I'm probably heading up to London to have a few beers with some old friends this Saturday.
We're talking really old here - these are people I went to secondary school with, so they've known me for about two-thirds of my life! I've kinda dropped out of contact with everyone from that sort of era - life gets in the way of course, but what's made it the more difficult is that my Dad moved down to Devon.
So, even though everybody else moved too, their parents were still in the same place so they had somewhere to come back to, but I don't. If I wanted to go back to that area I'd need to kip on someone's floor, and I always feel really bad about asking to do that.
However, there was that sniff of some London based work I mentioned before, so I re-connected with some of the guys who I know work in London. That job fell through, but I figured hey, why not pop up for a few beers?
It's not anything spectacular - a few drinks and a natter. Apparently there's some football on or something, but the world of men chasing inflated pig stomachs is somewhat beyond my sphere of interest, so I don't really know what that's all about.
As to what I've been up to it's all bit a bit uninteresting really. I did some walling and I watched a bit of anime and some telly. The anime wasn't anything new, though - just me continuing to watch Blassreiter and Trigun.
I continue to be unimpressed with Trigun. They've really played up the Vash-the-fool aspect in the anime and it's bloody annoying. Just as the show gets to the cusp of being interesting Vash puts on his "stoopid" face and laughs maniacally. Unfortunately, what they haven't removed is all the cod-drama that spoiled my enjoyment of the manga.
Blassreiter on the other hand has gotten a lot more interesting. It's a bit melodromatic in places and the plot has a weird sense of being made up as it goes along, but it's certainly much more interesting than the first couple of eps suggested it was goign to be. The non-cg animation also seems to have moved up from "appalling" to "fairly bad" too, although that may just be me getting used to it.
Friday, 30 January 2009
Thursday, 29 January 2009
abandoned ideas 2
This ended up being more "occasional" than I initially thought it was, but I've had a slow week and so here's the second lot of abandoned story ideas. 2 today:
Devotion of Purpose
This got very close to being completed. It was quite a long short story.
The basic plot was that it's about a terrorist who is being tortured to reveal the identity of his fellow terrorists. There were three strands to it.
The present day was the main plot and involved the terrorist being tortured in a variety of ways - some psychological, some physical. It was quite brutal and this was the part I pretty much wrote all of.
The second strand was the terrorist act that had got him caught. Essentially it was an assassination attempt on the leader of the country. It never quite got finished as I couldn't really decide what was what.
Questions I ended up with included how did they get "on the inside" (it kinda involved an inside job)? Did all of his fellow terrorists die so the torture was pointless)? Did civilians die and did the terrorist regret that? Or had he gone over the edge or something?
The third strand was why it never got finished. The basic idea was that the terrorist was recruited by a woman he fell in love with. I had this strong idea about a small china cat decoration - how they met and what he thought of before he died, maybe.
Problem was I couldn't get the link of how he actually became a terrorist. I'd kinda made it so that his woman was killed with the other terrorists in their attack, and that's why he wasn't talking - he wanted to die. But how did he actually switch to being an actual terrorist who kills innocent civilians? Especially given he's meant to start normal.
I couldn't really think of anything, especially since the way I'd intended the structure to go I didn't have a lot of space. It had to be something fairly quick, but I just couldn't think of anything significant enough.
Hanger 12
This idea was on a course to non-completion from the very beginning.
Basically, I had this idea of a big passenger jet exploding on the tarmac. It was a future plane with multiple decks so the deaths were huge.
And that was it - I tried to build a story around it and just kinda failed. I seem to recall I managed to get myself tied up in knots with all sorts of conspiracy ideas, though.
I can't remember all of them, but it was like there was somebody trying to stop the explosion and it wasn't clearly going to be terrorists blowing it up or the terrorists were really government people, or... I dunno, I remember it got really messy :/.
Devotion of Purpose
This got very close to being completed. It was quite a long short story.
The basic plot was that it's about a terrorist who is being tortured to reveal the identity of his fellow terrorists. There were three strands to it.
The present day was the main plot and involved the terrorist being tortured in a variety of ways - some psychological, some physical. It was quite brutal and this was the part I pretty much wrote all of.
The second strand was the terrorist act that had got him caught. Essentially it was an assassination attempt on the leader of the country. It never quite got finished as I couldn't really decide what was what.
Questions I ended up with included how did they get "on the inside" (it kinda involved an inside job)? Did all of his fellow terrorists die so the torture was pointless)? Did civilians die and did the terrorist regret that? Or had he gone over the edge or something?
The third strand was why it never got finished. The basic idea was that the terrorist was recruited by a woman he fell in love with. I had this strong idea about a small china cat decoration - how they met and what he thought of before he died, maybe.
Problem was I couldn't get the link of how he actually became a terrorist. I'd kinda made it so that his woman was killed with the other terrorists in their attack, and that's why he wasn't talking - he wanted to die. But how did he actually switch to being an actual terrorist who kills innocent civilians? Especially given he's meant to start normal.
I couldn't really think of anything, especially since the way I'd intended the structure to go I didn't have a lot of space. It had to be something fairly quick, but I just couldn't think of anything significant enough.
Hanger 12
This idea was on a course to non-completion from the very beginning.
Basically, I had this idea of a big passenger jet exploding on the tarmac. It was a future plane with multiple decks so the deaths were huge.
And that was it - I tried to build a story around it and just kinda failed. I seem to recall I managed to get myself tied up in knots with all sorts of conspiracy ideas, though.
I can't remember all of them, but it was like there was somebody trying to stop the explosion and it wasn't clearly going to be terrorists blowing it up or the terrorists were really government people, or... I dunno, I remember it got really messy :/.
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
it's that fine rain...
...that soaks you through.
Weather's miserable here again today - drizzling away. Plus it's not getting any warmer. I'm getting a bit fed up of all the cold weather, tbh. Not least of all because it's costing me an absolute fortune in electricity - just at a time when I'm being serious about trying to clear down some debt.
Really I should move. It's a bit of a false economy where I am at the moment as, although the rental is cheap, my heating is electric (which is always more expensive) and I'm also on a key-meter, which is much more expensive than regular electricity. Also, I've not got a washing machine, so I have to get my stuff laundered. Plus I live some distance from work, so I get through a tank of gas every two weeks (even though my new car is super efficient).
I'm pretty sure it would be much cheaper for me to rent somewhere decent in Alton. It'd cost more for the rent and council tax, but my outgoings would be much reduced. Trouble is, since I'm trying to clear this debt I've not got a lot of spare cash to pay a deposit with.
All this in a year when I'm going to the Monaco GP for an (expensive) holiday, my sister turns 30 (so I have to get her an expensive gift) and my Dad turns 65 (so again, expensive git time)!
Plus I'm pretty sure my tyres will need doing when I have my car serviced. Sigh...
Weather's miserable here again today - drizzling away. Plus it's not getting any warmer. I'm getting a bit fed up of all the cold weather, tbh. Not least of all because it's costing me an absolute fortune in electricity - just at a time when I'm being serious about trying to clear down some debt.
Really I should move. It's a bit of a false economy where I am at the moment as, although the rental is cheap, my heating is electric (which is always more expensive) and I'm also on a key-meter, which is much more expensive than regular electricity. Also, I've not got a washing machine, so I have to get my stuff laundered. Plus I live some distance from work, so I get through a tank of gas every two weeks (even though my new car is super efficient).
I'm pretty sure it would be much cheaper for me to rent somewhere decent in Alton. It'd cost more for the rent and council tax, but my outgoings would be much reduced. Trouble is, since I'm trying to clear this debt I've not got a lot of spare cash to pay a deposit with.
All this in a year when I'm going to the Monaco GP for an (expensive) holiday, my sister turns 30 (so I have to get her an expensive gift) and my Dad turns 65 (so again, expensive git time)!
Plus I'm pretty sure my tyres will need doing when I have my car serviced. Sigh...
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
pirates of the caribbean dead man's chest
I watched this on DVD over the weekend.
I can't honestly say I was impressed. Where the second one failed because of the overly-complicated jiggery-pockery plot shenanigans but at least had plenty of action and comedy, this one seemed to pretty much do away with the action and comedy, leaving... well, leaving a turd.
I mean classic example of what was wrong: Captain Jack doesn't even appear in the film for the first 20 minutes. The hero is absent for a good chunk of the film.
Now that chunk of 20 minutes should have made it easy for me to say a "quarter" or a "fifth" of the film but there you have another problem - it was way, way too long. It was about 2hrs45mins long - nearly 3 hours! That's just silly length for a film like this.
And what's worse is they seemed to stick in a whole load of Chinese characters that added absolutely nothing to the film, but did still pad it out.
I mean I can sort of see some of the problems they had. On the commentary for the second film the writers complained about how they struggled to make these two seem like part of a proper, planned trilogy. That means they had to introduce all sorts of stuff and spend ages doing exposition to explain it all.
Trouble is that decision was utterly flawed - they should just have made 3 separate films which just happened to have the same character in. At the very end of this one there's a sort of thing about the search for the fountain of youth.
I don't think it was a direct set-up for a sequel - more sort of a "here we go again" moment. And that's what all 3 of these films should have been like - just some random adventure. There was no need to tie everything together with an overarching plot, just have it be "well here we go again".
The DVD was rubbish too - literally the only extras were some bloopers, no commentaries or anything.
I can't honestly say I was impressed. Where the second one failed because of the overly-complicated jiggery-pockery plot shenanigans but at least had plenty of action and comedy, this one seemed to pretty much do away with the action and comedy, leaving... well, leaving a turd.
I mean classic example of what was wrong: Captain Jack doesn't even appear in the film for the first 20 minutes. The hero is absent for a good chunk of the film.
Now that chunk of 20 minutes should have made it easy for me to say a "quarter" or a "fifth" of the film but there you have another problem - it was way, way too long. It was about 2hrs45mins long - nearly 3 hours! That's just silly length for a film like this.
And what's worse is they seemed to stick in a whole load of Chinese characters that added absolutely nothing to the film, but did still pad it out.
I mean I can sort of see some of the problems they had. On the commentary for the second film the writers complained about how they struggled to make these two seem like part of a proper, planned trilogy. That means they had to introduce all sorts of stuff and spend ages doing exposition to explain it all.
Trouble is that decision was utterly flawed - they should just have made 3 separate films which just happened to have the same character in. At the very end of this one there's a sort of thing about the search for the fountain of youth.
I don't think it was a direct set-up for a sequel - more sort of a "here we go again" moment. And that's what all 3 of these films should have been like - just some random adventure. There was no need to tie everything together with an overarching plot, just have it be "well here we go again".
The DVD was rubbish too - literally the only extras were some bloopers, no commentaries or anything.
Monday, 26 January 2009
micks of the trind
This last weekend I started reading Tricks of the Mind, which is by Derren Brown.
How I came to buy this book is a little convoluted. Over Chrimbalo there was a Derren Brown special which was a recording of his recent live show. I think I mentioned it on the blog before - I was puzzled a big nervous tick he seemed to have where he rapidly nods his head.
Anyway, I was intrigued by this tick and tried to look it up online. I found some bits and stuff about him, though not much about the tick. It was mentioned on a forum that he explained it in his book.
The mention of a book intrigued me and I searched for it on Amazon and made the purchase. Perhaps the old mind-mongler was influencing me into making the purchase, who knows?
Anyway, the book is quite interesting, but it's weirdly undirected. It's part auto-biography, part introduction to becoming a conjuror, part explanation of what he gets up to on stage, part explanation of why there's no God and, most unusually, part self-help book (ish - the memory stuff especially is intriguing).
One thing it does have is some very humorous anecdotes. I suspect that were he ever to turn his hand to writing proper he'd be rather good at it. The style is very interesting. As a fan of Robert Rankin it chimes quite well with me. There's a lot of overly-ostentation wordage, which kinda plays into the cocky persona he's created for the magic but also hints at Derrens' devilish wit.
There's also an undercurrent as with all his stuff of self-deprecation. For example, it's clear the cocky persona is entirely a construct for the act and he plays with it a fair bit. He also lets it ease down when he gets more serious with relaying the teaching stuff and then brings it right back up when he's doing more entertaining stuff.
Anyway, I've certainly enjoyed reading it and am more than a third of the way through. I'm saying that because I'm not a quick reader by the way - it means I "couldn't put it down" as they say.
How I came to buy this book is a little convoluted. Over Chrimbalo there was a Derren Brown special which was a recording of his recent live show. I think I mentioned it on the blog before - I was puzzled a big nervous tick he seemed to have where he rapidly nods his head.
Anyway, I was intrigued by this tick and tried to look it up online. I found some bits and stuff about him, though not much about the tick. It was mentioned on a forum that he explained it in his book.
The mention of a book intrigued me and I searched for it on Amazon and made the purchase. Perhaps the old mind-mongler was influencing me into making the purchase, who knows?
Anyway, the book is quite interesting, but it's weirdly undirected. It's part auto-biography, part introduction to becoming a conjuror, part explanation of what he gets up to on stage, part explanation of why there's no God and, most unusually, part self-help book (ish - the memory stuff especially is intriguing).
One thing it does have is some very humorous anecdotes. I suspect that were he ever to turn his hand to writing proper he'd be rather good at it. The style is very interesting. As a fan of Robert Rankin it chimes quite well with me. There's a lot of overly-ostentation wordage, which kinda plays into the cocky persona he's created for the magic but also hints at Derrens' devilish wit.
There's also an undercurrent as with all his stuff of self-deprecation. For example, it's clear the cocky persona is entirely a construct for the act and he plays with it a fair bit. He also lets it ease down when he gets more serious with relaying the teaching stuff and then brings it right back up when he's doing more entertaining stuff.
Anyway, I've certainly enjoyed reading it and am more than a third of the way through. I'm saying that because I'm not a quick reader by the way - it means I "couldn't put it down" as they say.
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