The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Adam Randall

PictureThis is one of two Zelda games that were made for the Game Boy Colour. In this game Link finds himself in the land of Holodrum where the seasons have been thrown into disarray by an evil force and the local oracle has been kidnapped. He then must travel through various dungeons in order to collect magical items which will restore order, as is often the case with the Zelda series.

While it may sound like a run of the mill instalment in the series, there’s actually a lot to this game which makes it both unique and very enjoyable. The changing seasons mean that you can be in one area and it’ll be a hot summer’s day and then walk to another and find the place covered in snow and eventually you get an item called the Rod of Seasons which allows you to change the seasons by yourself. Every time the seasons change, the map changes quite a bit too, which essentially means that there are four different versions of the world map!

By this point it had been established that Link sometimes rides a horse named Epona to make travelling around hazardous areas easier. While Epona does make an appearance in the opening sequence, in the actual game, you get to ride three rather more unique creatures: Ricky the Kangaroo (who wears a pair of boxing gloves, perfect for fighting enemies), Dimitri the Dodongo (who can swim and, rather humorously, eat enemies) and finally Moosh the Flying Bear. They do give the game a more childish feel, which might bother some people, but for me they’re very welcome additions.

Another big appeal of this game, for me, was the fact that Holodrum was a very interesting world full of memorable characters. There’s a village on a river, a lava-filled underground world inhabited with mysterious Subrosian people, an ancient abandoned castle (with amazing background music) and a huge desert, to name just a few of the interesting locations. In these wonderful places, you’ll meet the likes of a crew of skeleton pirates, the bumbling king of the Moblins and many other quirky individuals.

Furthermore, this game was released at the same time as The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and the two games can be linked together in order to unlock new items in both of them and also to add a nice extra part onto the end of the story. This is done through a password system where you’ll find a character in one game who will then give you a code to enter in the other game which will then bring you to a secret area or give you a secret item and I found this to be a very welcome and rewarding feature.

On the whole, this is a charming and unique addition to the Zelda series. Rating: 9.1/10

Buy it here.

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

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Why You Should Buy a Wii U

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Adam Randall

Nintendo’s latest console, the Wii U has not been doing terribly well, sales-wise. I think this is quite a shame, because it seems to be awfully good to me, so I’ve decided to write a blog post explaining the upsides of the Wii U and why I think you should buy one.

While a lot of people complain that it’s overpriced, it is still about two hundred pounds cheaper than its competition (the Xbox One and the Playstation 4). Furthermore, while the improvements to the Playstation 4 and Xbox One over the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 seem to be rather minimal, the Wii U makes a lot of big changes and improvements from its predecessor (namely, the HD graphics, Miiverse integration and gamepad controller).

The gamepad in particular is a feature I am very fond of. I’ve read complains that very few games make any real use of it (even though Nintendo Land makes excellent use of it) but I think those complaints are missing the point of it. I don’t think the gamepad was designed with the idea of bringing an innovative new way of playing in the world of video games, but rather as an object of convenience. Often I’ll come downstairs, hoping to play a game, only to find that the television is already in use, meaning I will have to do something else instead. But with the Wii U, that does’t matter because you can just play the games on the gamepad without needing to see it on the television screen. Since I’ve gotten it, whenever I want to play one of my Xbox 360 games and the television is not free, I find myself wishing it had the gamepad, because it is just so incredibly useful.

And other than that, the console has quite an excellent selection of games. I can only personally vouch for Nintendo Land and New Super Luigi U (the two games I have so far) but there are an awful lot of games I am very keen to try: ZombiU, Rayman Legends, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Super Mario 3D World,  Pikmin 3, Sonic Lost Worlds, Lego City Undercover and Scribblenauts: Unlimited, to name a few. Plus, there’re so many good games on the way too, Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros. for Wii U, a Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem crossover, a Zelda and Dynasty Warriors crossover and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (I’ve preordered this and am very excited for it to arrive!). So I have to say, from my point of view, the Wii U is the most appealing of the current generation of home consoles.

Buy a Wii U right away!

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

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Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Adam Randall

PictureMy goodness, this novel is the most moving story I’ve ever come across. It follows the life of a young man named Jude Fawley who aspires to study at the university in the nearby town of Christminister. Sadly, it being the nineteenth century and him being a regular country boy, this will be no easy feat.

His plan first goes a little off track when he meets a young woman named Arabella with whom he develops a small kind of romance. I shan’t share any more of the plot though, as it would take away lots of very exciting twists and turns as you read along and spoiled surprises are likely to reduce enjoyment.

A little later in the book, you meet Jude’s cousin Sue Bridehead. Sue is an excellent character, I find her extremely relatable at times (I find Jude very relatable too, occasionally, but less so than Sue). What’s especially pleasing about Sue, is the fact that she’s a very positive female character from a novel written in the nineteenth century, so it’s nice to see that Hardy was writing against attitudes of the day.

While Sue was my favourite character, the whole book is populated with memorable characters. Richard Phillotson, Jude’s ex-school master, is just so nice. I love characters who are really good to other people, and he’s one of them. He may not have as big a role as certain other characters, but it’s hard not to love him. Plus, there’s also the dubious doctor called Vilbert, who I found rather funny and a young boy known as Father Time who, I probably shouldn’t say much about or else I might spoil the plot!

Something that you should definitely bear in mind before reading this, though, is that it is an extremely depressing novel. The characters do get some small moments of joy, but you’ll generally find them suffering with huge problems for a lot of the time. If you want some light, happy reading, this is not the book for you. I was also very slightly disappointed with the ending because it didn’t really give closure about everything. But these are minor flaws and don’t stop it being one of my all-time favourite books.

Rating: 9.8/10

Buy it here.

(I have written a short story set after the novel in order to give closure. Read it here.)

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Lucid Dream

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Adam Randall

A couple of weeks ago I received a very nice notebook as a late Christmas present. For a long time I’d wanted to start keeping a dream journal and so this very fancy notebook has now become my dream journal. They say that, if you keep a dream journal it will help you to remember your dreams and to eventually achieve lucid dreams. For those who may not know, a lucid dream is a dream where you are aware of the fact that you are in a dream and have a certain amount of control over it as a result.

Well, it seems to have worked quite well because I had a lucid dream just the other day! I was walking through Corsham, when I realised that it was a dream! Was I in full control? Well, I thought I’d test this by deciding it’d be nice to have a bus ride. I then walked down to the bus stop, got on the next bus (a double decker, of course) for free (!) and rode down to Bath. It had all the joy of riding a bus, along with all the comfort of sleeping in a bed. I hope to have another lucid dream again soon, as it felt spectacular.

(Don’t miss the two Finger Puppet Shows of the week: Wednesday’s and Friday’s)

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Music Suggestions 3

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Adam Randall
In the past I’ve done two entries where I recommended several pieces of music that I enjoy (here’s the first, here’s the second). It’s been a while since I last made one of those entries, so I thought I’d make another! I hope you like at least one.
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Workshopping Writing

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Adam Randall
I’m getting towards the end of a three year Creative Writing course at Bath Spa University. I’ve had some classes where I’ve learnt things that are incredibly useful and I’ve had other classes that weren’t quite as handy, but it’s definitely been a highly valuable experience on the whole. One of my favourite things about taking this Creative Writing course, has been getting to have lots of other people read my writing and give me their own interpretations of it. So for today’s blog entry, I’ve decided to write down some of the more interesting responses to my work.

– “This is wonderfully absurdist!” said one teacher, about a story that was supposed to be fairly realistic.
– Lots of people thought two of my characters were gay. That was never my intention, but, since they all read it in, I decided to have one of them harbouring an unrequited crush on the other.
– One person recently thought I was making a distasteful joke about rape. That was a little upsetting, both because I’d hate for my work to appear that way and because it makes me sad to think that this person would imagine me making rape jokes.
– I have one character who is supposed to be particularly pathetic and obsessive; somebody thought I had based him on myself!
– Somebody suggested that every piece I write has an air of sexual tension to it. I didn’t intentionally include anything like that, so, I don’t know if it says more about me or them.
– I was told I should make the evil villain of a story turn out to be God. I decided not to heed this advice.
– One time a teacher thought the hero and the villain of a story were secretly the same person. This was a wonderful idea and, while it isn’t what I planned, I decided to have fun sneaking in some clues that pointed to that false conclusion. (Although, technically, this was just before I started the course).
– Finally, and this is the most unusual reading of a piece: after reading a story about a clown on a sinking ship, one of my friends was sure it was my coded way of telling them that I no longer valued my life and was feeling suicidal. While this certainly was not the case, I was touched by their concern!

I hope it was entertaining to read those pieces of feedback. I certainly enjoyed receiving them, but then again, it is my work, so I might be much more inclined to enjoy it than you. It’s a shame that I’ll have left in a couple of months, I’ve had so much fun for the past three years and I’ll miss it terribly when it’s over.

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Sex and Nudity

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Adam Randall
It’s interesting how, on

It’s interesting how, on a DVD case, sex and nudity will be grouped together in the section of things unsuitable for young children. In society’s eye, nudity is very much the same thing as sex, but, for me these are entirely different things. Nudity I am quite indifferent too, whereas sex can cause me a great deal of anxiety.

Why do people always link nudity with sex? Friends, both male and female, will happily get changed in front of me, and it makes no difference to me. It’s nothing more than extra parts of their bodies, how is there any sex in that at all? Two people, both female this time, curiously, have sent me photographs of themselves naked for me to tell them if they ‘look alright’ and to me it’s nothing. Although, I do have to say that I don’t like to be given the power to tell somebody whether their body looks alright because, of course it does, everyone’s body looks alright and it’s only the awful side of our society that would tell them otherwise and I’ve insisted I can tell them that without the photographs, but they send them all the same. Funnily enough, I’m extremely uncomfortable with being even slightly undressed around other people.

Sex, in my mind, is an entirely distinct concept. I don’t like to ever think about sex and it’s out of my mind almost all of the time. The very idea of it, especially the idea of myself ever being involved in that kind of thing, makes me extremely uncomfortable. I don’t like it when my friends tell me about their sex lives and, unless they have some kind of problem they’d like to talk about, it’s something I’d rather they didn’t bring up as, what’s the point? I don’t know, perhaps I have some kind of irrational fear of the subject (I’m not sure why I would though), but the point of this post is, that there’s nothing inherently sexual about the naked human body, and I think it’s a little silly that so many people always associate the two things in that way.

(Click here for the second Finger Puppet Show of the week.)

a DVD case, sex and nudity will be grouped together in the section of things unsuitable for young children. In society’s eye, nudity is very much the same thing as sex, but, for me these are entirely different things. Nudity I am quite indifferent too, whereas sex can cause me a great deal of anxiety.
Why do people always link nudity with sex? Friends, both male and female, will happily get changed in front of me, and it makes no difference to me. It’s nothing more than extra parts of their bodies, how is there any sex in that at all? Two people, both female this time, curiously, have sent me photographs of themselves naked for me to tell them if they ‘look alright’ and to me it’s nothing. Although, I do have to say that I don’t like to be given the power to tell somebody whether their body looks alright because, of course it does, everyone’s body looks alright and it’s only the awful side of our society that would tell them otherwise and I’ve insisted I can tell them that without the photographs, but they send them all the same. Funnily enough, I’m extremely uncomfortable with being even slightly undressed around other people.
Sex, in my mind, is an entirely distinct concept. I don’t like to ever think about sex and it’s out of my mind almost all of the time. The very idea of it, especially the idea of myself ever being involved in that kind of thing, makes me extremely uncomfortable. I don’t like it when my friends tell me about their sex lives and, unless they have some kind of problem they’d like to talk about, it’s something I’d rather they didn’t bring up as, what’s the point? I don’t know, perhaps I have some kind of irrational fear of the subject (I’m not sure why I would though), but the point of this post is, that there’s nothing inherently sexual about the naked human body, and I think it’s a little silly that so many people always associate the two things in that way.

(Click here for the second Finger Puppet Show of the week.)

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Enoguh

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Adam Randall
I was chatting with my friend Dalfino on Facebook today and, at one point in the conversation he inadvertently wrote ‘enoguh’ rather than the word ‘enough’. A simple mistake, I thought, and one not likely to cause any confusion. Dalfino, on the other hand, thought this was an enormous error on his part and that the whole thing was rather extraordinary. ‘Enoguh’, he thought, was a completely different word than ‘enough’. I wonder if on average, a person would see things from my perspective, or from Dalfino’s? Anyway, you might be wondering why it is that I’m telling you all this. Well, after this happened Dalfino told me that I should make a blog post about the word ‘enoguh’ I told him I probably wouldn’t be able to write anything interesting, but he told me I’d find a way to make it interesting. Since I hadn’t written my blog post for the day, and I do like to keep my readers happy, this has been a blog post on ‘enoguh’ and while it may not be my best, I’m sure it has at least some value to it. It’s nice to record small moments from life, after all. I don’t know if this short anecdote has been particularly interesting, but I suppose it is rather interesting to consider the fact that ‘enoguh’, when said out loud, does sound an awful lot like ‘an ogre’.

(Don’t miss this week’s first Finger Puppet Show!)
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Boyfriend

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Adam Randall

Back in 2008, I rather unexpectedly found myself with a boyfriend, which was odd. I was happily browsing the internet and chatting to my old friend Sarah Kryworuczka on MSN and on that particular day, we weren’t talking about anything especially exciting until she told me that she was having trouble with an old friend of her’s who she told me was being both annoying and somewhat sexually perverted and so she persuaded me to join the conversation.

A new chat box was opened and in it, I was chatting with both Sarah and her friend.

“Are you a girl?” he asked. I don’t want to insult his intelligence, but my screen name was ‘Adam’ and my display picture was me, so, that question did seem slightly dim-witted.

“Yes, I am,” I decided to say.

“Then how come your name is ‘Adam’?” he asked.

“It’s a nickname,” said Sarah. “She got it because she kisses like a man.” Okay, well, she didn’t actually say ‘kisses’ she said something a little more explicit which I don’t wish to repeat!

“Oh right,” he said, falling for the lies.

On Sarah’s suggestion I changed my display picture from a picture of me to a picture of one of my other female friends. For a while he asked general questions about what we did at school and things like that and it all seemed a bit of harmless fun.

“Tell him you’re in love with him,” said Sarah in our one on one conversation, eventually.

I was very hesitant to do this, at first, but I was eventually persuaded to do so.

“I love you, will you go out with me?” I wrote eventually.

“Really?” he asked.

“Yes,” I replied, regretting it more with each key I pressed.

“Then sure! You are FIT!” he said.

Sarah found this particularly hilarious.

A message from him popped up in a one on one conversation. “You sure you’re OK with a long distance relationship?”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” I replied, wondering how far Sarah was expecting me to go with this charade.

“I’ll come and visit all the time,” he assured me.

This is when I realised I had to put a stop to this. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, and I knew that he knew where Sarah lived and she wasn’t too far away from me! Was he going to come and find me?

“I’m awfully sorry, but, the more I think about it, the more I don’t think this can work. I’m sorry to have gotten your hopes up.” I wrote quickly.

I then quickly blocked and deleted him. Thankfully, I never heard from him again, but I can’t help but feel a little guilty when I think back to him!

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In the Age of Information, Ignorance is a Choice

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Adam Randall
Before I even get started, I want to say right away that the title of this post is not something I agree with. A little while ago I saw that phrase posted as one of those ‘inspirational’ photos you see on Facebook and I was quite surprised to see it getting a lot of support. I think the phrase sums my main problem with the internet community quite nicely.
    First, I had better explain why it is that I disagree with that phrase. While information is a lot more readily available these days thanks to the internet, not everybody is aware just how useful it is, or where exactly to look for specific information. Furthermore, all people learn in different ways. For some, it might be possible to just read information on the internet and then to just know it, but that is quite simply not the way that everybody’s mind works. To expect everybody to have been able to teach themselves about various subjects via the internet. Furthermore, time is another crucial element: many people work very demanding jobs and for only a small amount of money and I can’t imagine they’re going to want to spend their free time doing something as taxing as teaching themselves.  And then of course there are also countries where the internet is heavily censored or people don’t have much access to it anyway. I know this argument may also have been aimed at people who are ignorant of other people, rather than unlearned people, but even so, if people believe incorrect misconceptions, the media is to blame for perpetrating them and those holding the false beliefs need to be educated rather than ridiculed.
    Now that brings me to me somewhat sad conclusion about the internet: while it me be a very lovely and useful tool, it has created a small culture of people who seem to hold nothing higher than intelligence. People are always being so incredibly pedantic and correcting the typos and grammatical errors of others just to show that they know the correct way of writings things and putting others down for not knowing the facts about things. You only have to look to ‘humour’ sites to see hundreds of pictures of somebody having written a Facebook status or a Twitter Tweet that is factually incorrect, followed by the horrible ‘kill yourself’ man. I can’t help but sadly wonder what a nice place the internet could be if politeness and kindness were held in the same high regard as sarcasm and intelligence.

(This week’s second Finger Puppet Show.)

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