Religion and Sexuality

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Adam Randall
I don’t believe that it is right to criticise anybody for their religious beliefs or for their sexuality. The way I see it, is that anything that is out of somebody’s control, is not something you can criticise them for: you couldn’t legitimately criticise anybody for their appearance, or for the sound of their voice, because that would just be ridiculous and I’m sure any reasonable person would agree with that. Therefore the same should apply to religion and sexuality. People certainly don’t choose who they love or who they find attractive; it’s different for all of us. At the same time, people don’t choose what they believe. We all see life through our own eyes and looking at all of the evidence leads different people in different directions; for one person, everything may point to Christianity, another Hinduism, another atheism, and that’s fair enough. So long as everybody accepts that these beliefs are not conscious choices, they shouldn’t discriminate based on them. I wanted to write this because it seems to me that people often suffer a lot because people can’t accept other religions or sexualities. Almost everywhere on the internet you see people saying things like “Christians are so stupid”, “atheists have no morals”, “lesbians are so butch”, “transsexuals are so creepy” but why? People are who they are and it is not for us to cast judgement and. in fact, many problems people have with certain groups stem from simple, but sad, misconceptions.

(Click here for this week’s Finger Puppet Show strip!)

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Major and Minor Musical Reworkings

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Adam Randall
I recently stumbled across a rather wonderful YouTuber named Oleg Berg. What he does is, if a song was played in a major key, he alters it with a computer so that it is then in minor and vice versa. I find it very interesting to hear how different these songs can sound with a minor change and I’ve been listening to his reworkings a lot lately. I posted three examples below and I hope you like them as much as me.

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Many Stabby Returns

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Adam Randall

Long-time readers may know that, several years ago, somebody threatened to stab me. Luckily, I was able to persuade him not to by pointing out that we were in quite a crowded public area and he’d certainly not get away with it. He then walked off, but not without first warning me that he’d stab me the next time that we met.

Well, anyway, after that incidental piece of information, guess who I bumped into for the first time in six years the other night? I made it too obvious, didn’t I? It was night time and the streets were deserted; you could say, that it was the perfect time to commit a crime. I wandered over to him and I was murdered right then and there… No not really, because of course, bad things never happen to me and besides, only the good die young.

As I passed him, I gave him a pleasant smile and he gave me an unpleasant frown and that was it.

The moral of the story is that all of life’s problems can be solved with a positive attitude and a nice smile. 🙂

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Super Mario World

Posted on November 29, 2013 by Adam Randall

PictureWhen Nintendo came out with their second home console, the SNES, they also released an exciting new Mario game. Super Mario World is that game.

This time the game isn’t set in the Mushroom Kingdom but, instead, in Dinosaur Land where Mario, Luigi and Peach are having themselves a holiday. Of course, Bowser and his Koopalings also happen to be there, so he kidnaps Peach and Mario must travel across this new land in order to defeat all of them and rescue her. The change of setting is quite nice, I think, as it brings with it some new kinds of levels that hadn’t been seen up until now such as forests, ghost houses and volcanic tunnels. Though most importantly, it is in Dinosaur Land where Mario meets Yoshi who becomes an integral part of the series.

Yoshi brings with him a nice addition to the gameplay. When going through the levels you will occasionally find a Yoshi egg which Yoshi will be inside of. Once you’ve freed him from his egg, you can ride Yoshi through the level and any levels afterward that you manage to keep him through. Yoshi can eat most of the enemies and he gives you an extra hit before losing a life. When you do come into contact with an enemy, Yoshi will run away in fear, but, unless he runs off a cliff, you can just hop back onto him and continue riding. As well as Yoshi, this game also gives a new power up in the form of the cape which you can use to fly and the balloon which also helps you to fly, but in a different way. You’re also offered a similar multiplayer option that previous games in the series have: player 1 is Mario, player 2 is Luigi, they both play identically and take it in turns to play a level, which is a nice way to make the game fun for more than one person, but not amazing.

One thing I especially liked about Super Mario World was the fact that it really does feel like you’re exploring a large new area. You start on a large overworld map and there are two directions you can head, each presenting you with a different side-scrolling level. So you see, from the start you’re given more freedom than in other 2D Mario games. Many levels have secret exits which branch out into other directions and there are, in fact, two whole secret areas which are fun to discover. The levels are all pretty fun and once you’ve finished the main storyline, I imagine you’ll go back and play some of them again and, when doing so, it’s likely that you’ll stumble across places you’d never noticed before and then you’ll end up opening a whole new part of the world.

It’s a wonderful addition to the Mario series and it has a lovely art style too. Rating: 9.2/10.

Buy it here.

(Click here for information on an interesting fan creation.)

(Here’s this week’s Finger Puppet Show!)

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Migraine Visual Aura

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Adam Randall
I guess people who have never had a migraine before don’t actually have any idea what it’s like. Of course, everybody can imagine a really, really bad headache, but, the visual side of it is a little hard to explain. Therefore, I decided to make some pictures to show what it’s like!
As you can see, at first you barely realise that you have a migraine starting, there’s a tiny blip in your vision, but you may not even notice. There’s certainly no pain at the start. After a while, the blip grows and you realise it is a migraine, you’ll probably have a mild headache at this point. After that, the visual aura gets bigger and bigger and so does the headache. Eventually you feel nauseous too, the aura also seems to throb along with the pain in your head and is absolutely horrible to ‘look’ at. Thankfully, in my case at least, it never blocks out everything, You can see properly after a couple of hours (unless it comes back) but the headache doesn’t cease for a long time.

Thank goodness I’ve not had one in a few years now!

(Don’t miss yesterday’s extra Finger Puppet Show!)

(If you happen to suffer from migraines, then you might find this article from Healthline very helpful and interesting.)

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Bouncy Castle

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Adam Randall
Back in 2004, when I was in Year 6 of primary school, I was given the task of watching one of the Year 1 classes for twenty minutes or so. At that time, I wasn’t quite the same build as I am now, and, in fact, I was rather overweight. Why is this significant? Well, you’ll find out shortly!
    I arrived at the classroom of the younger children and spoke briefly with the teacher who gave me a few brief pointers about what to do while she was gone. The children were only playing with some toys when I arrived, so, I didn’t expect to have any difficulty.
    “Bouncy castle!” shouted one of them as soon as the teacher left.
    Then all of the children ran over to me, one of them pushed me over and they all started jumping on me as if I were a bouncy castle. It seems that being somewhat overweight made me especially bouncy, which I guess must have been nice for them. A few minutes before the teacher got back, they all stopped jumping on me and I got up.
    And so, with that, I earned the experience of serving as a bouncy castle. I’m sure that would be a very unique addition to a CV.

(Don’t miss Saturday’s special Doctor Who themed Finger Puppet Show!)

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A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Adam Randall

PictureThis is the novel that introduced the world to one of my all-time favourite characters: Sherlock Holmes. As with all of his stories this book takes the form of a murder mystery.

The first half of the book is about how Dr. Watson first met Holmes and then how they got involved with the investigation of this story’s main murder. Here you get all of the things that make the Sherlock Holmes stories so good: charming little chats between Holmes and Watson, Holmes’s arrogance towards police, scenes of excellent deduction and Holmes’s loveable eccentricities. All of this is written from the point of view of Dr. Watson; we see Sherlock Holmes, this extraordinary man, through the eyes of an ordinary man like us and through that we get to see how he ‘works’, if that makes sense.

The second half is, quite unexpectedly, a flashback to Salt Lake City in America. Here the novel shifts from the first person storytelling of Dr. Watson and gives you a third person account of a man named John Ferrier and his adopted daughter Lucy. I must admit, I was cautious about this change, as I worried it’d be boring, but it was actually very good. They’re a pair of very likeable characters and their edgy relationship with their Mormon neighbours is quite tense and I found myself quite concerned for them. It’s also very interesting, as you’ll learn quite a bit of historical information about America in that area at that time, and it’s always nice to learn new things while you’re being entertained.

So, on the whole, this novel is a fantastic debut for a fantastic character. You’ll feel emotions for every character in it, perhaps you’ll find somebody hilarious, perhaps you’ll find somebody intriguing or perhaps you’ll find somebody downright hateable, but you will always be feeling something, which is a sign of a very well written novel, I think. I would recommend this to anybody.

Rating: 9/10

Buy it here.

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

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Ten Things: Treasured Items

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Adam Randall
I was on David Tubb’s blog the other day and I came across this really lovely entry which has inspired me to make a post about ten items that are of significant value to me. I’d also like to say, that being fond of physical possessions is often criticised as being materialistic and I think I agree in the case of things such as solid gold yachts and the like, but in today’s entry I’m going to talk about ten items I’m very attached to because they remind me of happy memories or of relationships with close friends and I don’t think that’s at all materialistic. Of course, I have a lot more than ten items that are very special to me, so I had to leave a lot out, so maybe I’ll make a follow up post at some point, but, anyway, here they are:

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LJ the Cheetah

This was brought back from South Africa (I think, it may have been somewhere else) by a friend of mine and then given to me as a gift. There was a time when I was very close with this person, but now the pair of us don’t seem to have any contact. This isn’t because anything bad happened, we just went in separate directions when we went to university, but this little wooden cheetah is a fond reminder of our past friendship.

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Picture of David and I

Sadly, I can’t see David quite as often as I used to, but I see this picture of he and I every single day as it sits on top of the bookshelf beside my bed. He surprised me with this picture one time when I came round for a visit, and it was a lovely treat. Even better, he has his own identical picture up at his house! You may not be able to tell from the photo, but he has also edited a picture of Gallifrey into the background, which is a nice touch.

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John-Boy Walton Action Figure

The Waltons is one of my absolute favourite television shows. Like Doctor Who, it’s one of the only things I’m always watching. As such, I was very pleased when my Mum gave me this as a surprise Christmas present last year!

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Aeroplane

This does have a special name, but, I don’t remember what it is. At the end of the summer I got to meet my internet friend Rhinowater in real life for the first time, and it was wonderful. When I first saw him, he gave me this model aeroplane as a gift, having bought one for himself too. We did plan to have a play with them at a park, but unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to. In a way, it’s a bit bittersweet, as I may not get to see him in real life again or his sister (an old friend of mine), but primarily this reminds me of the happy time I got to spend with him.

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Colin the Cow

I bought Colin and wore him on my jacket as a bit of an in-joke between a couple of friends of mine. I don’t wear him so often now as he’s damaged and I don’t want to make things worse, but he still regularly appears in my webcomic, Finger Puppet Show! I wrote a bit about why I like Colin so much before.

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Yo-yos

For years I really, really wanted to learn how to use a yo-yo, then last Christmas a friend of mine bought me one and taught me how to use it! Then it broke a few months later… But then they got me another one that’s still fine now! I don’t think I could ever bring myself to throw out the, broken, green one. Yoing a yo-yo is often quite therapeutic, I find.

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Heartfelt Card

After a certain family tragedy, I was off school. Two days later two good friends of mine popped by with this absolutely amazing card signed by all of my friends. Even now, six years later, looking at it makes me happy.

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TARDIS Poster

As I mentioned above, I love Doctor Who. I never really had any posters up in my room, but then one day a good friend of mine was visiting Corsham for a while and they gave me this. It was so unexpected and kind of them, so I put it up as soon as I got home. Now it’s a pleasant reminder of both one of my favourite TV shows and one of my favourite people! It’s up on the wall beside my bed.

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Fourth Doctor Scarf

More Doctor Who! Not only is this a fantastic replica of the Fourth Doctor’s scarf, but it was a great Christmas present from a couple of friends of mine. It looks really cool and it’s really good at keeping me warm on cold days.

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Trusty Water Bottle

Of course this had to be included! It’s the item all my friends associate with me. This very blog is named after it! Of course, in reality, there have been more than sixty individual water bottles, but as I throw one out and it’s replaced with another, the essence of ‘the’ Trusty Water Bottle transfers from one to the other. It’s a wonderful all-purpose tool which can put out fires, clean up messes, provide water, act as a relaxant, act as a stress ball, be a pointer, give me energy… It can do anything, basically and I feel strange without it. I started carrying it in 2008 and I have fond memories involving it and almost every person I’ve ever met. That could be a blog post all on its own…

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The Best Thing About the Super Smash Bros. Series

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Adam Randall

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I enjoy the Super Smash Bros. series of video games for a number of reasons:
– The gameplay is very fun.
– It connects lots of things together (I love that kind of thing).
– There’s excellent multiplayer for two to four people.
– There are very many things to unlock.
– It’s full of nostalgic references.
But none of those things are what I love most about the series.
    What I do love most about the series, and the main reason I would suggest others try it, is that it opens the doors to other games. Before I played Super Smash Bros. I had never heard of Fire Emblem, Kirby, Metal Gear or Metroid but, thanks to the inclusion of characters from those series, I’ve gone on to play several games from each one and to enjoy them very much.
    I think we’re all a bit cautious about trying something new, especially with something as expensive as video games, but Super Smash Bros. rather ingeniously, eases you into these things. You may buy it simply because you’re a Mario fan, but then have a lot of fun playing as Link and decide you want to find out more about him, so you then buy one of The Legend of Zelda games. So, this is why I heartily recommend these games as it may well encourage you to buy and play games which you’ll love and which, otherwise, you may never have heard of or given a second look.

(I do not own the copyright of the image)

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Christmas Killjoys

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Adam Randall
So now we’re about half way through November and it’s around now that the average person begins to get excited about Christmas and for people like me, who have been excited since September or earlier, to become very excited. But, sadly, this pleasant time of year doesn’t only bring about these happy people, but also people who feel the need to say “It’s only November, Christmas is ages away!” This annoys me for several reasons.
    A month is not a very long period of time. I’m always looking forward to things that are happening in several months’ time, and so, of course I’m excited about Christmas months in advance too. I think that most people are pretty excited about things of an equal temporal distance because you so often see people on Facebook write things like “Only three months until my exotic summer holiday, I can’t wait” but then when winter comes around they write “Excited for Christmas? It’s only November, you silly jerk”. So I just don’t understand why it’s not acceptable to be excited early for Christmas, my theory is that people complain about this excitement to cement themselves as an ‘adult’. Christmas is, for them, something which is ‘for kids’ and so a serious adult like them won’t be getting excited for it except, maybe, on Christmas Eve (this is may also explain, another criticism, of this wonderful time of year). This is rather ironic though, because for a child, yes, a month may be a long time, but for an adult that time will fly by in the blink of an eye.
    In the end, I guess this is just another example of people complaining for the sake of having something to say which I find quite sad. The internet is full of sarcastic, annoyed comments about things, so much so that it outweighs all the nice things people have to say and I hate to think this is an accurate reflection of human nature. Why can’t we all be more positive about life?

(Also, today is Friday so don’t miss this week’s Finger Puppet Show!)

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