Not a spectre yet

I fixed my monitors so that I now have some sort of ridiculously high-tec CTU setup in my room, with the press of a button I can switch between the 360 and secondary PC monitor with sound from both simultaneously playing through the same speakers. Loading up Forza 2 as I browse through my Initial D soundtracks collection with everything so perfectly laid out is not something I believe I will get used to soon.
I took the useless splitter back to Stevenage yesterday, my brother wanted to buy some things so we bounced between GAME and GameStation, the queues were so ridiculous that we must have ended up spending about an hour queuing in about three shops alone. I came home with Just Cause though, so I did gain something from the ordeal.
I was also reminded that the Emperor does watch over us all, as I stood outside something white flew over my head and landed right at my feet, so close that at first I thought it was a little screwed up piece of paper that rolled over my hat. But upon closer inspection I discovered that it was bird shit, which must have flown millimeters from my forehead. It may not sound like much, but the distance at which it flew past my face was so absurdly close that only the hand of the Emperor could have possibly shielded me from that.

At home I am falling deeper into the world of Mass Effect, and I couldn't love it more. The sheer depth of the game is amazing, with codex entries explaining the back story and providing additional information about every possible object and feature you come across, giving it more depth than many books of the same genre. Mass Effect also gives you more than enough to occupy yourself with, it clearly outlines what you need to do to progress the main story, but beyond that you remain completely free to talk to the many inhabitants of the galaxy, most of which will have their own personal problems and issues that you can either completely ignore or go out of your way to involve yourself in. This is one of the best parts of Mass Effect, all of the characters you meet have very individual personalities and all have excellent voice actors, along with the fantastic graphics you can happily walk around having brilliantly immersive conversations with people for hours on end.
The game does unfortunately have its downsides, most of which seem to be in the awkward and bug ridden combat. It is nicely streamlined with infinite ammo (explained in the codex) and automatic retrieval of items from downed opponents, meaning that you aren't left looting bodies for five minutes after every battle, and once the enemies are killed you are immediately free to move on. Even with the lacking combat sections all is quickly forgiven once you are back in the busy cities, when you get back into the negotiation mindset and begin involving yourself in all the adventures and dramas that the plethora of characters have to provide, you will quickly find yourself up until the early hours always going to do 'just that little bit more' unable to put the controller down.
Mass Effect is everything I hoped it would be and so much more, I can easily see myself years from now looking back on ME with the same fondness as Knights of the Old Republic. But for now I never want it to end.

I finally had another driving lesson today, and I find myself quickly getting used to driving. I am of course still not completely used to it and have a lot to learn, but I feel as if I am making quick progress and already find myself limited by the 30 speed limit in some of the area I am driving around. One thing I think I need to do is calm down with the gear changes, while I don't drive too fast or recklessly in any way, I do shift gears like I'm on the Nürburgring.

Soap and Shepard

I once again, missed my driving lesson. Which was entirely my fault for not getting up, and I really need to make sure that I do not fall back into my old sleeping pattern, not after this work has made me appreciate all the free time I have thrown away.
While I did not spend any of Christmas Eve on the roads, I did spend much of it playing Halo with Neil, and was spurred further into the seasonal spirit as we, the Americans, and various other worldwide Live gamers wished eachother a Merry Christmas at the end of each game. Even the internet hate machine seemed to be putting aside some of its differences with itself and be a little more polite than usual.

Christmas day hit with me struggling to pull myself out of bed, once I did presents were had. My two best presents were a Motorola Z3 and a 19 inch widescreen monitor, the phone was unfortunately missing a battery, and the monitor missing an adapter needed to connect it to the 360, the situation would have to be rectified the next day with a trip to Stevenage. I could still connect the monitor to my computer, and with a little third party support Vista was convinced to run dual screen, which does look absolutely fantastic and comes in extremely useful. Other than that I mostly got books and that sort of thing, all good stuff.
Meanwhile my parents kept themselves occupied downstairs by placing a freezer bag too close to a candle and playing around with the resulting fire, a little smoke inhalation mixed with what tasted like highly toxic plastic fumes were science's gift to my family this Christmas. Thankfully a fire extinguisher was on hand and damage to the base is minimal, we're just lucky it was caught when it was, before we became another statistic.
Christmas dinner was had at my brother's place this year, with much of our family and many of his girlfriends. Many of his girlfriend's family members that is, he's not into polygamy or anything like that. Everyone had chipped in a little something to make up the meal and things went very well, especially considering that it was the first Christmas dinner Zoe had prepared, and she put in a lot of effort that definitely paid off.

Boxing Day comes and it's time to do some shopping, so me and my brother drive into Stevenage to get stuff done. That's with my brother driving, because at this point I would probably drop the ball on the motorway and PIT maneuver myself into the armco.
We sidled into the Carphone Warehouse to grab a battery and a 2GB SD card, quickly fixing my phone problems and enabling me to take plenty of good quality pictures and easily throw them onto my computer. I still had to sit bluetoothing pictures and copying phone numbers for about two hours once I got home, which was the hight of tedium.
For the first Christmas in quite a while I didn't get any vidyagames, so I had to rectify the situation by buying Call of Duty 4 and Mass Effect with the swiftness of a startled fox. I have also been considering buying Just Cause for another £13 and Naruto: Rise of a Ninja if it drops in price (a lot), for the moment I think CoD and ME will keep me nicely occupied, but for such low low prices Just Cause will not escape me for long.
Maplin had one of the two adapters I needed, my brother having the other at home, yet annoyingly enough things have not gone quite as smoothly as I would have liked. The splitter I am using was designed for two computers to run on the same monitor, but I am trying to get it to switch between a secondary monitor and an Xbox 360. As it is, when switched to the computer the secondary monitor does not display, and when switched to the 360 I cannot use the keyboard on the computer. So I have to switch the sound, picture and keyboard wires every time I want to play the 360, which makes me want to go up to Gerard Butler and describe the situation with the words 'blasphemy' and 'madness'.

Today has been spent almost entirely playing Call of Duty and Mass Effect, with a little cleaning in preparation for the arrival of yet more family later in the evening.
Early on in the day I realized I hadn't actually bothered to look at the display settings on the 360, and what a fool I was for that. First I set it to widescreen so the picture wasn't just being stretched, and then I kicked it up from the ridiculously low 640x350 resolution to a higher resolution that has made the picture so brilliantly sharp it feels as if it is physically cutting my cornea. This new level of quality will not only make my new games fantastic to play, but even reinvigorate some of the older titles, so I am sure all of my friends on Xbox Live will have me readily available to kick reason to the curb and surpass the impossible whenever they want to play any games online.

The subtle knife

Only in Death has finally arrived, twice. I think that's a Merry Christmas from The Book Depository.com to send me two copies of a hardback book and only charge me for one.
I haven't really been able to get stuck into it yet as I've been quite busy, but that can only be a good thing as I would just rush through it otherwise, and to finish what is going to be a fantastic book so soon would be a crime.

Christmas shopping on Friday was relatively successful, I got a couple of presents which I think are very good finds, but I really struggled on others, and one I think the person I bought it for might already have. I eventually got the last present much later in the day, and if anyone does already have what I got them they can always take it back and get something they definitely want. So once that was done and dusted I could absolutely relax and look forward to Christmas.

Saturday night was spent at a party at Bertie's, which was especially good as everyone was there, all back from uni and off work, with all the gaps filled in with Cassie's lower 6th former friends. Although I had to spend a bit of it looking after a certain someone that really shouldn't drink as much as she does, not that I have any problem with that, just that it makes me worry about her and the thought of the times when I'm not there, as she definitely drinks much more than she should, and worrying seems to be more forte in recent times.

I went to see the much discussed Golden Compass earlier today with the family and wife, but cannot claim to have been greatly impressed. Throughout the film you get the very distinct impression that you're being violently rushed through it, even without having read the original book I found the butchered remains of what was once its depth all to easy to see. I imagine this will be amended slightly by the subsequent two films, but this will always remain a tale that I believe should have been left in the literary medium. Not to say that I didn't enjoy it, but I certainly won't be watching it again.

I also missed both of my driving lessons again this weekend, but will be having one on the eve of Christmas, yay.

The ghost of Jacob Marley

I took a look into the world of rallying for the first time since the championship ended yesterday, to find two excellent pieces of news.
The first is that Suzuki has confirmed its drivers for the '08 season. They entered their new machine late into the '07 WRC purely to get it to ground and really see what they can do with it, and as they refine their design the SX4 is going to be a completely new factor to look out for next year. The lead driver has been revealed as none other than Toni Gardemeister, the privateer I mentioned all the way back at the beginning of September for his incredible drift skills will be returning, this time trading in his Evo for what could be a much more suitable SX4, which being smaller and lighter should play perfectly with his talents.
The second, and most fantastic piece of news is that Latvala will in fact be joining the BP Focus team next year. This is truly brilliant news as he really has nowhere to go but up, and with a killer duo of Hirvonen and Latvala tearing it up behind the wheels of the best Focuses on the road, next year is guaranteed to have me following it every single step of the way.

I finished my last day of work today, or at least until after New Year, but I won't hold my breath for shifts after then. I was going to work half a day tomorrow as I wanted to get off early to go Christmas shopping with Nicola, but the big boss man just told me not to bother coming in at all, with Christmas so close all of the shops have got their orders in, so the need for so much man power is gone and we're left with a lot of people with nothing to do.
The next few days are definitely going to be busy for me though, but I am very much looking forward to being able to relax through it all once I've got the shopping done and have nothing I need to worry about. I have been invited to quite a few parties and will be spending pretty much every night out at them, although I feel bad about having to miss a lot of people's stuff as there are simply too many for me to go to them all, but I guess that's how Christmas rolls outside of secondary school where you pretty much have one big circle of friends.
I will be spending the daylight hours of the weekend on the streets as my Dad imparts more tuition in the ways of the motorized vehicle, I am especially looking forward to this as I was too busy seeing Nicola to attend my lessons last weekend, not that I would ever imagine complaining about that.

Survival mode

The lads at work today were talking about the epic confrontation of species they had seen online or somewhere, crocodile versus shark, gorilla versus jaguar and the such. This got me thinking of a topic raised on a forum I post on quite a while ago, which was something along the lines of 'How many 9 year olds could you beat up?'
Think about it, at first you would think it an easy task to beat up half a dozen nine year olds, but if you raised the number there will come a point where you would simply be swamped by the horde and torn to shreds. So how busy would a playground have to be before you would look at it and think, 'those kids would beat me to a pulp if they turned on me'?
My personal estimation is at about twenty five. I reckon I could take around fifteen in a head on confrontation and even up to forty if my life depended on it. The one thing you simply can't do is underestimate nine year olds, they may be small but it would only take one latching onto your leg to completely compromise your maneuverability, and then a moments hesitation could see you under an inescapable mass of fists and feet. My tactic would be to keep on the move and have them chase after me, outrunning the group would be easy while your stamina is up, as the pack spreads out as they try to cut you off and the more sprightly ones separate from the fatties you could easily take out the isolated opponents. Then when their numbers and down and their confidence has been lowered after having seen their comrades fall, I think you could quite comfortably could go berserker on the remaining opposition and finish them off before they get a chance to rally themselves. I briefly considered the possibility of the children taking a defensive stance and gathering together forcing you to make the first move, but by length of stride alone I think you could take out the ones on the perimeter one at a time faster than they can react.
So, employing those tactics I am confident I could readily take on a playground of approximately 25 nine year olds.

Three hundred and sixty degrees

Xbox 360, probably my purchase of the year, although the car insurance is a close contender.
With the epic failings of the PS3, the 360 is set for a monopoly over the gaming industry that the PS2 held in the last generation. The Wii is fun, and for the price I am glad I bought it, but it remains very much a supplementary console that you buy after a 360. So for anyone and everyone interested in computer games, the Xbox 360 is your first and last port of call.
Just recently I hit 5000 gamer points, with most of that attributed to every achievement on Bioshock and all but one on DiRT. Not to say that I'm a gamerscore fag that obsesses with how high his meaningless number is, but I do appreciate the replayability that individual achievements provide. Assassin's Creed, Gears of War and Halo 3 have all been completed and have cashed in on most of their achievements, but there's still quite a few that I will be going back for, especially related to online multiplayer. I'm still trundling through the brilliant Forza 2, which I find is neither a game you can dedicate yourself to or to completely forget, so even as it was one of the first games I got when I purchased the 360, it still remains one of my most played titles as it sees steady action. All that remains is Dead Rising, which while fun has not had me going back for a whole lot more after I completed it.
My one gaming regret is that I did not buy Test Drive: Unlimited for the 360, but the PC, as I felt the need long before I was seriously thinking about buying a 360. I did play it absolutely loads and love it with a passion, but I did not complete it 100%, and with the lack of achievements I would find little satisfaction in returning to it to do so after such a long time. Although I imagine the other drivers of Oahu rejoice in my absence, as I was the undefeatable king of Quick Challenges.
Next I will be looking to add Call of Duty 4 and Mass Effect to my list of games. CoD4 being a simply brilliant title that I know will get a lot of game time, and ME being a very deep RPG that I am thoroughly looking forward to immersing myself in when I finish my current job.
I love my 360, it was worth it enough for all the single player games, but being able to jump into an online multiplayer game of Puzzle Fighter, Gears, Halo, Forza and so much more in a few easy seconds is a fantastic experience that will always keep me coming back for more.

Insha'Allah

Life has its ups and downs, you'd have to have some sort of freak existence for it not to. But as we hear constantly, when you're down you've just gotta pick yourself back up, easier said than done. This isn't one of those motivational seminars though, just a live train of thought I'm throwing at the keys.
I've had a pretty down time recently, really much through my own paranoid worries and the such, because no matter how logical I try and keep my life I always have the worst possible case scenario running around my head like a cracked up energizer bunny. But sitting around with these situations in a stagnant position is only going to make them fester and worsen, as I've experienced first hand. So you've gotta flush that shit out, get your life flowing again, because things can't go up if you don't push them to move at all. It may be hard to face, you may want to just curl up in a ball and try and pretend it never happened, but life isn't that easy, so man the fuck up and do something about it.
Also, you've always got to remember that you've never hit rock bottom, as Tyler Durden said, "Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken." Things can always be worse, and there are always going to be millions of people that have problems that make yours look utterly insignificant.
But the problem is that no matter how unimportant the problem may be in the grand scheme of things, how much it affects you is the only relevant factor, and 'buck up and deal with it' are often hollow words when things simply aren't that easy, and more often than not during the legitimately seriously problems things will never be the same again.
But that's life, it's hard as hell and for most people will have times when it pushes you to the edge just to see what you're really made of. But that's getting a bit too dramatic for my liking, I've had some very hard times recently, all because of some shit that at the end of the day was relatively meaningless and had nothing to do with me, but even so it didn't stop it driving me insane. No matter how much of a non-event it may have been, it still hurt me like hell, and that's what most of people don't understand when hearing other people's problems, they take them at face value, myself included in very recent history with another internet friend that was confiding in me during incredibly hard times for her, but it's not how bad the situation appears to be that you need to take into account, but how badly it affects the people involved.
I faced my problems today, and while things will never be the same, and while there is no solution that will make everything better, at least I've done something, changed the record and moved onto another chapter. Because that's life, there's no motivational promise that things will get better or that justice will prevail, because many things will never get a happy ending and you be sure that they won't be the last problems you see in your life. The only thing I guess I have to say is that just the way life is, maybe things can get better, maybe they can't, maybe there's something you can do about it, maybe it's out of your hands. Unfortunately life isn't as romantic as the religious story of god having a plan for everyone and all that bullshit, life simply sucks ass and you've gotta play the cards you're dealt. But no matter what situation you are in, no matter how bad things are, you always have choices, and it's not what you do with those choices, but simply the fact that you choose one.
Fortunately I live a very generous life, comfortably earning parents, no illnesses or handicaps, born into a politically stable country to be offered a remarkably blank slated life. I can't say I've made the most of it, acting like a complete idiot through my entire school life and throwing away my education, but I'd like to think I've learnt from some of the mistakes I have made and will play it slightly differently in the future. I'm looking at a mechanics or some sort of engineering apprenticeship, and as of last Sunday night I am officially in a relationship with the fantastic Nicola. From one light my life is a good one indeed, from another I could definitely ask for more, but whatever the case may be all I can do is deal with it as I encounter it. It reminds me of some sort of adventure game like Monkey Island, with a list of options in every conversation and situation, all you can do is choose one and see where it takes you.
But I do ramble on in this utterly unprepared and unstructured blog post, it feels like this recent slow blogging period is catching up on me. Hopefully things will continue to progress over the next few days and weeks, I can't say I'm completely happy with the current state of play, but as I said, that's just what I have to deal with. I'll look forward to another driving lesson on Friday, Dan the man's return and a session at his pad on Saturday, and another encounter with my (tee-hee) girlfriend on Sunday.
Will I lose all faith in the Imperium and kill myself, will I persevere and become the next world rally champion, or will Allah grow weary of my melodrama and cast me down? Stay tuned to find out.

A bad time, boy

Rally GB ends with a strong Hirvonen win and a championship title for Loeb, who is now equaling Tommi Mäkinen's record of four consecutive wins. Although Latvala did retire on day one he restarted on the second day to post fastest times on every single stage that day, reminding everyone that he may be out but he will not be forgotten. And while Gronholm concedes first place he still helps win the Ford team the manufacturers title with a blistering 212 points over Citroen's 183.
An absolutely excellent season overall, and I'm very much looking forward to next year's WRC. The only problem being that it looks like Loeb will find very little opposition with Gronholm's retirement, leaving Hirvonen and possibly fellow Citroen driver Daniel Sordo as seemingly the only other drivers capable of providing anything like a consistent challenge.

In my own driving experiences I had my second driving lesson today, despite getting very little practice during my first lesson I actually found all the movements very natural and did everything without having to put much thought into it, I could even hold it stationary on a hill relatively easily with just the clutch control.
Things got a bit more complicated when I started tackling turning onto junctions with busy traffic, and I need to slow down a bit around roundabouts, even though I never break the speed limit or put myself in a dangerous position, I don't exactly hang around.

In theatre, I have recently been watching some Bond films. First off with the excellent and all time best GoldenEye, which is simply fantastic in every respect. That was followed by Die Another Day, which while starting out brilliantly, steadily worsens as the film progresses. Next up is the most recent and brilliant Casino Royale, although I would have preferred dropping some of the drawn out casino sections in favor of lengthening the car chase, which consists of an adrenaline pumping start before turning about two corners where he flips the car into oblivion.
I'm also going to have to watch Black Hawk Down again sometime soon, as I get excited about the possibilty of recieving Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for Wintersday I have been put in a very middle-eastern military mood.

I also completed Assassin's Creed today, and as much as I enjoyed it, it most definitely had the worst ending to any game or story I have ever encountered, almost entirely because it just drops off into nothingness, ensuring that I will be buying the next game.

Ching wah

I stumbled back in from the Wales Rally last night, which was great, here's why:
The epic journey began at 5am on Friday, not long after hitting the roads Paul admitted that it was his first time on the motorway, fortunately I have no sense of self preservation so wasn't as scared as I should have been at the thought of how far we were about to travel.
At the first service stop I bought the latest issue of Redline and the newly discovered Banzai, the latter seeming to consist almost entirely of featured Japanese cars and import events, while it doesn't seem to be enough to stand on its own I think it will nicely supplement Redline and keep me more than occupied during my breaks at work.
The first sign of the rally was at a service stop just past Cardiff, what looked like some sort of display car sitting on the back of a trailer with its little convoy all decaled up got me pretty pumped. Not long later on the road a pickup truck sped past baring the full livery of my favorite team, the BP Ford Focuses, and that got me extremely excited and ready to roll.
The first destination was the shakedown, not far outside of Swansea, where the drivers will be speeding around and warming up for the real racing over the next three days. Fortunately the brilliant blue skies we had been experiencing on the way over decided to stick around, and things were very comfortable as we clambered through the woods along the side of the track and got our first taste of rally cars up close.
The machines are indeed amazing, you get an idea of how loud and powerful they are on TV, but only when you're standing as close as a meter away from the track and feel the rumble of the engine and the firework pops and bangs of the misfiring system shoot through you can you truly appreciate it. Not to say that you need to be that close, as you can hear the echo of the cars over the valleys and through the forest long before they actually reach you.
After that we head off to the service park down on the docks in Swansea, during this drive we get our first taste of how the south of Wales has pretty much turned into a giant Subaru showroom as every line of traffic and stretch of road had at least one scooby tearing it up, and if it wasn't an Impreza it was an Evo.
Once we reached the service park we jumped in to get our first proper look at the leading drivers machines, took a load of pictures, bought team caps (Ford Hirvonen for me, Subaru Solberg for Paul) and bounced back out.
We then made our way to one of the tracks were were planning on attending the next day, just to see how the travel time would be. Things took much longer than expected as we made our way up far into the Welsh mountains on smaller and smaller roads until we were actually driving on the same muddy routes that the rally takes place on, albeit much slower. Awesome views though.
It was then about time we headed over to Cardiff for the ceremonial opening, so yet more driving was made and after some inner city trawling we finally found the car park and rally area. We walked around taking pictures of some of the display cars and drivers for a while before we passed behind the stage to a long road where all the competitors had their cars parked in preparation for the ceremony.
I stood at a barrier that was so close to the cars I could literally lean over it and touch them, and as time moved on the drivers started getting in their cars. As my favorite driver Mikko Hirvonen walks over to get in his car I call him over to shake his hand, and even get a picture of me doing so with a massive grin on my face, which is a picture I will most definitely print out for epic memories. Not long later Jari-Matti Latvala arrives to get ready, not many people pay much attention to him as most of the people were watching the stage, and the people that were around me were mostly waiting for either Marcus Gronholm or Petter Solberg. I shout out to get Latvala's attention before telling him exactly how much of a legend he is, and how I'm totally supporting him, he had a massive smile at this and tried to reply, but I was too busy telling him that if he joined the BP Ford team next year that he could go all the way and that I was behind him every step. He genuinely seemed to appreciate this and not long later before driving away he waves to me and gives me a thumbs up, total win. The last person we watched get in their car before moving to the front of the stage was Solberg, and the crowd all leaned back like a shockwave when his Impreza started, rally cars are beasts as it is but those things are absurd.
We then watched the opening, which began with Colin McRae's car passing through the gate on the stage driven by his Dad, which was was cool, and then after watching some of the main drivers get interviewed and drive off we walked into the main high street to get some food. Returning at least 20 minutes later with a meatball sub in hand we saw the drivers were still passing through the gate, they then drive down the very long road in which all the spectator cars are parked and join the main road to head back to the service park in Swansea. Our car was parked right at the end next to the junction, and after turning it around to face the road we had the perfect seats to sit and watch the cars pass and stop at the junction as we chowed down, which was excellent.
We then rolled out to find somewhere to sleep, and not long down the M4 we found a delightful service stop and promptly threw the chairs back and went to sleep. I couldn't be bothered to do too much, so despite having a ridiculous amount of covers and sleeping equipment I was still cold, but as an Impreza estate driver at the same service stop said "Who needs Travelodge when you can sleep in the car?"

Day 2 had us wake to an ominous cloud cover, we pushed on and headed out to the first track, but our arrival was diverted by a police officer informing us that the car park was full and suggested heading to the next course. Determined not to have our progress halted by the po-po we ditched the wheels nearby and headed out on foot, but not far up the road a returning driver tells us the rally is miles up the road and that people are getting turned away at the end anyway.
Police 1 - Civvies 0
We return to the car to find a couple of other vehicles parked next to us and a bunch of lads gearing up to make the same expedition, we started chatting with them and told them what we knew and what we thought we should all do, they seemed to think we knew what we were talking about enough to follow our advice so they all jumped back in their cars and sped off to the third stage, honking and waving as they went.
We made after them and eventually arrived at the third stage with what seemed like perfect time to spare, it was so high up in the mountains that we were actually in the clouds and visibility dropped quite drastically for a while, but things cleared up enough for us to see the rally cars perfectly and it turned out to be the best part of the trip. The spectator area stretched around a simply excellent selection of bends with plenty of different angles to view them from, with the final one having the cars crash very spectacularly through a big puddle on one side. We got loads of videos and pictures before heading back off to the car to depart to the fifth stage of the day (the stage we visited the day before), with the second three all being repeats of the first three of the day.
Things took a turn for the worse and started raining quite heavily, we persevered and pushed on to the spectator area, as we waited for the stage to start the rain worsened and winds picked up to such ferocity that my umbrella imploded and had to be discarded. We only stayed long enough to watch the first few cars before heading back to the sanctuary of our own wheels, absolutely soaked through puddles began forming in the car.
Arriving back in Swansea I quickly got changed, and after removing my wallet from my no longer waterproof coat I had to actually peel apart the money inside and dry it over the fans.
At the service park we walked around for a while and watched the crews tear apart the cars with astonishing professionalism and efficiency. I managed to shake Marcus Gronholm's hand in passing in classic grumpy Gronholm fashion with him not sparing the crowd a second glance, such a clear cut businessman is he. Unfortunately I turned on the Stobart Ford team to see Latvala's car with a massive dent in the side and his name not even in the top seventeen positions, tragedy.
We busted outta there and pulled over at what just so happened to be the same service stop we saw the first rally car parked at, not long later we fell asleep to be only moderately warmer than the night before.
The next morning we headed back into Cardiff to get something good to eat and do some shopping. I stopped off in River Island and Burton and got a couple of shirts, and as a gift for someone got a very nice handmade necklace in a rather arty marketplace. We then wandered around for a while longer before heading back home, which proved a much wetter and more dismal journey than the one in the opposite direction two days prior.
Overall it was a fantastic trip in which even the worst parts contained nothing but laughs. I'm very much looking forward to next year, in which I will be driving in the Focus.

Speaking of the Focus, I have finally been insured and received my first driving lesson today, in which I think I did rather well, no tofu drifting yet though. Unfortunately my Dad is only available on two days over the next two weeks, but after that he's absolutely free over the Christmas period, and I will most definitely be on the road at every available opportunity.

Books of gods

Double Eagle comes to a close, and Only in Death is ordered for great victory.
My only criticism is that Double Eagle ends very abruptly after reaching an epic climax, the unification of the characters that had up until that point belonged to their own separate stories and their entrance into one final gigantic Battle of Britain style showdown was cool, but the conclusion pretty much consists of 'and then the battle ended, the Imperials won the war, and everyone that was still alive lived happily ever after'. Still a good read for any 40k Black Library or Gaunt's Ghosts fan.

In search for books to ask for Christmas (aside from Initial D, obviously) I had a look at the Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades after certain reviews favorably highlighted it, however in my infinite quest for balance in all things I found some negative reviews that were slightly more than the gripes of disgruntled kids, one of them critically spoke of the book simply building itself on ridiculous sources, and as I had a look at a few pages online I could see that it was spouting absurd snippets of misinformation in 'did you know' segments that even I could see through with my limited knowledge of the prophet Muhammad.
In one of these negative reviews the book God's War: A New History of the Crusades was suggested as an alternative, but at an epic 1040 pages this is reportedly a very dry read.
I will continue my search for new novels, and books on Islam and the Crusades, but am expecting a difficult time of it.

Salaam

I entered Blockbuster on Sunday to rent a film for later that night, I scanned around for a while without finding anything I was particularly interested in, although I was pleased to see the Russian box office hit 9th Company had been imported and subtitled properly, as that is too cool a film for it not to get the publicity it deserves.
Finally I laid eyes on Soldier of God, with the cover looking awfully inviting, and suspiciously close to the Assassin's Creed time period and location, of which I have been playing so much recently. I picked it up and flipped it over to read, "The Holy Land, 1187. When dedicated warrior-monk of the Knights Templar, Rene, is captured in battle, he escapes into the desert. He is saved from starvation by Hasan, a mysterious Muslim traveller..." Little more had to be said as I was sold, no doubts and no hesitation.
Unfortunately despite winning various awards -including two 'best picture of 2005'- it left a lot to be desired. The budget was evidently lacking, even though many famous films have been in the same situation and have seamlessly created masterpieces, this title however did not disguise it so well with poor direction uncomfortably highlighting these shortfalls.
Scripting was going to be its savior, a good story and be damned to everything else, yet again, things were not going to be so easy. It's not that the script was entirely bad, it's just that it laid it on so heavily it became hard to take it seriously. Yes it's a comment on religion and humanity, yes it's very relevant, yes you are not the first film to do this by any degree.
If it wasn't for the scripture, Muslims, and entire setting of the Third Crusade it would have been rather unwatchable. For instance, if it was set in America during the worst of the hostilities between the native Indians and the settlers -which would have been just as applicable a setting- I would have switched off completely before the end.

No crust

The Rally Ireland ends and Loeb clocks the 10 points he needed to take the lead, with Sordo taking second and Latvala proving he most definitely has the skills to pay the bills in third. Gronholm will now have to come first in Wales with Loeb in sixth to win, and as that won't possibly happen all he can do is compete with Loeb for first and hope the Frenchman crashes out, which is entirely possible.
The young Jari-Matti Latvala in his Stobart Focus has shown incredible skill for so little experience and has amazingly snatched seventh place overall, only one point ahead of Atkinson. The 22 year old Finnish driver is rumored to be replacing Gronholm next year in the Abu Dhabi Focus team, I certainly hope he does move in to support Hirvonen as he easily has the potential to match - or even surpass him in the future.

This week has proven relatively uneventful save for the rally, I occupy myself with work during the day and looking after myself in the evening, as my parents are celebrating their 30th anniversary in Barbados.
After cooking myself an epic Indian meal on Wednesday night I came down in the morning to find I had left the oven on, evidently I did not burn to death in my sleep, so it was generally a victory all round.
I went into work today at 08:40, what I thought was ten minutes late, and as I hurried to sign in Si -one of the cooler officers- said "You know we start work at seven..." in a reprimanding tone, I made my excuses and only realised a little while later that he wasn't having a go at me for being ten minutes late, but for being over an hour and a half late. I totally forgot that everyone does the 0700 to 1600 shift on Friday, my bad.

I've taken to reading Max Power during my breaks over the last two days, as it does satiate my voracious desire for automotive material. Sadly however, while it is not quite as tragically chav-tastic as it is notoriously known as being, it's not far off, and I have spotted a few sections of cringingly conspicuous misinformation that were exposed and denounced in the latest issue of Redline's '28 Tuning Myths Busted' feature. That, along with severely lacking event coverage, features and a ridiculous excess of advertisements assures that I will not purchase another issue of Max Power, while every incarnation of Redline will be desperately sought after.

I decided to sit down and spend tonight watching The Fast and the Furious, as it has been far too long since I last saw it. I found this impossible, as after 15 minutes I found the film simply far too epic to watch alone.
The Fast and the Furious has always been the foremost film in my circle of friends, with all of us being able to recreate any scene word for word on the spot, I unfortunately underestimated how truly incredible this film is and before I knew it I found myself shouting "I'm in your face!" at the TV along with Toretto.
I also had to sit down for a few moments to lower my blood pressure after Letty, Leon, Vince and Jesse make their first appearance, as they pull their vehicles into view I see Letty driving an S14a, giving me enough reason alone to pause the film, jump out of my seat and drop kick myself in the face. After I calm down a bit from the sheer epic scale of that I unpause the film to see the next car to be an R33 GTR, words alone are too weak a medium to convey the emotions I was feeling after that dual revelation.
Watching this film after so long without other people to appreciate the moment cannot be done, so tomorrow night Bertie, Andrew and Paul will be coming over to witness the extremity of script writing that is The Fast and the Furious.

Shared experiences

It looks like this time it really is over for Marcus Gronholm in the World Rally Championship.
He started the Irish rally with the daunting proposition of having to keep up with Loeb on the Frenchman's favorite surface, but on day one the Finnish driver simply loses traction on the wet roads and hits a wall sideways, completely destroying the car and even knocking him unconscious. Luckily both Gronholm and co-driver Rautiainen were uninjured after being looked over in a hospital, but this gives Loeb a ten point advantage that only a retirement on his part will lose, and after he sacrificed that benefit in Japan we can't expect him to make the same mistake again.
Subaru once again fall out of favor as Atkinson, Pons, and Irish privateer Meeke all familiarize their Imprezas with the bushes, with Henning Solberg and his Focus the last victims of the day.
My favorite, Mikko Hirvonen once again proves how incredibly awesome he is: Both Citroen drivers Loeb and Sordo overshoot a corner due to a small muddy bump before it, with Hirvonen coming up behind them not long later and doing exactly the same thing. The difference being that as the Citroen drivers hit the breaks and reverse back onto the track, Hirvonen keeps his foot down and speeds to the junction just down the road, spectators think he's out of control and scatter in every direction, but they underestimate the flying Finn as he does a handbrake turn in the extra room, actually smiling and giving the crowd a wink before dashing off back onto the track. Absolute legend.

Last night was spent bowling in Stevenage with the boisterous Bertie, the delightful Cassie, the sultry Chrissie, and the fantastically lascivious Nicola. It was an enjoyable outing that highlighted the fact that Wii sports does not improve your proficiency in real life activities.
I also reinforced my domination on the brilliant arcade racer Outrun 2, which will now no doubt be played upon every trip to Stevenage.

Packing at work today wasn't too bad, it's more engaging and physically demanding than picking, but I still don't appreciate getting home at 1730.
The highlight of the day was seeing an S14 drive past me just outside the warehouse, my jaw dropped and I could only stare enviously as it turned off to park nearby. Tomorrow I'm going to get there a little early and see if I can talk to the driver, and maybe even blag a ride.

Everything is permissible

Despite Super Mario Galaxy receiving nothing but rave reviews I have been spending most of my time playing Assassin's Creed, killing the enemies of peace in the name of Allah most definitely entertains me.
While the game almost entirely takes place during the Third Crusade amongst the cities of Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus, the game is actually based in the near future. The story revolves around genetic memory, which is the concept that our instincts are passed on genetically, AC takes it in a more literal sense that we could actually carry our ancestors memories in our genes. Desmond -the 'main' character- uses a machine which allows him to tap into these memories and take control of Altair, an Islamic member of the Hashshashin sect, which are known as the original assassins. The story has come as a surprisingly deep drama with a lot of depth if you care to seek it out, which appeases my interest in both science fiction, and Islam and the Arab states.
The games main selling point is often seen as the parkour style of navigation, Altair has the ability to grab onto any ledge that protrudes more than three inches, and in the richly designed cities of the holy land this skill is well used. Combat plays a mostly secondary part, you quickly gain the ability to get instant kills if you time your attack right, while this may seem like it makes it too easy it still remains a bit of a challenge and just about manages to keep combat from becoming a tedious chore.
I can see why many people are not particularly thrilled by the game as many of the optional objectives become extremely repetitive, but even in these I have yet to find an annoyance, and for the rest of the game I would happily endure them even if I did.

As for Mario, I am only 9 stars in out of the 120 (only 60 required to complete the story) and have only truly found it all that enjoyable once, in the most recent level which provided a distinct challenge. Up to that point I had found the linearity of the level designs almost boring as I went through the motions with distressing ease, I can only hope that these levels are supposed to be training sections and that it soon becomes a real test of dexterity. And unless it markedly improves I think I will be one of the extremely few people alive to prefer Super Mario Sunshine to Galaxy.

Not over yet

I was told at work today that I will be moving from picking to packing on the 0830 to 1730 shift next week, which hinders my chances of seeing people after work even more than it already was. Absolutely fantastic news to add to the list.

I returned home -however- to have my spirits lifted slightly by the sight of the rally tickets having arrived, putting a very real edge on the exciting event which is now only two weeks away.
I have also received an email informing me that both Super Mario Galaxy and Assassin's Creed have been dispatched from ShopTo.com, set to arrive tomorrow, both are highly rated games which I should hopefully be able to lose myself in for a while.

face-palm

Well things most definitely did not go as planned.
Saturday in old Stevenage was alright, if a little uneventful, but my plans for Sunday which I was extremely looking forward to were canceled at the last minute.
It's not so bad though, I've got something even better lined up after work on Monday at 5. I go to bed Sunday night to have my Mum walk into my room and tell me not to forget about my long-ass, expensive-ass dentist appointment the next day at five o'-freaking-clock that I haven't heard about for months, great, that absolutely ruins all that then.
And then I get home from work at 4:15 to have my Mum tell me that they called up and said that they want me to go in at 4:30, well they can piss off, I'm paying a lot of money and have called off a very god damn important meeting for this appointment, the least they could do is have it on time. So I sit here now typing this as I burn time until my appointment at 5.

Update: Turns out my front two teeth are going to fall out of my head and that I need to give people more money for more painful treatment to delay that event.
Fuck this shit.

The Emperor protects

It has been a while since my last post, not to say that I haven't had anything to write about, I just haven't really had enough energy after work. Things have been looking up though, without going into too much detail a rather important phone call a few days ago dismissed a lot of my very paranoid worries, and a party at Bertie's place last night introduced some very cool characters. I've got a lot more planned for the next few days, so things should prove to be quite fun.

Alpha Dog was the film of the week, telling the true story of the kidnapping and murder of Nicholas Markowitz and the involvement of Jessee James Hollywood. This is an absolutely amazing film, very gritty and pulls no punches with an impressive performance from Justin Timberlake. I highly recommend it.

I've started watching the anime Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, which is a comedy about a ridiculously pessimistic teacher and his variously insane female students, all of which have fallen in love with him for each of their own deluded reasons.
It reminds me of Fruits Basket in the way it holds its own style of humour, and in that while most of it is rather standard laughs, which certainly isn't a bad thing, every now and then they'll pull out something really hilarious. Definitely a good title.

I've decided to dive into Dan Abnett's Double Eagle while I wait for The Book Depository to get his latest Gaunt's Ghost novel, Only in Death, in stock. It's good to be back in the 41st century and among devout Imperials once again, of course with Abnett's absolutely brilliant lexis it proves to be an expectedly excellent book.

Leads to engine damage

It turns out work isn't as distracting as I would've hoped, as I get quite an abundance of time to myself my mind is free to wander, which is not presently enjoyable.

Other distractions have been plentiful however, last night I went out to let off some fireworks in a park behind someone's house, the owner of which was nice enough to cook us burgers and give us choc ices afterwards. There were nine of us in all, including some absolute legends that I haven't seen in far too long, so it was a very profitable trip. The only downside was that I didn't get back 'till about midnight, not giving me much sleep before having to get up at 6 for work this morning, leaving me rather tired as I type this.

I've been spending my breaks at work avidly reading Redline magazine, and now that I'm entering the world of full time work I think it just might be worth a subscription. But I'll wait until I've read Sport Compact Car and have a full time job before I do that.
Redline has introduced to me an excellent looking event for next year in the form of Trax, spoke of as the ultimate automotive one day event in the UK, featuring track races, drag, drift, thousands of cars on display and a massive trade area, I'll definitely have to take the gang along to Silverstone for this.
Another slightly more epic event that I'll be teaming up with Paul for as Bertie and Andrew join forces, is Stales To Naples, a rally which navigates Europe exactly as the name suggests. The only catch is that you have to do it in a car worth less than £100, so full on banger derby hilarity is assured. My brother even says he'll be entering, so it is truly lined up to be an absolutely monumental trip, assuming the duct tape, super glue, and Paul's epic mechanic skills manage to hold things together until the finish line.

An unwelcome distraction comes in the form of Redline the film, and I can easily say that this is one of the worst movies I have ever had the misfortune to witness in my entire life. I am currently too tired to waste my time going into how unbelievably atrocious this film is, but I assure you that as good as the trailer may look, it is diabolical. I am positive the sole reason that the script is such a piece of toilet paper and the actors are dressed up homeless people is because they blew the entire budget on all the incredible cars the screen is intermittently bathed in. I'm almost tempted to recommend this film just so that everyone that reads this is entirely clear on how deadly serious I am, watching this film is like watching the imagination of a bored nine year old in high definition.

I like the tuna here

I've got a long week of work lined up, 7 to 4, Monday to Friday. I can't say I'm exactly looking forwards to it, but at least it will keep me distracted from a certain cripplingly depressing subject that has been on and off my mind for the last month.

Another welcome distraction would be some god damned driving lessons, if I ever get insured on my Dad's Focus, which I have pretty much come to accept that I won't.
I've certainly spent this weekend absorbing myself in all automotive related media, sitting on /o/, watching interviews with rally drivers on youtube, revising my theory and doing some research on Wikipedia, like finding out what the hell a misfiring system does.
I'm even trying to find a good magazine to get into. I've bought a copy of Max Power, and as ridiculously chavvy as it may seem it has definitely risen in quality since I last saw it, but I pretty much know without even reading it that I won't be continuing with it. Redline has very much impressed me, and I managed to grab the local WH Smith's sole copy. The most highly recommended title has been Sport Compact Car, yet while it absolutely looks the best it has proven extremely difficult to get hold of, my hunt will continue however.
Paul has also decided that his wheels are fit to go to Wales, so tickets have been ordered and we are ready to go.

Yesterday I watched the film Night At The Museum, which was only marginally better than I thought it would be, but I was expecting it to be alright so it's all good. Quite surprisingly it had absolutely loads of well known actors, including a cameo by the legendary Charlie Murphy! Enjoyable stuff.

I also finished Horus Rising last night, an excellent book from an excellent author. I don't know what I'll be reading next, although I'm not really in a mood to read anything tonight so I'll probably think about it tomorrow.

I begun composing todays entry just as I returned from the local aerodrome, at which we mourned Guy Fawkes failed attempt at destroying the Houses of Parliament. Burgers and hot dogs were consumed, fireworks were viewed, and a bonfire was withstood, the flames from which were so fierce they gave me a newfound respect for firefighters.

In motion

I started working at a warehouse today, the work's not thrilling but it pays the bills, as they say. The people aren't bad either, there's a couple of disagreeable people but everyone seems more than happy to be cool, and most importantly the management is an especially friendly bunch. The group of what looked like typical British lads working on packing even turned out to be WoW addicts (because no one plays WoW casually), unfortunately they're Horde scum so I had nothing to say to them. One of the other pickers looks exactly like Tom Sizemore, another like Olivia Colman, and another is a rather attractive Eastern European female type. Among other workplace stereotypes I think they're all quite a merry bunch that should provide some entertainment during my employment.
As mundane as the work is I can't complain, a warehouse position is what I've been looking for, and being left to get on with my job all day with no one on my case asking me if we've got any fething Wiis in stock was a rather nice experience. We're also allowed to wear whatever we want, the radio's on in the warehouse all day or we can listen to MP3 players, it's a very relaxed environment.
At one point I was slowly walking along through the rows of boxes, hunched over my trolley, it made me feel like that dude in the government warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is awesome. Later when listening to my iPod Sweetness by Jimmy Eat World started playing, and it quickly reminded me of what I'm working for.

Paul also passed his driving test today, with only four minors.
Now only clutch and accommodation problems hinder our attendance of the epic event that will be Wales Rally 2007.

Whatever happens, happens

Just as promised the rally has provided yet more excitement. Latvala and Pons are added to the list of victims as they both take small yet deadly offs on the blind and slippery corners of day two, but more dramatically than their misfortune is the absolutely shocking end of Sébastien Loeb's run due to an extremely rare mistake by his co-driver. Japan really does take no prisoners as the point scoring positions are filled with what would usually be drivers at the bottom of the table, and with Loeb's retirement this year's title of World Rally Champion is completely open for the taking, the next two stages in Ireland and Wales are anyone's game, and this madness is simply off the chain.

I finished watching Cowboy Bebop again today, and it easily reaffirmed its place as one of my favorite anime titles of all time, with Ghost in the Shell and Samurai Champloo making the top three. The art is fantastic, the direction is brilliant, the characters awesome, the stories outstanding, and just like GitS and SamChamp the soundtrack is simply amazing. I definitely have to buy the collections of both of them to go with my Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex box set.

In trying out something new I've taken a look at Texhnolyze and Planetes.
The former has turned out to be a mind numbingly boring series, trying too hard to be dark and mysterious with uninteresting characters, cheap art and animation, and so far a dire story, BALEETED.
The latter, on the other hand, is quite good. It provides a satisfying cast of characters, excellent animation and from what I have seen an interesting story, all with incredible attention to detail, realism and accuracy. I have also acquired the series at DVD quality, quite a rare occurrence which nicely adds to the enjoyment.

Five of the seven books I ordered have arrived, the previously mentioned Double Eagle among them, and the other novel in the pack being Count Zero, William Gibson's cyberpunk sequel to Neuromancer.
Three of the five manga titles I've been expecting also made it, volume 5 of Initial D thankfully included, as that's the first book I've been intending to read, while volume 6 is absent along with volume 3 of Genshiken. Volume 2 of Rozen Maiden and volume 5 of Lament of the Lamb completing the order.

Over and out

Day one of the Japanese World Rally stage has proven to be an absolutely incredible event.
Things were set up to be tense between the leading Gronholm and Champion Loeb as Japan provided the closest finish of 2006 with Loeb beating Gronholm by 5.6 seconds, while the last gravel event of this season in New Zealand gave us the closest World Rally Championship finish in history with Gronholm claiming victory over Loeb with just 0.3 seconds to spare.
But things aren't going to be that simple, on day one Gronholm has shockingly gone off and taken big impact damage to the side of his Focus, having to retire with the roll cage deemed too badly damaged for him to continue, giving Loeb exactly the sort of lead he needs.
Fortunately Hirvonen has unleashed the beast once again and finishes with a 10 second advantage, which will thankfully steal two points from Loeb if he can hold it until the end.
The rising star in Latvala also gave a display of his skills by taking an early lead, but by the end of the day drops to third, three seconds behind Loeb. While Loeb is known for his consistency Latvala has posted some fastest stage times, so hopefully he will pull his way back into second before the end of the rally, anything to give Gronholm a bit more of a chance.
Hokkaido proves its courses to be extremely treacherous as Gronholm is not the only victim on the first day, both Petter and Henning Solberg take almost fatal offs on the same crest, with Hirvonen and Latvala barely surviving exactly the same mistake.
Subaru will have disappointed its fans in its home country, with its two main drivers already out of the game, Petter having retired with gearbox problems, and Atkinson tearing the roof off his car as he loses control and spins off for a second time.
With so many early retirements of such key names spaces have been made for drivers lower down the ladder to come into the point scoring positions, such as Stohl, Pons and Companc, leaving Hirvonen as almost the sole character with a real chance of holding off Loeb, in which I will be supporting him all the way. And as the first day ends with heavy rain it looks like the action isn't over by a long shot.
While the burning rivalry between Loeb and Gronholm has been damaged, the long sweeping gravel and dirt stages of New Zealand and Japan have ultimately proven what spectacular competition the surface type and course style provides, and with Wales spoken of as the same design it has only made me more excited about the end of November.

Today's genre is...

Thursday was a day of films.
Hot Fuzz proved to be much better than the trailers would suggest, providing another pleasingly humorous performance from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, a highly recommended comedy.
Later that night I sat back for Sunshine, which kept me entertained largely because I absolutely love the space borne sci-fi genre, but the rather disappointing plot direction of throwing in a crazed killer when they were already in a situation that could have provided more than enough excitement let it down severely. None of that was aided by the constantly ridiculous scientific inaccuracies, and while one would argue that it is science fiction, there are still rules you must play by, as all respectable sci-fi media will either take the line of completely creating its own world of scientific rules and laws, much like the 40k Black Library novels, or stick to hard science fiction and only explore within theoretically possible scenarios. Danny Boyle seems to think he has Hollywood's golden thumbs up of approval to do whatever the hell he wants and make science his bitch, unfortunately he does not, and this only leads to bad film making.

In my search for another anime title to keep me occupied as I wait for Black Order's infrequent Gurren Lagann releases I decide to give the ever so popular Fate/Stay Night a try, but unfortunately the fantasy format takes exactly the same turn as Shakugan no Shana and quickly wears out my patience. There are two facets to these type of fantasy titles, magical combat and character relations, the latter rarely ventures any deeper than the most basic of introductions and provides nothing in the way of substantiality, and the former almost unfailingly manages to make itself a poorly animated chore to sit though.
I've got a couple of titles more along the lines of my preferred genres downloading, so hopefully they're safe bets that will secure me some enjoyable viewing.

Recruit may finally be the first job agency to actually come through for me, as things are going it looks like I might be lucky enough to get thrown a few shifts here and there over the Christmas period doing some menial labour for some suits and ties organization or another.
Not permanent, but money's money.

Guns in every medium

I've been watching quite a few films recently, all thanks to aXXo.

The night before last featured Die Hard 4, otherwise known as Live Free or Die Hard, running me through exactly the sort of mindless action film you'd expect to cash in on the Die Hard name. Of course if you excluded the name John McClane the film had absolutely no relation to any of the previous Die Hard titles, replacing all of the directional and plot styles that fans had come to love in the series for all the high budget blasts rolled out in every cash cow, seen in the fact it was directed by Len Wiseman whose only other notable direction is Underworld.
The fact isn't necessarily that the film is trite and unoriginal, utterly relying on big spectacular special effects, but that it's trite and unoriginal as a 21st century action film. The original Die Hard's plot was lead by absolutely stereotypical German terrorists, but that was the style at the time and is what is now associated with the Die Hard series. That is almost 20 years old now and is a type of film we will never see again, so I think it would have been better for everyone if they had left the Die Hard series as it was, changed a few of the main characters names and released Die Hard '4.0' as an entirely original film with us -the viewing public- none the wiser.
That having been said, despite the ridiculously increasing levels of absurdity throughout the film it was an enjoyable experience, but not one I am planning on revisiting any time soon.

Last night's movie was Smokin' Aces, another shoot 'em up that quite surprisingly managed to deliver something original.
The story is laid out as multiple groups of professional killers all move in to take out Buddy 'Aces' Israel simultaneously, providing a very attractive premise. Although the film will never completely sit well with me as it is lead by Jeremy Piven, Ben Affleck and Ray Liotta, three actors I really have to exert effort to tolerate. Yet at the same time Alicia Keys contributes a very entertaining performance, not often seen from such musician trying their hand at acting.
As expected the film leads up to a very large twist, quite predictably, yet not not disappointingly as the film pulls no punches. Plenty of main characters on both the good and the bad side die from quite early on in the film, and things do not end happily ever after.
My only real complaint would be that the film feels quite sparse, as the first half builds it up to be the most epic confrontation of professional murderers in the history of time, yet when the bullets start to fly things go sour and end all too soon, leaving you to feel like you've just been cheated out of all the real action.
That aside, the film is an entertaining number, and if it wasn't for the relatively unspectacular script and forgettable action scenes I'm sure it could have been a film that would've been remembered.

On the otaku front I have started watching Cowboy Bebop again, as I believe I have shamefully only seen the entire series once, and in doing so I have truly been reminded of how absolutely excellent this anime is, and of how freakin' spectacular the music is. Definitely one of my favorite titles, really awesome stuff.

By night I have been reading the brilliant Horus Rising, which has clearly reminded me of why Dan Abnett is my favorite author, his writing is simply spectacular and so incredibly skilled it has motivated me to buy Double Eagle, a stand alone novel set in the Sabbat Worlds Crusade and based on a chapter about a bomber squadron in the Gaunt's Ghosts book, The Guns of Tanith.
But I don't think I'll be reading it particularly soon, as the latest Gaunt's Ghosts novel Only in Death is due for release next month, which I will hopefully be able to buy in London's Forbidden Planet at an Abnett book signing.
I hope Double Eagle arrives soon though, as I ordered a handful of other books with it and am quite eager to get my read on.

See you, space cowboy...

The weekend is over, everyone has gone home, and I can't wait for a good night of catchin' Z's. Sleep deprivation aside, it was a lot of fun.
The Saturday at the MCM expo was quite different from last time, with the most notable addition being the hour long queue for a ticket, the MCM staff seemingly unable to summon more than the barest of recourses to man the ticket booth. But it wasn't such a tragic wait and once we were in things progressed as you'd expect, wandering around aimlessly dodging cosplayers as we check out the goods. The whole experience was significantly less exciting than last time, probably because we all knew exactly what to expect, and the repetition of some kids marauding around shouting "Free hugs!" did begin to irritate.
As much as the popularity of anime and manga is growing in the UK far too much of it centers purely on Naruto and Bleach, and as enjoyable as both the titles are too many of their die hard fans dedicate themselves to them and ignore all of the many superior anime and manga titles available, which is a shame for them and an annoyance for me. I did see a reasonable amount of people wearing Laughing Man related products, but as most of these people were in the more mature looking types in the age range of 20 to 35 years old, and the vast majority of the hardcore Naruto and Bleach fans are in their teens, you can guess which is going to get shoved in my face at every corner. I'm not really bitter about it or anything, I just wish there was a little more 'proper' anime at MCM, I guess I'm thankful for the ever increasing popularity of titles such as Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star and Gurren Lagann, introducing the scope of possibility and the breadth of variety to many of these people.
Anyway, that isn't to say I didn't enjoy the experience, the weather was great and we were all there so it was lulz tiems for all. And thankfully I didn't spend a huge amount of money this time round, with the entire day costing me £45. The only item I bought was the extremely well made Revoltech EVA-02 for a bargain £10, in the future if they make Rei's blue unit 00 to go with Asuka's 02 I'll definitely buy it for a pair.
After MCM we were off to Leicester Square for the mandatory meal at Wagamama, as always featuring the delicious and expertly prepared chicken katsu curry for me. I thought after that things were going to start winding down, but I was wrong.
We had left the restaurant and were heading back through the square towards the train station when we saw a large group of people walking along with an assortment of drums centered around a man with an amp on his back, a microphone attached to his head and a ukulele in his hands. People flooded to join them and we ran over to do the same, the mini-carnival was being lead by a group of Hindus reciting the Hare Krishna mantra and things were getting religiously off the chain. I was glad to see Haku totally had my back as we got in the thick of the dancing and chanting, completely forgetting about going home we followed the group around partying for a good long while, and the night was absolutely revitalized.

The rest of the weekend was spent watching anime and playing games, I gave Colin, Haku and Neil a proper introduction to Lucky Star, Gurren Lagann and My Otome, but most of the time was spent revisiting Naruto 3, Mashed and Puzzle Fighter.
We played Naruto 3 enough for me to finally unlock Itachi the final character, just in time for the new Naruto: Rise of a Ninja, which -soon to be released on the 360- had playable demos at MCM. While it is an attractive game that holds a lot of potential it had one fatal flaw in freezing for a split second on every hit, which is going to be sure to drive everyone insane and absolutely slaughter playability. I pray it is removed from the retail version, but so close to launch I realize that is basically an impossibility.
I was also able to hone my skills on Puzzle Fighter after playing opponents of a similar aptitude, almost all the challengers I have met online have been ridiculously skilled and have absolutely smashed me. So now I've learnt some tricks I might hope to withstand worldwide adversaries once again, and for the rest of the time I'll have Neil to play online, who has been converted unto the puzzling sensation.

Otherwise, back to the same old job hunting for me.
Although I may spend some of the money I've saved on a few manga tankobon...

Going with the flow

Slow news week has been slow.

Black Order has finally released the first episode of the second arc of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, which filled me with a feeling of joy before quickly being replaced by despair, because not only is their website down but their Gurren Lagann torrents have been removed from a hosting site as it is now being listed as licenced outside of Japan. I just hope that's the problem of the hosting site, and that Black Order continue to work on and release their GL subs.

The Rally has been absolutely brilliant throughout the last two stages in Catalunya and Corsica, the former very much favoring Loeb with its almost track like tarmac stages and the latter being his home ground in France, securing victories in both the flying Frenchman manages to cut Gronholm's lead from ten to four points. The way things are going the final stage in Wales looks like it could be the most exciting the World Rally Championship has seen for a long time, which of course has got me very excited about going to see at the end of next month, with all prayers on Paul passing his driving test in a couple of weeks time.
The thing is, I have complete faith that he has the ability to pass it, there's just all this politics crap with driving instructors having to fail X amount of people a year and marking people down for faults when they otherwise wouldn't, I really hope he isn't caught out just because of that.
Either way, the Japanese stage is next weekend, so I've got that to look forward to for now.

I finally got round to watching 300 last night, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Although I can't help but feel as if the actual plot was implemented in a very simplistic manner, as if to keep it as accessible as possible to the main audience it is going to attract. But thinking about it, I'd much rather it was like that than Troy, which had such horrific contrast between the combat and the 'drama' that it was almost unwatchable.
Great film anyway, excellent battles and plenty of quotes that will be reiterated on the field of combat for years to come.

In the mundanity of trying to keep myself occupied I have thankfully been shown a /b/ story by the name of Blindmute Loli, the heart breaking drama of a 19 year old guy and his quest to adopt an orphaned blind and mute little girl he finds on the street. I even had tears in my eyes at one point, it is truly an epic tale and a great (if addictive) way to pass the time when you're bored in those early hours.
Update: This is truly the most amazing story I have ever read, I'm close to getting up to date and the phrase 'stranger than fiction' seems to be made for these people, it has the most incredible turn of events that sends you on such an emotional roller coaster, truly an epic read for anyone with the patience to sit through it all.

I still do not have a job.

I post this now as I most definitely will not post again until Monday, Neil and Colin are set to arrive late tomorrow, and we'll be meeting up with Haku, Paul and Swifty on Saturday for much lulz at the MCM expo over the weekend, with absolutely epic raves guaranteed in between.
It's gonna be fun, and I'll be sure to have loads of pictures to post.