MMXI Week 10–Grand Promises

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 7–Valentines Weekend

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!

MMXI Week 0 - 'New' Year Objectives

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!

Project Lose An Olsen Twin Week 4 or….

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

FilmPost #02 New Moon Soundtrack – No Blue October?

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!