BLOGTASTIC
29/September/2007
So I'm actually going to get my computer fixed, so to speak, in an attempt to make it less slow and crappy and horrible. Ultimately, it's a case of where I've just been living with it for so long that the fact it takes ten minutes to settle down after booting up, constant requirements for the Microsoft Office CD every time I open Word or FrontPage, and overall sluggish performance have become considered normal. I've had it for way too long (by society's measures anyway, I believe computers should be made to not more or less die after four years), and the whole routine of changing to new computers bothers me, especially with the matter of backing up files and bringing them across and did I back up that file oh yes I did wait did I and argh. Don't like computers! And at the same time, I love computers!
To be blunt, if I didn't have my portable hard drive and this weeklong holiday (30 September to 7 October! No updates!), I wouldn't have finally caved in. Personally, I think getting a new computer altogether would just be better, though naturally by "new computer" I mean a used computer that's a bit more fresh than mine. Like my brother's. It can play Aurora Watching without lagging the computer to zilch, and has high-quality visual effects in Halo, like blurring!
So naturally I imagine that the fixing of my computer won't actually achieve a whole lot, my portable hard drive will catch fire and I'll die in a plane crash. I've become pessimistic all of a sudden!
26/September/2007
Come on, world! It's the 21st century! Man has walked on the moon, we've made weapons to kill ourselves in more and more disgusting fashions and cloned a goat at one point. Surely we can find a way to dry a runny nose that's better than tissues? Honest to God, it's the equivalent of taming a wild bull by letting it run out and then dropping a concrete block in it's path. Almost.
Tissues suck.
25/September/2007
Football magazines will eternally befuddle me. That and talking proper British. "Wanker" still hasn't entered my regular swear vocabulary yet. =(
If I ever somehow get the chance to interview a footballer, all I want to ask is if Arteta actually does think he's the top toffee on a regular basis.
23/September/2007
So half my family had the cold while I was doing fine, and I felt miserable because I was still in decent health and therefore was missing out on having a good reason to be miserable. Problem solved! Turns out my immune system isn't as good as I keep thinking it is, as my throat feels like a scotch egg and I feel like a woozy piece of shit if the temperature is too high. And I'm going on holiday to Spain in a week. Perfect timing!
And all but the Armada Optimus figure have arrived (not pictured: Victory Leo and Rodimus Prime, and not even Mega SCF figures: Revoltech Megatron and Classics Mirage)! They're all very awesome except for the two Rodimus figures, who have really weird knee ball joints that are awkward to use and it is downright impossible to remove Hot Rod's head to put on his less ugly one. My thumb is downright raw from all the accessory removing, and it doesn't help that after removing Star Saber's hands, I now can't get them to fit back in securely. C'est la vie. But aside from the knowledge that I think I'll only get used versions of the remaining Mega SCF figures now (honestly removing those hands could kill a lesser man), they're rad, and I wish they were still being made for some of the non-"star" characters, like Ironhide.
Hot Rod is an ugly son of a bitch, though.
I have had the Transformers theme song stuck in my head all day, been eyeing a bunch of figures in the Alternators line, awaiting the season 2 DVD and a bunch of Mega SCF figures to arrive, and somebody shoot me now. Gaming was a much cheaper hobby! I could pirate things in it! Make me sane again; grant me the ability to care about Metal Slug 7!
Seriously, the Metal Slug Database has reported about it, and the screenshots available are the most unhype-worthy in existence. I wouldn't be surprised if they were forged at all (which would be awesome and something they should do more), as they're just generic backgrounds with a few graphics thrown on, none of them featuring the lower screen at all (it's for the DS apparently) and they just look ugly, both because of the backgrounds and how they're resized to shit.
But the question everyone's asking, however, is will it be covered on MS:MIA? Well I have to wait until it's released and something worth noting has changed during production, so who knows!
And personally, I think SNK should bring back Blue's Journey. At least it sucked to begin with, so a remake/sequel's potential failure wouldn't exactly be a hard blow!
Today's observation: Having Rice Krispies with only a quarter-glass full of milk isn't exactly something I'd like to do again.
17/September/2007
Apparently, Tesco fudged up our weekly order, meaning we got a ton and a half of orange and apple juice (which we don't get), a heap of varied meat that we wouldn't normally touch, and blueberries. And then they came back in the evening to apologise for fudging up, taking back the stuff we don't get and gave us a box of Quality Street as a consolation.
Every little helps indeed! Certainly a kind gesture, and definitely makes up for them conquering Denmark.
12/September/2007
Mood swing time is here again!
I love it how my website makes me look like a ludicrously unstable individual. I would deny that, but by doing so that means I'll look even more unstable by claiming it's all a lie, so I'll just suggest I'm a pretty decent guy in person.
Nearly two years too late, but I got around to seeing the "recent" King Kong movie. To be blunt, everything about the actual movie I'd have to comment upon is what we've all heard; three hour length, nutty relationship between Darrow and Kong (though it's not quite ice skating, more ice rolling) and the fight scenes being long, but really, I found them all to be pretty required for it to work. The first hour could've been shortened, yeah, but then we'd miss out on characterisation and Naomi Watts wearing a bowler hat.
The only things I have to say that I haven't heard from others are that I forgot just how much I love old-timey locomotives and automobiles, and how the ever-advertised dinosaur fight scene has three dinosaurs. That was unexpected, and therefore incredibly awesome!
So yeah, see, if I haven't much to comment on, I skip it. For a three hour movie, this is a short review.
02/September/2007
I dreamt of Jarvis last night.
The sad thing is, I don't know if any of the viewers here know about Jarvis, and neither does the internet at all, apparently. It was a three panel comic strip that lay underneath some nature news in The Funday Times (see very first blog entry ever!) about two students, Jarvis and his friend whose name I forget, droning out tired schoolyard gags in a school environment. Typical strips would go like so.
Jarvis says: A ringing bell is my favourite sound.
friend says: Why's that?
Jarvis says: It means school is over.
And for all but the last panel, every character would be giving this really sullen expression along the lines of "I am waiting for an axe to fall on my head and end the never-ending torture that is my life", and the only other expressions were a smug grin of whatever character appreciated the joke at the end, and the rolling of the eyes of whoever the joke was aimed at. Absolutely horrendous stuff, and it somehow managed to last all the way until the end of it's publication. And it received fan art, too!
I was actually hoping to get one of my ultra bitchy General Writings out of this, but I don't have any Funday Times in my possession, and since it's officially done and dusted now, I can't exactly check the website to see if any trace of it remained. I can't even remember who created the travesty, though that's probably for the best as I'd likely end up with some kind of court punishment. Like death.
But about the dream, the weird thing was that it was more like the Dennis the Menace cartoon (British asshole version, not American dungaree kid) except there was no menacing, nor pranks, or anything at all. Just Jarvis in animated form, barely even in school and walking around his town while wisecracking with humour only the humourless would enjoy, the only notable one being "why need beach balls, ladies, you're three of them" when calling to a bunch of fat chicks in a swimming pool. Notable because the actual comic strip wouldn't go anywhere near any kind of insulting aside from "school sucks," and how the dream just forgot all the Jarvis elements and just focused on the swimming pool occupants from then on. Man has needs!
The bizarre thing about the Jarvis cartoon was that all the characters from the strip were drawn in typical crappy Jarvis fashion, meaning they barely had arms and their legs were eternally off-screen, barely even opening their mouths; but everyone else was drawn and animated well, and the "action" took place against the barely visible backgrounds of the strip, mostly just white with a few minor decorations to get it across that the setting is a school classroom. It was all very odd.
The worst thing about all this is that rambling on and on about Jarvis has given me the notion of making the ultimate Jarvis page, or even the ultimate Funday Times resource, but both are foiled by lacking the actual strip. Woe.
And to end the first blog entry in ages that doesn't suck, there's, er, this. No comment. And also the site for one of the strips that didn't exactly leave me cringing.