Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Crushcrushcrush - Paramore

Stardust.

What an amazing film. I can't get enough of it - saw it twice in the cinema and I've ordered the book, though from the snippets I've heard the ending isn't really to my liking. But still. It's my current fantasy favourite. The music is awesome, the acting is top notch (especially Claire Danes' English accent - I was very impressed! Probably one of the best Americans to do a British accent. Charlie Cox was brilliant as well, especially since he's a newcomer).

Mind you, the film isn't for everyone. Quite heavily involved in romance though it has enough action scenes and cool characters to draw away from it if romance isn't your thing. Ultimately, though, love is what the plot revolves around. Go see it though! Good film.

As far as other stuff goes, I'm doing alright. Went to the gym for the first time in what must be a few months now, and it was desperately needed. I've really let myself go these past few weeks and exercising felt good enough by the end, though I hated the process. But the way I see it, I've got a choice - carry on as I was an die at the age of 30 - 40 or get up and do something about my health. I'm trying to do the latter, in case that wasn't obvious. :P

I've also had a lot of story ideas flitting around and I need to get down to designing my world. Basically, I want to get a book published. In order to achieve that I need to actually write one. As I want it to be a fairly epic fantasy with a wide scope I want to design the world it's set in first, add the trimmings such as cities and notable landmarks and then flesh out the history. Once that's done I can finally turn my attention to the plot of the first book. I've a lot of ideas but I need more to flesh out the world itself. I'm designing a whole planet but I think I'll start with the localised area of a continent. Start small and work my way up. The option I'll probably go for is creating the world that you would see in the novel first, write the novel and then develop the rest of the world.

Anyway, yes, I need to motivate myself to do it, so that's something to work towards. Also, I washed my car this weekend! God, and it needed it too. Caked in dirt. So much so, in fact, I haven't quite gotten all of the marks out yet. I think I'll wash it again this weekend and maybe do a wax job and clean out the inside too. A visit to Halfords may be in order to get a few things, like that paint stuff to cover scratches and some car mats.

Another point of interest (to me anyway) is that I finally got the 20MB Virgin broadband going. Getting it setup was a nightmare and more than a little irritating (2 wasted days of paid holiday, install date moved without letting me know) and even once it had been installed there were a couple of bouts of downtime, but now it's running smoothly and almost at max bandwidth - speedtest.net records a download speed of 19500KBps or so, so I'm happy. Totally worth the £29 a month. :P

So, that's the main points of my musings at the moment. As usual, I'll try to update more frequently. Ciao!

Current Music: Lamia's Lair - Stardust OST

What?! An update?!

Yes, finally. An update. XP

God, so much has happened since I last updated. x_X That'll teach me to update more often. Which I aim to do, as always. XP

I'll just skip right to the biggest event after the last update, the MCM Expo!

Basically, the Expo is a huge convention held in the impressively large Excel Building...or rather, one of its rooms. Which is like a huge man-made...cavern. It's big. Anyway, it's held twice a year, I believe, in May and in October. Oh, and it's over a full weekend, Saturday and Sunday.

It could be said the convention focuses mainly on anime (Japanese Animation, for those who, y'know...don't know) but there's something for any kind of geek/nerd/fan/normal person. They have booths for films, comic book artists, sci-fi celebrities, models, replica swords (my God, the swords!), etc. Tons of stuff and a fair number of freebies too. A lot of people were in costume which is awesome. There's even a whole competition on it for the best one, called the Masquerade. The term for these costumers is "Cosplayers", by the way (again, for those not in the know) and they basically dress up as their favourite or not-so-favourite characters from any of these anime shows. It's not restricted to anime, though. I saw a fair number of Jack Sparrows there too. XP

I have a fair number of photos which I will share...in fact, I bought a camera specifically for this event. I figured it was about time I had one to preserve memories and so on. Anyway, photos! (prepare for some hyperlink madness. XP).

At the hotel...caught my friend at an awkward moment. XP

Costume for Day 1! (My other friend)

Costume for another companion who actually worked at the convention both days.

And here is the costume for the first friend.

So, once we had settled in at the Travel Inn and had a few card games of Munchkin Cthulu and Munchkin (fantastic card game. Look it up) on Friday we just had dinner at the downstairs restaurant and on Saturday morning we headed to the Excel building!

Told you it was huge...

...and again...

...third and final picture.

The queue was massive but it didn't take too long and soon enough we were inside the cavern-like...space that the convention was set in. Noisy. Crowded. But so cool.

A small part of the gigantic hall.

Check the awesome Silver Surfer..thing...model? Just check it.

Fantastic Four banner above everything.

Spider-Man 3 the game. Game was crap, but the booth was pretty cool.

So...much...manga...!

The Cosplayers were pretty cool. Saw some fantastic costumes.

My friend on Sunday as Wesker, who was a Ghost (from the game) on Saturday.

Not sure what exactly, but costumes from Disney and Square-Enix's Kingdom Hearts.

A fantastic-looking *cough* Quistis from Final Fantasy VIII...I've got work out some sort of red-eye reduction...

A jaw-dropping slave-costume Leia with Stormtroopers.

An adorable little girl cosplaying as Belldandy from the anime "Ah! My Goddess".

And my favourite cosplayers of the weekend...an AWESOME Kira & Lacus pair.

My love of Gundam SEED and the pairing has nothing to do with this. >.>. I thought they were amazing though. The Lacus dress was particularly impressive.

So, that weekend I spent too much money, got some freebies, had a ton of fun and I think I'll go again in October. Seriously, if you don't mind trekking into London and love stuff like Star Wars and Anime, it's a great convention to attend. £22 for BOTH days, and those are the fast-track tickets. The £2 is postage.

After a thoroughly exhausting weekend I just enjoyed some time at home the following bank holiday. Still need to unpack the freebie stuff, actually. I'll get round to it eventually.

Now, since that weekend there was quite a disturbance at work, but I think I'll write about that later. For now, I just wanted to recount my experience of a fantastic Expo. ^_^

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Everywhere - Michelle Branch

Dammit, this weekend went by far too fast. >_< Ah well. At least it's only a four-day week until the next weekend.

I did a few things this weekend that I feel are worth mentioning...I got my hair cut, for one thing. XP It was just so long it was getting awkward, and I had to tie it back all the time anyway. So I went for a new style that'll hopefully improve as it gets longer.

Anyway, that's just stuff bordering on femininity so I'll move on. I saw two films this weekend and had different impressions of both.

Spider-Man 3

The big blockbuster. Come on, this was coming. XP

Well, I've voiced my thoughts elsewhere already but I'll reiterate them here. The film is decent enough overall, delivering a solid plot with some minor slips, consistant acting and, naturally, incredibly fast and awesome action. But does it live up to its hype? Well, not quite.

Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic film. But I feel too many things stick out for it to raise the bar above Spider-Man 2. For one thing, which seems to be the most common complaint I've read and heard, it could have done with one of the villains removed. With three of them in one film it was kind of compressed and had to move fairly quickly, sacrificing valuable screen-time for the villains themselves in the process. Venom, I think, suffered the most, having the least screentime and development. As one of Spidey's more popular and recognised nemesis' I think he should have had a film by himself and it would've worked really well in this instance with all the focus on the parasite suit. Harry as the next Goblin was inevitable and would've worked with anything, since all his development was in the previous two films. Indeed, he is the first one you see, roughly ten minutes into the film and contributes to the first action sequence.

So, yeah, in the end the film was good, at least as good as Spider-Man 2, which is also it's downfall. With Spider-Man 2 being so much better then Spider-Man 1 and raising the bar that much further, Raimi was expected to do the same with the third installment. While the standard is maintained I don't believe it's improved, which seems to be the biggest contributing factor to the mixed reception I've read.

Bridge to Terabithia

My God, what a fantastic film. I'll be honest, I didn't expect much from the brief trailers and the posters I had seen. People who brought us Narnia? I never put much stock in "one or two people from this film have some sort of loose connection to this film!" Even seeing it was an accident - I was going to see Spider-Man 3 again but the time was sold out so I went to Terabithia instead. Man, what a fantastic accident.

The story is beautifully told and so immersive. The film progresses at a wonderful pace, slowly but surely weaving an touching story about friendship, loyalty, redemption and love. Sounds corny, but it's all true. The cast are exceptional, especially the lead female Annasophia Robb. I think a lot of good things are going to come from that young girl.

The trailers and other advertising may make it seem like a kid's film but I think anyone of any age can enjoy this film. It's a story that's not too complex but not boringly simple either. It's a perfect mix and can draw anyone in.

Overall, it's a wonderful film. I just can't really explain it without giving some stuff away, just go see it. This is not one to miss in the cinemas. One of the most moving films I've seen in years. A definite DVD-buy.

So yeah, those films were the highlights of my weekend, with another World of Darkness game on Sunday night. XP Good stuff.

Anyway, I've got to go now to be up early in the morning. -_-

Later!

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Keep Your Mind Wide Open - Annasophia Robb

Whoops, haven't updated in a while. XP

Mind you, there's not much to say about what I really did. For the week, anyway. Just the usual work stuff. This weekend, though, I went to a World of Darkness roleplay that my friends and myself do every now and again. The game was good but what made it really interesting was the death of one of our characters.

Let me explain the basic premise first. World of Darkness is a fictional setting which is basically a parellel world to ours, only darker. (Bet you didn't see that coming. XP). What that means is there is slightly more negativity. The example the rulebook gives is there are slightly more divorces per year, slightly more murders, a few more disasters. It's a dark and a little more creepy world than our own. And the reason for this is because odd creatures exist. You have the basic ones like Vampires, Werewolves, Mages and so on and then there are the less humanoid ones that hide in the shadows.

Aaaanyway, the game we play is just the straight World of Darkness and our characters are perfectly normal people in this world who have the potential to hunt these creatures. So, our first game was awakening to the fact there was more to the world than the characters had previously thought and also awakening slightly above-average capabilities to deal with this new realisation.

Now, the most recent game actually pitted us against investigating a year-old murder where the convicted murderer was actually innocent. The way we knew this was the ghost of my character's dead partner (he is a police officer) is bound to the place he was murdered because he had a strong tie to this world that wouldn't let him rest. So yeah, not your everyday hunch but this is the World of Darkness. XP Anyway, we eventually found the guy responsible, and up to then there was still the possibility he was something supernatural but it turns out he was a fellow suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder without knowing it. In the brief fight one of my friends' characters was stabbed in the kidney and because of this quickly bled to death despite our efforts to save him. Also, with me being a policeman, I just wanted to arrest the guy but he got sliced across the chest and died on the floor while my character struggled to stop the bleeding with his and the victim's shirt.

Now, I've never had to roleplay dealing with death in that way and it was a great experience. There were several consequences that weighed heavily on my character's mind. The other personality in the guy's mind was innocent and died with the evil one. The innocent fellow in jail will stay there, forced to serve out his sentence for a crime he never committed. And despite all of our slightly extra abilities we were still so very vulnerable.

Well it goes to say that it was excellently executed, considering the deaths weren't even planned. Kudos to our Storyteller (the DM, for those who are familiar, and basically the game controller for those who aren't.).

Anyway, yeah, it was a lot of fun. If you're into Pen & Paper RolePlaying I highly recommend the World of Darkness setting. You can choose to be a Vampire, Werewolf, Mage or just a bog-standard individual who becomes aware of the things that lurk in the dark.

Anyway, I'm off for now. I'll update again soon. ^_^

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: None

Blergh. Not much really happened today, with it being a weekday and all. XP

Got up at 6:30 to go to the gym and then worked for the rest of the day. Got home at 6, spent time on the PC, ate my dinner and now here I am. Well, several hours later.

I bought Avril Lavigne's new album last week and been listening to it for the past five days. I've got...mixed sentiments about it.


Thanks for reading that, if you did. ^_^

I also played my XBox 360 again for the first time in yonks on my HDTV. XP Was good fun, I think I'll try to complete Perfect Dark: Zero, and then move on to other games.

I've also been reading Stephen King's The Dark Tower Book I: The Gunslinger. So far it's good, but I'll give a proper opinion once I've finished it.

I think that's enough from me tonight. ^_^ Zirak out!

My first proper update.

Didn't really do much today...it's a Sunday, what do you expect? XP

I did go to the cinema. Just came back from seeing Shooter.

It's a not a bad film...was expecting a slightly more clever story but what is presented is good enough. Maybe it was just the cinema I was in, but it was hard to make out what Mark Wahlberg was saying a few times, which was a little annoying but overall it was a decent film. Good action scenes, some big explosions and a fairly good plot, though nothing that would blow anyone away. It's an action film, first and foremost, and that's all you get.

I also actually pulled my finger out and got started on planning my Gundam FanFic, ZOMG! o.o It's about time too. I have a real problem getting myself to do things sometimes. Motivation is the word. But if I want to get a novel published I should practise more, whether it's a fanfic or just a short story. It's something you need to work for, you're not just born with it. At least, that's the why I see it.

Gah, I hate how hot it is at the moment. It's fine when there's a cool breeze, like a couple of days last week, but undisturbed sticky heat is just nasty. >_< I definitely prefer winter.

Anyway, that's enough of my blathering. ^^; I will update tomorrow so I'm off for now!

Current Mood: hot
Current Music: Avril Lavigne - Hot

Right! I've made a brand new journal and will, hopefully, if things go as planned, be regularly updated! XP I know I've said that before, but I'll really make an effort this time. It's nice to keep a log of your life, to come back to later or reflect on and so on.

I'll post a summary of today's events later tonight, but consider this my first post! w00t!

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: T.M.Revolution