Feed Reader madness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What a glorious day. The beginning of something average.