Okay, so sorry to bore you all but I've pent up these feelings all day and now I felt the need to be a little self-indulgent, and this'll probably come across as really selfish and stupid and petty and stuff, but whatever. Right now, I don't really care.
I... feel alone. I feel like this often. It comes, bums me out for a while then it either just goes away or I get over it and make myself not feel alone for a while until it comes back again. I find it often comes back when I'm feeling particularly hormonal (oh, what a surprise). I mean, I know I'm not alone. I have 2 housemates downstairs as I speak. But... there are times, even when there are other people around, that I feel alone and left out, not included. And I don't think that it's ever really intended or anything (at least I hope not...) but it happens. Sometimes it's small things, like... when 2 of my housemates will go into one of their rooms or the living room or whatever and just push the door to, even when I'm in the next room or in the corridor, as if to say they want to hang out with each other but I'm not allowed to be included. And I know this sounds selfish, and I don't want or need to be included all the time, but still... it happens, and I felt left out and alone...
And then sometimes, my friends will arrange to do stuff together. And it might just be two of them, which is completely fine, but sometimes it might be a big group of my friends. And yes, it's okay for them to get together without me, but at the same time it hurts when like, all my friends get together for a coffee, or a film or to go shopping or just do something, and they all go and I'm not invited, or I seem to be invited as a last minute thing 'cos they've realised or at least one person's realised and feels bad. I don't have a problem with people hanging out without me, that's not the issue... well, okay, it kinda is... but it's just the frequency with which people seem to make plans together without me sometimes makes me feel alone... and sometimes I wonder why it can't be who's always making plans with other people... whether it's in a big group of people or it's just me and one other person...
People have said to me before to just 'invite myself' or that I'm 'free to just tag along' to things or whatever. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like I have to be invited, and if I'm not invited them I'm not welcome, and if I do try just tagging along then I'm intruding and I'm not really wanted. Is that crazy? Is that just me being stupid?
I hate feeling like this. I know I should just get over myself and try and include myself more just say that I want to be included or whatever, but I can't get past this feeling that I'm not being included because they don't want to include me. Which is such a horrid thought really...
I hate feeling like this. I feel the same way I did, oh, 6 years or so ago, when I was depressed... and I don't like feeling this way again. I don't feel as bad as I did back then, I'm not depressed right now. But I had similar thoughts and feelings back then and it all just brings it back, and I guess makes it worse now 'cos those feelings are brought up again...
I'm probably being stupid... ... ...
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Friday, 27 January 2012
One Line A Day
Okay, so throughout 2011 I took part in Project 365, where I took one photo for every day of the year (more details on this can be seen here). Since I stopped doing that I've felt a little lost and while I still take photos for it and (intend) to upload them to the 365 website, it's not the same.
So I've found a new long-term project to record my life. I've seen several people talking in various blogs about these 'One Line A Day' books, and I thought it was a good idea. Basically, it's a little diary, and for each date, you mark what year it is (in this case, 2012) and then write a little sentence or two in the space provided about what you've been up to that day.
Here's a view of what the pages look like. So each date in the year has one page, and has 5 spaces for each year that you do it. So you can write a little some thing about what you get up to for 5 whole years. A little bit of a daunting task, and it'll be interesting to see if I keep up with it, but I hope I can. And it'll be nice to look back on in a few years time and see what sort of things I was doing and writing about now. I used to keep a diary but I found that while I wrote in it when something big happened in my life or I had something I really wanted to vent about, I never wrote in it regularly and I haven't even opened it in a few years now. While this isn't the same kind of diary, it'll still be nice to write a little bit about what's happening in my life, if anything major happens to me, if I make a particularly delicious (or disgusting as the case might be) meal, or even if the sunset is particularly pretty that day. Whatever. It'll be nice.
These books can be found across the internet really, but I bought mine online at Amazon.co.uk for £7.50 with free delivery and it came within a few days.
So yeah, that's basically what I've started doing - let's hope I can keep it up!
Here's a couple more images:
So I've found a new long-term project to record my life. I've seen several people talking in various blogs about these 'One Line A Day' books, and I thought it was a good idea. Basically, it's a little diary, and for each date, you mark what year it is (in this case, 2012) and then write a little sentence or two in the space provided about what you've been up to that day.
Here's a view of what the pages look like. So each date in the year has one page, and has 5 spaces for each year that you do it. So you can write a little some thing about what you get up to for 5 whole years. A little bit of a daunting task, and it'll be interesting to see if I keep up with it, but I hope I can. And it'll be nice to look back on in a few years time and see what sort of things I was doing and writing about now. I used to keep a diary but I found that while I wrote in it when something big happened in my life or I had something I really wanted to vent about, I never wrote in it regularly and I haven't even opened it in a few years now. While this isn't the same kind of diary, it'll still be nice to write a little bit about what's happening in my life, if anything major happens to me, if I make a particularly delicious (or disgusting as the case might be) meal, or even if the sunset is particularly pretty that day. Whatever. It'll be nice.
These books can be found across the internet really, but I bought mine online at Amazon.co.uk for £7.50 with free delivery and it came within a few days.
So yeah, that's basically what I've started doing - let's hope I can keep it up!
Here's a couple more images:
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Firefly
Over the last few days, I've been re-watching Firefly, one of my favourite programmes. Created by Joss Whedon, the creative force behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Dollhouse, Firefly follows the adventures of Captain Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds and his crew about the spaceship Serenity. The show is set hundreds of years in to the future, after Earth has been existed and humanity has fled to a new solar system to survive. They terra-formed planets to make them habitable, resulting in the Core planets, the centres of power, culture and wealth, and border planets, which are more barren and lawless. Before the time of the show, some of these border planets tried to 'rebel' and make it so they were ruled by themselves rather than the government. However, these Independants were defeated in a long war by the Alliance and brought under their control. Mal fought for the Independants.
Mal, along with long-time war-buddy Zoe, owns and runs the Serenity taking any job, legal or illegal, he can in order to earn money and keep his beloved spaceship flying. Other members of Mal's crew include Wash, quirky pilot extraordinaire and Zoe's husband, Kaylee, the cute and cheerful mechanic, Jayne, the male (despite the name) mercenary, and Inara, the ship's resident Companion - a kind of prostitute revered by society and widely desired. Things take a turn for a worse after taking on a group of passengers, including Shephard Book, a priest, and Simon Tam, a doctor. It's revealed that Simon has sneaked his sister River on board the ship, and both are highly wanted fugitives. Simon helped his sister escape from a government run facility that experimented on her destroyed her sanity, but appears to have left her with psychic powers. Being captured by the Alliance isn't all they have to worry about however, as space is also filled with Reavers, crazy, feral creatures who will rape, skin and torture anyone they meet.
The show is excellent. Full of excitement and action, comic wit and moving character-driven storylines. Easily one of my favourite shows, and each character is fully realised. The only negative thing about Firefly is that it is only 15 episodes long. The show was cancelled by Fox before it's first season was over, and yet has become a cult favourite show. Despite that, it's obvious that not everything is what it seemed when it came to the characters aboard Serenity and several of them had secrets only vaguely hinted at. And we never fully found out what was done to River or the extent of her powers. It was obvious there was a much grander plan at work than simply 'cowboys in space' and it's unfortunate that we didn't get to see this or at least get a proper resolution. And that's why Firefly is special. Because unlike any other cancelled show I know, Whedon was able to produce a follow up feature film, called Serenity, which managed to give fans some resolution and answered the more pressing mystery of the series - River. It's a great film, and well worth a watch once you've watched the series. Unfortunately, other mysteries weren't answered even in the film, and have since been revealed in follow-up comics to appease fans.
Overall, Firefly is a great show, full of action, intrigue and comedy.
I've included a trailer for the show to give you a glimpse into what it's like: Firefly trailer
And this is a clip of good and funny quotes from the series for your viewing pleasure also: 32 Best Firefly Quotes
Mal, along with long-time war-buddy Zoe, owns and runs the Serenity taking any job, legal or illegal, he can in order to earn money and keep his beloved spaceship flying. Other members of Mal's crew include Wash, quirky pilot extraordinaire and Zoe's husband, Kaylee, the cute and cheerful mechanic, Jayne, the male (despite the name) mercenary, and Inara, the ship's resident Companion - a kind of prostitute revered by society and widely desired. Things take a turn for a worse after taking on a group of passengers, including Shephard Book, a priest, and Simon Tam, a doctor. It's revealed that Simon has sneaked his sister River on board the ship, and both are highly wanted fugitives. Simon helped his sister escape from a government run facility that experimented on her destroyed her sanity, but appears to have left her with psychic powers. Being captured by the Alliance isn't all they have to worry about however, as space is also filled with Reavers, crazy, feral creatures who will rape, skin and torture anyone they meet.
The show is excellent. Full of excitement and action, comic wit and moving character-driven storylines. Easily one of my favourite shows, and each character is fully realised. The only negative thing about Firefly is that it is only 15 episodes long. The show was cancelled by Fox before it's first season was over, and yet has become a cult favourite show. Despite that, it's obvious that not everything is what it seemed when it came to the characters aboard Serenity and several of them had secrets only vaguely hinted at. And we never fully found out what was done to River or the extent of her powers. It was obvious there was a much grander plan at work than simply 'cowboys in space' and it's unfortunate that we didn't get to see this or at least get a proper resolution. And that's why Firefly is special. Because unlike any other cancelled show I know, Whedon was able to produce a follow up feature film, called Serenity, which managed to give fans some resolution and answered the more pressing mystery of the series - River. It's a great film, and well worth a watch once you've watched the series. Unfortunately, other mysteries weren't answered even in the film, and have since been revealed in follow-up comics to appease fans.
Overall, Firefly is a great show, full of action, intrigue and comedy.
I've included a trailer for the show to give you a glimpse into what it's like: Firefly trailer
And this is a clip of good and funny quotes from the series for your viewing pleasure also: 32 Best Firefly Quotes
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
Lexi Amelia
My cousin has just had her 3rd child. A 3rd beautiful little girl called Lexi Amelia. Born 8lbs 1oz. Welcome to the world Lexi Amelia. Lots of love.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - review (spoiler free!)
I went to see the latest Sherlock Holmes film last week, and since I have a shiny new blog, I might as well post a shiny new review. :) Overall, I thought the film was great.
While the first Sherlock Holmes film in this sort-of reboot of the series (starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law) featured them chasing a mysterious, sorceror-like enemy across London, A Game of Shadows (AGoS) is much larger in scale and introduces renowned Holmes nemesis Moriarty (Jared Harris) into the mix. The film leaps straight in to the action with Holmes (Downey Jr) trying to figure out what Moriarty's grand scheme is and to try and stop him. He is joined in his adventures by the newly-wed Watson (Law), and it sees the pair travel across Europe, to places like Paris and Switzerland, in their investigation in to Moriarty. And their adventure is by no means a quiet affair, and the action in the film starts early. Holmes and Watson receive help along their quest by Holmes' older brother Mycroft (Stephen Fry) who is a genius like Sherlock but lacks his passion for adventure and insteads assists the British government, and a gypsy woman called Sim (Noomi Rapace) who is inextricably linked to the whole affair. For fans of the first film, we do also see Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) once again, but she is not a central player in this installment unfortunately.
The visuals in the film are great, and considering that this is a more action packed installment in what will hopefully turn into a trilogy of Sherlock Holmes films, that is a good thing. There is a great many explosion within the film and I don't remember ever feeling that the CGI wasn't up to scratch. One of the quirky, interesting effects in the first film, was when the action would slow down dramatically (either during a fight or some other action-packed, dramatic scene), and it was obvious to me that the filmakers knew those moments were a success in the last film and threw them in to action sequences willy nilly. There's a scene about halfway/two-thirds during the film, when the Holmes, Watson and Sim are running through a forest to escape the baddies, and the entire thing is in slow-mo and the fancy shots used just felt far too over the top to me. While I did, and still do, quite like the slow-mo effect, in this instance I did find myself thinking that they should just speed it up and get on with it now. The entire sequence is slow-mo, and I feel like only parts of it, or just the middle part maybe, needed to be.
Another unique part I found good and amusing from the first film was when Holmes would pretty much predict how a fight would go and how his opponent would interact, and essentially explain what he was going to do and how he would counter-act it to the audience so we could see precisely what he'd done, before the full thing was then played at regular speed. It was good, because it showed Holmes' genius intellect and predictive powers, and it let you catch things that you would miss in the otherwise fast action sequence. This also makes a return in AGoS but once again I felt like it became a bit over-used as it came up several times during the film and lost it's impact, but that might just have been because we'd seen it before and it was inevitable. Still, it was used several times. Having said that, it is mixed up a little bit this time around. For example, in the first instance of this slow-mo-Holmes-narrative, he fully plots out how a fight will go, but when it gets to the sped-up bit where he goes to put it all into action, it is interrupted early on by the intervention of Sim, which was nice as it shows that it was just Holmes interpretation of how things would go and that he hadn't accounted for Sim's participation, and was also quite amusing. Without wanting to give too much of the story away, this effect is also changed up again towards the film's climax, in a tense showdown between Holmes and Moriarty.
The music in the film was once again superb, retaining several of the main themes and motifs from the first film and re-using and remixing them for this film.
Storywise, AGoS felt weaker than the first film. In the first film, there was a lot more mystery and intellectual/mental tension and intrigue. Like I said earlier, this is much more an action film, and I felt that some of the 'puzzles' as it were fell a bit flat and the overall story wasn't entirely well thought out. For example, the motivation of one or two of the characters, and why they did certain things or how they did certain things or acted in a certain way, those kinds of aspects didn't seem to fully fleshed out to me. I don't want to give away important storyline points for anyone who hasn't seen it, so I can't go into much detail here, but I did feel a bit confused as to why some things happened, and the reasons why certain people were involved seemed very forced and not well thought out. Also, we see Irene Adler early on in the film, which was a welcome addition as I loved her and her character in the first film, but for reasons I won't specify she is taken out of the action for the rest of the film fairly early on, and I felt the way this happened was quite poor and rushed, and I did half expect her to reappear later on in the film and was disappointed when she didn't. I can only hope that she will return in a third film if one is made. I also felt that Moriarty's overall goal seemed somewhat obvious, and not quite as devious as I had expected. I was kinda hoping that it would eventually turn out to be something different to what we thought or turn out to be a bit more evil, but it wasn't. And I felt he was a little too-easily defeated. Moriarty does prove himself to be a good villian however, and he is clearly quite cold and calculating and pushes Holmes and Watson to their limits in this deadly game.
Overall, I thought Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows was a great film, very enjoyable (and it was nice to stare at Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law for a couple of hours), and while I felt that some story aspects weren't particularly well thought out and effects were over-used, and it felt a bit like Sherlock Holmes going from one action sequence to another and the story was a just a way for the filmakers to explain why they were using this particular action sequence (at times, not all the way through), I overall thought it was a good film. Not quite the mental workout I would tend to expect from Sherlock Holmes, it was good none-the-less, and was only marginally worse from the excellent Sherlock Holmes. A good film, very enjoyable.
4/5
While the first Sherlock Holmes film in this sort-of reboot of the series (starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law) featured them chasing a mysterious, sorceror-like enemy across London, A Game of Shadows (AGoS) is much larger in scale and introduces renowned Holmes nemesis Moriarty (Jared Harris) into the mix. The film leaps straight in to the action with Holmes (Downey Jr) trying to figure out what Moriarty's grand scheme is and to try and stop him. He is joined in his adventures by the newly-wed Watson (Law), and it sees the pair travel across Europe, to places like Paris and Switzerland, in their investigation in to Moriarty. And their adventure is by no means a quiet affair, and the action in the film starts early. Holmes and Watson receive help along their quest by Holmes' older brother Mycroft (Stephen Fry) who is a genius like Sherlock but lacks his passion for adventure and insteads assists the British government, and a gypsy woman called Sim (Noomi Rapace) who is inextricably linked to the whole affair. For fans of the first film, we do also see Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) once again, but she is not a central player in this installment unfortunately.
The visuals in the film are great, and considering that this is a more action packed installment in what will hopefully turn into a trilogy of Sherlock Holmes films, that is a good thing. There is a great many explosion within the film and I don't remember ever feeling that the CGI wasn't up to scratch. One of the quirky, interesting effects in the first film, was when the action would slow down dramatically (either during a fight or some other action-packed, dramatic scene), and it was obvious to me that the filmakers knew those moments were a success in the last film and threw them in to action sequences willy nilly. There's a scene about halfway/two-thirds during the film, when the Holmes, Watson and Sim are running through a forest to escape the baddies, and the entire thing is in slow-mo and the fancy shots used just felt far too over the top to me. While I did, and still do, quite like the slow-mo effect, in this instance I did find myself thinking that they should just speed it up and get on with it now. The entire sequence is slow-mo, and I feel like only parts of it, or just the middle part maybe, needed to be.
Another unique part I found good and amusing from the first film was when Holmes would pretty much predict how a fight would go and how his opponent would interact, and essentially explain what he was going to do and how he would counter-act it to the audience so we could see precisely what he'd done, before the full thing was then played at regular speed. It was good, because it showed Holmes' genius intellect and predictive powers, and it let you catch things that you would miss in the otherwise fast action sequence. This also makes a return in AGoS but once again I felt like it became a bit over-used as it came up several times during the film and lost it's impact, but that might just have been because we'd seen it before and it was inevitable. Still, it was used several times. Having said that, it is mixed up a little bit this time around. For example, in the first instance of this slow-mo-Holmes-narrative, he fully plots out how a fight will go, but when it gets to the sped-up bit where he goes to put it all into action, it is interrupted early on by the intervention of Sim, which was nice as it shows that it was just Holmes interpretation of how things would go and that he hadn't accounted for Sim's participation, and was also quite amusing. Without wanting to give too much of the story away, this effect is also changed up again towards the film's climax, in a tense showdown between Holmes and Moriarty.
The music in the film was once again superb, retaining several of the main themes and motifs from the first film and re-using and remixing them for this film.
Storywise, AGoS felt weaker than the first film. In the first film, there was a lot more mystery and intellectual/mental tension and intrigue. Like I said earlier, this is much more an action film, and I felt that some of the 'puzzles' as it were fell a bit flat and the overall story wasn't entirely well thought out. For example, the motivation of one or two of the characters, and why they did certain things or how they did certain things or acted in a certain way, those kinds of aspects didn't seem to fully fleshed out to me. I don't want to give away important storyline points for anyone who hasn't seen it, so I can't go into much detail here, but I did feel a bit confused as to why some things happened, and the reasons why certain people were involved seemed very forced and not well thought out. Also, we see Irene Adler early on in the film, which was a welcome addition as I loved her and her character in the first film, but for reasons I won't specify she is taken out of the action for the rest of the film fairly early on, and I felt the way this happened was quite poor and rushed, and I did half expect her to reappear later on in the film and was disappointed when she didn't. I can only hope that she will return in a third film if one is made. I also felt that Moriarty's overall goal seemed somewhat obvious, and not quite as devious as I had expected. I was kinda hoping that it would eventually turn out to be something different to what we thought or turn out to be a bit more evil, but it wasn't. And I felt he was a little too-easily defeated. Moriarty does prove himself to be a good villian however, and he is clearly quite cold and calculating and pushes Holmes and Watson to their limits in this deadly game.
Overall, I thought Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows was a great film, very enjoyable (and it was nice to stare at Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law for a couple of hours), and while I felt that some story aspects weren't particularly well thought out and effects were over-used, and it felt a bit like Sherlock Holmes going from one action sequence to another and the story was a just a way for the filmakers to explain why they were using this particular action sequence (at times, not all the way through), I overall thought it was a good film. Not quite the mental workout I would tend to expect from Sherlock Holmes, it was good none-the-less, and was only marginally worse from the excellent Sherlock Holmes. A good film, very enjoyable.
4/5
New Blog, New Beginnings
Hi, so... welcome!
This is my first proper post on this blog. If you look around a bit, you'll notice lots of other posts and fragments and things, but these are all basically a small collection of posts from my old blog on Tumblr (found here if you're interested: http://heartilly.tumblr.com/). I decided it was time for a new blog, and I decided to start this one here after seeing a close friend of mine had one on here, and liked the way it was set out with the categories at the top and being able to sort them in that way. It was more like what I wanted from a blog. I might still use my Tumblr, but I think this will be my main output for my thoughts, feelings, reviews etc.
That's one point I wanted to do on Tumblr but didn't really feel like it was the correct place for it. Reviewing. I want to write more reviews about things. Whether it's TV shows I watch/discover, films I see, books I read or games I play. I want to start reviewing more, as I have a lot of thoughts on things and I figure, hey! I might as well share them.
But also my feelings on things, whether it's an item on the news, or just my own personal dilemmas and dramas. I have a tendency to keep things bottled up and seethe/worry to myself, and I've decided I might as well try and share them here. I don't know how many people will read this and actually be interested, but hey. It'll help me so who cares right?
I'm also a very creative person, and I'd like to share some of my creative constructions here too, whether it's photos I've taken (I took part in a 365 project last year so check my gallery for a selection from that), art I've drawn or poetry or stories I've written. I'm constantly coming up with new stories and characters in my head. Literally. All the time. If I'm not too busy thinking about something else then I'm thinking about my latest story/character creation and working out details in the story or who they are. I tend to focus on one character or story at a time, and think about for it weeks and weeks, until I get bored (rarely) or more commonly when I get a new idea that fascinates me and I decide to work on that instead. I often write them down too. I'll admit I'm terrible at actually finishing stories (mostly because most of my stories are more dramatic and huge than I have time to write), but I do often write down character outlines or plot outlines for my stories to work on at my leisure when I want to again. I often come back to think about characters if reminded of them, and there are one or two characters in particular who don't seem to want to leave my mind. I think once I've graduated university later this year I'm going to have to start writing more seriously.
I've also written a lot of poetry in the past, although I haven't for quite some time, and I've posted a few of my favourite pieces of mine on here. I'll admit now to being heavily inspired by T. S. Eliot, Robert Browning, Stephen King.
I also like to draw, although it's something I stopped doing for several years and have been getting back in to a bit now. (I also post my art on DeviantArt, and can be seen here: http://wiccaofhope.deviantart.com)
I'd love it if you go and look through the relevant sections (Poetry, My art etc.) and give me some feedback on my poetry and art, and constructive criticism on how I can improve. I haven't posted any story stuff on here, because it's all incredibly rough and I don't think it's ready to be read at all. I might start posting some story ideas/character outlines/scraps of work for people to have a look at and comment on, but we'll see.
So yes, that's what this blog is about. I just thought I better write an introductory post and explain what all the post-spammage is about and what I want to do here.
This is my first proper post on this blog. If you look around a bit, you'll notice lots of other posts and fragments and things, but these are all basically a small collection of posts from my old blog on Tumblr (found here if you're interested: http://heartilly.tumblr.com/). I decided it was time for a new blog, and I decided to start this one here after seeing a close friend of mine had one on here, and liked the way it was set out with the categories at the top and being able to sort them in that way. It was more like what I wanted from a blog. I might still use my Tumblr, but I think this will be my main output for my thoughts, feelings, reviews etc.
That's one point I wanted to do on Tumblr but didn't really feel like it was the correct place for it. Reviewing. I want to write more reviews about things. Whether it's TV shows I watch/discover, films I see, books I read or games I play. I want to start reviewing more, as I have a lot of thoughts on things and I figure, hey! I might as well share them.
But also my feelings on things, whether it's an item on the news, or just my own personal dilemmas and dramas. I have a tendency to keep things bottled up and seethe/worry to myself, and I've decided I might as well try and share them here. I don't know how many people will read this and actually be interested, but hey. It'll help me so who cares right?
I'm also a very creative person, and I'd like to share some of my creative constructions here too, whether it's photos I've taken (I took part in a 365 project last year so check my gallery for a selection from that), art I've drawn or poetry or stories I've written. I'm constantly coming up with new stories and characters in my head. Literally. All the time. If I'm not too busy thinking about something else then I'm thinking about my latest story/character creation and working out details in the story or who they are. I tend to focus on one character or story at a time, and think about for it weeks and weeks, until I get bored (rarely) or more commonly when I get a new idea that fascinates me and I decide to work on that instead. I often write them down too. I'll admit I'm terrible at actually finishing stories (mostly because most of my stories are more dramatic and huge than I have time to write), but I do often write down character outlines or plot outlines for my stories to work on at my leisure when I want to again. I often come back to think about characters if reminded of them, and there are one or two characters in particular who don't seem to want to leave my mind. I think once I've graduated university later this year I'm going to have to start writing more seriously.
I've also written a lot of poetry in the past, although I haven't for quite some time, and I've posted a few of my favourite pieces of mine on here. I'll admit now to being heavily inspired by T. S. Eliot, Robert Browning, Stephen King.
I also like to draw, although it's something I stopped doing for several years and have been getting back in to a bit now. (I also post my art on DeviantArt, and can be seen here: http://wiccaofhope.deviantart.com)
I'd love it if you go and look through the relevant sections (Poetry, My art etc.) and give me some feedback on my poetry and art, and constructive criticism on how I can improve. I haven't posted any story stuff on here, because it's all incredibly rough and I don't think it's ready to be read at all. I might start posting some story ideas/character outlines/scraps of work for people to have a look at and comment on, but we'll see.
So yes, that's what this blog is about. I just thought I better write an introductory post and explain what all the post-spammage is about and what I want to do here.
Requiem for the Lonely
Close your eyes and you will see
A land of rock and dust.
A world of pain and misery
Where the sun rarely shines.
Where one corrupts many
And many corrupt one.
Where you must find the lies in the truth
For lies are currency
And anarchy isn’t anarchy at all.
Where to fight is to play,
Domination the goal,
And power the prize.
To love means pain,
And pain means death.
No requiem for the lonely
No hope for the lost
No fortune for the poor
No trust for the hurt.
Where honour means little
And respect even less.
A place where nothing is what you come with,
Nothing is what you gain
And nothing is what you leave with.
A place that you call home.
A land of rock and dust.
A world of pain and misery
Where the sun rarely shines.
Where one corrupts many
And many corrupt one.
Where you must find the lies in the truth
For lies are currency
And anarchy isn’t anarchy at all.
Where to fight is to play,
Domination the goal,
And power the prize.
To love means pain,
And pain means death.
No requiem for the lonely
No hope for the lost
No fortune for the poor
No trust for the hurt.
Where honour means little
And respect even less.
A place where nothing is what you come with,
Nothing is what you gain
And nothing is what you leave with.
A place that you call home.
Baccano!
Okay, so a friend of mine recently recommended a whole bunch of animes for me to watch, which is good cos while I love anime I haven’t really experienced a huge variety of it. I love Naruto and Bleach, but they’re very mainstream and I know they aren’t the best examples of the genre. Anyway, Raine (and a few others actually) recommended around 10 animes that I should watch and enjoy, a couple of which I’d heard of but for the most part I hadn’t. The first of those, and the one that Raine recommended first and most highly, was Baccano!
I haven’t watched all of it yet, I’m only on episode 5 of 16, but so far I’m absolutely loving it! The characters are imaginative and on the most part don’t fit into the stereotypical genres for characters. There isn’t really a define-able good guy or bad guy, there isn’t really even a good vs. evil type struggle going on. It has a huge cast list, and they’re intertwined in the main story and conflict yet each has their own perspective and motives. At first the huge cast made it difficult to know who was who or how people were linked, but I got there in the end, and the opening is very useful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msg8ypnLqaw
The music is so catchy I haven’t been able to get it out of my head.
The story also jumps around a lot in different years (but focuses mainly on 1930s New York and gangsters), and while this may be confusing to some, it works really well and Baccano! manages to pull it off without ruining the story. The story itself can be confusing, especially in the early episodes, and if I didn’t know about the magical elixir that grants immortality beforehand then I would be very confused.
The series is excellent and definately one of my favourite animes ever. The characters are magical and the storyline is gripping. It might take an episode or two to get into it, but once you do you're hooked. While I generall prefer the native japanese audio, I think I prefer Baccano! with the english dubbing because of the accents. I know Funimation has all (or most of them at least when I last checked) but you might not be able to watch the episodes in all regions.
If you haven't watched Baccano! yet.... WATCH IT NOW!
I haven’t watched all of it yet, I’m only on episode 5 of 16, but so far I’m absolutely loving it! The characters are imaginative and on the most part don’t fit into the stereotypical genres for characters. There isn’t really a define-able good guy or bad guy, there isn’t really even a good vs. evil type struggle going on. It has a huge cast list, and they’re intertwined in the main story and conflict yet each has their own perspective and motives. At first the huge cast made it difficult to know who was who or how people were linked, but I got there in the end, and the opening is very useful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msg8ypnLqaw
The music is so catchy I haven’t been able to get it out of my head.
The story also jumps around a lot in different years (but focuses mainly on 1930s New York and gangsters), and while this may be confusing to some, it works really well and Baccano! manages to pull it off without ruining the story. The story itself can be confusing, especially in the early episodes, and if I didn’t know about the magical elixir that grants immortality beforehand then I would be very confused.
The series is excellent and definately one of my favourite animes ever. The characters are magical and the storyline is gripping. It might take an episode or two to get into it, but once you do you're hooked. While I generall prefer the native japanese audio, I think I prefer Baccano! with the english dubbing because of the accents. I know Funimation has all (or most of them at least when I last checked) but you might not be able to watch the episodes in all regions.
If you haven't watched Baccano! yet.... WATCH IT NOW!
G.I. Joe
Note: This is an archive post originally from my Tumblr account, originally posted in April 2010
What a waste of time that was. Watched the film last night and it just wasn’t worth the time really… I’d say I’m disappointed but I had a feeling it might be a bit shit, I just didn’t really realise how shit it would be. The characters have no real depth to them and are all utterly predictable. Brilliant-at-everything-soldier who is love and has a tragic past with one of the baddies? Check. His-not-so-brilliant comedic friend who falls in love with the only girl in the G.I. Joe team? Check. Her hating-him-then-quickly-loving him? Check. I’d go on but I can’t be bothered to type them all out. The characters are just pretty two-dimensional and stereotypical.
The visuals were quite pretty and it had a lot of action scenes which were pretty good (if unbelievable - but what do you expect?) but you can tell it was made for kids with no regard to the older audience.
The storyline of the film was so predictable, down to the majority of the twists. I think there was only 1 that vaguely surprised me, but it came with a rubbish explaining away that really ruined that surprise. The ending was rushed too and unbelievable - the baddies just give in really and let themselves be captured. They’re locked away, the bad-girl-turned-good is sent to a special prison cos she’s being ‘controlled’ and the good guy promises to be with here always (ugh) and we find out that one of the baddies is now impersonating the president, setting it all up nicely for a sequel… Unfortunately.
Basically, it was just a terrible film, and don’t watch it if you want to watch something with any kind of depth.
What a waste of time that was. Watched the film last night and it just wasn’t worth the time really… I’d say I’m disappointed but I had a feeling it might be a bit shit, I just didn’t really realise how shit it would be. The characters have no real depth to them and are all utterly predictable. Brilliant-at-everything-soldier who is love and has a tragic past with one of the baddies? Check. His-not-so-brilliant comedic friend who falls in love with the only girl in the G.I. Joe team? Check. Her hating-him-then-quickly-loving him? Check. I’d go on but I can’t be bothered to type them all out. The characters are just pretty two-dimensional and stereotypical.
The visuals were quite pretty and it had a lot of action scenes which were pretty good (if unbelievable - but what do you expect?) but you can tell it was made for kids with no regard to the older audience.
The storyline of the film was so predictable, down to the majority of the twists. I think there was only 1 that vaguely surprised me, but it came with a rubbish explaining away that really ruined that surprise. The ending was rushed too and unbelievable - the baddies just give in really and let themselves be captured. They’re locked away, the bad-girl-turned-good is sent to a special prison cos she’s being ‘controlled’ and the good guy promises to be with here always (ugh) and we find out that one of the baddies is now impersonating the president, setting it all up nicely for a sequel… Unfortunately.
Basically, it was just a terrible film, and don’t watch it if you want to watch something with any kind of depth.
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