Rhythms of the World, come forth! (backdated 23/07/07)

Hey, overdue post here, last weekend I was invited by my good friend Will to the Rhythms of the World festival in his own backyard, Hitchin.  Now due to the way the trains work, if I was to solo the trip, it would mean travelling into the centre of London, going via the Underground to another hub in London, and then back out and northwards to Hitchin.  Will offered to pick me up (and drop me off) at Milton Keynes Central, one of the main stops towards London.  This was very advantageous as it cut the journey effectively in half so I was all in favour.  The festival fell on the weekend of the 14th July, so the (revised) plan was to head down on Saturday morn and return back on the Monday, just before Will went off to work.

Trains were fine, and after a bit of traffic getting out of Milton Keynes, Will getting slightly annoyed at the sheer volume of the number of roundabouts, we were on our way to the festival and the alcoholic oblivion beyond :D.  Will stressed getting the earlier train to allow for more drinking, and well we arrived in Hitchin with about half an hour before the festival officially started LOL.  We went via his sister's flat, currently unoccupied, to fill up cooler bags with beverages and then we were on our way.

First stop was off to see a band on one of the main stages that was promised to be in the same mould as Enter Shakiri.  Unfortunately that was not so, the band that actually turned up produced nothing greater than watered-down 3 minute emo songs.  A promised highlight (thanks Will) was their completely unexperimental cover of the dance hit "Castles in the Sky", which when the rest of the band kicked in created nothing more than shapeless noise - nice one guys, you were so good, I can't even remember the name of your band.

Next stop was the other main stage for the Chris Phillips Band which many held in high regard, the band forming after the split of former local band Ardent Kicks, and Tom, one of Will's mates, was brother to the Chris from which the band drew their name.  By this time a bit of a crowd was forming, and front man Chris milked it for all it was worth, and the set was genuinely enjoyable - their stuff being quite folksy thanks to Chris' acoustic, but also some electronic and synth elements included to deepen the sound.  One for the future here hopes, the guys were extremely good, very tight - Dan the drummer is held in exceptionally high regard for his skills although the set didn't allow the freedom for him to show off, plus speaking with Chris later that night was pretty cool, a stand up guy - I wish you guys the best.  As I mentioned to Chris in the little chat I had with him, the band coped very well the technical difficulties that struck Dan's kit a couple of times throughout the set.  Rather than feigning excuses and mass shrugging, it was inspiring to see Chris take the initiative, and get the crowd involved.  That involved the classic sing-along and clapping with the instruments dropped out.  Another bit of fun was the Mexican wave that was sent back through the crowd which actually made it back to the front a couple of times, which was quite smart.

With the early highlight of the day already over, it seemed appropriate to take a breath (and get more beer) so we headed over to the acoustic stage to chill out (if memory serves me correctly, it gets a bit hazy from here on in, thanks to the copious amounts of alcohol that we were drinking).  The absolute name escapes me but next highlight was an Orchestra that did classical covers of modern songs - it couldn't fail to be entertaining so we all set about being there.  Some food later and we headed back to the first main stage in what was already an impressive crowd but the sound seemed screwed up.  There didn't seem to be any amplification going on, so it was very hard to hear them over the general hubbub of the crowd.  It was a shame as they promised to be very good, so we took our leave -  I can't remember if we went back to the acoustic stage or perhaps even the George for the first time.

Next performance we couldn't miss was the Easy Star All Stars (I think that's what they were called, where is my programme?..), and we didn't miss them.  This goup were responsible for remixing popular albums like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and Radiohead's OK Computer in a reggae inspired fashion.  Properly liquored up the crowd were really starting to enjoy it, lots of people dancing, our substantial group as well and even I showed off some of my moves towards the end.

It was after those guys that I met one of the Irish girls (I want to say her name was Fiona oh dear :s), and in my merriness I got her to say lots of things, practically anything that came into my head, starting with all the cliches like "Top of the morning to ya laddie!"  I'm afraid I got quite smitten pretty quickly, and that is quite worrying that I can get like that after such a short space of time. It actually got me thinking about certain voices, or perhaps accents can, just on their own, be very hot.  I actually thought of Koel, particularly one of the times when I went up to Cov to see everyone and she left this incredibly long answer phone message, but it was cool to listen to her voice a couple of times hehe.  Anyways, back to the festival...

Later on in the day, we were back in the George (I'm pretty sure) for the performance of another person that Tom plus others knew (it seemed Tom knew the majority of Hitchin) and his band at the back of the beer garden.  They were fine without being particularly exciting but it was at this point that I discovered that, upon reflection, quite naturally, that they had a Ceilidh (look up spelling) on in the town hall.  I tried to persuade at least one person including this girl I've never met, who it turned out to be the girlfriend of the guy whose band we were watching LOL.  A little disappointed that noone would join me for a ceilidh, I decided to go check it out on my own, and hoped that I would find another odd person over who would be my partner (for those not in the know, Ceilidh's are dances that generally operate in groups of 2 or 4).  Hanging about on the fringes didn't seem to help much, and I didn't feel bold enough to ask a stranger to dance, so after what was a probably short time, I headed back dejected that it didn't work out *mimes sad expression with fingers on face*.

 

The final act we had to see on day 1 was this very large, latin-inspired percussive act which amongst its lineup had one of Will's friends, Dave's dad.  They were also a lot of fun and with that sealing the end of the day, we promptly headed over to the George and the other pubs closeby.  Some more drinks later, and a trip to the loo and I lost people, which was very scary, I was thinking oh crap oh crap oh crap, I actually left this one pub and then joined the queue to get back in just in case I missed some ppl despite me having a big look. Fortunately, Will randomly turned up so it was all good. We went inside the pub and played some fuseball which I lost after taking a promising early lead - shame.

 

We returned back to Will's pretty knackered and pretty much went straight to bed.  The next day was going to be more of the same, but we chilled for a lot of the waking day playing Call of duty 2 and Forza 2 on Will's 360.  We went down at about 8 to have the rest of the group attack us for not being more prompt and not getting into town at 12 like they all did.  The pub had a hardcore chiller set up outside cooling some beer cans which could be ours for just a £1 each -bonus! We got some of those and then got into the live drum 'n' bass that was on at the end of the beer garden.  Enjoying that as much as it's physically possible we thought it was best to leave and headed over to Club 85, the "indie stage" but in fact a club - the clue's in the title.  We were off to the see the last act of the festival, the Eagles I believe was what they were called.  Yeah, they were pretty cool, had essentially a young lineup, with this older guy doing a lot of spoken word which was pretty cool.  They also had a fair few guests come up on stage including a 2nd drummer which Will met at the bar just before, and a woman singer to do a song.  We then met back up with the group to finish off the beer supplies which were a little low on the ground.

 

The next day I only just made the train, the timing being very tight.  It is very strange that I am always tired and/or hungover when making these commutes back to Wem, why is that?  Overall a pretty good weekend, spent a lot of money, and got a bit sunburnt on my neck, but it was a lot of fun.

Here's pencilling in the weekend for next year.

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On my way... (backdated 23/07/07)

Hey, lack of book and any other means of viable of entertainment has lead me to dish out the laptop and blog blog blog like some obsessed person, No but seriously, thought I'd share how quietly nervous I am, about the whole training scheme. As I said to Carl last night, I'm getting all stressed about the packing and living somewhere completely new, and there's also all this learning I'm expected to do yikes! (note to self: bring back the word yikes!)

As mentioned before, these people like to run a presentable ship, so I've been stressing about making sure I've got enough formal shirts, trousers etc, but I also have to be paying attention, learning etc, let's just say I would never have made the previous start to the course 4 weeks ago.

I am currently sitting on a train in Shrewsbury, waiting for it to leave for Birmingham New Street.  Thanks to the recent onslaught of rain, plus what seems like regular "random" engineering works that occur on Sunday, it means that I will be taking a bus from Brum to Coventry.  Now as you all know folks (also bring back folks...) the one thing I can't stand more than riding trains is riding buses.  To make matters worse I am with suitcase, so the whole thing is gonna be one stressful ordeal.  This truly is the calm of the storm, thanks to the infrequent trains that run on a Sunday, I've had to spend just over an hour doing nothing on the platform.  Looking at trains and scaring pigeons away gets old really quick.

I'm not sure if it's an omen or not but I forgot to pack my "lunch".  Yep, a snack and my precious final can of pepsi which was carefully put aside ready for this trip and I went and bloody well forgot it.  I was getting a little worried that I may forget something pretty darn important.  I only remembered to pack towels just before I was gonna go out for a quiet farewell drink.  Yep, they stressed it in amongst the bold type of the rules of my stay that they would not be providing towels.  I think that's where a lot of this nervousness(ness) comes from, the fact that the open day went by so fast, and a lot of details are still unknown to me.

One important detail is how many days of the week does the training consume.  Ideally I would like it to be Mon - Fri, but Saturday is considered a working day so can't help but feel that perhaps there is no, or less, structure to that day.  The smart dress, shirt + tie is mandatory on weekdays, but on Saturday, they'll let us get away with no tie - oh those rebels!

Another area of concern, probably the least largest, is the accommodation they're gonna set me(us) in.  Yep, I will be living in shared accommodation with some other people on the course.  It's not hugely important that I get on with these guys (they will be guys...) but the whole experience would probably be more enjoyable if I did.  Here's hoping that a lot of other facilities are provided for us, i.e. cutlery and cooking equipment as I decided to risk not packing any, plus no more stuff would fit in :s.  As they state, fresh linens are provided every day, which is quite smart, not unlike halls at Uni, and I assume this will be done when we're all out learning hard LOL.  Although this is great, I hope this service extends to keeping the communal area tidy and of course the providing of toilet paper.  One of the few downsides of the Red Faction house was how messy the shared areas got and it was always fun waking up and discovering there was no toilet paper just when you needed it, which spurred an impromptu visit to "the shop" to get some. Those were the days...

Anyways, to be more positive, this training course will give me the skills, both those specific to jobs and improved interview skills, which should guarantee myself a job at the end of it.  The course itself lasts just 7 weeks, so by the time I truly get used to the new digs and the routine of the day, it will be soon over.  So yeah, the ultimate goal to come out of this is a nice new shiny job that pays well enough for me to move out, comfortably live on, and start getting on with my life, like learning how to drive etc, so we'll see.

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A New Chapter...

Hey peeps, it's been quite neglectful of me not to mention what is in fact a new chapter in my life about to begin.  That being that as of next week, I would have started on a training scheme which should (here's hoping, although the family is that tiny bit more) lead to a nice shiny job in computing.

The training scheme is being put on by JBC Computers which as it happens are based in Coventry - it really is a small world, and if I'm a little honest was a tiny added motivation in going for the scheme.  The scheme itself is training myself to have the skills to fill a desktop/network support technician role.  So that goes right from the hardware of PCs, networks, servers etc, right through to the software aspects like configuration and security issues.

Now, I am cautiously optimistic about the scheme, the main worry is my financial situation which is looking in pretty dire form right now.  Moving on from that I am really looking forward to it, and the new skills and experiences the whole thing will bring.  I am a little apprehensive that it is not software development training, as that area was what I did (still do) want to go into.  But saying that, how much actual programming have I done in the last year since graduating? The answer is very little, and pretty much all of that has been web programming i.e. HTML, CSS, PHP etc

After going to the open day in which they practically offered me a place, I didn't feel I had to earn it, or convince them - which is a good thing.  The place I have been offered is a sponsored place, and thus all of the fees for the course are void - which is also a good thing, as it would cost upwards and beyond of £5000 depending on which modules are done :S.  That being said they do offer discounted accommodation which I have taken them up on, as well a commute from Wem every day is just silly, and probably not even possible, especially in the morning.  Yeah, so living in their accommodation, which is very much like the place I stayed in back in Uni - the good ol' Red Faction house.  We got shown one house that the company owns, and that was literally across the road from their main premises, so making it in on time shouldn't be too tricky.

Also including in the scheme, which is very enticing for myself, is the grooming of ones self in preparation for interviews and then job beyond.  Cleaning up my CV, and those crucial interview skills are something I feel that I could benefit a lot from, so I'm hoping that aspect works out especially.  The whole course is over in about 7 weeks, with the option for the company to keep tabs on you as you/I progress in my new found job and continuing the learning process with more exams and the qualifications that go along with it.  Although it's probs unlikely, but if I went for every exam they offer, I think I would gain something like at least 7 qualifications in various subjects like A+ networks, Windows Server 2003 etc.

To repeat my newly set facebook status, if you do see me in Coventry, then do not hesitate to tell me how tubular my tie is.  That being because, they are pretty strict when it comes to dress code, so I'm gonna have to look pretty smartish a lot of the time, but that's no real problem, it may sound a bit weird but I actually am more uncomfortable in jeans now than I am in my work trousers, mmm.

 

Here's waiting for his transport to the real world. hope the movie is a good un...

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Gym Impressions #1

This is going to be the first of what hopes to be a lengthy series of opinions and reviews towards some music that I have listened to, whilst gymming, to use a bastardisation.  As I have mentioned earlier (I hope), I got myself a little mp3 player which I would then load new albums onto, and then go enjoy them at the gym, and thus avoid having to experience any other noises that may be happening.  I also hope to start adding a few pics to the blog, brighten it up a bit with a few album covers by using Windows Live Writer, so here goes.  If it fucks up then I'll take the post down pretty sharpish and try again :s

EDIT: laptop was being incredibly unresponsive when adding the pix so apologies it looks a little crappy and in need of better presentation, but I ran out of hair to pull out arg!

 

 Mike Park - For The Love of Music

Ah, Mike Park, first experienced this guy when he supported Alkaline Trio when a group of us went to see them in wonderful Brum.  For those not in the know, Mike Park is the founder of Asian Man Records, a record label that Alkaline Trio released some of their first material, hence the connection.  Armed with a stool, guitar and a small projector, he put on one of the greatest, and without doubt most enjoyable support sets I have witnessed.

The standout track from the live performance was of course "From Korea" which he is probably the most well known for.  I acquired two albums through Soulseek - a great little App, a peer-to-peer program which I've found to be the best source for the more obscure and/or less known music.  Anyways, back to the review, and I opted to put on "For the Love of Music" onto the mp3 player because of the familiarity of the "From Korea" track.

Now, "From Korea" itself is a very simple song, in which Mike Park explores the misuse of politically incorrect terms like "gay" and "nigger" to quote the song.  Just like at the live show, the song is very immediate, has a wonderful sing-along quality and serves as an obvious entry point into Mike Park's material.

I admit, I was slightly skeptical at what just one guy with an acoustic guitar could do - could it be as good, if not better than From Korea?  The answer, is most definitely yes, and in fact as alluded to before, "From Korea" Is one of the simplest songs on the album, and that a high number of them contain other strings to add layers to help create a greater depth to the songs.  Park has a wonderful sense of melody and by the second chorus I was already armed with the skills to sing along to what are all at times throughout, simply charming lyrics - "You're grade today, an A for loving me".

Other standout tracks are "I'm Supposed to Be There Too" and the other protest (kinda) song "Hey You!".  Overall, a great little album, I can almost guarantee it will not blow you away in terms of stature or content, but if you feel like kicking back and enjoying some charming, acoustic based, and honest music, then look it up.

 

 AFI - decemberunderground

Not so much a new album, it's been knocking about for at least a year, but I felt it deserved at least a listen.  Now, my first exposure to AFI was the album "Sing the Sorrow" and because of this I'm not a fan of the much more raw and lesser produced material which predates that album (sorry).  Before experiencing decemberunderground, reviews I had read on Amazon had expressed generally negative thoughts due to the departure from the type of music which AFI started out with.  Not weighed down with this emotional baggage, I was ready to check it out.

The first song, or more of a short introduction, sets the scene for more to come, mainly the more orchestral-sounding element which first began on "Sing the Sorrow". Also the first vocals are very much of a "Sing the Sorrow" mould and definitely not the more harsh, ragged, more harsh vocals on previous albums.  The first song "Prelude 12/21" also features the lyric, "kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep", which I almost immediately found myself changing to "Kiss my arse and lay me to sleep" - old habits die hard...

After the quiet opener, the album properly kicks off and as is as explosive as ever, and does not let up much at all.  Something that is quite immediate is the high quality of production that this album has been subjected to.  The entire album simply wreeks of slick production, which some purists and hardcore AFI fans may hate, but it's something I am finding myself requiring as a prerequisite to a good album - solid production.

Moving onto the songs themselves, and I regret that there aren't many standout tracks on the album, although saying that the quality of all tracks is high, and there is a good flow to the album.  A flow which is helped very much by the pace of the songs, it's almost a barrage at times.  One reason perhaps why there aren't more standout tracks is the difficulty (i have at least) of understanding and recognising the lyrics which is a continuing element of AFI's music.

If you have never heard of AFI before, I would recommend "Sing the Sorrow" before this one.  The standard is very high on "decemberunderground" but it lacks the standout tracks, which luckily "Sing the Sorrow" posesses in high numbers.  Although that is my personal view, and perhaps a fairer assessment of this band would be to begin at the start of their discography, but again I have given it a try and not found anywhere near as many gyms as can be found on "Sing the Sorrow" and this, their latest albums.

More Gym Impressions later, I am still undecided whether to post the "mini-reviews" altogether or give them their own individual post listings, mmm..

Till then, here's hoping you will listen to something new today.

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Racing Game Improvements...

Hey, I was prepared to post about my thoughts concerning forza 2 and how it compares to pgr3, but it all got a bit waffly and unfocused so I've binned that, but some "final" thoughts on how the genre could be improved will be listed here.

 

First off, The idea of racing your "ghost", your previous best attempt/time is a genius one. I'm not too sure who came up with it, but it's a great idea, probably many years old, but I think it's time for a change perhaps.  When I am performing some kind of time trial, my ghost provides a visual representation of if I'm up or not, but when I am very close to my ghost time, i.e. just behind, the thing just becomes too big a distraction a lot of the time, and generally I either completely miss the breaking spot for the lack of being able to see it, or risk breaking later than my ghost and inevitably miss the turn-in.  Perhaps it's just me who suffers from these complaints and I should shut up, but no, here's how we're gonna fix it people...

The Forza series have a rather smart system in-race whereby the racing line and the required braking is displayed on the track in a variety of colours.  Now, my suggestion is to take this idea and transpose your ghost's performance into a visual much like this.  So, instead of racing what the game considers the optimum line and breaking, it would instead show the lines and breaking performed by your ghost.  They could even colour it the ghostly blues and greys if they so wished.  I think this would be a better system, as you could then explicitly see what lines were taken and how late you braked last time round.  You could then see clearly see where you weren't maximising the track when turning out of the corner, or which apexes you are simply not hooking up.  Also this way, if you are especially slow, say you fall off the track, with the ghost line implemented, you won't lose the valuable information which you would normally, cos the ghost car would be on the other side of the track.

One thing I particularly enjoy with Forza is the recording of all the times and also the in-race telemetry.  Despite how much valuable information could be extracted from someone's driving style, a lot of it is useless in that respect.  If I'm honest the friction levels exerted on each tyre does not help me unlock where I went wrong, or where one of the top players are supremely better than me.  A lot of the time if I push on the telemetry I stay in the default screen, and watch the inputs the best in the world make.  It is actually quite shocking at times watching a replay of the best time on a time trial (where the car used is fixed) and have myself thinking, yeah the guy's neat but nothing mind-blowing, and then watching my best replay and getting a bit embarassed on how much my car is sliding about.  That being said I use the friends leaderboard to rate my skills, and for the majority of the time trial times (where it is the most equal, same car, no upgrades, tunes etc) I am the quickest out of the couple of friends who also play the game.

So yeah, my suggestion on how improving the telemetry is really a step towards the kinda telemetry that professional racing series, not unlike F1, are exposed to.  That being, I want the lap times posted on the scoreboards split into each timing section, so I can a better understanding on where the best are making the time/I am losing the time.  Along with that and an extension to the inputs that players put in, instead of what the current inputs are as shown in the telemetry at the moment, they should be recorded over time, plotted in a graph if you will.  And why not stop there? I would also like to have the "best" inputs plotted against mine - I would like to see where they get on the throttle quicker than me, where they brake later.  I would want all the inputs, throttle, brake and steering input available in graph form to be compared against my inputs.

Although most probably won't have the time or patience to explore this, I for one, would especially enjoy the opportunity to analyse and learn from this information, as I can't help feel for all the effort, the current telemetry in forza is a bit lacking, in that respect.

 

 

 

Here's just trying to sow some seeds...

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Gym update 17th July

Hey peeps, thought I'd give a short update to the masses on my progress a la gym.  It's not been so bad so far, I was initially planning on going every weekday when I first started but as I've quickly learned my body needs time to recover, plus it causes a detrimental effect to the next session, so there.

So yeah, been able to go 3 times a week since starting.  Treadmill-wise I believe I have made great progress on the long term goal I set myself when I started, that being to be able to run/jog a mile and a half in 12mins or less.  The first time I went I ran just a mile in 15mins just to see where I was at.  The next session I moved the distance up to a mile and a half, I believe, I ran that the first time in about 18mins, and since then I've been slashing my PB since then.  As of the 17th, my PB stands at 12:21, which I'm pretty chuffed at considering the short time period in which I've been going.  I'm thinking at the next session, which is booked for Thursday, I should make an attempt at my first time under 12mins.  I actually find the treadmill easier to run faster than, say round a field.  The treadmill carries you to a certain extent, and being able to explicitly control your pace, is something I don't have the discipline to do outdoors.

As I may have mentioned I also jog to and from the gym.  This is usually the distance from one end of the school field, where I start, to the point where I reach the point on the playground which is close to the sports centre entrance.  I timed this the day before I went to the gym just to see what time I would have to leave the house in order to reach the start of the session in time.  Anyways, it's about a min and a half at a temperate jog.  The weird thing is, no doubt down to adrenalin, is the fact that I actually the return leg a lot faster than the initial one.  I even found myself singing along to Sparta, but more about that later.

Weights wise, I have definitely improved upon the initial weights I was using a few weeks back.  The leg press I've improved substantially, no doubt from this extra running I've been doing :D.  Anyways, I think I started on about 10 (they measure only these weights in numbers), and now I'm on about 16-17, which works out at about 150-60kg when consulting their conversion chart thingy.  The max weight is about 220kg on the stack I believe.  As Mike asked, the real only judge of weight training is how much can I bench LOL.  When I started, I worked quickly up to 35kg, finding that challenging enough to form a good basis from.  After a couple of sessions I moved up probs more comfortably than  was expected to 40kg.  As of yesterday's session, I have moved up to 45kg, which only starts to get really really tough towards the end of the hour workout, when I've lifted/ran/rowed/pushed god knows how much.  But yeah I'm really chuffed with the progress I've been making.  There's this one hardcore guy who I've shared one session with who is all about the weight training - particularly the benching.  He is on 80kg so fair play to him - maybe I should feel embarassed when I moved his peg to 40kg, but everyone has to start somewhere.

 

After yesterday's session, I went, as per usual, to book myself in for the next session.  The guy behind the desk let me do it myself, and he noticed my Warwick Uni hoodie I was wearing.  He asked me how long I'd been there, to which I replied that I had finished, graduated last June.  He then asked me what did I study, offering media, and then sport before I could answer.  I'm not too sure what his thinking was behind those suggestions, perhaps that I was more likely to do the subjects cos I was going to the gym, or what my initial reckoning was that he thought I was a bit stupid and not very academically minded.  Well I finally replied "Computer Science" and that shut him up. By this time I had finished booking myself so I promptly left, feeling a slight sense of victory, and then preceded to do some singing while I ran home LOL.

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I need a hero...

So, thanks to a recommendation by my good friend Adam, I recently started watching the show Heroes the other day, and Wow! what a great show, I have got immediately hooked and watched like 6 episodes in less than three days.  I cba to explain the story here, just check it out, but basically it involves a number of individuals, subtly connected,  who slowly discover they have superhuman powers and the show follows their tales.

Anyways, it got me thinking, not unlike a child, how great it would be to have a superpower, perhaps 3.  The characters that I've met so far in the show involve someone who can fly, someone who can alter space/time, someone with incredible regeneration, someone who can paint the future, a mind reader, and possibly the coolest one, like Rogue from X-Men, someone who can seemly borrow other people's powers. Pretty sweet no?

 

So, let's discuss which are the coolest powers from the list above? Lol.  But seriously, I think my faves are the altering of space/time and the mind reader.  The guy who can alter space/time is effectively a Japanese nerd, and thankfully his story so far has provided some light relief from the other stories. 

So yeah, the altering space/time is pretty cool. You could effectively do anything, a lot of the fun options have already been explored by the show including teleporting into the ladies' room, and successfully cheating at gambling in casinos.

The mind reader one is also pretty darn cool.  I am also impressed with the show realising that it wouldn't actually be an ability that you can just turn on and off as required, but you would hear people's thoughts all the time.  I think first done in the original Star Trek series where Spock obviously had his mind-meld tricks, and I remember him saying how it takes years of training to be able to block out all the random thoughts of others.  Boy, wasn't the original series of Star Trek quite cool, in a very low budget, Kirk-also-makes-out-with-a-hot-alien, The crew in red always die kind of way yeah!

The mind reading is particularly cool as the guy uses the ability to "win" any conversation he has, not to mention freak people out with facts about them that they have not openly spoke about.  He has also won back favour with his wife, with whom he is currently having troubles with in their marriage, by setting up the perfect date - everything she has thought would be good.  For selfish reasons, mind-reading would make dating a much more efficient process as once they start thinking, "screw this guy, he's kinda lame", you could then just move on, rather than wait for them to tell you so, a couple of dates later.  The power is actually not unlike the film "What Women Want" which although kinda being a bit of a chick flick, is quite a smart film, only for the cool mind-reading abilities.

 

Here's looking for a local toxic dump from which to gain superpowers. Wish me luck!

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What the Frak?! You motherfrakker!!...

Hey all, Quite recently I've been exploring my interest in sci-fi and decided that I would check out the series Battlestar Galactica.  For those not in the know the show is a remake of the original series made back in the 70s - it is first billed as a remake, but is more of an evolution of the story set about 40 years after the war with the Cylons.  I won't go into any particular plotlines cos frankly that will take too long and I really cba, but I will say that the premise of the show is that after this ceasefire between mankind and cylon (according to them, the plural of cylon is indeed cylon), the cylons begin an onslaught on the human race, trying to wipe them out. The aging ship, the Galactica is the only ship to avoid the attack, and after meeting up with a civilian convoy formed by the new President  - who used to be Secretary of Education (a schoolteacher as they often joke), jump off to some far away part of the Universe away from the Cylons.  This would be ok if the Cylons themselves weren't bent on chasing them down and killing them all for good, and to make matters worse, Cylons can now look like ordinary people, which as even the creators admit, makes special effects a damn side easier, and they are agents within the fleet.  But there is hope, some scripture has already described their journey to a new home which just turns out to be Earth, horray!

 

Ok, hopefully that has wept your appetite, perhaps not, but it shows a lot of promise, but after watching the first two seasons I have my reservations about continuing to watch it.  For a show that boasts it is a sci-fi show, there isn't a terrible amount of sci-fi actually in the show.  The fleet being out in space is a big help, but it could so easily be set on the ocean and they're still encountering the same problems - food, fuel, permanent settlement etc, cylons/pirates chasing them.

Delving a little deeper than the general themes of the show mentioned just, a lot of the plot of the show seems to concern the conflict between the remaining military and a new fledging government.  Also one reservation is the reliance the show puts on Gyuss Baltar, the leading scientist in the fleet, who since falling in love with a Cylon agent back on Caprica(or whatever planet he was on), now sees visions of her talking to him, advising him on what would be best for the Cylons etc.  It was quite smart at first, but having him appear to talk to noone in particular, and them sometimes have his hallucination knock him about a bit, it has got tired. 

Although not a crucial flaw but something that doesn't make complete sense. Not to go into too much detail for those who've not seen the show, but as I said before Cylon agents that are indistinguishable from humans now exist.  Now these agents are notoriously hard to detect, as the show will no doubt explain, even their synthetic blood is identical to human blood.  If these agents have technically the same physiology as their human counterpoints, then the question arises, where do they get this superhuman strength from?  They're exactly the same as the human they replace except they have the ability to pick someone up by their neck and chuck them about a room... yeah right *rolls eyes*.   One particular cylon agent is of this middle aged, and kinda fat guy, and yet he also possesses this incredible strength and speed, but how? I mean, c'mon it can't be something in their muscles or blood or whatever cos it's the say as humans, and you don't see them throwing people about all the time do you?

Another thing which really annoys me, and this is a more general point, but it is now particularily bad on Battlestar Galactica, and that is shows that are obviously censored to not include swearing, but feel that some cursing is crucial to the script, and thus create their own swearwords to avoid censorship - Battlestar is one such show.  The word that they use in Battlestar is Frak, as an obvious alternative to Fuck (sorry kids :s).  The use of the word wasn't immediate in the series, but during the first season, it entered the vocabulary somewhere halfway through and has steadily got worse.  Most uses are along the lines of "What the frak is he/she doing?!" etc, but there have been the odd "For frak's sake!" and possibly the most criminal "Motherfrakker!" *sigh*. It just sounds really lame and quite embarassing for me to be watching it, I hold my head in shame on behalf of the writers...

 

Now, I am not objecting to swearing, nor am in the party that states that there never can be too much swearing, but I like characters to be depicted realistically, and well we all swear, so writers should be given the option/ability to write it in without fear of censorship.  Especially when a show's plots are so character-driven, which is actually one of Galactica's strengths, it just feels really fake, and you suddenly are no longer totally immersed in the story and become very aware that you are watching a TV show - or at least that's me :D

 

Here's leading the charge for free swearing, so come on you bitches and join the cause...

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From Brum to fatherhood (...is my ticket still valid?)

Hey all, got some more scary news to share with the intermaweb.  A week last Sunday (my how time flies :S) I met up with Wilson in Brum for some catching-upness and general merriment.  After going to a few of the regular haunts like the nicer of the two Spoons and getting some grub, possibly fueled by the harder drink, we thought it would be cool to try out a few new and random watering holes.

Well we didn't get that far in all fairness.  We went to O'Neill's which I believe is a part of a chain of bars, a franchise if you will, but it wasn't too bad.  Following that we went down the road about 50 metres to find a new bar called "Walkabout".  Encouraged by the promise of a cider festival which as it happened started that very same day, we popped in to check it out.  Confronted with two Australians behind the bar it prompted the question, "Do you have to be an Australian to work here?" to which the reply was, "No, but it helps...".  One random fruit of the forests cider and some Australian rugby later, it was time to move on again.  It was at this point, that the evening was starting to draw to a close, and I thought best to be off, it was a Sunday, and the trains get really bad late on in the evening. 

We checked in at New Street, realising we had some time to grab another, although good ol' Wilson reckoned we have time for two rounds, mmmm.  Anyways, as it turned out we went to the other Spoons, although it was for a pint of Old Rosie, which is slowly building up the rep it held when I was back at Uni - which is pretty awesome.

That single pint of Old Rosie was proving tougher than originally planned, so had to develop some speed drinking, and bless, I had to help Wilson finish his.  Realising that we had to really go, as in leave about 3 or 4 mins ago, we left at a brisk pace back towards New Street.  I got to my platform and did a little jogging to my train, which was not needed as the train sat there for about another 10mins, grrr, it's so undignified to run for public transport, but I thought I had no choice, alas.

 

So there I sat on the train on my way back home, beer slowly digesting, and feeling pretty good about the brief hours spent in Brum, when uh oh! thanks to breaking the seal in one of the earlier bars, I had to go on the train itself.  Now that is a challenge all on it's own, especially on the older carriages, where it is incredibly bumpy and rickety - would people understand if I had made a mess of myself?  Anyways, on the way down to the train loo, I spotted an old friend John Jones from school.  Once I got back I grabbed my bag and sat with him to catch up on what was happening at his end, which I have not done at all properly - I've seen John getting off the train I get on to get home from work, but that's about it.

 

Anyways, so I got chatting with John, and the reason why he's on the train comes up.  As he tells me, he's on his way back from Kent, which as he stresses is an 8 hour trip and not an enjoyable one.  He continues, and as it turns out, he met a girl when absolutely wasted down in London some time ago, and all he remembers is waking up in this girl's house in Kent.  But the first bombshell is that he has only gone and got this girl pregnant, so she is now with child. I'm not actually sure of the timings and John wasn't completely specific but it seems that the wasted adventure John had in London could well have led to the conception of this child.

I actually asked John, "so do you love this girl?" to which he was especially non-committing and kinda shrugged it off, "Yeah, I gotta" or words to that effect, it was late, and I was liquored up remember.

Scary stuff, so another old friend has joined the list of people who have, or about to start a family.  I was probably in shock for a lot of the rest of the journey.  I often get worried that I'm not growing up like I should, and hearing of people having children does nothing to dissuade that view on my life.  I'm 22 now and although I do believe I have changed considerably in the last year, I still do not feel anywhere near mature enough to raise a child - the question to throw out there is, will I ever feel mature enough?  That's probably how it would all end up, me winging it and potentially screwing up the child's life.  Ah well, it won't be the only one hey? :D  Adding to that, I don't feel the want or need for raising a child right now, so even if I did achieve the maturity, there's no way I'd be up for a child, the whole thing scares me :S

 

Here's waiting for them to invent maturity pills...

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King Kong? King my ass!

Hey peeps, To skip a long story short, I borrowed the King Kong game for the 360 as it boasts some easy achievements, and while playing it I thought it's probs best if I watch the film as well. Some torrenting later and I was in possession of the film and decided to watch it last night.

First things first, it is beautifully shot, featuring some amazing locations which Jackson has become quite famous for, but I have a few criticisms, some of them genuine, some slightly less serious but no less apparent.

One thing I became very aware of was how the film ultimately decided how the audience should be feeling towards characters in the film. When finally King Kong made his appearance and he ran off with the female lead back to "his den" or whatever it was, we had Ann doing tricks, and actually had Kong play games with her, and what is probably the closest thing to laughing. It was incredibly obvious that the direction was to make the audience relate with the ape and think that he may not be quite the monster that we all first thought. Rather than let the audience make their own conclusions on who the "bad guy" is, the audience were given one option, and that was to be sympathetic towards Kong. I can concede that the film is an obvious blockbuster for the masses, and thus can't really contain any controversial moments or leave things open to interpretation - A Movie for dumb film-goers. Maybe in this instance Jackson is a genius and has shot it perfectly, but I'd still prefer to not have my feelings chosen for me and actually be challenged during a film.

Anyways, back on track, and possibly from an anthropology point of view, I wasn't aware that Gorillas - the silverback Gorilla is the obvious grounding for Kong, he even possessed the silverback on screen - were known to play games in adulthood, and able to understand humour. It is well known that chimpanzees display these traits, but Kong is not a monkey - although I was quick to refer to Kong as "the monkey" during my viewing. Maybe I am being short-sighted, and it's probably obvious that the necessary research into gorilla sense of humours was done, and that I am making empty claims, or that this stretch of the truth was used as an obvious tool to sympathise with the monkey as mentioned earlier.

Along the same lines, when Kong makes it to New York and tracks down Ann (although she finds Kong, which is another thing I'm annoyed at) he goes Ice-skating - WTF!? Fair enough that a gorilla would/could be surprised by their lack of balance on ice, but to spin round on their ass, and do that kind of mon key-laugh-noise is ridiculous - again reminding us that maybe Kong isn't a bad guy.

Moving slightly into the realm of biology and animal behaviour, I have reservations on one of the main storytelling dynamics that they decided to deploy. That being, Ann seemingly "falling in love" or being the only one to understand Kong. During the fight scene between Kong and the Dinos (WTF?!? rant about that later lol), which was drawn out too much imho, Kong was the obvious protector of Ann, and it's fair enough to align yourself with Kong top stay alive on an undiscovered island full of savage natives and oversized creatures - I think every girl can agree with that. My disagreement comes from her getting incredibly emotional when they were attempting to subdue Kong, read: not kill, but simply knock out - despite the monkey being on a rampage to get to her, killing several men in the process. Do/will animal acitivists get incredibly emotional at a hunter giving something like a lion a tranquiliser to stop it eating them, when it's running straight at them - I'm not sure, but I'd like to think not.

Something that happened twice in the film is Ann seeing an amazing sunset/dawn/whatever and going "beautiful", and then almost trying to teach Kong to understand the beauty of the view. It seemed just silly, and looking back, cringeworthy. I was half hoping Kong to fully understand and reply, perhaps in a Bob Hoskins voice, "Boo-ti-full". That would have been the icing on the cake.

Other things that just straight up pissed me off were some storytelling elements that were just used for effort mostly without a lot of thorough thought. The first is the natives, fair enough, they have to be in the film to have the immortal scene of Kong grabbing the tied up woman of virtue true from a pole etc. These natives, obvious athletics fans, were able to effectively pole vault off the island to their marooned vessel to steal Ann, but once their purpose of offering her up as a sacrifice, they politely exited the film, and were never seen again - how convenient.

Next is the inclusion of Dinosaurs WTF?!? I thought this film was supposed to be about a giant monkey /sigh. Primitives and a big fuck-off ape were obviously not enough as backdrops to Skull Island that they decided "fuck it! It's an undiscovered world, that warrants dinosaurs to still be knocking around there" A few weeks back, there was an announcement that Jackson and Spielberg were teaming up to make a Tintin film. I couldn't help feel that perhaps the inclusion of dinosaurs was a tip of his hat, an homage to Spielberg's adaptations of Michael Crichton's Dino-themed books.
Anyways back to the dinosaurs in THIS film, and the sauropod stampede seemed a pointless excitement builder, and the big pile-up at the end was actually comic, rather than thrilling. It's a shame that despite the advancement in special effects, the group running in the herd (how did they not get crushed?!?!) still looked slightly out, the lighting obviously not recreated in either the blue screen stuff or CGI stuff, it just looked a little dodgy, although not a criticism of the film, just the limitation of the technology.
Anyways moving back to the dinosaurs, and the emergence of a T-Rex, called a V-Rex in the game, comes after it grabs the iguana-type lizard that was chasing Ann. Now, like today's predators, it is wise to predict that they would only eat once every 3 days, so it seemed weird, that after eating this lizard, which was about as big as the dino's head, that it would decide to go after size 4 Ann, which is effectively a drop in the ocean for satisfying the T-Rex's hunger, but boy did he try. I know it doesn't make for a thrilling film if it recognises that she is there, but continues eating the lizard (which would take a long time actually), but it just goes against the simplest of animal behaviour.
Continue that contradiction, and we have not one, not two, but three T-Rexs after Ann, who is now in the possession of Kong. Now instead of just trying to kill Kong, which would provide a much more filling meal, all 3 seem bent on chasing the morsel that is Ann - stupid I know. Also, going back to animal behaviour, top predators today like lions are not pack hunters, but in fact solitiary predators - so why are three T-Rexes working together for a reward that doesn't even split well one way, let alone three ways. I know if it was taken out it wouldn't make it a very good film, but maybe just one T-Rex would have been ok, three is just OTT.

I will close by saying simply this: I am pleased that I can say that I've seen the film but am not richer from the experience. If asked if I would recommend the film, I would say that it's got to be seen to be believed, and there are times when it's so bad it's good, but the mentality towards films is overrated and frankly done to death, one of the biggest cliches. I give King Kong the Brown Ribbon (a la consolevania).

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Watching other people exercise = 12cals/min...

Hey, another gym-related post as it is something I am very pleased, excited and generally happy with.  The second time I went (Thursday) I unfortunately was not alone like the first time.  It did mean having to potentially worry what other people thought of me, but it was ok, as these two older women come in, and they were larger than me, one in particular was very much so, the mechanics of it don't bear thinking about (except the initial thought which determined that the mechanics would not be appreciated if thought was applied to calculating their values).

 

Anyways, I can appreciate the social aspect of going to the gym. Many people go with friends/work colleagues.  Some people pick up dates at the gym. Hell, there's a lot of people that express going to the gym as a hobby, which seems bizarre. Bizarre enough to warrant my current facebook profile (see facebook).  That being said, these girls were coming to the gym, you know good for them, it's the one of the steps towards improving yourself, but it seemed they spent most of the time chatting to each other, either one of them walking on a treadmill and the other on a bike machine, or one of them on the rowing machine and the other with the crayzee sit-up aid thing, and vice versa.

 

It wasn't that much of a problem to me, I was pretty much able to use the equipment when I wanted, all the weight equipment was available, and I got in my mile and a half jog so I was ok.  Now, the gym itself is just off to the side of the sports hall which as you imagine is used for extra curricular activities - that evening's was five a side football.  Anyhoo, the last 10-15mins of their "workout", which turned out to be about 40-45mins of the allotted hour, was those two watching the football. Now I don't think for a second that these women were fans of the game, even at this, one of the lowest levels you can technically have, it was just those two checking out the guys on display in the hall.  That made me shudder to myself, but then again, fat girls need lovin' too...

 

Here's waiting for the Girl's five-a-side tourney at the school...

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"Is it Jim?" / "No, it's Hughes, I'm here for the gym.... crap" *holds head*

Hey all, Just thought I'd blog about my recent ventures to the gym, something I intend to do heavily on a regular basis.  I've been putting it off for ages, but the start of July came, and I thought hell, why not, I'm not getting any fitter/losing any weight, sitting on my ass trying to force myself to go.

Now, the gym is in fact the small one they have at the Secondary School, and although it's not much, I am happy to use it as leaving the house, jogging to the school actually puts me in the correct frame of mind for some mean gymming.  One goal I have set myself apart from the general ones, those being to improve my general fitness, lose weight, get some proper upper body strength.  Yeah, it's a little worrying that I'm a little out of breath after climbing  a reasonably large flight of stairs - that's when I started to think to myself, I need to do something about this.   The losing weight is pretty obvious, although I'm not really fat, I do have a bit of a belly which my Nan attributes to "beer", but yeah I'm about 12 and a half stone now, although haven't weighed myself for a while, but that weight I am happy with, just want to work on the process of making that weight more productive, i.e. turning some fat into badass muscle, grrr. The general fitness is my main aim, there are times at work, when I'm moving boxes etc and I find myself for want of a bit more strength lifting things, particularily over my head, so there are the straightforward, logical reasons, oh and finally to pick up chicks lol. Nah, as I said, it's a small gym so it doesn't get that many attendees, and even less that are in fact hot...

 

At the turn of this year, Eric had this plan of joining the Navy, of which the only fitness requirement is to be able to run a mile and a half in under 12mins.  Along with the general fitness, the aim of achieving the 12min target seems a sensible long-term target to work towards. I say, long-term because despite my questionable fitness, my second time on  the treadmill, and my first attempt at the full mile and a half distance, I ran it in just over 15mins.  Still a bit off, but I reckon I can get that down by some next time (Friday), it's just a case of getting used to the distance, and then working at getting the time down.

 

Speaking of the gym more generally, I am concentrating on the treadmill as mentioned above, the rowing machine, which is good for arms and actually quite a lot of fun, and the varying methods of lifting weights.  Mike asked what am I benching (obviously gym/work out slang), to which I can confirm that after feeling out where I was the first time, I have settled on 35kg as a basis to work from, although the last time I went (Thursday) I tried out 40 and obviously a bit tougher going, but manageable. 

 

It was particularly cool the first time I went the first time as I had the equipment to myself, so I didn't have to worry about looking flustered, or straining to pump the iron (that's the correct terminology right?).  I also had a go at a few chin-ups, man they are tough, and I conclude that after doing a fair few reps of varying weights I cannot hang from the chinup bar with one hand - perhaps I needed chalk?...

 

Also the great thing about going to the gym and the jogs there and back is what it is doing to my self-esteem. It is very premature to expect my build to be changing, but it may be down to an inflated ego, but already I feel better in myself. It does honestly feel good to do a workout, once resting pulse is reached again, to actually be making a difference to myself. Contrary to what Fight Club says, self improvement rocks!

 

It does seem really weird when in the gym, myself personally I'm making it a habit of jogging at least a mile and a half and rowing 1km but it's very weird that all that effort doesn't actually get me mile and a half down the road (or river)

 

Also something I am also quite pumped in doing is taking my music into the gym, block out everyone else and have something actually decent to listen to. I've also decided that it may be worth using the time to listen to some new albums (or old ones :D) which I've been meaning to give a proper listen, so more of that later.

Here's feeling fitter already, and you can too!...

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