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Love is Blind

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Adam Randall

Fiesta Crafts Finger Puppets can be bought here (though Buster and Gabby are from discontinued lines).

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I mentioned recently, that I had spent a small amount of time in London. It was during that evening that my friends decided that they would like to visit a nightclub and so I came along with them. We visited a nightclub called ‘Mother’ and it was the standard affair: hundreds of people crammed into a tiny space in the boiling heat while deafening music played with water bottles not permitted.

After I’d been in there for an hour or so I realised that a woman was looking at me and headed in my direction. I became slightly concerned when I saw her, because in the past I have had unpleasant experiences in nightclubs. She got closer and closer and held her hand out, reaching towards me.

“Well, you look nice,” she said and I braced myself, preparing for an unhappy grabbing.

It was then that I realised that she wasn’t actually talking about me. Instead it was Colin, who was sitting in my breast pocket, that she was referring to. She pulled him out of my pocket and started examining him.

“Yes, he is very nice,” I said. “His name is Colin.”

She gave Colin one last look and then popped him back into my pocket and left. It was nice to see him making new friends like that.

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Fighting

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Adam Randall

I’m not really one to do any fighting (though I do know what a punch in the face feels like). In fact, I do rather like to consider myself a pacifist, the pen is stronger than the sword after all (and I did manage to talk myself out of being stabbed, so that seems to be working out alright for me). But today’s blog entry will be about the time when something happened which is the closest I’ve ever come to being in a fight.

Back in 2008, there was somebody who I didn’t quite like. He would often tell jokes which were immature, homophobic, racist, sexist or just otherwise offensive. As such I was venting about him to a friend of mine and I got a little carried away with my criticism. I started (quite rudely) to insult his appearance and described him as an ogre. I do realise that was quite childish and mean of me, but, I guess I just went a little too far since I didn’t like him very much. Sadly, this friend of mine also happened to be a friend of his, and, I suppose through feelings of loyalty, felt that they had to tell him what I said. As I’m sure you can understand, he was more than a little unhappy with me when I bumped into him on the school field a day or so later.

“So, you don’t like me then? Think I look like an ogre?” he asked me.

“Well, uh, yes, I guess so, sorry!” I replied.

“Well guess what? I don’t like you very much either. It’s about time I taught you a lesson.”

He then picked up a huge branch from the ground and started swiping it towards me. Since I didn’t want to get hit by it, I decided to grab the end of it and try and pluck it out of his hands. Unfortunately, he had quite a strong grip on it, and, with me holding the other end, he waved it (and so also me) around.

Once I’d realised that being swung around on the end of a stick wasn’t the most effective manoeuvre, I decided to let go.

“Hmm,” I said. “Where are Ben and Laura? They’d normally defend me in a situation like this.”

“Well, they’re not here. You’re just a pathetic person who can’t do anything without depending on other people.”

He swung the branch and I narrowly avoided it.

“Yes, I guess so,” I replied.

He swung again.

“By the way,” I said, “have you realised the irony of this situation?”

“What?”

“Well, you’re offended because I said you looked like an ogre, but have you considered that using a tree branch as a club and attacking me with it is rather ogre-like behaviour?”

I suppose it’s rather unsurprising that this made him even angrier.

After dodging a few more branch attacks, I decided that the best course of action was to run away. After I’d gone a short way, I was lucky enough to run into my friends Ben and Laura. He was a little behind me (it was probably hard to run so fast when holding a big branch) and so I decided to wait by them. When he did arrive, they defended me just as I had imagined: they were both friends with him and he obviously didn’t want to do something so violent in front of them, so he put down his branch and I managed to successfully escape any harm!

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Protector

Posted on July 5, 2013 by Adam Randall

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The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Adam Randall

This is a psychology book which has basically been written in order to try and help people to be happier in life. The main point of the book is that there are two sides to your mind: the ‘human’ side and the ‘chimp’ side. The human side is the rational side which works logically and thinks based on evidence, whereas the chimp side is the emotional side which can be illogical and thinks based on emotions and feelings rather than facts. The ‘paradox’ of the title is that the chimp can at times fill you with confidence and make you believe you are wonderful, and other times it can fill you with self-hatred.

The main premise of the book, the chimp/human differentiation is one I quite liked and which I find very agreeable. Before reading it I’d kind of made the distinction between rational and irrational states of mind, so it’s quite nice to have it confirmed by a psychologist. It also offers some handy advice: if you can identify when you’re thinking irrationally, why listen to those thoughts? Which was a very good point, I thought. I did think, however, that the main chimp/human difference was repeated far too often and it did feel you were reading the same thing loads of times by the later chapters.

There were also two aspects of the book that I did find disagreeable and seemed to be in there, not as a part of humanity’s universal psychology, but as products of our society, and negative ones at that!

First, I don’t think that this is the book to read if you are somebody who struggles a lot with their weight. Our society is already bombarding people with the message “you need to be thin” all the time, and this book does nothing but add to it. It says that, when somebody is on a diet and they give in and eat a slice of chocolate cake (for example) that this is their chimp hijacking them and forcing them to eat badly. This is likely to make people on diets feel even worse when they give in like this. Instead of saying “Oh well, it’s just a piece of cake” it’s saying “Oh, what have you done you silly chimp?” I think a far better thing to say would be: you don’t need to be thin to be healthy or attractive; the need to lose weight stems from your chimp and it is forcing you to diet so it can be what society expects it to be, punishing itself when it fails.

Secondly, the book said something along the lines of “If you’re in a relationship and find yourself attracted to somebody else then that is your chimp has hijacked you again!” which seemed, to me, to be quite close minded. There have been (and still are) societies where polygamy is perfectly acceptable, and there are people in polygamous relationships where all those involved are perfectly happy. Therefore it’s only reasonable to assume that some people are naturally polygamous and some people are naturally monogamous. So, I didn’t think it was right to ascribe that behaviour to the chimp.

So, on the whole, it was a little bit of a mixed bag. There were times when I’d read bits and think “What an excellent and helpful idea!”, times when I’d read something and think “but that’s not how my mind works at all” and other times (like I mentioned above) where I’d find it plain disagreeable. Luckily, I think the good outweighs the bad.

Rating: 7/10

Buy it here.

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Champion

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Adam Randall

I spent a large chunk of this weekend in London with my friend Dalfino Madrigal Keyte (and actually got material for a few blog entries from it!) At about midnight we were wandering down the streets as I played with my yoyo. I must admit, I was very surprised by the very large number of people who were wandering about even at this late hour. I guess that’s just how it is in London.

“Yo, yo, yo, yo!” shouted somebody. It took me a moment, but I eventually realised that they were talking to me.

“Hello,” I said, as I turned around and smiled at the group of three people who were looking at me. We were in no hurry, so I decided to head over and have a chat with them.

“Do a trick with it!” said the one who’d caught my attention.

“I can only really do the regular up and down. Well, actually, I can do a kind of loop the loop thing with it, I’ll try and do that.”

I tried to do the loop the loop thing, but, it went badly.

“Don’t be modest,” he said, “I saw what you were doing before I spoke to you! Man, you’re the Yoyo World Champion!”

“I’m not!” I said. “I couldn’t even USE a yoyo until six months ago when a good friend of mine bought me one and taught me how to do the basics.“

“Can I try and use it?” said a young woman who was with him.

“Oh, of course!” I said as I handed it over. “Just pull upward as soon as it gets to the bottom.”

She successfully yo-ed it once, but, the second time she failed.

“Aw, I am terrible at using a yoyo…” she said sadly.

“Well, don’t be sad about it, its main use is entertainment. It’s not a contest,” I said.

Meanwhile, I realised that the man who had spoken to me first was now videoing Dalfino and asking him to tell a joke. Dalfino couldn’t think of anything, so he turned the camera on to me.

“Do you know who I am?” he asked.

“No,” I said, “I did only meet you a minute ago after all!”

“That’s good,” he said and smiled. “Now tell me a joke!”

“Well, I’m sorry but it’s a little hard to think of one on the spot like that,” I said.

“C’mon, lots of people are watching you, don’t let them down!”

“Okay, well, I did actually just think of a good one.”

“What is it?”

“What do you get when you cross fireworks with ducks?” I asked.

“I don’t know, what is it?”

“Fire quackers!” I said with a laugh. They all laughed too.

“And that’s the best joke you know?”

“Yes, it’s very good isn’t it?”

“Heh heh, yeah, alright mate. Goodbye!”

And with that I said goodbye to my new friends and continued on through the streets with Dalfino.

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Victim Number 3

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Adam Randall

Oh gosh, they got Girlock. So now this strange ‘infection’ will begin to spread across all of Finger Puppet Land…

Puppets can be bought here.

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The Murders in Rue Morgue (The Dupin Tales) by Edgar Allan Poe

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Adam Randall

Edgar Allan Poe created a character named C. Auguste Dupin. Dupin is often called the first detective and is certainly an interesting and original character. All of the stories in this collection are about Dupin and an unnamed friend of his (the narrator), and the crimes they investigate in Paris. Poe wrote three Dupin stories and all of them are collected in this book.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue, rating: 8.5/10
This is the story which introduces us to C. Auguste Dupin. It starts with a section on analysing, then goes on to explain how is was that the narrator came to meet Dupin before we find out about the actual murder. People who like to be able to solve the murders through clues in the story might be disappointed with this, as it must be almost impossible to determine the solution based only on what you’re told. There are funny moments in the story, but there are also horrific moments and, at one point, it’s downright surreal. All this adds up to make this a great story.

The Mystery of Marie Rogêt, rating: 7.5/10
This story seems to be a lot more serious than the first, which is probably due to the fact that it involves Dupin investigating a real life murder (kind of.) Aside from a few humorous moments where Dupin is very critical of false theories about the murder, this whole story is a lot darker than the first. I did enjoy the shift of tone, but what was slightly tedious was the fact that the entire story is basically one long monologue by Dupin, I felt the characters could have actually done a little more. This was a generally interesting and enjoyable story though.

The Purloined Letter, rating: 7/10
After how grim the last story seemed, there’s a big change in tone with this light-hearted tale. Here Dupin is given the task of finding a letter which has been stolen, which he does very quickly and cleverly. Still a good story, but my least favourite of the three. This one just seemed to lack the substance of the other two.

Buy it here.

(Originally there an a post called “Video Call” here, but it had to be taken down and, as such, I have replaced it with a review!)

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Heart-Warming

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Adam Randall

I was out taking my evening walk along with my brothers the other day and at the end of it they wanted to pop into Co-Op in order to buy themselves a snack. While they went in, I waited outside with the dogs. Also outside of Co-Op were a couple of teenagers who had said hello to my brothers and I when we arrived. Once the pair of them were inside, one of the teenagers came over to me and started talking to me.
    “You were always so nice to me at school,” he said, “so I want to shake your hand.”
    Now, I’m not a particularly large fan of shaking hands but I liked this very much. I must admit though, that I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt, because I didn’t recognise or remember this person at all, but this was still a very heart-warming moment for me. You see, friends and family may give compliments sometimes, but your friends and family obviously value their relationships with you and therefore would be likely to say nice things to you. Now, of course I’m not saying that nice things people you know say should be disregarded, just that things from strangers have a little more weight to them as they have no reason to say anything nice to you. This made me very happy, anyway, because it was as if I were receiving a confirmation that I am indeed being nice in life. I quite often, as I’m sure everybody else does, question whether I am really a ‘good person’ and so moments like these are wonderful reassurances. This was a person I had no memory of at all, but clearly I had had quite a big impact on him.
    “Do you smoke weed, mate?” asked his friend.
    “Ha!” he replied. “Nah mate, not him, he doesn’t.”
    And so it seems that he even remembered things about me! I do hope this entry doesn’t seem arrogant or boastful, but this was a very nice moment for me and so I felt the need to record it.

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Donkey Kong Country Returns

Posted on June 23, 2013 by Adam Randall

After a fourteen year gap, this game was the fourth in the Donkey Kong Country series. Unlike the first three games, this instalment was made by Retro Studios rather than Rare and so there are a few differences. On the whole things are the same though: it is still a side-scrolling game where you progress through levels and have many secrets to discover through exploration.

Probably one of the biggest changes is this: for the first time King K. Rool and the Kremlings do not appear at all. So, while the first three games each had a very similar set of enemies each time, this game brings with it an entirely new set (the Tiki Tribe). Other than that, though, the story still plays a very minor part, and, in fact it is very similar to the first game: the Tikis come out of some kind of hibernation, infest Donkey Kong Island, and steal the Banana Hoard, so Donkey and Diddy travel across the island to defeat them.

Gameplay wise, there are quite a few additions: there are now several levels where you fly along on a Rocket Barrel, these levels are usually pretty fasted paced, often having you being chased by something, and are very welcome addition (they seem to be the only reference to the third game, too). In fact, the entire game is often faster paced than the previous titles ever were: often you have to hurry to the end of a level because the whole world is collapsing around you. You now also control Donkey Kong and Diddy together, rather than having one follow the other: they can take four hits between them, Diddy going after two (and so with him, the ability to use his jet pack which slightly prolongs your time in the air when you jump). As well as the increased number of health points, every level has numerous check-points; you might think that all of these additions make the game a lot easier, but actually even with these I would say that this game is a lot harder than the other three. With only two hit points and one check-point per level, some parts of the game would be darn near impossible!

This game has quite a change in graphic style too: everything now, while still side-scrolling, has full 3D graphics and the world looks slightly more cartoony to me when compared to the more realistic looking levels of the earlier games. Having said that, that lovely indefinable ‘feel’ of the past games is still there. As always for this series, this game has a wonderful soundtrack (which includes remixes of old tracks) which is very immersive.

On the whole, while this is a fresh new instalment to the series, I was slightly disappointed by the lack of certain elements: Funky Kong does not appear at all, Rambi is the only Animal Buddy that appears and there are no underwater levels. I also felt that, while the first three games very much felt connected, this one seems unconnected to the rest. Nonetheless, this is very good and equally as good as the first in the series. Rating: 9.5/10

Buy it here.

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Love is Blind

Colin Makes a New Friend

Fighting

Protector

The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters

Champion

Victim Number 3

The Murders in Rue Morgue (The Dupin Tales) by Edgar Allan Poe

Heart-Warming

Donkey Kong Country Returns

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