So today is the last day of B.E.D.A/V.E.D.A and seeing as this was the first time I had decided to attempt one of these challenges/events/whatevers I thought I might as well use the last post to talk about my feelings on this event and what it has meant to me. I learned of these type of events not long after joining Nerdfighteria and while I was intruigued at the idea itself, I was unsure as to whether I would be able to put the time or energy into such an event as I imagined my procrastination and general laziness would get in the way and prevent me from focusing myself into doing the necessary amount of writing each day for it to be considered a reasonable admission. However, I was happily proved wrong and was able to push myself past the point of apathy to write something meaningful. Admittedly I got a bit personal and ended up whinging about my own personal issues, but I have trouble talking about my feelings to other people, so expressing how I was feeling through text seemed a much easier avenue of release so I took as much advantage of it as I could.
While I would have liked to have had a little more confirmation that people were actually reading what I was writing through them answering the end of post questions I posed each day, I guess I just have to face facts that right now im not really important enough for people to waste their time replying to my silly little quibbles, which is fine, but still some commenting love would have been nice :) Ive also learnt alot about myself from these posts and what I have to do to focus and motivate myself into doing worthwhile things, so I guess in a way these posts were my way of doing my only little form of soul searching, just a lot more public than most people.
So overall im glad I did B.E.D.A and while I may not do something like this the next time around or at least will probably be more inclined to do some vlogging instead of blogging, I think it has been a worthwhile experiance and has taught me both about myself and how to go about improving my writing technique so that it actually makes more of a modicum of sense than it did before, something that will hopefully help in the future. Thank you if you have actually read these, I hope they have been informative, interesting or at least not too irritating, until next time, aveo amacus :)
Question: Did you do B.E.D.A? what did you learn?
DFTBA
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Saturday, 30 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 29 - So That Just Happened...
So today was the Royal Wedding between William and Kate and while I didn't care too much for it personally, I watched it out of a sense of patriotic necessity and was suprised how amplified that patriotic feeling became and stayed while I was in the room where I had it on the TV. I guess it was because it was a chance for the world to watch Britain show off a little and seeing the crowds of people euphorically waving UK flags and cheering as the processions went passed made some of the problems we've suffered in recent months to fade away into the background a little for a while. As Philip DeFranco said in his latest DeFranco Show ( Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTdt9CSiScA ) it was this moment of happiness in a seastorm of worldly sadness that always seems to dominate the news headlines and it was just great to know that whoever was watching this around the world would be feeling the same way.
Obviously they're were moments of uninted interest and as such is the way of the internet community, who picked up and ran with it such as the flower girl who was on the balcony of Buckingham Palace when they were taking pictures and covered her ears as the RAF display happened while looking a little bit evil and already the internet community have zoomed to insert her into every photo imaginable, so glad to see that the people that like to do that sort of thing, got something out of it :)
Question: Did you watch the royal wedding? what did you think of it?
DFTBA
Obviously they're were moments of uninted interest and as such is the way of the internet community, who picked up and ran with it such as the flower girl who was on the balcony of Buckingham Palace when they were taking pictures and covered her ears as the RAF display happened while looking a little bit evil and already the internet community have zoomed to insert her into every photo imaginable, so glad to see that the people that like to do that sort of thing, got something out of it :)
Question: Did you watch the royal wedding? what did you think of it?
DFTBA
Friday, 29 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 28 - Portal 2 Single Player: A Review
So yesterday I completed Portal 2's single player, which was unbelievably awesome, and seeing as i may have to wait a while to play co-op seeing as the PSN is down currently due to its "technical difficulties" :\ I thought I might as well review the single player now and talk about the co-op whenever it is i get to play it. So Portal 2's single player is of course a continuation of the Portal 1 storyline, which Valve amended shortly before announcing Portal 2 with a video, which showed Chell being captured and put into stasis instead of escaping. You are woken up an indefinate amount of time after your incarceration by the AI core Wheatley, who is superbably voiced by The Office's Steven Merchant, who then attempts to help you escape from the crumbling and decaying Aperture testing facility, which due to years of neglect is full of rusted metal and plants that have broken in and flourished.
Unfortuanatly due to Wheatley's bumbling, but hilarious, ineptitude you accidently reactivate GLaDOS, aslo superbly voiced by Ellen McLain, the maniacal AI antagonist from the first game with an obsession with testing you "in the name of science" and so starts your quest to bring down GLaDOS once again and finally escape the Aperture Science testing facilty once and for all. For what may intially seem like a simple physics based puzzler, it has an incredibly deep storyline and canon, and through the course of the game you come to learn the history of Aperture Science, mainly through the charming voice of Aperture founder and CEO Cave Johnson, who is also amazingly voiced by J.K Simmons. What makes this game though, aside from the unique gameplay, is the superb cast of supporting characters who take centre stage in the game due to the muteness of the series' mute protagonist Chell, with the comments made by GLaDOS and Wheatley being absolutly hilarious most of the time, amplified by their robotic voices and lack of emotion, also with a few key characters appearing at the end that are also epically funny (SPOILER: IM IN SPAAAAAAAAAACCCCCEEEEEEE!!! :D)
The gameplay is relativly unchanged from Portal 1, though there is a lot more variaty this time around due to the inclusion of new devices such as Aerial Fath Plates, which catapult you through the air, and various gels in the later levels, that add a completly new twists to the game and how you "think with portals"
Overall Portal 2 is an absolutly superb game in almost every aspect and I would encourage anyone who has even a slight inkling to take a look at the game to go out an buy it, if you are a serious gamer you won't regret the purchase :)
Score: 10/10
Question: have you played Portal 2? what did you think of it?
DFTBA
Unfortuanatly due to Wheatley's bumbling, but hilarious, ineptitude you accidently reactivate GLaDOS, aslo superbly voiced by Ellen McLain, the maniacal AI antagonist from the first game with an obsession with testing you "in the name of science" and so starts your quest to bring down GLaDOS once again and finally escape the Aperture Science testing facilty once and for all. For what may intially seem like a simple physics based puzzler, it has an incredibly deep storyline and canon, and through the course of the game you come to learn the history of Aperture Science, mainly through the charming voice of Aperture founder and CEO Cave Johnson, who is also amazingly voiced by J.K Simmons. What makes this game though, aside from the unique gameplay, is the superb cast of supporting characters who take centre stage in the game due to the muteness of the series' mute protagonist Chell, with the comments made by GLaDOS and Wheatley being absolutly hilarious most of the time, amplified by their robotic voices and lack of emotion, also with a few key characters appearing at the end that are also epically funny (SPOILER: IM IN SPAAAAAAAAAACCCCCEEEEEEE!!! :D)
The gameplay is relativly unchanged from Portal 1, though there is a lot more variaty this time around due to the inclusion of new devices such as Aerial Fath Plates, which catapult you through the air, and various gels in the later levels, that add a completly new twists to the game and how you "think with portals"
Overall Portal 2 is an absolutly superb game in almost every aspect and I would encourage anyone who has even a slight inkling to take a look at the game to go out an buy it, if you are a serious gamer you won't regret the purchase :)
Score: 10/10
Question: have you played Portal 2? what did you think of it?
DFTBA
Thursday, 28 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 27 - Burning Fragile Bridges
I hate it when people you know act like complete dicks and you know they're not. Most of the time its unintentional and they don't even realise they're doing it, but that doesn't stop it from being irriating to me and wanting to intervene when they go too far. The most obvious example of this are my two friends who act like complete trolls on internet forums and youtube comments because they think its funny, I take a dim view to this on the other hand because I think that it is extremly childish and completly pointless because I think that unless you can offer constructive criticism in a comment then you shouldn't post at all.
I know im preaching to the choir here because mostly sensible people read this thing and will know where im coming from, but it still needs to be said otherwise nothing will be done about it. Today for example, my mate posts a link in a completly random comment thread that we had reserved for specific work and then when i redirect it and delete his original message, he gets a trollish on me. I know he was doing it in jest and pretending to be annoyed, but I found it extremly annoying and tedious to deal with as he should have jsut accepted he was wrong and moved on instead of prolonging the situation. I may sound like a prude because of this but the carefully mandated order of things must be maintained in my mind, otherwise chaos will reign (overdramatic i know, but oh well) and i cannot allow that to happen.
Question: How do you deal with trolls?
DFTBA
I know im preaching to the choir here because mostly sensible people read this thing and will know where im coming from, but it still needs to be said otherwise nothing will be done about it. Today for example, my mate posts a link in a completly random comment thread that we had reserved for specific work and then when i redirect it and delete his original message, he gets a trollish on me. I know he was doing it in jest and pretending to be annoyed, but I found it extremly annoying and tedious to deal with as he should have jsut accepted he was wrong and moved on instead of prolonging the situation. I may sound like a prude because of this but the carefully mandated order of things must be maintained in my mind, otherwise chaos will reign (overdramatic i know, but oh well) and i cannot allow that to happen.
Question: How do you deal with trolls?
DFTBA
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 26 - Returning Nerves
So today was my first day back at college after my two weeks off at Easter, this week isn't a proper return tho because we are only in for the next few days and then we get friday off due to the Royal Wedding and monday off because of the Bank Holiday, meaning that overall I have only spent 9 days in college for the whole of april, which is just wierd when you think about it.
Now during the holidays the stress and focus of my upcoming exams slipped past me rather easily because it wasn't really my focus, however now that im back at college, that pressure has hit me like a frieght train and has pretty much got me freaking out now as i don't feel at all prepared to do these exams, which make up the key second half of my AS levels. The first day back i had both a mock exam and a strenous going over of the facts of exam question answering in another class and this combined with the fact that im not too sure how to go about revising for both my upcoming exams and also the resits that im supposed to be taking, particulary in Physics, where i have trouble maintaining focus on the equations im supposed to know, let alone remembering a series of other equations from the previous topics, luckily both exams cover most topics, so the cross-over should help.
Now im not very academically inclined as ive previously mentioned, i can absorb info like a sponge, but then have trouble putting that information down in words because of the way my mind codifiys and recalls information. I guess I'll just have to knuckle down and focus as thats what education is all about right?
Question: how do you prepare for exams?
DFTBA
Now during the holidays the stress and focus of my upcoming exams slipped past me rather easily because it wasn't really my focus, however now that im back at college, that pressure has hit me like a frieght train and has pretty much got me freaking out now as i don't feel at all prepared to do these exams, which make up the key second half of my AS levels. The first day back i had both a mock exam and a strenous going over of the facts of exam question answering in another class and this combined with the fact that im not too sure how to go about revising for both my upcoming exams and also the resits that im supposed to be taking, particulary in Physics, where i have trouble maintaining focus on the equations im supposed to know, let alone remembering a series of other equations from the previous topics, luckily both exams cover most topics, so the cross-over should help.
Now im not very academically inclined as ive previously mentioned, i can absorb info like a sponge, but then have trouble putting that information down in words because of the way my mind codifiys and recalls information. I guess I'll just have to knuckle down and focus as thats what education is all about right?
Question: how do you prepare for exams?
DFTBA
Monday, 25 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 25 - Dissatisfied Shopper
So today my mum took me and my brother to our local large shopping centre to get us some clothes for the summer and also to buy us an "Easter gift" as my mum calls it, which is essentially my mums way of saying she'll play for something for us if we ask her to. Now as we were trawling round the various shops, first of all through my personal favourites, Game and Waterstones, before moving onto areas that were of more interest to my brother than to me such as Next, Repulic and Superdry (or Superwet as I insisted on calling it :P) It was at this point that the fact that I really despise clothes shopping hit home to me, I had known it before of course, due to years of ingrained hatred from being pulled unwillingly around clothes shops by my mum when I was younger. However I was suprised to find how much I stil disliked it, i've grown to appreciate it in certain areas such as T-Shirts of course, but for the majority of clothing I still had little to no interest.
Now seeing as im now rapidly approaching the age where you are expected to step out of your parents shadow and make your mark on the world as they say, I was slightly alarmed at the amount of things I had not yet learnt to do that due to either being used to my parents doing it for me or because simply I was not aware of it until recently. Things like, to go back to the blogs original topic, buying clothes, eventually im going to end up growning out of my current clothing and will need to see about getting new things myself, now I know little of my bodys own measurements, so i don't know what waist width I am or what my chest size is and its things like this that I will probably need to know at some point in the future. Also is the idea of various taxes and payments that need to be made for various things in life, that ive only recently become aware of and realised that i have little to no finanacial planning skills, which makes dealing with tasks like that a little daunting.
Im sure it will end up fine in the end, but here at the tipping point into those things, its a very large element of unknowns and if there's one thing I hate, its unknowns....
Question: How did you/are you preparing for life beyond your parents?
DFTBA
Now seeing as im now rapidly approaching the age where you are expected to step out of your parents shadow and make your mark on the world as they say, I was slightly alarmed at the amount of things I had not yet learnt to do that due to either being used to my parents doing it for me or because simply I was not aware of it until recently. Things like, to go back to the blogs original topic, buying clothes, eventually im going to end up growning out of my current clothing and will need to see about getting new things myself, now I know little of my bodys own measurements, so i don't know what waist width I am or what my chest size is and its things like this that I will probably need to know at some point in the future. Also is the idea of various taxes and payments that need to be made for various things in life, that ive only recently become aware of and realised that i have little to no finanacial planning skills, which makes dealing with tasks like that a little daunting.
Im sure it will end up fine in the end, but here at the tipping point into those things, its a very large element of unknowns and if there's one thing I hate, its unknowns....
Question: How did you/are you preparing for life beyond your parents?
DFTBA
B.E.D.A Day 24 - Thinking With Portals
So today I spent a large amount of the time I should have spent revising on Portal 2, which was really a bad idea on my part, but I don't regret it because technically Portal 2 and the Portal series in general is technically one of the most educational game series out there. It might sound a bit crazy to say, because at first glance that doesn't really seem to be the case, however it is true because the game teaches the player valuble lessons in logic, problem solving, situation evaluation and relativistic physics. Now this might not seem instantly applicable to many scenarios, but as those stuffy people that run the education system like to say, it teaches you "life skills" that can be applied to a massive amount of areas in life.
It sounds like im trying to come up with any old random reason to justify the time I spent playing Portal 2, however during that time there was many moments where I experianced genuine satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment upon completing a level, somewhat of a rare experiance to me in the world of gaming, which is what prompted me to talk about it in todays blog. Now of course at its core its still a game, one which has a excellent storyline, intruiging characters and incredible voice acting from the whole cast, all of which means that the game as a whole experiance is both entertaining, intruiging and educational, something which you can't really say often into todays era of FPS dominance.
So in the end im saying this, PLAY PORTAL 2!!!!!!!!!!! :D
I'll see you on the other side of the test chamber.....
Question: Have you got Portal 2? what do you think of it?
DFTBA
It sounds like im trying to come up with any old random reason to justify the time I spent playing Portal 2, however during that time there was many moments where I experianced genuine satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment upon completing a level, somewhat of a rare experiance to me in the world of gaming, which is what prompted me to talk about it in todays blog. Now of course at its core its still a game, one which has a excellent storyline, intruiging characters and incredible voice acting from the whole cast, all of which means that the game as a whole experiance is both entertaining, intruiging and educational, something which you can't really say often into todays era of FPS dominance.
So in the end im saying this, PLAY PORTAL 2!!!!!!!!!!! :D
I'll see you on the other side of the test chamber.....
Question: Have you got Portal 2? what do you think of it?
DFTBA
Saturday, 23 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 23 - Doctor Who Series 6, Episode 1: The Impossible Astronaut - A Review (Spoilers)
So today was the offical airing date of the first episode of Series 6 of Doctor Who, The Impossible Astronaut and I thought i might as well make my blog today about it seeing as im a huge Doctor Who fan and its been pretty hyped up over recent weeks seeing as its the first season to be aired near simultanously with America as well. Now right off the bat I guess I should say that upon reflection on the episode I don't think the episode lived up to the hype, though some of my friends vehmently disagree with me about that, there is no doubt that it was a strong season opener for the show, but there was something about it that just didn't click with me and meant I didn't quite enjoy it as much as I thought I would.
So the opening was slightly different to that of your usual Doctor Who opener, namly becuase we wern't introduced to any new characters, which hadn't really happened per say since season 2 when we still getting to grips with David Tennent as the new Doctor, personally I quite enjoyed the lead in, it was quite witty, particulary with the scenes of the Doctor in various historical situations and Amy and Rory reading about him in the present day. The shooting scene came as a bit of a shock, though we knew that it was going to happen to one of the main characters at that point, but I wasn't expecting it to be the Doctor and I was pleasently suprised that they included the previously entioned in other canon info that if a Time Lord is killed while regenerating, he or she dies proporly.
The stuff in the Oval Office was quite good as well, though I didn't think as much of the warehouse in Florida bits and pieces. I guess I need to talk about the new enemies of this episode, The Silence, now to be completly honest I was a bit disappointed with them, because I was hoping that it might tie into Omega in some major way and who knows it still might, but the aliens themselves were a little underwhelming to me at least as based upon their ability to be forgotten about when they're not being look at, which I was hoping that they would use to more of a "weeping angel" effect, but didn't really seem to.
I know I see like im whining, but overall I did quite like the episode, it was very suspense-full throughout and left a large amount of unanswered questions, so I am definatly looking forward to next Saturday already :)
Score: 8/10
Question: Did you watch the season opener of Doctor Who? What did you think?
DFTBA
So the opening was slightly different to that of your usual Doctor Who opener, namly becuase we wern't introduced to any new characters, which hadn't really happened per say since season 2 when we still getting to grips with David Tennent as the new Doctor, personally I quite enjoyed the lead in, it was quite witty, particulary with the scenes of the Doctor in various historical situations and Amy and Rory reading about him in the present day. The shooting scene came as a bit of a shock, though we knew that it was going to happen to one of the main characters at that point, but I wasn't expecting it to be the Doctor and I was pleasently suprised that they included the previously entioned in other canon info that if a Time Lord is killed while regenerating, he or she dies proporly.
The stuff in the Oval Office was quite good as well, though I didn't think as much of the warehouse in Florida bits and pieces. I guess I need to talk about the new enemies of this episode, The Silence, now to be completly honest I was a bit disappointed with them, because I was hoping that it might tie into Omega in some major way and who knows it still might, but the aliens themselves were a little underwhelming to me at least as based upon their ability to be forgotten about when they're not being look at, which I was hoping that they would use to more of a "weeping angel" effect, but didn't really seem to.
I know I see like im whining, but overall I did quite like the episode, it was very suspense-full throughout and left a large amount of unanswered questions, so I am definatly looking forward to next Saturday already :)
Score: 8/10
Question: Did you watch the season opener of Doctor Who? What did you think?
DFTBA
B.E.D.A Day 22 - No Excuses this Time
Okay so this is gonna be a shorty, but i blame Portal 2 and Family Guy for being too awesome that i couldn't resist them and failed to make a proper blog post!
Thats my story and im sticking with it! :P
Question: what do think of Family Guy?
DFTBA
Thats my story and im sticking with it! :P
Question: what do think of Family Guy?
DFTBA
Friday, 22 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 21 - Spanner In The Works
So I have have basically a weekend left of the Easter holidays before im due to go back to college, give or take a few days due to national holidays and bank holidays which mean I don't have to be in college on those days. Now i've not yet fully completed the homework that was set for me to do during the holiday, much less the revision that im supposed to be doing seeing as i have exams to prepare for when the new term at college starts again, mainly thanks to my ability to procrastinate and general laziness, which has resulted in me having 4 days to complete 2 different pieces of homowork plus tweak another one and revise like mad for my exams.
Now i know i deserve no sympathy, its my own fault for not being able to focus myself and completle these tasks in time, but today at least i had some excuses, even though they probably won't help me in the long run as excuses don't beat homework deadlines. First of all, i recieved a call out of the blue from a friend of mine who invited me down to the local park for a kick-about, now while im not really apt when it comes to sport, i had barely been out since the start of the holiday and so jumped at the chance to get out for a while. Now this kick-about eventually resulted in me not getting home till 5PM-ish where i am greeted by another friend who is staying with us while his parents are at the local hospital for a check-up, unfortunatly the friend ends up not leaving till 10PM and because i couldn't bring myself to just abandoning my friend in favour of homework resulted in none of it being done.
Now im hoping that the desperation of only have a few days to do this homework will galvanise me into action as frequently happens when im under pressure, however hope can sometimes be very different from reality....
Question: what galvanises you into action to do things you don't really want to do?
DFTBA
Now i know i deserve no sympathy, its my own fault for not being able to focus myself and completle these tasks in time, but today at least i had some excuses, even though they probably won't help me in the long run as excuses don't beat homework deadlines. First of all, i recieved a call out of the blue from a friend of mine who invited me down to the local park for a kick-about, now while im not really apt when it comes to sport, i had barely been out since the start of the holiday and so jumped at the chance to get out for a while. Now this kick-about eventually resulted in me not getting home till 5PM-ish where i am greeted by another friend who is staying with us while his parents are at the local hospital for a check-up, unfortunatly the friend ends up not leaving till 10PM and because i couldn't bring myself to just abandoning my friend in favour of homework resulted in none of it being done.
Now im hoping that the desperation of only have a few days to do this homework will galvanise me into action as frequently happens when im under pressure, however hope can sometimes be very different from reality....
Question: what galvanises you into action to do things you don't really want to do?
DFTBA
Thursday, 21 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 20 - Gunplay
So today i went to Laser Quest for a friends birthday (hi Maddie if your reading this!) which for those unfamiler with what Laser Quest is exactly, its basically a simulated close quarters gunfight using "weapons" that emit laser lights similer to laser pointers and the aim is to to hit people on the opposing team, all while all of you are wearing this vests equipped with sensors that pick up the laser lights and disable your weapon for a few seconds when you get hit. It was a fun experiance, I had been Laser Questing previously, but it had been a good few years since i had last been, so the experiance was slightly different to how i remember it being previously.
It also made me think about how much the idea of guns and weapons in general had become such an intergal part of our society that we decided to make games out of them. Obviously i realise thats the way its been since the dawn of humanity, with people wanting to be warriors and engage in combat since the earliest records of history, but in this day and age where we have weapons that can kill you from half the world away its interesting to see the nonchalence that we conduct ourselves with at the idea of violence and conflict in general, whether it be for recreation or in an dangerous political stiuation. Of course this sort of nonchalence isn't just limited to imitation weaponry and "play-fighting" and i will happily admit that i enjoy a good FPS (first person shooter for those unfamiler with gaming termonology) as much as the next guy, but these sort of things take it to a completly different level, with the shooting being much more realistic and the variety of weapons and killing techniques avaliable to a player being alarmingly large. Now this isn't suppose to be an anti-violence rant, as i realise its necessary and can sometimes be enjoyable, particualry when it comes to video games, i just find it how interesting that we as a species have become so accustom to violence that we rarely see the need to think about who's watching it at all.
In better news, Portal 2 is released on consoles tommorrow, squuuuueeee!! :D been watching some vids from the people that got it early on Steam and it looks pretty damn awesome!
Question: Do you think we've become too accustomed to violence in our lives?
DFTBA
It also made me think about how much the idea of guns and weapons in general had become such an intergal part of our society that we decided to make games out of them. Obviously i realise thats the way its been since the dawn of humanity, with people wanting to be warriors and engage in combat since the earliest records of history, but in this day and age where we have weapons that can kill you from half the world away its interesting to see the nonchalence that we conduct ourselves with at the idea of violence and conflict in general, whether it be for recreation or in an dangerous political stiuation. Of course this sort of nonchalence isn't just limited to imitation weaponry and "play-fighting" and i will happily admit that i enjoy a good FPS (first person shooter for those unfamiler with gaming termonology) as much as the next guy, but these sort of things take it to a completly different level, with the shooting being much more realistic and the variety of weapons and killing techniques avaliable to a player being alarmingly large. Now this isn't suppose to be an anti-violence rant, as i realise its necessary and can sometimes be enjoyable, particualry when it comes to video games, i just find it how interesting that we as a species have become so accustom to violence that we rarely see the need to think about who's watching it at all.
In better news, Portal 2 is released on consoles tommorrow, squuuuueeee!! :D been watching some vids from the people that got it early on Steam and it looks pretty damn awesome!
Question: Do you think we've become too accustomed to violence in our lives?
DFTBA
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 19 - Analysis Based on Second-Hand Knowledge
So today i was listening to a podcast while putting washing up outside (hey im a teenager stuck at home during the holidays, what else am i gonna do but homework and chores? :P) called SG Flix, which is an offspring of the SarcasticGamer.com podcasts (check them out, cause they're pretty funny) that talks mainly about movies and whats on in the box office. They also talk about random movies after watching them based on what the audience votes them to watch and in the podcast they were talking about Starship Troopers.
Now i've never watched Starship Troopers before, but the way that they were explaining the plot and analysing the good and bad parts of it was of extreme interest to me and i found myself formulating my own opinion on the bits and pieces of the movie that were explaining, which i also thought was intriuging. Now normally i don't tend to think to much about films when people explain them to me, but because of the way they explained it in such detail because they had just watched it and they way they laughed and joked about various scenes, i got a good sense of what it was like (in most cases for Starship Troopers, incredibly cheesy) and how the characters were portrayed.
Im not too sure what im trying to say here exactly, but it was definatly an intruiging experiance for me and not one i had experiance before and i thought i might as well share it seeing as i have relativly little to talk about today cause my holidays are very boring :)
Question: Have you ever felt you've "known" a move after someone has told you about it, but before you've watched the film?
DFTBA
Now i've never watched Starship Troopers before, but the way that they were explaining the plot and analysing the good and bad parts of it was of extreme interest to me and i found myself formulating my own opinion on the bits and pieces of the movie that were explaining, which i also thought was intriuging. Now normally i don't tend to think to much about films when people explain them to me, but because of the way they explained it in such detail because they had just watched it and they way they laughed and joked about various scenes, i got a good sense of what it was like (in most cases for Starship Troopers, incredibly cheesy) and how the characters were portrayed.
Im not too sure what im trying to say here exactly, but it was definatly an intruiging experiance for me and not one i had experiance before and i thought i might as well share it seeing as i have relativly little to talk about today cause my holidays are very boring :)
Question: Have you ever felt you've "known" a move after someone has told you about it, but before you've watched the film?
DFTBA
Monday, 18 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 18 - A Blog about Harry Potter
So I wasn't sure what to write about today, Sam suggested I talk about Harry Potter, so I thought to hell with it, lets talk about Harry Potter. Now im not the hardiest Potter fan out there, I love the book series and have seen all the films, but im nowhere near to heights of fandom that some "Pott-hards" ( i don't even know if thats the world for them, but oh well) feelings about Emma Watson aside, reach as ive never been big into Wizard Rock or anything like that, i've just enjoyed the series for what it is without really taking it to any extremes.
As to which character i associate most with, it would probably be Neville, as the way he acts in the series, towards the end more than the beginning, is how i can imagine acting in the situations the way he does and i can sympathise with this and relate to him probably the most out of the series' extensive character list. As to which character I disliked the most, to be honest it was probably Wormtail/Peter Pettigrew as the way he is portrayed as a snivelling, subservient coward (which i know was the point, but oh well) just didn't click with me really and i just generaly disliked him from the time he was introduced.
As to the ending, im not gonna lie that i was hoping for something slightly better, i thought the horcrux finding sped up way too quickly near the end of the last book, i know it was to built tension and show the urgency of the situation, but i still think could have been done marginally better. Also an actual explanation of what happened to Sirius! cause he was probably my favourite character after Nevilles and they didn't give any great depth to where he has ended up, though obviously its implied that he's dead, i prefer to think he winded up in Middle-Earth somehow :)
Overall though i think its an awesome series and something which J.K Rowling may never match with whatever she may write in the future, though that remains to be seen, and i look forward to seeing whatever that may be.
Question: Did you like the ending of Harry Potter?
DFTBA
As to which character i associate most with, it would probably be Neville, as the way he acts in the series, towards the end more than the beginning, is how i can imagine acting in the situations the way he does and i can sympathise with this and relate to him probably the most out of the series' extensive character list. As to which character I disliked the most, to be honest it was probably Wormtail/Peter Pettigrew as the way he is portrayed as a snivelling, subservient coward (which i know was the point, but oh well) just didn't click with me really and i just generaly disliked him from the time he was introduced.
As to the ending, im not gonna lie that i was hoping for something slightly better, i thought the horcrux finding sped up way too quickly near the end of the last book, i know it was to built tension and show the urgency of the situation, but i still think could have been done marginally better. Also an actual explanation of what happened to Sirius! cause he was probably my favourite character after Nevilles and they didn't give any great depth to where he has ended up, though obviously its implied that he's dead, i prefer to think he winded up in Middle-Earth somehow :)
Overall though i think its an awesome series and something which J.K Rowling may never match with whatever she may write in the future, though that remains to be seen, and i look forward to seeing whatever that may be.
Question: Did you like the ending of Harry Potter?
DFTBA
Sunday, 17 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 17 - Doesn't Quite Sit Right....
So for a while now ive wanted to write a novel, ive never really considered to be a major career option seeing my general lack of enthusiasm and inability to focus making actually writing a novel rather difficult, but the desire to at least be able to get one book published or by some miracle make a career out of it still exists within me and has done since i was quite young.
Being the avid reader that i am, i generally can get through most genres without any trouble, although those with complex language or difficult to understand concepts tend to slow me down a little, and this intense desire to read has been what has compelled me in these last few years to at least attempt to write a novel. Ive come up with numerous novel ideas, going as far as to outline a potential trilogy of books based in a post-apocalyptic setting, but so far ive been unable to commit myself to putting the time in to at least write a draft of these stories.
It may just be down to my daily routine and how ingrained to my soul it has become, where i try and take what respite in the rest i can get between college and the homework inevitably associated with it, therefore not being able to use my time management skilla to effectivly sort out time to write. Or if it is down to my lazy and sloth-like nature, whereby im unable to motivate myself to put energy into a project that has little instant gratification to it, the problem remains and needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later.
Hopefully once i complete full time education, i'll be able to find an incentive to majorly pick up writing and get something out there, be it going to university and finding motivation in what i want to do there or simply by expanding my horizens and going travelling, thereby finding inspiration and discovering new angles to write about. Either way, its a change that needs to start now and that means overcoming my inadeqecies and making decent strides in a postive direction, something which is a lot easier said than done.....
Question: what is your favourite book series?
DFTBA
Being the avid reader that i am, i generally can get through most genres without any trouble, although those with complex language or difficult to understand concepts tend to slow me down a little, and this intense desire to read has been what has compelled me in these last few years to at least attempt to write a novel. Ive come up with numerous novel ideas, going as far as to outline a potential trilogy of books based in a post-apocalyptic setting, but so far ive been unable to commit myself to putting the time in to at least write a draft of these stories.
It may just be down to my daily routine and how ingrained to my soul it has become, where i try and take what respite in the rest i can get between college and the homework inevitably associated with it, therefore not being able to use my time management skilla to effectivly sort out time to write. Or if it is down to my lazy and sloth-like nature, whereby im unable to motivate myself to put energy into a project that has little instant gratification to it, the problem remains and needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later.
Hopefully once i complete full time education, i'll be able to find an incentive to majorly pick up writing and get something out there, be it going to university and finding motivation in what i want to do there or simply by expanding my horizens and going travelling, thereby finding inspiration and discovering new angles to write about. Either way, its a change that needs to start now and that means overcoming my inadeqecies and making decent strides in a postive direction, something which is a lot easier said than done.....
Question: what is your favourite book series?
DFTBA
B.E.D.A Day 16 - That Warm Fuzzy Feeling Inside...
So today it was the birthday of my fellow collab blogger Sam on FellowshipoftheNing and we decided that we should all contribute and make a video to tell her happy birthday. That ultimatly didn't pan out the way we hoped exactly, but still worked out decently in the end thanks to Ella's editing skillz! :P Also me and Ella both purchased and sent Sam gifts (with Francisco's "theorectical" present "hypothetically" in the mail at the moment, materialisation time unknown :P) with me buying her the Tobuscus "Im a bird motha' f*****r" shirt and Ella getting her the complete collection of the Sherlock Holmes stories (guess who's present was more of an educated guess than anything else? :D )
Anyway, there was something about watching that joint video wishing Sam happy birthday back that prompted a warm, fuzzy feeling to develop in me, and makes me realise how far this friendship has come in the seemily short 8 months we've known each other and makes me glad that i decided to get involved in the nerdfighteria community and was able to meet a band of such awesome people. Also of note is Sam's mum saying to feel free to "visit Sam anytime" which being slightly difficult to do right now with my current position and income level, but i hope to a some point in the near future fulfill that offer and visit the US to meet her and hopefully other nerdfighters that ive either gotten to know or will get to know as i want to at some point go on a tour of the US, either with my fellowship members or with friends from the UK.
Im glad that i have the global "family" of people with either similer interests or similer goals that i can interact and get to know better, proving that in the modern era, your friends can be just a click away :)
Question: How did you guys find nerdfighteria? (im guessing anyone reading this is a nerdfighter :P if not how did you find this blog?)
DFTBA
Anyway, there was something about watching that joint video wishing Sam happy birthday back that prompted a warm, fuzzy feeling to develop in me, and makes me realise how far this friendship has come in the seemily short 8 months we've known each other and makes me glad that i decided to get involved in the nerdfighteria community and was able to meet a band of such awesome people. Also of note is Sam's mum saying to feel free to "visit Sam anytime" which being slightly difficult to do right now with my current position and income level, but i hope to a some point in the near future fulfill that offer and visit the US to meet her and hopefully other nerdfighters that ive either gotten to know or will get to know as i want to at some point go on a tour of the US, either with my fellowship members or with friends from the UK.
Im glad that i have the global "family" of people with either similer interests or similer goals that i can interact and get to know better, proving that in the modern era, your friends can be just a click away :)
Question: How did you guys find nerdfighteria? (im guessing anyone reading this is a nerdfighter :P if not how did you find this blog?)
DFTBA
Friday, 15 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 15 - Technobabble
So today i thought i would do a post about technobabble, as i absolutly love it when it is used in various TV shows, usually science fiction, to explain something incredibly complicated or unlikely and make it sound possible. Now i know its a contentenous subject as some people absolutly destest technobabble and would rather a show just not explain how something happens instead, but i disagree with this as i think it adds to the canon of the universe and just generally sounds badass :)
Now the main shows i watch/watched that include a decent amount of technobabble include the Stargate franchise in general, Fringe, Warehouse 13, A Town Called Eureka, Doctor Who, Star Trek etc. the list goes on for a while, but the point is that they are all shows that are "enhanced" (probably the wrong word, but oh well) by they're use of technobabble and all are more interesting to me as a result of it.
Sure, i can see it could be viewed as confusing to those watching the show who are very scientificily apt, but if you just take it as a means to reach the next plot point and nothing more than you should be fine, whereas the technical geeks out there such as myself get a kick out of getting "technical" information about these devices and procedures that help us to imagine how something would happen or be carried out in the real world :)
Just my thoughts on the matter...
Question: Do you guys enjoy technobabble?
DFTBA
Now the main shows i watch/watched that include a decent amount of technobabble include the Stargate franchise in general, Fringe, Warehouse 13, A Town Called Eureka, Doctor Who, Star Trek etc. the list goes on for a while, but the point is that they are all shows that are "enhanced" (probably the wrong word, but oh well) by they're use of technobabble and all are more interesting to me as a result of it.
Sure, i can see it could be viewed as confusing to those watching the show who are very scientificily apt, but if you just take it as a means to reach the next plot point and nothing more than you should be fine, whereas the technical geeks out there such as myself get a kick out of getting "technical" information about these devices and procedures that help us to imagine how something would happen or be carried out in the real world :)
Just my thoughts on the matter...
Question: Do you guys enjoy technobabble?
DFTBA
B.E.D.A Day 14 - Forgetfulness
so i know this post isn't technically valid as i forgot to post something for the 14th and i apologise, i just got wrapped up in doing some other stuff and it slipped my mind, as most things end up doing :P my memory is pretty terrible at the best of times, and so i can just put this in as more of a equaliser than anything else to keep the post stream consistent :P anyway, look at the next post up for something more interesting. /\/\/\ :)
Question: how do you guys help to remember stuff?
DFTBA
Question: how do you guys help to remember stuff?
DFTBA
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 13 - Getting Personal
So for the last couple of days, i have been avoiding looking into the bits of work that i have been given to do over the next couple of weeks alongside the revision that needs to be done for both my resits and exams that make up the second half of my AS levels and as much as i would like to say that i will get them done in good time, chances are that i won't, or at least not to a great standard.
Reasons behind this are relativly simply, first of all is my habit for procrastination that i have repeatedly bemoaned over that last few posts, mainly because of how frustrating it is when my brain wants to work but my body does not. However the other element at play is my inherant lack of concentration for extended periods of time, which went mixed with procrastination lead to a dangerous mix of laziness and inability to complete tasks to a decent level. These problems have become the bane of my life, but i have no idea how to combat them and my pride prevents me from asking for help (something that is beginning to endager the quality of my college work) and this has lead to me developing a very depressive and negative view of the world.
I have no problems acknowledging these issues and talking about them as i know they exist and that they are severly afflicting me, but my attitude towards how i many appear to other people prevents me from seeking help, above all else i would never want someone to pity me and "look down" upon me, even if it was in a "positive" way such as wishing to help because i may seem in need even when i myself refuse to see it. Todays blog has turned way more personal than i would have planned, but i felt i needed to get those issues off of my chest and out into the world at least peliminarily so i can feel like im making some sort of headway in sorting it out. So if by chance anyone actually reads these damn things (i doubt it, but oh well) leave a comment on how you deal with procrastination/laziness and try and give me an idea of how i can go about sorting this problem out, so far none of my questions have been answered, but to hell with it, i need to do something......anything...... :S
Question: how do you deal with putting something off?
DFTBA
Reasons behind this are relativly simply, first of all is my habit for procrastination that i have repeatedly bemoaned over that last few posts, mainly because of how frustrating it is when my brain wants to work but my body does not. However the other element at play is my inherant lack of concentration for extended periods of time, which went mixed with procrastination lead to a dangerous mix of laziness and inability to complete tasks to a decent level. These problems have become the bane of my life, but i have no idea how to combat them and my pride prevents me from asking for help (something that is beginning to endager the quality of my college work) and this has lead to me developing a very depressive and negative view of the world.
I have no problems acknowledging these issues and talking about them as i know they exist and that they are severly afflicting me, but my attitude towards how i many appear to other people prevents me from seeking help, above all else i would never want someone to pity me and "look down" upon me, even if it was in a "positive" way such as wishing to help because i may seem in need even when i myself refuse to see it. Todays blog has turned way more personal than i would have planned, but i felt i needed to get those issues off of my chest and out into the world at least peliminarily so i can feel like im making some sort of headway in sorting it out. So if by chance anyone actually reads these damn things (i doubt it, but oh well) leave a comment on how you deal with procrastination/laziness and try and give me an idea of how i can go about sorting this problem out, so far none of my questions have been answered, but to hell with it, i need to do something......anything...... :S
Question: how do you deal with putting something off?
DFTBA
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 12 - Revisiting the Classics
So on the weekend i picked up the Back To The Future Trilogy on DVD for £10 at HMV, which i thought was a pretty good deal considering how epic this classic trilogy is, feeling about the third one aside, and also because i hadn't watched any of the films in a while and so was feeling a tad nostalgic and wanted to revisit them.
I watched the first one last night and was glad to see my memory of the film hadn't been tarnished, if anything it had been altered in a good way as I hadn't watched the film in about 5 years and being only 11 last time I watched it, unable to grasp some of the finer details of film that make it such a classic. Things like the Chuck Berry reference near the end and the various other references to famous artists of the eras after the 50's like Van Halen and Hendrix was a welcome suprise as i hadn't really known that much about the artist the last time i had watched the film.
Other things like Marty's use of the word "heavy" and Doc not being able to understand that it had nothing to do with Gravity and also his reference to "Global Atomic Wars" upon seeing his future self wearing the radiation suit, highlighting the paranoia of the 50's and 60's of the potential outbreak of nuclear war were welcome nuances i hadn't noticed before.
I now more clearly understand than before why the film is regarded as such an classic and a milestone in the Sci-Fi genre of films and now I look forward to watching Part 2 tonight, hoping for a similer experiance.
Question: What is your favourite classic film?
DFTBA
I watched the first one last night and was glad to see my memory of the film hadn't been tarnished, if anything it had been altered in a good way as I hadn't watched the film in about 5 years and being only 11 last time I watched it, unable to grasp some of the finer details of film that make it such a classic. Things like the Chuck Berry reference near the end and the various other references to famous artists of the eras after the 50's like Van Halen and Hendrix was a welcome suprise as i hadn't really known that much about the artist the last time i had watched the film.
Other things like Marty's use of the word "heavy" and Doc not being able to understand that it had nothing to do with Gravity and also his reference to "Global Atomic Wars" upon seeing his future self wearing the radiation suit, highlighting the paranoia of the 50's and 60's of the potential outbreak of nuclear war were welcome nuances i hadn't noticed before.
I now more clearly understand than before why the film is regarded as such an classic and a milestone in the Sci-Fi genre of films and now I look forward to watching Part 2 tonight, hoping for a similer experiance.
Question: What is your favourite classic film?
DFTBA
Monday, 11 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 11 - Knowing your Limits
So i spent a good deal of time today trying to create a decent background for my YouTube page using GIMP and eventually gave up in frustration at being unable to comprehend how to exactly get the images to do what i wanted them to do. Sure i know the basics of cropping, rotating and filling and all that malarky but the thing that seems to trip me up all the time time (both in GIMP and Photoshop) is this concept of layering and how you can get images to slot into each other so that they look smooth and not some images just pasted next to each other. If anyone can give me some tips on how this works and how to get it working proporly, it would be appreciated, but the reason behind this story is that it made me contemplate the notion of limits and whether there are real such things or if it is simply a psychological construct of our minds to help us feel comfortably with opting out of difficult tasks.
This feeling of limits and not being able to surpass them is one im all to familier with, with my seeming inability to learn how to use graphic manipulation software and my lack of motivation to learn to play my instruments makes for it appearing to me that i have a wide range of limits that seem to block my attempted development of a skill no matter how trivial and simple it seems. I know that some people are just natural apt and creative and expressive things such as Art and Music, but i find this continuing barrier preventing me from progressing in seemingly every direction is getting kind of ridiculous, surely i can't rubbish at everything, right? Its one of the most frustrating things in my life alongside me seeming perfected skill of procrastination which beguiles and boggles me to no end.
Outside of the creative arena, i see to be at a brick wall when it comes to mathematics, something which is of extreme annoyance to me considering i wish to persue a career in Physics and therefore my lack of prowess with maths has left me at a sever disadvantage. There are potential reasons as to why i am like this, i was tested for Dyslexia when i was younger but i only seemed to display minor symptoms of the disorder and therefore was not considered to have it, but the problems have persisted since then and i wonder sometimes if i should have this looked into more carefully by professionals..... :S other possibilites include things such as Dyspraxia and Negative Narcissism Disorder, but that starts to fall down the road of self diagnosis which is never a good road to go down, particularly if you are concerned about what you might have.......
Question: Do you believe in limits?
DFTBA
This feeling of limits and not being able to surpass them is one im all to familier with, with my seeming inability to learn how to use graphic manipulation software and my lack of motivation to learn to play my instruments makes for it appearing to me that i have a wide range of limits that seem to block my attempted development of a skill no matter how trivial and simple it seems. I know that some people are just natural apt and creative and expressive things such as Art and Music, but i find this continuing barrier preventing me from progressing in seemingly every direction is getting kind of ridiculous, surely i can't rubbish at everything, right? Its one of the most frustrating things in my life alongside me seeming perfected skill of procrastination which beguiles and boggles me to no end.
Outside of the creative arena, i see to be at a brick wall when it comes to mathematics, something which is of extreme annoyance to me considering i wish to persue a career in Physics and therefore my lack of prowess with maths has left me at a sever disadvantage. There are potential reasons as to why i am like this, i was tested for Dyslexia when i was younger but i only seemed to display minor symptoms of the disorder and therefore was not considered to have it, but the problems have persisted since then and i wonder sometimes if i should have this looked into more carefully by professionals..... :S other possibilites include things such as Dyspraxia and Negative Narcissism Disorder, but that starts to fall down the road of self diagnosis which is never a good road to go down, particularly if you are concerned about what you might have.......
Question: Do you believe in limits?
DFTBA
Sunday, 10 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 10 - Building Temples to Mortal Men
So i spent about 3 hours today in Minecraft carefully constructing a titanic statue of the avatar of Notch, the creator of MineCraft, and while I was doing this I had a bit of a philosophical moment that I thought i would make today's blog topic about.
Basically the gist of this post is going to be based around this question, why do certain people deserve the right to have statues built in their likeness? Is it because of their deeds in life or because they knew the right people and made the right alliances that meant their likeness will be remembered for a long time after their death? Right from the get-go i guess i should say i don't know the answer to this question, i have my opinion on it and why we seem to favour certain people over others.
Lets start with my statue of Notch, which is in itself going to be part of a much larger temple that im working on at the moment and my reason behind doing this. The actual primary reason is sitirical in nature, because many people jokingly refer to Notch as the "god" of MineCraft as he is the original creator of the game and has done the majority of the coding on the game as well as deciding of its rules and limits and its aesthetics. For this reason i thought it apt enough to construct a temple to him, however i do belive there is a secondary undertone as to why i've build a temple to Notch and that is due to the fact that i respect him and the fact that he managed to get this small indie game and somehow managed to get the PC gaming community raving about, whether is down to his pure genius or knowing his consumers, who knows? And the same thing can be said of people who found valiently in wars and acheived other great things that mean they are deserving of statues.
However out in the real world, dictators and other foul and ruthless leaders set up statues of them to inspire fear in the subjected people of their respective countries and to make sure that they are remembered after they have died and their offspring have taken control and continue the abuse.
Question: Whats the coolest statue you've ever seen?
DFTBA
Basically the gist of this post is going to be based around this question, why do certain people deserve the right to have statues built in their likeness? Is it because of their deeds in life or because they knew the right people and made the right alliances that meant their likeness will be remembered for a long time after their death? Right from the get-go i guess i should say i don't know the answer to this question, i have my opinion on it and why we seem to favour certain people over others.
Lets start with my statue of Notch, which is in itself going to be part of a much larger temple that im working on at the moment and my reason behind doing this. The actual primary reason is sitirical in nature, because many people jokingly refer to Notch as the "god" of MineCraft as he is the original creator of the game and has done the majority of the coding on the game as well as deciding of its rules and limits and its aesthetics. For this reason i thought it apt enough to construct a temple to him, however i do belive there is a secondary undertone as to why i've build a temple to Notch and that is due to the fact that i respect him and the fact that he managed to get this small indie game and somehow managed to get the PC gaming community raving about, whether is down to his pure genius or knowing his consumers, who knows? And the same thing can be said of people who found valiently in wars and acheived other great things that mean they are deserving of statues.
However out in the real world, dictators and other foul and ruthless leaders set up statues of them to inspire fear in the subjected people of their respective countries and to make sure that they are remembered after they have died and their offspring have taken control and continue the abuse.
Question: Whats the coolest statue you've ever seen?
DFTBA
Saturday, 9 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 9 - Source Code: A Review
So i went a saw Source Code today with a couple of friends and thought i might as well make my blogpost for today about the movie, as it was pretty good and i need to review it on here at some point.
Source Code is the story of US Air Force Captain Colter Stevens ( Jake Gyllenhaal) who wakes up on a train with no idea of how he got there, gets talked to by a women he's never met but seems to "know" him and when he goes into the train's bathroom to collect himself, see's a face in the mirror that is definatly not his own. Its an interesting start to the movie and the setup itself seems a bit wierd at the beginning, but by the time the movie reaches its conclusion you come to realise why this has happened. This is pretty much the feeling that runs for the entirety of the film, but it helps to maintain the thrillerish aspect of the film, which has an Inception feel to it without the same convoluted storyline (or at least not to the same degree anyway)
Overall I thought Source Code was a brilliant movie, with some intriging twists and turns throughtout, as well as the progression of Gyllenhaal's character being very well done, in a way that meant you wern't entirely sure what was going to happen next. He starts off in a very confused state, not being entirely sure about what is happening to him and why he is being involved in this mission, which involves identifying the person responsible for bombing a passanger train on its way to Chicago within an 8 minute time frame, in which he can travel back to just before the bomb was detonated and attempt to identify the bomber, to coming to a realisation that isn't immediatly apparent and is quite suprising. The best way i can describe the film is a dumb man's Inception, because essentially thats what it is on a base level, its a thriller which messes with your mind like Inception, but the plot is nowhere near as complicated and multi-faceted and actually makes sense in the end (or not depending on your point of the view :P)
In conclusion, I would recommend this movie, its a smart, sophisticated thriller as well a fairly decent action film on its own, there are moments of weakness in the characters and plot, but they are quickly forgotten about when compared to the rest of the film. Gyllenhaal and the other actors portray their characters well, though i thought in places that Jeffery Wrights character was a little bit weak and flawed, when you compared to his other roles such as Felix in the Craig Bond movies, but he doesn't have a massive amount of screen time so its not a major fault to the film as a whole. If you liked Inception, or simply like thriller films with a sci-fi touch, then watch this film.
Score: 9/10
Question: what films do you plan to see in the holidays?
DFTBA
Source Code is the story of US Air Force Captain Colter Stevens ( Jake Gyllenhaal) who wakes up on a train with no idea of how he got there, gets talked to by a women he's never met but seems to "know" him and when he goes into the train's bathroom to collect himself, see's a face in the mirror that is definatly not his own. Its an interesting start to the movie and the setup itself seems a bit wierd at the beginning, but by the time the movie reaches its conclusion you come to realise why this has happened. This is pretty much the feeling that runs for the entirety of the film, but it helps to maintain the thrillerish aspect of the film, which has an Inception feel to it without the same convoluted storyline (or at least not to the same degree anyway)
Overall I thought Source Code was a brilliant movie, with some intriging twists and turns throughtout, as well as the progression of Gyllenhaal's character being very well done, in a way that meant you wern't entirely sure what was going to happen next. He starts off in a very confused state, not being entirely sure about what is happening to him and why he is being involved in this mission, which involves identifying the person responsible for bombing a passanger train on its way to Chicago within an 8 minute time frame, in which he can travel back to just before the bomb was detonated and attempt to identify the bomber, to coming to a realisation that isn't immediatly apparent and is quite suprising. The best way i can describe the film is a dumb man's Inception, because essentially thats what it is on a base level, its a thriller which messes with your mind like Inception, but the plot is nowhere near as complicated and multi-faceted and actually makes sense in the end (or not depending on your point of the view :P)
In conclusion, I would recommend this movie, its a smart, sophisticated thriller as well a fairly decent action film on its own, there are moments of weakness in the characters and plot, but they are quickly forgotten about when compared to the rest of the film. Gyllenhaal and the other actors portray their characters well, though i thought in places that Jeffery Wrights character was a little bit weak and flawed, when you compared to his other roles such as Felix in the Craig Bond movies, but he doesn't have a massive amount of screen time so its not a major fault to the film as a whole. If you liked Inception, or simply like thriller films with a sci-fi touch, then watch this film.
Score: 9/10
Question: what films do you plan to see in the holidays?
DFTBA
Friday, 8 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 8 - A Serious Blog
So the Easter holidays have finally arrived and hopefully that means I'll be able to dedicate more time and effort into creating meaningful blog post for B.E.D.A and whoever happens to be reading these things (make yourselves known by commenting) and kicking back and relaxing for a few weeks....
.....Or at least thats what it would be like in an ideal world, which as we all know can't fundamentally exist, so is most likely not gonna happen. First of all I have the second half of my AS levels to do not long after i get back from Easter, so as long as my procrasintationary skills don't get the better of me then i will be spending a fair amount of time revising my ass off for the exams. Second of all is my previously mentioned procrastination skills, which will no doubt entice me to write simple undetailed blog posts and also to leave them till the last minute, like its doing now.... :S
But regardless i will try and overcome this as i see it as a necessary element of changing the inconsistant elements of my character that i have no love for into something constructive....... or at least thats the hope anyway. But also before I go, i saw the new footage for the new Green Lantern movie coming out later this year from WonderCon and OMFG its looks awesome :D link below for anyone who hasn't seen its awesomeness and is interested in the film.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JydAY58Cvoo
Question: Who is your favourite superhero and why?
DFTBA
.....Or at least thats what it would be like in an ideal world, which as we all know can't fundamentally exist, so is most likely not gonna happen. First of all I have the second half of my AS levels to do not long after i get back from Easter, so as long as my procrasintationary skills don't get the better of me then i will be spending a fair amount of time revising my ass off for the exams. Second of all is my previously mentioned procrastination skills, which will no doubt entice me to write simple undetailed blog posts and also to leave them till the last minute, like its doing now.... :S
But regardless i will try and overcome this as i see it as a necessary element of changing the inconsistant elements of my character that i have no love for into something constructive....... or at least thats the hope anyway. But also before I go, i saw the new footage for the new Green Lantern movie coming out later this year from WonderCon and OMFG its looks awesome :D link below for anyone who hasn't seen its awesomeness and is interested in the film.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JydAY58Cvoo
Question: Who is your favourite superhero and why?
DFTBA
Thursday, 7 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 7 - Easterly Freedom
Once again this blog post is gonna be pretty short due to the fact that i got distracted by both homework and finishing my mage's tower in MineCraft :P 2nd floor has now been added and now just needs decoration..... :)
But hopefully with the Easter holidays starting in a few days i will be able to get some serious blog writing done alongside both homework and MineCraft-ing......fingers crossed anyway! :D
Question: what are you guys up to in the Easter Holidays?
DFTBA
But hopefully with the Easter holidays starting in a few days i will be able to get some serious blog writing done alongside both homework and MineCraft-ing......fingers crossed anyway! :D
Question: what are you guys up to in the Easter Holidays?
DFTBA
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 6 - Star Wars Nerdiness
So this blog post is gonna be rather short due to the fact that ive just gotten home from college after spending 6 hours at college watching the original Star War trilogy with some people as part of a charity event. Interesting concept I know, but it drew a much larger crowd that i was expecting, with Star Wars afficendo's and noobs alike coming together to watch the awesomeness of Star Wars.
There were some very humerous moments inbetween and during the movies, with people showing fan movies that they had made as well as showing funny Star Wars youtube videos to people that they had found.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5blbv4WFriM
The funny side during the films came from people who knew the films well making comments while they were showing in famous bits such as the "I am you father" scene and also they highlighting of euphomistic points of the dialogue that made it an overall very fun time, although the chair could have done with some better padding :P
Question: What is your opinon on the Star Wars Saga?
DFTBA
There were some very humerous moments inbetween and during the movies, with people showing fan movies that they had made as well as showing funny Star Wars youtube videos to people that they had found.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5blbv4WFriM
The funny side during the films came from people who knew the films well making comments while they were showing in famous bits such as the "I am you father" scene and also they highlighting of euphomistic points of the dialogue that made it an overall very fun time, although the chair could have done with some better padding :P
Question: What is your opinon on the Star Wars Saga?
DFTBA
B.E.D.A Day 5 - Musicality
For a while now ive been meaning to learn the musical instruments that i've acquired over the recent months/year, my acoustic guitar that ive named Jacques (yes i name my stuff, deal with it :P) and my ukulele Lola, both of whom sit complacently in my room gathering dust, while i um and arr over how to go about learning to play them.
In truth its just another element of my procrastination coming into play, supplicated with the fact that ive been brought up in a family thats never been musicaly minded and so never have that support and motivation necessary to push myself to learn to play the instruments. I do what to learn them, because i have a great love of music and while my specialty seems to lie with lyrics and remembering them, much to my infamy, i was not supplied by evolution with the voice necessary to sing well or indeed even decently, so instruments are the way for people that can't sing, right?
I have help guides and stuff that would slowly speed me on my way, but im also stuck at the point where im so muscially inept im not even sure if the instruments are tuned proporly :S they seem to reasonate together, but when you compare it to videos online, it doesn't sound right....... anyone who could help with this is welcome :)
but im determined that at some point these instruments will be learned, maybe not tommorrow or the day after that but at some point in the future it shall be done! great words of failing have never been spoken......
Question: got any musical tips for me? what musical instruments can you guys play?
DFTBA
In truth its just another element of my procrastination coming into play, supplicated with the fact that ive been brought up in a family thats never been musicaly minded and so never have that support and motivation necessary to push myself to learn to play the instruments. I do what to learn them, because i have a great love of music and while my specialty seems to lie with lyrics and remembering them, much to my infamy, i was not supplied by evolution with the voice necessary to sing well or indeed even decently, so instruments are the way for people that can't sing, right?
I have help guides and stuff that would slowly speed me on my way, but im also stuck at the point where im so muscially inept im not even sure if the instruments are tuned proporly :S they seem to reasonate together, but when you compare it to videos online, it doesn't sound right....... anyone who could help with this is welcome :)
but im determined that at some point these instruments will be learned, maybe not tommorrow or the day after that but at some point in the future it shall be done! great words of failing have never been spoken......
Question: got any musical tips for me? what musical instruments can you guys play?
DFTBA
Monday, 4 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 4 - Monday Blues
Monday is always considered to be the "downer" day of the week, especially here in the UK, due to the fact that it is the first day after the weekend when everyone has to go back to work/school and because the week "resets" itself beginning with Monday with people having to wait another 4 days for another few days off.
Now ive come across an interesting phenomena while talking with my co-vloggers on the FellowshipoftheNing and thats across the ocean in the America's the week seems begin on a Sunday instead of a Monday. This i found perplexing as all my life ive been used to Monday being considered the beginning of the week and never hearing any different because it seems to be a universal standerd across Europe.
Im not too sure what i wanted to say here really, but i think it was something along the lines of how similer cultures can be and yet you still find subtle differences between them be it through things like saying when the week starts to the names of things (obvious the British way is correct of course ;D) but learning about these sorts of things is always an intruiging experiance for someone like me :)
Question: What motivates you guys through the week?
DFTBA
Now ive come across an interesting phenomena while talking with my co-vloggers on the FellowshipoftheNing and thats across the ocean in the America's the week seems begin on a Sunday instead of a Monday. This i found perplexing as all my life ive been used to Monday being considered the beginning of the week and never hearing any different because it seems to be a universal standerd across Europe.
Im not too sure what i wanted to say here really, but i think it was something along the lines of how similer cultures can be and yet you still find subtle differences between them be it through things like saying when the week starts to the names of things (obvious the British way is correct of course ;D) but learning about these sorts of things is always an intruiging experiance for someone like me :)
Question: What motivates you guys through the week?
DFTBA
Sunday, 3 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 3 - Minecraft is distracting....
Okay, so today is just been a quick one because i got stuck playing Minecraft and totally forgot to write this blogpost :P
When people first suggested this game to me i thought it sounded stupid, but now im hooked and feel bad for knocking it :S
give it a try if you get the chance, exspecially if your a fan of video games with creative elements like LittleBigPlanet and FarCry2....
anyway, it calls me back....."Im a dwarf and im digging a hole, diggy diggy hole......" ;)
Yogscast FTW
Question: Do any of you play Minecraft? What do you think of it?
DFTBA
When people first suggested this game to me i thought it sounded stupid, but now im hooked and feel bad for knocking it :S
give it a try if you get the chance, exspecially if your a fan of video games with creative elements like LittleBigPlanet and FarCry2....
anyway, it calls me back....."Im a dwarf and im digging a hole, diggy diggy hole......" ;)
Yogscast FTW
Question: Do any of you play Minecraft? What do you think of it?
DFTBA
Saturday, 2 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 2 - Doctor Who Season 6 Trailer
Day 2 of Blog Every Day in April! and today i wanted to talk about the recent trailers that were released for the new season of Doctor Who, which is beginning to air during in the Easter holidays here in the UK (and i think is being shown in parallel on BBC America). Now im a massive fan of Doctor Who, have been since before the new series had even started airing having seen a fair share of the original eps from the legendery Doctors such as William Hartnell and Tom Baker and so i was pumped to see what the new trailer contained and what titbits its revealed.
Trailer link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48hM83hN-SU
Now first of all we see the same clip that we saw in the original teaser trailer, with the doctor chained up and growing a rather impressive beard (didn't think Time Lords had to shave) and many people have speculated that its not the original Doctor and instead some clone. Now with these such things i don't like to speculate, but a story document has leaked that involve aliens create a Doctor clone to lead an invasion of Earth, so who knows they're may be some truth in there somewhere.
There are various other things that pop up in the trailer to talk about, but that would take forever and ive posted a youtube video today about some of my thoughts on the trailer, link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAyxeeOMSkY so i'll use here to talk about some of the other bits that actually appear in the BBC America trailer that isn't in the UK Trailer.
American Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhe_ywL1BkQ
The most evident thing is that the American trailer shows way more of the episodes in America (which i believe are the first two episodes of the season), possibly in a ploy to pull prospective American viewers in with the British take on their country or just to showcase that us Brits can still do a decent dramatic portrayal of the country. The interesting thing i found in those clips was that the Tardis seems to be invisible and then decloaks inside some official looking building (probably the White House) surrounded by suprised Secret Service agents, which without context seems a bit odd, but im sure will make sense within the story of the episode. Other things shown in the trailer included what seemed to be a Minotaur in a hotel hallway, a shot of inside the control room in the old Tardis and a quick flashes of what look like people in black suits with skeleton like faces, all and all adding up to what looks to be a great season.
Question: what did you guys think of the trailers?
DFTBA
Trailer link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48hM83hN-SU
Now first of all we see the same clip that we saw in the original teaser trailer, with the doctor chained up and growing a rather impressive beard (didn't think Time Lords had to shave) and many people have speculated that its not the original Doctor and instead some clone. Now with these such things i don't like to speculate, but a story document has leaked that involve aliens create a Doctor clone to lead an invasion of Earth, so who knows they're may be some truth in there somewhere.
There are various other things that pop up in the trailer to talk about, but that would take forever and ive posted a youtube video today about some of my thoughts on the trailer, link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAyxeeOMSkY so i'll use here to talk about some of the other bits that actually appear in the BBC America trailer that isn't in the UK Trailer.
American Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhe_ywL1BkQ
The most evident thing is that the American trailer shows way more of the episodes in America (which i believe are the first two episodes of the season), possibly in a ploy to pull prospective American viewers in with the British take on their country or just to showcase that us Brits can still do a decent dramatic portrayal of the country. The interesting thing i found in those clips was that the Tardis seems to be invisible and then decloaks inside some official looking building (probably the White House) surrounded by suprised Secret Service agents, which without context seems a bit odd, but im sure will make sense within the story of the episode. Other things shown in the trailer included what seemed to be a Minotaur in a hotel hallway, a shot of inside the control room in the old Tardis and a quick flashes of what look like people in black suits with skeleton like faces, all and all adding up to what looks to be a great season.
Question: what did you guys think of the trailers?
DFTBA
Friday, 1 April 2011
B.E.D.A Day 1 - Progression
Well today is the first day of BEDA (Blog Every Day in April) and i thought i might as well give it a whirl, can't say that i'll be able to do it, but to hell with it, if you don't try something you'll never know.
Today im gonna talk about progression, of myself and the little skill and techniques i want to pick up and learn at some point. I've got a multitude of projects and videos im working on, which include eventually getting around to uploading my thoughts from places videos for both Iceland and Italy, starting to work on my A History of Awesome series that im probably gonna start on a new channel for and also to put more "professional" work on (name suggestions welcome btw :P) and also launching a new website with my friends at college - an media review site called MediaZombie (hopefully more on it in the future).
I also have things like wanting to learn basic programming and graphic design as well as at some stage learning to play the musical instruments i have acquired over the recent months and doing some fine-tuning and upgrading of various bit of equipment. It may sound like alot to do and with my procrastination, general laziness and lack of concentration and enthusiasm its gonna be like trying to climb Everest in the deep winter, but its stuff i want to learn and i just have to push myself to do it.
QUESTION: What do you do to motivate yourself?
DFTBA
Today im gonna talk about progression, of myself and the little skill and techniques i want to pick up and learn at some point. I've got a multitude of projects and videos im working on, which include eventually getting around to uploading my thoughts from places videos for both Iceland and Italy, starting to work on my A History of Awesome series that im probably gonna start on a new channel for and also to put more "professional" work on (name suggestions welcome btw :P) and also launching a new website with my friends at college - an media review site called MediaZombie (hopefully more on it in the future).
I also have things like wanting to learn basic programming and graphic design as well as at some stage learning to play the musical instruments i have acquired over the recent months and doing some fine-tuning and upgrading of various bit of equipment. It may sound like alot to do and with my procrastination, general laziness and lack of concentration and enthusiasm its gonna be like trying to climb Everest in the deep winter, but its stuff i want to learn and i just have to push myself to do it.
QUESTION: What do you do to motivate yourself?
DFTBA
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Paul - A Review (MINOR SPOILERS!)
This review is way behing schedule, seeing as i saw the film about two weeks ago, but oh well better late than never i guess :P
Paul is the story of two nerds, Clive (played by Nick Frost) and Graeme (played by Simon Pegg) who are aspiring comic book writer-artist duo from the UK, who go to America for Comicon and then on a road trip to visit the US' most infamous ufo sites. Not soon after they meet up with Paul (voiced by Seth Rogan), an alien who has been a "guest" of the US government for the last 60 years and now wishes to return home and therefore is being hunted by secret agents. Cue a zany adventure to return Paul to his people in typical Pegg/Frost style that has them doing what they do best!
Okay, ad style intro over. Overall I thought Paul was a pretty awesome movie, the jokes were pretty funny and although the humour was a bit vulger (on purpose) at times, I found myself laughing through most of it. Also as this film is meant to be an homage to the great sci-fi films of the 70's/80's there are cult references through-out to classics such as ET, Closer Encounters of the Third Kind, The Fifth Element and numerous others, so those of you who know your sci-fi films will probably get more out of it than those who don't. The character of stereotypical bible-basher southener Ruth (played by Kristin Wiig) was also an interesting turn that I hadn't seen coming, with her intial confrontation with Paul being one of the highlights of the movie in my opinon. She is definatly the character that undergoes the most development over the course of the movie, with her coming to grips with the existance of extraterrestrial life and that the world isn't as based around the christian faith as she thought (helped along by a healthy brain zap by Paul) being one of the most suprising and interesting points with of the movie.
In conclusion i will admit the story probably could have had more structure to it, with it never really making it clear what the characters are suppose to be doing, something that the characters themselves voice during the film, so it may be intential, who knows. But the film is a geniunly good sci-fi romp, with Pegg and Frost being up to their excellent standered as per usual. If you have an inkeling to go watch this film, make sure you do.
Score - 8.5/10
DFTBA
Paul is the story of two nerds, Clive (played by Nick Frost) and Graeme (played by Simon Pegg) who are aspiring comic book writer-artist duo from the UK, who go to America for Comicon and then on a road trip to visit the US' most infamous ufo sites. Not soon after they meet up with Paul (voiced by Seth Rogan), an alien who has been a "guest" of the US government for the last 60 years and now wishes to return home and therefore is being hunted by secret agents. Cue a zany adventure to return Paul to his people in typical Pegg/Frost style that has them doing what they do best!
Okay, ad style intro over. Overall I thought Paul was a pretty awesome movie, the jokes were pretty funny and although the humour was a bit vulger (on purpose) at times, I found myself laughing through most of it. Also as this film is meant to be an homage to the great sci-fi films of the 70's/80's there are cult references through-out to classics such as ET, Closer Encounters of the Third Kind, The Fifth Element and numerous others, so those of you who know your sci-fi films will probably get more out of it than those who don't. The character of stereotypical bible-basher southener Ruth (played by Kristin Wiig) was also an interesting turn that I hadn't seen coming, with her intial confrontation with Paul being one of the highlights of the movie in my opinon. She is definatly the character that undergoes the most development over the course of the movie, with her coming to grips with the existance of extraterrestrial life and that the world isn't as based around the christian faith as she thought (helped along by a healthy brain zap by Paul) being one of the most suprising and interesting points with of the movie.
In conclusion i will admit the story probably could have had more structure to it, with it never really making it clear what the characters are suppose to be doing, something that the characters themselves voice during the film, so it may be intential, who knows. But the film is a geniunly good sci-fi romp, with Pegg and Frost being up to their excellent standered as per usual. If you have an inkeling to go watch this film, make sure you do.
Score - 8.5/10
DFTBA
Saturday, 12 February 2011
Fringe Season 1 - A Review
So over the last week or so, I finally got round to watching the Season 1 DVD of Fringe that I got for Christmas and now that I’ve watched it all the way through and examined the boxsets special features I thought I might as well post a review to show your reading people what I thought of it. Now I feel I should preface this by saying I went in not really expecting much, the adverts for Fringe on TV (currently for Season 3) didn't really entice me and it looked like an X Files clone to me, which to a certain extent it is. However I was pleasantly surprised, I immediately found the premise intriguing, the characters instantly likable and engaging and the storyline coherent and understandable.
Fringe follows Olivia Dunham, an astute FBI agent, who is unwilling dragged into the unknown and unpredicatable world of "Fringe Science" through a series of cases known as "The Pattern" which all involve a type of scientific undertaking previously unheard of, but as we find out, not untested. She is joined in her investigations by Doctor Walter Bishop, a scientist who has had previous experiance with this kind of phenomena; but has also spent the last 17 years locked up in a mental institute after a lab explosion killed one of his assistents and therefore is a bit.......out of it. The are also joined by Walter's reluctant son Peter Bishop, who hasn't spoken to his father since he was incarcerated, but is there on Olivia's behest as he calms and focus' Walter to the task at hand. Now at first I wasn't sure if i would like Olivia as the main character, she seemed to be too uptight and job focused to be an interesting character, but she blossomed quite quickly and you saw the vunerable elements of her character and how she was more human than I thought she had seemed at the start. However my favourite character by far was Walter himself, with his zany personality, intermittent streams of both genius and silly comments, extensive knowledge of so called pseudoscience and chemistry skills that general yield illegal substances, pretty much make each episode for me.
Overall I won't go into too much detail if you haven't seen any of the series so far, but i will simply say my favourite eps from season 1 were "Safe" and "Ability" as they showed by far the best elements of the characters and created some interesting plot lines. If you haven't yet seen Fringe, then i would definatly reccommend you go watch it, some of the plot lines are a tad predictable but its sense of dramatic irony is subtle enough that you don't question the characters intelligence or reasoning in the investigations they take part in. Overall an excellent first season of a show and i look forward to get my hands on season two
Score: 9/10
DFTBA
Fringe follows Olivia Dunham, an astute FBI agent, who is unwilling dragged into the unknown and unpredicatable world of "Fringe Science" through a series of cases known as "The Pattern" which all involve a type of scientific undertaking previously unheard of, but as we find out, not untested. She is joined in her investigations by Doctor Walter Bishop, a scientist who has had previous experiance with this kind of phenomena; but has also spent the last 17 years locked up in a mental institute after a lab explosion killed one of his assistents and therefore is a bit.......out of it. The are also joined by Walter's reluctant son Peter Bishop, who hasn't spoken to his father since he was incarcerated, but is there on Olivia's behest as he calms and focus' Walter to the task at hand. Now at first I wasn't sure if i would like Olivia as the main character, she seemed to be too uptight and job focused to be an interesting character, but she blossomed quite quickly and you saw the vunerable elements of her character and how she was more human than I thought she had seemed at the start. However my favourite character by far was Walter himself, with his zany personality, intermittent streams of both genius and silly comments, extensive knowledge of so called pseudoscience and chemistry skills that general yield illegal substances, pretty much make each episode for me.
Overall I won't go into too much detail if you haven't seen any of the series so far, but i will simply say my favourite eps from season 1 were "Safe" and "Ability" as they showed by far the best elements of the characters and created some interesting plot lines. If you haven't yet seen Fringe, then i would definatly reccommend you go watch it, some of the plot lines are a tad predictable but its sense of dramatic irony is subtle enough that you don't question the characters intelligence or reasoning in the investigations they take part in. Overall an excellent first season of a show and i look forward to get my hands on season two
Score: 9/10
DFTBA
Monday, 31 January 2011
Darwinism
Darwin's famous theory of evolution states that the main principle of life is "survival of the fittest" or those with the strongest characteristics that allow them to live in their enviroment will continue to thrive while those less well suited will eventually die out. I have come to the conclusion that if the same principle is applied to college life and the education system then i am, in one word, screwed.
I've never been a strong willed individual, I have strong opinions on certain topics and i'm not afraid to voice them as needs must but i'm also very submissive, I don't tend to stand up to people and stay quiet when someone voices a view that I disagree with. I also tend to be very apathetic in my life and in most of the ventures I undertake, which inevitably ends up with them failing due to me being unable to put a decent driving force behind them. This leads to me not being very successful in social situations, particularly in reference to college, where im unable to hold a steady conversation with someone without the support of someone else to prop up the conversation when it begins to fail. As you can probably imagine this has been a major contribution as to why ive never had a girlfriend.
But despite this depressing diatribe, there is some light at the end of this dark tunnel, based around the fact that Darwin's famous "survival of the fittest" phrase is actually a mis-quote of what he originally said in his book The Origin of Species which was "survival of the best fit". This might seem incredibly similer to the previous statement, but it is in fact inexorably different from "survival of the fittest" which means that those with the strongest characteristics will survive, whereas "survival of the best fit" means that those with the characteristics best suited to the enviroment they are in will be the ones that survive. Now I can tell you for the fact that this doesn't hold much weight for me as i'm not an academic person, but i know my way throught the education system and how it works. I also know that when I find my niche spot within society someday, with people who actually can understand and empathise with me as they share similer viewpoints and lifestyles.
Sure its a long shot, but right now its all i've got.
DFTBA
I've never been a strong willed individual, I have strong opinions on certain topics and i'm not afraid to voice them as needs must but i'm also very submissive, I don't tend to stand up to people and stay quiet when someone voices a view that I disagree with. I also tend to be very apathetic in my life and in most of the ventures I undertake, which inevitably ends up with them failing due to me being unable to put a decent driving force behind them. This leads to me not being very successful in social situations, particularly in reference to college, where im unable to hold a steady conversation with someone without the support of someone else to prop up the conversation when it begins to fail. As you can probably imagine this has been a major contribution as to why ive never had a girlfriend.
But despite this depressing diatribe, there is some light at the end of this dark tunnel, based around the fact that Darwin's famous "survival of the fittest" phrase is actually a mis-quote of what he originally said in his book The Origin of Species which was "survival of the best fit". This might seem incredibly similer to the previous statement, but it is in fact inexorably different from "survival of the fittest" which means that those with the strongest characteristics will survive, whereas "survival of the best fit" means that those with the characteristics best suited to the enviroment they are in will be the ones that survive. Now I can tell you for the fact that this doesn't hold much weight for me as i'm not an academic person, but i know my way throught the education system and how it works. I also know that when I find my niche spot within society someday, with people who actually can understand and empathise with me as they share similer viewpoints and lifestyles.
Sure its a long shot, but right now its all i've got.
DFTBA
Monday, 10 January 2011
The Doorway
Seeing as Francisco got all philosophical and poetic on his most recent vlog, i thought i might as well put my own little contribution down here as part of my new year takeoff, im not too why i wrote this, its a bit depressing, but enjoy anyway.
Shadows dance across my eyes, days flit and pass without merit or success
telling the story of a man who is not truly there
My eyes are wide and senses engaged, yet nothing of true spirt is shown
I am content to sit in lonelyness, observing the world through the keyhole of life's door
I sometimes push at the door, screaming in rage and frustration at what i see through my portal
But the door is indifferent, it does not care for me or my suffering
it only opens for those of elegence and power, something of which I have neither
As much as I try i cannot sway the door nor overcome it and therefore must resign myself to attempting to communicate with those whom i observe through my gateway
Sometimes i am able to pass a note through the door, a few words of wisdom for a waning soul
whom is in need of comfort and support, somthing i cannot give
My idea of the world is a sour one, a bittersweet apple that cannot be enjoyed even by the most hungry
and I am afraid, of my existance having ended never having passed through the great archway and truly experiancing life
The faces i see, some of happiness, some of pain, all seem to read the same
They do not see me nor my plight
I am but another shadow to them, another partisan on the journey of life, of no significance
nor of any use, I have no skill nor talent, my mind remains in fantasy, or worlds that do not exist
But there are those who see me, trapped as I am
and I hope that someday soon, i will gain admitance to that great vault of souls and happiness will become my world
I yearn to experiance it, but cannot concieve how feels, smells or sounds
The doorway is my world, always has been, always will be
hmmm, well the jury's out on that one i think, let me know what you think in the comments below.
DFTBA
Shadows dance across my eyes, days flit and pass without merit or success
telling the story of a man who is not truly there
My eyes are wide and senses engaged, yet nothing of true spirt is shown
I am content to sit in lonelyness, observing the world through the keyhole of life's door
I sometimes push at the door, screaming in rage and frustration at what i see through my portal
But the door is indifferent, it does not care for me or my suffering
it only opens for those of elegence and power, something of which I have neither
As much as I try i cannot sway the door nor overcome it and therefore must resign myself to attempting to communicate with those whom i observe through my gateway
Sometimes i am able to pass a note through the door, a few words of wisdom for a waning soul
whom is in need of comfort and support, somthing i cannot give
My idea of the world is a sour one, a bittersweet apple that cannot be enjoyed even by the most hungry
and I am afraid, of my existance having ended never having passed through the great archway and truly experiancing life
The faces i see, some of happiness, some of pain, all seem to read the same
They do not see me nor my plight
I am but another shadow to them, another partisan on the journey of life, of no significance
nor of any use, I have no skill nor talent, my mind remains in fantasy, or worlds that do not exist
But there are those who see me, trapped as I am
and I hope that someday soon, i will gain admitance to that great vault of souls and happiness will become my world
I yearn to experiance it, but cannot concieve how feels, smells or sounds
The doorway is my world, always has been, always will be
hmmm, well the jury's out on that one i think, let me know what you think in the comments below.
DFTBA
Saturday, 1 January 2011
New Year, New Changes
Happy New Year Everyone! :)
Over the coming year i intend to make this place full of my thoughts and feelings, so be prepared for a journey and always remember, the journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step.
Over the coming year i intend to make this place full of my thoughts and feelings, so be prepared for a journey and always remember, the journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step.
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