Slide Some Oil to Me

Just showing this quick link of Steampunk Animals

Pumpkins down, Rockets a go-go

Halloween was ace! May make a vlog later about it.

Saturday consisted of night out with flatmates and other pals, just went to one of our favourite bars and some of us got a bit shit-faced. I had the most vile beer ever, Modelo? I think. I asked for a Corona but the dude at the bar said they didn't do it and said this was made by the same company. It was not good at all, was nearly sick on the last dribbles of the piss-water.

Regardless! I was too poor for a costume so dived into my wardrobe and attempted to make myself into a werewolf using white foundation, bit of back combing and a faux fur gillet.

Most people thought I was supposed to be a bear :/. Ah it's a costume haha.



My mate Jess, seen in this pic, went as a funky pumpkin.

Was all round good fun and had a lovely kebab on the walk home hahaa.
Then Sunday we stayed in for pizza, candy and scary films. 'Paranormal Activity' first because it's epic and still scares the shit out of me, I need to see the sequel and God damn soon. Then 'Event Horizon' which if you don't know is a Sci-fi Horror from the 90s (I think), I've never seen it but was really good (another one for the DVD list I think) and Sam Neil was brilliantly insane in it.

I will say this though, and I know I used to get mad about people thinking I was a guy or a lesbian and with what about to say I then wonder why.
It once again supports my theory that, depending on the decade in which the film was made, breasts were different. Ok ok ok let me explain, just hold on a minute. If you watch films today boobs are usually very bulbous and round; usually quite fake looking, then if you say go and compare it to an 80s film, lets say the suicide bit from Monty Python 'The Meaning of Life', and those boobs are all strangle pointy and cone-like. What I will stand by though is that 90s breasts in films were just not good (haha this is getting so weird), we'll take 'Event Horizon' as the example here, they're really...floppy, like they're not even big and there's NO support, FLAT and floppy, and her nipples looked like someone had glued marshmellows to her chest.

.....ok you're judging me now. I'm not a lesbian honest......I just notice these things.

We also played a bit of that lovely game 'Deadspace' which was probably the scariest thing we did all night! It did remind me about the animated movie though, debating whether to buy it.



Downloaded the new Xbox layout the other day and honestly I think it's shite. I get why they've done it, they're catering to Kinnect uses; making it easier to use for motion capture. But that's just the problem. I don't know why Xbox and PS3 are jumping on this bandwagon anyway, there's a reason the Wii hasn't done well, cos the motion capturing is clumsy and thankfully people have enough sense to think, 'If I want physical activity, I'll go outside'. To be fair families and everyday people do play the Wii but few play it enough to actually consider buying one. So not that many have been purchased over the years for that reason, cos people go 'Aaah it's fun yeah but would be really play it that much?'

It probably IS better that the motion capture stuff is intergrated into an actual decent console rather than have it's own but I don't think it should be as catered for as much as it is. The new Xbox menu? Fair enough good for Kinnects but then for the love of God just make it activate only when a motion tracker is plugged in! Why the Hell should I, as a controller-loving gamer, put up with this shitty, boring and downright ugly layout just cos some overweight women and flocks of 5-year-olds want to play virtual bowling rather than go to a BLOODY BOWLING ALLEY! They do exsist you know! And you'll find a couple of games a damn sight cheaper than this unrefined technology.


Finally, and you can call me sad, but the new Mystery Case Files is gonna be sweeeeeet! I love these games too much, especially from 'Madame Fate' onwards. They are keeping hints very vague and few but I'm just pysched. Hoping it makes it out sometime next month, can't wait til Xmas for God's sake.




As a little P.S. actually. Anyone got any good tips on keeping budgies clean? My bf recently got a pair of girls, they're absolutely adorable, but just will not take a bath and they're getting pretty grubby looking :/. We debated taking them to the vet cos at first we thought they were sick but other than them looking a little dirty they're fine (their feathers aren't seperated or dishevelled, nor are they bad to touch; they feel just as soft), their feathers are all just a bit dusty really. We use misting quite a bit but it's not really the same. I've now put not one, not two, but three areas to bath in their cage and yet they still don't seem to want to have a dunk, even though the breeder said they loved it. I even put a bowl of wet lettece in for them to rub-a-dub-dub in (apparently budgies love that) but still nothing.

I read that they have to feel really safe before bathing but we always let them have their peace and quiet when they want it so it's not like they feel threatened or anything. They're not tame enough yet to take into the bathroom and let them roam in the sink so how on Earth do you encourage them to bath?

And as a P.S.S.
Keep your pets happy and safe this Guy Fawkes night :).

It's the Final Fantasy!!

For word: I might move to tumblr....sss yeah. This was frankly the biggest pain in the arse to write. I can't cut it into a 'read more' easily, pictures wouldn't post in the right places, format kept messing up, I can't even hyperlink pictures or copy and paste! Nightmare. I'll keep you updated but for the time being I'm not too jolly with Blogger right now.

After watching a bit of Spoony last night I've had an urge to post my opinions on the little of this series I've played, mainly because my favourite game ever, Final Fantasy 12, sits nicely within it.

http://spoonyexperiment.com/

I'll start with FFX since that's only chronological (even though I actually started with FFX-2).

Final Fantasy X

Let me begin with saying this is probably one of the worst games I've ever played. So you've been warned this is not a nice review.

I'm genuinely stunned at how many bum this piece of crap because I just don't get what there is to like about it. I mean there's plenty of things I don't like but can understand why people do, eg. I think Angelina Jolie is a ugly whore but I could understand why some people think she's sexy, but FFX just seems to have nothing in it's favour; no pros just cons.

Story:

Before we begin let me state I have never actually finished this game and I will get on to why I didn't later. From what I've played I'd say it's pretty bland tbh. I mean I guess at it's core it's quite interesting; evil creature destroys the land every 10 years or so, only way to destroy it is a process that means the death of a few individuals but it is all for the greater good and in connection with that the government/religion is very corrupt. The first bit sounds a bit pants honestly but I do like stories with political unrest, I think they bring a nice sense of realism to a lot of texts and often show how researched and thought out a story is, NOT NECESSARILY, but I personally get quite impressed when it's done well.

So honestly that's the story...that's it. There's really not much substance there, there's no development on those ideas and lets not forget that because you have to go on a pilgrimage for the whole game it kinda just means excessive travelling in one direction throughout the whole thing. I like road movies fine but nothing seems to happen on this one, it's almost like cos it's a game with loads of battles and little distractions like that the creators felt like they could just be lazy with it. It just doesn't draw you in at all and worst of all it's linear and we all know FF is not about that, from what I gather that's what separates it, if I wanted linear game play I would have picked up any FPS for God's sake.

Characters:

GOD DAMMIT I HATE THEM!!! Every single one!!

Right I've never played FFVIII or the supposed forever Holy Grail known as FFVII but I don't think I ever will for one reason...they centre around a whiny pussy-ass bitch. I hate whiners!!

I'm not quite sure why the Japanese have this idea that an uber troubled hero (or other main role) is so crucial but it gets on my tits and is the reason I don't like a lot of animes anymore. I prefer animes like 'Pokemon' and 'Sailor Moon', yeah they're cheesy as fondue but at least there's no whining! I love the anime 'Naruto' but literally turn it off when Sasuke walks on screen, 'oooh my brother, oooo my people, oooooooo', in the words of the Schwarzeneggar 'STOP WHINING!!!'. Do we put up with whiners in rl? No we tell them to grow some balls and shut the fuck up, so why are they so popular in video games and anime?

The thing is the Japanese (apparently) have no word for 'subtle'. Everything is big, rash and out there because of it. A troubled hero is great really, but there's a way of doing it. A troubled hero keeps his emotions bottled away only letting bits of steam out occasionally, such as: being a bit shirty with certain people, being awkward or socially difficult, or having methods which can be questionable. It is in there most crucial and climatic moment does the full story come out and our hero has to face it. That's a good thing! A troubled hero done right is a brilliant character! But it's all about subtly. So in most Japanese material the troubled hero laments constantly about his emotional or physical wounds, allowing no sense of mystery or suspense or even interest in his or her story. A troubled hero done wrong is unbearable!

Which brings me nicely to Tidus.

Tidus is a blitzball player from the past who was always bullied by his father and then looses everything when transported to the future. I mean that's a pretty good reason to be upset but Tidus is just a pansy honestly. I agree with Jecht most of the time in this game, if that were my kid I would be equally as mean to it. Please see above, all his does is whine!! About how it's all shit cos he's lost everything, Zanarkand doesn't exist anymore, his father was a twat blah blah blah. In the words of the Great Brits 'Keep calm and carry the fuck on'. He's insufferable in all his forms and he's also pointless because quite frankly if anyone is the main character it's actually.....

Yuna. Yes Tidus is actually brings very little to story in my opinion because Yuna is really the protagonist of this story. As I've said I've not finished it but I'm probably at least half way through the game and honestly I still don't really know why Tidus is there.

Yuna is a summoner. It is her job to go on a pilgrimage, collect all these weird monster things called Aeons to combat Sin and finally die to save Spira (their island). But you know what she's a bit of a bitch about it too. She's very quiet and almost a bit dopey and often gets down about her job. Fair enough it's very daunting knowing you'll eventually going to die in quite a cataclysmic way but she acts as though she doesn't want anything to do with it quite a lot of the time. May I remind you Yuna you CHOSE to occupation. She's got no one to blame but herself, if it upsets you that much love, find a new job.

Lulu, Wakka and Kimarhi. They're just so....bleh. There's nothing there, they have no sustainable character, just characteristics. Lulu = Big-titted, solemn goth. Wakka = Chirpy, heart 0'gold sportsman. Kimarhi = Remind-everyone-it's-fantasy creature who can't form sentences and thus must come from tribal backgrounds and implied is lesser than the other characters. I can't see anything more to them, it's not even like you eventually learn cool background stories about them because they all kinda have the same story. They're on Besaid and they help Yuna. Kimarhi is the only one with the slightest bit of intriguing background and really it's pretty glazed over.

Rikku similar isn't much either. She seems to just fill that other anime positions of, cutsie school girl character for people to fap over. Loads of people, LOADS of people love Rikku and actually I think she's ok, she's quite sweet and fun and does make a nice change of all the grey and whinging but still she's pretty pointless and grows to be incredibly annoying. As already said, she's made even more annoying by the number of people posting on forums about how amazing she is.

Auron is probably the only likeable character in this game. He's actually a troubled hero too in a way but done much much better. He's wise and intelligent, a good guidance, doesn't often say much but he's not moody about it and when he does say something it's very valid. So I will say this Auron is definately something from this game I would give a thumbs up too.

Seymour as a bad guy, hmm, his hair is pretty laughable, which briefly leads me to how stupid a lot of the costumes in this game are; they look so bundled, clumsy and miss-matched, glary clashy colours with extreme inpraticalitiy problems that can't even be over looked with a simple 'That's fantasy'. Seymour is pretty scary in his distorted political and religious undertones and I actually really like that. He could have been a lot scarier (I would have enjoyed it more if they're pushed it to Judge Frollo levels of corruption) but seeds are clearly planted for a really evil and actually rather vicious character to grow.

Onto the world in which they live, Spira. Quite frankly I think Spira is pretty damn boring. They kinda of shot themselves in the foot by making it such a tiny island that you can appear to walk over in like a day. Most of the locations are very bare with not much to do and nothing particularly evoking; which isn't necessarily a bad thing in a way because heck Sin keeps destroying the damn place there's not much time or reason for putting up Starbucks and multiplexes. It's just it seems all a bit...nothing. Other than the Al Bhed and Ronso you don't get much in the way of different cultures and really the Ronso are such a tiny tribe that they haven't got much to give. The Guado are quite interesting but they are so integrated into Yevon that it's almost kinda the mainstream and the Al Bhed just...kinda come off as a load of anarchic pikeys really. I also hate how everytime you step into most city/town locations there's only like 2-4 areas to explore and they not even very alluring areas, in fact Guadosalam, the centre of the Guado only has one. And Bevelle! Bevelle is supposed to be the biggest most poignant city in Spira and it's only got 3 areas; the entrance, a walk way and a temple! It's just very disappointing.

Now the gameplay. The battle system is..ok, just ok. It's simple, turn based fighting really and I do like the fact that it has that little menu down the side to show you whose turn is next but overall I found I was waiting around a lot. I used to get irate when I was running about and suddenly the screen would shatter, something about that shatter animation just makes it..a little too long, and then it introduces your team and the foe in establishing shots and God it's just like 'C'mon, c'mon!' The animations for the summons also took the piss a bit but I was glad that the summons were actually pretty useful and a good way of getting you out of sticky situations (especially when the characters kept fecking refusing to escape from battle!). However weapons for the characters made the fight very boring to watch, I like to watch a good sword sweep through an enemy, it's my favourite weapon because even if it doesn't do that much damage it LOOKS like it does and I get quite a bizarre thrill from that. Watching someone throw a bliztballs or a fucking stuffed animal at the enemy though? UUUGH!!! Just stop please I just want to level.

Which brings me to the all time greatest invention from Satan, the Sphere Grid. What a stupid way to level. I mean I know they're just trying to make it more innovative but seriously. This made level grinding so much more challenging and complicated and that's exactly what you DON'T want from leveling. Grinding is the one horrible thing about RPGs but unfortunately it has to be done, what you want is it for it to be made as simple as possible so quite frankly, exp points gained from fighting to raise your level? Why the Hell fix something that's not broke?!

And the linearity of the game was quite possibly why I sustain it as the worst game I've ever played. RPGs in my opinion are not supposed to be linear!! Because they just don't work..at all. I mean I had to restart this game four fucking times cos I got stuck! I'd save just before a fucking annoying boss and there was nowhere for me to level up, no where for me to buy anything, it was just fucking luck if I beat the bastard! So yeah you could say 'keep multiple saves dickhead' but honestly there's no warning about this ever happening in the actual game; I loved how in FFXII it would say when you saved that there was a possibility in working your way into a corner, it was a lovely red flag and meant things like having to restart wouldn't happen.

I never finished FFX because I got to the fight with Evrae and no matter what I fucking do I cannot beat the stupid wanker!! And unless I want to run in circles in a tiny tiny airship corridor for hours trying to level there is nothing I can do! There's no where for me to properly level and nowhere for me to shop. I'm must be at least 20 something hours in now so quite frankly fuck off if I'm starting again!

FFX-2, FFXII and FXIII coming soon ;-)

Documentation: The Making of Documentary

Hello!!

Once again this is overdue and I really don't use this journal as much as I should. Somedays, like today, I feel more productive and reflective than others and since my printer is not working (so I can't actually do my UNI project as yet) I'm stuck with this instead lol.

A few brief news points:

- I am currently about to start making a documentary for my uni course. Have yet to decide what subject though, my group and I are quite strapped for ideas. My two (vague) ideas so far are: Muslim women in Western society and the conflicts between their religion's views towards them and different human rights towards them in other countries, gonna be honest, could be quite a heavy subject. The other was a documentation following an archeological find in Egypt or something of that nature, eg. 'The Book of the Dead' exhibition at the British Museum and the 'pages' travels to locations.

I've watched a few documentaries for research (I'm amazed I am so into the research of this project considering I don't really watch or even LIKE a lot of documentaries) namely ones about geisha though cos I fucking love geisha. I've already watched BBC's 'Geisha Girl' (2005) three times.

Kikuyu (my favourite maiko and now geiko)

I do not claim to own this photo.

However I suppose watching one documentary several times isn't really research haha so today I took out two called 'Grizzly Man' (Herzog, 2006) and 'Wheel of Time' (Herzog, 2007) to watch for a wider purpose. Also got down with my nerd side and got 'Documentaries and How to Make Them' by Andy Glynne out too.
So yes even though I wasn't particularly excited about this project, nor this year at uni, I'm feeling a little more optimistic now.

- I bought a moleskin, a beautiful moleskin, for documenting ideas. I'm concerntrating on one at the mo, one idea I've had for a long time and really want to develop more; my intention is to one day make it into a film/s or tv series but at this moment in time I'm aiming towards a comic after reading and drooling over Der-shing Helmer's 'The Meek'.

http://www.meekcomic.com/

Brilliant comic, wonderfully drawn. Check it out.

-I promise I will make more vlogs soon. I wanted to make some over summer but my summer was faaar from fun for a load of reasons and also Premiere Pro wouldn't fecking co-operate. I've managed to whip it into shape now though so I will make some more vlogs. I want to make one tomorrow actually, maybe in the evening? I'm out in the day, gonna go with my mate Joe into town and photograph our day as a documentary experiment and research....yep.

-Lastly, for now, Bayonetta is a sick game! Ghostbusters is also awesome however the glitches and bugs in it are insane! 'BILL!! Fuck sake stop running into Dan! There's a freaking slimer on the rampage!!' Whish reminds me I want to get a playthrough up of 'Tales of Monkey Island' up and going as well as possibly a 'Whispered World' playthrough.

That's all for now though. Hopefully see you soon!!

Adobe can go feck themselves

(Ok never actually used this blog HA lol, I fail, sorry)

Honestly who would pay £500 for a program from Adobe when it can't even export a simple widescreen video with sound and without it being absolutely SHITE quality...and do it in a way that isn't mind-explodingly confusing.

Still..I want my Sony Vegas back, such a wonderfully simple and reliable little software.

And on the first day she rested

Ello!

Being at uni, vlogs are a bit more difficult to produce. They're loud and disturb people and I don't feel entirely comfortable in this environment to do them :S.

So I thought I needed SOMEWAY to update every so often otherwise you would have all thought I'd died or something.

Saying that there isn't much to update on surprisingly. Yeah I'm at uni now, met some lovely ppl, flatmates are awesome, course has just started getting good (Media Practice bitches). So yeah very dull really haha.

OH BUT OH!
Last night yours truly was on her AOL and IM pops up. It was someone who'd been messaging me the last week or so but I'd always ignored it cos I didn't recognise the username. Finally I caved and checked what the actual message was. It read,
'Oh just wanted to say I really like your Monkey Island walkthrough!'
So I thought, 'oh a youtubian' so I reply thanking them kindly and we continue to chat for a bit. They then ask if I've bought 'Tales of Monkey Island' yet, like pre-bought all the chapters. I say yes and they respond with,
'Ah shame, was gonna set you up with them.'
I tell him that that was a very kind thought but I don't mind paying the £30 since the game's amazing, and that I'm not entirely comfortable with people I don't know buying me things.
'Oh I didn't mean like that, wasn't gonna buy them for ya, I'm on the inside you see' he says.

I'm all 'eh??'

Cue huge bomb drop!

'Yeah, I'm one of the lead designers you see, my name is Mark Darin'

*JAW DROP!!!*

Apparently he likes to watch my walkthrough when he's scripting and stuff cos it keeps him in the 'MI vibe'!

Wicked shit and I assure you he is a LOVELY guy and so friendly! Was utterly blown away.