But daaah is it cold!

I am meaning to review my films and games of January.... but really I have to start by saying MASS EFFECT 2! and how it is very much consuming my brain.
But in a lot of ways it is good brain food; re-writing my book is charging along too. Three or four days now and I'm already hitting 9,000 words, character designs for it are swimming around in my head too but they are harder to get down on paper.

On a totally random note: Why do some people give their dogs glowing red collars and send them out into the park in the pitch dark?? Aren't they intimidating enough!?

( Films and Games of January )

Wow... that took a while. I hope my net doesn't crash before I post this! (its being a slowpoke)

Feels like yesterday I started this post......

Need to go do something else! Even if that thing ends up being Mass Effect 2!

My, my... so with another Year ended and listings beginning anew (argh!) I can now reveal my Top 10 Best and Worst films and games of 2009!
It has been a strenuous process this time... a lot of mediocre films this year! I won't take up any more of your friends' page. LJ cut of doom!

( The Films and Games of 2009 )

*breath sigh of relief* I can let go of 2009 now, haha.

I hope you enjoyed reading over it all =)

The bells are imminent! Hope you all have a great New Year! :)

My year summary and final film lists will come later, work has delayed this month's reviews! Argh.

( Films and Games of December )

Hiiii everyone!

A combination of things have started to convince me that I should re-write my original book (the one before NaNoWriMo). NaNo certainly is one of these influences... but as I lie here in bed at home, surrounded by the youthful creative surroundings that are here from the day of writing the originals – yes, my room here hasn't changed much! - I can't help but feel what I am currently writing is too... serious?
Certainly I have retained most of the character traits I loved to write back then... but there isn't enough. It seems all good but not in comparison with its original. Sure they were iiiiiiiincredibly flawed... but they have a completely innocent, unhindered and unquestionable passion running through them. I didn't write them because I needed to, or for any reason other than simply wanting to. No plan, no structure, no debate. Just manic bashing of keys and ripping into Games Workshop lore.
Plus I just watched Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Extended version... and a similar feeling came over me. My book already started to rewrite itself as I watched.
So if I can't find them here... I will go back to Dundee and put on my walls my original hand-painted book covers. I can see photocopies here now, how silly yet meticulous they are... a bit like the books themselves.
I'll feel a bit bad for ditching about 33,000 words of book... but I suspect it will be for the better. Perhaps I will try and keep bits I like... but wouldn't count on it. Perhaps I was being too clever with it? A little like a film maker trying too hard to adapt something they fanboy about yet miss the point entirely?

I am quite happy with my NaNo book, structurally anyway. It needs neatening up certainly but the idea itself is pretty sound. Mum wants to read it /swt. So do most people :P If you want to read a first draft.... prod me. Otherwise you can wait until the day I go through an edit!

I feel like I want to take a bunch of stuff back with me... there's a whole load of miniatures that are direct influences on my old characters. Don't think the original manuscripts will help so much... they would just make my eyes hurt!

Through all of this I think of my dissertation... so... so very much!

(incidentally... it is 1.41am on Friday... its just my Eee can't receive the wireless through these thick stone Georgian walls! =s)

Incidentally, my Eeeee's messenger is on the blink =/ no sure why yet!

I got myself some sprouts =o
I had the strangest day at work on Sunday. 10.30 until 6 yet I enjoyed it all, actually nothing bothered me and it was all really good. I even reveled in doing so much stock I actually over-stocked the place lol
Perhaps its my sign that I've been there too long? :P

Me and Tommy fiiiiiiinally got to play Borderlands again too on Saturday! I was nearly giving up on the idea of playing co-op on Xbox.
Playing rather too much Project Gotham Racing 4 at the moment... I now have.... 9 more challenges on Arcade to get gold on out of 108. I even managed to do one of the most retardedly difficult races imaginable /shakey, I tell you it is getting as tricky as F-Zero GX now. I very quickly recorded that replay!

To be honest, this week has been rather quiet. Though I have got virtually ALL of my Christmas presents for people done! =o Except..... my sister Claire... whose list comprises entirely of things I have no clue about! lol
Saw Nomi and Deji on Saturday too, that was good =D

That was very nearly a typo: Good Toes o.o
But yea, lots of good things have been happening! Okay maybe not career moving things :P but good things nonetheless.

Firstly, I too have completed NaNoWriMo!! No sparkly text from me :p

Guess I'll have to put these things on my website somewhere hehe, you even get a certificate o.o
It wasn't too hard... though I now barely remember what I wrote... my impression is that hardly anything happened lol. Not too sure about the ending; I wrote myself into a corner and had to stretch ideas to get out of it!

Also, my Xbox360 returned to me today! PGR4 already annoyed me =p but I am still resolved not to play it excessively. Shortly after that... Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on blu-ray (3 disc) arrived! Very much doubt I will resist watching that again tonight!

And of course Lynee was up for the weekend =D and while work Friday night, Saturday daytime were kinda grueling (we have lots of newbies now...) it didn't detract from an awesome few days.
Somehow I made an awesome (more adjectives! MORE!) roast chicken too, no idea how I did it =D Lemon, bacon, roast potatoes and a load of herbs. Hmmmmm. We investigated the continental market too, which was nice enough except for the face-freezing wind o.o;;;
Oh yes... then we had Camp.
Yes, or rather Aye, Camp:


Bottle of DOOM. While it does seem it would be like a James & Tommy concoction... it isn't that bad! A weird taste, like combining coffee with liquorice, but overall, quite nice really :P
And while we are on topic of weirdness, Lynee got me playing a Final Fantasy game! D= Shocked, I know you are! FFIX to be precise. I will continue playing it =)
So yes, gooood times! I am buzzing as we go into.... December... the month of no money! lol

Guess I'll do these now, so I have one day off work without any writing! Even though it has been a looooong month!

( Films and Game of November )
If anyone wants to read my NaNoWriMo book... working title "Legacy"... you may =) Though of course it will be FULL of problems, which I'd like to think I'll get around to working on.
Or I may go straight to my original, abandoned book!

I've seen a lot more films this month than I was expecting, what with my Xbox dying I have had a lot more time on my hands!
But yes, it did Red Ring last week and I am still pretty happy about this fact! I have been a lot more creativity minded and have had truckloads of spare time to do stuff I enjoy doing.
Yes... I said it between the lines... sometimes gaming really does get in my way.

Perhaps I exaggerate, we all know when it comes back I'll be happily plugged in and sniping away :P But I am greatly enjoying this holiday from games. After all, the PC can barely run 3-4 things at once, yet alone play games =( and the Wii... I don't know, doesn't get much of a look in anymore...

Writing!
But yes, writing and designing stuff! I'm starting to love my NaNoWriMo experience; though as a story I write nears the end I do get thoroughly engrossed in it! Even when I was like 14 my sister would be prying me off the family computer so she could "chat online" (whatever that was, I'd thought) while I was writing the finale too a story.
I get really involved, especially if I find myself respecting my characters... which admittedly NaNoWriMo has been a bit too quick to develop that sort of emotional bond. But there are moments coming up which will be pretty good!
I am ramping it up lol. If any of you read it you will probably see it for the mangled grammar/structural nightmare that it is :P

Home!
I went home for several days while I had my holiday. Home was immensely comfy! Seriously I haven't slept that soundly for a while; the fact I was waking up without immediately facing financial dispute and job schedules. While my Mum cooked awesome foods =D
She and I also went to see 2012, which I will comment on later. I also met Nomi in Stirling and DVDs were exchanged (in a totally shifty way of course :P) in Costas!

Perpetual Twilight
Unfortunately... while home was great, I immediately returned to Dundee to find myself poor and facing the hordes for the over long titled "The Twilight Saga: New Moon". Good god. I mean really... REALLY...
What little respect.... wait no... what zero respect I have of Twilight fans had managed to go to subzero. It is appalling and offended me as a film lover, a writer and a human being. That may be exaggeration to you, but the more I know about it, the worse it becomes.
The fans are entirely girls... they manage to scream and whoop and cry... they manage to order all the food we have for each of them... before casting it all over the theatre. Again and again ¬______________¬

Still, this is the reason I come back to the flat and write for 2-3 hours =)
It is a great act of escapism; to let imagination fly from your fingertips and forget everything around you. Troubles dissolve into the writing and seem to become a source of strength rather than a bickering worry to plague you for days, while joy and enthusiasm just lets you rattle away like a crazy person =D

It'll be interesting to go back to my original book (the one reinventing books I wrote when I was 13) I am hoping this NaNoWriMo story can stave off my frequent writers block with that one!

(listening to loads of Lord of the Rings at the moment. Really, *why* don't I have these films on DVD??)

When this appeared on Have I Got News For You, I had to screencap it xD I hope its genuine like they said it was, made me crack up!

So I find myself creatively drained at the moment and rather bored, so I figure I should try and summarise my Tuesday evening with Eddie Izzard in Glasgow's SECC. =D

Eddie Izzard: Stripped

It was all very rushed and very bizarre, I'll say first of all, plus I have no photographs =S
I got a train at 3.49 from Dundee and got to Glasgow at 5.17 were I met my sister Isobel who got me the tickets waaaaay back in June as an awesome Birthday present!
Once at her and her boyfriend's flat, we had Chinese food before my other sister Claire arrived to give us a lift to the SECC. Like some crazy, very random family reunion!
On the way to the SECC we were running late, so naturally every red light and every old lady who couldn't see over the dashboard got in our way! We ran into the place, got water from a queue aaaaall the way around the WHSmith, then waited with over 100 people to be filed into the hall! By this point the show was late, but obviously with so many people still getting in, they couldn't start.

We got to our seats at last, great seats too. We were at the front of a triangular section of seating, so we had a wide junction in the walkway between us and the main front seating area, giving us unobstructed viewing!
The lights went down, then an Eddie Izzard opening of flashing lights, star effects and light beams dazzled the crowd before introducing him onto the stage centre from a sneaky siding door!
When he appeared, there were three big screens, which I watched only to realise I should watch him!

It was awesome =D He was definitely more on form than in his recent Sexie DVD, and he had dropped the transvesite look, which surprised me. He did have a cool waistcoat!
So went a bombardment of jokes and social commentary about everything and anything! Glasgow; monkey tea parties and astronauts; Jesus; Noah's Ark; dinosaurs; stone napping; Greek; Latin; French; German; Sparta; sharks saving children; Sean Connery; badgers; jazz chickens and cake mixture!
I personally loved all the badger jokes he continually made xDD But there was many others like the godliness of cake mixture and the disappointment once its been baked!
How farmers always live with noisy animals, but if you were to slam the chickens head into a trumpet, you would get a Jazz Chicken... and that just wouldn't wake you up!
It was great when he inadvertantly mentioned "Covered in Bees", which caused a huge roar of cheering, which he replied to everyone else sheepishly about the history of the Covered in Bees joke xD Lots of Izzard trademarks throughout!

It is hard to describe without actually listening to him xD but the impressive thing was how you can see his crazy train of thought as he goes on! He seems to be taking a much more direct approach to social commentary now; dropping the transvesite image (a la the show being called "Stripped") so that people would appreciate what he wants to say, rather than just being distracted by women's clothing :P

It was a great time, it was sad when it ended - somewhere around 1 hour and 40? - so I'll be asking for the DVD for Christmas =D Hope he comes back to Scotland again someday!

Anything else?
So tired after that day... Slept on my sisters sofa (which was the nicest sofa I've slept on) to get back to Dundee for work. Probably the longest 5 hour shift ever =S
I am writing NaNoWriMo every waking moment; now I'm at about 18,000 words. I should have 20,000, so I am catching up! The story is coming along nicely, starting to care for my characters, which is always a good thing.

Just tried the new Fish'n'Chips near my flat.... very meh =( Chips okay, fish is little to be desired... not crunchy batter at all!
So hard to remember Eddie Izzard jokes! I am trying; my msn will be covered in them =D

EDIT: Oh yea.. and my Xbox Red Ringed - error 74! D: Getting it fixed...

Hi everyone, I am falling behind! What with it being the 4th of November and still no film/game reviews :S

Also I have my Nanowrimo thingy started... falling behind too, wrote over 2000 words yesterday, need to write another 2000 words at least today =S I'm fortunate enough that this idea has legs... I changed what idea I was going with after Nanowrimo started; the first one just wouldn't have covered 50,000 words. Within: Confinement was 55,000 words and that took me 3 years! =SS
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/556248
Yes I am behind, yes I haven't put up any info. I'll get around to it! :P

So I feel like I'm going to be plenty occupied... what with work asking me to take more shifts (I'm putting my foot down now) because they are dumb and hiring the wrong people. Also Boogey-Ground effectively up and running again (as it has been for the last month or two) meaning I should be working on more environmental stuff for that. Not to mention my original book I was writing! :P
And Borderlands...

( and Film and Game Reviews for October! )

God it is past 6pm already! =( my day off.... it is gone! I did go see 9 though, which was pretty cool!

Hi all, just a small post to get things written down before the Halloween / end of month post of doom!

So I have signed up to NaNoWriMo, the weirdly named writing experience over the entirity of November. I'm... a little concerned at having a month to write 175 pages, 50,000 words, in 30 days, without any real idea of what I am writing! I have two ideas... actually no I have several ideas, one of the better ones I was considering writing a while ago. Based off a really odd and detailed dream I had.
So we'll see how that goes! =S

My sister Isobel was up visiting last Monday (20th) which was nice =) We had Subways followed by Marble Slab ice cream. Hmmmm. While that was pretty much all of my money gone at the time lol
We... err what did we do? We went to Borders and just chatted about her move to Canada and films. It was a very brief visit, she had work the next day. She wanted to visit again for longer though =)
In this veeeery long week, my Mum visited on the Thursday to see The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus for free (and to see me of course :P) I knew that this film specifically was running 10 minutes late, I phoned up ahead of time to check, Laura - manager at the time - told me it was still late. So we got there "in time", only to find they had ditched the ads/trailers to make it on time >_> I was not pleased. This being the last day before the schedule changed anyway and the problem would be fixed. Why did we go through 6 days of frantic problems only to think of fixing it on the last day?? If I were a guest I would be pissed off.
Sooooo, my Mum religated to buying tickets for Up, which of course she loved, so it was okay in the end =) We finished the day with Papa Joe's, red wine going straight to my head lol

Incidentally we both saw Imaginarium individually, it was weird but worth it! =D Terry Gilliam is quite mad; lots of Monty Python visuals throughout. Heath Ledger was also good in the role, as were his three replacements; Depp, Farrell and Law.

Well, that's about all for now. Bring on awkward Hallowe'en. Here's hoping work isn't too frantic.

So I'll have money again soon, wooo :D More than I was actually expecting, what with my holidays and all. I've gotten back into sketching and painting again recently too. They might not be surprising themes.... from me :P but it has me creating again, that's the main thing!

Halloween
Soooo I don't have Halloween off work =( I don't know when I will be working though; could be the evening, could be the morning, or the middle of the day. The morning would obviously be better! But unlikely.
At least I've heard rumours that work will allow us to wear costume xD


That's how far its gotten. Sorry about the blurry picture.
Just outlined the teeth, the surface has been smoothed with a lot of acrylic (forgot to get sandpaper while I was at home!) And yes.... it is attached to my head! Sort of... only one strap from the top edge, around the base of my skull and up from under my jaw / chin. I think it needs another strap.
Trying to think what sort of colouration it should have? I was thinking blue, but I'm not sure.

Otherwise
I survived a trip to the dentist on Thursday too. Since my last visit 6 months ago was less than stellar I was nervous; especially as this was an x-ray (the last one was 2 years ago) to look for any more underlying problems. But, there weren't any! =D Asides from the big one from before, there isn't anything else wrong. Pheeeew.
(still gonna avoid Polo mints though :P)

I'm currently listening to the Formula 1, while my hair is drying too, quite a good race actually. My sister Isobel is coming up to visit briefly tomorrow afternoon, which'll be nice =D provided I get a fair amount of sleep!

I completed Gears of War 2's story mode in a day, rented. Was a lot better than Gears! I was pleasantly surprised; some nice visuals for once, asides from being just dirt colours!

Alrighty, sleep now!

Somehow I have just discovered I have no money. I went into town to buy stuff, but decided to check my balance first. I have £40 to my name to last until my next pay on the 23rd =S
Investigation led me to good ol' Scottish Gas ripping £177 from me in my "final electricity statement" since I moved to Scottish Hydro Electric... well over a month ago. Why did I move? Because the usual door-to-door salesperson arrived and convinced me.
The next time someone like that appears... I'm pushing them down the stairs ¬¬

Weekend of Much Stuff

Aaaaanyway.
Since I can rant about something, I guess I have recovered from the weekend! This was my second week of holidays and lucky for it; lots of things were planned for this weekend.
Ignoring the revival of Abertay's GiG tourneys, I got into Glasgow on Friday to see Lynee =D I was introduced to Qi.  Yes, another show that had slipped by me! =P Saturday was day of much Glasgow exploration! We met up with Nomi and then - most significantly - Mana and Sarah!
After much walking, talking, catch-ups, baby antics and Nomis exploding with Pepsi, Mana rescued Sarah from Glasgow Saturday night life while the rest of us hid in the Odeon to see Up.
I gotta say, the cinema was a hell of a lot better than ours! While the film was pretty damn good! =D Definitely up there for originality and heartstring pulling...
"It is funny because the squirrel GOT DEAD!!"
... and comedy =P

Much collapsing after Saturday o.o while on Sunday I was scooped up by my sister Claire and rushed back home. My oldest sis Isobel had over 500 photos to show the family group from her excursion to Canada - and plans on moving there.
To be honest... Canada looks a lot like... Scotland... except with wooden houses and flatter landscapes. I was so tired that I'm surprised I made it through the slideshow!
We had a massive Chinese takeaway for all of us, before my sisters and their partners returned to Glasgow.

Monday was lazy! I just took a walk around Bridge of Allan, wrote book and played with Oscar outside =D Should probably have stayed there an extra day; my Mum is planning on visiting me, as is Isobel, in the next week!

Anything else?

My next week off... I intend for the weekend to be easy going! :)
I have Fallout 3 rented, but like all of Bethesda's games... I doubt I will get far in it. It's surely better than Oblivion, but god... massive rolling landscapes of GREY... doesn't really inspire me to explore.


My Hollow Mask progress for Halloween. I particularly like the teeth so far =)

Oh yea, and Claire got me Transformers series 1 and series 2 part 1 8D Plus I have X-Files season 5 for £9. So really... I have no need to buy stuff for a while! (eerrr.. except Christmas stuff!)

Here's to more frequent LJ updates :)

I feel pretty good these days :) this year had started out incredibly positively, went through a rough patch in the summer, but appears to have collected itself again! :D Hello again, happy 2009.
I'd like to think it involves more than the weather cooling down and becoming coat worthy :P

I am endevouring to *eat more* these days too, since a few noteworthy people have been saying I am too thin :P And since I was eating toooonnes of food while I was home, I figured there must have been something wrong over the Summer period; lots of work, lots of walking, less food. So I'm working on it :)

I've spend the last few days slaving away at my stupid Odeon workbook. I've watched... Day after Tomorrow, Gladiator, V For Vendetta, The Dark Knight and several Firefly episodes while doing it .____. plus I was at work today for two hours solely to finish it!
But now I can focus on my Hollow Mask for Halloween. It may change in design as it is proving a tad tricky... we will see! Also on general arty stuff.

My sister Isobel just phoned =o (so I think the post time on this journal will be incredibly off!) she never phones me! She and her partner have just got back from being in Canada - Nova Scotia to be precise - and it seems... they are going to be moving over there!! Afraid I am more anxious about this than happy. It is good and all, given she's always wanted to be in Canada... but usually with my sister plans never actually happen! Five hours by plane is a long way away :(

Well, I've written them all: ten films and one game lol. Those are records!

( Films and Games of September )

Does anyone else think that September always goes unprecedentedly slow? Always does for me.

Oh yes, writing more book again! \o/ Introduced one of my favourite characters now, may the plot-device-that-he-is speed things up!

So here are the film and game reviews I promised for yesterday. Admittedly I went to see Inglorious Basterds last night, bringing Amy, Mike and Neil with me for free tickets. Happy to say that everyone enjoyed it! :)
It was good to see other people from uni still in Dundee! It had felt like my flat was consuming me recently. Plus, their flat is *huge* o.o

So I stayed there for far too long, catching up with everyone, knowing my work was later on today. Unfortunately I assumed wrong! Odeon phoned and woke me up :S
Luckily for me, none of the grumpy managers were in and even then, the day was utterly dead. I was on upstairs retail for around 7 hours and made a profit of £52. Go Odeon!! So I got away with being 45 minutes late unscathed.

And while I am upping my portfolio, I am getting back on the games-jobs-applications horse!

Anyway, here are the reviews for August!


( Films and Games of August )

Man... that was some good food! I've just stuffed myself with garlic/butter fried steak, baby potatoes, mangetout and garlic mayo. Probably the best food I've had in weeks!

... Because I feel like I've been under the thumb of work a lot recently; haven't had anywhere near as much free time as I would like. I am fully intending to claw my sociability back now though, the weeks of paid holidays I am now allowed (since I have now passed my probation, yay!) should help with this =)

Odeon
Work today was good though; short shift on Box Office and my till was exact at the end of the day. So happy about that... past few times I've been either down or up in cash for no reason! Plus the food afterwards, always nice.

In a bid to be more sociable, I opted to go to one of the work nights out on Monday. Was fun, been ages since I'd been out :S Was just down to the Trades Inn, most then went to Fat Sams around 1am.... I politely vanished :P One place is enough for me... plus apparently it was "Gay Night", more incentive not to go lol

I'm hoping my hours will change for the better once the University's and colleges start up again; more staff looking for weekend hours, less need for me to work them!

Arty stuff
As I eluded to in my last "post", I was watching a lot more Red Dwarf etc while painting. A friend at work has gotten me back listening to a lot of Tool again, which is helping my creative brain as well.
While watching Phone Booth, one of my favourite films (much recommendation!) I continued to design...


A Hollow mask :P
Pretty much because I don't have the time (or need) to remake Grey Fox for this Halloween... as much as I reckon the staff at Odeon would love that way too much. I do intend to make this, just some practicality issues; the skull's forehead would make it a lot easier... but doesn't look as good. I made a "hook-over-the-other-ear" design.... which might work.

As for my book, I printed out aaaall the designs I had created for it and stuck them on an available wall space. I figured since I had so much random junk stuck on my walls, I should actually be practical with it! I also bought the "Art of Mass Effect" book, which is very shiny and very handy =)

Our game Boogey-Ground is being kick-started again. We are sticking with our original plan, no added development; just want to make it short but good. Admittedly (though trying not to be smug about it) most of my work was done.... but I am looking to improve the level's look and feel.

I've also struck Facebook hard; uploaded a bunch of my art pieces and had loooads of responses from friends and family about how good it all is! I thought they knew about.... or at least some of it! lol =S

Other things
Games... not terribly much. But I did manage to find all the Crackdown agility orbs! Bwhaha. Stupid achievement, I have you now! Lots of Mass Effect achievements, I only have six left to get! However the newest DLC for it was boooooring. Disappointing =(
While I have money... Play.com has been stealing it! I have bought The Fifth Element, The Mist, Sleeping Beauty, Wall-E and Gladiator, all of them either 2 or 3 disc special editions, for £20 total. Bwahaha.
Thinking of buying The Princess Bride, Willow and Legend now for a proper dose of awesome 80s fantasy films :P

(all the while... telling myself how I am not, one day, having to replace all of these with Blu-Ray...)

Tomorrow shall bring about August Film Reviews! Argh.

While I am returning to what I always used to do: watching waaay too much Red Dwarf and painting while it is far too late at night... something else is coming back to me:



I am doomed!
Be nice to have a new PC before it arrives too... as unlike as that is :S

Must go sleep now, but here you go! Enjoy.... those who read them! :)

Films - Carrie, Inkheart, The Hangover, Public Enemies, The Bank Job, Coach Carter, Garden State, Defiance
Games - Onechanbara, Transformers, 1 Vs 100, Peggle, Monkey Island, Prince of Persia, Lost Planet

Eddie Izzard's Dress to Kill is pretty good! o.O

Curse my memory... I stand very much corrected!

Also... rain tonight is soothing.