Thursday, 27 September 2012
Soooo...
I suck. Seriously. Dragged out of town again n I can't do a proper post. Be back on Monday.
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
That was Brave
So about a month ago I watched Brave.
It... wasn't what I was expecting. It was good, but not at all what I thought it would be. I thought it'd be a more actiony thing, where the princess is constantly told to be more like a girl and then something happens and she's the only one who can save the day, and by not acting like a girl, but... it wasn't like that... at all.
At... All...
Brave is the Freaky Friday/17 again of the Pixar world. Set in the old Scottish highlands, Brave is about princess Merida, first born of the King, who spends 90% of her time training under her mother to be a 'proper princess', preparing to marry one of the sons of the kings three allies, though she doesn't know it at the beginning.
Merida, however, is not a proper princess. She likes archery, riding her big Scottish stallion Angus, climbing mountains, acting un-princess like and not getting married.
The story is a mother and daughter at conflict story. The mother wants the daughter to be something she isn't and the daughter wants the mother to stop wanting her to be something she isn't.
The first twenty minutes of the film shows the pair at odds until the emotions culminate in an explosion that causes Merida to run away after her mother throws her most treasured possession (her bow) into a fire. As soon as Merida's gone her mother realises what she's done of course, but it's too late.
Merida runs away and meets a witch. The witch gives her a spell to change her destiny, but instead it changes her mother into a bear (by the way, everyone in the kingdom hates bears) and they only have 2 days to resolve their differences or else she stays that way.
You can probably guess the rest of the film, but in case you can't I won’t reveal it. Suffice to say it's the same ending as Freaky Friday.
Ok, yeah, I just ruined it.
I enjoyed Brave, I really did, but... it... It just wasn't Toy story. It wasn't bugs life, it wasn't Monsters inc, Wall-e, The Incredibles or Finding Nemo. Pixar became famous because of great original ideas. Because of amazing writing and gorgeous animation and graphics.
Yes ok; the animation, the scenery and the graphics were amazing, but the story was unoriginal, the dialogue didn't leave me quoting it like other good Pixar movies - "I am a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine. If I am to change this image, I must first change myself. Fish are friends, not food." - and... I dunno, I just feel that it could have been better.
It was good, I enjoyed it, it just wasn't Pixar good. Though I have been listening to one of the main songs from the sound track in all my playlists. That's something, right?
Vidi-Oh...
- James
It... wasn't what I was expecting. It was good, but not at all what I thought it would be. I thought it'd be a more actiony thing, where the princess is constantly told to be more like a girl and then something happens and she's the only one who can save the day, and by not acting like a girl, but... it wasn't like that... at all.
At... All...
Brave is the Freaky Friday/17 again of the Pixar world. Set in the old Scottish highlands, Brave is about princess Merida, first born of the King, who spends 90% of her time training under her mother to be a 'proper princess', preparing to marry one of the sons of the kings three allies, though she doesn't know it at the beginning.
Merida, however, is not a proper princess. She likes archery, riding her big Scottish stallion Angus, climbing mountains, acting un-princess like and not getting married.
The story is a mother and daughter at conflict story. The mother wants the daughter to be something she isn't and the daughter wants the mother to stop wanting her to be something she isn't.
The first twenty minutes of the film shows the pair at odds until the emotions culminate in an explosion that causes Merida to run away after her mother throws her most treasured possession (her bow) into a fire. As soon as Merida's gone her mother realises what she's done of course, but it's too late.
Merida runs away and meets a witch. The witch gives her a spell to change her destiny, but instead it changes her mother into a bear (by the way, everyone in the kingdom hates bears) and they only have 2 days to resolve their differences or else she stays that way.
You can probably guess the rest of the film, but in case you can't I won’t reveal it. Suffice to say it's the same ending as Freaky Friday.
Ok, yeah, I just ruined it.
I enjoyed Brave, I really did, but... it... It just wasn't Toy story. It wasn't bugs life, it wasn't Monsters inc, Wall-e, The Incredibles or Finding Nemo. Pixar became famous because of great original ideas. Because of amazing writing and gorgeous animation and graphics.
Yes ok; the animation, the scenery and the graphics were amazing, but the story was unoriginal, the dialogue didn't leave me quoting it like other good Pixar movies - "I am a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine. If I am to change this image, I must first change myself. Fish are friends, not food." - and... I dunno, I just feel that it could have been better.
It was good, I enjoyed it, it just wasn't Pixar good. Though I have been listening to one of the main songs from the sound track in all my playlists. That's something, right?
Vidi-Oh...
- James
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Novel, why art thou so Fat?
So as you know I've been writing my Novel, The Longest
Cycle, for over a year now. I finished it a while back and then got to the
editing. You also know that I realised that my single novel, meant as book one
of a trilogy, turned out to be a lot longer than I intended or expected so I
cut it down into two books. You also may know that I finished editing the first
and started sending it to publishers calling it a Duology.
What you don't know is that I just got to the end of part 4 and the second book is almost as big as the whole thing was when I started editing and decided to split it in two.
That's right, people; it would seem that Book 1 of my first EPIC trilogy is now its own EPIC trilogy. In case you aren't psychic enough to see; I'm shaking my head in exasperation.
For the most part there's really no problem with doing this, the longer the book the more detail there is, the more real the world feels. There's always the chance that there will be a lot of bits that aren't necessary or that will just annoy people, of course, but the way I've written this I don't think that I have too much to fear of that.
I wrote the book out in one go, leaving alone the bits that I wasn't in the mood to write or that I didn't have the inspiration for so that I could come back later. The reason the book's size has exploded isn't because I've added new scenes or characters - though I have done that a little bit to improve the flow in some areas - it's because the more important scenes, like the major battles at the end of Parts 3 and 4 were so short that they seemed pathetic.
Re-reading them I've re-written them giving them more scope, more action, more power and generally made them a more exciting read.
A good example of this is a battle at the end of part 3 where the main characters raided a prison. Originally it was all done in 22 pages, but after editing it (and I didn’t realise I was doing it at the time) it ended up as a 79 page battle.
I'm currently writing out a battle where the main characters are defending a small town, it’s the final battle of - what is now - the second book. My original draft was a generous (and by that I mean I'm including stuff that I really shouldn't) 5112 words, or 14 pages in Microsoft Word speech. More importantly than the lack of length, the main villain in the battle, the man that is practically impossible to kill died on page nine.
With the new draft (which is currently only 1/5th done) I am up to 6133 words - 16 pages - and the main characters only just walked into the bad guy.
It just flows so much better than it did before.
So what's wrong with turning my book into a trilogy?
Besides the fact that I've already sent out letters saying it's a duology, not much. It is definitely harder to get a trilogy published than a single book, a much smaller investment for the agents and the publishers. That said it's also quite hard to get a 600 page book published and there's no way I could have fit everything into that or less.
I guess there's really nothing particularly wrong with trying to publish a trilogy over a single book or a duology, it's just exasperating that this book, intended as part one of a trilogy has become a trilogy all of its own, but that's the way things go sometimes I guess.
Anywho, /rantover
What you don't know is that I just got to the end of part 4 and the second book is almost as big as the whole thing was when I started editing and decided to split it in two.
That's right, people; it would seem that Book 1 of my first EPIC trilogy is now its own EPIC trilogy. In case you aren't psychic enough to see; I'm shaking my head in exasperation.
For the most part there's really no problem with doing this, the longer the book the more detail there is, the more real the world feels. There's always the chance that there will be a lot of bits that aren't necessary or that will just annoy people, of course, but the way I've written this I don't think that I have too much to fear of that.
I wrote the book out in one go, leaving alone the bits that I wasn't in the mood to write or that I didn't have the inspiration for so that I could come back later. The reason the book's size has exploded isn't because I've added new scenes or characters - though I have done that a little bit to improve the flow in some areas - it's because the more important scenes, like the major battles at the end of Parts 3 and 4 were so short that they seemed pathetic.
Re-reading them I've re-written them giving them more scope, more action, more power and generally made them a more exciting read.
A good example of this is a battle at the end of part 3 where the main characters raided a prison. Originally it was all done in 22 pages, but after editing it (and I didn’t realise I was doing it at the time) it ended up as a 79 page battle.
I'm currently writing out a battle where the main characters are defending a small town, it’s the final battle of - what is now - the second book. My original draft was a generous (and by that I mean I'm including stuff that I really shouldn't) 5112 words, or 14 pages in Microsoft Word speech. More importantly than the lack of length, the main villain in the battle, the man that is practically impossible to kill died on page nine.
With the new draft (which is currently only 1/5th done) I am up to 6133 words - 16 pages - and the main characters only just walked into the bad guy.
It just flows so much better than it did before.
So what's wrong with turning my book into a trilogy?
Besides the fact that I've already sent out letters saying it's a duology, not much. It is definitely harder to get a trilogy published than a single book, a much smaller investment for the agents and the publishers. That said it's also quite hard to get a 600 page book published and there's no way I could have fit everything into that or less.
I guess there's really nothing particularly wrong with trying to publish a trilogy over a single book or a duology, it's just exasperating that this book, intended as part one of a trilogy has become a trilogy all of its own, but that's the way things go sometimes I guess.
Anywho, /rantover
Vidia, Nick Clegg apologises for what the Liberal Democrats have done in office... THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF SONG!!!!
- James
Monday, 24 September 2012
Eight of Fifty-Two
So I was going to do a comparison review of the two MMOs Star Wars: The Old Republic and The Secret World, since they both came out roughly the same time, and I've been playing them both, but since I've completed TOR with 2 characters and not yet completed the first TSW main quest line with a single character I decided to hold off until I have done a bit more with TSW.
Suffice to say I really like both of them and I've never max levelled a character in any other MMO Evar!
But since comparing them without completing one would be unfair I will throw another Of 52 in your face.
Captain Jack Harkness
Captain Jack Harkness, the 51st century man, first appeared on our screens back in 2005 in the Doctor Who episode 'The Empty Child.
He started out as a con man, trying to trick members of a time agency into buying an alien war ship, but it backfired when the 'war ship' turned out to be an ambulance filled with nanites that were transforming the population into inhuman monstrous weapons, based on the profile of one dead little boy.
Jack brightened up the episode with a menagerie of one liners and sexually inexplicit innuendos that we hadn't been getting from Rose and the Ninth Doctor.
At the conclusion of the two-part episode Jack lost his space ship trying to do the right thing, teleporting a missile on board and flying away. He was saved from the explosion by the doctor, at which point Jack become one of the Doctors faithful companions... for three episodes, at which point he is killed by a Dalek, brought back to life for all eternity by a time-vortex-addled Rose Tyler and promptly left behind to use his time agent issue vortex manipulator to travel back to the mid-19th century, where he waited until the BBC gave him his own TV show, Torchwood, set in modern day Cardiff.
The Torchwood series wasn't amazing, but it had Jack in, which brightened it a lot. He's funny, sarcastic and just a little bit cheeky, he made the series watchable, and the finale of season two - his back story, go watch - was really good.
The main reason I liked Jack, however, wasn't that he was a fun interesting character, funny but at the same time very sad, very old and very, very human - though he was all those things, and it's hard not to love him for them - I liked Jack because of his time with the doctor. He was half as smart as the doctor (which is still considerable), he worked with the doctor like a friend and ally not some little girl that the doctor carried around to show off to, but despite his relative seniority he still showed the doctor respect, reverence.
It's also the reason I hate River song. They've written her as his equal, but she's not as smart, she isn't as interesting and she just doesn't respect him. "Only the doctor can save us, but still I'm going to insult him, put him down and make people laugh at his expense along the way!"
Jack was useful, when they stormed the control room of Satellite five the doctor didn't tell him what to do, he just did it, he was the one who figured out that the laser guns were teleports, not the doctor - don't get me wrong the doctor could have, but he had other things going on. My point is that if it was Rose or Martha, or Amy or Rory, hell even Donna who was my favourite full time companion that had gone up there with him they would have just stood next to him and watched, not gone off, found the TARDIS and figured it all out.
If you haven't watched Doctor Who season 1 and 3 or the first three seasons of Torchwood I implore you to do so, because you're missing out.
Even if you only watch the episodes with Jack in you'll be doing yourself a favour.
Ok... This video (submitted by my friend Rix) is weird. Funny, but weird
- James
Saturday, 22 September 2012
Seven of Fifty-Two
So I've been rather sparse lately as regard to posting, huh? well as of today I am going to try and do daily posts again- ok, yeah, tomorrow i'm not doing it cos it's sunday, but- shut up.
OK? ok. Good.
Next week will be the week of two 'of fifty-two's, and as a fun little preview it's going to be the character Captain Jack Harkness and then the book Darth Bane: Path of Destruction.
Anyway, this week;
TV Series / Graphic Novel
Death Note
I honestly don't remember which - Anime or Manga - was my original experience with Deathnote, the two are so similar that they are practically interchangable. the Manga was made first and then when they made the anime they didn't change a thing.
Yes, ok, the anime had colour, sound and moving images, but you know what I mean.
The thing was so identicle that I really really can't suggest which to watch over another - though I will say that if you want an easy introduction to the world of Deathnote, the three movies are most certainly NOT the way to go. The movies were awful. I own the full set of Manga and I watched the anime totally legitimately online back when I was in university.
Most manga and Anime is watched because it's and regarded as violent and bloody with undertones of sexy girls - like Battle Royale and Gundam Seed - or cutesy and romantic - like Chobbits, which incidentally was awesome, call me a girl if you must, but it rocked.
Deathnote is neither.
Deathnote follows the story of Light Yagami, a brilliantly intelligent highschool student who discovers a note book - dropped by the shinnigami (japanese god of death) named Ryuk - that holds power over life and death. If you write a person's name in it and picture their face then they will die, you can give precise instructions of how they die, but the bottom line is that when a person's name goes in their life snuffs out.
Instead of being terrified and revolted by this incredible power, like you'd expect, Light uses it. He sees a world of darkness and suffering and endeavours to make it better, by killing people.
As you can imagine the police do not look favourably upon his choice. They don't knwo how he's doing it since all the deaths are happening differently, sometimes in places where the killer - who they name Kira - could not have been.
Kira gains the attention of the notoriously brilliant super detective 'L' - think Sherlock Holmes, if Holmes was obviously autistic, never wore shoes, ate LOTS of candy and was only about seventeen. Kira joins the police force's investigation and tries to put a stop to Kira's plans.
This is one that I wont reveal the end, because it is brilliant. The number of twists and turns they go through, the false endings and intelligently designed escapes... It's an amazing journey that forces you into the point of view of both L and Kira. right up until the end I didn't know who I wanted to come out on top.
I found this manga/anime a refreshing change of pace to the other mangas I read at the time. I was a fan of Ruroni Kenshin, Shaman King, D.N.Angel and Battle Royale, where the main character was a good guy, trying to help people through good means. Kenshin wouldn't kill people, Yoh wanted everyone to hug and be friends, Daisuke wanted nothign but to live his life adn love with his girlfriend and right up till late in the story Shuya wanted to survive with Noriko without killing any of the people trying to kill him.
Then Deathnote came along. It wasn't as simple as good and bad, you weren't sure who was in the right, hell you cared about a mass murderer. Was a bad guy, with a good motive using dark means? Was he an inherantly good guy who was using whatever means necesary to do what he thought right? Was he mentally deranged? Sometimes it felt like the latter, but it could have been any of them.
Genuinely think you should read/watch it and as such I will say only this; it's sad, it's funny, it's intelligent, it makes you think and it is just plain entertaining. It is very possibly my favorite Manga/Anime of all time, and if not it's in the top five.
Vidya
- James
P.S. Don't watch the live action movies. they are awful... yes I own them... I don't see your point.
OK? ok. Good.
Next week will be the week of two 'of fifty-two's, and as a fun little preview it's going to be the character Captain Jack Harkness and then the book Darth Bane: Path of Destruction.
Anyway, this week;
TV Series / Graphic Novel
Death Note
I honestly don't remember which - Anime or Manga - was my original experience with Deathnote, the two are so similar that they are practically interchangable. the Manga was made first and then when they made the anime they didn't change a thing.
Yes, ok, the anime had colour, sound and moving images, but you know what I mean.
The thing was so identicle that I really really can't suggest which to watch over another - though I will say that if you want an easy introduction to the world of Deathnote, the three movies are most certainly NOT the way to go. The movies were awful. I own the full set of Manga and I watched the anime totally legitimately online back when I was in university.
Most manga and Anime is watched because it's and regarded as violent and bloody with undertones of sexy girls - like Battle Royale and Gundam Seed - or cutesy and romantic - like Chobbits, which incidentally was awesome, call me a girl if you must, but it rocked.
Deathnote is neither.
Deathnote follows the story of Light Yagami, a brilliantly intelligent highschool student who discovers a note book - dropped by the shinnigami (japanese god of death) named Ryuk - that holds power over life and death. If you write a person's name in it and picture their face then they will die, you can give precise instructions of how they die, but the bottom line is that when a person's name goes in their life snuffs out.
Instead of being terrified and revolted by this incredible power, like you'd expect, Light uses it. He sees a world of darkness and suffering and endeavours to make it better, by killing people.
As you can imagine the police do not look favourably upon his choice. They don't knwo how he's doing it since all the deaths are happening differently, sometimes in places where the killer - who they name Kira - could not have been.
Kira gains the attention of the notoriously brilliant super detective 'L' - think Sherlock Holmes, if Holmes was obviously autistic, never wore shoes, ate LOTS of candy and was only about seventeen. Kira joins the police force's investigation and tries to put a stop to Kira's plans.
This is one that I wont reveal the end, because it is brilliant. The number of twists and turns they go through, the false endings and intelligently designed escapes... It's an amazing journey that forces you into the point of view of both L and Kira. right up until the end I didn't know who I wanted to come out on top.
I found this manga/anime a refreshing change of pace to the other mangas I read at the time. I was a fan of Ruroni Kenshin, Shaman King, D.N.Angel and Battle Royale, where the main character was a good guy, trying to help people through good means. Kenshin wouldn't kill people, Yoh wanted everyone to hug and be friends, Daisuke wanted nothign but to live his life adn love with his girlfriend and right up till late in the story Shuya wanted to survive with Noriko without killing any of the people trying to kill him.
Then Deathnote came along. It wasn't as simple as good and bad, you weren't sure who was in the right, hell you cared about a mass murderer. Was a bad guy, with a good motive using dark means? Was he an inherantly good guy who was using whatever means necesary to do what he thought right? Was he mentally deranged? Sometimes it felt like the latter, but it could have been any of them.
Genuinely think you should read/watch it and as such I will say only this; it's sad, it's funny, it's intelligent, it makes you think and it is just plain entertaining. It is very possibly my favorite Manga/Anime of all time, and if not it's in the top five.
Vidya
- James
P.S. Don't watch the live action movies. they are awful... yes I own them... I don't see your point.
Saturday, 15 September 2012
It's Magical
I was going to write up a post yesterday, but after watching the news and seeing all the riots in islamic countries I found myself too annoyed. I knew that I'd go on a fairly exquisite rant about my atheism, about religious law, about insanity and I'd probably slide way off topic to have a go at fundamentalist christians, maybe even lumping all christians in with them, and that's not something I like to do.
So I waited until today.
Two days ago I went to The Making of Harry Potter studio tour in London. I actually really enjoyed myself, and as you probably already noticed I've posted a selection of my one-hundred-and-thirty photos below.
It was crazy how much effort went into those eight films, from the animatronics to the acting, from the special effects to the visual effects. There was also a lot that I didn't know, didn't realise and still probably don't understand.
A good example of this is that the door for the chamber of secrets, contrary to popular belief, isn't a computer generated effect, it's actually mechanical. The snakes all move on rails. Just like real snakes, their skin is made of lots of individual scales, allowing them to move along the tracks.
Fun fact; originally the floating candles in the great hall were hanging from cables, but they kept breaking and falling on the kids in the great hall, so they removed most of them and replaced them with Computer Generated candles.
Another fun fact; people that work in places like Harry Potter Experience are somewhat mental.
Anyway, here are the pictures, enjoy;
Yes, there were a lot of them.
Vidz
- James
So I waited until today.
Two days ago I went to The Making of Harry Potter studio tour in London. I actually really enjoyed myself, and as you probably already noticed I've posted a selection of my one-hundred-and-thirty photos below.
It was crazy how much effort went into those eight films, from the animatronics to the acting, from the special effects to the visual effects. There was also a lot that I didn't know, didn't realise and still probably don't understand.
A good example of this is that the door for the chamber of secrets, contrary to popular belief, isn't a computer generated effect, it's actually mechanical. The snakes all move on rails. Just like real snakes, their skin is made of lots of individual scales, allowing them to move along the tracks.
Fun fact; originally the floating candles in the great hall were hanging from cables, but they kept breaking and falling on the kids in the great hall, so they removed most of them and replaced them with Computer Generated candles.
Another fun fact; people that work in places like Harry Potter Experience are somewhat mental.
Anyway, here are the pictures, enjoy;
Yes, there were a lot of them.
Vidz
- James
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