A Picture a Day...?

First off, watch this video then keep reading. I promise you it's not a viral video or anything stupid like that. It's a TED talk about quite an inspiring idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uN4I1wEOXE

So, you watch it? I did. I liked it. I liked it quite alot, enough in fact to have my own idea, a different idea. How about taking a picture a day for the next year? Not a picture of me necessarily but a picture of the world around me. It's alot like Cesar's idea of taking a second of video every day but with my own twist. It's a known fact that I enjoy photography and I like to think I'm not too bad behind a camera...so why not try it? It'd be nice to keep a record of all the pictures I can accumulate in a year (around 365 I reckon....) and see what they are and why I took them. It's only an idea at the minute but I think it could turn up some interesting stuff, although I think the second of video a day would be alot easier....hmmm I don't know, might need to think on it a little more.

So it's February, time for the Frisbee Annual General Meeting (AGM for short, no shit right?) where we meet to decide on important things for the club, mainly who our new committee is going to be. This year was a little odd to say the least....we didn't end up with a full committee....2 quite important roles went unfilled, Treasurer (controls all the money) and Tournament Director (TD - enters us into tournaments and organises our own ones). We did manage to fill all the other spots, our new boss is Lex and I couldn't think of a better person for it. New captains are Jack "Sparrow" Gray, and Tom "Tomo" Wilkins. Our new media sec is Dan "Kind-eyes" Wright and our new social sec is Luke "Ian/Tampon" Coveney. It should be an interesting new comittee, sounds like each meeting is going to take a while considering who's there....not to mention the addition of yours truly as TD (now called Teddy by our new boss....) and Rory "Roofie" Keegan as our new treasurer. We had to hold a new meeting this evening to vote on who would get the two roles as it needed to sorted and all officially and stuffs, that's why this post is up so late, I was holding fire 'til I could post up all the positions. Now all that's left to do is hand over the jobs and responsibilities in time for the upcoming LSD tournament in April. Personally think we'll do quite a good job, although it's going to suck to see the third year players leave....it won't be quite the same without them.

That's pretty much it for now folks, not much else has really happened around here. Had a couple practical exams and the like but otherwise it's pretty much the same shit, different day (first time I've said that in a while....).

Catch ya later folks

A Good Day to Die Hard?

So, for Valentines Day, Christina suggested not celebrating it as it's over commercialized and kinda pointless. Why should we need a specific day to express ourselves towards others? So instead of doing something sickeningly romantic we went the other way and went to watch the new Die Hard film!

He takes your wife hostage simply 'cause he can.

Now, I absolutely love a good action film (who doesn't?) and am no stranger to the Die Hard movies. I love the first 2 and I really enjoyed the fourth one. The third one I don't like to talk about, it's good but it doesn't hold a candle to the first 2, mainly the second one which is my favourite. I mean they were excellent films, some of the best action movies I've seen and I've seen quite a few. They were and still are fantastic action movies, they were made back in the 80s and are still awesome! Back when the stunts weren't completely fake, when the heroes and villains exchanged witty dialogue that wasn't too cliched and the story was more than just "These guys are bad, this guy is good, watch him kill the bad guys.", admittedly it wasn't much more than that but still it was more than that. The new one however is literally just that. The bad guys aren't built up to the point where we should dislike them. In Die Hard, Alan Rickman makes us hate him in the first 5mins of his screen time, he plays the bad guys so damned well you can't help but love hating him, not just because we're told to, but because we want to. This new bad guy? I'm not even sure what his freaking name is let alone what he was trying to achieve....something to do with taking over the world somehow. I mean yeah that's the next logical step after you save a tower block, an airport, a city and then a country. There's not much else left to save but the rest of the world....next time though is McClane going to have to stop aliens from taking over the solar system? Then the galaxy? Before we know it John McClane is involved in a bigger war than Luke Skywalker and I don't think he's got the years left in him to make it to a galaxy far far away....My point is, whatever happened to the villains with the clearly defined objective? In all of the old Bond movies you knew what the bad guy was trying to achieve and why he (or she) shouldn't be allowed to do that but now action movies are all about you hating the bad guy because you've been told to not for what he's done or is trying to do.

Possibly one of the most iconic scenes.

In the first two films you kinda can't help but feel bad for McClane as he crawls through ventilation shafts and maintenance tunnels to dodge the bad guys that are trying to kill him simply because he's in their way. He's just an ordinary guy who happened to be in the area when shit starts to go down and being a cop he's there to serve and protect and you know, do his job. He's not there because someone is paying him alot of money or because he's been told to be there by the powers that be, he's just there because he has an everyday life. When he's done he probably goes to his local bar and has a beer and watches "football" with his friends, he doesn't go out looking for his next mission...he's not a superhero, he's just a hero. The third one he gets sucked into because *SPOILER* he happens to kill off the bad guy's brother in the first film and he's pissed at him for that (rightly so....even if they didn't get on, family is family), but even when he's sucked into the sadistic game of some nutter from Germany, he's still trying to battle a hangover from the night before. The same kind of applies to the fourth movie, he's just going about his business until shit hits the fan and he has to go on a road trip across America stopping cyber terrorists trying to tear the country apart and take it for all its worth (the spoiler warning above still covers this right). The fifth movie though he's actively going out of his way to find trouble and it's stupid. He's a cop not a special agent, he should leave that shit to his son. It's crazy how he goes from a begrudging hero to badass who hunts terrorists just because "Fuck it, why not?". No cop would go ahead and get involved in the events of the fifth movie the way McClane does just because his son is in trouble, surely you'd stop to think "Maybe that's a little out of my jurisdiction....being the otherside of the globe and all....". Yeah he gets away with it in the other movies because he has no other choice, he's thrown into the fight because he's there not because he went looking for it.

Badass.

One more thing! (Jackie Chan Adventures reference, yeah that show's awesome) It's a well known fact that McClane takes quite a beating throughout the course of his movies, the same goes for all other action movie heroes, starting off maybe a little bruised if not completely fine and ending up a bloody wreck that can barely stand by the end of the film. In Die Hard it's acceptable, he never takes such a beating that he can't walk away (well maybe hobble) and the same holds true for at least the second movie, admittedly falling off the wing of a plane is going to hurt quite a bit but it is onto snow which will cushion the blow a bit. The third one I can't think of any ridiculous injuries he sustains but there's probably something I'm forgetting. The fourth one he takes more of a beating than usual and probably goes a bit over the top but I've not seen the movie recently enough to say....what I can say for certain is that the fifth movie goes way over the top. Trying to run McClane and his son as badass action heroes for the whole movie seems to become a 1-up contest as to who can pick up the most life threatening injuries throughout and it just gets ridiculous. They both survive things that should either kill them or at least put them in hospital with a few broken bones, especially their legs, but they miraculously seem to walk everything off and barely even wince...

I'm not saying the movie is outwardly bad, I didn't enjoy it because I found it was too far flung from the originals I know and love so well. It's not a Die Hard movie in the sense that I'd like, it's just another action film. As a stand alone movie it'd be fantastic but as an extension to the Die Hard franchise it's a travesty. The scripting isn't up to scratch and the stunts are obviously faked, admittedly they're really well CGI'd but still faked. The villain lacks defining character and the plot is kinda hazy and unclear for most of the film but like I've said, if it was just another action movie, not a Die Hard, then it'd be great. The action scenes are good, the pyro is pretty spectacular, the car chase is pretty intense and the plot is almost non-existant, all good things with regards to modern day action movies, Christina loves it for all those reasons and she loved the previous films too. 

It's a good film if you just want to see some gun fights and explosions and Bruce Willis kicking some more ass (even if it's not clear why) but not if you want to see a Die Hard movie like the ones you (and I) have gotten to love. I was disappointed with it because I was expecting it to be more like the movies that have come before it, but you might not be Mr. (or Mrs. or Miss or Ms.) Reader.

Catch ya later folks

Bowled Over

So, this week there hasn't been all that much happening, skipping ahead to Thursday.

Carlton and Dan

Super League matches take place during Thursday training every fortnight and are an internal tournament for the Frisbee guys. This year there are 4 teams, Red, Green, Blue and Yellow. I'm on Blue team again, consisting of Adam, Tibs, Isak, Will and Tom. Last time we played we were against Green team and I think we just lost, but I can't quite remember. This week however we were against Yellow team and won! We traded points for a while and then we eventually broke away to take the lead and the win. As always with playing a team you know it was a good laugh and enjoyable all round. It started off shockingly though with people making silly drops that should never have happened, towards the end of the game however things really tightened up and things got alot closer and alot more tense. Next time we've got to play Red team which shouldn't be any harder than Yellow team and should be a great match.

Ayyyy Sexay Ladies!

Friday was a good one, Christina came with me and the Frisbee family bowling. We've not had a bowling social before and I was looking forward to it, even though the last time I went bowling I got beaten quite horrifically by Christina, this time was no different. We played 2 games and in both I did quite badly, barely getting above 60 points each time. In the second game though Christina came third overall beating me and about 7 other people by quite a margin. It was a great night out and I hope we do it again at some point, it'd be a good laugh again I'm sure. Petey somehow managed to throw something like 5 gutter balls in a row....no-one's quite sure how. Nick and Sarah (2 of the newbies) turned up which I wasn't expecting but it was a pleasant surprise, nice to see them getting more involved with the club, hopefully they'll stay with us. We're always looking for new players and anyone is welcome, its always good to see some new friendly faces. People went out clubbing afterwards and somehow one of them (not naming names) managed to break their toe with no recollection of how.

Saturday was a lazy day with me and Christina doing not alot all day and Sunday followed suit until I had to go to training which being a Sunday was a good laugh as always and one helluva run around. Then I got home to play Dead Space 3 with Ali which I've been waiting to do since it arrived on Thursday.

One set of scores....

...The other set.

I like the Dead Space games, they do a fantastic job of creating a tense and scary atmosphere, least they used to. I always find it more scary when there is a tense atmosphere than when something is simply jumpy. You see it all the time in movies....you get that brief second of being on edge then nothing for another 20mins until the next "jumpy" moment which more often than not you can see coming anyway! I prefer the kind of scary where even after the movie is over or you've stopped playing the game you still get that niggling feeling that you should check over your shoulder at some point just to be sure. Anyways, Dead Space 3 seems to have all the aspects we know and love with a few minor tweaks and additions. Instead of going to the in game store and buying supplies you now collect materials and craft most of your own gear (eg. weapons and armour upgrades) which I haven't quite decided whether or not is a bad thing. There's also an online Co-Op mode which Dead Space has always seemed to lack and now that it's here I'm not sure if I like it or not. Yeah now you get to stomp necromorphs with a buddy (Ali) and we're damned good at it too but it seems to detract from the atmosphere of terror that goes with these games. This one doesn't seem anywhere near as tense as the first one, although that might just be to do with the fact that I've been playing it with Ali and so we've been talking and there's not that sense of isolation there was in the first two. Isaac does interact with a number of other human characters throughout all of the games, but there's still that feeling of isolation when exploring the corridors and rooms of the derelict and wrecked ships in the first 2 that doesn't seem to be there in the third. Again that might be due to having the ability to Co-Op and have someone watching your back....although I've played part of it on single player and again the atmosphere didn't seem anywhere near as tense. It's not that the game isn't difficult, because it is, it just doesn't seem to be as scary. The abundance of Med-Kits at the start of an area may be annoying as you can't fit anything in your inventory due to all of the med-kits but by the end of the level you'll be cursing yourself for being so haphazard with them and just hoping to find one in a container somewhere before the necromorph that's been chasing you for 10 minutes because you ran out of ammo, decides it's bored and wants to redecorate the walls with your intestines.

Today? I haven't been up to much really. Played some more Dead Space but that's about it really. Keep getting reports of snow seemingly everywhere but here. There's a light dusting on the ground here but everywhere else seems to be knee deep in the stuff and it's annoying. I want to play snow frisbee dammit!

Catch ya later folks

Everyone all together

Deep breaths...

From here on out I'll do my best to try and return to posting every Monday now....

The Cathedral from the overpass.

So this week has had its ups and downs. Not going to go into too much detail, lets just say it resulted in me going to meet a few friends and have a couple drinks to try and take the edge off. Then we went training which was a laugh as always, can't say it was my best performance but hey ho. Outdoor regionals are coming up soon so we should probably start training outdoors again if we want even a hope of claiming a place at nationals.

I put my bike into the repair shop so they could replace the rear brake cable then went for a 20km bike ride along the river on Friday. After not having ridden for a good few months this probably wasn't my smartest decision but hell I did it anyway. Just glad the weather held out, despite being kinda windy and cold the sun was shining so it really helped to pick my mood up. I listened to some Emancipator for the entire ride and I have to say they have some of the most relaxing music I've ever listened to, really helps you chill out and clear your head.

Saturday was a pretty regular day, went to Christina's and watched Return of the King with her finally. She said she enjoyed the trilogy but I'm not sure if she actually enjoyed them or was just saying that because she knows how much I love those movies.

The view towards Lincoln from 5 Mile Bridge

Sunday I went to lunch with Christina and her family as a belated birthday lunch due to all the snow and everything making her folks unable to get up here for her actual birthday. We went to Pizza Hut and had a really good time, grabbed the table balloons for Christina because we all know she wanted them but was too embarrassed to take them herself. Then I went and killed time in the Library til training at 3 which was pretty freaking knackering as always. After training I came home, showered, got some food and then went to stay at Christina's. We watched Top Gear and then most of The Fast and The Furious before falling asleep.

That's pretty much all I've got to say for now


Catch ya later folks