemplates his next move

I won this game as well, but I put this down to knowing the rules better and having played more games of Risk before hand. It was still a very fun game and proved that 2210 deserves all the accolades put upon it.

Wednesday was another DIY day, this time coming up with a non-permanent way of hanging the notice board Viv and Anne had acquired. Using the string that held my nerf gun in it’s packaging, I created the following rather successful setup:

Is there nothing this boy can’t do???

That evening, me and Viv decided to take advantage of Orange Wednesdays down at the Odeon and see the new Simon Pegg and Nick Frost film; Paul. All I can say is that it was money very well spent! We laughed so much and enjoyed the film thoroughly. The best way to describe Paul is thusly; what Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is to video game culture, Paul is to science fiction. There were some great jokes, brilliant references to science fiction classics and some fantastic sub-plots. All in all, an amazingly enjoyable film that I would certainly see again.

Thursday
Thursday morning I had to catch my train early in the morning back to Bicester. This was a very weird experience as I felt like I should be saying good bye to Viv for another or month or so, when I’d actually be seeing her the following evening, as she was coming down for the weekend.

I arrived in Bicester around 2pm, then promptly jumped on another train, head in a bag, and set off for Birmingham. Head you ask? More on that later.
Once I arrived in Bicester, I made my way to my friend Emma’s place, as we were having a cocktail night. This proved to be quite a potent night, as this video will testify.

Tequila is a dangerous thing!

I was rather fortunate as I was spared the hangover I felt I deserved, instead just blighted by a mild headache and a craving for sugar.

That evening I made my way into Birmingham city center in order to meet Viv off her train and travel off to Wolverhampton. We had an early start the next day, as we had plans involving the head in the bag!

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday morning, we got up early and walked over to Vivs cousins place. Wessie was taking us all to Telford for the MCM Midlands anime and comics expo. It was something I was truly excited about and even had a costume for. You can read all about it right here.

The following day we went out for a meal to celebrate Viv’s mums birthday. We decided to go to the relatively new all you can eat buffet restaurant; Cosmos. It was a pan-Asian restaurant offering a wide selection. And wide is an understatement. I ate until I was almost sick and and probably only sampled a 1/3 of everything on offer. I didn’t even try anything from the live food stations, where your selection was cooked to order.
The only complaints I had were the usual saltiness you get at all you can eats, and the nuts at the desert bar. You see, when you have what looks like peanuts on a desert bar, next to almonds and raisins, between jelly and ice cream, you expect them to be honey roasted or caramelised nuts. Finding out they’re salted can slightly spoil your desert that you happened to have sprinkled them over. But ignoring that, I was a mighty tasty meal that was excellent value.

So this marks the end of this somewhat delayed blog. On the topic of goals, I haven’t any major progression, except that my passport has now arrived, so I am 100% prepared for Hong Kong in a few weeks. It’s so bizarre that it’s so close it’s not even measurable in months any more. I haven’t made any progression in learning Cantonese, I may just rely on Google Translate, lol.
Hopefully my next entry will be much less tardy. Until then, TTFN

MMXI Week 7–MCM Telford 2011

2011-02-22T13:48:00.001-08:00

So Saturday morning we woke up early, threw ourselves into Wessies car and begun the drive to Telford for MCM Midlands 2011. I had my costume in tow, which you may have already seen in parts. Here it is before I put it on:

And here I am wearing it outside the International Center:

The convention was an amazing experience, especially as it was my first time in Cosplay. Everyone was so nice and it was so weird having people ask to take my photo! I saw some amazing costumes including a Sonic team;

Some amazing Bleach cosplay;

And one of my favourite outfits, cardboard storm trooper;

There were so many awesome costumes, so I’m going to have to do awards for three categories; video game, anime/manga and film/comic book. First, best video game cosplay:

Third Runner Up

Medic, Heavy and Scout from Team Fortress 2

Second Runner Up

Desmond and Two Altairs from Assassins Creed

First Runner Up

Link and Midna from Twilight Princess

And First Place

Faith from Mirrors Edge

I liked the Faith costume the most because of its simplicity and accuracy. She just looked the part naturally.

Now for the best anime/mange costumes:

Third Runner Up

Giselle from Enchanted

Second Runner Up

The Flash

First Runner Up

The Goddamn Batman

And First Place

Kick Ass from, well, Kick Ass.

Just an amazing costume that looks like he walked off set.

Finally, the best Anime/Manga cosplays.

Third Runner Up

Grimmjow Jaggerjack from Bleach

Second Runner Up

Sajin Komarmura, 7th Division Captain, from Bleach

First Runner Up

Nappa, Goku and Frieza from Dragon Ball Z

And First Place

Super Sayan Goku from Dragon Ball Z

I loved this costume simply for the wig, it looks so perfect. He could have done without maybe so much foundation, but that’s just a minor complaint.

Aside from the costumes, there were some great stalls, including two Nintendo stands, one for the somewhat underwhelming 3DS, and another for various Nintendo games, which I didn’t really interact much with. The retailers were quite homogenous with a lot of the same stuff on sale at each stand. The two that stood out the most was the Spit Like This/Smell Your Mum t-shirt stand and the Magic the Gathering card stand, where I found these amazing cards to complete my Myrcraft deck:

Can you see where I’m going with this?

That’s 3 Masters Call from Mirrodin Besieged, 2 Palladium Myr, 1 Myrsmith, 2 Myr Propagators and 4 Myr Galvanisers. I’ve been dying to get hold of these cards and they make for a devastating combo of infinite Myr tokens.

All in all, it was a fantastic day and I’m so glad I went. I enjoyed it even more that I was with Viv, Vinki and Wessie. Being in costume gave me a sense of belonging that I’ve not had before. I’m totally planning on going to MCM London in May, with some additions to my costume, I may even try my hand at the masquerade!

Here’s a youtube video of the pictures I took:

And you can see them all here on my Flickr stream.

MMXI Week 7–Valentines Weekend

2011-02-22T13:46:00.001-08:00

The valentines weekend began late Friday night, when I presented Viv with a choice of two of her presents from a selection of three. The selection was two of her books and the Magic The Gathering Phyrexian Poison deck I had bought her. Much to my pleasure, she chose one book and the deck, the latter of which she was very surprised at. It was her first deck of Magic cards and she liked the selection and was happy to have a deck all of her own. I hadn’t bought myself a corresponding new deck, so I tried my luck using one of the older decks I’d brought with me. Needless to say I was trounced by Vivs plethora of poisonous creatures. Poison is an evil ability in magic that I have yet to find an effective counter to. After getting my ass handed to me and then watching a film, we decided to get some sleep as we were both quite tired, Viv more so as she had been at work.

So, Saturday morning, me and Viv rose after a reasonable lie in (until about 9am, when you get up at 6am everyday, 9 is a veritable luxury) and set about the important task of having a thoroughly awesome valentines day. We started by swapping gifts, starting with me giving Viv the remaining book and earrings. She loved the earrings especially as she has developed somewhat of an obsession since getting her ears pierced. But the apex of her present pyramid was contained within this box:

Oooh, shiny

For as long as I could remember, Viv had been wanting a bottle of Diesel Fuel for Life Unlimited. So imagine how happy I was when i found a gift set containing a bottle of said perfume and some skin lotion? She absolutely loved it and promptly spritzed herself. I even got a little something out it in the form of a tester of Fuel for Life for men. It was quite a nice fragrance that I could see myself wearing in the future.
Here’s the sum of what I got Viv this year:

Not pictured are the earrings, which I believe Viv was wearing at the time.

But what, you may be asking, did I get? Well, I’m so glad you asked imaginary person. Viv knows me all too well and got me three things I’ve been dying for for a long time now.

Risk 2210 AD, The Light Fantastic and The Colour of Magic

The books were the new cover prints of the first two discworld books, starting my collection proper. But the masterpiece was a copy of the out of print board game Risk 2210 AD. This futuristic adaptation of Risk was first published ten years ago and is very hard to come by, but Viv found me a new, sealed copy and I couldn’t have been happier!

Viv then suggested that we wander into town to check out a comic book store a friend had mentioned. Unfortunately this turned out to just be a Games Workshop, but the trip wasn’t a complete waste, as I managed to pick up Myr of Mirrodin intro deck, to complement and compete against Vivs Scars of Mirrodin deck. I was very excited to try out my new deck, but we had more important things to attend to, namely our 8pm reservation at TGI Fridays! Om nom nom!

As you can see, Viv looked absolutely amazing for the meal;

And the meal looked almost as good!

Just the starter! Soooo good!

Proof of how amazing the meal was lies in the size of Vivs ‘food baby’

Thoroughly sated, we decided to change into our comfiest of jammies and break in my copy of Risk 2210 AD.

First I will wipe out the browns, then the reds will fall

It was a damn fun game, I was so happy that Viv got it for me. I am planning to do a full review over on The D Twenty asap.
I do think my prior knowledge of the rules helped me win the game, but it was still very enjoyable for both me and Viv. The two player rules worked really well, and invading the moon was a lot of fun! Afterwards, we decided to let the urge to hibernate after eating so much take over and crawled off to bed. Snoooore!

Sunday was a very quite lie in kind of day, not doing much except just enjoying not having to do anything. We played another game of Magic the Gathering and in the evening, we ordered pizza and watched Community.

Mozzarella makes for amazing nachos!

That marked the end of our valentines weekend, but we still had loads of time together over the coming week. I couldn’t say this was the best Valentines I’ve had, as every one I spend with Viv is amazing! But it definitely was a weekend I will treasure!

MMXII Week 7 - Part 1 The Beginerning

2011-02-21T23:08:00.001-08:00

I am exceedingly disappointed in myself for being this late in posting this entry. In my defense, I have been having too much fun (I never said it was a good defense). But I decree that, UK recompense for my laxity, I will blog twice this week. The send blog to follow this will also be supported by no less than 3 game review entries over on the d twenty. Now I must be going as blogging while crossing roads is far from safe. Watch this space.

MMXI Week 6 - Blogger On The Run

2011-02-11T08:57:00.001-08:00

This blog is going to be considerable more brief than my usual affair, as I'm am not at my computer, or any computer for that matter. I am spending the Valentine period with my amazing girlfriend and therefore don't have access to my usual blogging setup. "But Davyd" I hear you cry "how are you writing this?" Well I'm glad you asked. I am writing this entry using the Blogger app for my HTC desire hd, and I have to say its a surprising painless experience.
You see, I'm never one for writing huge amounts on phones (contrary to what the length of my average text would indicate). But with a solid app, responsive on screen soft keyboard, intuitive auto correction and, most importantly, a gorgeously large and clear 4.3" screen, the desire hd is more than adequate for the task.

"But enough of your phone, what else has been happening in your disturbingly mundane life?" Well, nothing much to be honest. I've been thoroughly enjoying dead space 2, an excellent game, and adding the finishing touches to my cosplay. More pictures will come either next entry or possibly the one after.

Well, gonna keep this brief by wrapping it up. I've expanded on my game design goal bf coming up with a secondary concept, which I'm going to work on from an art/narrative/gameplay angle. I don't want to give anything away, but controversial would be the best way to describe it. Not learnt any more Cantonese, and the Birmingham job hunt has been unproductive. I have made a few games design applications which I'm waiting to hear back from and I'm also expanding my search radius to Guildford.
Finally, I'm debating refocusing my goal to buy more books into focusing on buying a kindle and joining the ebook movementn
Well that's all for this week, until later.

MMXI Week 5–Things That Go Bump in the Night

2011-02-06T02:26:00.001-08:00

This week I really felt the impact of working full time. Not in tiredness, but lack of free time. Before I started working, I had a plethora of empty hours with which to fill with whatever fancy took me. I thought nothing of maybe playing Minecraft for a couple of hours, then settling down in front of the Xbox to unlock a few achievements, back to Minecraft, then maybe a movie.
Now it’s very much a different case, as I’m out of the house five days a week from 7am till 5pm. This means that I have to priorities my activities in terms of what needs to be done and what I really want to do. No more spending a couple of hours just browsing Wikipedia. But this isn’t entirely a bad thing, as I do have a new found focus for getting things done. ‘But why are you telling us this, Davyd?’ Well, the answer is that it leads on to explaining why this week I feel like I haven’t got much to write down for what is a whole busy week.

For the majority of my week I have spent my evenings wrapping valentines day presents for Viv, with a new found obsessiveness for neatly wrapped packages. I have never in my life put so much effort into wrapping a present!

A veritable work of art

Apart from professional present wrapping, I’ve also been working on my costume for the Midlands MCM anime expo in two weeks. I’ve decided to go as ‘Minecraft guy’, otherwise know from now on as ‘Steve’ (he looks like a Steve.
The inspiration came when I realised that I happened to own a t-shirt and pair of jeans the exact same colour as ‘Steve’ and all I would have to do was make a cube head and possibly a Minecraft tool. And so began project box head!

From this…..

….to this!

I’m in too minds about posting my completed costume before the convention itself, as I think it might be a nice surprise. The only thing I’ve got left to work on is the pickaxe and Viv’s ‘costume’. She didn’t like the idea of wearing a big box on her head, and she’s too pretty for me to do that to her. Instead I’m going to put together a simple ‘cute creeper’ outfit for her, but we’ll see how that turns out.

On Saturday (which incidentally should be ‘today’, but due to repeat tardiness in my blogging habits, is ‘yesterday’) I had my passport interview. It was one of the weirdest experiences, I was basically being quizzed about myself by someone who seemed to know more about me than I did. When was my father born, what’s my mothers date of birth, how long have you lived at your current address? These are all questions that I couldn’t answer because you never think about them, lol. Luckily I’m not getting deported as a terrorist or whatever, and even better, my passport will be arriving in four to ten working days.

While in Oxford, as this was the nearest location where I could have my interview, I decided to purchase Dead Space 2 as I loved the original and what with getting paid weekly, I had the money to drop £40 on it. Just over an hour in, I’m absolutely loving it. The first game in ages that is properly making me jump and creeping me out!

“Why do I have to be in such a creepy game, I had it good in Skate 3, but no, I had to come back to Dead Space”

On a final note, I’m slowly settling into, and thoroughly loving my new phone. I was delightfully surprised to discover that I was wrong about the music player not supporting wma format when synced from windows media player, and now all I have to do is get myself a bigger memory card, and I’ll be able to completely stop using my old phone (which is now just a glorified mp3 player). I am debating making one small modification, to the hands free kit. You see, my old phone had an inline remote/ hands free kit that allowed you to control the music/manage calls, that you could connect your own headphones to. This was great for me as I have a pair of skullcandy asyms that I love using as they’re perfect for me.

They look odd, but my misshaped ear holes wonderfully

Now the desire HD does come with a hands free kit with music and call control (although lacking volume control strangely enough) but the head phones are built it. What I’m contemplating is buying a 3.5mm stereo jack and cutting the built in headphones off and wiring the jack in their place, thus enabling me to use any headphones I wish. Now I’m obviously apprehensive as this is an accessory for a new product and there’s no guarantee that I’d be able to successfully wire the headphone wires to the jack. But on the other hand, there is an almost zero chance that I’d use the headphones otherwise, favouring to just use my asyms with no remote. I’m certainly going to leave it for a while, at least until I get a bigger memory card for my phone, and then I’ll probably wait until I can maybe get another hands free kit, that way if it doesn’t work, I still have a working kit.

Well, that’s all for this week, goal wise nothing much has really changed, I’ll probably do a more concise summary next week. On a small note, the image I posted last week of what I said was my new phone was actually a picture of the previous model, the HTC desire. This is my new phone:

All 4.3” of glory!

MMXI Week 4–The Customer is Always Right

2011-01-30T13:35:00.001-08:00

Today has been a pretty fantastic week, especially in the area of customer service. No, I haven’t been working to my very best providing a fantastic experience for customers, thankfully I am free of dealing with that horrid rabble. Instead I have had two exceptionally pleasant customer service experiences this week.

First off, I had positive dealings with Cross Country Trains. Anyone unfamiliar with them should know that they’re a train company that operates primarily out of major cities and I travel with them whenever I visit Viv in Guildford. Their website is better than most as it doesn’t give stupid connection options. For example, when travelling from Birmingham to Guildford, you should just have to change once at Reading, but Virgin Trains and many other sites insist on only giving you routes through London, involving three or four changes. Not the case with Xcountry. So, in preparation for valentines day, I purchase my tickets plenty in advance. So imagine my face when, a week after collecting them, I glance at the details and realise that rather than holding an open return for the 10th of February, the ticket says 18th of January, a date 3 days in the past. I have no idea how I managed this, but this pretty much sums it up;

I had to hold back the rage against my self for what I feared was a waste of over £25, but I resolved not to give up. On my lunch break that day, I rang their customer service line and the following conversation, paraphrased somewhat, took place;

Me – Hi, I was hoping you could rectify a mistake, that in all likelihood, was made by myself, but I obviously have no desire to pay for it.

Customer Service Rep – Sure, what’s the problem?

Me – Well, you see, I’m a ragging idiot and booked my tickets for the wrong date. Not only have I already collected them, but the train their for has gone, so the reserved seats were never used.

Rep - Well okay then, send us the tickets and we’ll refund you in full.

Me - ………….huh……….okay……awesome……..

That quite succinctly covers the exchange, the moral being that Xcountry trains provides a great service.

My second customer service wonder tale regards T-Mobile, my mobile phone providers. In the next few months, I would be looking at a phone upgrade as my contract was up for renewal. As I have mentioned, I have an interest in upgrading to the HTC Desire Z, the keyboard equipped phone. But resigned to the fact T-Mobile would never stock it, I was quite happy with the idea of the Desire HD. Imagine my surprise when T-Mobile called me to offer me an early upgrade! I told the representative that I wanted the Desire HD for free and asked if he could help me. Not only did he offer me the HD for free, he then offered me either a £5 discount on my current contract, or a down grade to the next tier, saving me £10 and also meaning less wasted allowance. I jumped at the chance as it was an amazing offer. A £400+ phone plus a yearly saving of £120! Then he said that would get the phone sent out to me for Saturday, three days later! How’s that for service?

My new baby!

I was so happy with both of these experiences and I now have a fabulously shiny new phone!

Pay day rolled up on Friday, the first of my weekly pay cheques. I was miffed to discover that I was still on tax code BR. What this means is that I’m not getting my tax free allowance, an amount of income you can earn before you start paying tax. I’m going to chase this up as it is costing me something the region of £60 a month in excess tax, but I believe it will be resolved soon enough.

I also got my letter from the passport office asking me to attend an interview. It seems nowadays everyone getting their first passport must prove they are themselves and not a terrorist. I’m very happy about this as it confirms that my application has gone through all fine and I’m in the last stretch.

This Saturday I decided to visit Birmingham, primarily to do some valentines day shopping, but also to catch up with all the lovely brummy people that I love! And it was a great weekend!
It started with me meeting Vivs cousin Wessie and browsing a few shops in the Bullring. We then met up with Emma, who I used to work with, and her flatmate James. We hit a few more shops then decided to go grab some food (Nandos, naturally) and then saw the Green Hornet (in the 3D). It was a surprisingly good film that I thoroughly enjoyed watching, although it suffered from the usual tacked on 3D.

After the film, we headed back to Selly Oak to catch with another former colleague, Steve. We all headed over the road to the Gun Barrels, where me, Steve and Emma had first met, and got our drink on.

From left to right; Emma (obviously), Steve and James

After setting the world to rights in the slightest of tipsy fashions, we all retired for the night around 3am.

The following day, I rose up around 9am and made my way in to Birmingham to get the train back, but not before picking up some more valentines day presents. I can disclose what I bought, as I suspect Viv may actually read this blog!
Looking back, it’s been an amazing week that I totally enjoyed. The only thing I regret is that I can’t spend more time with the great people in Birmingham.

On another topic, you may wonder how I am progressing on my goals? Well let us tally them off, shall we?

1) Blog once a week, minimum - Well, yes, so far I am blogging once a week. (7% completion)

2) Get a job in Birmingham or Wolverhampton by April - I’m holding off job hunting in Brum/Wolvo until after April when I get back from Hong Kong, which leads to my next goal….(0% completion)

3) Get Money for Hong Kong - I most certainly have the money for Hong Kong and am definitely going, So excited! (100% completion)

4) Reach a Gamerscore of 25,000 - I haven’t bought or played any new games recently, the next one most likely being Dead Space 2. GTA IV isn’t really sucking me in, so it’s probably going to rest on Dead Space 2, Portal 2, Mortal Kombat, Mass Effect 3 and possibly Bulletstorm. (0.4% completion)

5) Complete an Entire Dungeons and Dragons Campaign – This one is currently a huge failure as I haven’t even started a campaign yet, they’re all notes and sketches. Bad dungon master! (0% completion)

6) Play more Risk and Magic: The Gathering – Unfortunately I don’t have my Risk game with me (I’m hoping to buy another version so, 2210 AD) and no one I know likes playing MtG, so this one is a bit hard to achieve, but we still have the rest of the year. (0% completion)

7) Work on a Video Game Project – I got off to a great start with this, but I’ve stalled somewhat in the sketching phase, I need to get back to work and knuckle down. (~5% completion)

8) Learn Cantonese – Not a sausage. Nothing. Nada. I have made no progress. Moving on (0% completion)

9) Improve my Blog Design – Well it’s no longer offensive red. I need to consult with my graphic design friends, but it looks a little better (15% completion)

10) Buy more Books – I haven’t bought any new books yet, not for myself at least. But with more pay cheques coming in, this should all change. (0% completion)

Overall progress.

As a little side note, I have a few short term goals I want to complete:

- Finish my minecraft cosplay. I’ve ordered the ink to print the design out, so hopefully this week.

- Post a review of Transformers Risk and MtG on my DnD blog

- Post a review on this blog of my new phone.

- Record an HD video tour of my minecraft world.

MMXI Week 3–Working 9 to 5 (or In My Case, 8 to 4)

2011-01-22T15:19:00.001-08:00

Oh boy, this has been an draining week. I started my temp assignment on Monday working for Capita Total Documents Solutions. What they do, in simplest terms, is back up ‘analogue’ documents; paperwork, celluloid film etc. into digital format. I had my induction at nine thirty am on Monday morning, where they gave me a quick tour of the facility. The first thing that struck me was that it smelt like a pig sty. Not the proverbial sty, but a literal pig sty, with a ever-present odour that reminded me of my Granddads old farm.

Analogue to Digital Piggy Back Up

The smell was actually coming from the ammonia they used to clean the film in the restoration and back up area. I was grateful to be shown the document processing rooms away from the head ache inducing smell.

Work at Capita is broken down into four stages for normal document processing; Prep, Scan, QC and Export. Prep (sort for preparation) is just that, preparing the documents for scanning. This means aligning all the pages in same orientation, flattening out creases, taping down small pieces of paper, moving post it notes that obscure text and, most importantly, removing staples.
Or as I have come to know them, little shards of metallic hell.

Oh these little bastards task me!

Scan is fairly self explanatory and simple. Documents are fed into industrial automated document scanners, with the operator fine tuning the settings for best image quality. The main responsibility appears to be keeping the machine clean, as I frequently hear the hiss of compressed air ever few minutes.

QC, or quality control, is where the scans are inspected to check for errors. This can be anything from a folded corner, to a missed post it, to a whole page scanned far too dark to read. Any batches that fail QC are sent back to scan and so the process begins again.

Finally, you have export, where the scanned files, in Tiff format, are prepared to ship back out to the client. The files have to be converted, compiled, compressed and encrypted to the clients specifications, the transferred onto the media of their choice. This could be a single, multi page PDF document on DVD Rom, or a folder of hundreds of bitmaps on an external hard drive.
On a related note, I am not sure if Capita offers the WWF file format as an option. For those of you not familiar, WWF is a digital document format similar to PDF, with one key exception; you cannot, under any circumstances, print or convert it. This makes it a truly paper free format, preventing people from falling into the usual habit of printing a digital document so they have a hard copy to read, thus saving paper, therefore trees.

No, it’s not the World Wrestling Format; piledriver 2.0 compatible

I’m unsure how I feel about WWF, as I can see the sense in making a format that doesn’t lead to unnecessary use of paper, as PDF often does. But on the other hand, sometimes you need to print a document off, say if you’re going to use it in an environment where there’s not computer, or maybe you want instructions for fitting your water cooling system, which just so happens to need your computer to be switched off while you fit it. But then again, with the proliferation of portable devices capable of reading digital document formats, maybe this will become a moot point.

But back to my first week at work. During the first two days, I was on QC, sat at a computer wearing out the down arrow key. I would basically browse through documents looking for mistakes in the scanning process. Rapidly I learned to apply my knowledge of keyboard shortcuts, reducing the amount I used the mouse to an absolute minimum. It was almost painful to watch people who had been working there much longer than me using the mouse to rotate an image when you could use Ctrl + R to do the same job in a fraction of the time and with much less effort. But that’s probably just a matter of preference. It wasn’t too bad work, very similar to scanning through the hundreds of photos I’d take as reference images for uni work. Good, good, good, rotate, delete, rotate, good, good. You get the idea.

For the rest of the week I was working in prep, which was marginally more tedious than QC, and left me with sore fingers from using the staple lever. The only interesting part was nosing through the various documents. You see, if you put text in front of me, I can’t help but read it. So here I was, reading about bilateral breast enhancements, anti social behaviour in council houses and various other snippets of what I presume to be fair confidential information. Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t ‘intentionally’ reading these documents, it’s just my brain can’t help but pull every bit of information from text in front of me.

I got a really great bit of news at the end of Thursday that at the start of the next week I would be trained up on scan. This is the department I have the second greatest interest in after export. I will make sure I have a note book to hand as I’m absolutely petrified of breaking what I presume to be a very expensive piece of equipment.

In parallel to my work, I’ve been trotting along on two side projects. one of which you already know about. I've done a couple of pages of concept sketches for my level design project, but more importantly, I’ve done a mind map of the ships systems. I reasoned that if I was going to produce a plausible ship design, I would need to include ever possible element of ship systems, from life support to sensors to crew quarters. I did this using a very esoteric method. I lay down in my bed and closed my eyes, imagining I was the captain of this ship on a simple cargo haul that went wrong, narrating what would happen and every time a new element of the ship came up, I noted it down. I then listed all these sections on my mind map.

As you can see, it’s full of a lot of techno-babble and pseudo-science, but I like to think that using bad science is better than using made up science. My plan is that by the time I’m finished I will have created such a complex and in depth level, you’ll be able to spend ages walking around before you realise it’s not actually a game. One of the key aspects I’m really focusing on is variable gravity. There are currently three main gravity wells I’m focusing on. 'Standard’ gravity (one unit of earths gravity relatively downwards), cyclic gravity (one earth gravity towards the center of a toroid) and zero gravity. This will create very different environments, and I may even include areas of inverse gravity or even multiple gravity zones, say in the engineering sections where it would more useful.

My second project is something fairly new, my cosplay project for the MCM midlands anime expo in February. If I showed you this image, would you have any idea?

How about now….?

If you haven’t guessed it, I’m planning on going as the ‘Minecraft’ guy, otherwise known as Steve.

I was heavily inspired by this previous cosplay design, partially due to it’s simplicity, but also because I own a t-shirt of that exact colour worn by Steve the Minecraft Guy

I’m currently waiting until I can order some more printer ink so I can print off the artwork to cover my ‘head box’ with. I’ve also got a fairly large diamond pickaxe to print out and make, so hopefully I’ll have a really good costume. I’m just worried I’ll get people coming up behind me at the convention and going ‘ksssssssssssss!”

This blogging week finished in Oxford, as I was on the never ending gamer pursuit of the ‘special edition’. This time I was questing after the Dead Space 2 Collectors Edition. What makes this edition so collectable you ask? Well, apart from the steel book case, art book, soundtrack and dlc code, it comes with this:

Pew Pew Pew

For those of you that haven’t place the original Dead Space, that’s a full size replica of the plasma cutter, the most reliable gun from the original game. Now I have a pretty bad weakness for collectors editions, but when it comes to life size props, I get a little silly in the head. But this tale does not end in joy and rainbows, as you see, retail is often filled with incompetents.
After phoning HMV Oxford twice the day before to confirm that yes, they are taking pre-order deposits for Dead Space 2 and yes, that is the collectors edition, and it would be a £10 down payment, I arrived at the store to be told that there was a suspension on pre-orders, but I could call on release day to get one set aside.

Fortunately that wasn’t my only objective for dragging myself and my good friend Amanda into Oxford. I also visited T-mobile, to be told that they wouldn’t ever be getting the HTC Desire Z in stock. As my phone contract is coming up to its renewal, and I have a thing for both Android and physical keyboards, the Desire Z is ideal for me. It’s the keyboard equipped version of the Desire HD, which T-mobile do stock.

It will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine!

Having been defeated twice, me and Amanda set of in pursuit of culture. That’s one of the things I love about being older, I can appreciate museums finally. It also helps that I act like a little kid around anything dinosaur related! I wouldn’t be telling a word of a lie if I told you that on more than one occasion I interrupted my own sentences with the exclamation “ooooh! Dinosaurs!” When me and Viv travelled to London to see Blue October, I used up all the battery I was saving to take photos at the gig in the natural history museum dinosaur displays. Not event the whole museum, just the dinosaurs.

Terrible thunder lizard he may be, but that doesn’t change the fact he looks cross eyed!

On several occasions during mine and Amanda's visit to the Pit Rivers museum I embarrassed/impressed myself with my ability to recognise the more obscure dinosaur species on display. Then again, I successfully recognised cuneiform script, which I think made me look pretty erudite.

Well this has been quite a long blog entry, I’m certainly impressed with myself. I’m undecided if my next entry will be early (Friday) or late (Sunday or Monday) as I’m planning on spending the weekend in Birmingham and as such, probably won’t be able to blog on Saturday night as I usually like to do. Until then, switches and ores!

MMXI Week 2–The Power of Stock Photos

2011-01-14T13:55:00.001-08:00

Wow! What a week, only the second one of this year and man, it’s been eventful. Pull up a comfy chair, put your feet up, and let me tell you all about!

I’ve managed to either stick to, meet, or make serious progress towards some of my goals for this year, which is fantastic. Straight off the bat, one of the most important ones has been nailed, and that’s going to Hong Kong. Let me tell you how this veritable miracle occurred.

Last week I got a phone call from my girlfriends mother, who I affectionately call Lychi. She got this nickname after I picked up some post from the front door one morning, and it occurred to me in a sudden spark of daftness that Lai Chun Lee, her name, when read quickly, sounded like Lychi, a small and sweet fruit. I pointed this out to my girlfriend, who immediately commented that that was appropriate as her mum was small and sweet. The nickname stuck from then on, it was distinctly better than ‘Mrs Lee’ or ‘VIvs Mum’. But back to my story.
So I received a phone call from Lychi, asking how I spelt my name. This is an issue that occurs frequently as I have a penchant for spelling my name differently to how it is legally recorded. According to the law, I am David, but I greatly prefer the aesthetic of Davyd, with a ‘Y’. I was curious and she informed me that she was reserving seats for the flight to Hong Kong as even though payment wasn’t required, the seats would still need to be booked. This put a pit in my stomach as it meant I was under even more pressure to somehow find the funds for the holiday. But this worry was to be short lived, as I found out when I spoke to Viv on the phone that night. You see, Lychi had not only booked my seat, but she was covering the cost of the ticket, until I could pay her back. This was amazing and mind blowing news, as it guaranteed my first intercontinental holiday, the only time I have ever been so determined to go on holiday (I am not normally one for holidays). As soon as I could, I phoned Lychi up to thank her profusely! I am now going to Hong Kong! I still have to find money for passport and spending, but that will be covered as you will find out if you continue to read.

That was what I presumed to be the high point of my week, which was pretty accurate, but also that it couldn’t get any better. In that regard I was very wrong. Under the not inconsiderable pressure of my mother, I ventured into ‘town’, I use the quotes because having lived in Birmingham, to which I have oft referred to as town, calling Bicester’s high street ‘town’ seems demeaning to the word. But I ventured none the less and went in search of the fabled temp agencies. Having had an interview for one to put me on the books, I received a phone call scant hours later asking me if I was interested in a 3 month assignment. It was basic work, checking paperwork, but I could listen to my music and, most importantly, they would let me have the time over February off that I had booked for seeing Viv and going to the MCM Anime expo. I accepted and the guy, a lovely chap by the name of Bruce, told me I’d start on Monday! Epic win! I now had a temporary job which meant I’d have money to save for Hong Kong, get my passport and take Viv out for valentines! Plus it will count as office experience which will most certainly help me in getting a job in Birmingham and moving back.

Fingers crossed this won’t be me!

Speaking of moving back to Birmingham, I have decided to revaluate one of my goals, getting back to Birmingham by April. At the time of writing that, I wasn’t too sure I’d be going to Hong Kong, so the least I wanted was to be in Birmingham for my birthday. Now that I am going, it is more logical that I leave trying to get a job and a flat until after I get back from Hong Kong. I don’t know if I will mark this as a failure to complete a goal, we’ll decide on that later.

I’ve made progress towards four other goals; redesigning my blogs, blogging once a week, producing a game concept item for my portfolio and reaching 25k gamerscore. As you can see, I have chosen one of the default blog styles, as it was distinctly more aesthetically pleasing that then red nightmare I was using before. Also, if you’re reading this, you will see that I have blogged constantly for two consecutive weeks. Yay me!
With regards to the game concept item, as I consider level design one of my main skills, I have decided that I am going to work on a level design, probably one of my most in depth and comprehensive designs to date. I don’t want to give to much away as I am as of yet undecided if I’m going to blog the complete design and development process, or keep it under wraps. But basically I’m going to try and design an immersive and plausible space ship, featuring holographic interfaces, variable gravity, differentiated environments and an overall plausible feel. I think it will be a good exercise and I’m going to commit myself to the process.
As for my 25k gs goal, well I managed to hit 20k. This may not seem like a big deal, but I did it without breaking out a new game. I scoured all my old games, finding incomplete achievements so I could make my score up to exactly 20,000.

Add me if you have an xbox

This satisfied my OCD side, as I like reaching the 5k multiples exactly (on my facebook I have pictures of 5555, 10k, 15k and now 20k). Now I have to complete just five games to my goal gamerscore, which I’ve started with Grand Theft Auto IV, a game I’ve never been interested enough in to commit money to, but my brother has a copy, so I’ve nicked it off him. I think Portal 2, Dead Space 2, Mortal Kombat and Mass Effect 3 will most certainly help, but I will probably need a few more games to get the five thousand points I need. I’ve only got two full games at 100%, out of a total of 40+ games played.

Well, that’s everything for this week, I doubt next week will be as eventful as I will be entering the daily toll of full time work. Well, it’s money (a large cut of which my mother has her eyes on) and it will be nice to be able to buy things for a change. Ta ta for now my lovelies.

MMXI Week 1 - What Have Accomplished So Far?

2011-01-07T10:10:00.001-08:00

Well, to be honest, not very much. Couple of job applications, come back to Bicester (unfortunately) and played a lot of video games. I’ve powered my way through the two remaining dlc packs for Mass Effect 2, man, I’d forgotten how amazing that game was, and ground my way through five achievements on Green Day: Rock Band, in pursuit of my goal of reaching 20,000 gamer points without playing a new game. This is a small step in my greater goal of reaching 25k. Speaking of which, you may be wandering (or, more likely, absolutely not wandering) how I am progressing on my objectives for 2011. Well seeing as it’s only been a week, I haven’t got very far. I haven’t learnt any new cantonese words. I haven’t started designing my game. I haven’t found a job. Hell, I haven’t even thought about redesigning my eyesore of a blog. But fear not my imaginary followers, for I have a plan. Well, more accurately, a plan for a plan. You see, my ‘metagoal’ for January is to plan out how I’m going to reach my individual goals each month. So fingers crossed.

MMXI Week 0 - 'New' Year Objectives

2011-01-01T16:46:00.000-08:00

Well, just like the little planet that could, the earth has completed yet another whole revolution around the sun without us humans wiping ourselves out. And as is tradition, I'm going to set myself some targets this year. I refuse to refer to them as resolutions, as the term is both trite and also one that I reserve for discussing monitors, tvs and printers. They will be goals, objectives, targets even, but not resolutions. So here they are:

1) Blog once a week, minimum - I have two blogs (the other being The D Twenty, my DnD blog) yet my posting is quite 'irregular'. I have a terrible habit of being exceptionally enthusiastic, then the enthusiasm dies like an unwatered house plant. As such, I am aiming to post one blog per week, either on a Friday or Saturday, simply detailing the events in my life.
Likelihood of completion - 4/10

2) Get a job in Birmingham or Wolverhampton by April - Some of you may no (but more of you may not), I recently had to move back to my home town of Bicester, after my hours were dramatically reduced at my last job, and as such, I had to resign and move home because I was unable to make ends meet. Now I am unemployed and living in one of the worst places I can imagine. I am far from friends, Viv and the bustling metropolis of Birmingham. By comparison to where I am now, Brum is positively Utopian. As such, I am going to desperately search for a job which will allow me to move back, either to Birmingham, or Wolverhampton, as home is where the heart is and mine beats heartily in the West Midlands.
Likelihood of completion - 7/10

3) Get Money for Hong Kong - Late last year, Viv told me that their family trip to Hong Kong, which happens once every 3 years, would be occuring in April, over the last 3 weeks, over my birthday. I was obviously invited as it was a family trip and I am considered one of the family. Needless to say, I really want to go, but this will not be a cheap endeavour. As such, I am going to have to man up and ask my Grandfather for the money as probably the biggest birthday present in the history of my life, past, present and future. This will most likely be a once in a lifetime opportunity, to spend my birthday in such a great place.
Likelihood of completion - 6/10

4) Reach a Gamerscore of 25,000 - This is a pretty self explanatory and probably quite easy goal. I'm almost at 20,000 and as such, 25,000 should be fairly obtainable. This will translate most likely to about 6 or 7 new games, perhaps less if I can wrap up a few achievements that have been sitting around in my game library.
Likelihood of completion - 8/10

5) Complete an Entire Dungeons and Dragons Campaign - I currently have one incredibly large dungeons and dragons campaign outstanding, which isn't really within sight of finishing any time soon. But in order to fill my time in Bicester until I can move back to Birmingham, I'm going to start another campaign. I am aiming to complete this campaign, in a satisfactory fashion with an engaging story, inside of the year.
Likelihood of completion - 7/10

6) Play more Risk and Magic: The Gathering - This xmas, Viv got me Risk Transformers Edition, which re sparked my love for the bored game. Additionally, we began playing the trading card game Magic: The Gathering, which I have developed a parallel addiction for. As such, I am hoping to play considerably more games and improve my skill.
Likelihood of completion - 8/10

7) Work on a Video Game Project - I would like to point out that I haven't lost sight of my true life goal, working as a game designer. It's simply that sometimes you have to make sacrifices and prioritise. In order to not lose sight of this, I am aiming to work on a small project, showcasing my ability, and see it through to completion. I may set myself monthly goals in order to prevent myself from becoming complacent.
Likelihood of completion - 5/10

8) Learn Cantonese - Everyone has one of these loft goals for the new year. Considering my distinct lack of affinity for foreign language, this is a suitably ambitious target. Hopefully Viv and her family will be able to help me with this.
Likelihood of completion - 3/10

9) Improve my Blog Design - I never have been happy with the appearance of my blog, and as such I am going to consult with people I know who have more aesthetically pleasing blogs and get their advice.
Likelihood of completion - 5/10

10) Buy more Books - It wasn't until I move from Birmingham that it hit me how wonderful the Birmingham library truly is. I was at a loss when it occurred to me that I couldn't simply nip into the city center and find a book of interest. This especially applies to Terry Pratchett Discworld books, which have an exceptional re-readable quality for me. As such, I am going to try an actually buy more books so that I have a collection ready to read. The particular focus of this will be the complete discworld works, in the new covers.
Likelihood of completion - 5/10

So, there it is. My objectives for 2011, a fair few lofty goals to aim for. So wish me luck!

Back In The Saddle

2010-09-13T14:23:00.001-07:00

Well, today was my first day of training for my new job as bar staff at the Gun Barrels scream pub in Birmingham. It was probably the best training session I’ve ever experienced, and I hope it’s a reflection of things to come. Here’s a little breakdown of what I did

Ice breaking session, including declaring most embarrasing moment.
Introduction of all the drink products they sell. There was A LOT!
Introduction to the range of food products. This included them actually bringing out some of the new dishes, which we GOT TO EAT! The Bulldog burger was especially good!
Basic till training, which wasn’t too bad. Hardest part will be remembering where all the options are on the screen.
How to pull my first pint. I went for strongbow, which I GOT TO DRINK AFTERWARDS. It was gooooood

All in all, it was a great day with some great people and I’m looking forward to my second session tomorrow.

On an unrelated note, I’m a little miffed at myself for doing something rather silly. While trying to organise some blog posts for cragcose that were to be moved over to my new dungeons and dragons blog, The D Twenty, I thought it would a good idea to do the following:

Load draft of story that was 75% complete, that has taken me several hours to read
Delete draft save file
Save open copy as draft under new blog with new file name

What I didn’t realise is that Windows Live Writer doesn’t work like word, you can’t delete a save file of a document while the document is open, and then just save the open document as something new. Instead, it deletes everything from in front of your very eyes! I was stunned and shocked, even resorting to a system restore to try and recover it (it was also to fix a software installation that went a bit wrong), but that didn’t work. I’m in too minds about rewriting it as I’m worried what I redo won’t be as good, but we’ll see.

In the coming days I’ll be wrapping up my training and possibly starting my first shift. I was meant to be going to a good friends birthday party down in Guildford, but due to limited budget and possible first shift, I’m affraid I’m going to have to give it a miss. But luckily my girlfriend will be around for her birthday, which means I can do what I do best; showering her with love and attention and making a big deal out of her. I’m going to look up Chinese birthday traditions seeing as she wants a family thing (she’s Chinese) and make it something special.

2010-09-12T16:18:00.001-07:00

Vivs mum approves of the sofas

Project Lose An Olsen Twin Week……many?

2010-09-11T05:15:00.001-07:00

Well, it would be fair to say that I haven’t made a serious post in at least over two weeks, possibly three. I think the only way I could discern the amount of time that’s passed since my last blog is based on my current number of sit ups. I have gone up to 100 a night, which is a reasonable amount to stay at for the foreseeable future, instead favouring to work on my upper body strength via push ups, which I find currently extremely challenging.

I have been reasonably busy in other endeavours durring the time since my last blog. I made a trip up (or down, I forget) to London to help my girlfriends mum and uncle move some furniture out the house of another uncle, who tragically passed away recently. It was a lot of work, we had to drive a tank of a van to carry all the stuff back. In the end, we took 2 large sofas, 1 television, 1 shelving unit, 1 cabinet, 1 dining table and a load of various smaller items. Basically any item that could be of use picked up. It seems disrespectful to let a passed relatives former possessions go to waste. Much better to re-use what you can, almost as a way of remembering them.
There was lots of heavy lifting, more so upon arrival at my girlfriends house. You see, 99% of what we brought back was from the ground floor of her uncles house, but the living room of her house is on the first floor (they live in a gorgeous 3 story house). As such, everything had to be very carefully carried up a narrow set of stairs and around a few tight bends. But eventually everything was in space and cleaned up (there was so much dust). For the first time in over 2 and half years my girlfriend has furniture in her families living room. It’s amazing the difference a sofa can make.
There was a funny revelation about the sofas. A few weeks back, soon after her uncle passed, the majority of the family was staying down at the house. She and her sister were sleeping on the two sofas in the living room, which as anyone who has done the same can testify, isn’t the most comfortable. What was the first thing I noticed about the sofas just before moving them? They both fold down into full size single beds! This proved to be great for me as when I stay over, I have a proper bed to sleep on, rather than on the living room floor (my girlfriends mum is very traditional, a chinese thing, so we can’t share a bed, or participate in any activity that might arrise from said bed sharing, lol).

The following day i got a phone call. I had been invited to a recruitment event at the bar I applied to; the Gun Barrels in Selly Oak/Edgbaston, near the University of Birmingham. It was scheduled for 6pm till 9pm on Wednesday and I was obviously a touch nervous.
Upon arriving, there was already over a dozen people there and we were divided up into one of eight colour coded teams. I was Team Green and made quick work of getting to know my team leader, a current member of staff, and my fellow team mates as they arrived. By the time everyone was there, there was 8 people in each team, meaning that over 60 people were attending! We were told that about 16 to 20 of the people there were going to be hired, so I had a 1/4 to 1/3 chance of nailing the job.
My group was a great bunch, with a mix of personalities. There was a quiet, nerdy girl called Poppy who liked Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a qualified hairdresser called Amy Whitehouse (not Winehouse) who was very bubbly and an asian guy called Suki who was very chatty and enthusiastic. We had to perform two group activities, both of which seemingly aimed at finding out how much we’d be willing to make idiots of ourselves. The first of which involved marketing two fictional products from a list. We chose the one legged stool (The Monostool) and laxative chocolate (ChocoLog, Bang, and the Turd is gone!). The joke slogans went down well, as well as the awesome art work (courtesy of myself).
The second activity was an awards ceremony, Dudes and Dudds of the Year 2010. We were given a list of celebrities and ‘celebrities’ and had to act out the various winners and losers. I was Buzz Lighthyear for this event, so had great bright pink cheeks and a black spiral on my chin. After donning a jumpsuit, I truly looked the part.
Following these two entertaining tasks, there was a one on one interview with one of the staff, which went really well. After a couple of drinks, including a pint of rather nice strawberry beer, I headed home, to await a phonecall the next day if I got the job. This was probably the most anticipated phone call for a job I’ve ever waited for. Then at 1730 the next day, about half an hour after what I thought the cut off was for the call, I noticed a missed call on my phone. Recognising the number, I rang it back and it turned out I got the job! I was so happy! My training starts on Monday, two till five, and the same again on Tuesday, with final training five to six thirty on Wednesday, followed by a small party for the newbie's!

Well, that brings us up to date with what has happened in this past week. I’ve also made a small change to my blog with the addition of ad-sense adverts to see if I can bring in some pence. I’m also adding a logo and I’ve started a new blog. Called The D-Twenty, it’s a dungeons and dragons themed blog for a lot of stuff i realised wouldn’t really fit properly on this blog. Check it out! Also give those adds a click!

Review: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

2010-08-19T04:31:00.001-07:00

This Tuesday gone, courtesy of the Total Film newsletter (and a little bit of cheeky multi-email amount manipulation) I manged to obtain 4 tickets for an advanced preview of the latest Edgar Wright movie, an adaption of of the Oni Press comic, penned by Brian Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

Now before I begin to review in ‘earnest’ I have a confession to make. The first I heard of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (henceforth known as Scott Pilgrim) was when I saw the super advanced mega preview trailer from last years Comic Con (I think). It wasn’t until a few months later when I noticed one of my friends had posted on facebook that he was reading the 3rd volume of Scott Pilgrim that I discovered that Scott Pilgrim was a comic series. After a bit of hunting, I managed to procure the first few volumes.

And I promptly fell in lesbians.

I’m not a huge graphic novel fan, simply due to my reading pace. Now, don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love graphic novels, graphic media in general. I would read dozens of different mangas. I have many comic series’ that I desire to enjoy. The problem is the cost to duration ratio. You see, I can read a £8 graphic novel in a single evening, easily. Compare that to a similarly priced book which may last me a week or so, and it just doesn’t seem worth it. But recently I’ve circumvented this by two means. Firstly, I borrow a lot. I’ve been leant V For Vendetta and Watchment, both of which I massivly enjoyed. Secondly, and less legitimately, I’ve been downloading comic book series’ online and viewing them using Comic Rack. Now I know this may make you devout purchasers shudder and scream at me, but understand this, I can’t afford to buy all the volumes, so it’s either that or I don’t EVER read them. Which means that I will never purchase them in the future (I’m not going to spend money on a graphic novel I don’t love) I have purchased download titles, such as my prized 1st Edition Appleseed complete set and my first few volumes of Gundam 0083. But this is not about the ethics of piracy, not is it about comic books in general. This is about what I thought of Scott Pilgrim vs The World (the film). Lets get started with the good:

Lowest Common Denominator? Screw Em: When you have a film based on a previous piece of niche media, be it a comic book, a video game or a book, there is often the temptation to water down the original source material so those not indocrinated into the brotherhood don’t feel alienated. This happens mainly with video games, so seeing as Scott Pilgrim is heavily video game influenced, this was an ever present worry. But worry not my friends, Edgar Wright knows what he is doing. Just as he seemed to make Shuan of the Dead for zombie fans, he made Scott Pilgrim straight up for fans of the comic. That’s not to say that someone who hasn’t read the series won’t enjoy it. I went with my girlfriend, her sister and her cousin, none of which had read the comic, and they all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. In fact, her cousin laughed the loudest out of the whole theatre.

Best Graphics Ever: I had my doubts that the film would be able to encapsulate the comic/video game art style of the original series. There were a lot of elements that work well in ink, but maybe not so well on screen. This wasn’t the case. From game style HUD moments to floating words to caption sound effects (watching Scott bang his head against a lampost with the words Thud, Thud, Thud hanging in the air above him was briliant) The fight scenes were beautifully choreographed and the effects really made them feel vibrant and suitably beat ‘em up!

Made From Concetrate…..d Win!: It’s often hard to distil a story that spans several volumes of graphic novel, over the course of months of even years. But Scott Pilgrim did this well, (but not without a few problems, see bellow). You have two choices in this situation 1) Put the plot on hyper speed to hit every point in 120 minutes, which can leave the audience confused and feeling rushed, or 2) Miss out some elements, which may be critical to side plots, don’t impact on the main story. Scott Pilgrim does a a little of both, which works really well in getting the story over, but does have some negative effects.

And now the Bad:

They Missed That Out: There were a few things missed from the film that were great parts of the comic. Clash at Demonheads drummers robot arm, Scotts 12 months moping about after Ramona leaves, Kim and Scotts history, and even Knives and Kims lesbian kiss! Although these plot points don’t contribute directly to the overall story of defeating 7 evil ex’s, they add flavour and a suitable environment. You don’t need salt and vinegar on your chips, but it’s nice to have it.
The biggest casualty was the ending, where it was revealed that the big band, Gideon Graves, had a collection of 7 ex girlfriends and planned to add Ramona to the collection. And everything was the result of his ability to mess with peoples heads and memories. That was all kind of glossed over in favour of a big bad mind control chip.
Oh yeah, they also forgot his samurai sword battle with Knives ninja father….

Hyperspeed Motion Blur: Sometimes accelerating a plot can make things seem a little rushed. For example, Scott seemed to transition from one Ex-Battle to the next in the space of 30 minutes (in film time) whereas in the comic the span was more like 3 month. This kept the pacing up in terms of visual stimulation, but the way the cast dealt with the pace seemed a little stilted. No one seemed to comment that Scott had fought one ex an hour ago and was now up against another.
But the biggest victim of the increased pace was our hero, Scott Pilgrim. In the comic, he falls in love with Ramona Flowers while he is still dating Knives Chau (who is very much in puppy love with him). Now although this is incredibly douchey, and he gets called out on this douche-bag behaviour, the pacing of the comic means that this issue is resolved, and Scott is punished for his actions, in suitable time. But this isn’t the case in the film. Scott seems to plunge into the full on Ramona relationship and defeating 7 evil exs before Knives name is even mentioned. My girlfriend commented multiple times that she was having trouble empathising with Scott because he was such a douche for cheating on Knives. And I had to agree that the pacing of the film made Scott into a giant douche.

Overall, I freaking loved this film and would definatly see if for a second time (paying to see it that time)

Faithfulness to Original: 7.5/10
Graphical Style: 8/10
Humour: 7/10
Awesomeness: 9/10

GamerPost #04 Assassins Creed 2 Review

2010-08-19T03:54:00.001-07:00

Well, I’ve done it, I’ve finally fully completed a game. We’re talking 100% in game completion. We’re talking 1000/1000 gamer points. We’re talking EVERYTHING. As such, I feel I can offer my best possible review, breaking it down into what I loved and what I loathed.

LOVED IT

Some of the Old – This game took everything that was great about assassins creed and brought it back. The free running, the stealthy assassinations, they sick sense of pleasure you can get from using a throwing knife to send a guard toppling off a building. It was all there.

Something New – And it takes all these old classics and expands upon and adds to them. You now have access to poison blades which can be used to ‘indirectly’ kill guards. You can use the grab function in close combat to throw people off buildings. There’s a much wider selection of weapons, allowing you to choose between sword, spear or axe. The game adds so much to the experience it is simply fun to think up creative ways to off random guards.

Less Repetition – One thing Assassins Creed suffered from was being repetitive. AC2 does away with this. Each mission and side quest feels unique. I never once found myself thinking “Oh no, not this again” It was all fresh as a daisy.

Now He’s Got Character – The entire cast was well written and engaging, with a nice touch of dry, adult humour. You actually watch Ezio, the character you play as, grow and mature, from a rowdy teenager into a man, into an assassin.

Not Shying Away – The story doesn’t cut corners with plot. Ezio drinks, he has sex, he seeks revenge. It doesn’t gloss over anything. The best bit was a quick time event to take a girls top off (not that you actually saw anything).

LOATHED IT

Story? – I often at times found myself wondering ‘why?’ Why did I have to kill this man? Why was I listening to this person? There wasn’t a compelling story, which was a shame considering the wonderful characters that populated it.

Hmm, wonder what I can use that for? – The game also had a handful of items that just seemed tacked on. This includes two Da Vinci inventions, the wrist pistol and the flying machine. Apart from when you’re forced to use them, I found them inconvenient compared to the more ‘traditional’ hardware

Crystal Skull Syndrome – Spoiler Warning Right Here! The ending left something to be desired if I’m being honest. I think they gave away too much too quickly and have dimmed my interest in the third in the series. The alien/time travellers just leaves a bad taste in my mouth like at the end of the last Indiana Jones movie. I like my mysterious organisations surrounded in more, well, mystery.

Well, that’s convenient - Some of the Puzzles just seemed a bit too conveniently set up. For example, you’d be expected to navigate a jumping puzzle that was supposedly set up when the building you’re in was first constructed, yet the puzzle would require jumping to and from objects placed there during the renovation of the building. It just breaks the suspension of disbelief a little.

THE FINAL SCORE

Graphics – 8/10 – Nothing ground breaking, but still impressive and breath taking in places

Gameplay - 9/10 – A wonderful free running experience

Audio – 8/10 – I didn’t really notice the music much, although at times it did pick up quite nicely

Story – 6/10 – Like I said, I felt a little lost by the story at times and felt that I was just being dragged along for the ride.

OVERALL – 8/10

Project Lose An Olsen Twin Week 4 or….

2010-08-18T09:19:00.001-07:00

So lets get the dull stuff out the way, my exercise crap. This week was a bit of what I’ll call a ‘blip’. On two separate days I ‘over indulged’ By over indulge, I mean one day where I partake in a large amount of funyuns and mountain dew, and another where I again consumed an excess of said funyuns, followed by KFC for dinner, which is never a good plan. But both these transgressions can be put into a suitable context, which I will do so later on.
On a more possitive context, my exercise and fruit consumption has greatly increased. I’m walking an average of 15+ miles a week minimum, with any journey of 2 miles or less being undertaken on foot. As for my sit up reps, I’m up to 50 reps a night, every night (that’s 350 a week!) and hopefully within the next week or so, I’ll be up to 60. I’ve found a devious method into tricking myself that I’m doing less than I am. I break my set down into ever decreasing groups of reps. For example, for 40 reps, I would do 20, rest for a few seconds and have a drink, 10 then rest, 5 then rest, 3, then 2. For my current 50, I’m doing 20, then 15, then 10, then 5. This works very well at helping me pace myself effectively.

Now on to the more awesome parts of my last week. Firstly we have dungeons and dragons on Sunday. Postponed from the previous week due to illness, this session was a prime example in the importance in feedback. By working with my players, I managed to iron out some minor problems they had been having.
There was a hilarious exchange between the five of us about an hour into the session, towards the end of the last encounter. One of my players had received an update to her Magic Missile attack. It now was an instant hit, set damage attack, meaning that minions (high defence, 1 hp monsters) would fall like dominoes before her. She was getting a little drunk with power and in the very last room, she walked in and saw a man in the corner. Literally the first thing she said after I put down the mini was ‘I shoot him with magic missile’ to which the following exchanged took place:

“I use magic missile!”
”Are you sure?”
”Yeah! Blast him with magic missile!”
”Are you really sure?”
”Um, yes? [to other players] Am I sure?”
”What was your quest?”
”Um, kill zombies?!”
Other Player “No, wait, it was to save some guy…..oh! Don’t magic missile him Wessie!”

This lead to a running joke about the groups Wizard using her magic missile to solve every possible problem. Slight cough? Magic missile to prevent spread of infection. Can’t open a jar? Magic missile! Drops her wallet? Magic Missile! It was a running joke for the whole day!

Onto Monday, my girlfriends dad bought us all some really tasty cuts of steak, which combined with tasty chips and long beans, made an amazing dinner. I hadn’t had a rare steak in so long, so it was amazingly tasty!

Then came Tuesday, and the best day of the week by far. You see, I’m signed up with a website that sends people free tickets for advanced screenings of films. And I managed to score a handful of tickets to go see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World! I’ve been psyched about this film for months, since reading the comics and I wasn’t disappointed! I’m not going to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but if you ever played an 8bit game, or played video games full stop, or just ever felt awkward and useless in life, this film is for you. I can best describe it as Wayne's World for bitpunk generation! They nailed the casting, the key plot points, everything! SEE THIS FILM!

THAT IS ALL

Project Lose An Olsen Twin Week 3

2010-08-11T11:19:00.001-07:00

Or “My Most Productive Week in a While, With A Few Complaints Thrown in For Fun”

First off, lets start with PLOT. I’ve noticed 3 major things with my weight loss ‘program’

1. I’m finding exercise progressively easier. I’m currently doing 40 sit ups a night and happily walking/cycling at least 4 miles a day. I’ve noticed a steady decrease in how tired I am after each bought of exercise. Now the obvious result of this is that I’m going to have to increase the amount of exercise in order to keep the benefit up.

2. People have begun to comment on my appearance, in a positive way I may add. I had to laugh when Viv told me that her aunt commented that I looked like I had lost weight and Viv was worried that I’d be offended by that. The only way I could have been offended was if her aunt had instead said “Davyd isn’t looking as fat any more” which would have still be encouraging. I’m finding this kind of feedback much more motivating that looking at scales every morning.

3. I’m not losing fat from the desire areas of my body in the order I’d prefer. In order to illustrate this, let me refer you an diagram.

This is me:

Or, more accurately, this is me:

Ideally this is how I’d like to lose weight, with red areas being most urgent, orange being second most, yellow being third most and green being least urgent:

Now this is how I’m currently losing weight:

As you can see, I’ve got much thinner/less flabby arms, but not much change in my stomach, sides and chest. My face is the only area that I’m currently happy with. As I am now, I have knobbly wrists and stringy arms, lol. But it’s still weight loss and I’m going to keep working at it.

Now for something different. This week has been pleasantly productive for me. I’ve finally managed to sort out my job seekers allowance. As some of you may know, I’m currently unemployed and as such have had to resort to claiming benefits. The first of these was job seekers allowance, a not insubstantial sum of £50 a week, which goes a long way when you know how to shop sensibly and eat healthily. After claiming several weeks ago, I received my first payment today, meaning I don’t have to stress over phone and internet bills, which is a weight off my mind.
Secondly there’s housing benefits, in order to help pay my rent. Now I’ve been even more stressed about this simply because it’s taking so long and I’m already behind on this months rent. But today I got a great phone call. My landlord had received my email about needing a proof of tenancy letter and a break down of inclusive bills. Not only is he not annoyed over the delay, he also said that he would make my share of the bills (in other words, how much of my all inclusive rent goes towards said bills) less. Officially this is because I rent the smallest room. What this does mean is that I will receive more towards my rent. Once I’ve got this letter and all my proof is sent off, hopefully it will all finally be sorted.

On a more recreational note, I’ve finally finished writing my second Dungeons and Dragons campaign; volume 2: Evil in the Dark. As some of you know, I dungeon master for a group of my friends and my girlfriend, and as part of this I’m writing a series of custom campaigns. Now these aren’t short little dungeon delves, they’re full on stories. The last volume, The Clockwork Quest, was 3 chapters (a chapter being roughly equal to one in game day) spread over 40 pages. This volume that I’ve just finished is 5 chapters over 55 pages with more monsters and loot than I’ve ever had before. Thankfully my group has scheduled to play fortnightly on a Sunday, which is working out really well, with the next meet up this coming Sunday. I’m currently working on a fictionalised account of the players adventures which I’m going to try and publish on here shortly.

Finally, I’ve managed to fix my adobe CS3 master collection. To add a dash of context, a few months ago, thankfully just after I finished uni, I got a rather unpleasant message about serial authentication server errors when I booted up Photoshop cs3. Since then, no matter how many times I tried to install master collection, none of the programs would successfully install, meaning I was stuck using Photoshop 7! I mean considering that we’re on CS5, using cs3 is pretty dated (Photoshop CS3 was released in April 2007, Photoshop 7 in 2002!) I had all but given up, resigned to the fact that my install file was damaged some how. Then I had an idea, I would install it on my girlfriends computer to check it worked. And it did! So I now knew that I needed to fix the problem on my computer. After a bit of research, I found out the adobe clean script, used to remove all tracers of adobe cs3, had a ‘secret’ level 3 clean mode. Normally you’re only given two levels of clean, with the second being the most thorough. Previously this hadn’t worked for me. On discovering there was a third level, I thought hell, I’d give it a shot. And after a few restarts, a chkdsk scan and a long install, I finally had a working copy of adobe master suite cs3! Spectacular! The main motivation for this was the news that I might be getting a small inheritance sum from my gran, who passed away last year. This made me think about what would be the best way to spend this, and one of the first things that came to mind was investing in an Intuos4 Large graphics tablet by Wacom. Now, I’m not going to bore you with specs, let me just say this thing is a beauty! OLED buttons, touch wheel with 4 modes for zoom, opacity or layer scrolling, 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity as well as tilt sensitivity and a widescreen work area bigger than A4 all means this is the device I need to start producing some serious portfolio work. Now this money is definite, but if it does come through, I will hopefully be able to start publishing some sketches and digi-paintings to my deviant art.

Well that’s all for this longer than average blog. Look after yourself internet peoples!

Project Lose An Olsen Twin Week 2

2010-08-02T11:20:00.001-07:00

So, week 2 of my ‘exercise’ routine has rolled around and how am I doing I hear you all scream so very, very loud. Well, mixed I would say. Because I spent a lot time at Vivs, I wasn’t able to do my usual cardio, but kept doing my sit-ups. As I currently stand, I can do 40/40 (that’s 40 minutes of cardio, 40 sit ups). The sit-ups are getting easier surprisingly quickly. But yes, no cardio for a lot of this week, which wasn’t bothering me too much, because I was under the impression, that my previous impression, that doing reps didn’t burn much fat, just built muscle, was a wrong impression. But it later turned out that I had the wrong impression about having the wrong impression (but both impressions were still wrong). Long story short, reps don’t burn as much fat as cardio, but the still burn fat and help maintain core muscle. So I was a bit disappointed that I’d let my cardio slip. But there I found out something (not really that) surprising; walking and running burn roughly the same calories per mile.

You see, I usually calculated my cardio burn based on calories per hour, which is a very deceptive measurement scale. If you think about it, it would be much easier to walk for an hour than maybe run at a solid pace for 30 minutes, but running burns more calories per hour than walking, so walking isn’t the best option. But then I discovered/realised that if I look at calories per mile rather than per hour, they’re both the same, and it’s all due to thermodynamics. You see, calories are a measurement of energy, and work is the amount of energy (foodies) expended/transferred by moving a mass (fatty me) through a distance (the walk to shops). This is independent of velocity, and as such, a walk to the shops one mile away burns as many calories as a run to the same shop. Obviously the power (work done over time) is much higher for running, but when time isn’t a concern, walking is much better an option.

With this ‘new’ found knowledge in hand, I decided to sort out some errands I had to run. Now, a 4 mph walk speed burns 114 calories per mile, slower than this burns slightly less. With this in mind, I came up with a clever little plan:

Using Google maps, I planned my route to where I was going, choosing the longest route I could feasibly do (just under two miles). The trick is to not pick a route that is inanely longer, just say the longest out of your usual two or three routes.
Again using the googly maps, I made a note of 1/2 mile way point landmarks along the route. This worked out really well.
Knowing that I wanted to average 4mph, I set myself of reaching each waypoint at 7m30s intervals.
I left, stop watch running to help me keep pace. 4mph is a little faster than most peoples walking speed, think ‘the train is pulling into the station, you’re almost at the platform, ticket in hand, don’t want to run so you’ll just walk fast’ It’s sustainable
Much to my surprise, I made it to my destination within a minute (under actually) of my target and my return journey was bang on.

After working out how far I’d walked today (about 10 miles) I calculated I’d burnt just over 900 calories! I did two forty minute round trips (had to take something back to the shop two hours after purchasing it) and one thirty minute round trip.

Having learnt that walking can be a very viable way of burning the pounds, I’m planning to do it more. Obviously 4mph might not be feasible if you’re walking with others, but even 3mph burns 90 calories a mile!

I found the majority of my information from this article on the interwebnettubes. I haven’t managed to weigh myself yet (I’m still assuming I’m pretty close to my starting 200lb) but I’ve noticed that my wrists are looking thinner, lol!

Project Lose An Olsen Twin Week 1

2010-07-26T07:38:00.001-07:00

So, I’ve managed one whole week of better eating and conscientious exercise. And I’m already seeing the benefits! What a great start! It’s all part of the Philip DeFranco inspired project ‘Lose An Olsen Twin’. In other words, lose 65lbs. This may seem like a lofty goal, but I always like to aim high. My starting weight for this is 200lbs (14.5 stones), whereas for my height, my ideal weight is somewhere in the region of 155lbs (11 stones). This is something I really want, so I’m going to go for it!

Now to clarify, this isn’t some kind of fad diet, where I’m only allowed to eat watermelon, orange peel and cabbage leaves steamed under a full moon. Rather, I’m simply counting my calories while reducing my intake of negative dietary components. You see, the crux of losing weight is consuming less calories than you expend. You do that and your body begins burning your stores of fat, thus you lose weight. Additionally, eating slow burning carbohydrates (long sugar chains) gives you energy that keeps you going and doesn’t get immediately stored as fat. Conversely, avoiding simple sugars (short sugar chains) means you don’t have to worry about doing exercise straight after eating a mouthful. The same goes for swapping out saturated fats (hard to break down, thus more readily stored as fat deposits) for unsaturated fats (easily broken down into fat acids, thus not stored as fatty deposits) helps. I’m still getting to eat what I like, including the occasional burger, or even kebab. I’m just eating in moderation.

As for exercise, I have a simple routine. I do a period of cardiovascular exercise, good for getting up heart rate, followed by reps, one rep for every minute of cardio. This mix of endurance and intense exercise covers all bases and is more enjoyable than just running or just lifting weights.

Now for my progress. When I started out a week ago, I was doing 10 minutes of cardio and 10 reps. Within a week, I’m up to 30 minutes of continuous cardio and 30 reps, in my case, 30 sit ups. I’m hoping to reach 60/60 by the end of the month and maintain that for the long run, adding some additional routines or varying my reps to including push ups, once I’ve got my upper body strength up a bit more. The fact that I’m doing 30 sit ups a night daily is amazing me, I never thought I’d be able to do that.

In real terms, I’ve not been able to monitor my weight due a lack of bathroom scales. Instead I’m monitoring my progress in three ways. Firstly, as I mentioned above, I’m tracking the improvement in my stamina and endurance, which is very encouraging. I’m also starting to enjoy that sense of being worn out afterwards, which is very satisfying.

Secondly I’m observing my appearance, which is the primary motivation. I want to look healthier, and already it seems to be working. I’ve lost a bit of weight from my face and arms and my ‘love handles’ are beginning to reduce.

Finally, I’m using my wardrobe to see how well I’m doing. As I’m sure a lot of people do, I have a few articles of clothing that range from ‘snug’ to just damn well don’t fit. My goal is to not have to buy new clothes, just fit into the stuff I haven’t worn in a while. And it’s working already. A shirt I bought about a year ago that got to tight for me to comfortably wear around Christmas is already fitting better. I have a scale of various tops that will let me gauge my progress in real, practical terms and also serve as excellent motivation.

I plan on keeping a photographic record (which won’t be posted on here you’ll be glad to know) so I can make better comparisons of my progress. This is a long term thing for me, so I’m not expecting to hit my ideal weight any time soon. Wish me luck!

What? He’s Back? (I honestly didn’t care)

2010-07-15T10:14:00.001-07:00

Hello all 3 people that read this. As you’ve probably not been caring about, I haven’t posted a blog entry in fucking ages! This is because…..

dum dum dum

…I really couldn’t be arsed. It was mainly due to the fact I started doing these 365 Da(v)y(d)s, monthly summaries of last year. It seemed like such a great idea at first and I was enjoying myself. But I have this horrible mentality that the moment I’m ‘forced’ to do something, I immediately hate doing it with a passion. That’s the main reason why I don’t play games like Resident Evil. The whole mentality of playing between save points makes me feel ‘forced’ to play, so I just stop playing. Today I was going to get a book out of the library, but it was on 7 day loan only. Now I knew I could read not only this book, but the book I’m currently reading, easily within the week, but being forced to would mean I’d absolutely hate it. Well back to the blog. So I was feeling very forced to complete each entry, but I also felt that it would be a terrible sin to publish any other blog entries before I completed my 2009 summary, ‘breaking’ the chronological recap of my year. So my blog became covered in digital dust as I tried to recapture the desire to finish my ‘09 recap. In the mean time, half finished blogs on other subjects built up in my drafts column, until today. Today I decided that I just needed to blog what I felt like. I’ve been dying to blog some of my dungeons and dragons exploits because I know at least 1 person who reads this (I’m talking about you Will!) will find that interesting. So sorry if you were remotely interested in my coverage of last year, that’s old news!

So what will be happening in the blogs to come? Well first off, I’m gonna talk more about personal stuff. I don’t really have anywhere to vent that’s as good as here. Secondly, there’ll be more dnd stuff. I’m gonna try my hand at summarising the adventures of my friends party in literary form, along with talking about my design process. And finally, whatever else comes to mind. For example, I’ve started a more conscientious weight loss ‘program’ called ‘Project Lose an Olsen Twin’. Inspired by my favourite Youtuber, Phillip DeFranco, the goal is to lose 65lbs (a little over 4 stone or 30kg) It’s a hell of a big target, but will put me in a much healthier weight bracket (borderline obese/overweight to ideal)
My game plan is the following: walk any distance 30 mins or less on foot, unless raining (I don’t want to get ill), 20 sit ups a night, increasing by 5 sit ups a week minimum, eat less than 1800 calories a day. Fingers crossed this should help me shed some pounds. I’m currently at about 200lb (14.5 stone/90kg), but don’t have any scales atm to keep track of my progress.

I think the next post will be my dnd post, so laters.

2010-06-10T15:46:00.001-07:00

Scott Pilgrim in cubeecraft form. Ramona Flowers and Knives Chau to follow

365 Da(v)y(d)s - July

2010-02-04T14:09:00.001-08:00

This month was the month of being made unemployed, two weddings, a funeral and a theme park, so a bit uppity downy for me (literally). It got off to a mixed start with my last day of work. I haven’t mentioned my work up until now really, so let me explain. I worked, up until this month, in a bureau de change in WH Smiths in Solihul. It was hardly a sensible business choice in opening it there, seeing as opposite/adjacent the store was 4 other bureau de changes. Needless to say, business was sloooooooooow, to the point where I’d take a book from the book department upstairs and read it in one shift ¬¬. So yeah, after working there for little over a year, they decided to close the branch.
It wasn’t all bad though. I got some nice redundancy pay and also would be getting student loan for my final year, so I wouldn’t need to work, although an income would be beneficial.

Following that final weekend of paid employment, me and Viv made our way south, to the sleep realm of Devon, home of farmers and hobbits! It was my dads wedding, third times the charm, and me and Viv had been invited.

We first made our way to Bicester, where my brother would give us a lift down to Devon. Viv enjoys big sofa + big TV whenever we are down.

The journey down was a bit hecktic, as on the way, my brother had a prang with another car. It looked a lot worse than it was and my bro was a bit shook up. It didn’t help that the husband of the driver in the other car kept getting up in Chris’ face, which was really intimidating for him.

We finally made it down to my dads. As is a tradition there, we made a fire and blew stuff up!

I’m not kidding. Whenever I go down to my dads, we always start a little fire in the garden burner and drop a can of something into it to watch it explode. I think this time it was a tin of kidney beans, which sprayed burning beans all over his (and his neighbours) garden with one helluva bang!

For all the isolation, the view was quite nice

When it came to the actual ceremony, all in all, it was quite a nice little affair. The whole thing was held at a post restaurant by the side of a river, and I have to say, I scrubbed up okay. My brother was best man/photographer, two responsibilities I was glad not to burdened with. I had to laugh at my dads reaction when trying to get round explaining that he’d asked Chris to be his best man, I interrupted and explained that a) I expected him too, as Chris spends more time down with my him than I do and b) I HATE speeches. I’ve never given one, but I don’t EVER plan to.

Chris gets his photography on while my dad posses.

Seeing as we were down for a few days, my dad paid for ‘us kids’ (me and Viv included) to visit Crealy Park. Think of it as a kiddy theme park combined with a petting zoo. It was a bit immature, but still fun. Viv had a lot of fun in the petting zoo part, especially around the rabbits, as this facial expression will testify:

Following our little day trip, me and Viv had one good nights sleep before the journey back to brum, for the following day, we would be travelling into London for a CHINESE WEDDING!

A CHINESE WEDDING is worthy of ALL CAPS for one simple reason; the food! We were only going to the banquet, which is simply the best part.
I can’t remember all the courses we had, but there was easily more than six! I had roast piglet, fish, crabs, prawns, beef, sticky rice, *drools* and it was all so good. I think the piglet was my favourite, prooving the following graph true

Viv and I had a lot fun in London and at the banquet, but we were both glad to get back and relax a bit from travelling. Well, my relaxation would be short lived. A little over a week later, my gran passed away. She had been suffering from cancer and to be perfectly honest, it was a blessing for the suffering to be over. I’m not really the kind of person that dwells on or is bothered by death. My approach to mourning is that you shouldn’t. Celebrate the persons life instead. So, back down to Devon, this time for much less cheerful reasons than my previous visit.

Just to prove that this truly was my month of epic travellings, the day after getting back up from Devon, me and Viv were heading down south again, this time to Guildford for Viv’s resits. I was going because it would be a chance to hang out with some cool peoples and offer Viv moral support (not that she’d need it. Viv is most awesome with exams) Little did I know what awaited me!

You see, Will and Hannah were planning and driving to Thorpe Park! And I had some BOGOF vouchers courtesy of my mum! So me and Viv got to go to Thorpe Park with Will, Hannah and Annie, for free! And it was AMAZING! I’ve been to Alton Towers before, but there was something better about Thorpe Park. It had similar rides to Alton Towers, but they were bigger, fasted and higher. Here’s a little summary of the rides we went on:

Samurai – A three on three spoked ride with chairs on each arm and the arms swivelled. Not very long or fast, but quite dizzy making.

Colossus – A long, standard type rollercoaster featuring the most number of loops of any coaster in the UK. This was definitely lot of fun and a good description would be Quiddich as a ride.

Nemesis Inferno – Much like Nemesis famous at Alton Towers, a feet loose coaster, but faster and higher, and long I think.

X:/No Way Out – A backwards facing rollercoaster, in the dark. This one wasn’t too fast, but very disorientating.

Vortex – 6 sets of inward facing seats on an arm that swings through an almost 360 degree arc, this was the first ride we went on, and a bloody good start to the day.

Stealth – This was an incredible thrill of a ride. Basically, you accelerate STUPIDLY fast (0-80mph in 2 seconds), then travel straight up (over 200 feet). After that, you pass over the outside of the arc at the top and plummet downwards. I had to close my eyes for this one, only to open them at the top and all I saw was sky, until the car when further round the arc and I saw the whole park!

SAW – This was a ride based on the popular film series and was probably the best ride there. It featured stops, starts, loops and vertical drops. At one point it looks like you’re going to drop straight into some blades, but the car dips just underneath them. A great ride.

All in all, the 5 of us had an amazing time. Annie didn’t like Stealth so much, actually turning green in the queue as we waited to get on, but she loved the other rides.
All things considered, I think this was a really great month, even with my Gran dying. But in a way, that was a good thing too, because it meant she didn’t had to suffer the cancer any more, so there’s always a silver lining.

Number of Updates: 28

First Update: “Davyd last weekend of work is fast approaching (Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:46:06 GMT)”

Last Update: “Davyd is tired (Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:43:13 GMT)”

Favourite Update: “Davyd is bittorrent an example of quantum mechanics? The speed seems to drop whenever I observe it! (Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:56:29 GMT)”

365 Da(v)y(d)s - June

2010-01-27T15:28:00.001-08:00

So, here we are, or were more accurately, in June, the start of summer. And it was a true start to summer as Viv and I were both completely done with university for the year. Now was time to chillax and enjoy ourselves. And we got off to a great start, with one of the first days out a trip to the cinema with my Viv. We saw Terminator Salvation which was better than Terminator 3 (not saying much), but not as good as Terminator 2 (again, not really saying much).

On Thursday something happened that I have been dreaming of for years! I saw Blue October live for the first time ever! It was easily one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to. It was a very intimate affair with a great set list and Justin built up a brilliant rapport with the crowd. It was also another first, it was Viv’s first live music gig and she really enjoyed it!
I would’ve brought back some pictures from this amazing experience, but I decided not to take my phone (which doubles as my camera) so I had no way to take pictures. This is normal for me as I generally don’t like to risk my phone getting damaged, lost or stolen for the sake of taking some pictures.

The next day, me and Viv made an epic trip to the ice cream paradise that is Morelli’s! Let me make this is as clear as possible. They make the Best Ice Cream In The UK (if not the world!). I will demonstrate with pictures:

I’ll explain what you’re looking at. That is vanilla ice cream. That is chocolate ice cream. That is REAL HAZELNUT ice cream. That is a cup of chocolate hazelnut sauce, with real hazelnuts SERVED IN A CHOCOLATE CUP! And it’s topped with real whipped cream.

Here’s another picture that really gets the point across. This is honestly the only ice cream I would pay £10 for and feel I’ve got a massive bargain. If you ever come to Birmingham, UK, you have to go to the bullring, visit Selfridges, and buy something from Morelli’s in the food court. It’ll be the best ice cream experience ever!

Little note of interest, Saturday the 6th of June this year gone was the 25th birthday of Tetris! Now you have the Tetris theme in your head!

Exactly one week into the year, I got my second semester grades and was really pleased to know I got a high 2.1. For those of you not familiar with the university grading system, it is a bit weird. The highest grade is a 1st, followed by a 2.1, then a 2.2 (known as a Desmond) and finally a 3rd. A 2.1 is effectively a B, which is quite good IMHO.

There weren’t many highlights until the middle of the month, when me and Viv travelled south to the barren wasteland that is Bicester (it isn’t that bad I guess) to visit for my brothers birthday.

OMG Train

We were only there for the weekend, and went to what Bicester passes as an ‘all you can eat’'. Now let me explain the ‘’ marks. You see, in Birmingham, all you can eat means fuck loads of food that you approach with the singular intent of creating a pile as big as possible on the biggest plate you can find. You then proceed to insert said food into your mouth, regardless of your actual level of hunger.
Now in Bicester they do things a little differently. They have a menu of say 20 items (a third of the Birmingham AYCE menu). You then proceed to order up to 3 items each or something like that. Once you’ve ordered, they cook the food and bring it to you, which you then eat in a civilized fashion. Once finished, you may order another serving of different items, should you be so inclined.
Needless to say, me and Viv, who are seasoned AYCE veterans found this all rather quant and amusing. The food was of a better quality than what you usually get in a brum restaurant, but the selection was where it was lacking.
Oh god, now I want Big Wok (the best chinese AYCE in brum, IMHO)
It was quite nice visiting my brother and meeting his girlfriend for the first time. All in all, it was a nice weekend and a bit of break from things.

Viv looked STUNNING for the meal btw!

Apart from a few ‘witty’' tweets and status updates (Animals have rights: Animals have the right to be TASTY), there wasn’t much eventful happenings until me and Viv went to the cinema for the second time that month to see Transformers 2.

Now I want to say something. Transformers has never been the most interlectual of concepts. I can imagine the design meeting back in the day going something like this:

Guy 1 “Well, what do boys like?”
Guy 2 “Hmmm, cars and planes and guns”
Guy 1 “True, but what else do they like”
Guy 2 “Giant robots?”
Guy 1 “So how can we get these two together? Giant robots racing cars?”
Guy 2 “How about giant robots that turn into cars?”
Guy 1 “Brilliant, start designing the toys”

So when it comes to watch a film about giant robots, well nothing goes better than giant explosions and giant boobs, I mean Megan Fox! I really enjoyed the more global setting and the bigger, badder robots. Overall, it was an amazing film and I really have enjoyed both films.

Following this cinematic experience, I didn’t really do much else during the month. I did though pick up two brilliant photos.

Giant metal Freddy Mercury will ROCK YOUR WORLD

Legs 1, a strip joint for amputee fetishist

So overall, a brilliant and busy month and as such, less status updates. It’s always a good sign when you’re doing too much about to actually comment on it. Here are there statistics.

Number of Updates: 18, that’s almost half as much as previous months.

First Update: “Davyd is looking forward to cinema 2moro and then BLUE OCTOBER ON THURSDAY!!! WOOOOOOO! (Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:47:33 GMT)”

Last Update: “Davyd can't wait to get the N97 (aka the iPhone killer) (Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:42:10 GMT)”

Favourite Update: “Davyd If you ever think "everyone is shit but me" than you're a double bacon shit with fries, Mr Shit-Face (Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:59:27 GMT)” A tough pick again this month, but this brilliant Yatzee quote wins hands down.

365 Da(v)y(d)s – May

2010-01-20T08:44:00.001-08:00

There are two key themes that dominated this month – pokemon and raging at people (and things). I will begin with the evil that is pokemon!

It all started with some left over birthday money and a certain offer on Game.co.uk. Basically they were offering pokemon diamond AND pokemon pearl together for £35. Considering their individual RRP’s were £25 each, that seemed like a good deal. I’d have one myself and give one game to Viv and we could play together
And it started out innocently enough, but soon I was racking up some scary playtime hours. Now this wasn’t a new addiction for me. Several years ago, I got the poke-virus BAD. We’re talking the first six games, all 251 pokemon (including mew), the entire first series of pokemon cards. I had it baaaaad. And now I was relapsing.
But I wasn’t the only one, Viv was also getting into it in a big way, which made me glad. She was more attached to her pokemon than me which was cute. She wasn’t trying to min/max her ‘mons like me, she was keeping the ones she thought were cute or she had grown attached to. It was such a great approach and was pleasantly refreshing to see.

I had another computer crash this month, I can’t even remember how many I’ve had with this system. Luckily when this happened, I had a second computer ready to receive my hard drive so I could back up all my music, videos and documents, so all was not lost. It was a tiresome experience reinstalling everything but it did mean a nice, smooth running computer afterwards. This really made me rage, but not as much as the following:

People smoking in public. These people are douche bags, and doubly so for those who think they’re so fucking special that they can smoke where it’s illegal to do so, such metro stops, on busses etc.
Homeless people who have dogs. I’m sorry but where the fuck do they get these animals? Does one come free with their first stack of big issues? “Hi, here’s 20 copies of Big Issue and your sympathy dog….” I think it’s so cruel that these animals have to be subjected to the same conditions as the homeless that ‘own’ them. Sometimes I want to give a can of dog food to the dog and nothing to the owners.
Knives – I cut my hand pretty badly by trying to be too manly. I was cutting electrical tape, with a box cutter, one handed, while on the phone. It all when badly and I had to bandage my hand with a pair of boxers! Needless to say I now have a sweet scar!

It was around the middle of the month that my two flat mates/close friends; Paul and Aaron moved out. You see, one of my flat mates is frequently a prick. He gets very aggressive, acts like he owns the whole house and barely lets anyone use the living room. This got too much for Paul and Aaron, so they found a nice place really nearby to move into with a third mutual friend. Now this would be a sad situation in anyone's books, but for me it was even more so. You see, apart from Paul and Aaron (henceforth PA), I have no friends in Birmingham. In fact, I’d go to say I have no friends, ie people I share a common interest or interests with and have a mutual exchange of respect with, in the entire west midlands, lol. ‘But why is this a big deal? You said they were moving nearby?” Well it all comes down to the mutual friend they’d be living with, or more accurately, his family. You see, he happens to be the brother of a girl I went out with for a not-inconsequential amount of time, the end of which was quite messy, due to her actions. Now this was many years ago and I couldn’t give a damn about what he or his sister thinks, I’d go hang with PA anyway. The problem would be that if they were handing out awards for maturity and consideration, I doubt this girl would even be entered into the nominations ¬¬ Basically I was banned from even coming over to say hi if she was there, something I could not, and still cannot, comprehend, seeing as it was so long in the past, why would it be a deal? Ah, never mind, I was sure that me and PA would still get to hang out (and if you keep reading the blog, you’ll find out that we did. See, happy ending!)

Towards the end of the month, I headed down to Guildford to help my Vivvy get back from uni. And this is were the fun pictures come in.
You see, there is something important you should ALWAYS remember: Never fall asleep in the same room as people who played Buckaroo as a kid!

Ooh, good score so far

Lets Get Serious

Ooooooh, how high CAN we go?

Not any higher apparently. Lol

Seeing as this was the end of semester (and the year) for Viv, everyone was getting excited and there was a lot of drinking. Well, a lot more drinking. And some of it was even at parties.

The end of my time at Guildford was truly epic. We went out onto the beautiful area by the lake, started drinking, and kept drinking ALMOST ALL NIGHT! There was even an all night music performance!

The next day, we made the slightly hung over journey back to Wolverhampton. And so would begin me and Viv’s first full summer as a couple ^_^

Number of Updates: 32 (I seem to averaging this number)

First Update: “Davyd is loving pokemon diamond. takes me back! (Fri, 01 May 2009 15:15:19 GMT)”

Last Update: “Davyd has his Vivvy back in brum! Shame I have to work today tho (Sun, 31 May 2009 06:54:25 GMT)”

Favourite Update: Okay, straight up disclaimer, I don’t have 1 single favourite for this month, so I’m having 3! Ha!

“Davyd In america everybody wants to be the best, and if they can't be the best, then they make some fucking shit up to be the best at (wiki Cupstacking) (Sun, 03 May 2009 17:09:39 GMT)”
“Davyd It should be legal to squirt smokers in the face with super soakers (Sat, 09 May 2009 07:26:56 GMT)”
“Davyd rose mcgowen, as a one legged stripper, with a machine gun for a leg......guess the film (Wed, 20 May 2009 20:46:20 GMT)”

And that is the month of the May! Woooo

365 Da(v)y(d)s – April

2010-01-11T09:14:00.001-08:00

April, otherwise known as Davetober (at least to me) is the month where everyone cool commemorates my monumental birth! Combined with the fact Viv and I celebrate our anniversary on the third of this month, it is pretty much a given that this fact would make April ‘09 a busy and eventful month. Well let us see, shall we?

I started the month playing what most would say is my favourite game; Rock Band 2! I do love this game, simply for it’s replay value. The constant dlc means that game constantly grows and expands. I love waiting for Friday to come around to find out if a song I love is going to be available on my favourite game.

For mine and Viv’s anniversary, we decided to have a nice, hand cooked three course meal. It was a most delicious success! For our starter, we had Thai salmon fish cakes with rocket salad. This started my love of Thai red curry paste as a wonder-ingredient.
For our main course, we had rare rump steak with breaded mushrooms and cheesy-mash potato. The steak wasn’t the best cut seeing as we got a slightly incompetent butcher, but as a meal, it was amazing.
For the desert, we had pecan brownies a la mode! (i.e. with ice cream) I love the brownie recipe that I used for this because it produces beautifully gooey brownies with crunchy outsides! We made a fair bit of brownies, but they were all gone by the end of the night!

One of the amazing random things that happened when we all went into Wolverhampton. There were FUCKING OWLS!

Fluffy white barn owl! Viv wanted to take him home!

Three days later, I heard news that almost literally blew my mind! Blue October were playing in Birmingham Carling Academy later in the year. I was so excited that I even started hyperventilating a little and came running down the stairs!
The following day I was up stupidly early, took the metro into Birmingham from Wolverhampton and bought myself two tickets for me and Viv to see my favourite band on the 4th of June.

As well as purchasing tickets for Blue October, we decided to do some window (and possibly real) shopping. We had a lot of fun as these photo’s are testament to.

Viv found a hat that, in her own words ‘makes me look like a pink jellyfish”

Oh yea, I’m so cool

Viv freaking loves giant tea cup!

Am I doing it right?

We even found a place that does Japanese style photo stickers! And in the top right is our Blue October Tickets!

While out and about, we visited Urban Outfitters, a store that in my opinion, tries far too hard to be hip and alternative, and just seems fake. Their worst flaw is that everything is OVERpriced! I’ve seen headphones that are £30 in Dixons being sold for £50 and £10 necklaces for £20. But this is what made me rage the most. I was almost incandescent with tangible WTF-ery

In case you can’t quite make it out, that price tag says £50! That’s £50 for a watch that looks exactly like the kind you can get out of £1 toy vending machines in supermarkets. I spent about 5 minutes looking at trying to decipher what made it worth £50, but I failed. Sure, it had an alarm and told the time and pretty much the standard features found on watches 1/10 the price, but nothing else. It didn’t set the time automatically by radio. It didn’t have a pulse monitor or gps for sport tracking. It didn’t have Bluetooth (Bluetooth always makes things better). I just couldn’t figure it out. It wasn’t even stylish. I mean, if it WAS in fashion to wear watches like this, why by fake overpriced ones? Why not buy the real naff watch for a literal fraction? Davyd’s brain hurts!
Overpriced watches aside, me and Viv had an awesome time in town

There was more rock band playing as the month progressed towards my birthday, and as it did, I grew more and more ambivalent towards the idea of celebrating. This was partly due to the fact I found no significance in my 23rd birthday and partly due to the fact I felt the actual fact it was my birthday was being sidelined. I know this sounds selfish but everyone was like “oh, it’ll be a great chance for you to do this” or “I can pick this up and do this”. I am aware of how selfish this sounds, but I didn’t just want people to sit around and praise me, I wanted people simply to come together with only the intention of having a good time, not thinking about running errands and the like.

In the end though, things worked out well for everyone I think. I had a quiet day which was what I was more hoping for to be honest. I believe everyone is allowed to throw one birthday wobbly every once in a while, and that was mine.
I spent my birthday with Viv at her place and there was cake. Not just any cake, but Chinese cream and fruit cake, the best cake in the world IMHO. For lunch we had fish and chips, with me having a really nice fishcake! It was a nice day in the end.

Nom Nom Nom Nom cake, it even has my name in on it!

I want it now!

I need no spoon!

I even shared some!

Three days later, me, Viv, Vince and Wessie decided we’d try something amazing and possibly suicidal. We would attempt the get the Rock Band 2 achievement ‘Bladder of Steel’.
For those of you who haven’t heard of this achievement, I shall explain for you. Rock Band 2 features something called the ‘Endless Set list’. While not actually endless, it does involve playing every song that comes on the Rock Band 2 disc. That is 84 songs ranging in difficulty from “playable on expert with your eyes close” to “on easy but is still raping my fingers”. There is an achievement for completing this, depending on the difficulty at which you do it; Silver Artist for Medium, Gold Artist for Hard and Platinum Artist for Expert. Bladder of Steel takes this and turns it up to eleven! You must do the endless set list, on an difficulty thankfully, but you cannot take any breaks at all! No pausing, no pressing the Xbox guide button, no disconnecting instruments, no having instruments run out of battery, no failing. If you do anything that interrupts the continuous set list, you fail the achievement. That’s over 6 consecutive hours of fake plastic rocking out. This would be epic. This would be hard! And so began the first attempt!

And we failed a song! In the first 20! OMG. I threw a big tweeted wobbly, but thanks due to the awesomeness of Viv and her family, we attempted again.

And failed again. This time a guide button got accidentally pressed, meaning we wouldn’t get the achievement. But seeing as a couple of us were hyped on energy drinks, we went for a third try.

And failed for a third time, due to me striking the drum kit guide button with a drumstick. It was at this point, realising we wouldn’t finished until midnight if we restarted here, that maybe we should leave it for another time. It was probably for the best as there’s a good chance it would’ve been very bad for our health! Lol!

Later that day, I came to a funny revelation. My dad had actually forgotten my birthday. Now I’m going to cut him some slack with this because my Gran was very ill with cancer at the time, and in all fairness, it took me a week to realise that he had forgotten, so we’ll call that even.

The next day, Viv went home and I was left all lonely with work to do. So I did what anyone would do, I sat down with some ice cream and Jack Daniels and got to work. This proved to be a surprisingly productive combination and within a week and half I had all my work done and submitted! There was some Rock Band 2, computer crashes, printer smudges and even a bobble head of Viv in the intervening time, but it all got done.

Overall I think April was really good looking back on it. I do regret being so immature with regards to my birthday, but we’ll forget about that. Shall we look at some statistics?

Number of Updates: 33 (That’s more than 1 a day)

First Update: “Davyd is playing ROCK BAND 2 (Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:02:58 GMT)”

Last Update: “Davyd HAS HANDED IN EVERY BIT OF WORK! (Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:39:50 GMT)”

Favourite Update: “Davyd "chinese people don't dunk their babies in water unless they're making soup out of them!" - Viv's responce to being asked if she's been baptised (Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:30:12 GMT)”
That is an actual quote and how could it NOT be my favourite for the month? There were some close contenders but this one wins out!

365 Da(v)y(d)s - March

2010-01-08T11:12:00.001-08:00

This month started off with me feeding my current SF IV addiction, starting with my love of the Hadouken! I don’t know why I developed such an adoration for this game over other beat ‘em ups, but needless to say, I was hooked (I’m really looking forward to to Super Street Fighter IV in spring 2010).
At the start of this month was the release of Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X, an arcade/sim combat flight game from the Tom Clancy series. Technically the game was a sequel to the 2008 title Tom Clancy’s EndWar which was a 80% voice controlled RTS game. H.A.W.X toned down the focus on voice control, using for key functions such as weapon switching, missile launching and activating the HUD guidance system know as ECS. It was a very fun and fast game, featuring an ‘assistance off’ mode which enables intentional (and unintentional) stalling of your craft.
I found this game really fun and addictive, especially the online multiplayer which has a system of weapon and plane unlocks. The dog fights could get really hectic and overall, it was a good game for the month of march.

A few days after getting HAWX (I’m dropping the full stops), I headed off to Vivs for some love and attention, and to go her chemistry society ball. It was a most awesome chance to doll ourselves up and have some posh nosh.

Viv looking stunning as usual

I look equal parts surprised and menacing

I was only down for a few days, which makes the fact that I took my Xbox all the way there all the more ridiculous! I almost got Will addicted to HAWX!

After coming back to Birmingham, I settled down to do some uni work while enjoying the new Blue October album, Approaching Normal. Looking back now, I cannot understand why I was so apprehensive that it would be a good album. Currently it’s my most listened to album in my whole music collection.

It was also in this month that I got my first internet connection that was ALL MINE, MWHAHAHAHA! I did share it with one other flat mate, simply because I couldn’t be bothered to make up a reason why not. Looking back I really should have, seeing as how frequently he slowed it down by downloading porn. What was worse was when he would constantly ask me why the porn was slow downloading. I was not impressed so eventually I changed the password and kept him off!

I finally got round to some serious guitar practise. I had managed to procure off my mum a nice acoustic guitar, which I had finally figured out how to tune. You see, the problem is that I’m tone deaf, so tuning by ear is a real pain. But using a piece of PC software that records and analyses the string you play using your pc’s microphone, I was able to tune it properly, and thus begin so practise. I actually practised to the point my fingertips stung. Come on those guitarists callous’.

Only ten days after coming back from Viv’s, I was on my way back. I was understandably annoyed that while trying to sleep in the quiet zone of the train, an area I had specifically booked, I was being kept awake by a child that could only be described as noisy as sin! Why anyone would bring a winey child into the quiet zone I do not know. ‘Oh, I wanted a quiet place for my baby to sleep, but if he doesn’t sleep and decides to cry instead, well fuck everyone else!’

The highlight of this month had to be the epic phail on my part in booking the return ticket to bring Viv back to Wolverhampton. You see, there are two routes from Guildford to Wolverhampton. Either you change at Reading, or you go through London. Guess what I did? I bought Viv a single via the London Route, but my return ticket was via Reading. We didn’t realise that we were travelling through London until we actually crossed the Thames. I spent the next few hours panicking that I’d get my ticket checked and get a huge fine. Fortunately for me, no one checked my ticket and we made into the travel west midlands railcard zone with no trouble. I have never been so paranoid and nervous in my life! Lol.

Overall I have to say this was a busy little month. Travelling to and from Guildford twice (that’s almost 400 miles travelling overall) and managing to take the exactly wrong train is lol-worthy. A good month me thinks. Now for the science part!

Number of Status Updates: 24

First Update: “Davyd HADOKEN!!!!! (Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:11:34 GMT)”

Last Update: “Davyd half 6 ish fine, we can meet you at new street, pick up some drinkies then head back? (Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:37:57 GMT)”
This one makes no sense at all. Maybe I tweeted something by mistake. lol

Favourite Update: “Davyd wasn't supposed to get a train through london. Well crossing the thames might be a giveaway that i've got the wrong train. (Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:46:05 GMT)”
Kinda says it all, doesn’t it? lol!

365 Da(v)y(d)s - Febuary

2010-01-05T09:18:00.001-08:00

Well I have to say, February was one of my most eventful months and probably one of the best. The month got off to a great start with some most awesome snow! Now in my infinite wisdom, I didn’t photograph any of it, but I assure you, it was worth of this status update:

“Davyd has snowsnowsnowsnowsnow (Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:40:53 GMT)”

The following few days of Feb were a mixed bag. I dyed my hair a nice mix of red and blue/black which I have to say looked quite good (oh, those days before I shaved my head). But following that day, my computer decided to through another EPIC wobbly. Starting with problems with internet explorer, which I personally have never experienced before, things just went down hill :( But I had more important things on my mind than unstable computer tantrums. I was going to see my Viv! And see her I did, for we had most epic Valentines Day plans; we were going to London!

I arrived at Viv’s dorm on the 11th of Feb, Xbox in tow. We wanted to catch up on some Left4Dead and I wanted to show her Tom Clancy’s HAWX. HAWX went down well with Will and he was suitably distracted!

Before our trip out for valentines, me, Viv and Anne went into town where Anne found something like, hard, made of metal and covered in bumps that she found absolutely amazing!

I think if they actually made a sex toy in the style of a Dalek, Anne would own it regardless! They could call it a DilDalek!

After this little diversion (I think Anne may have bought a book between fondling the poor things plunger) we headed off to some clothes shop, I think New Look. This is where Viv found the only hat I’ve ever seen her like!

It looks so good on her, so cute! Following this amazing purchase, we all headed home

The next day me and Viv went to scavenge for food. We came across a place we had never been before; Wagamama! Here we ate noodles and drank peach tea! Amazing!

After we were sated, we ventured back to the university, where the evening held more food, some work, and more Xbox (Left4Dead is a great distraction)

The next day was the big day! V-day! London here we come!

It was quite an experience for me seeing as I had never really been round London properly before, only ever on school trips etc! So we just went wild! We did museums, the Trocadero, Forbidden Planet, manga stores and CAMDEN FUCKING MARKET! That was where Viv bought me my favourite jacket EVAR!!! I had crab claws and we saw loads of cool gothic/alternative stalls. It was amazing

OMG LONDONING

Awesome London Escalator (I was easily impressed)

In Tokyo Toys I made Viv wear silly hats!

Big Spider at the Tate Modern!

Picadilly CIrcus
(pretty crappy circus if you ask me, not even any clowns)

Me sporting the new jacket Viv got me! Woo

A few days later, while cooking, this guy was born:

Happy potato is happy!

Following Valentines day, me and Viv prepared to head back to Wolverhampton. There was a pleasant convergence of events as Viv had a reading week at the same time as her mums birthday, so we headed back to celebrate in the best possible way, with food!

We went to Around the World in 80 Dishes, a well priced restaurant that serves dishes from India, China, America, Italy and Mexico, all of which was all you can eat! Me and Viv had been before and knew that due to how salty the food could be (to make you buy more drinks) that we should steer clear of the lasagne! But that didn’t stop Viv from eating so much that she needed to ‘purge’. Even Viv can eat too much!

Three Lee’s and a Pang on the way to EAT!

Viv with sexy black hair enjoying her meal.

After the meal, we all headed (very slowly) home, where more food awaited, in the form of the best type of cake ever. CHINESE CREAM CAKE OMG OM NOM NOM NOM!

They were all telling me to hurry up with the damn photo so they could eat the cake!

That was the end of a very fun day! The next day we were planning to go to Telford so Viv’s younger sister Vinki could go to a craft fair. I’m fairly ambivalent to craft stuff so I was up for it, something different.
When we arrived, me and Viv immediately thought something was weird when we saw a girl dressed as a fairy heading into the exhibition centre. Weird, but maybe she always goes to craft fairs in fancy dress. Then we saw someone dressed as Link, and then a Narutard! Me and Viv looked at each other, both thinking the same thing, and I said it “If there’s an anime convention going on, we are SO FUCKING GOING!”
And omg there was! It was the MCM midlands anime expo, which while not an amazingly huge event, was still a brilliant anime convention with a Tardis, the DeLorian from back to the future and loads of anime, manga and video game stalls. Viv even bought me an Evangelion NERV mug! Unfortunately I didn’t have my phone with me as the battery had died so we couldn’t get any photos, but it was still awesome and there were many good costumes, my favourite being Chell from Portal!

After spending many hours at the convention and meeting back up with Vinki and Lychi (my nickname for Viv’s mum) we decided to head into the town centre in order to do some shopping. This is where I made a purchase that my thumbs would hate me for! STREET FIGHTER IV!!! I had been thinking about getting it, as I’ve always preferred the street fighter series over other beat ‘em ups, perhaps with the exception of Super Smash Bros, and when I saw the limited edition cheap in HMV I had to get it.

The next day, we went out and had some dim sum at a really nice resturant in china town in Birmingham. For those of you that don’t know where china town is, let me draw you a map!

It was nice to have a good meal out, because the next day I had to see Viv off home, which I wasn’t happy about, but I knew I’d see her soon!

To console myself, I decided to play some Street Fighter IV. It went from a short play to TWENTY TWO CONSECUTIVE HOURS OMG! It took me 18 hours alone to beat the end boss. By the end of it I literally had blisters on me fingers!

February was definitely MOST AWESOME, and here are a few statistics from said month.

Number of Status Updates: 28 (average of 1 per day!)

First Update: “Davyd has snowsnowsnowsnowsnow (Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:40:53 GMT)”

Last Update: “Davyd dreams of making his own SF IV arcade stick, from sanwa parts and steel, and brawn! (Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:59:20 GMT)”

Favourite Update: “Davyd is disgusted at himself for playing Street Fighter IV for TWENTY TWO HOURS! (Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:01:45 GMT)”
I really can’t believe I let myself commit that much consecutive time to one game, to the point of actually injuring myself!

365 Da(v)y(d)s - January

2010-01-04T15:05:00.001-08:00

Okay, well the obvious starting point would be ‘what were my new years resolutions’? Well, this can answered with my first ever update of the year:

“Davyd is going to eat healthy, learn catnoses [sic] and develop his AR game! (Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:58:42 GMT)

Now, I only managed one of these three, which was eating more healthy. I now enjoy more fish, more veg, less sugar and I also watch my calories, which has helped so much. Unfortunately, I haven’t mastered CATonese, nor Cantonese neither. The AR (augmented reality) game plan fizzled out early on for two reasons. Firstly, my work load meant I only had time for one director project, my uni assignment. Secondly, all the AR plug-ins and tools for director suck ass! But I’m very glad that I kept to the important one.

Talking of food, it was in this month that me and Viv made an epic trip to woktastic in Birmingham, a sushi bar with real conveyor belt. What lured us in was the all you can eat for £10 a head. We set ourselves a challenge to each enough to make it £1 a bowl.

Viv makes a good start

I’m a dab hand with chopsticks

£20 and two full bellies later, twenty empty bowls.

In terms of video games, the big hitters keeping my Xbox warm were rock band 2, CoD 4 and Mirrors Edge. I really enjoyed mirrors edge and I think it gets unfairly trashed because people can’t appreciate that it was a new IP that tried to innovate, even thought the usual game ‘polish’ suffered.

The high and low point of this month was going with down to Guildford. It was a high because we got to spend time together seeing all of her friends and having some catch up fun, but a down because I had to say good bye to her at the end of it. There was a spontaneous trip to visit Viv in the middle of month which was really nice.

I also celebrated my mums birthday on the 14th at a VERY posh Italian restaurant in Coventry. I say posh because the menu was DAMN expensive (but tasty)

One major downer for the month was my computer crashing and me having to recover every file and reinstall it all. This wouldn’t be the last time this happened, but in the end, the damage was minimal and it only took me a short while to fix it all, as a rather triumphant update will testify:

“Davyd has fixed his entire computer in less than 4 hours! Record time! Woo! (Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:45:22 GMT)”

Overall, it wasn’t too bad a start for the year of ‘09. Here are some statistics for the month:

Number of Status Updates: 17

First Update: “Davyd is going to eat healthy, learn catonese and develop his AR Game! (Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:58:42 GMT)”

Last Update: “Davyd is playing Rock Band 2 (Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:03:53 GMT)”

Favourite Update: “Davyd is going to eat healthy, learn catonese and develop his AR Game! (Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:58:42 GMT)”
- Gotta love the lol-worthy spelling mistakes. Me confusing Viv’s second language with the dialect of cats!

365 Da(v)y(d)s - Introduction

2010-01-04T14:39:00.001-08:00

On the recommendation of my good friend Charles “Chipper” Grey, who shall remain nameless, I have been prompted to produce my own account of my ups and downs, highs and lows of the last year, the year that most will agree, was most probably, 2009. Now this seemed like a really good idea, so I thought ‘damn the torpedoes’ and here we go. But then I hit a problem….

You see, I have an appalling memory for all but the most important events. My brain prefers facts and figures rather than little, insignificant things like whether or not I’ve already told you this joke (I haven’t, even if you say I have, and if you already know the punch line then you must’ve heard it from someone else). I can still remember the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle from my first year physics degree five years ago, but I honestly couldn’t tell you what I had for dinner the day before yesterday. This is a problem. The solution? Facebook status history!

You see, there’s a useful little facebook app, called Status History, that pulls up all your status’ that facebook has archived for you, in a nice chronological list, either newest to oldest of visa versa. I pulled up this list, selected all the 2009 updates, sorted them into a new page per start of a month and looked back at my life. Combine this with my photos that my phone cleverly folders by month, and I have a digital history of my last year.

There will be thirteen posts in all. One for each month, starting with January, which I know is very conventional, but is quite the vogue, and finishing with December, which is quite shocking considering August was being hyped as the new December. Each post will feature various facts and figures, as well as a photo or two. Oh the fun to be had. The final, thirteenth post will be a best of sorts. With any luck this will turn out well and get me on track for one of my twenty new years resolutions, which is to blog more! Here we go ladies and gentlemen.

Left 4 Dead 2? More Like Left 4 Dead WOOOOO, amirite?

2009-12-27T06:38:00.001-08:00

For my secular gift giving annual occurrence day, I was lucky enough to be given a shiny new copy of Left 4 Dead 2, the sequel to, surprise surprise, Left 4 Dead. There wasn’t a lot of love for this game seeing as Valve managed to release it approximately a year after the original, very quick turn around for a game. As such, people presumed that the new content could simple have been released as a patch or DLC, rather than a whole game. Even once people started playing it, they claimed that the changes made to the game weren’t deserving of a whole new disc, that it felt like a rushed expansion, not a whole game. To those people, I cry from the hills “BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT!” and this is why.

The New Special Infected: In addition to the existing rosters of the hunter, smoker, boomer, tank and witch, three new special infected join the line up. There’s the incredible fast and very disruptive charger. As his name implies, he charges through the survivors, knocking them aside and grabbing one of them in the process, who he’ll proceed to to smash into the ground. Then you have the jockey, a rather infuriating spec-infec who jumps onto a survivor, then rides them about like a cheap whore on speed. This can often lead to you being corralled into either a hoard of infected or even worse, into a boomer or spitter. The spitter is either the sister, or worse, girlfriend, of the boomer. As her name implies, she spits (she defo doesn’t swallow). And her spit happens to be rather corrosive persistent acid that can be used as a denial of ground attack. In addition to these three newcomers, the witch now wanders around during the day (oh joy) and some of the classic spec-infec now have new skins more suitable of the deep south.
Speaking of deep south, that brings me to the new levels and the new story, which you can actually call a story! Unlike L4D where each campaign was styled like a zombie B-movie, with only the vaguest of plot threads connecting them, L4D2 has an actual story with connection between campaigns and reoccurring characters. The levels are also very beautiful, featuring day and night cycles, weather and dynamic routes controlled by the improved AI.
The biggest improvement is the portfolio of weapons. In the first game, there was a very limited selection of armaments, 9 in total (staring shotgun, machine gun and pistol, upgrade shotgun, machine gun, hunting rifle, second pistol, moltov and pipe bomb). In L4D2 I have actually not been able to count the weapons. There are multiple types of each class plus a new throw able, boomer bile, which makes infected turn on each other. There’s also the adrenaline (increases speed and ability to shake off infected), incendiary and explosive ammo (which you deploy so other survivors can upgrade their weapons with new ammo) a grenade launcher, and best of all, MELEE WEAPONS!!!!
Melee weapons are the best new feature of the game! I cannot convey how much fun they are! I was cackling with joy as I decapitated zombies with a katana and making chainsaw noises as I sliced and diced (vading ding ding ding [chainsaw noise]) There are eight melee weapons in total; cricket bat, machete, guitar, chainsaw, katana, crowbar, fire axe and police baton. If you’re lucky enough to get the code from Game (in the UK) you’ll also have the limited edition baseball bat (but this doesn’t count to the use all melee weapon achievement). I love the fact each weapon has its own charm, The katana and machete both slice and dice, separating undead from undead body. The cricket bat is a nice little tip of the hat to Shaun of the Dead and the chainsaw is just too much fun to explain.
Then you have the new survivors, new game mode and loads of immersive little features and ways of playing through the campaign. Gone is the method of run and gun, run and gun, stand and gun. You now have to collect items, turn off alarms, run gauntlets and basically play a much more realistic zombie apocalypse.

Well, that’s the end of my love for Left 4 Dead 2, all you people who trash talk it, you fucking phail! Peace! Lulz

My Dream Facebook/Twitter App

2009-12-25T13:01:00.001-08:00

I love using facebook and twitter from my mobile phone. Since I got an unlimited data plan, I’ve been tweeting everywhere, from bed, from the toilet, from a car, everywhere. But there is a common problem; none of the twitter apps I’ve used, or even any I’ve seen, are perfect, lol. There are some features I’d love to see.

Firstly, cross-swiping would be nice. Many twitter apps feature side by side screens for time line, mentions, direct messages etc. I would like to see the ability to make a horizontal left the right or right to left swipe gesture, in order to transition between those screens.

Second, I’d love decent picture support. Not just twitpic, but a system by which I upload a photo, select which service to upload to (twitpic, flickr, facebook) and for facebook upload, which album and tags, not a mobile upload folder. After you select the service, you can choose to make a tweet about uploading the picture (either using a twitpic address or a tinyurl for other services).

My third dream feature would be automatic url reduction. You enter a full url, either in facebook or twitter, then the app detects the url and automatically converts it to a tinyurl address.

Geotagging and geotweeting integration would be great as that is a feature I’ve been dying to explore. It would be nice to be able to geotag a photo when uploading so other people can see where I took it, as well as the same for tweets. It would be useful to be able make a tweet about the quality of a restaurant and have the tweet contain the location of the eatery in question.

A Rant About Christmas

2009-12-22T03:57:00.000-08:00

But first, a disclaimer. As a general rule, I love christmas. I've had my depressing festive periods in the past, as has everyone, but usually it rocks, especially last year.
Second Disclaimer, I am not prejudice against any form of religious denomination........But I am getting sick to death of christians at christmas!

Let me explain with some detail about the crux of my argument. Firstly, I am not debating the validity of the hypothesis that a child called, or later known as, Jesus, was born. Whether or not he was the offspring (and yet simultaneously the same entity as) and arbitrary deity is a discussion for another day. But Jesus WAS NOT BORN IN DECEMBER!!!! He was not born in winter, he was born in spring/summer. Common sense would dictate that two thousand years ago, a child born in the winter in the middle east would probably die. Christmas would have originally been celebrated in the middle of the year. But why, you may ask, do we celebrate it in December, on the 25th? Well, it was because the christians decided to do something very sneaky, they decided to cash in on a much more popular PAGAN festival, one known as Yule (and many other names)

Yule falls on the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, which by the Gregorian Calender, is the 21st of December. Some traditions of Yule included:

Bringing an evergreen tree into the home so that the life it has through the cold winter months may be passed onto to the household
Decorating the tree so that the tree nymphs won't be upset for being disturbed.
Placing candles on the tree to keep said nymphs warm
Stringing up mistletoe and ivy in honour of the Horned God (the male aspect of the bi-gendered god/goddess, NOT THE DEVIL). The Horned God rules over autumn/winter, then dies and is reborn as the Goddess for spring/summer.
Honouring the image of the Robin as a messenger of the Horned God
Taking the last log from the fire and keeping it for next year so there will always be fire wood, a 'Yule Log' you might say.

These all sound mighty familiar don't they? That's because 99% of 'Christ'mas is taken from Yule. I am not for one second arguing for a paganisation or secularisation of xmas, I don't mind christians thinking it's all their idea. What I do mind though is people making christmas ALL ABOUT CHRISTIANITY. I was in the bullring, watching some bangra dancers performing for a children's charity. They weren't doing it for christmas, they were taking advantage of the christmas shopping. But I heard one bigot say "Christmas is about Christians" and this got me so angry. Also on facebook, I've seen groups called "Lets put the Chirst back into Christmas" I for one thought that Christmas was about peace, love and good will to ALL men, whether they're black, white, yellow, christian, Hindu, Pagan, Wicca, Muslim or atheist. Yes, maybe other faiths are to blame for getting 'offended' at 'christian' imagery (Quick list of all the typical christian imagery:

Star (kinda, stars are also an import pagan imagery as there is the winter star, believed to be the sign of the Horned God)
Nativity Scene (in all fairness, biggest inaccuracy about xmas, as the bible never says Jesus was born in a stable or anywhere near animals.
Even the 'angel' on the tree is originally a fairy, a poppet of a tree nymph.

So really, it's more that people are just trying to homogenise everything and the knee jerk reaction is to become bigoted. It's two terrible extremes and I wish everyone would SHUT THE FUCK UP and maybe just go for second "Well, thanks pagans for giving us the christmas we have today"

GamerPost #03 Uncomfortable Choices

2009-11-10T03:13:00.001-08:00

As I look at those often mean little numbers in the bottom right of my left display, sitting happily at the end of my task bar, they tell me that it is now 10:42 am. Now, to me, that’s pretty offensive as it stands, because I am normally not up before 11 on a day off university (I prefer to start late, work late). But this morning it’s almost a little worse, for I have been up since 7:20am! Why, you may ask, well it’s a bizarre little story.

I, as a man who enjoys the little things, like a warm duvet, a soft pillow, and the feel of being asleep, do not have the time for midnight launches. The same can be said for supermarket chain Sainsbury's, who not having 24 hour store opening, decided on another, more appealing way to drawing in the customers to purchase the latest Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare 2 (Technically Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2, think Final Fantasy X 2). They would be selling the game, RRP £55, for cheap. How cheap you ask? Not for £45, not for £35 but for £26! Let me put that into perspective, you can still buy Modern Warfare 1 for £30 new, or £27 pre-owned (Play.com, GAME.co.uk). That’s right, you can buy the most anticipated game of the year for CHEAPER than it’s 2 year old predecessor.

So, last night as I was going to sleep, I was debating whether to make the purchase. I decided to leave it to fate; I would wake up whenever I wake up, call the nearest store and see if they had any left. If they didn’t, no harm, no foul and I save £26. If they did, well I’d get a copy and make a huge saving. Best laid plans of men and mice.

I wake up this morning at 7:20am, feeling disturbingly refreshed (I got an early night last night, before midnight that is) and thought ‘fuck it!’. I through on some clothes (I don’t think they would serve me naked), jumped on the next train, and literally within 20 minutes I was standing out side Sainsbury's at 7:40 in the morning. And even better, I was at the front of a 20 something meters long queue! Win! 20 minutes later the shutters start to rise and I am not kidding, grown men and even a few grown women were scooting under the shutter before it was even 2 meters off the ground. Sainsbury’s was organised, well prepared and well stocked and within 10 minutes, I had my copy.

Now I must comment that something funny did occur as I was queuing. A number of my senior members of the community, whom I will refer to as ‘old codgers’, or something of similar effect, from now on, made some rather disparaging comments about the folly of queuing for a ‘silly game’ that early in the morning. I thought this was rather hypocritical, seeing as they were there equally early to do their shopping. Now I have worked in a supermarket, and these ‘early rises’ are a bizarre bunch. They will be outside a supermarket, up to ten minutes before opening, every week, or in the more extreme circumstances, every DAY, like clockwork to get their paper, fruit and meat etc. It’s as if they’re worried that the stuff we have in stock everyday like clockwork will sell out if they’re not there at 8am sharp. And they called us stupid? Some people.

But yes, back on topic. I’m not going to spoil anything for the game for those who have yet to play it, but I do offer one word of warning, if you are easily offended, disturbed or upset, you may want to enable the option to skip the disturbing content, if only as a fail-safe. This is for one reason; at a point early on in the game, you kill civilians, and a lot of them. I’m not talking insurgents dressed as civilians, or even civilian law enforcement. You kill unarmed, non-combatant civilians who run screaming for their lives. This was a particularly upsetting moment for me, if only because the realisation came after I had started pulling the trigger.
As many of my fellow first person shooter fans out there will agree, if you’re playing a game and the AI starts shooting, you automatically start shooting the same targets. This is because the AI is supposed to know what it’s doing. It’s programmed to advance the plot, or keep the heat off you so you can do so. Now in the above situation, I wouldn’t be lying if I said I simply started shooting because the AI was doing so. A few seconds later I realised who I was shooting at, and it hit me. At one point I actually fell back to the rear of the group, shooting those who were already shot and dying, if only to put them out of their misery. I even felt the slightest bit nauseous. But it did make me think. Not to ruin the plot, but this scene revolved around one government doing (or allowing) something terrible for a greater good (in theory). And for a few seconds afterwards, I sat and thought “you know, I wouldn’t be surprised if something similar hasn’t happened before”. And it’s at that moment, when you have those thoughts, that you lose another little piece of your faith in humanity. I don’t begrudge Infinity Ward for inserting the scene. They could’ve made it a cut scene and everyone who watched it would be all “oooh, those evil terrorists, lets go get them, Hoo Haa!”. But no, IW made us play it, and they made us think, and feel, and (I really hope) feel shit about it. Because the world is full of people, people in power, who make the hard choices, that have terrible consequences, for that fantastic ideal of 'the greater good’.

That’s all I really wanted to say. Thank you for reading this little post. Thank you Infinity Ward for making me think. And thank you Activision (the games publishers) for doing this.

GamerPost #02 The Demo Edition

2009-11-08T10:52:00.000-08:00

Okay, this week I finally got Xbox live gold back on for my gamertag (Davedamon for those who want to know) and can you guess one of the first things I did? (No, it wasn’t insult some 12 year old American kids sexuality and/or mother). I went demo downloading! Three demos in fact. And here they are!

Ghostbusters: The Game
This just isn’t a game, it’s an interactive sequel to the film series! Yes, this is the blessed Ghostbusters 3, featuring all the voices including Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, and Ernie Hudson. It’s all their, the humour, the familiar ghost busting technology (and you can cross the stream, or not!). Graphically it’s engaging and realistic, but with a subtle undertone of stylizing. I do now want the full game, and as such it has gone on my Christmas wish list ^_^

Brütal Legend
Brütal Legend (umlauts compulsory) is basically Jack Black – The Game. And that’s not a bad thing. I couldn’t get a good bead on the gameplay from the demo, seeing as it’s supposedly an action RTS, but all I got from the demo is action.
The important part is the humour. Even the demo was packed to the brim with metal references, witty one liners and quotes a plenty (“DECAPITATION!!!! Now to teach of the thing we call ‘French kissing’). Again, this deservedly earns a place on my wish list, and I hope I get to metal it up with Eddy Riggs this festive period.

Left4Dead 2
Now anyone who has read my previous post on zombies will understand why I’m so excited about this game. Take the original Left4Dead (which is AMAZING) and add the following

New special infected such as the Spitter and Jockey
Melee weapons (chainsaw doesn’t do it for you? How about an axe, or a katana, or a FREAKING ELECTRIC GUITAR!)
Uncommon common infected, including fire proof hazmat and bullet proof SWAT zombies and clown zombies
A new plot and 4 new survivors

This game basically has everything that made the original great and then some. I can see me and Viv sinking many an hour into this baby and it’s the only demo to stay on my system until I get the full title.

So, that’s really all for now.

Wait, LOOK OUT!

BOOMER!

FilmPost #02 New Moon Soundtrack – No Blue October?

2009-11-08T10:19:00.001-08:00

Okay, first things first, disclaimer! I am NOT a Twilight fan. I read the books when I used to work at WH Smiths because they were free and I had read all the Discworld and Warhammer 40K novels. That and there was so much hype at the time. I’m not going to do a book review here, but there weren’t that impressive and it was one of the few books where I hated the lead character so much.

But the important thing is that I’m a HUGE Blue October fan (as in all the albums, signed album and poster, met the band and seen them live 3 times, including twice in the same tour). What, you may ask, does this have to do with Twilight? Well, specifically it is regarding New Moon, the second book in the saga which is very soon coming out in cinemas.

You see, Stephanie Mayer is, like myself and many other people with good taste, a Blue October fan. In fact, the lead singer Justin Furstenfield did an acoustic tour with Stephanie to promote the last book, Breaking Dawn. It was during this tour, well before even the first film came out, the Stephanie stated that while she was writing New Moon, a particular Blue October song, Hate Me, was in her mind when she writing the scene where Edward, the most annoying vampire ever, leaves Bella, the most annoying character ever, full stop.

Now I must explain these two components; the song and scene in the book. I’ll start with the book first. The scene in question features Edward leaving Bella to go to Italy because he believes that being around her, what with the desire to suck….her blood…would be dangerous for her (will ignore the fact that during the only scene in the book so far where a vampire tries to drink her blood, it’s actually Edward who protects her). He tries to get her to forget about him, stop loving him, do anything to move on (I know, so emo, if it wouldn’t be so completely redundant, I’d say for him to just get it over with and slit his wrists)

Now this scene was written with the song Hate Me, by Blue, in mind. The song tells of a guy, possible Justin himself, who even though being in love with a woman, wants her to hate him enough not to love him back. (“Hate me today, hate me tomorrow, hate me for all the things I didn’t do for you) This way, she can leave him so she doesn’t have to suffer their destructive relationship (“an ounce of peace is all that I want for you, will you never call again”). Even though he knows this is for the best, it still tears him apart (“I have to block out thoughts of you so I don’t loose my head”). Now this song is incredibly powerful and emotive, possibly what I’d call an anti-love song. Not a song about hate, but a song about love that is totally and utterly depressing.

Now, although the song is quite dark and mature, it was clearly the source of inspiration for the key scene in the book, and now film, and as such I was incredible disappointed that it won’t be making the sound track for the film in any shape or form. This is not because I plan on purchasing or even downloading said soundtrack. Instead, it would be great to see Blue October getting more publicity, even on a sound track for an annoying tweeny film.

Now this isn’t all. There’s even another song that is just as appropriate, instead for another character, Jacob, who is in love with Bella as well (I don’t get it, she’s an annoying, whiney little cow). This premise is simple, the song is called Should Be Loved and is about just that, a guy who is suffering from unrequited love even though he’s given everything to this girl (“I should be loved by you, that I know is true, I can’t breath when you’re around”)

They could even put it on the album like this:

2. Hate Me (Edwards Song)
5. Should Be Loved (Jacobs Song)

These brilliant bands need their mainstream break. I don’t believe that a great artist should be your little secret, a private members club. If you love a band, if you love their music, you should do all you can to share it, get it out there.

End of rant!

Why I Love the Undead

2009-11-08T09:54:00.001-08:00

Halloween has come and gone, and so have the various monsters and fantastic creatures. There were werewolves, pirates, ninjas, mad scientists and (thanks to Twilight) plenty of vampires, groan. But I will always have a special place in my heart for the walking undead, the living impaired, the flesh eating hoard. You see, I love me some zombies.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking necrophilia. I don’t want to be a zombie, or have a zombie girlfriend or even have one of my friends become a zombie. To be more precise, I love KILLING zombies. Give me a shotgun, a chainsaw or even a trusty cricket bat and I’ll just go to town busting zombie heads.

You could probably tell this from looking at my windows media film genre list. I have action, horror, fantasy and zombie. Yes, that’s right, zombie films get their own genre. And it makes sense really considering all the zombie films I’ve seen/watched:

Night of the Living Dead (original)
Dawn of the Dead (original)
Land of the Dead
Diary of the Dead
Night of the Living Dead (remake)
Dawn of the Dead (remake)
Day of the Dead
The Zombie Diaries
Dead Set
Rec
Quarantine (American Rec remake)
Shaun of the Dead
Zombieland
28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later
Planet Terror
Resident Evil
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Resident Evil: Extinction
Resident Evil: Degeneration

That is quite a list of zombie films, but don’t get me wrong, I didn’t like them all. Land of the Dead, which I refer to Zombie 90210, is quite dire! If I was going to talk about favourites, it’d be more like an awards ceremony:

Best Zombie Series – Dead Set
Best British Zombie Film – The Zombie Diaries
Best American Zombie Film – Dawn of the Dead (remake)
Best British Zombie Comedy – Shaun of the Dead
Best American Zombie Comedy – Zombieland
Best Zombie Film That’s Not Really About Zombies – 28 Days Later
Best Spanish Zombie Film – Rec

As you can see, I like me some undead films! I couldn’t just pick one as a favourite so I’d have to have a zombie night instead!

And then we have zombie games! First, I’m going to admit something. I’m a zombie fan and I have never played Resident Evil (bad zombie fan, bad). But one of my favourite games for playing with my girlfriend (who also loves zombie films) is the amazing Left4Dead (and Left4Dead 2, yay) It plays exactly how a zombie game should play. Shotguns? Check! Hoards? Check! Creepy moments of suspense and tension? Check check CHECK!

So yeah, in short, I love me some undead!

And remember, Bleep Bloop!

GeekPost #02 The Dollhouse Edition

2009-11-07T15:41:00.001-08:00

And in this post, we cover the entire first season of Joss Whedons Dollhouse, staring Eliza Dushku…

The relationship between me and Dollhouse wasn’t love at first sight. About 3 months ago, after reading favourable things about the series from various sites, I downloaded the first few episodes, starting with the unaired pilot, episode 00. I sat down and watched it, and wasn’t impressed. I deleted the remaining episodes and cancelled the torrent.

Fast-forward to about a month ago. I was bored and channel surfing when I noticed Dollhouse was showing on BBC four, and after finding out it was the first episodes, I thought I’d give it a second chance. This episode wasn’t the pilot I had seen (which is patently obvious, seeing as it was the unaired pilot) but instead the network episode #01. I sat down and was surprisingly impressed. The plot was entertaining and Eliza Dushku’s multi-role acting was quite impressive.

For those who haven’t watched/read anything about Dollhouse, the premise is thus. A corporation has access to a technology that allows the scanning, downloading and uploading of the human psyche, either whole or in parts divisible by memory, personality trait or emotional response. The corporation, operating out of the titular ‘Dollhouse’ uses this technology to fashion ‘Dolls’, individuals who have (mostly) volunteered for one reason or another for a five year period, into the perfect person for needs of the client. This could either be the kinkiest lover, the best hostage negotiator or even in one case, the older version of an abused girl who has managed to overcome the emotional baggage that the girl in question is still struggling with, serving as a role model of hope.

When not ‘active'’ on engagements, the dolls remain in a bliss state of childlike innocents, deprived of fears, complex emotions or other such burdens of normal day to day life. The series deals with the various engagements the dolls are sent on, the implications of alleged ‘voluntary slavery’ and the devolving complications of the dolls remerging personalities.

I really enjoyed this series, both for it’s episodic stories, normally following Dushku’s character Echo, and the ongoing plot. Dollhouse is cleverly and engagingly written and I am really looking forward to downloading and watching the second series.

Well, that’s all for now, who knows what I’ll post next.

And when there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth

Web of Webs (2.0)

2009-11-07T04:23:00.001-08:00

Last night, while trying to get to sleep, I realised how intensely complex my online presence truly was. Let me clarify. I have technically 4 social networking profiles; this blog Facebook, Twitter and Last.Fm. Now I also have three ways of accessing these networks; via the internet on a PC, via mobile apps or mobile internet on my N97 and via my Xbox (with the exception of this blog which I can’t access from my Xbox). I also have several complex relationships' between these blogs, including various updates, settings and pairings. It’s easiest for me to explain with the help of this useful flow chart I made

(Lines going from light to dark grey indicate direction of influence)

Now here’s how it works. I can access blogger, facebook, last.fm and twitter all from the internet on a PC, that’s fairly simple. Now I can also access these through the mobile browser on my phone, but in addition, I have apps for Facebook (n97 widget), Twitter (Tweets60) and last.fm (mobbler) which run in a more streamlined fashion. Then add the fact that I now can also access twitter, facebook and last.fm from my Xbox. Now here’s the complex part. When I make a new blog posts, it sends a tweet of the update. Twitter will then update my facebook status with my new tweet. Both my facebook status AND my tweet will then be displayed on their respective gadgets on my blog. Finally, my Xbox will also update my facebook status should I start playing a game (this can and probably will be disabled). I haven’t even factored in youtube, which I post both on facebook and will soon post on my blog.

Well wasn’t that fun kiddies?

Being Lazy Online

2009-11-06T17:12:00.001-08:00

How’s this for being lazy, thanks to inspiration from Mr. Charles, I now don’t even have to fire up internet explorer (oh noes, I don’t use open source firefox/chrome/whatever) in order to blog. I like the thought of this, it’s somewhat pleasant to blog from my computer rather than a webpage. I have no idea why, kinda irrational.

Ooh boy do I have work to do. This weekend I’m going to dedicated Saturday to working on my edu-game, and Sunday will be the day of essays. The joy! I should be more motivated at least to do my edu-game seeing as there’s a £200 to £300 prize in it for me, which I do have plans for, should I win. I can’t give too much away, but should I win, I’ll take it as fate that I should make said expensive and quite significant purchase. Needless to say, I do want to win, so I’m gonna give it my best.

Right now, I’m still listening to copious amounts of Blue October. I don’t know what it is about their music, but it really moves me. I’m giving a lot of play time to Sound of Bringing Heaven Down, with such great lines as “I wanna show you how fascinating kissing is when Earth collides with all the space in-between” and “make love like time and space is ending”, paired with a really moving guitar/drum rhythm, it’s just a wonderfully positive to song to listen to.

I’m such an emo bastard, lol. When I was visiting my girlfriend Viv, I asked her to spray one of my t-shirts with her perfume. Now, this isn’t because I secretly prefer wearing it to say lynx. Instead, I now have said t-shirt inside my pillow case, so now whenever I go to sleep, I can smell Viv as if she’s next to me. It’s the little things like that that make the long distance thing work. That and a pretty much unlimited phone plan on both our parts. And most importantly, being so madly in love ^_^

Now, in my incredibly artistic and intellectual (lol) style, I’m going to wander aimlessly onto another topic altogether. I was having one of my interesting meanders through my own consciousness last night and had a thought. Would the world be a better place without organised religion? I’m not talking no religion, just no organised religion. No churches, no temples, no synagogues or mosques. Just people worshipping privately and with friends, not being told how to worship. Think about, no one idea could ever seize hold because if people didn’t like it, they’d ignore it. You may still get fanaticism, but you get that with cults anyway. I think if everyone worshipped personally and not as part of some herded group, things would be a lot better. That’s just my opinion, feel free to comment (respectfully) about what you think.

It’s getting late now and I should probably think about sleep. After thinking about it, I should probably do some. Got a few GeekPosts and GamerPosts to come, looking at this week in GeekTV and the Left4Dead 2 demo.

Remember kiddies, you should never accept candy from strangers, unless it’s REALLY good candy.

GamerPost #01 A Few of My Favourite Things

2009-11-05T13:09:00.000-08:00

The one problem I have with reviewing games is that I never feel I complete them enough for my opinion to be reflective of the game. I rarely hit that fabled 100% (with the exception of Burnout Paradise, for which I have 101%, fuck yeah). But here I will instead talk about what I like in the games that I like, and look at upcoming games that fill me with glee.

First up, we have Rock Band 1/2, the series possibly being my favourite of any game IP. I don't need to explain to you what rock band is, but I may need to explain why it is so awesome to me. You see, it's all about that core tenant of play, imagination. Playing rock band is all about pretending you're a rock star, well it is at least for me. It's not about high scores and gold stars, it's about belting out tunes at the top of your voice, power sliding on your knees while you nail metal chords or wailing on the drums like an animal, or even like Animal. It's just so much damn pure fun that I can't stop playing it. Factor in the broad range of music that KEEPS ON GROWING! (I calculate I've spent, in 1 year, over £100 on downloadable songs) and you don't have a game, you have an entrainment

Next up, Left4Dead, which is easily one of the best zombie games released (better than Resident Evil imho). Although it lacks deep plot and you can easily play through all four original levels in as many hours, it's the replay value that keeps you from trading it in. I've lost count the number of times I've played left4dead late at night with Viv. It's that awesome. Factor in some great one liners in the voice acting along with some of the best zombie mechanics, you have a great horror game.

And finally, I am offering up some love to a shamefully underrated game by the name of Dead Space. This game was a victim of over hyping which meant that it couldn't live up to it in the end as everyone was expecting the perfect gaming experience. But it was a damn awesome game, truly scary and actually quite thrilling. I normal abhor games where you must conserve ammo and use fixed save points, but this was different. Factor in the clever tactical dismemberment system. Head shots are not fatal for the 'necromorphs', instead you must rend them limb from limb to turn them into pathetic lumps of flesh. Add the atmospheric space ship that not only is incredibly reminiscent of Event Horizon, and actually feels like the layout is plausible and well thought out.

FilmPost #01 Summer of Sci-Fi

2009-11-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

Much like my first GeekPost, this is more of a compilation, a greatest hits if you will, of my recent film viewing experiences, both of new releases, and those petite gems I choose to arbitrarily watch/re-watch. So, lets pull up a comfy drink, take a glass of your favourite chair, and I will begin.

District 9 (Spoiler Level 6/10) *****
Let's get the obvious out the way. This film is about racism, thinly veiled as xenoism (well not that thinly tbh). You have unwelcome aliens, called 'Prawns' in a derogatory fashion, being keep segregated from humans in the city of Johannesburg. You couldn't create a more obvious metaphor. No, really, I tried, none of the test subjects survived.
I greatly enjoyed the film, unsubtle subtext aside. The basic premise, that these worker class aliens, 'prawns' as they are called, arrive on earth in their beat up spaceship, and end up as refugees in Johannesburg (incidentally, the original short film it is based on is called 'Alive in Johannesburg') and this rapidly leads to tension and conflict. It's incredibly thought provoking to see people of both black and white skin talking about getting rid of these aliens in what is effectively a racist fashion. It sheds light on how much easier it is to discriminate rather than be compassionate.
Set against the back drop of xenophobia is two parallel stories that intertwine and converge. One of an agent of MNU, a corporation contracted to 'deal' with the alien population, who in the process of handing out eviction orders to the prawns, becomes embroiled with the darker side of business (involving mech suites, alien guns and a lot of gore and vomit). The other is that of a prawn father and his son trying to figure a way to get their ship started so they can return home. Without giving too much away, these two contrasting people become very important to each other, leading to some touching moments, great fights and some honest to goodness character development.

Inglourious Basterds (Spoiler Level 3/10) ***
As not much of either a war film fan (Saving Private Ryan and Enemy at the Gates), nor a Tarantino fan (Kill Bill 1/2) I was approaching this film solely based on its positive reviews and that both my girlfriend and our friend Anne both wanted to see it. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised.
There was a subtle blend of violence (that in itself, wasn't that subtle), dark humour (that was very dark) and emotive characters. The one thing I have to stress is that this is the most subtly conveyed alternative history films I've ever seen. The only spoiler is..............Hitler Dies. And boy is it the death he truly deserved. I have never seen so much violence and still feel the 'victim' got off easy. My favourite part, although a minute detail, is the 'punch guns' as I call them. Worn by two of the characters towards the end of the film, they're basically small one shot guns worn on the back of the hand that fire a single shot into your target when you punch them! How call is that!
There isn't really much else I can say about Inglourious except it is probably the best way to get into either war or Tarantino films and that Brad Pitt is tolerable.

Surrogates (Spoiler Level 3/10) ***
This was, IMHO, a mediocre science fiction film. It seemed to drawn too heavily on inspiration from other films. The heavy handed 'conspiracy' and aesthetic of I, Robot, Bruce Willis' acting from sixth sense (kinda) and the action sequences from, well any third rate sci-fi action flick. It wasn't that bad, it was enjoyable to watch, but nothing to write home about (well, actually technically it was, seeing as I'm writing this). I did like the general work put into to making the world in which it was set seem plausible and convincing.

Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (Spoiler Level 3/10) ****
If I was to make an oversimplified, heavy handed and possible flawed analogy, FAQATT is to time travel as Shaun of the Dead is to zombie films. It's funny, a bit silly and very, VERY British. One of the best things about British films is the familiar faces, and FAQ is no different, albeit in some weird ways. For example, I never expected to see the star of Scary Movie, Anna Farris, featuring in such a film.
The premise is clever, yet simple. 3 mates at a pub experience time travel via the pub toilet, paradoxes and hilarity (and death) ensue.

That's all for now. I was going to give you my invaluable opinion on Pulse, Coraline and Bruno, but that can wait. I think.....

And remember, fook

GeekPost #01 - Smorgasbord Edition

2009-11-02T08:13:00.000-08:00

Hey-Lo and welcome to my first geekpost, a personal summary of my experiences with the evil that is geek TV. Because this is my first one, I'll be starting with a few summaries of what I've watched/ been watching

TV

South Park S13E08-11
South park will always have a special place in my heart. It was one of the first truly subversive, adult cartoons I was ever exposed to, and I almost feel that as I have grown and matured, SP has grown with me.
This is never more true than with the latest instalment of season 13. I remember when SP was pure shock value, toilet humour and bad language (I know, how could it get any better you ask?) But as the years pass the and seasons come and go, that dark, sadistic humour has become something deeper, more delicious.
Recent episodes have featured brilliant parodies of the Sixth Sense (Dead Celebrities), wonderful pastiche on pimp culture (Butters' Bottom Bitch) and the frankly brilliant juxtaposition of 'professional' wrestling and theatre (W.T.F). In the latest episode, Whale Whores, we get a true treat. Not only is Cartman singing on Rock Band, continuing Matt and Trey's frequent nods to geek culture, we also get to hear him belting out a brilliant rendition of Lady GaGa's Poker Face. Fantastic!

Big Bang Theory S03E01-05
If I have to recap what has been happening in big bang theory, the greatest geek sitcom ever, then you are in the wrong place. Leave now, find bittorrent and sit down, you've got some work to do.
Season three opened with what I thought would be the death of the show, the main character (Leonard) hooking up with the lead female role (Penny), the unrequited love becoming requited (is that even a real word). Now I had my doubts about this, as I was sure that it would kill a lot of the humour that stemmed from Leonards perpetual failed attempts to woo Penny. But I was gladly wrong. Who knew how many funnies could be extruded from Sheldons commentary on sexual congress, or his attempts to 'condition' Penny now that she is a regular (albeit partially dressed) fixture in their apartment.
Check out the new series for the following highlights:

Goth Jew Wolowitz
Pavlovian girlfriend training
A cricket called Toby
Hardcore thinking to the song 'Eye of the Tiger'
Wil Wheaton saying "Game Over, Moonpie'

Flashforward S01E01-06
I can only describe Flashforward as a more forgiving version of Lost. There are plenty of conspiracies, but without the pressing need to avoid dying of dysentery or gangrene or the many other risks of being stranded on a deserted island, the characters actually can do something productive about find out what the hell has happened.
Basically, the entire world blacks out for 2 minutes, 17 seconds, and during that time, everyone (or mostly everyone) sees the future for those 2 mins 17 from about 6 months into the future.
Flashforward raises some great questions about the ideas of predestination. Can we be blamed for a mistake we make in the future? Can it be changed, or does that act of changing it just guarantee its eventuality?
One of the best points of the series is that it approaches the fantastic with a fairly realistic mind set. If the entire world blacked out, then millions of people would die in plane crashes, accidents, you name it. And that's just what happens, and there is a persistent feeling that you're not in the same world as the one me and you know, the one from before the flashforward. Factor in the disparate views people have about the validity of the flashforwards, a divide between those who believe them and those who don't, those who saw a good future and those who saw a shit one, or worse still, those who saw no future at all.
All in all, I'm looking forward to how this plays out. I just hope it doesn't end up like another lost, with a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, wrapped in bullshit, wrapped in tedium.

Stargate Universe S01E01-06
This is definitely my favourite new series of the year. I'm a big fan of the classic stargate movie and the series SG-1 (but not atlantis). But I found that towards the end of SG-1, it started getting too cheesy (if that's possible). There were these big, overarching plots that never really seemed to draw me in. The baddies were fantastically and every week there was a new mystic weapon or unobtainium particle to save the day. It just got tiresome in a Star Trek TNG kinda way.
I am so glad to say that SGU steps away from that. It's darker, grittier, more depressing and, weirdly enough, more real. The basic premise is really simple. A mixed bag of scientists, soldiers and Joe averages escape through a stargate from a research outpost when it comes under attack. The kicker is that the gate they emerge through isn't in where the expect. It's not on a planet in this galaxy, or even in the Pegasus galaxy (the setting of atlantis). It's on an ancient (both in age and design) spaceship in the furthest corner of the galaxy.
So what we have here is the worst group of people possible, unprepared and under equiped, stranded from home, dealing not with aliens and saving the world, but trying to keep the air breathable, find clean water and keep the lights on.
I love the aesthetics of the ship; Destiny. Its alien/steampunk look works really well and appeals to my deep love of all thinks SteamPunk. The characters are much more diverse, with Robert Carlyle playing a great Machiavellian, passive (or not so) aggressive genius of all things ancient.

Finding Impetus

2009-11-02T08:03:00.000-08:00

Impetus, the great roman warrior, famed adversary of Procrastination, lover of Motivation and father of Productivity.

Yeah right. I'm fucking awful at finding the means, motive and opportunity to do something productive unless some kind of punishment hangs over my head.

I should really try harder. But I always have felt that the harder you try, the harder you can fail. Dedication pays off tomorrow, but laziness pays of right now.

But on a more positive note, what have I been doing? Well, I've been having a great time away from it all in freezing cold Guildford, visiting Viv. We had a great time on the Halloween pub crawl her chem soc organised. That's one thing I lament about with regards to my uni, Wolvo seems to have no really society structure, and as such, I have no real involvement with my university in a social context. I would like to do more, but I can't seem to find the competent, dedicated, interesting people responsible for facilitating my entertainment.

Apart from being a pain in my girlfriends butt (and other parts ^_^) I've also been watching my bodyweight in geeky goodness that is film and tv, which I will elaborate on in my geekposts.

As for gaming, I have sadly not been playing anything new, just the occasional Rock Band 2, and for a change of pace, I picked out Mirrors Edge and Team Fortress 2 from my book shelf, which I will be covering in my gamerposts.

Well, that's all for the personal communication.

Stay Classy Sandiego

Welcome, now shut up and sit down

2009-10-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

So hail and well met, don't let my harsh manor offend you, if you do, you're going to spend a lot of your time being offended, and that's no way to spend your time. You should spend it doing wholesome things that are by no means fun.

I have no intention of spelling out what I'm going to put here, because quite frankly, I don't know. But whatever I put here, will be here where I put it