Used to be weekly-ish but now likely to be occasional musings
April/May 2010
Right, I'm back so lets crack on. Moving back to the car I had to arrange getting it collected by the insurances bodywork people and then in turn arranging the hire car that would fill the gap. My insurance company handled most of it and all I had to do was get my brother to run me to the hire place.They fitted me up with a brand new shape Clio, which turned out to be a real pleasure to drive. The steering was light, the clutch piss easy and the ride really comfortable. I never found out what sized engine it was but in the right gear it had some poke.
The best thing about it though was the fact that it had an input jack for an iPod. Unfortunately it was the left/right white/red kind but a quick drive to Bluewater got me the relevant lead (which I can also use in the back of my hi-fi, which is cool) and my iPod was hooked up. It was great. Being able to listen to all the Manuel le Saux download mixes as I'm blatting along is just the best way to listen to proper trance. I usually listen to CD's or the radio but being able to bang out some decent thumping dance on the way home, and into work, was a huge bonus.
Regarding the accident, I've had my car back but it seems the liability resolution is taking some time. Unsurprisingly after the womans performance at the accident she's been dragging her feet somewhat. When I did eventually hear back from my insurance company, they said she was contesting the accident and trying to blame me for having had my indicator light on! How typical. It has been agreed or anything and rest assured that if they push further down that line, I will go apopleptic.
I mean the fact that she hit the rear left of my car with the front left of hers can't be too difficult for one of their crash investigators to work out how that could have happened. The fact that my car was clearly past the front of hers before she pulled out to hit me, is a good place to start. Add this to her unwillingness to provide her address details until I called the police also, one would believe, would speak volumes for her, shall we say, sense of fair play.
Also managed to see Kick Ass on a special preview. The trailer had been great but I'd deliberately tried to limit my exposure for fear that I would corrupt the experience.
It was a really great film that I thoroughly enjoyed. Top notch writing that made you connect, laugh and care for the characters with a great story and some wonderful action scenes. I came out of the cinema and had that tingling, excitable feeling that I get when I've seen something that I've thought was brilliant.
I like how it mocked some of the superhero clichés yet still didn't compromise or resort to 'going soft' at the end. It would have been easy in delivering swathes of violence and then bludgeoning the audience with a 'tut-tut' attitude of violence solves nothing but it didn't.
It could have gone like Cameron did in Avatar. You know James loves technology, military hardware and blowing shit up yet by the end it's the trees that we are meant to care about.
It gave the audience what it wanted and took it in refreshing directions. There were actually a couple of times when it seemed our gang were the only ones laughing, which even further re-enforces our feelings of being in the minority when it comes to games, films and maybe even life!
All the action scenes felt fresh and varied and the use of Elvis in the final action denouement was inspired. A lot has been said about Hit Girl, and yes she is super cool, but so are many of the actors and actresses. Big Daddy is great, Mark Strong as the main bad guy and the main lead, ie Kick Ass himself who is another British actor, carries the film well.
A fantastic, cracking film that truly delivered on what the trailer made out it would be. I went into sponge after the film, considered buying the Making of book and my brother even bought me the Kick Ass goodie from French Connection, which is supremely cool. I know maybe that a man of my age shouldn't be wearing hoodies from films, and I know my brother would make it look far cooler, but I think it's great.
Went out into Maidstone on one of the Saturdays, which was good fun. Partied, or at least tried to party, hard. At one point we got chatting to a group of girls. They seemed like good fun, though one of them felt compelled to demonstrate that she was taken by showing us her engagement ring. Fair play to her but it did lead to us ripping her at every moment with these grandiose proclamations of "I'm taken, I'm taken".
They headed off and we carried on dancing. Amazingly we then got chatting to two girls who were very entertaining. They seemed fun and lively and we continued the chat when we headed outside and visited the Subway. Nice girls and it added a welcome spark of excitement to the evening.
The following week was the lead up to the Easter weekend and I'd noticed that Domino's were opening a franchise on the Old Kent Road. With some of the people in the office not having experienced the wonder of Domino's before, I decreed that the Thursday before we broke up would become D day. I knocked up a little sheet in PowerPoint with a few pointless Domino's facts such as
Founded in 1960 as DomiNicks before becoming Domino's Pizza in 1965
Or
The three dots in the logo represent the first three Domino's stores. At the time, the plan was to add a dot for every new store.
It was just a bit of fun so sign off the last few busy weeks we'd had but I confess to looking forward to it. The pizzas went down well. We all had one each plus a plethora of starters, well actually just the garlic bread and chicken kickers but since they stopped doing the potato skins these are the only two sides worth getting.
Also saw the new trailers for The Expendables and The A team on firstshowing.net. I'd say I preferred the one for the A-team but given that the first trailers for Rambo were truly awful I wasn't surprised that I didn't enjoy the Expendables trailer. Check it out
The A-Team trailer. Watch in HD if you can
Caught a few more films including 9, an animated film that was ok but quite short, and an awful film called The Line with Ray Liotta. We did wonder why it had literally no movie critic quotes on the box but thought "well sometimes you have to take a chance".
It was awful, clichéd, tedious, confusing and the ending, though trying to be a WTF moment, just felt lame. It had that similar and overplayed sitting on the bed with hands in the hair which is jarringly edited to give an indication of a passage of time.And please the amount of aerial shots of Tijuana and that large arch edifice. If nothing else at least if I ever speak to anyone that has been there I can ask them about that structure. How they got such a stellar cast together for this dross is beyond me.
Was heading over to Basildon for a house party followed by a night of clubbing so I started the day by hitting Bluewater and thinking I might get something to wear that night. I must be getting older because there was literally nothing in the shops I liked. I had money and I had the desire to buy something but it all seems to be either 'distressed' t-shirts or check shirts. Man, the lack of choice unless you are prepared to pay upwards of £150 is heartbreaking.
Basildon was good fun. Started at the house party where I did everything I could to get the party started and people communicating with everyone. The host was very sweet when she insisted on showing everyone my BGT performance on YouTube. Naturally I wasn't offered immediate committal free sex for being a celebrity but it helped break down the barriers of people knowing who everyone was.
After exhausting almost all of the available alcohol in an assortment of shots designed to get everyone moving, we bundled into a couple of cars and heading over to the clubs. They were already in full swing and we hurried to bring ourselves to that level. We were dancing and drinking and all seemingly having a good time.
As the night progressed I did become disappointed with one of the people who decided to go and get their coat, put it on and sit down with her bag on her lap and a sullen look on her face. I can't abide that kind of selfish "I'm bored and want to go home and will make it obvious to everyone that I'm feeling like this" attitude. Miserable bitch.
By the time we got back home, some were a little hammered including my brother who'd taken a double round of shots when the MB I mentioned earlier went to the bar to get some drinks and then decided that she didn't want to play ball. After furnishing the other revellers with some chicken that I'd found in the fridge and chucked in the oven, my brother and I hit the road. Grabbed a drive-thru McDonalds and had a good chat about Babylon 5. Even through the faze of drunkenness, he still expressed how much he loved the series and the characters.
Broke the next day in with one of my classic fried brunches. I've recently discovered the art of dry frying the bacon and the sausages and man does it increase the taste, particularly of the sausages. Get some decent quality ones and try it. The juices that come out are just fabulous.
Watched the special features of Michael Jackson's This is it later that afternoon. I thought the actual film was good but the accompanying documentaries were really excellent for further developing the man and the work that went on to almost bring the concert to life. The ending they had planned with the 3D plane was great and the costumes that they designed for his performances were truly out of this world. The effort, thought and design that went into the clothing, particularly the Billie Jean outfit, which would have been stunning, beggars belief. Even more proof, if it was needed, what a show this might have been.
Also caught Into the Blue on DVD. It's all good living and beautiful bodies starring Paul Walker and Jessica Alba. Jessica really is something else. A wonderfully pretty face, a slim body that although I'd prefer bigger boobs is still amazingly sexy and a bottom, that in this film is presented so well in an assortment of shorts and bikinis, that it's a work of art. Wow.
Popped round to P's the following Sunday to start watching another of her recommendations. Supernatural. My brother and I were impressed with what we saw and taking the boxed sets that P had we hungrily started to watch them. We really liked the two brother characters of Sam and Dean and the closeness of their relationship is certainly one that echoes that of my brother and I. You rarely see it so well shown in film, let alone TV, that it was great to watch.
The writers seem to understand the simple notion and comfort that comes from being with your brother, sharing a beer or just watching the TV together. Add to that a casting director who secures some of the loveliest, prettiest women to appear on the show either as main leads or just secondary characters and some kick arse action and you've got a show that certainly at the moment has us both hooked.
Another busy week in the office with the first of the three political debates held during the week. It made for interesting viewing though did wind me up with the immediate post debate analysis. Everything was reduced to a digestible sound bite with immediate polls taken to ascertain who won. I mean it's good to get people talking about politics but the almost X factor nature with people's decisions being swayed so mercurially by how someone said something and what tie they were wearing is concerning. This was then repeated and re-enforced through the news, Question Time and then This Week.
I found it so infuriating and worrying that a couple of people's opinions on the TV could then multiply into the collected consensus that someone had done well or done badly.
Indulged in another trip to Domino's for a work colleagues birthday as well as keeping up the Supernatural viewing. We had thought we could manage on holding fire to the weekend but such was the pull that we'd end up wanting to watch them during the week nights. They still consistently deliver though I have to say that I don't think Season 2 is as good as the first one.
We had previously arranged to hit the Venue for a double birthday celebration on the Saturday. One of our team had to miss it due to being grounded by the Icelandic volcano ash cloud that appeared that week and grounded every plane in the UK. Headed on down there and managed to get pretty drunk but it wasn't as good a night as others we'd had down there.
The time in the club didn't drag, I smashed back my fair share of alcohol and danced my little socks off but there was something missing. I don't know if there were less people there or not the same level of pretty girls in my circle of vision but it just didn't fully 'click'. Ambled back up the Old Kent Road to my friends pad where we all destroyed a large order of KFC that had seemed to take an eternity to prepare.
That Sunday we started watching another series that would keep us hooked for another couple of weeks. Jersey Shore. It's basically a group of American 20-somethings who go and stay at a beach house on the Jersey Shore. The Jersey Shore seems to be the US chav equivalent of The Hampton's populated by Guido's and Guidettes. Shallow, vacuous, self obsessed individuals constantly out looking to score and 'battle' a dance floor.
We would usually have switched over but it looked entertaining and one character Mike "The Situation", yes that was what they displayed on the screen whenever he spoke, was so outrageous in both his name and actions that we were hooked.
I appreciate that admitting that I like it is akin to jumping into bed with the devil but I think I like it because they are so shallow. Mike's arrogance is so ridiculous at referring to himself as "the situation" that it's funny and in turn legendary for being able to cut through the crap and be memorable, albeit for the wrong reasons.
I like seeing people have fun and enjoy themselves, so watching a bunch of people heading out regularly and witnessing their antics is enjoyable, but I'm certainly not looking up to them as role models. Some of the lines that we've had from "The Situation" such as calling girls 'grenades' or one that he described as a 'bomb' that Paulie D didn't have the code to defuse are hilarious.
Another busy week at work followed that was compounded by a ridiculously slow internet connection. Prepared a couple of wonderful dishes, if I do say so myself, during the week. One was dry frying up some meatballs in a rich meaty, creamy sauce with a some mushrooms and onions. The better one though was a dish of sausages (these wonderful chipolata ones from Tesco) dry fried and cut into pieces, then some bacon dry fried in the same saucepan, followed by onions and mushrooms fried in those juices.
I then added a tin of chopped tomatoes, a Lloyd Grossman sauce and some single cream. This created a lovely, deep dark rich sauce that I then added to some bronzed penne pasta. The penne was a little bigger than others that I've had, and coupled with the sauce retaining qualities of the 'bronze' pasta, made almost every one a delicious package of pasta and sauce. Sprinkled with grated cheese and served with garlic bread, it made for a wondrous meal!
Finished season 2 of Supernatural and continued on through the 3rd. We both thought it was a better season than the second with episodes that seemed fresher and a willingness by the writers to kill off some of the regular players. We became more used to the brothers and although many seem to prefer Dean, for me, I always felt more for Sam. Maybe with my feelings towards my brother, I just identified with the younger Sam even more and noticed more acutely Dean, the older brothers, less than equal treatment towards him.
Went out on the Saturday locally. Got drunk but it was another disappointing one. Well actually, we had a laugh and our favourite DJ was upstairs but the club was only about half full and there was zero female interaction. Power walked home and my brother amazingly managed to start chatting to and actually pick up a girl he met en route. "The Situation" would have been impressed!
The first bank holiday weekend of May was a muted affair. Unsurprisingly we got some more Supernatural in, which pushed us into the 4th series. If I'm honest I think it's beginning to lose it's way. The characters aren't arcing as they should and tricks that we've seen before become predictable when you see them regularly. The whole Dean acts all stubborn and bossy but then relents at the end of an episode is a regular feature and I'm getting tired that Dean hasn't got to a point where he takes on board Sam's opinions and advice on a situation.
It's like with all they've been through I can understand him being protective but there rarely seems to be a time where he seems to think 'I wonder why Sam is acting that way, let's talk it through'. I think they missed a huge trick at the start of the 4th series when Dean has died and gone to hell. They could just have shown a little difference by maybe having Dean not in the first episode. It would have added immensely to the drama gravity of the situation. It would have reminded the audience to miss Dean and see how people got on without him.
It literally went from him being in the last scene of the third series and the first scene of the fourth series. I know he's important but couldn't they have been bold enough to have left him out. I would love to have properly explored how the far milder Sam went off the rails a little bit. How losing his brother made him harder, more vengeful and less inclined to worry about upsetting others. I wouldn't mind but they touched on it when they had the Groundhog Day episode with the trickster so why not develop it when Dean is supposedly gone. We were disappointed and concerned that if the makers could drop the ball on something like that, what else was going to cheese us off.
Don't get me wrong. It's still very entertaining and there are lots of clever things but I find the writers take you in a certain direction and then seem to forget or not return to a subject for 2 or 3 episodes. It's good but it's no Jericho and certainly not in the league of Babylon 5.
Went into Maidstone on the Saturday night but again it was an average evening. There didn't seem as many people out and there were no opportunities, no real sights and no even glimmers that we spotted, or were spotted, by a group of girls. Very disappointing.
We did however see Uncommon Valour on DVD. My brother had admitted when we were at The Venue that although we'd talked about it, he'd never actually seen it all the way through. Needless to say as a caring family relative, I couldn't possibly let that situation continue and purchased the 'vanilla' version on DVD (that's all there was) so we could check it out. Now at least he's fully aware of the story behind Sailor, why Swayze's character went on the mission and why Blaster was so happy to bust his record. Cracking film!
Talking of films, we did head to the cinema recently to check out another film. Hot tub time machine. It was okay though I wish that being all middle aged, they'd done more to embrace their chances to act differently. I mean if I could step back into my body when I was in my early 20's with what I know now. I don't think I'd be a player or anything ridiculous but having a little more self confidence and assuredness would, I think, have stood me in a far better place. It certainly would have helped with Tracy and Sally as I think I was a real sap then.
I've never really listened to any Motley Crue but there's a track in the film that I just had to download called Home Sweet Home. I always got the impression that Motley never actually produced anything worth listening to and their only reputation was for simply having a reputation as being crazy. This ain't a bad track.
One of the reasons for my poor form on updating my journal was the number of political threads I found myself commenting on, on a forum that I regularly visit. It made for some interesting exchanges and helped focus my mind as to what so hacked me off about this useless, meddling, bureaucratic, economy mishandling administration.
With the general election that gripped (well for those that actually give a damn about politics that is) the country, my brother and I got to do our poll clerk work again. The polling station was made a dual station this year which added to the excitement and with a bigger turnout than we'd ever seen after only doing the local elections, the day zipped along.
We left mine at around 5.30 to get to the polling station and start setting it up for 6.30. At 7.00 am on the button we opened the doors and there were even some people that had been queuing. It was encouraging to see more people turn out and the amount of people coming in to vote certainly mirrored the average, which I think was around 55%.
Thinking about it, and seeing some of the old folk struggling in to cast their vote, it is disappointing that more aren't prepared to carry out their civic duties but I guess with such an apathetic nation what can you expect. We only had one memorable arsehole that was a chap whose name I mis-pronounced and then later when we tried to assist him by explaining which ballot paper had to go in which box, snapped back that he "could read, and that he'd been to university".
Whilst he struggled with the rather simple notion that a folded ballot paper that was wider than the aperture on the ballot box wouldn't go in without another fold we just looked at him, both of us festering with the desire to either verbally or physically tear this chump a new arsehole. As I said, the day flew by with I don't think more than a three or four minute gap when someone wasn't coming in.
We bagged up and packed everything away when we closed the station at 10.00pm and raced over to the town hall to start with the count. Once again, it was all very well organised and I continue to be impressed that there are something's that a council can arrange that can run smoothly when people actually take the time to sit down and think about them.
We were done by around 3.15 - 3.30 and made it home for around 4.30. I watched a little of the election night coverage but sleep claimed me about 5.00ish and I had to hit the sack. I awoke to be a little frustrated at the outcome of the election. It was so indicative of the apathetic nature of so many people that we'd got uncertainty and indecision.
I'd taken a couple of days off work to do the count so it turned into a long relaxing weekend and I achieved very little. Watched a couple of DVD's. Dirty with Cuba Gooding Jnr which was a poor and tedious attempt to be Training Day and Law Abiding Citizen. The latter was better though it seemed the makers weren't sure at what point Gerald Butler had crossed over to the dark side and his retribution was no longer acceptable.
Criminals had murdered his family and the system had let one of them get off so the other could be fully punished. What was worse that when Jamie Fox explains it to a distraught Gerald, he abruptly brings the conversation to a close with a "the deals already done, there's nothing more to say". Personally, we backed him all the way and had no sympathy or remorse for the people he ended up killing. Even at the end I wanted his plan to wipe out those at the top succeed. Maybe though I'm a dark, unforgiving soul!
I really want to get my soft frame into the wrestler outfits that we wore last year in Malia for a couple of nights out in the UK. I'd like to wear them to both Maidstone and Basildon to see in which location we would receive a better reception. Personally I think it would be Basildon. To this end I have been trying to cut back. I know I only ever go on about eating bad stuff but I have cut out eating breakfast and lunch which maybe is having some effect.
I know that 'cutting back' is nothing without exercise and since I cancelled my gym membership I've not really done a great deal but maybe as the weather improves I'll try to get out more. I have been on a couple of 5 mile power walks but unsurprisingly I'm not seeing a massive change. Trouble is that I like eating too much and find exercise boring.
Finally on the weekend just gone I went round to our friends house, whose folks were away. I've got to admit that I really love going round there. It's like a little mini break. I get in bits and bobs for us to eat either snacks to munch or the ingredients for a killer breakfast or evening meal on the Sunday, we usually set up the Xbox to play some co-op Halo, COD or GOW, order in some Domino's (I went half & half this time - Pepperoni Passion with extra pepperoni and mushroom / The Sizzler - it was great) and crack on with a few DVD's.
I really like the house and feel very comfortable within it. The size of the rooms, the feeling of space, the lack of clutter, the fact that we don't have to worry about disturbing neighbours when we crank up the volume and even the fact that we always commit to having ridiculously late nights. I know as an adult, I should have grown out of that but staying up late with my brother and the guys, who are all really easy company, chowing down on junk food and just being a bloke, is great fun.
If we could just find a bevy of ridiculously hot busty girls who enjoyed pizza but weren't fat, who loved action and sci films but hadn't actually seen a great deal and who were entertained by watching guys playing Xbox games for a couple of hours at a time without losing any interest or getting bored (maybe even if they could be watching so intently that they actually got turned on when one of us performed a particularly satisfying head shot or similar) - then the world would be a wonderful place.
And I think that is about it. I'm sure I've missed stuff off and apologies for the delay in posting. You've no doubt gathered that I'm probably easing down my journal entries. I only seem to have one serious, regular reader (Hi Kim) and I think she understands that the journal has moved to becoming more of a record on the year rather than anything short and snappy.
I could try the blog like entry every two or three days but I don't think I'd find the content to fill it. There's plenty of other areas I could do with filling in such as films, games etc that I should one day work on those. Ideally I could win the Euro millions lottery and then set up a separate section that detailed all the holidays, nights out and purchases that would happen.
So thanks, as ever, for stopping by and checking up on what's been happening. I'd give it another few months before you swing back again though I do sometimes add new bits to other sections at the expense of completing the journal.
Take care.
March 2010
Yo peeps. Yes, this is somewhat of a greeting from the hood but I thought I'd try shakin' it up a little (see what I did with dropping the g from shaking).
First up apologies for the regular font issues that keep appearing around the site. It must be some screw up at Mr Site for I keep seeing small font, some in grey, some in black and some in bold. It's always had problems with returns and spacing but maybe the sheer amount of content in the site is pushing it to it's limit!
So, what news for the past month I hear you ask. March has been re-assuringly busy and coupled with February picking up towards the end allowed us to bill quite a bit. April shows good signs of remaining busy so, for the moment at least, the company is doing ok.
On one Friday I was heading home to go out that night to a fancy dress party at the local club when this woman decided to pull out of a turning as I drove past. She clipped the side of my car and I pulled over and got out, thinking 'what's this going to be like'.
Thankfully the car was still driveable and she'd just dented the door, rear panel and scuffed the alloys. I headed over to ask what she was thinking and she had the audacity to blame me. I exploded in indignation. I didn't start swearing but my incredulity was not contained.
"How could it possibly be my fault" I asked "you hit the side of me". "You pulled out of a turning as I went past and hit me". I know the insurance companies insist you should never admit blame but sweet Jesus when it's blatantly obvious it's her fault, keeping that game up is pointless.
She gave me her name and telephone number but refused to give me any more. I was so fucked off with her attitude that I called the number in disbelief that it would be current. I spoke to her husband/partner, I told him his wife had been in an accident but didn't elaborate and asked what car she drove. He fumbled his words, asking me what had happened but I was in zero mood for chit chat so demanded what car she drove.
He confirmed it was a red polo and then I hung up. She even had the cheek to ask if she could have spoken to him! She still refused to give me her full address, citing that I had enough info and with little else to do, I called the police. This seemed to panic her into giving me the address details but by this point I was already through to them, who ran a quick number plate check and confirmed the address and that she was insured.
I had the work camera on me so after grabbing some final snaps and I bid her goodbye and drove home. I felt remarkably calm. I think the flood of testosterone and adrenaline from the accident and then having to be quite firm with her was now making me calm and though I was frustrated by it, I didn't want it to ruin the evening.
Got in, jumped in the shower, pulled on the Hawaiian shirt with shorts and garland, smashed back some alcohol and headed out. In my heart of hearts I knew the night would be poor, that hardly anyone else would make an effort, that it would be full of blokes etc - and that's how it pretty much was.
Got hammered which is always good but nobody really said anything and to add insult to injury the photographer for the club didn't even bother taking a picture. I know that sounds vain but one of the reasons my brother and I went was to almost show support for the club. They are making an effort in going 'cheesy' for that night so I thought we should show some willing. As ever, what was the point?
Hired out The Firm and Pandorum but they were both disappointing. The Firm was by the same director of Football Factory and The Business. Clearly he thought if he combined the two he'd be on to a winner but it was woeful. Lame characters, crap action and poor imitation of the other two. The only decent thing was the rather colourful DVD box which was an illustration of a bunch of guys in various primary coloured tracks suits (Fila, Sergio Tacchini etc) and clothing.
Pandorum wasn't a great deal better. It did have Ben Foster who usually gives a strong performance but it got caught up in it's own self belief and descended into the whole split personality but with the other personality taking physical form a la Fight Club which I can't stand in films.
The following day we went to check out From Paris with love. It starred John Travolta and was directed by the same guy who did Taken. The film was ok but you only began connecting with the characters about half way through as prior to this it just felt too forced and like it was trying to be a John Woo film. Entertaining but nothing more.
On the Monday, I was randomly surfing the web and I got another virus, well actually malware program ( very similar to the one before) on the PC. I felt this cold sweat and then a very hot one as I realised what had happened.
My mouth dried out and I felt sick to the stomach. We were building up to another busy week and I'd basically sodded around and managed to take my computer out of action. I had to put in the call to our IT guru and on the next day speak to my bosses. They took it well but I was pretty embarrassed and felt terrible. I envisaged another trip down to Southampton to get the IT chap to basically re-build the PC. He managed to find some stuff online and with a little guidance, I did a little corrective surgery and incredibly managed to eliminate the malware.
Lesson was learnt and shall we say the 'more colourful' websites will be avoided from now on.
Moving onto better things, the Halo universe added to the range of things available with the release of Halo: Legends on DVD. This was a similar treatment to that which had been given to the Animatrix. Access to the Halo 'canon' for a selection of Japanese anime directors to each interpret their own story and vision within the Halo universe.
There were many different styles of animation in the DVD and if it was a personal decision I would have happily watched an hour of the kind of truly awesome FMV that we had during Halo Wars. However, Halo Legends was never envisaged to be like that but rather a showcase for a range of different animation styles. Some I liked, some I didn't but for me, the style in The Duel blew me away.
The style of animation threw me to begin with but once I got my head around it, and witnessed how it elevated the wonderful sound effects, I loved it. Every shot could have been frozen and framed on the wall. The style of animation was so different but so amazing for it. As they said in the making of it's like watching a moving water colour painting. Remarkable.
The other standout (though I did enjoy other episodes) was The Package. The animation was low end CGI looking like a cross between Anime and in-game graphics if that makes sense. It did feature Masterchief , along with some of the other Spartans from the books, notably Kelly and Fred.
The colours, explosions were all great but when they boarded the covenant ship, it really stepped up a gear. They hurtle in, riding this wave of fire and destruction and as it clears they are crouched within a bubble shield. It falls and they leap forward but just at that moment they freeze the shot for a nano second - it's awesome.
And then they open up with the carnage, the music sweeps in, the cut to the first person view but the best moment of all, which I'm not afraid to admit brought a tear to my eye and made the hairs stand up on my neck is when Kelly jumps up, grabs the two plasma rifles in slow mo just as the thundering resolution to the Halo theme swells up.
Breath-taking moment that really blew me away.
A week or so later and I had completed Mass Effect 2 and if honest, I was disappointed. Granted it held my interest and it had some enjoyable moments but it really wasn't the tour de force that the first one had been. Maybe this was more apparent after having literally finished the first one a day or so before starting the second one.
I compiled my thoughts into written form and placed them in the gaming section of the site. I'm sure you'll be racing over there to read all 3,500 words! In essence I felt the game had been play tested, just not emotionally play tested. Like BioWare had asked them how the game felt but not how the players actually felt. For, to me, it was missing the emotive resonance that so punched through from the first one.
I decided to pop them onto the Mass Effect 2 forums. I posted my thoughts on the first game there and they had been very complimentary, so I thought it only right to provide some balance to my opinions. I thought I'd get flamed but amazingly some actually responded that they felt the same and had noticed the same things.
Of course, we were in the minority but it was still refreshing to see that some hadn't just swallowed the love of the game completely to the point of not being able to see anything negative. One guy even abridged the whole game into a condensed that demonstrated a sense of humour that perfectly encapsulated the things I was disappointed with. You can check it here.
So I have got other things to bore you with but I've just not managed to get them down! So let me leave you here and hopefully I'll get the chance to add some more stuff next week.
Have a good one and thanks for checking in.
January / February 2010
So another year, and another decade awaits. As ever I've been slow in updating but I still regularly check in, so those thinking 'will my message to the magician behind the curtain be picked up' - fear not, it will be. Not that I've received numerous messages from the multitudes of people that have stumbled through the front door and can't believe the chapel of enlightenment that they've discovered.
It's been a rough start to the year. The shitty snow we had during January, which the media had you believe was leading to the fall of man, pretty much wiped out any of our clients calling at the beginning of the year. Add to this a not brilliant meeting with the accountants about the state of the company and we were in Operation Desperation. A mail-out action plan was swung into place, along with a call up, email firing exercise to lapsed clients or potential new ones.
Our first mail-out was based around Groundhog Day, which was a great prop to use. I'd done some research the week before to build up a body of recipients and had to follow this up with calls on the actual day. It was a little nerve racking and I could certainly feel the heat creeping up my neck and cheeks during the first few calls. I managed to relax into a friendly patter with my primary goal trying to ascertain whether they had received the mailer and we could just email them our creds rather than having to full on cold call sale them.
We got some positive feedback, some nice comments and some contacts to send our email out to. It's hard to know what success it will have. We aren't the type of company to go for that 'in the face' type of sales tactic but you never know. It could bring a smile in the mind and when we follow it up with others it may lead to some much needed new business.
With the news, I thought it best to cancel my gym membership. Having committed to the TV and Sky+ last year it makes financial sense to stop paying £40 a month for something I was rarely using. Of course in the long term cancelling a gym membership to offset the cost of a Sky+ subscription is basically admitting that I'll be a fat (fatter) bastard in less than three months time.
Talking of fat, I have put on a few more pounds and really need to shift some. Getting rid of the gym membership probably isn't the best thing but I can't justify that cost anymore. I know I should be getting fit and slim for my own needs, but really when you don't have anyone take any notice, it's hard to motivate yourself.
On the gaming front, I've been aware that Mass Effect 2 was coming out at the end of January and so was keen to get back into the first one to get my eye back in. It was good to step back into the shoes of Chris Shepherd and lay down the hurt, sci-fi style on a choice of bad guys looking to lay waste to the universe.
Mass Effect 2 came out and I managed to lay my hands on one of the seemingly rare special editions. I started playing once I'd completed the first one and though very first impressions were good, it has dipped off a little. I don't know if it's having played the first one right before getting stuck into the second but some things they've 'improved' just really bug me. It also seems like they'd dialled up the action but made the game feel more constricted.
It could well be the post euphoria 'low' setting in but my brother feels it as well. Maybe I'll have to leave it for a few weeks before re-commencing the adventure.
Because my Xbox had been encountering difficulties in reading some of my discs, I decided that I was going to treat myself to an Xbox 360 Elite. I couldn't be doing with getting Mass Effect 2 and then it not working because there was something wrong with the console. It's set up in the living room and looks great on the 50".
In the bundle came two games, Pure a quad bike racing game that we'd played before and is ok and Lego Batman. We'd not really expected anything from the game but my brother and I popped it on one night and it was fabulous. Simple but funny and in a way quite cool. It allowed us to play two player and kept us entertained for a good few sessions. It turned out to be a way better game than Pure.
On the film front, I've been still trying to reconcile how average Avatar is and how me and a few select others seem the only ones capable of recognising this. Really, it isn't that special. With the world going seemingly nuts about it and it surpassing Titanic in the highest grossing film of all time, I'm taken back to when Titanic was out. I defended that stoically for the impact it had on me but now I'm wondering if I was then, one of the same deluded individuals who can't see the normality of Avatar. Yet, even when Titanic was out there were people who disliked it, yet I find it hard to find anyone who disliked Avatar. It's getting to the point where I'm finding it beginning to impact on my feelings towards Titanic. Seeing the flaws and weaknesses in Avatar is making me question whether they exist in Titanic.
I was always aware that the love story was not hugely strong in Titanic but then again in my mind I thought that it wasn't meant to be. The main story of Titanic is the ship itself but to prevent the film becoming a documentary it needed a secondary story to drive it along. Hence the love story. For me though it felt woven into the fabric of the sinking of the ship and helped in no small part by the connection I made to Kate & Leo, who's characters I really liked.
In Avatar, James writing weaknesses were exposed. In Titanic the story was created for the bigger 'sinking' story to hang on. In Avatar, there wasn't a bigger story, just some fancy graphics and effects. Hence the film felt like the story was only serving that and not something greater. Disappointing, but at least it's now off the top spot.
I have been to see Edge of Darkness. It was good to see Mel Gibson back on the big screen but the film was pretty average if I'm honest. Moon and District 9 both came out on DVD which naturally I picked up. Watched them both again and District 9 still really is something special. On the movie related front I managed to track down the music that featured (and hence was responsible for) in the best trailer of last year.
It's by two guys that just make music for trailers and it has to be one of the most inspirational, emotive pieces of music I've ever heard. I'll confess that when I eventually got hold of it and started to repeatedly listen to it, I got a little emotional.
Somehow it conjured these really powerful emotions of bravery, loyalty and sacrifice leading me to wish that I could almost make a film that would properly demonstrate all the scenes that the music should accompany. It involved old style swords and shields fighting and two brothers on a battlefield fighting side by side against an evil horde.
They get separated and the younger one gets injured. This leads to the older one valiantly battling through almost insurmountable odds, bellowing rage and anger to rescue his brother. Blood and limbs are flying everywhere as the images show the increasingly frantic and desperate warrior struggling to reach his brethren in time. He succeeds in getting to him, ignoring the numerous wounds and damage that he received en route and manages to stand again side by side even though they are ultimately doomed.
As they both battle on refusing to yield and stubbornly, hopelessly defending their ground the camera pulls up and away to reveal the thousands of enemy racing to fight them. Overwhelmed but defiant. I couldn't stop playing the scene or continually tinkering with it in my mind for some time. At one point I even got a wrapping paper inner tube to play act it out!
The connection to my own brother is fairly obvious and if I ever won the big one (and by that I mean the tens if not hundreds of millions of pounds) I'd love to have a crack at trying to get those feelings down into a film. Someway of highlighting characters that I would really empathise with and demonstrate their bravery in just the way I would like them to. I like films that try to tap into the power that rage can bring but use it for good, if you know what I mean.
I'm sure you won't have the same experience when you play it but there you go!
On the TV front the Sky+ has been used to do a series link on the new Mock the Week, which are always funny and also a programme that I stumbled on, America's Best Dance Crew. I've been aware of the show but never actually sat down to watch one. I only ever used to catch the judging panel whose pointless urban slang of "ya'll brought it tonight" and "I'm so proud of you for representin" was a little too much.
I caught an episode where the teams where doing routines to Britney Spears covers and my word some of them were good. I then went on Youtube to have a look at the guys that I'd seen in some of the adverts but never actually watched. These being the guys with the masks and gloves.
They were called Jabbawockeez and were the winners of the first series. Their routines and choreography were sensational and their whole 'look' with the masks etc was fantastic. By taking away their need for individual recognition you found yourself concentrating more on their technique rather than spotting an individual member.
Check out some of their routines if you can in hi-def. For me they were really something else and I felt quite cool that I'd discovered them.
Part 1 of their dance routines from the show
Part 2 of their dance routines from the show
With the Mass Effect 2 and sci fi connection I've managed to get my brother to start watching some Babylon 5. So far during January and February we've managed to get through three series and I'm delighted that he's really taking to it. For me the characters are so richly written and the story so involving that I really wanted him to experience it.
It's a franchise that you need to expend some time to get into, which he has, but one that really delivers. There's some great episodes that I'm looking forward to watching with him.
On the going out front I've been out a couple of times. One Saturday was to Basildon and I have to say that I was impressed. It was the second week or so of the year, so I didn't expect anyone to be out but there were plenty of people and plenty of sights to see. You have to hand it to Essex, they certainly know how to party.
There's a big collection of clubs, bars etc in Basildon and although I might have expected it to be rough and rowdy, it wasn't. I didn't have my drivers license, seemingly a necessity nowadays, but I was able to actually reason with a bouncer that I was so old I'd forgotten to bring it and he let me in. I made a point when I left of thanking him.
There were the usual kinds of people in there but not as many arsehole blokes or the ever present atmosphere of a fight. I did see one particular arsehole though who was worthy of mention. There was this girl on the dance floor wearing a lacy body with hipster leggings that effectively showed her naked hips. She had an amazing arse and she knew it. At one point she started walking across the dance floor and this opportunistic twat followed closely behind her grinding his crotch into her posterior.
He didn't know her and was waving his arms around as if he was party boy from Jackass and in some vain attempt to convince everyone that 'hey, he was having a great time and not trying to cop a blatant grind'. After a few seconds, she cottoned onto it and turned around with a glare but he managed to conceal by turning away and continuing to wave his hands like some kind of partying gibbon.
What a cock. I love women but just assuming you can touch and maul them because they look sexy is out of line. I've never groped a woman or pinched a bottom of a random in my life.
Been out a couple of times locally to see if the Alfie Moon fan club were around but to no avail. On both occasions the idea was to get hammered but no matter how much we drank it didn't seem to take us to 'that place'. We've also had a weekend round a friends house, which as it coincided with Valentines Day and was going to lead to a Dominos Pizza Armageddon, could only be labelled the Valentines Day Pizza Massacre.
Caught up on some good films, Tango & Cash, Chocolate (the Thai fighting one not the french film), Payback, Brotherhood and Cloverfield. Also got the guys playing some Halo 3 multiplayer. They took to it amazingly quickly and playing king of the hill with either energy swords or rockets was just madness. As soon as you re-spawned, you go steaming towards the 'hill', hurling blind grenades and firing off your rockets with no idea who was in the middle. It was a frenzy of explosion, death and insults being hurled. Great fun.
Finally we've had the start of the Winter Olympics. As I'm sure I've mentioned before when the Olympics are on, I do enjoy watching them so much. In most cases the competing athletes have been quietly doing their thing, perfecting their talent and building up to this one big moment to shine (I know they have separate world championships etc but you know what I mean).
I find when I tune into other sports, ie not Olympics, they seem to be league style matches or obscure Texaco Cup Athletics from Gateshead. I like how the Olympics are the fulcrum and pinnacle of that field so when you are getting your snapshot of it, you know that everyone competing is driven and at the very top of their game. There's little 'playing the long game' or 'it doesn't matter if we lose this one'.
At the Winter Olympics, I always particularly look forward to the Ice Hockey though like to stumble across the many other sports, moguls, speed skating etc where possible. As our chances were quite strong in the women's skeleton I tuned in to watch Rudman and Williams. It meant staying up late but I think that's a fair sacrifice when they are representing our country.Rudman had a poor first run which pretty much put her out of the running but Williams started with an astonishing first run that smashed the track record and put her in the lead and from which she didn't fall. It was great to see and she seemed so down to earth, thanking the people who stayed up to watch and seemingly more amazed with being able to speak to Claire Balding than being interviewed.
Good work girl. I also have to say how impressed I am with the Team GB kit but I'll elaborate on that in another posting.
I also had to get my car sorted, which was fun. I'd been aware of sound coming from the left rear tyre but it got to the point where I thought it should be checked out. As I thought, it was a bearing problem but getting it fixed led to my attention being drawn to the state of the rear brakes, along with the front brakes and also the front tyres. Hence in the course of about a week I ended up forking out over £550 on it.I guess it needed doing and there was some satisfaction in knowing that I managed to get the full usage out of the tires and brakes. It also means that with the rear bearings, rear pads & discs, front pads & discs and front tyres, I shouldn't have any problems with those for a year or so!
And that's about it. My work PC managed to contract some horrible virus from a Las Vegas info website, which has been hugely frustrating and I don't know what it will need to repair it. It prevents me from going on the web and is a tad annoying.
It ended up for me being off the web and unable to update for another week, which was a pain. With the help of our IT guru we managed to remove the virus but it lead to it needed some corrective work which necessitated a trip down to Southampton to drop it off with him. At least it reminded me of the value of the internet, though it's always a little disappointing when you then check back into your facebook, email etc and they are still empty.
Thanks, as ever, for checking out the site and apologies for the lack of updating. My life can be a little repetitive so if desperate for info just check back on some of the earlier journal entries (2006, 2007 etc) as I used to ramble a lot more then.
Take care.