bitterslice

WWE Spoiler Alert Report 01

2009-07-01T23:36:00.002Z

[This post will be written very fast, so I apologise for the grammer. I'm very lazy right now]

(THIS POST IS UNFINISHED, I'M TIRED. I'LL ADD MORE LATER)

I regressed to a 14 year old boy about 7 months ago, this was achieved by watching wrestling. My previous experience of wrestling is short, I think I used watch it a little back when the big rivalry was between the Undertaker and Yokozuna. This may even be not true, due to the fact that I have bad memory. It's possible that I may have simply watched one or two episodes at a friends house, it's just everything seemed so much more important and grander back then. Events that transpited over a week, now feel like they went on for months, when I look back at them.

I don't know why I started watching it again, I guess I was bored. At first I was watching TNA Wrestling as well as WWE, but I'm not watching TNA anymore, beause the "Main Event Mafia" was annoying, and... I dunno, TNA just seems to kind of suck sometimes. Even though some of the actual wrestling is pretty good.

I now just watch the WWE shows, besides WWE Superstars, which isn't on UK TV. I could download it, but WWE shows are long, so the video sizes are large. In the time I've been a viewer, I've watched Wrestlemania 25, Backlash 2009, Judgement Day 2009, and The Bash 2009. There may have been another special, but I can't remember it. I was supprised to find that since Wrestlemania 25 (2009), theres been a PPV event every month, the most recent one being The Bash, the next one is called something like Champions Night, I think. No I cannot be bothered to do research right now. I'm not going to write about older events, because I can't remember and I can't be bothered. I'll do quick summories. By the way, even if I do write any reviews, the will be very short, it's the way I am. I like to call them 'mini' reviews.

Wrestlemania 25-

This was dissapointing, it's been the worst PPV I've seen. It was also the only one that was still an actual PPV in the UK. While other not so big ones are free in the UK.

Backlash 2009-

Possibly the best PPV I've seen, can't remember what happened, but I remember it was awesome. Essentually it was the "backlash" to the events that happened at Wrestlemania 25. Rivalries had better resolutions here, as opossed to Wrestlemania 25.

Judgement Day 2009-

This was rubbish, but not quite as bad as WM25.

Extreme Rules 2009-

Just added this one, completely forgot about it for some reason. Extreme Rules was great actually, mostly because of one of the best matches I've ever seen; Edge Vs Jeff Hardy. Edge is my favorite wrestler, even though his actual wrestling abilities aren't that great. It's just his character that is so entertaining. Though this match was the first I'd seen inwhich he did some actual cool stuff, it was good because he actaully wrestled this time, while usually he just cheats or something.

Fatal Four Way;

This was ok but forgettable. Kofi Kingston defends his US Championship and wins, I wasn't supprised, he's only had it for a little while.

Chris Jericho Vs Rey Mysterio;

Excellent match, 2nd best to the main event, which was Edge Vs Jeff. This fight was very technical, lots of good grab reversals. I watched this match twice, the second time I noticed it's prety obvious when they're whispering to each other what to do next. Especailly when Jericho is doing the whispering. I liked this though, it was interesting. Jericho wins by swiping Rays mask off while he's in mid-619 (Rays over-used, and not painful looking special move). Ray basically freezes up and hides his face, which gives Jericho the oportunety to pin him. Jericho won the Intercontinental belt in this match, the 9th time he's won it, which is the most anyones ever won that belt. I've always liked Jericho, this match made me like him more.

CM Punk Vs Umaga;

A Samoan strap-match, umm, well, it was ok, was better the 2nd time I watched it. Interesting idea I guess, but it couldn't be done very often. Would get old real quick. CM Punk, the face, wins.

The Bash 2009-

This was very good, watched it just the other day, I can actually talk about this one!;

ECW Championship Scramble Match;

Christian is pretty good, but he's getting a it repetitive. This match had complicated rules, which I can't be bothered to explain, it was for the ECW championship. Christian starts off against Jack Swagger, a 3rd fighter joins about 2 minutes later, then a final 4th a couple minutes after that. They can pin each other as many times as they want, whoever had the last pin when the time runs out, wins. Finley was the 3rd, then finally we got Tommy Dreamer, who was the champion and still is at the end of the match. I'm quickly watching the match again now, yeah this match is pretty good, it gets real mental at the end, I was glad Dreamer keeps the belt at the end. Mark Henry was the last one to join.

Kids begging for money in Harrow, that's the Halloween spirit

2008-10-27T18:49:00.008Z

Millions of people shop like crazy in central Harrow, especially in the Christmas season. Yeah it is early, but as soon as it's truly winter, people seem to buy more. The main high street on weekends can become almost like that scene in Airplane, in which a guy has to fight away hordes of people asking for donations to different charities and organizations. They literally try to corner you and make you listen to them.

It can be irritating, but they have a job to do, it's just a bit of an arseholes job, that's all. But that is nothing compared to parent's making their kids beg. There is something seriously wrong with a parent, in this case a mother, who dresses up their kids in Halloween costumes, and gets them to beg for money in the high street. I'm not referring to sweets, I mean cash, in a plastic pumpkin, in the hands of a little girl dressed up like a faerie... and not actually on Halloween. Her bitch of a mother probably uses the same costume at Christmas to do the exact same routine. I've seen this for at least 2 years now, theses kids looked about 7 years old. They're going to be fairly mental when they grow up, for sure.

I feel like going up to the mother to tell her that shes seriously fucked up, and that she should be ashamed of herself. But for someone to do what she does, I'm sure she'd be happy to either spit in my face, or stab me in the neck with the knife she used to remove the security tags from the Halloween costumes. There are loads of cops in Harrow, but I'm sure they're more worried about me driving my bicycle on the pavement, than begging 7 year olds.

Procrastination

2008-02-05T15:06:00.000Z

It all started when I saw a great animation at uni the other day, it made me think, 'that is me'. One reason it was good was because it went from being funny to being quite serious, in a way.

Today I wanted to see it again, so I typed 'procrastination' into Google to make sure I spelt it right. The Wikipedia entry for 'procrastination' was one of the first search results to come up. I took a peek because I'm addicted to Wikipedia, and I'd also not considered the concept of procrastinating to be anything more than a word used in light conversation. It turns out procrastination is quite specific thing, which has a fascinating wiki entry. Fascinating especially to me because it describes me exactly, and I mean it, this is me, this is really really really me, so much so that it's scary. I've been told I should see a psychologist or something in the past, I didn't like the idea but I think I kind of should now, unless I can sort myself out in the next 2 months. I'm convinced I have at least some of the physiological disorders mentioned in that entry;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrastination

Perhaps specifically this one (or lack thereof);
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferred_gratification

I then found the short film, which adds more to the fire;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXziurFkQxM

And then there is what I am doing now, which is procrastinating and this;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_addiction_disorder

So perhaps I should stop typing now... now, now... NOW... I Should do some work now. Maybe I'll tidy my room first.

Bomberman Live for Xbox Live Arcade

2008-01-15T12:51:00.000Z

I only just found out that an 8 player Bomberman is available on the Xbox 360. It's playable online... IT'S PLAYABLE ONLINE!!

This is frikin amazing, I think I really do need to get a 360 and actually keep it this time. I chickened out the first time, I bought one about 6 months ago and instantly got cold feet due to the thoughts of 2 much money being spent and the fact that I couldn't think of any games I wanted all that much. I sold it the next day. This was before Bio Shock and Pacman Championship Edition had come out, I've also found out that games like Sonic 2 and (I think) Streets Of Rage 2 have 2 player online as well. More and more reasons to get a 360, get some of those points things, pay the online fee, play Xbox Live Arcade games, but hardly ever actually play normal 360 games. There are some pretty good (normal disk based) games out for it now, but let's face it, the 360 is a FPS monster. There's really not much else for it, oh, and driving games too, there's loads of them. It's gradually becoming more and more like a PC, I guess that's to be expected considering who made it.

Another thing about Bomberman; I thought my Bomberman online fantasy's had been answered when I got it on the DS, but perhaps no one plays it because no one is found on an online worldwide search when I play it. I sit the DS there for 10 minutes and no one joins in, it's so lame! ONCE one person joined, it was laggy (with one person!?) and I think I recall the dude just dropped out after 5 minutes. CRAP! But I guess games like Bomberman are always going to have lag, the 360 probably will as well.

Why Video Games kick arse

2008-01-13T18:30:00.000Z

Hong-Kong goes legal and Magicbox gets boring

2008-01-06T12:48:00.000Z

According to the wonderfully old-fashioned site The Magicbox, which I have been reading for many years, Hong-Kong has enforced copyright laws that sound rather serious. I can't help thinking this is a major thing, aren't the very walls of Hong-Kong made of bootleg NES carts? Here's what they say;

'Starting in 2008, Hong Kong enforces a new intellectual property copyright law that prohibits rental, sale, export, exhibit or distribution of devices that bypass copyrights and storage devices/media that infringe copyrights (such as illegal copies of games, flash carts for NDS). It is criminal to display, rent, sell and distribute mod chips, flash carts, and also illegal to modify consoles to bypass copyright protection and distribute illegal ROM images on the Internet.'

I'd like to correct myself, The Magicbox video games news site was indeed wonderful, but not anymore. Cold, hard news used to be all I needed, but since cold, hard news has become almost entirely about crap RPG's or the newest generic Xbox 360 FPS, I find myself visiting the site less often. I describe it as old-fashioned because the type of games news site we get now are usually known as blogs (I guess), like Destructoid. The problem I find with these are that they report on just about everything. If some guy from some games magazine gets fired, they'll report on it, this also leads to constant updates, most of which are crap. I need to find a site that's more to do with the newest games announcements, preferably Japanese games. I guess that's what Magicbox is, but it seems kind of boring now.

Ramblings 005

2007-12-27T11:08:00.000Z

Gran Turismo

I'm not remotely interested in the Gran Turismo games, but thought this info (ripped from the-magicbox) was pretty interesting;

Kazunori Yamauchi revealed new tidbits of Gran Turismo 5 for PS3:

- Gran Turismo 5 will be released in Christmas 2008.

- It takes 6 months to design a car and one year to design a full race track. Currently 30 staff are working on race tracks.

- Gran Turismo Portable for PSP is intended to connect with GT5.

- Yamauchi only stayed home four days since he started working in the Gran Turismo series 15 years ago.

- There were only 15 staff when Gran Turismo 1 started, today there are 120 people in Polyphony Digital.

- Both Ferrari and Suzuka will be in GT5, they will look exactly like the real thing.

- He would be frustrated if working with Wii because he knows PS3 is a much more powerful console.

- He thinks Xbox 360 is not a Full HD console, because not a lot of games are running in 1080p at 60fps.

- Yamauchi wants to work on a lengthy RPG.

- Damage model is still around, but probably with compromises due to agreements with manufacturers.

- Some manufacturers prohibit damage models for their vehicles, so at the end some vehicles will not have damage models.

Dragonball Z

I find it interesting that the new Dragonball game, Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, looks better than the cartoon series. I think Burst Limit is the newest iteration of Budokai, which (I think) started on the Gamecube and then moved onto the PS2. I started playing the series from Budokai 2, I then played Budokai 3 very briefly and then got bored. There's been loads of sequels since then, Burst Limit looks like it'll play almost exactly the same, but with prettier graphics. It'll have online play though, which I think would work well in a "Budokai" game, because fighting consists of strings of button pressing that requires less speed and timing than other more professional fighters like Virtua Fighter and Street Fighter. The games more to do with watching fancy looking automated super combos than anything else. These kinds of things don't need to be viewed in real time, so if the programmers are clever, they could hide a lot of the lag.

Lost Season 3 Episode 16 - Sayid for the WIN!

2007-11-23T01:18:00.000Z

Sayid is now officially the best character in Lost. Simply because in episode 16 of season 3, he turns to Juliet and basically asks "WHAT THE F**K IS GOING ON HERE?!?!?". Ok ok he didn't exactly say that, he says something like; Why are you people (the others) here, what are doing here, and why are you terrorizing us? The Lost "goodies" have been around the others a lot since about the end of season 2, but none of them had even tried to simply ask the others about what the hell is going on this damn island.

Until Sayid finally gets some alone time with Juliet, and asks her with that "I'm gonna torture you if you don't answer me" look in his eyes. I hope he tortues her anyway, and accidently kills her, because I don't really like her. Though then again, she does have some king-fu moves, so perhaps Sayid couldn't take her.

I've actually stopped mid episode just to write this. Sad, I know. So I don't know if she does answer his question. I'm guessing she won't, or she'll say what I'm guessing, which will be that they know little more than the rest of them, and that they're just following weird orders from some unknown source. Or maybe not, because surely they know what all those weirdos are for. I'm talking about the ones that went to see Jack whilst he was in the cage, and just looked at him like everything was ok, and got all shocked like when he tells them to shove off really loudly.

So anyway, I'm behind on Lost, I know season 3 has finished. I'm watching an unhealthy ammount of episodes each night though, so I'll catch up soon.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

2007-10-24T19:32:00.000Z

One season, 22 episodes. I've finished watching the entirety of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, usually simple known as Studio 60. I downloaded them, I think they're showing it on UK tv, but I can't remember what episode they're up to. There's no point in telling you what is, when it's already been greatly covered;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_60

I started watching this series, not really knowing what to expect. I've never seen Aaron Sorkins other shows, like the popular West Wing, I can't remember why I started watching Studio 60. It's really good, I found each episode more engaging than the one before, so I was surprised to find that it's been canceled after the first season. Ironic to think that it was canceled probably due to ratings, when one of the reoccurring themes in the show is the shows ratings. In case you don't know, Studio 60 is about the behind the scenes goings on of a live comedy tv show, like Saturday Night Live (which it's based on).

I found it amusing also that there was an anti-product placement episode, even though I'm pretty sure the show itself has product placement, perhaps they just have a sense of humor. The most obvious is the Apple products. I saw lots of Macs, they even had the older models in the 5 to 6 year flash backs. I think they even said Macs, or iPod at some point. I also saw a Superman Returns dvd in the background, even though the show would have been aired ages before the release of said dvd.

3 or 4 increasingly bad things come up in the last 3 episodes, but the show ends on a surprisingly high note. I thought that at least one of those things would reach it's negative end, but all the problems were solved; (spoilers*) Like I thought at least Jordan would die in the hospital, or whatisnames brother would get killed by the terrorists.

But I guess it's a good thing that everything was happy in the end, because that really was the end. There weren't even really any loose ends, no cliff hangers, nothing. I expected there to be, it would have been annoying to have one for a canned series. Perhaps it was all tied up because they knew it was going to be canceled before they finished recording the last episodes, it really did have that feeling of finality.

Though, of course, I do feel a bit empty inside (*quietly weeps*). Such a feeling of 'what ifs', what would they have done in season 2? Probably expanded on some of the lesser characters. Oh also I did forget that they didn't have the cold turkey episode with the main dude, I expected there to be one. But perhaps they exaggerated the seriousness of the drugs he was taking, Danny Trip did say in the last episode that he was taking pain killers, which doesn't sound very serious.

Anyway, I'm rambling on. So yeah, I recommend Studio 60, but don't get too attached, because it's almost definitely never coming back.

Hell freezes over and Mean Machines Sega fanart becomes a reality

2007-10-12T13:32:00.000Z

From Messenger;

Oly says:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!............
Oly says:
O......... M............ G
Oly says:
the world is at an end.....
Oly says:
Sonic............... is in smash brothers
Severina says:
so?
Oly says:
so?
Oly says:
so???
Oly says:
SOOO?????
Oly says:
SOOOOOOOOOO!!?!?!?!???!?
Oly says:
THE WORLD IS AT AN ENNNNNNNNNNNDD!!!
Oly says:
The infinite 90's 16bit battle is at an END!
Oly says:
ummmm.... i dont know what im on.

That's me being stupid. Sonic is in Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, oh yes, he is. I know he's also with Mario in that Olympics game, but that doesn't count in my book. That's almost the same as having Mario and Louigi in that Peter anti-KFC game in which Kernel Sanders is a psycho killer.

For anyone who was at the forefront of the the battle between the Sega Megadrive and Nintendo's NES and SNES, this is a big deal. I'm hoping they'll put in some witty historical jokes in there, but they probably won't. It should be the main theme of the entire game; Sonic Vs Mario, but it probably won't.

Messy Facebook

2007-10-10T23:30:00.000Z

My Facebook page is in a total mess, I shall tidy it soon. I'm going to get rid of a lot of apps, including perhaps, ZOMBIES! Shock! Horror! Why? Because it's a total waist of time! ;)

Playstation 2 lives on

2007-09-21T17:01:00.000Z

Magicbox reported;

"Sony's president Kazuo Hirai announced that the company will strengthen the PS2 software lineup, due to continuous high demands of the console, even after shipping 120 million units worldwide. Sony will publish numerous game titles for PS2, and they expect the life time of PS2 to last much longer than PSone."

I always did think that the last generation (PS2, Xbox, etc) of consoles were super seeded too quickly, even the PS2, which had been around for a lot longer than the Xbox. The console life spans are getting longer with each generation, I don't think the new generation should be replaced until they've been alive for 10 years. It says here that they expect the life of the PS2 to go on for a long time. I bet you they didn't "expect" this fact until recently, when they saw how badly the PS3 has been doing. When the PS3 came out, all the PS2 stuff dropped in price, and many who don't care about being on the bleeding edge have used this opportunity to get some great games for cheap. The Playstation 2 is still the best console out there, and it will always have the largest sales figures, even at the end of the Xbox 360s life.

Ramblings 004

2007-09-20T11:59:00.000Z

Pop ups

I'm suddenly getting pop ups in Internet Explorer for the first time in like, 3 years. I have been close to completely going back to using IE recently, since it's gotten closer to being as good as Opera. The problem with Opera is that it has difficulty with some sites like Rotten Tomatoes, but I won't be getting rid of it since this problem with IE. Besides, Opera has loads of other things I like anyway, like remembering my tabs, and the best RSS feed manager in the history of the universe.

Playstation 3 Home

It's been delayed until spring 2008, which is ridiculous. That makes the reasons I wanted to own a PS3 at Christmas go down from 2 to 1. The first being that Silent Hill 5 will be coming out next year, but who knows, maybe it won't come out till late in the year. Besides, Silent Hill 5 will be on Xbox 360 as well, perhaps I'll buy one of those again for the 3rd time. Maybe I should just wait until SH5 comes out, and then buy a 360, it'll be cheaper than it will be at Christmas, and it'll always be cheaper than the PS3.

Virtua Fighter 5

Will be out in Japan on December 6, 2007 for Xbox 360. It'll have online play, which is cool but it'll be crap and hated by serious players for it's lag.

Metal Slug 7

SNK Playmore announced Metal Slug 7 for Nintendo DS... If they use the same sprites again, I won't know if I should laugh of cry.

In other news

I'm writing about pointless stuff instead of doing something useful, like drinking coffee... I, I mean doing like, Uni work and stuff.

Ramblings 002

2007-09-15T10:48:00.000Z

Treasures new DS games - Bangai-O sequal

Treasures new Nintendo DS count down ended, and revealed it to be a new Bangai-O. A pleasant surprise, but I wonder if they're going to stick with those tiny sprites on the DS.

Basara X video

Another Basara X video. I guess this shows it in it's final form, which makes me suddenly kinda loose interest. It doesn't really look that great, does it? It's no Street Fighter 3, for sure, it looks kind of boring actually.

Chase HQ 2 video

Cam job video of Chase HQ 2. Looks fun, but wouldn't be any good at home on a console.

Does anyone read this?

Well, DOES anyone read any of my blog AT ALL?! I was just wondering, that's all. I mean, I'm not too bothered really, I mostly do this for myself. I use it to vent out random things. I hardly get any comments at all, I think I have like, 2. If you do read it, could you please just leave me a quick comment?

Back to University soon

I'm due back on about the 24th, I don't know why I'm even bothering.

Ramblings 001

2007-09-08T11:39:00.000Z

Bitterslice returns (maybe)

I'm not writing in this blog enough. I'm not sure why, I think it's because I only add something if I have a lot to say. From now on I'm going to write about anything I want, even if it's mind numbingly boring. The topics may be sporadic and random but I don't care, I just like chatting breeze, even if know ones listening. It's a kind of venting. Oh and as you can see, I'm also not going to make much of an effect at making clear sense.

So here goes.

SNK's Neo Geo 2?

SNK were making a new chip in the late 90's which was going to be used in a console that was basically a new Neo Geo. It would have had a home version and an arcade version just like the Neo did. If anyone has found the portal to the alternative dimension in which SNK didn't get man handled by Aruze, please email me. Here's the full story (yes that's write, I'm recycling news like a right twat);

UPDATE! - blogger is telling me I can't post this entry because the url link contains illegal characters. I'm not sure what that means, perhaps it's Billy Kane and Blue Mary. These illegal characters should just go away, they should be banned... :P

To get to the link click here or click on 'new Neo Geo', which is in the second line of this "article". I'm making this too complicated aren't I? Well let's just say that from now on the links are going to be in the main body of the text.

I love Treasure

Here's a count down to the announcement of a new Nintendo DS game that Treasure is party responsible for.

The milking of Final Fantasy

2007-08-16T22:04:00.002Z

I read video games news sites, I check them out almost every day. There was a time when I'd read almost all of it, but a certain subject has become so common that I almost subconsciously skim over it. That would have to be Final Fintasy from Square Enix, a series that has been so totally milked, that the cow is now a skeletal figure chilling out in hell.

It was bad enough when there was only the core series, but it's even worse now that there's several different versions, and several different side projects on just about every console. Loads of different Final Fantasy 13's, loads of new Final Fantasy 7's (forgive me if I got the numbers wrong, I've lost track), the list goes on, I'm sick of it all. Whatever Squenix, I ain't taking a ride on your gravy train of shite.

Heroes season 1

2007-07-05T01:32:00.000Z

I just wanted to comment on the first season of the TV series Heroes for a second. I'm avoiding spoilers. I'm very tired so this is going to be a mess.

I'd heard that the end was disappointing, well I can tell you that I didn't think it was all that bad. There could have been more fighting, and the fighting that was present could have been a lot more high octane.

The last 5 or so episodes quickly made the series feel a lot more like a super-hero comic book, which could be a good or a bad thing, depending on the viewer. Each episode also became more messy, with pointless and confusing stuff happening all over the place. Like the cop dude and that lot easily escaping from the paper factory, which was a pointless scene anyway. What's the point of them being caught, if they just escape 5 minutes later? I guess it was an excuse to get that group of characters together. Speaking of groups, I swear characters just randomly ran into each other on the street way too many times. I know it's all about destiny, but come on, people aren't just going to run into each other all the time like that.

SPOILERS AHEAD (KINDA)

Lot's of characters end up looking pretty dead in the last episode, but by the end of it, it looks like pretty much everyone survives. I reckon this is a bit lame, because even though I don't like seeing characters getting killed off, it's still a brave thing to do, and I don't think the creators have the balls to do it. They did at first though, they killed Peters girl, and that bird who can remember everything. So yeah, in the last episode, you see the cop get filled with lead, and then he looks totally dead. But then you see him getting taken off to hospital, looking not too bad anymore. Also earlier, DL gets shot in the gut, a sure fire way to get killed real quick and painfully. We even see him looking dead at the end of episode 22, but then suddenly he's conscious again at the start of episode 23. He then survives through the entire episode and walks off looks only slightly hurt at the end. Sylor (spelling?) also gets "killed", but then sneaks off at the end without anyone even noticing. You'd think that their first priority would be to check that he really is dead.

Another stupid thing is how quickly Hiro learn't how to use the sword through his fathers training. But even so, they must have been doing for hours, so I'm not supprised his buddy buggered off.

The only character who is most likely dead is Peters brother, Nathan. But even then, he could have dropped Peter, and then flown off to get to a safe distance before Peter exploded. But who cares anyway, Nathan is a lame character. The woman who can email you without a computer should have been in the season more often, she was cool... kinda.

The season ends with a little teaser for the second one. We find that Hiro has traveled by mistake back to ancient Japan. He witnesses warriors that have that S symbol thingy on them, and then that weird eclipse thing happens. Apparently the eclipse is hidden in the show quite often, though I've mostly only seen it in the obvious place, which is the title screen.

With Heroes having the element of time travel, it's quite possible for the show to continue the same story in season 2. The story of a "bomb" going off could still be the main point in season 2, even though I'm thinking that could be a bit lame (milking it, so to speak). There's some reasons why I think this, one of them is this; In the future episode we see that Future Hiro is very different. He speaks English perfectly, he's better with his powers, and he's better with the sword. I'm pretty sure this Hiro didn't get like that by hanging around NYC (is that where it is?) for 5 years, making time lines out of strings*. He also mentions to normal Hiro that he's been in many battles (after normal Hiro comments on the worn sword). So this must mean that he becomes like that through living in ancient Japan for a while. I mean, he can time travel, so surely that means he could be a lot more than 5 years older, he could spend like 10 years in the past, and then go forward to the '5 years gone' episode. But then why would he have lost hope?... Damn I'm talking shit, not thinking straight, that's not going to happen because that wouldn't make sense. They DID change history... I think. Unless the explosion still does happen later. But the ending to season 1 shows that in Heroes, the future can be changed, that the future isn't set in stone. This means that there can't be loops. So the Heroes time line conveniently can't fall into a time paradox.

I'm going, bye!

*On a side note, I'm surprised Future Hiro doesn't appear to understand the concept of alternative futures. Why is he so glum if he can just go back in time and fix everything?

2007-07-03T16:14:00.000Z

For all my 2D fighter buddies;

http://www.capcom.co.jp/2d_kakutou/

Rough translation;

"3 is a number!"
"We bring you good fighter happy fun time"
"It probably won't be Street Fighter"
"COMING SOON BIATCH!"

Aparently it might have something to do with this;

http://www3.capcom.co.jp/sengoku/

Nintendo are truly back

2007-06-28T12:37:00.000Z

Variety Asia reported that the top three Japanese game publishers are redirecting their development resources from Sony and Microsoft platforms to Nintendo's. Bandai Namco will increase Nintendo platform development by 109% to 115 titles; Sega will increase support by 96% to 49 titles this year; and Capcom will increase 5% to 20 titles.

Variety Asia mentioned that Nintendo expects to ship 26.8 million units of Wii, Nintendo DS and GameBoy Advance software in the 2007 financial year, comparing to only 23.3 million units of software for PS3/PS2/PSP platforms.

UNCONFIRMED: In addition, Square Enix expressed that they do not plan to develop any more new titles for Playstation 3 until the console install base rises to a profit making level.

RUMOR: Sony will release a new "Waggle-Wall" bundle pack for PlayStation 2 in Christmas, for US$99, the Waggle-Wall is a Wii Remote type motion sensing controller, to compete with Wii. Sony has already registered the new controller for patent protection in December 2006.

Facebook

2007-06-26T01:48:00.000Z

I've realized that I only feel like writing on this blog when I feel sad and depressed. This post is another one, though, it's not going to be as negative as the last one. An entry that I just read and was quite shocked at how utterly bleak it was. Nothing much has changed since that entry, but I guess I'm not feeling quite as bad as I was then.

This blog has been neglected due to my dicovery of Facebook. I kept hearing about it and getting invites, at first I ignored them, but I eventually gave in and joined. I thought it was just going to be another one of those sites that I would join, use three times, and then would leave to gather dust. I also only joined it for a small superficial reason, that ended up defunked anyway. But Facebook has turned out to be entertaining and somewhat addictive, only time will tell if this will last, but it's certainly not just another Flickr photo scorage site that I thought it was going to be. I'm not going to tell you about what it does and how it works though, I can't be bothered. I'm not writing this entry for that reason, I'm writing it to get off my chest what Facebook has done to be, or rather, how it's effected me.

So first of all, the stuff that I find boring to write, also known as the positive things; Facebook has very suddenly given me contact with many old friends that I'd lost touch with. When I say old friends, I should really just be saying 'my' friends, because they are my only friends, there are no others. I've lost touch with almost all of my friends, which I have probably mentioned in an older post. So it's great to get a chance to see them again, I've already met up with one that I probably hadn't seen in at least three years. The funny thing is that Facebook makes people want to communicate with each other, even though a lot of these old friends did in fact already have alternative means to contacting me. What I'm trying to say is that many of us have friends numbers, but can't be bothered to use them, but without Facebook, I don't think we would have bothered to arrange a big get together tomorrow. Damn, I can't explain myself, nevermind, on to the next thing.

Now on to the crappy stuff. Facebook relies heavily on photos, everyone uploads photos and they almost always have real names on them. No longer are people hiding behind screen names, they also seem to be happier to share their not so great photos with the world. This is all great, but damn, looking at all those old photos can be depressing! My old mates have loads of photos of the 'good old days', something that I don't posses, due to the that I don't really ever use a camera. I'm trying to make it a habit it now, because I'm now realizing how important it is to hang on to these memories. I'm annoyed at myself for not realizing in the past how important some events and places were. So many things happened which I just did, and didn't think for a second that it would have been nice to have a photo of it. So at least others like Alan C. had the foresight to take loads of random photos 10 years ago. Or maybe that's a bad thing, because most of them bring up that question again that I always ask my self; Am I as happy as I used to be?

The answer is usually no, even when I take the factor of past glorification into account. I'm looking at photos of past places that have been replaced by crap. I'm looking at groups of great friends that no longer exist. I don't blame myself for most of these occurrences, but I still should have kept in better contact with these people. When I think about the bits that I do have control over, I suddenly wonder how the hell I got to where I am now. I chose a road that was supposed to lead to a happier, more fulfilled life. I remember feeling right about these major decisions when I made them, like slacking at work, like going back to college, trying to make new friends, ending a relationship, and going to university. They seemed so right at the time, but now they almost entirely seem wrong.

Seeing a lot of those Facebook photos makes me glum, but I'm glad they're there. I've dug up the few photos that I have, and I'm going to scan them so that I can but them onto Facebook. Doing this lead me to looking through said old photos. I was surprised with what I found, many of them are of my x girlfriend, I'd forgotten they existed. These photos probably won't be going up on the site. They involve two very happy looking people, a guy and a girl in love. When I looked at these pictures, I suddenly remembered those times quite vividly. I could remember what old clothes felt like on my skin, and I could remember what it was like to live somewhere else. I remembered what it was like to be with Jackie back then when I lived at Paul's house. I wasn't there for very long, and I wasn't in the place after that long either, but I think they were the times Jackie and I were the most happy. It's crazy to look back now at the relationship as a whole. What I mean is that it's crazy to think about how it went all wrong, I can't point out the exact moment it started to fall apart. I think it was my fault, I think I could have prevented it if I'd been more loving. I didn't realize at the time how happy she had made me, I'd completely forgotten how depressed I was when I was alone. I was so lucky to have such beautiful and funny girlfriend, I should have stayed with her forever. I foolishly thought I'd be happy by myself, it's utterly terrifying and painful being alone. The photos really reminded me of what it was like to be with with her. But shes now with someone else, and I no longer remember what it's like to be loved. Actually no, I do remember what it was like, which makes it worse. I am no longer loved, it's all gone. I'll never be in those photos again, that me is gone, a distant, fading memory.

I hope I'll meet someone else, but I'm an ugly, weird person who only Jackie liked and understood. I can't see how anyone else could bare to be with me. I wish I could go back in time and just re-live the past over and over again, because I have no future here.

LiveJournal

2007-05-28T19:57:00.000Z

I have discovered my old LiveJournal account, I decided to post on it. I may use it to write about my more personal life stuff. I don't know what that really means, but it's probably going to be even more boring than this site. Don't know how long either of these online journal things will last, because I really don't have many interesting things to write about. I wouldn't be surprised if this site goes the same way the LJ one went, as in, not updated for 4 years.

But then again, I have been writing a fair amount of stuff for bitterslice recently. Perhaps I'll use this one to write about happy stuff, and the LJ one to write about crap stuff, like how rubbish my life is :P

http://rapacity.livejournal.com

In other news, I'm technically on holiday from University now, for a very long time. Until late September, to be exact. The days are already slipping away, I'd better try to make good use of my time.

DeviantART

2007-05-25T00:58:00.000Z

I am so fucking sick of DeviantART

It's always the same when I visit there. I find amazing, beautiful peaces of art, I look at the creators profile and I'm lucky to find anyone who's over 25. That may seem relatively old to some, but that's my age too, and I'm shite at drawing, not that I'm good at anything else. But since I was pretty young (as far back as I can remember), I've always thought myself as a bit of an good artist. The fact is, I'm not, not only that, but it seems the world is teaming with supurb ones. They're all there on DeviantART posting their perfectly colour cordinated wacom tablet master peaces, waiting for their hundreds of teeny bopper positive comments to roll in. I often find art that I've seen in a comic, or a video game. I gleefully think for second that all these "deviants" aren't good at all, that they actually just copy off others. But then I read into it and find that they are in fact the originals, that they did for that video game, and most likely got paid. I just found some guy who did some art for a (popular) Darkstalkers comic, as high quality as any of the original official art that some capcom artist did years ago. Thing is, he must have painted it at least 2 years ago, which means he would have been about 23 at the time. It makes me sick, it really does. How did he get so good? Has he spent his life since he was four in his room, drawing everything he sees, for 20 hours a day?!

I don't know why I'm even bothering, it's not like the world needs another artist. There's a shortage of programmers at the moment in the video games industry. Everyone wants to do the 2D and 3D art for them, but not many want to crunch numbers to make huge, complicated MMORPGs. This is why the coders get paid so much more than the artists, because artists are a dime a dozen. If your not happy with your job, bugger off, there's another wacom wielding sap cued up to take your place. One who's dieing for your job.

So what chance do I have? You have to be the best to get a decent job in this field. I know an artist isn't supposed to be doing it just for the money, they have to have a passion for it. But I must think about money as well, I'm getting on a bit, and I've been a total failure at looking after myself.

The one negative thing about DeviantArt is that a lot of the work is pretty unoriginal. Most of it is the usual big titted manga girl, but it's not like I could do any better. And the problem is, that's pretty much the kind of art I like as well. Back in the day, I thought of myself as having fairly original tastes, I was watching dodgy bootlegs of anime a while before the UK's Manga Entertainment came along with Akira. I watched crap like Orange Road all the time. Now it's a different story, manga and anime is HUGE. It's very prominent on the internet, and everyone is copying it, some of which do ok with acquiring their own style, so they don't look like ripoffs of Dragonball or something.

So yea, I'm ranting and moaning again, it's been a while, not that post that often, that is. I shouldn't moan, it only makes me more ashamed to tell anyone about this blog. It's nice to have something that could be entertaining and enlightening to give to people. They aren't going to want to just read about how sorry I feel for myself. And the thing is, all I'm doing is being jealous. I'm moaning about DeviantART because I'm jealous of it, it's pathetic. You know what, I actually have an account on there. I haven't posted on there for years, and I only have one crap drawing up.

Yeah so why do I bother? Why do I even bother writing all this crap? No one reads this. I've told four people about this blog, three of them almost definitely don't ever read it (two of them probably don't even remember I told them), and the one remaining (probably YOU), have already heard all this before. I've said these kinds of things to this one person all the time over the phone. Even then, this one person hasn't left any comments (not even on my positive posts), and probably won't even read these kinds of posts in full, because they are so sick of hearing me go on like this. They probably just speed read over top of it, missing the details. Not that I blame this one person for doing that, all I write is drivel.

I don't know why I keep trying to be an artist, who am I trying to impress? Only myself I think, because know one else cares. I could get a job at McDonald's, casually moan about it every now and again, and no one would think for a second that my dreams had been recently chattered. Does that make sense? Maybe not, I didn't get across what I was trying to say, oh well.

Hay guess what, I'm gonna say how totally alone I am now, just like some generic emo prat. Just like a generic, self pitying blog. There's thousands of them, this is just like all the rest.

2007-05-14T12:29:00.000Z

I'm going to go ahead and be pathetic by posting a comment I made on a UK Resistance site. Due to the fact that I don't write much online, so I thought it would be best to repeat myself. A good way to fill the internet with badly written junk.

This is concerning 'Blue Sky Gaming', if that's even a proper term. Which by the way, doesn't seem to have a wikipedia article, which is horrifying.

Heres a link to UKR's contribution to Blue Sky Gaming, and where I posted this orginally.

Here's my post;

Oh, yes, UKR you are the best! I like myself a bit of Silent Hill, but concerning games about gangsters and stuff, I totally agree.

Some here are saying we should just go buy old games then, like a Megadrive. But that's not the point, it's about new games being made. Sure you can play old games, but that's just like giving in and saying "oh well, no good games anymore, let's just accept it, let's just bend over and take it".

Some also say that it's not true, that all you need to do is go buy a Nintendo console. It's true that there are still Blue Sky games out there, but the scary thing is how quickly violent, nasty games like GTA have come to dominate the market. Over a short period of time, FPS games about war, GTA clones, and... oh actually thats it(!), have become the most popular games!

I (or perhaps we?) aren't saying that violent games should be banned, no way. I'm just saying that it looks like they are taking over! Not good. Nasty games have always been around anyway, like Mortal Kombat (though, I find games like this more fun than crap like GTA), but they weren't dominating the shelves.

Apart from the hordes of GTA clones, I'm also sick of the dominating FPS genres; Real world war themed, and future war (chunky marine obsessed) themed. That's why the only FPS game I've enjoyed since Quake is Time Splitters (specifically the 3rd).

Anyway, I've had my rant, see you on a cloud in a blue sky, ciao!

PS- Don't let me catch you snoopin' round in ma hood yo, or I'll havta bus some caps inya ass dawg, n tell yo muma bout that ho u bin beating on.

Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer

2007-05-03T19:11:00.000Z

The second trailer for Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer is out. Not quite as "WOW" as the first one*, but still good, with more of the same. From analysing it a bit, it's quite obvious that Silver Surfer will be mistaken for a bad guy, but then quickly established as being good. The military probably won't get this straight away, while the Fantastic Four figure it out sooner. They will team up to fight some hooded evil who looks like he's from Star Wars.

For anyone who doesn't know what this film is, it's basically Fantastic Four 2. A really good looking sequel to a cruddy Marvel film made some years back. They throw in Silver Surfer, and even if the story is still basic, it'll still be far better because Mr Cool is in it.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/fantasticfourriseofthesilversurfer

*Actually the first is technically the teaser, and this is the first full length trailer. Even though the teaser showed far more than most crappy teasers do.

Feed Reader madness

2007-04-24T19:11:00.000Z

Yes it's true, I'm actually posting! Unfortunately, it's a boring one, but hopefully I will be posting more often from now. I've been too busy with University work, and playing with my new MacBook (which I've been meaning to do an entire entry about). But I have a lot to post about, I just hope I can find some time to do so. I also need to build a 'web presents', because the fact is, there's probably only one person reading this blog. That would be pretty much the only person I've told about it! I need to spread the word... Well, not that it's any good :P But I WOULD like some comments, which you can enter without even being a member, by the way.

I really like feeds, as in, RSS feeds, ATOM feeds and all the rest, whatever, I usually only click on the RSS ones. I don't know what the difference is between them all. If you don't know what a feed is, go look it up, I can't be bothered to explain.

So anyway, I wanted to add a couple of feeds to my Mac. So I click on the RSS button that is located on my desired site. I am prompted to use Firefox's Feed Reader named Live Bookmarks. I subscribe to the site and I go read some pages from the feed. After I've finished reading the page, I go to delete that entry in Live Bookmarks, but I find that I can't... Ummm... ok, this is weird, really weird. I search for the answer to my problem for ages, and I try different feed readers, Firefox plug-ins ones, Widget feed readers, you name it. I've tried about five now, I'm a little closer to what I want, but still not there.

I'm getting really boring now, so I'll cut this short. Basically, I never considered the delete button in the Opera (on PC) feed reader to be some kind of special feature. But it must be, because it's not present in loads of readers I've used on Mac. It's something I never though wouldn't be available in other readers. It's like using a sink that has a plug hole, and then going to your friends house and finding that theirs doesn't have one. Their response is "oh, that's a good idea!". Though actually, if I go by the replies I have on forums, it would go more like this ; "A plug hole? Why? I don't need one, I can use a bucket to empty it, or just leave it to over-flow". Because what I usually find is that people don't mind the idea of just leaving pages on the list that they've already read. This doesn't make sense to me, when a feed might have a hundred old pages that I've already read or don't want to read, all filing down the page in a list a mile long.

I'm currently using a Firefox plug-in called Sage, which does at least inform me if I've already read a page, but still doesn't have that fabled delete button. I'm hoping that maybe pages marked as 'read' will automatically delete themselves, but my hopes aren't high. I know, you're probably saying, why don't I just install Opera and use the same method as I do on my PC? Well firstly, that would be too clever and easy. Secondly, my love of Opera has been gradually slipping for months, I keep finding sites that it's not compatible with. For example, rottentomatoes.com violently flashes red and yellow, gradually gaining in speed, until I have an epileptic fit in my chair. On youtube, I can't view videos in full screen. So as you can see, pretty major sites don't work right in Opera. I'm not sure if it would be any different on the Mac version though.

So that's it, I've had my rant. I'm thinking that I may actually be real stupid, and that there might be an easy solution to all this nonsense I've been going on about. I just haven't found it yet, perhaps I've just been unlucky, maybe I happened to try the only five feed readers in the world that don't have a delete button. It's also hard to find any info on the problem, because when you do a search, it always thinks you mean you have a problem with deleting an entire feed (as in, unsubscribe to one), which is easy.

Silent Hill: Arcade

2007-02-21T12:19:00.000Z

Whilst desperately looking for any news on Silent Hill 5, I came across the surprising fact that Konami are releasing a Silent Hill arcade game. Something that never even crossed by mind, probably because it isn't a very good idea, considering Silent Hill games are all about being afraid, something not so easy to achieve while flinging around a light gun in a loud, public arcade.

I'm not totally against the idea though, I would love to play it, simply for the opportunely to open up some rapid fire woopass on Pyramid Head. And yes that's another good thing about this game, Pyramid Head is in it.

I don't think it's going to be anything amazing, light gun games reached their height of evolution years ago. Not that I'll ever get to play it, British arcades are rubbish.

Many are already cursing the look of the graphics from the screen shots. I'm not bothered by this, nor surprised. Konami have always been behind on graphics in the arcades, their games had PSone graphics while the Playstation 2 was out, and they had Playstation 2 graphics while the Xbox was out, and so on. But Konami have pulled out some surprise hits, no matter how dated the graphics are, like Silent Scope, and of course Dance Dance Revolution.

That said, Silent Hill: Arcade does look pretty poor. For me that's mostly because there seems to be a really badly designed monster in it, and it involves civilians, who you probably have to rescue, or something lame like that.

What's this coming my way?

Oh look dear, it's a badly designed beasty of some sort.

Oh my, how ghastly. Did they rip it from some obscure, mid 90's PC game?

Now, that's more like it.

Please, don't shoot! We're too generic and boring to die!

Oh yeah, this time you're going down!

The answer "NO" comes to mind.

Black Snake Moan

2007-02-19T14:22:00.000Z

After watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas AGAIN, I decided to have a look at what Christina Ricci is up to.

Black Snake Moan looks... interesting.

Samuel L. Jackson is gradually rising to a god like status in my eyes. The question is, will any snakes make an appearance?

The problem is, the film will probably turn out to be pants. I'm betting it will have a sappy, heart filled ending... But it's worth it to see Samuel L. Jackson chain up Christina Ricci like a dog!

WTF comes to mind.

My life in general

2007-02-04T19:55:00.000Z

My head hurts. I touched something on the toilet seat that felt nasty, there was no soap, so I sprayed a little Flash bleach on my hand. I can't seem to get rid of the smell, it feels like it's melting my brain.

I'm almost definitely going to move out. The small problems in the place I live in have built up so much, that they are now driving me insane. I live with a bunch of crazy, loud, moronic convicts, I can't bare it anymore. They have all somehow managed to sneak in their girlfriends, now they seem to live here. The house is crowded, there's even a crying baby, I hate babys. I might store most of my stuff somewhere, and move into a very small, cheap room. I feel good about the idea of saving money, instead of seeing it continue to disappear into my selfish, tosser of a landlord.

University is very good, and horribly bad at the same time. The positive side is that I am learning things. The negative side bares many faces; I've only just found out that learning skills isn't easy. I used to think that you knew when you where learning something. That you'd somehow feel your brain growing bigger. It's true that yes, I can see that I'm using my brain more now, but I don't think you really see that you've learned anything until you look back years later. I also sometimes get this feeling that I'm wasting my time, that I've chosen the wrong course, or the totally wrong route. I'm studying animation, a subject that's under the huge, overcrowded umbrella of art and entertainment. Many students start at this University at 18 or 19, after they pass or fail, many of them go on to working in dull shops, with low salarys. I'm a lot older, and I feel like I'm doing this the wrong way round, I've already worked in God-awful shops. I dread the thought of finishing this course, close to 30, and not knowing or having anything useful to do. All I'll have is an animation degree and a CV filled with a couple of crummy jobs that I did many years prior.

Did I mention that studying isn't easy? Oh yes, I did, didn't I. I find myself not enjoying it, which I think, is a major problem. I'm learning that to be any good at animation (or anything as a matter of fact), you have to be hard working, to a level of obsessiveness. Or least, I will have to, if I want to achieve anything worth while. Others, that are younger than me I might add, seem to breeze through things that I find almost impossible.

Thats enough about Uni. No wait, there isn't anything else! I don't do anything else, unless you count watching TV and... I was going to say play video games, but to be honest, I hardly even do that much anymore. I do plan to post a little about a game I've been playing recently though.

My life doesn't feel right at the moment. Some things missing. It may have something to do with the fact that I've deglected my friends for years now, so it's come to a point where only one ever calls me. I try to socialise with people in my University class, but it doesn't work out for some reason. My animation comrades are alright people, but there seems to be something missing. I hate to say it, but I think it may be compassion, they seem selfish. They're friendly, but it feels like you're talking to one of those store workers who are forced by their managers to smile and act nice. No actually I take that all back, instead I'll go for the paranoid route, they don't like me. I say this, because they are nice, but only to each other, not to me. If I don't say anything, or don't force myself into conversation, they'll totally ignore me.

My love life is also totally non-existent, since I lost the only non-related person who ever loved me. The only person who ever understood me, and for some reason, liked me for what I am.

So now I lay here, naked, on a tip that used to be my room. No one ever comes here so theres no point in cleaning up. My friend Amit sometimes comes over, all I do then is stick everything into Tescos bags and hide them. I have dreams and aspirations, mostly involving becoming successful enough to buy my own place, buy video games and play them without feeling guilty, and invite my old friends over to rekindle our relationships. When I was working in the CEX games store, all I wanted was to be creative. Now that I have that chance, all I want is money, so that I can secure my life without having to depend on my mum, loans, and have to watch every penny I spend.

I really thought I'd have more positive things to write about in this entry. I have been drawing more, but I'll still never be as good as 80% of those bastards over on deviantart.com. All of whom seem to be about 21, and on level with Picasso.

My head feels a little better now, I must have converted bleach into angst.

Heroes is awesome

2007-01-20T00:29:00.000Z

All my doubts about Heroes are gone, this show is damn good. I forgot to mention last time about a character that's getting to be really quite cool. Her name is Claire, and she's some kind of Jekyll and Hyde. I've watched almost 6 episodes now, and they still haven't really revealed anything about her. All I know is that she has some kind of crazy split personality, who likes going around massacring people. Good stuff.

I shouldn't have watched so many episodes in a row, it's quite unhealthy. It also means I'll catch up with the lastest episodes and then have to wait. It's better to spread these kind of things out.

Heroes episode 1

2007-01-19T23:42:00.000Z

Heroes is an American tv series, I think they're on about episode 12, I recently watched the first episode. Before I say anything else, a warning, this is going to have spoilers.

It seems pretty good. Perhaps a little cheesy, and the acting isn't great, but it's only the first episode, so it might get better. As far as I know, it's doing pretty well, people like it. It's basically X-Men the live action tv series, set in the "real world".

Being a super hero comic book fan, it's difficult to watch this without over analysing it. To many, I'm sure the idea of making a super hero series set in a realistic world is original, but I think it's getting to be quite an old fad now. I've seen it before in films and many comics for ages now. It kind of started with Watchmen I guess.

Heroes is following that popular 40 to 50 minute formula. I think since shows like 24 and Lost, new shows have had to have larger production values to fare well against giants like these. My mate Paul pointed out that 24 was one of the first tv shows he watched that feels like it's a movie. This is true of Lost as well, I think. Those shows have raised the bar.

Heroes is trying to reach that bar. I mean I don't know, perhaps it's already reached that bar on the latest episodes that I haven't seen, I 'll have to wait and see. I found the pacing of the first episode to be a bit slow. That may have been because I'd been told a lot about it already. But even if I hadn't, I think I would have got a little sick of the "origins" build ups of the characters, simply because I've seen or read it many times before.

Wolverine is in this program. But he's a stupid, blond, teenage cheerleader. She's like Wolverine in the movies, she regenerates extremely fast. She may actually be superior to him, because I think she also doesn't feel pain. I'm betting the creators consciously decided to make a character who has Wolverine's powers, but is the total opposite kind of person. I've become quite the girl myself recently, because when I see her getting ripped to shreds, I feel kinda squeamish. There's a bit where she pushes her ribs back into her chest, and there's a bit where she puts her hand into a waste disposal unit. She does it to pull out her ring and when she takes her hand back out, it's totally mangled! It's really quite disturbing.

The most interesting characters are the Japanese geek who can travel through time. And the artist who can paint future events, but only if he's high on class A drugs. I'm not sure how it works, but I think the guy from Japan can also teleport.

I've heard some great things about Heroes, so I'm going to stick with it for now. Also at the end of the first episode, there's this crazy looking twist that really caught me off guard. The show may be trying to copy Lost in that respect, and also there are bits where the characters unknowingly cross over each other's paths. But hey, it's what's popular right now, I'm sure they'll find their own feet.

Rubbish at everything

2007-01-18T20:30:00.000Z

I feel totally useless today. I am a talentless fool, who is no good at anything. University is very hard, I'm surrounded by young, talented artists who have a bright future. And then there's me, a man who is bad or generally average at everything he does.

I really can't think of anything that I'm good at. I try to learn things, but I'm constantly stuck on stage 1. I'm told it takes a long time to get good at something, but I thought I'd at least see a little improvement by now.

isohunt.com is dead

2007-01-17T19:59:00.000Z

Well ok, probably not dead, in fact it'll probably be back up by the time anyone reads this. isohunt is a site where you can search for torrent files. I'm not going to support piracy here, but when you miss your favorite tv show, I doubt a policeman's going to knock down your door for downloading it through BitTorrent.

I'd check out wikipedia's entry for another torrent site called The Pirate Bay if I was you. You'd think reading about a file sharing site would be boring. But the crazy stuff that's happened in this sites history is fascinating to me.

If you don't know what a torrent file is, check out wikipedia's entry here. If that link doesn't work, go to wikipedia.org and then use their search engine to look for the phrase 'BitTorrent'. The same goes for the link to wikipedia's entry for The Pirate Bay entry.

Tideland Review

2007-01-16T22:06:00.000Z

I can't quite remember where I first heard of Terry Gilliams latest movie, Tideland. It may have been while reading something about Mr Gilliam, but it was most likely through looking at what else Jodelle Ferland was in after seeing the Silent Hill movie. Silent Hill being the only video games series I really look forward to anymore.

I didn't think Jodelle Ferland was all that good in Silent Hill, but then I don't think she had much to work with as far as character depth. But she's amazing in Tideland.

I saw the Tideland trailer about 6 months before I finally got to see the entire thing. I watched the trailer a couple of times, not once did it remind me of Alice in Wonderland. But then I went through yet another one of my Alice in Wonderland love affairs a week or so before I stumbled upon Tideland. This time finding different versions and adaptations in book form, instead of movies, which is what I did last time. I think I was first introduced to Alice by Disney's animated film back when I was extremely young. It still shocks me when I'm reminded that it came out in 1951, 30 years before existed.

So 10 minutes before I press play on Tideland, I suddenly think, I wonder if this is going to be anything like Alice's Adventures In Wonderland? All I knew was it was about a little girl in a weird place. The movie starts and low and behold, the first words spoken by Ms Ferland are from Lewis Carroll's famous book. The film then goes on to directly refer to it many times.

Tideland isn't a modern retelling of Alice, its ultimately nothing like it, it just nods to it about every 10 minutes. Jodelle Ferland plays Jeliza-Rose, a little girl who is most definitely in the real world. She sees strange, wonderland things, but these are almost always in her imagination, which is fueled by lack of food at one point. Alice in Wonderland can be read as a child playing make believe with her toys, this is exactly what Jeliza-Rose does through this entire film.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is at present my favorite movie of all time. Tideland starts off a lot like this, it depicts a horrible life in such a colourful fun way, that you don't feel depressed or sorry for the poor drug induced losers. Fear and Loathing pretty much continues like that to the end, but Tideland gradually gets more dark.

In Tideland, there are some quite disturbing things. Jeliza-Rose's poor father's existence in this film ripped me away from my preconceptions that this was going to be like a Disney flick. I then felt sorry for Jeliza-Rose, but then realized that this film is about her innocence, not ours. She never understands what life and death really is. You'll know what I mean when you see it. As you can see, I'm not very good at writing reviews.

And then there's the sexual bits, I guess you could call them that. Even after Terry Gilliam reveals that this is no fairly tale, I didn't expect a love interest between a 12 year old girl and a brain damaged 25 year old man to pop up. I'm betting some readers are thinking this is some sick twisted flick now. I'll tell you something, this film has changed me. It's made me realize that I'm a tainted, dirty person. Some like me, and other preachy religious types, will probably feel icky watching these scenes. Actually no, religious god fearing people will be angry and disgraced by Tideland, and most likely pointlessly complain. I, on the other hand, wished that I could watch these touching moments without thinking about paedos every 5 seconds. I live in a world where I see terrible things on the news every day, and innocence is a distant thing. Try to watch this movie through fresh eyes.

Brendan Fletcher is Dickens, a young man who had some kind of operation on his brain. It leaves him damaged, with the IQ of I guess about a 9 year old. The second half of the film becomes pretty much all about Dickens and Jeliza-Rose' friendship. An extremely early affection between them begins, one that neither of them understands anything about. They are so totally clueless as to what love or sexuality is. I kept expecting the film to take a third dive into darker grounds with this, but it never does. Don't think it will, it tarnished it for me.

I love Tideland, It's damn good. I thought A Scanner Darkly was going to be my favorite film of last year, but Tideland has taken it's place. It exceeded my expectations. Tideland is a work of genius. Ciao.

AFTER I READ OTHER REVIEWS

Rottemtomatoes.com has it at 25%, I've never been so shocked by reviews, they hate it! Their comments make no sense to me, it's like they watched a different film. You know what, whatever, they're idiots. They are entitled to their own opinions, no matter how wrong they are.

In my opinion, there's only one tiny thing wrong in this film. When the main girl puts on her imaginary friends voices, it's not always easy to understand what she's saying, but apart from that, it's a fantastic experience.

The Squirrels made it seem less lonely

My Favorite TV Shows 2006

2007-01-15T19:37:00.000Z

I don't watch that much TV anymore. The shows I do watch, I don't even technically watch on a television, I use my PC. I download anything I really like, because I can watch them any time I want. I can no longer bear to wait a week for the next episode of something. Here's a short list of my favorite shows of 2006. I know some of them didn't start in 2006, it's just what I enjoyed the most last year.

1. Lost
2. The Batman
3. Avatar: The Last Airbender
4. Legion Of Superheroes
5. Green Wing

Lost is a great show. If I remember correctly, it started in 2005, but it's the show I looked forward to the most last year. The Batman started years ago, but it still has to be there because its good and I watch it a lot. Avatar was almost second, it would be first if this list was of totally new shows that started last year. Legion Of Superheroes is a laugh, but nothing special. Green Wing is good, I need to get back to it though, and give it a second chance.

Jack's face at the exact moment he realised he's a bit lost

Post Number One

2007-01-14T13:39:00.000Z

What a glorious day. The beginning of something average.