Different Mediums

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Adam Randall
I’m quite happy that I’ve been keeping this blog to a standard I’m pleased with for nearly four years, and I’m quite happy that I’ve been developing my webcomic for nearly three. They’re both things I want to continue doing for as long as possible too. Beyond these, I’ve also written hundreds of short stories and a couple of pieces which are novel-length and I certainly hope to get much more prose of this type done. I’ve also dabbled a bit with poetry and have recently tried very hard to get better at drawing on Microsoft Paint so that I can make illustrations. I’ve been working on my photography skills for a few years too.
    That’s about all of the artistic mediums that I’ve managed to have a good try at so far, but, honestly, I really want to try them all. I want to make pictures which, on their own, are a piece of art (rather than being things to tie in with my other work), I want to be able to compose music, I want to make video games (of various kinds) and to write scripts. I suppose I just have a creative hunger for all mediums (I don’t really believe that you can express yourself wholly in a single medium) and filling all of them is a kind of an eternal goal for me. I say eternal because it’s such a big an ongoing task that I think it’ll keep me going for a life time. I’d honestly become extremely depressed if I knew I’d not be able to write another blog entry, take another photograph or produce any kind of art ever again.

(Don’t miss the Finger Puppet Show Mother’s Day Special!)

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My Favourite Season

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Adam Randall
I’ve been working at a new job for a little over a month now and, when I started, it was dark when I woke up and dark when I left the office for the day. It was a little bit of a shame, because I was pretty much inside for all of the daylight hours. Now, however, it’s still light for about an hour after I finish work and I’m pretty pleased with how quickly it’s changed. It’s a nice sign that spring is arriving
    I like spring, but would I call it my favourite season? Well, yes and no. Every season is my favourite season. I think the process of the seasons works perfectly; I’ll get really excited when it starts to get warmer, only for me eventually become a little bored with it and then excited for it to become colder again; just in time for it to do so! For me, the change in weather is quite a significant thing, as it always makes me happy. I think if you were to make a chart of my happiness, it would always be very high but it would have peaks every time the seasons change.

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The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Adam Randall

PictureJack London’s early twentieth century novel, The Call of the Wild, tells us the story of the life of a dog named Buck. Before you think to yourself “Oh, it must be a light-hearted romp about a taking dog” I have to warn you that this is a rather serious, depressing and realistic story.

That’s something which I thought was one of the novel’s strong points: despite the fact that the main character is a dog, he’s barely been anthropomorphised at all. I shan’t say that he hasn’t been anthropomorphised at least a little bit, because I think the very nature of our language would make it impossible to avoid doing so, but he’s certainly done a good job with Buck’s characterisation His thoughts are all very basic and black and white and he doesn’t really understand a lot of the things that are happening to him. It’s quite sad really, especially if you’ve ever known dogs, because it makes you feel very sorry for Buck.

However, while I think that Buck was developed as a very good character, I also felt that the human characters were a little lacking. I suppose it could be because we see everything from Buck’s point of view, but I never really felt like I got to know any of the humans. Plus, some of them speak with accents and, rather than just saying that they speak with accents, the accents are actually written into their speech (if that makes sense) which can be a little annoying and is a lot harder to understand than if you were actually hearing these accents.

But these were just a few minor problems with an overall good book. As soon as I’d finished I thought to myself that the storyline seemed a bit structure-less, and I thought that was a bad thing, but on reflection, I think it actually helps add to the sense of realism. In reality things don’t always work out and things don’t always tie nicely together, and the same is true of The Call of the Wild. Sadly, I did occasionally feel a little uncomfortable about certain offensive attitudes which were reflected in the text, but thankfully not too often.

So, I do recommend this book. It tells a superb, and very sad, story, with only the occasional off-moment. Rating: 8.6/10

Buy it here.

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Wet Suit

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Adam Randall
I’ll have to be a little careful with today’s anecdotes, as I’d not like to disclose too many details. It will become clear why as you read on.
    It was a sunny day and I was in a seaside town with a couple of friends when we popped into a pleasant little gift shop. It was the kind of shop that sold beach supplies as well as novelty souvenirs and I was having a nice time looking around. The previous night the three of us had gone swimming in the ocean and, at the time, I’d commented that I was half-interested in getting myself a wetsuit as it was a much less revealing form of swimwear and I don’t like wearing revealing clothes.
    There was a wet suit for sale in the shop which I was looking at. It was pretty expensive and I wasn’t actually thinking of buying it, but I was looking, nonetheless.
    “My friend here was wondering if there was anywhere that he could try on this swim suit,” said one of the people I was with to the single person working in the shop.
    “Was I?” I said.
    “Haha, yeah, he likes to joke around,” my friend continued, “do you have a changing room?”
    “Um, not really, but we’ve got a little room out the back. You can only open it from the outside, though.”
    “Oh, that’ll be fine,” my friend said. “He just wants to be sure it fits.”
    “Alright, come this way,” she said.
    I was lead to the back of the shop and she showed me the room. I arranged it with my friend so that he would open the door and let me out when I knocked to tell him I was ready. It was dark in there and I barely had any room at all to put it on, plus, it was a little bit tight. Eventually, I got it on, knocked on the door and was let out.
    “That looks like it fits,” said my friend.
    “Yeah, it looks great!” said the shop worker.
    “Well, I guess I’ll change back now,” I said.
    So I went back into the dark, tiny ‘changing room’ and started to change back into my normal clothes. Unfortunately, due to the cramped conditions, at a moment when I had inadvertently become especially exposed, I slipped and banged my head on the door. That hurt. Sadly, my friend misinterpreted this as the ‘I’m ready’ knock and opened the door, leaving me insufficient time to regain my modesty. He and the shop assistant both seemed to wonder why I’d knocked, so I had to very quickly explain the situation so he’d shut the door again. While doing so, I couldn’t help but notice my other friend sneaking out of the shop with a canoe… Revealing why they’d had me do all of that. Then, after all that, I had to explain to the shop worker that I wasn’t going to buy the wet suit and hope she wasn’t too annoyed.
    So, it’s perhaps not my proudest moment. Being an accessory to a crime and all. Ironically, had I not said on the beach, that I’d prefer a less revealing swimming costume, I’d probably not have ended up virtually nude in a public place.

(Don’t miss my latest article for SmartDating UK!)

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Waiting

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Adam Randall
A couple of years ago, on a particularly nice summer’s day, I was having a day out in Bath with my friends Christian and Dalfino. We had planned to do things as follows: first, we were going to have lunch, then we were going to have a look around the town before ending the day with a nice dinner.
    We arrived and quickly found a place to have lunch. We had an outside seat at an Italian restaurant and each had a pizza. My one was especially delicious and had four kinds of cheese on it. I loved it! Of course, this was accompanied by a lovely cooling glass of Appletiser which went down just perfectly on that warm day. Once we’d finished eating, we waiting for the bill… And we waited a long time. Just before we finished eating, we noticed that the person who was waiting on us had gone home for the day, and it seems everyone else had forgotten about us. Our table was just out of view of the main desk and so, as much as we tried, we couldn’t get anyone’s attention. We also didn’t want to head directly over and ask, because we didn’t want to seem short tempered.
    Three hours later, they realised that we were done and brought us the bill. This was just in time for us to leave the restaurant and walk to another one for dinner.

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Wii Fit

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Adam Randall

PictureWii Fit is a game that stands defiantly against the negative point of view that video games are bad because people waste time on them when they should be out doing important things like exercising. Wii Fit is basically an exercise programme disguised as a game. This, I think, is a good thing.

To play this game you need the Wii Balance Board which is a rather sophisticated peripheral which you stand on so that it can weigh you and determine how you are standing. When you start the game, a cute, talking version of the Wii Balance Board has you answer a few questions and do a few tests and then gives you your weight, BMI and ‘Fitness Age’. You can set weight-loss goals after this and track your progress every time you play, but after this, you move onto the actual game. You’re then brought to a selection of different types of activity “Yoga”, “Muscle Workouts”, “Aerobic Exercises” and “Balance Games” and I’ll explain each one to you.

With the Yoga option, you’re basically given some yoga tutorials and then left to try them yourself. The tutorials are given by a Wii Fit Trainer, who’s basically just a regular person, and you can choose to have either a male or female trainer. What’s nice is that it measures your balance as you do the poses, so, it can tell you (to some degree) how much you’re improving as time goes by, but, sadly not all of them have that feature. Muscle Workouts are generally the same thing, but are different exercises of varying intensity (also conducted with a Wii Fit Trainer.)

The Aerobic Exercises are quite different and all use your Miis. My favourite feature of Wii Fit was actually in the Aerobic Exercises section; there is a game where, if you run on the spot with the Wii Remote in your pocket, then your Mii goes on a jog around a place called Wuhu Island and it’s the perfect way to go jogging without having to leave the house! You unlock different length runs and so on. Other exercises in this mode include hula hooping and rhythm boxing, which is very fun.

The final section is Balance Games and, while I think they’re the most ‘game’ like, they’re also probably the least good ones. These are mostly all non-exercise based and use the Balance Board in creative ways, like walking over a tight rope or flying around in a bubble. Curiously, one of them, called Zazen, is actually really rather creepy and has you sit in the darkness and stare at a flame.

Over all, this is an enjoyable game and one which I like very much. It’s good at persuading you to come back regularly and to do lots of exercise and I feel like it made me generally fitter, so it did its job. I like the setting of Wuhu Island and it’s been used since in various Nintendo games, which is nice. But if you’re not keen to get a game which is based around exercise, you might not like this.

Rating: 8.6/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

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Kindness Through Inaction

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Adam Randall
There have been a couple of times lately where people haven’t done anything but, actually, this inaction has actually been an act of kindness. Perhaps that may sound a little strange, so, I’ll explain each one to you.
    First, I was talking to my friend Mairi about how I’m not enormously comfortable with making physical contact with others. I’ve never been the most physical of people, but over the past few years I’ve made some improvements and am generally getting a lot better of it. Mairi told me that she, too, had been quite uncomfortable with making physical contact in the past, but that these days she hugged everybody. But then she added “except you, obviously, as I respect your boundaries” which I thought was very kind. She hadn’t done anything at all, but it felt as nice as any hug could.
    The second was something that happened at work the other day. On my first day, the person at the desk beside mine asked me if I’d like a cup of tea and I explained to her that I’m not really very fond of hot drinks and that I only really drink water. A couple of weeks later, she was getting herself a drink and said “You know, I always feel bad not offering you a drink too” but she had no reason to feel bad. It was actually nicer of her not to do anything, as it showed an understanding of my tastes and that’s what I said to her.
    And it’s funny, I think, that people can not do anything at all, but it can still be appreciated as an act of kindness. It’s just a reflection I wanted to share.

(Don’t miss my latest article for SmartDating UK!)

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Social Media Makes Us More Social

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Adam Randall

Something I hear quite often these days is that social media makes us less social, which seems quite silly to me. I think, really, it’s just a case of people being unfair and saying the past was better than the present while refusing to accept modern trends. There are several ways that social media makes me more social, and they are all things which I imagine apply to lots of other people too.

First, I have made new friends through social media. A few of my closest friends are people who I, at first, spoke to through social media. From then, I’ve gone on to see them all in reality and spend countless real life hours with them, which is probably the epitome of being ‘social’.

Second, when I meet new people, I tend to use social media to consolidate the friendship. People are nice, and when you meet someone for the first time it can sometimes be a little hard to determine whether they’re actually enjoying your company or whether they’re just good at being polite. I find that sending a friend request and then exchanging a few messages helps me to determine whether it is possible to build a friendship.

Thirdly, I use social media to keep in touch with people. Once I’m friends with somebody, I like to remain in contact. As people are drawn very far away, without social media I’d have no way to easily keep in touch… Sure, I could write them letters, and I do write my friends letters, but I simply wouldn’t have the time to regularly write letters to the number of people who I’d like to keep in touch with.

So, basically, social media means that I get more chances to be social with my friends both over the internet and in person. If I thought hard about it, I could probably think of several more points too. I’m sure these all apply to several other people as well. But because people get annoyed when people are on their phones when they meet up in person (and it does annoy me a little bit too) they feel the need to label all social media as bad. Silly.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

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The Walking Dead Volume 1, Days Gone Bye by Robert Kirkman

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Adam Randall

PictureThe Walking Dead is (currently) an ongoing comic book series which follows the life of a man named Rick Grimes as he finds himself in the world of a zombie apocalypse. And when I say ‘finds himself’ I mean it quite literally; he wakes up from a coma and when he does so, the world he knew is gone.

It’s actually quite difficult for me to talk about the plot, because a lot of the things that happen are what I would consider spoilers to share and therefore things I’d not like to include in a review, but perhaps that says something about the quality of the storyline: there are lots of unexpected and exciting twists and turns which keeps things moving along quite nicely. However, there is a slight downside to this in that it does very occasionally feel like things have been rushed.

Character-wise, in this first volume you don’t really get a huge look at anyone beside Rick himself (although other characters are introduced) and I have to say that I like Rick. He’s a normal person and his reactions to this nightmarish world are relatable, he’s our gateway character. I guess certain aspects of his pre-apocalypse life are a little too generic, but this isn’t a huge problem.

The artwork by Tony Moore is also quite nice. I don’t like to talk too much about illustrations as I feel a story can stand on its words alone, but the art does a good job of conveying the hopelessness of the world. I also like that a fairly light and cartoony style is contrasted with a very dark story.

I know zombies have a reputation of being ‘silly’ (a reputation which I don’t think is fair) and I certainly don’t think that this fits that reputation at all. Kirkman explains in the introduction that he wants to use the zombie idea in order to explore human nature and morality, and I think it’s the perfect canvas on which to do so! The story is definitely off to a good start.

Rating: 8.9/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

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A Man Eating Pie

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Adam Randall
Do you remember December 2013? If not, let me refresh your memory. You headed over to Trusty Water Blog to see what the latest posts were and you read an entertaining (if slightly morbid and sad) entry entitled “Sir Lawrence the 2nd” which had been written by guest author Chloe Ward. The pleasure of having finished reading it, however, shortly turned to sadness; sadness caused by the fact that Chloe didn’t have a blog where you could find more work of her’s.
    Well, guess what?
    A little over a year later, you’re finally going to get what you’ve wanted all this time! Chloe has just launched A Man Eating Pie where she will be regularly posting blog posts from now on. Of the small selection of posts she’s already written, my favourite has to be her review of the recent Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation. Entertaining and informative! We’ve got more reviews like that to look forward to too. She’s also going to be regularly sharing her dreams, which could get quite interesting. So, A Man Eating Pie is definitely something to keep your eye on! Although keep in mind it’s not quite as child friendly as I am here.
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