Super fucking updaterage! Oh shit yeah baby, it's about to go off!
*Ahem*, I do apologise. I may be hopped up on booze, weed and a four day weekend.
Anyway, since last we spoke I've been good, thanks for asking. We got to see An Axe play again - always good although I have to say the Mother's Ruin is a bit shit for a venue. The guys were crowded into a corner across the stairs and had sound issues during their sound check but still managed, through sheer force of talent, to put on a show that raised the hairs on the back of my neck regardless. Spellbinding as always gentlemen.
Also got a nice surprise in the form of Nikhita, sneaking in with new gentleman in tow, whom I bonded with over Star Wars and other geek-filled wonderfulness. He seems like a good sort and oddly the only pic I have from the night is of him, which I won't post here for reasons of the aforementioned lovely lady's privacy.
Also went for a nice walk in the sunshine a couple of weeks ago and caught up with a friend of mine I hadn't seen in over a year - the last time I saw her, I was telling her about this girl I'd met called Pinklet (real name witheld to protect the guilty,) who I really liked... Was nice to see her and catch up and I also managed to get my copy of Watchmen back from her, so that's one thing I don't have to re-buy.
Near my friend's house. We're not sure how the fuck the bus gets down the steps...
Random Action Man hanging from a window, Same area.
Interesting clock with time-related quotes on which will hopefully show up on the maximised pic...
The cats, ignoring each other after a spat.
"Tell her I'm not listening to her."
"Well tell him I'm not talking to him anyway!"
Actually they're pretty good really. They rarely fight, other than the occasional play-fight-which-goes-a-bit-too-far.
TheKnives and Kristoph were lovely and brought us back the cheese and wine we requested from France. If it was me, I'd have eaten it on the way home as it's delicious!
We stopped in at a friend's house party and were amazed to find the bath completely filled with booze! Not only that but it had all been arranged accoding to contents - wine, alcopops, cider, beer and maybe in alphabetical order too for all I know. OCD at work.
She loves me really.
Good Friday = Excellent Friday. We'd arranged for a BBQ over at the Cat Cave, but the weather being what it was, it turned into an indoor picnic instead
There was enough food to feed an army and most of our local friends turned up for food, booze, weed (for those who partake,) and computer games! Left 4 Dead
and Street Fighter 4
were favourites.
Yes I caved and got SF4 - I had to, it's been a part of my life since I was... a lot younger. Then I realised how much I suck at it. I'm only really any good with Ken (and by extention, Ryu and Sagat,) and according to what I've been hearing, Ken is considered to be the character noobs play as and I've been playing since the first SF2! Sob! (In fact I have played the original Street Fighter on arcade many years ago, which was a very different beast.) I can win the odd match with someone like Guile but I've always had a thing against 'charge' moves. I realise there are strategical balances in place and ways to incorporate charging into play etc, but it always seemed a bit shit to me that some characters have to charge special moves up for two seconds, which limits the number of times per round they can do them and others can just keep throwing fireballs one after another. (SF2 hyper Ryu anyone?)
I also picked up Condemned: Criminal Origins
for £8. I enjoyed the demo, but the full game feels more 'on rails' than I noticed before. Even the evidence collecting is weak - it gives you hints for when to check for evidence and even selects the right tool for you, so there's no real skill involved. (A tip guys; a game is defined as a series of interesting choices. (Trust me, I did a games degree...) so if you take those choices away from the player, what do you have? A bad game at best.) The combat is interesting - typical first person shooter except that ammo and guns are pretty hard to come by - usually if you find a pistol or shotgun it has 3-5 rounds in it, so you spend most of your time fighting melee style. If you have a gun this means pistol whipping, but if not, you can pick up crowbars, sledgehammers and fire axes or even rip a pipe or a piece of 2x4 from the wall and use that. Despite my complaints and the odd placement of healthpacks, (none for a while, then a load where you don't need them, then none...) I'm actually quite enjoying it. The plot is interesting - fairly typical serial killer being hunted by FBI agent, the likes of which we've seen more of since Sllence of the Lambs, but with enough thought put into it to make it worth paying attention to the flashbacks and supposed precognitive ability flash-forwards that foreshadow interesting twists to come.
Also been cracking on with Prince of Persia:
which, also despite many faults, (the one on one fighting is iffy - I preferred the one-on-many version of Sands of Time, the Prince seems to be less acrobatic in the fighting than previously, the bosses are cheap, there's virtually no way to die as you get saved if you mess up,) I like. The graphics are actually gorgeous, the gameplay dynamic with you and Elika, (the computer controlled Princess that accompanies you,) is interesting and well implemented in most cases, and the freeform approach to the levels, coupled with an interesting plot and compelling characterisation makes for entertaining play.
Easter weekend
Mostly chilled with some rather late starts for me. Had a nice wander into town and picked up a couple of books from a stall on the waterfront. I got:
and in an amazing spot by Pinklet, I also picked up:
which was featured in the film, "What the Bleep do we know?":
I have also been reading this:
which is thought-provoking (not necessarily a good thing - if you've read the book you'll know why!) but requires something of a leap of faith right off the bat if you were to subscribe to it's theory. Still interesting reading though for furthering my personal philosophy and igniting ideas for my magnum opus novel, which is now going to be called "The Choice".
Ack, so much writing, drawing, illustration and web designing to do and so far this weekend I've done very little except got the basics fleshed out of a logo for an exciting possible new project, (like I need another thing to procrastinate from doing, but hey.)
As I said, just the basics - I'm going to change the colours of the spots as I just added them in the last 5 mins to show on here, so they were rushed, add shading and the middle part of it is going to be an eye. It'll make a little more sense if I tell you it is a stylised letter Q.... If all goes to plan, you may be seeing more of the monopuss, as I have dubbed it.
What else? Oh yeah bought this bad boy:
for half the price we'd seen it for in Cambridge. For some reason having that above the fireplace makes it feel more like home.
Bought a little pipe for smoking teh reefer without the use of tobacco, (so I don't end up smoking again. It's been over a year now - I quit for mine and Pinklet's first date so I wouldn't smell like shit if we did smootchies!
)
I don't think I look too much like popeye...
Got talked into buying a tent by the girl. apparently it was really cheap for a four-manner. I love camping though, so it's all good. It must go up pretty easily too as I went to the loo and when I came back:
We went to the 'Crimes of Passion' street art exhibition. Here are some highlights:
Today we got invited to the cinema by our nice downstairs neighbours (we think the twattish upstairs ones might have moved out! Yay!) who came to our indoor picnic on Friday. The guy works as a projectionist so got us all in free. We saw Grand Turino, a Clint Eastwood flick about an old grumpy war vet getting inadvertantly involved with his neighbourhood of Oriental people (I think they said either 'Mung' or 'Mong' in the film, I'm not sure but apparently they fought alongside the Americans in Korea.). I'd never heard of the film but it was really good. Kind of a slice of life in some ways but a real emotional journey with themes of family, racism, friendship across boundaries and morality. It was a well told story & I'd recommend it.
We got home, had a little boozes and played Rock Band for the first time in ages. We introduced them to it. She sings and plays guitar anyway and he drums so we figured they'd pick it up fairly quickly. He was just about getting the hang of it but she faltered, partly through being a little shy I think. Both seemed to struggle with the "what button due I hit for that colour?" syndrome. I think sometimes it helps not to be too good at an actual instrument when playing rock band for similar reasons that it's not always beneficial to know the song - it helps you concentrate on the game rather than the music,
And for now... that's it.
*Ahem*, I do apologise. I may be hopped up on booze, weed and a four day weekend.
Anyway, since last we spoke I've been good, thanks for asking. We got to see An Axe play again - always good although I have to say the Mother's Ruin is a bit shit for a venue. The guys were crowded into a corner across the stairs and had sound issues during their sound check but still managed, through sheer force of talent, to put on a show that raised the hairs on the back of my neck regardless. Spellbinding as always gentlemen.
Also got a nice surprise in the form of Nikhita, sneaking in with new gentleman in tow, whom I bonded with over Star Wars and other geek-filled wonderfulness. He seems like a good sort and oddly the only pic I have from the night is of him, which I won't post here for reasons of the aforementioned lovely lady's privacy.
Also went for a nice walk in the sunshine a couple of weeks ago and caught up with a friend of mine I hadn't seen in over a year - the last time I saw her, I was telling her about this girl I'd met called Pinklet (real name witheld to protect the guilty,) who I really liked... Was nice to see her and catch up and I also managed to get my copy of Watchmen back from her, so that's one thing I don't have to re-buy.
Near my friend's house. We're not sure how the fuck the bus gets down the steps...
Random Action Man hanging from a window, Same area.
Interesting clock with time-related quotes on which will hopefully show up on the maximised pic...
The cats, ignoring each other after a spat.
"Tell her I'm not listening to her."
"Well tell him I'm not talking to him anyway!"
Actually they're pretty good really. They rarely fight, other than the occasional play-fight-which-goes-a-bit-too-far.
TheKnives and Kristoph were lovely and brought us back the cheese and wine we requested from France. If it was me, I'd have eaten it on the way home as it's delicious!
We stopped in at a friend's house party and were amazed to find the bath completely filled with booze! Not only that but it had all been arranged accoding to contents - wine, alcopops, cider, beer and maybe in alphabetical order too for all I know. OCD at work.
She loves me really.
Good Friday = Excellent Friday. We'd arranged for a BBQ over at the Cat Cave, but the weather being what it was, it turned into an indoor picnic instead
There was enough food to feed an army and most of our local friends turned up for food, booze, weed (for those who partake,) and computer games! Left 4 Dead
and Street Fighter 4
were favourites.
Yes I caved and got SF4 - I had to, it's been a part of my life since I was... a lot younger. Then I realised how much I suck at it. I'm only really any good with Ken (and by extention, Ryu and Sagat,) and according to what I've been hearing, Ken is considered to be the character noobs play as and I've been playing since the first SF2! Sob! (In fact I have played the original Street Fighter on arcade many years ago, which was a very different beast.) I can win the odd match with someone like Guile but I've always had a thing against 'charge' moves. I realise there are strategical balances in place and ways to incorporate charging into play etc, but it always seemed a bit shit to me that some characters have to charge special moves up for two seconds, which limits the number of times per round they can do them and others can just keep throwing fireballs one after another. (SF2 hyper Ryu anyone?)
I also picked up Condemned: Criminal Origins
for £8. I enjoyed the demo, but the full game feels more 'on rails' than I noticed before. Even the evidence collecting is weak - it gives you hints for when to check for evidence and even selects the right tool for you, so there's no real skill involved. (A tip guys; a game is defined as a series of interesting choices. (Trust me, I did a games degree...) so if you take those choices away from the player, what do you have? A bad game at best.) The combat is interesting - typical first person shooter except that ammo and guns are pretty hard to come by - usually if you find a pistol or shotgun it has 3-5 rounds in it, so you spend most of your time fighting melee style. If you have a gun this means pistol whipping, but if not, you can pick up crowbars, sledgehammers and fire axes or even rip a pipe or a piece of 2x4 from the wall and use that. Despite my complaints and the odd placement of healthpacks, (none for a while, then a load where you don't need them, then none...) I'm actually quite enjoying it. The plot is interesting - fairly typical serial killer being hunted by FBI agent, the likes of which we've seen more of since Sllence of the Lambs, but with enough thought put into it to make it worth paying attention to the flashbacks and supposed precognitive ability flash-forwards that foreshadow interesting twists to come.
Also been cracking on with Prince of Persia:
which, also despite many faults, (the one on one fighting is iffy - I preferred the one-on-many version of Sands of Time, the Prince seems to be less acrobatic in the fighting than previously, the bosses are cheap, there's virtually no way to die as you get saved if you mess up,) I like. The graphics are actually gorgeous, the gameplay dynamic with you and Elika, (the computer controlled Princess that accompanies you,) is interesting and well implemented in most cases, and the freeform approach to the levels, coupled with an interesting plot and compelling characterisation makes for entertaining play.
Easter weekend
Mostly chilled with some rather late starts for me. Had a nice wander into town and picked up a couple of books from a stall on the waterfront. I got:
and in an amazing spot by Pinklet, I also picked up:
which was featured in the film, "What the Bleep do we know?":
I have also been reading this:
which is thought-provoking (not necessarily a good thing - if you've read the book you'll know why!) but requires something of a leap of faith right off the bat if you were to subscribe to it's theory. Still interesting reading though for furthering my personal philosophy and igniting ideas for my magnum opus novel, which is now going to be called "The Choice".
Ack, so much writing, drawing, illustration and web designing to do and so far this weekend I've done very little except got the basics fleshed out of a logo for an exciting possible new project, (like I need another thing to procrastinate from doing, but hey.)
As I said, just the basics - I'm going to change the colours of the spots as I just added them in the last 5 mins to show on here, so they were rushed, add shading and the middle part of it is going to be an eye. It'll make a little more sense if I tell you it is a stylised letter Q.... If all goes to plan, you may be seeing more of the monopuss, as I have dubbed it.
What else? Oh yeah bought this bad boy:
for half the price we'd seen it for in Cambridge. For some reason having that above the fireplace makes it feel more like home.
Bought a little pipe for smoking teh reefer without the use of tobacco, (so I don't end up smoking again. It's been over a year now - I quit for mine and Pinklet's first date so I wouldn't smell like shit if we did smootchies!
)I don't think I look too much like popeye...
Got talked into buying a tent by the girl. apparently it was really cheap for a four-manner. I love camping though, so it's all good. It must go up pretty easily too as I went to the loo and when I came back:
We went to the 'Crimes of Passion' street art exhibition. Here are some highlights:
Today we got invited to the cinema by our nice downstairs neighbours (we think the twattish upstairs ones might have moved out! Yay!) who came to our indoor picnic on Friday. The guy works as a projectionist so got us all in free. We saw Grand Turino, a Clint Eastwood flick about an old grumpy war vet getting inadvertantly involved with his neighbourhood of Oriental people (I think they said either 'Mung' or 'Mong' in the film, I'm not sure but apparently they fought alongside the Americans in Korea.). I'd never heard of the film but it was really good. Kind of a slice of life in some ways but a real emotional journey with themes of family, racism, friendship across boundaries and morality. It was a well told story & I'd recommend it.
We got home, had a little boozes and played Rock Band for the first time in ages. We introduced them to it. She sings and plays guitar anyway and he drums so we figured they'd pick it up fairly quickly. He was just about getting the hang of it but she faltered, partly through being a little shy I think. Both seemed to struggle with the "what button due I hit for that colour?" syndrome. I think sometimes it helps not to be too good at an actual instrument when playing rock band for similar reasons that it's not always beneficial to know the song - it helps you concentrate on the game rather than the music,
And for now... that's it.
APR 13, 2009 08:00 PM
Epic blog there fella, good work 
I got street fighter IV a while ago, and I absolutely love it. Have to say, I love playing as Ken, and as Sagat, guess we're both just noobs then eh? Can't stand the charge moves either, so Guile is pretty much out, and Honda and Chun li, well, bit limited.
My favourite thing about it is it's basically just Street Fighter 2, but with beautiful graphics. Made the game play exactly the same, very sharp, but not too many silly moves, pretty awesome. Should be going to get a copy of Fifa in a few minutes, my friend has just shown up from the UK, and really wants to play it
Give Pinklet a big hug from me, looks like you're both doing well
APR 13, 2009 08:44 PM
Where did you find time for all this? You obviously aren't being worked hard enough.
Secretary
I'm lost
September 2008
APR 14, 2009 10:47 AM
Woah, that blog was even longer and more picture filled than mine. 
Crimes of Passion looks amazing, I want to go! x
APR 14, 2009 12:08 PM
you dont look like popeye, you look like zack wylde playing popeye.
APR 14, 2009 01:28 PM
that was a long one 
Oh, and i love Eco!!
APR 14, 2009 03:05 PM
APR 15, 2009 02:07 AM
APR 15, 2009 09:58 AM
You know - You.Rule.
Those pictures are amazing! I wish i could go see them too Loads of love to you and pinky xx
APR 15, 2009 11:18 AM
Secretary
I'm lost
September 2008
APR 15, 2009 11:28 AM
Can I ask where it is? If it's near enough I'll have to go, instead of being a hermit like I usually do in my spare time. x
Secretary
I'm lost
September 2008
APR 15, 2009 11:52 AM
APR 16, 2009 03:14 PM
APR 16, 2009 03:20 PM
APR 17, 2009 08:02 AM
Hidden Messages In Water - someone was telling me about that just the other day; we spent a while looking at 'Adolf Hitler' vs, like, 'I wish you well.' I want to take my own water pictures!
Also, I like the fact that the dude is practically called Dr Emo. 
APR 19, 2009 12:43 PM
Epic Facial Hair!
WHere in Bristol are you? I have family that way x
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