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It's good to have numerous interests, or so I think I would probably hear people say, if I listened to them more. I'm not sure I'd believe them though. There can be such a thing as too many interests... or maybe it's not so much interests, but my being interested by many things, which I never stick at long enough to develop into full blown interests.
I see something, I think, hey, that looks cool... and then I dive into it for... however long it is it takes me to spot something else. I'm like a magpie with ADHD. "Ooh shiny, ooh shiny, ooh shiny." So I never stick at anything long enough to really get good at it. On the plus side it's hard to be bored when you're interested in everything and have stuff just lying around from whichever last adventure you were on that you can pick right up again when caught at a loose end. On the negative side, I never get far enough into anything to really have the knowledge of it stick before I give it up. So every time I return to it it's like I'm starting again from the beginning.
I went back to the Top Cow forums the other day to have a little look around, and I saw some of the artists in the Artist Showcase that I remembered from about 7 years ago. They're damn good now. A little patience, application and effort, and a few years on, just from that little bit of practice every day, they're pro quality some of them. Hell, for all I know they might even be pros. No, not hookers, professionals, as in professional artists.
I think this language learning thing might just be something I'll stick at though. If for no other reason than I'm lousy at it, but still like it, and keep on going... and every time I hear or read something I understand I still get a little buzz of victory from it.
The biggest trouble I seem to have with that is that I keep on starting new languages before I’ve finished the old ones. Not that you can ever really “finish” a language you understand, but what I mean is I move on to the next before I am fluent enough to handle native materials without dictionaries or other help. That’s the level I need to be at before exposure will take care of all my learning needs. Sure, exposure itself might get me there, but exposure is tough when you only understand maybe 20% of what is going on. It tends to discourage me after a fashion. However, if the material is fresh enough or interesting enough, I can watch it many times without a problem. (“ToraDora” in Japanese for instance.) But I also feel that only exposure to the language on its own is a slower way to go about things. I’m not sure I believe in the brilliance of natural language acquisition when it comes to standard media. I mean, things are laid out differently for kids. Kids don’t just pick up the language by watching TV. They have direct interaction with adults. Feedback. Well, I’m not going to get into all that now. I could write an entire book about that kind of thing, not that anyone would read it because who am I, right? I know this post is called Epic, but it’s not going to be book epic.
Ode to Kirihito by Osamu Tezuka – Marvellous. The art is simple, but effective. The story is like a “House” mystery and a roadtrip movie all rolled into one. It really is a classic. Also, it’s a big thick book so it really feels like value for money in your hands. The story is about a doctor who is sent to investigate the mysterious Monmow disease. Is it contagious, or is it caused by factors in the environment of the place it was first discovered? Not the kind of storyline you’d expect from a modern day manga, right?
Fell: Feral City by Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith – Is about a cop who gets sent to the wrong side of town by his superiors as a kind of punishment. Can one man really do good in a place everyone else has given up on? Typically dark Ellis and I like that, so I liked this.
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson – Those of you who have only seen the movie will still be wondering why that is the title. In the book it’s very clear. I was surprised with how short this book was, but it’s the perfect size for the story it’s telling, and is so short there’s absolutely no excuse for you not to read it. It’s been made into a movie 3 times for a reason. It’s just a damn good story.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – Is another classic that’s a classic for a reason. It’s also another short book. For those of you who don’t yet know what it’s about, it might suffice for you to know that 451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which book paper ignites.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum – It’s like the movie but with less music and more plot stuff.
Wikihistory by Desmond Warzel – Viewable here http://www.abyssandapex.com/200710-wikihistory.html is funny and knowing at the same time. Well worth a read. It’s not long.
Hulk – Great cast, and director, and let’s give them some credit, they tried to make it new and exciting and to go their own way with it. On saying that… didn’t really work did it? Oh well.
The Incredible Hulk – Now that’s more like it.
Medal of Honour: Airborne – Tried to play it, but couldn’t really get past the first level because I just wasn’t enjoying it. Shame, because I played the first Medal of Honour again recently and it was great.
Quarantine – The US remake of the Spanish film “Rec” is very good. People say the original is better, but I don’t see it. They’re essentially the same film in a different language. It’s funny in a few places, but that in no way takes away from the horror aspect of the film. If you don’t like shaky, hand-held camera work, don’t watch it. If that doesn’t bother you, give it a shot.
Apocalypto – I remember this film got a lot of flack when it came out for the violence, but it’s really nothing you haven’t seen before … except maybe the sacrifices, but if you’ve heard of that kind of thing you’ve imagined it anyway. I know historically it’s not all that, but try not to think about that and enjoy it for what it is; an action movie set during the time of the Mayan Empire. Taken as that, it’s a good movie. The whole Mayan language thing takes nothing away if you’re used to watching foreign movies, and if you are, it probably adds to the feel of the whole thing.
Hitman – An action movie.
Taken – An action movie. Like “Man on Fire” but with Liam Neeson.
Run, Fatboy, Run – Run of the mill RomCom.
1408 – Horror. Spooky. I liked it.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – Not what I was expecting. Interesting enough though.
Shanghai Dreams – Is an interesting little Chinese film. It centres around a family that has moved to the countryside because of a Chinese government initiative, but now they want to move back to Shanghai. That’s not really what the story is about. It’s about life in the little country village. The daughter in the family has a boyfriend that her dad disapproves of… and then very little happens until the very end of the movie, where suddenly everything is turned on its head, and then it ends. It was an unusual movie experience for me, but it was a good one.
28 Weeks Later – I was expecting this to be the rehash type of sequel that would offer little to the experience of the first film, but I actually enjoyed it.
Rush Hour 3 – Rush Hour, 3.
Wrong Turn 2 – Not as memorable as the first, but a decent enough watch if you like the hideously inbred hillbilly genre of horror movies.
Bioshock – Its reviews are off the charts, but I couldn’t get into it. I say that after pushing through to about half way through the game in the hopes of seeing what everyone else was seeing, but it just didn’t do it for me.
Mutant Chronicles – Ha ha ha, Mutant Chronicles. You have to know it’s a B-movie if not lower going in and then try to make up your own fun while watching it. If you don’t, I pity you.
Pan’s Labyrinth – This was a very good movie. It had lots of layers to think about, and that lasts past the ending where people still debate the outcome. The visuals are striking too. The story outside the fantasy is as good as the fantastic parts of the story themselves. It’s well worth a watch by everyone.
Wanted – So some of the skills are crazy, but the film looks nice, and I remember having a good time watching it.
Death Race – Action movie about cars… enter Statham. Not great.
Max Payne (movie) – Is another action movie. It lacks action throughout a lot of it, and it’s obviously not as immersive as the game. I seem to remember the storyline being better in the game too though. It’s kind of average as a movie. A few nice visuals, but that’s about it.
Transporter 3 - This is a better comedy than action movie. Especially when you think of the logic behind the plot… which you will be hard pushed to find any of.
Far Cry (game) – Far Cry as a game starts well with you crawling around an island dodging mercenaries and looking for someone… then the monsters come. The fun remains but it changes into a totally different game. It’s good though, and the transition is good enough when it’s compared to what you get in…
Far Cry (movie) – Uwe Boll; need I say more? Actually this was the first Boll movie I’d seen, and I had an idea what to expect going in to it, but I wanted to see for myself the work of the legend. The movie gets to the weird a lot quicker than the game, which is the wrong choice in my opinion. It also starts earlier than the game, which I suppose makes sense from a bog standard movie point of view. It would be risky starting it where the game starts, but I think risky could have done this film some good. There’s poor dialogue, the actors don’t stand a chance, so it’s tough to rate them. Otherwise… Uwe Boll, the legend is true.
Resident Evil 5 (demo) – I only played the demo of this, not the game… and based on the strength of that demo I realised the control system is way too nippy for me to ever play the full game.
Killzone 2 (demo) – Tried this and thought I’d like to play it. But the controls were a problem so I decided I didn’t want to pay full price for it. Maybe I’ll try it again sometime, because it looked interesting enough.
Watchmen (movie) – A good adaptation of the book. Probably as good as you can get without freaking most people out by sticking to the letter of the original ending.
Superbad – I thought it was very funny.
Quantum of Solace – It’s a shame I couldn’t really see the chase scene for all the shaking. The plot is a little… low on the scale of world threats for a Bond movie, but I guess that’s part of the new more realistic direction they’re taking the franchise. Speaking of realistic, how about that hotel at the end huh? Great designers.
Resident Evil: Extinction – Was good until the crazy mystical powers manifested.
The Day the Earth Stood Still – Not awful, not great.
Stranger Than Fiction – I thought this was an excellent movie. Will Ferrell usually goes over the top goofy in his movies, but not in this one. Think of it as his “The Truman Show.”
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans – A prequel. If you’ve seen the ones set in modern times, this isn’t one of those ones. It’s set in the past, but it’s in the same vein as the others.
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut – This is a strange story, about World War II, an alien race called Tralfamadorians and time travelling brains. It’s probably better than I’ve made it sound.
Doomsday – So Scotland is plagued by a deadly virus and then the English, taking their cue from the Romans, build a big wall to keep us out. But, the virus eventually makes its way to England, and then they have to break back into Scotland to find a cure, because they know some people are still alive up here. Let the action commence. I liked this more than I thought I would.
Drag Me to Hell – Speaking of movies that were better than I thought they would be. Now this is a Sam Raimi movie, so I thought it would be fun and quite good, but I was expecting the usual paranormal shenanigans without substance, but no, in this one you get the bang from the beginning, and there’s no is it or isn’t it real… it’s real. Good movie.
Wolverine – If you’ve seen the X-Men films you’ll know what to expect here. It’s a good ride though.
The Dark Knight – Yes, I’m one of the people that thought this film was excellent. And that’s because this film is excellent. Yes, you get to the point where you think the movie is over, but it isn’t. Well, I’m one of the people that actually liked that development… because the movie was excellent, and I wanted more.
Wall•E – Speaking of excellent films, how did this not win the Best Picture Oscar? And not the animated one, the real one. It’s just a wonderful, uplifting, beautiful movie… and it’s a cartoon, about robots.
Seventeen Years – A Chinese film about a girl sentenced to seventeen years in jail for killing her step-sister. When she gets out for the holidays she goes home to see her parents, accompanied by one of the prison guards. It’s a surprisingly moving film. It’s very good.
The Prestige – Another great film from Christopher Nolan. Duelling magicians trying to steal each other’s secrets… a simple enough premise, but a wonderfully rich and full film.
Luxury Car – A Chinese film set in Wuhan, where a father travels to try to find his missing son, with the help of his daughter. The main thing I want to say about this film is that this film gave me a taste of my first recognisable Chinese accent. This is definitely not the best film to try to learn Chinese from. As a film it’s okay.
Kung Fu Hustle – Crazy, and brilliant. I loved it.
Oh, look, the middle part is the worst. Who would have guessed? But at least it’s finally here, right? Right?
Don’t expect to wait this long again. I have no life, and a desire to relearn how to type.
Feeling: like I'm not. Hearing: Bones |
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Last night I sat with a coffee and a blank page, for what seemed like hours. The world transitioned through time and I found myself with cold coffee and a blank page. Things shifted around again and I sat with steaming hot coffee, two Nutella and peanut butter sandwiches (big enough to eat me) and the life sucking hole that is the blank page.
Today I'm back on top of things. My coffee is 2/3 drunk and this page has at least one paragraph on it. I've been reading some self-improvement blogs for a while because as we all know I waste more of my time than I use, and I just wanted to see if there were any tricks I was missing. Turns out it's all pretty basic, and then the posts become reruns of things said before, with a different accompanying anecdote, because like I say, it's all pretty basic. I think I'll try and sum up some of the key points for you all. They like numbered lists, but I think I'll go with bullet points, to be different.
- It's okay to say "no."
- Pick goals.
- Every day, do something to move towards your goal.
- Focus on one thing at a time.
- Take notes.
- Cultivate habits.
- Exercise.
- Organise.
- Simplify.
- Actionless thoughts can be more harmful than thoughtless actions. (AKA, just do it.)
I'm sure there are more points than that, but these will do.
Hmm, maybe I should explain some of those. People won't hate you if you don't agree to stuff. If you're not in a position to do something, don't. It's like if someone is struggling to climb a cliff you can't pull them up if you're still climbing the cliff yourself... unless you reach a nice ledge where you can take a breather from your own climb. Just know that sometimes when you try to help people when you're not in a safe position to you can end up falling back down the cliff yourself. Put yourself first, it's not socially unacceptable, it makes sense to be in the best position you can put yourself in, and not just for your own sake.
If you don't know what you want or what you're after, you won't know how to get there. Pick goals, things you want to achieve or do, and not just a daily to do list, but long term goals. Every day do something, however small, to move you towards that goal.
Focus on one thing at a time doesn't mean restrict your entire life to one pursuit, one goal, one action. It simply means don't multitask. You might think by trying to do more than one thing at a time you're saving time, which is the most valuable resource you have, but it generally doesn't. When you try to do more than one thing at a time you don't do as well with either of those things. That's not just what I say, it has been proven scientifically, and I would look up the research for you but I can't be bothered. So, nah! I just mean when you're doing something do it, and only it, and you'll get it done faster, and better. Now I'm not saying don't listen to books while you drive or work, things that are mostly automatic, because I do that. What I'm saying is don't be surprised if you have to rewind sometimes, or miss bits. So really what I'm saying is don't multitask when you're doing important things that need to be done right.
Stress is caused by worrying. Some of that worrying is needless. If you have to constantly remind yourself of something so that you don't forget it you're worrying about it. Take notes, so you don't forget. Then the only thing you have to worry about is not losing your notepad. When you're in a position to do something, check your notepad and see what needs to be done.
Habits are things you do every day, like brushing your teeth in the morning. If you make yourself do something the same all the time it becomes a habit, and you do it automatically. So if there's some small thing you always mean to do but don't get around to... like brushing your teeth in the morning... force yourself to do it every day for a month, and eventually you'll realise you're not forcing yourself, but just doing it. It will have become a habit. (Personal interjection. Don't make everything in your life a habit, because that would suck.)
Eating healthily and exercising are not only good for your body, but good for your mind.. which it turns out is a part of your body. It makes you feel better, makes you feel like you have more energy and is just a jolly good thing.
This is another stress reliever. Once things are organised they're all easier to deal with. If you do it right you only have to organise once, then you keep things organised, which is easier than organising. Kind of like how maintenance is easier than fixing something that's broken. Or how it's easier to keep fit than it is to get fit. It also reduces time wasted. If you know where things are you can find them quicker. And clutter is stress inducing, just because it is.
Get rid of stuff you don't need, or want. Let's say you have watched the same TV show for 7 seasons, but it stopped being really good after 5, or it just kills time. Stop watching. You don't owe it anything. Reclaim your time and use it for something more fun. Find a new show maybe. Okay, that wouldn't exactly simplify things. But if you can't find a worthy replacement it would. Look at all the stuff you do and work out what you really enjoy, and what you really need. Get rid of the stuff that isn't necessary or worthwhile that you just keep doing because you've always done it. It might just free up your time to do better stuff.
In the time it takes you to think of things you could have done, you could have done some of them. If you do something wrong the chances are you can fix it. Like, if you're writing... shut up, I know... it's quicker to write a shit page and then edit it into a good one than to sit there for years not writing everything trying to come up with the perfect page before you even begin because you don't want to get it wrong. Give it a go. When you have things to do and you don't know where to start, pick one, start, do it, because by the time you come up with the perfect plan you could have done one thing on your list already. If there was a plan, or a specific order that these things should be done in, it would be obvious where to start and you'd start there, so if there's no obvious place, toss a coin a couple of times, pick one, and start.
So that's what they've been trying to teach me. I'm not sure if I've listened or not. Probably not. I'm quite stubborn at times. I still haven't worked out if I believe most of what they're selling.
I went to see some snooker a couple of weeks ago. Going in we walked past seven time world champion Stephen Hendry, and my friend managed to walk right through the middle of his entourage without noticing him. He was involved in one of the two matches we got to watch... at the same time. He was playing David Gilbert. The other match had Neil Robertson playing six time world champion Steve Davis. That's right, 13 years of combined world champion on show.
The matches were good, though the Hendry match was a lot quicker than the Davis match. The seats were extremely uncomfortable which makes that an important point. Both matches went to the wire and were won in their deciding frames, when it was down to the colours only. Hendry and Davis won. During the journey we saw someone pot two reds at once in the same match... twice. We saw a black ball game. We saw a re-rack. We saw a 147 attempt that was close to coming off. And I'm sure there was something else that I've forgotten. It was good, and interesting. It also gives you a nice glimpse into the nicer side of humanity. You could be pretty sure that no one you saw there had gone out the night before, got out their face on smack or booze and then stabbed someone in the street because they looked at his "burd." Not something you can say when you go see football I feel. Maybe I'm wrong.
Reviews.
Final Fantasy XII : Good.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- By J.K. Rowling : Good.
Assassin's Creed : Fun, Good.
Sword of Xanten : Surprisingly good.
Curse of the Golden Flower : I didn't like it as much as "Hero" of "House of Flying Daggers" but it was still good, and unpredictable.
Call of Duty 4 : Excellent.
Heavenly Sword : Fun and fast paced. You can play through the whole thing in a few hours which is either a good thing because it's like a playable movie, or bad if you're worried about gaming hours equaling money's worth. It's a beautiful looking game though, and the archery levels are tons of fun.
The Bourne Trilogy : Fun enough to read but don't expext them to be anything like the movies because they're not. They're so different from each other, except in the initial concept that they're essentially two different things. They're practically different styles of stories too, except that they're both adventures. If you're looking for adventure stories to read but have ruled these out because you've seen the movies, rule them back in.
Virtua Tennis 3 : Tennis on the computer.
Iron Man : Excellent.
The Eye : The US remake has less Angelica Lee, but more Jessica Alba. From then it's pretty much the same, except the upgrade in effects budget means you see things more... which can be detrimental to the scare factor.
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune : Excellent -- like a Tomb Raider, Indiana Jones cross.
Zoom : Fun while you're watching it... though quite unmemorable in the end.
War : Meh.
The Andromeda Strain : The new version is a made for TV thing. It's... a new version of The Andromeda Strain.
Hancock : Funny at times, and actiony at times and worth a look.
Hellboy 2 : Didn't have as much going for it as the first one. Visually appealing.
The Incredibles : Really exciting, and funny, and fun. I'm ashamed it took me so long to watch it.
More later.
Someone could make a fortune if they were able to register .xom domains.
I have a huge file filled with things I was meant to blog about. See how good I am at this? Of course you do. Anyway the first thing on there is "The Death of 'Unspeakable Thing'" which I don't actually think is dead any more.
I've decided to post this now because I can. It might seem to you weird that a post called "Epic" is actually no longer than some other posts I've done, but I've decided Epic things come in trilogies. Take that as you will.
Feeling: all kinds of silly things Hearing: Smallville |
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