Friday, April 29, 2005
Busy times...

"When you're feeling down and your resistance is low, light another cigarette and let yourself go."

Thus spoke Freddy Mercury. Damn right he was too. Apart from I'm not feeling particularly down, and I don't smoke. But otherwise, it's sage advice from the greatman himself.

I've been very busy recently, for once. In fact the only reason I'm writing this now is because I had to stop playing Resident Evil 4 because the twat next door had obviously gone to bed and was sick of the noise coming from my room. Bed! At 12.30 on a friday night! Talk about wild students eh? Can't blame him for banging on the wall though - I had the sound cranked up to 11 and god knows what it must have sounded like to him. Ghostly chanting, maniacal screams and the BOOM of a fat-ass shotgun pumping lead. He must have thought I had got all the monks from the local monastery and was shooting them one by one. Poor lad, he must have been in a right state.

But anyway, Resi Evil 4 rocks hard. Probably the most atmospheric game I've ever played. Why do shotguns never get old? You can have all the high-tech weapons in the world and yet nothing gives you a kick as much as pumping some blood-drenched monk full of lead. 'Ave it! BOOM.

The bloke next door just switched his light off! I heard the switch go! He hadn't gone to bed at all! He stopped my resi evil fun for no reason! Or actually, maybe he was watching his videos of My Little Pony and the sound of my shotgun was drowning out the cutesy music from his tv.

Spent 2 hours on Wednesday trekking about Manchester trying to find this bloody house where we were going to do some filming.Staggering around inSalford is bad enough at the best of times, but weighed down by camera gear (tripod et all) was knackering. Got blister on foot too :(

Applied for jobwith Games Workshop. Needed todo a writing excersise for them and had to get hold of the latestWarhammer 40,000 rulebook. Thought it would be £15, but it was £30. I've never grit my teeth so hard when I've bought something. The fact that I probably won't get the job didn't help, nor did the fact that I spent £25 the day before on DVDs when I really should not have done. £55 in two days. Eeek. Only have about £30 left in bank... :(

But who cares when you've got Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Goonies and King Arthur on DVD for £25! Huh? HUH? Damn right.CCBB is just a classic film, and The Goonies is the best adventure film ever made. C-L-A-S-S-I-C. Got KingArthur to complete the dealcos I saw it atcinema and it was pretty good. Watched itearlier, and it was still pretty good. Though what the hell were they thinking with the Saxon leader?! He's gotthe most blatant American accent ever! The whole film is a bit patchy in terms of accents to be honest.The Saxon leader sounded American, his son spoke with a bizarre European accent with American undertones, while some of the other saxons sounded as British as fish and chips. Hmm. Probably the worst of all is Keira Knightley's Guinevere. She's meant to be a Wode for crying out loud, yet she has the most posh English accent ever. You almost half-expect her to shoot off an arrow and then turn and say "Cup of tea, darling? Earl Grey or Darjeeling?" Still, good stuff overall.

Footie tomorrow, bring it on! Awin at Bolton and the league is the bag! It'll be a draw though I think, but no probs - we can wait another week. :)

Hmmm, this is a bit long really isn't it? Oh well. Will do some writing tomorrow. Probably. Possibly. Maybe.

Posted by James L 2005-04-29 20:57:36

Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Eye of the Dragon

Eye of the Dragon. No, not not the dodgy song Eye of the Tiger which was repeatedly played at 4 in the morning by some twat at uni in the first year, but Eye of the Dragon. This is the name of the first new Fighting fantasy book to be published for about 8 years or so. I'm already mentioned by obsession with Fighting fantasy in an earlier blog, but I have to say I was almost delirious that after a long gap, Wizard Books (who have picked up the rights and have re-published several of the original titles) have now published a brand-new adventure by the master and co-founder of Fighting Fantasy himself, Ian Livingstone.

I bought the book on Monday and it was like seeing an old friend and then realizing why on earth you hadn't stayed in contact and visited more often. Here it was; the wild, rugged land of Allansia once more made flesh before my eyes. I've not had a chance to check out the adventure itself but the illustrations are done by Martin Mckenna (in my opinion the defining artist for the Fighting Fantasy series - some of his work in the original books is simply stunning) and once again he has delivered some brilliant, atmospheric pictures. Seeing a picture of Yaztromo the old wizard really brings back the memories. Can't wait to play this new adventure, but I have no dice dammit! In the meantime, more please Wizard. Get Steve Jackson to do a new adventure too and really get the series going again (not that Wizard haven't done a brilliant job of that already).

Fighting Fantasy aside, I bought an ipod mini with my birthday money back in March. Well actually my girlfriend bought it and I owe her the money...which I now no longer have. Oops. The ipod is great for someone like me who cannot work/walk/play/sleep without having a pair of earphones clamped to his ears and cannot be assed to keep changing mini discs all the time. So far I've got about 880 songs on it and it quite possibly the best thing I've bought in ages. :) I've also rediscovered Meatloaf - I liked him when I was about 13/14 and since getting his 'Best of' album I've realised that he is the daddy. Great voice. Credit to Jim Steinman though too - the guy single-handedly wrote, recorded and produced both Bat out of Hell albums and that is an awesome achievement. The guy has got some serious talent.

I finally got to work on my film synopsis due in for Friday. Burned off 1000 words in about 90 minutes - WHO IS THE DADDY? Well, Meatloaf obviously. And Ian Livingstone. And whoever at Wizard Books who thought "Hmm, Fighting Fantasy was fun, let's buy the rights and start it up again!" YES. YES. Thank you God.

Sorry folks, rambling mode has taken over. I've recently enjoyed an excellent run on Warcraft III - I've won about 15 of my last 20 games, pwning n00bs from all corners of Europe! :)

As for the game tonight, I'm looking forward to seeing Chelsea give Bayern Munich a good thumping on their own soil. They need to win 2-0 or 3-1 and we have not lost by more than one goal all season. Plus they have to stop us scoring and that ain't gonna happen. :)

Bring it on. :)

PS - no writing of novel done. :(

Posted by James L 2005-04-12 11:43:30

Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Time for another blagging exercise...

Yep. Film synopsis due in next friday. As usual I had (until very recently) no idea what on earth I was meant to write about. Or how to do it. Note to self: you may think avoiding the library like the plague and not paying attention in seminars are clever things to do, but when it's essay time, they ain't. Still, I've got my blagging cap on and I've already figured out how I'm gonna blag this little mother so things should be ok. Things always work out ok. :)

On the writing front, things are really bad. Not done any for ages and the guilt is bad. :( It is so freakin' hard to get back into the habit when you break out of it.

Still, seeing 4-times champions of Europe Bayern Munich given what was so nearly a total humbling at the hands of Chelsea, made up for my feelings of writing-avoidance guilt. But dammit, Ballack you muppet - why spoil everything by going down more quickly than a desperate hoe?! Well, I guess a drowning man will clutch at anything, including diving in the box (when no defenders are within a metre of you) and then gleefully slotting away the penalty. Ref, you muppet - you had a great game and then were fooled by a blatant dive. Tut tut... Still, we'll give 'em a good beating in Germany too and then it'll be Juve in the semifinal.

What else... Went out on Saturday night with the missus and my flatmates. Ended up in a curry house at 4 in the morning...mmmm....

Dammit, I have to start thinking about jobs! In 5 months or so I'm going to need a job! A JOB! The very word is enough to send a chill down the spine of anyone like me who has spent the last 4 years mistakenly thinking they have plenty of time before having to worry about big, grown-up things like that. :(

Picked up "Jaws" the book. I love the film and allegedly the book is brilliant so shall read that once I'm done with Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. Credit to the guy; he's taken a hell of a lot of flack, and sure maybe he isn't the best writer in the world, but who cares? His books are fast-paced and pretty riveting. The guy is a master at tension and plotting. Angels and Demons I feel is better than The Da Vinci Code (which to be quite frank had some stupid characters - an upper class English gentleman that liked football?! Such beings do not even exist!)

I wish I was Dan Brown. Well actually, no I wouldn't want to be him. I'd like his money though. Mmmm, money.... Nah, stuff it. I don't need Brown's money. Not when I have my huge profits from Bunny's Boutique. Well, they ain't huge but £100 last month sure helped out for the old beer fund. :P

Posted by James L 2005-04-06 19:51:26

Monday, March 28, 2005
An update from the void....

So....a long-overdue blog entry. This probably isn't the best time to write a new entry, given that I'm knackered and it's4 in the morning. Still, it's nice to listen to the birds chirping outside my window and the moonlight glistening on the pond outside my window. :)

So...what's new? Well, I've been mega-busy getting my ebay company up and running. Well, it's not strictly a company - more like a partnership. I look after the promotion, selling and packaging/posting and my cuddly toy bunny basically tells me to work faster. I don't argue with him - he is the face of our little venture, which goes by the name of Bunny's Boutique. It all sounds rather stupid really, but the fact is I'm pulling in a very tidy return on all the items I sell - namely belts, brooches and necklaces. :)

Such success comes with a price however; namely being forced by my toy bunny to stay up until 3 designing flyers. Still, it's for the greater good.

Money-making aside, I went home with my lovely girlfriend for my birthday and spent those few days messing around my brother's camera. Needless to say, many 20-second films were made, mostly involving me acting like a total freak :) or our collection of cuddly toy frogs prancing about to a tuneful hummed rendition of "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" by Offspring. Yep, we really are that weird in the south of England. :) Its the rolling green hills - such tranquility goes to your head. :)

Ate 2 Easter Eggs yesterday...did not feel good afterwards. I've still got a large Lindt chocolate bunny on my desk. Mmm, chocolate bunny....

Have stupid film synopsis to write for my film course and I have no idea at all how the hell I am meant to do it or what I am supposed to write about. Great. Still, it's a minor blag compared to the mighty blag I pulled off that was my 6,000 word essay on Roman aqueducts. BONZA!

Ok, I'm really tired now. Time to sleep. :)

Posted by James L 2005-03-28 21:51:47

Tuesday, March 8, 2005
Leaders

I've always been intrigued and interested in leaders. Men (and women) who stood head and shoulders above the rest of the common rabble of the human race and lead by example. People like Henry V with his inspirational speech before Agincourt, Winston Churchill with his his own brand of British resilience and Sparticus, who fashioned an armyout of farmers and defeated three Roman armies. These men whose courage, bravery and strength inspired those around them. OptimusPrime as well, for his heroic leadership in the Autobot's wars against theevil Decepticons. :)

Tonight I saw another leader set an example to those that followed him. Picture the scene - Chelsea leading Barcelona 3-2 in the Champions League2nd Round, butthe score is4-4 on aggregate and Barcelona are goingto win the tie on the away goals rule. There are fifteen minutes left. The crowd are urging the team on, but legs are tiring,passing is becoming sloppy and the players seem dejected.

Such a situation is a time for a true, born leaderto take the initiative andturn things around by his own will alone. And that is exactly what happened. With 15 minutes left and Chelsea desperately needing a goal, they won a corner. The ballwasfloated into the box but curled away from the goal...then John Terry, Chelsea captain and local lad, leapt into the air and planted a firm header that sent the ball into the back of the net.

42, 000 fans in the stadium go ballistic.Countless thousands procede to do the same all over the world. When Chelsea needed their captain the most, he answered the call. When no one else seemed to have the will, John Terry stepped up and took control to create the most magic moment I've seen in football for a long time. Well, since Wayne Bridge rifled a shot into the Arsenal net in the quarter finals last season in the last minutes to giveus a win no one thought we could get.

Magic.This is what sport is all about - what it should be about. And the leaders are thepeople that make this magic happen.

Posted by James L 2005-03-08 17:38:18