Watching actors acting Human. (Doctor Who)

Charlie McDonnell is your random video blogger, who apparently made it huge with more fans and views everyday on youtube. He is also an avid Doctor Who fan, so after making it big, he had a request (I assume) from the BBC to make christmas confidentials of the television series.

Doctor Who is an awesome science fiction uk television series that has been running for about 50 years, even your parents might have heard of it - and simply can not be put into description.

Referencing his webpage in my last post 'the ideal blogskin', I decided to wander around a bit. I came across this video lingering somewhere at the middle of the page... it is unsettling.

As Arthur (who played Rory) invited Charlie on an on-the-spot jamming session, I know that the stars of our favourite heroes do live a normal life as we do, by fact. But seeing it on this video as to confirm that belief makes me smile to laptop screen like an idiot, but at the same time feeling down with the magic of the television series wearing off… that all of it is all act, and not true.

This is a common disease to many fans. You would be surprised at the number of people who prefer not to look behind the scenes or even try take them seriously. Unless of course if they are plagued by curiousity (which I could say rarely), or they are related to studying media. It is either that they are your average half-arses, or their attention span for technicalities behind the ‘magic’ just naturally wavers.

Even if I have done Film Studies for an A Level, I do still think you have to appreciate that acting is like any other craft – be it a writing or painting or musical piece. It is like any other depiction and you usually need an experienced agent working behind it, who works especially hard to make it come alive for everyone else to marvel. If they achieve that, they grant themselves the self-satisfaction they think they deserve.

So it is actually delightful to see them stoop down to our level offset - as human beings. We are being reminded on this video that they are indeed no different. When actors made it plain that they recognize it too, fans and non-fans alike out there reward them with an utmost respect.

New Blogskin!

The next step after initiating a public blog, is to make the blog attractive.

Now, I had my hands dirty with html codes before, so I went straight into it. Not long after, I felt completely at lost. It’s been more than 5 years since I properly toggle around with decorating websites, and my days of myspace profile editing was long gone. I’m stuck. But I’m pretty sure I didn’t want to get stuck with this ready-available blog template by blogger.

Acknowledging the fact that I’m awkwardly a noob now, I embrace the suffering.

So I went to blogskins.com for some inspiration, and maybe try to revise their codes whatever their designs, probably steal things here and there and voila – ultimately end up with my own beast skin. Doesn’t make that legitimate, but thought it would give me a head start.

It isn’t as simple as it looked. First of all, you don’t have much freedom because some of the codes are set up this way, which doesn’t necessarily agree with the other bunch of codes. In other words, you’re left with a mud pie. There’s also another factor that made this attempt hopeless. I came upon the conclusion that users who post on blogskins in majority are teenage/young adult girls. Not that I have any problem with them, but there were too much social dilemmas and identity searching quotes, a bit too many flowers for my taste too. It’s too stylized and that makes me depressed because I like simple. ):

Simplicity. It’s the only thing that tells the reader that your blog is completely harmless. So that’s an advice for you. With just the right, clean, and slick design, any reader would welcome it like a book. Too many pictures, colours, unfamiliar font types would do nothing but cloud it – and ultimately scare your reader. Would you really expect to read a book on ‘Impact’ font style without struggling?

I am left with one option - to shake hands with blogger’s ready-made template and then add a little bit of my own personal touch. It took me as long as a day and a half to play around with the advanced settings to suit my personal taste. After a few attempts of subconsciously making it too complicated, I’ve made a list to meet design requirements (It’s purely for my own benefit. Hopefully I will refer to this in the future).

So Really, What Makes A Good Blog Design?!

1. Simple, easy to read design (as I mentioned before)
2. Maximum of 3 colours that complements each other.
3. Light colours, preferably white for the blog entries
(I really tried to push black into it, but it looks constricted and solid. It’s better to read a blog with an open mind right?)
4. Not too many gadgets – it is after all, a blog. It should serve its purpose.
5. Encourage use of pictures, but with a good balance in mind.
6. (Finally) Avoid declaring openly to a specific interest – eg) a musical band. Obviously, if you put ‘Radiohead’ as your header, you’re going to be looked upon as that Radiohead-fan user who blogs. Keep yourself free from labels, unless you want to dedicate your blog to that interest!

With a few touches from photoshop for the background and the title, I can officially say that this is my design. It isn’t much, and it probably looks standard than unique (and very easily achievable) but I’m happy with it. I pride myself that I figured it all out.

Here’s a couple of blog/websites that I would give a two thumbs up for design. It’s purely coincidence that they’re blue. Here it is!

'Til next post! Mission accomplished.

Charted!

At least once in your life, there was a time in which you felt like you were lost in translation. In my case, it is the sheer happiness after completing all games from the Uncharted Series. You might think this is quite a silly post about some crazed gamer glorifying their experience, then intimidating his/her readers who will never probably play it. Well, I might do it subconsciously like everyone else (mind, this phase is no different than any kind of twilight fanaticism ;D) but all I’m intending here is to simply share a bit of the experience in just a few words and links - which doesn’t acquire you to play the game itself.

So, I’m sitting here in front of my laptop. Contemplating the time I’ve spent on my console these three weeks.... When everyone is off holiday or endorsed in some work/school (* insert pang of guilt)... While listening to this masterpiece...

 It’s no Hans Zimmer, but Greg Edmonson manages to win an award by planting some tears in your eyes. Listen to it, I dare you. Be careful now, here are some tissues.




I am a cynic player when it comes to games. I’ll most probably say that the graphic sucks and it’s over done, the system is too familiar all throughout – all it does is drill your brain with their stories only awarded if you endured the very long game play... which ultimately gives you a piercing headache. It comes with the excuse of being interested, but being profusely half arsed. I first played Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Took it through real slow until the Chateau in France ... I gave up a long time. The camera movement sizzled my eyes to a pair of small vulnerable peanuts.

Eventually I stopped being a sucker and at least try to make the money spent worth something. As you expected, it became very addictive. Like a book, the further into the story I got, the more attached I am to reveal what is next. I was completely blown away by everything that was unraveled. In fact, I found this series a tiny bit richer than my Mass Effect 2 or Fallout 3 experience. You can argue it’s about preference really... everyone remembers how to assume direct control, don’t they?

If you enjoy watching Indiana Jones, appreciate a bit of fantasy in your history books, loved Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, play Tomb Raider, this is probably the perfect combination for you. It’s like watching a Hollywood adventure epic, only you get to manoeuvre. You’ll laugh in his shoes, jump, scream, hide behind the sofa, die, and try again, then move on and on and on. The characters you meet develop, and get to indulge yourself in some breath taking sceneries to know off by heart without spending a dime on a plane ticket, then feel nostalgic when this amazing soundtrack plays into the action scene.

What this game doesn’t have is its’ player’s freedom to explore. The events and endings are fixed, so are the places and the number of enemies. If you want to have a different results to blab about with other users, you should play Heavy Rain or LA Noire instead. But those kinds of stuff I find myself restricted exactly because they want to make it as real as possible. Don't get me wrong, I love the complexity in these games. It is impressive, but it does lose that ‘edge’ feeling. Uncharted makes full use its’ game play in most aspects. You’ll be satisfied with the sufficient amount of delicious grub in your plate to want more, rather than getting overwhelmed by the amount of the side dishes - if you're that kind.

I played from the 3^rd down to the 1^st, so it will be in this order. I’ll put each game into a few strings of sentences. I promise.... :P

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Hello Sir Francis Drake and his Legendary ring. This gives you many surprises, and the graphics of the melancholy arabesque settings are absolutely breath taking. Naughty Dog has really mastered its’ cells without making it overly restricted with the game play. Plot wise, puts you on the tip of a sky scarper, and then it skins it down to a scaffold, feeling vulnerable as ever- but it pins that bond between player and Drake mostly, then his relationship with Sully. You'll be left with feeling poor half way through - not so heroic after all. Expect not that many new (or old) characters to chew with depth apart from Drake and Sully. Heck, I don’t know them because I haven’t played the other games especially enough to really care. But the amount of development is satisfactory. I'll say it's closer to reality, and pretty straightforward. THIS is the thing that got me into this mess in the first place.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Going from Borneo, to Nepal by the word of Marco Polo. Prepare to indulge yourself with an Asian adventure fantastic. Whether you played the latest or the previous installment of the series or none of them at all, Uncharted 2 will definitely seize you by the neck. You get the whole package incomplete from the third and the first: fresh new characters with funny witty one-liners, to badass boss with their annoying sidekicks that chase you around helplessly like Jaws after Human. This is where it really rolls in deep with it's content, after they finished wandering on the surface with introductions in Drake's Fortune.It gets even weirder with supernatural Guardians that looked inhuman, and that is sorely unexpected. This is the definition of a perfect Hollywood movie, plus some more materialistic surprises with the combats. I mean, huge tanks that are especially dedicated to drive off at the edge of the cliff if it means to get rid of you.

Uncharted 1: Drake’s Fortune

Greeted again by Sir Francis Drake and his ring, but by this time, the places are getting a bit constricted. You’re in the world of South America and the legendary Eldorado this time, but you spend winding your time going deeper into this unrecorded island, mostly. It’s superbly funny, and quite a lot of combat and less plot twists. There are some annoying bits, which you rather not go through like going against the rapid stream while bullets get planted through your ribs. But imagine it – a dark, closed and abandoned bunker full of corpses and rubble, evil Spaniard explorer monsters crawling after your neck, with nothing equipped but a gun and a single torchlight. At this point, I wasn’t sure if it was Dead Space/Resident Evil I’m playing. The spookiest of all. I watch my worst nightmare come to life.
....
Scaling down from Uncharted 3 to Uncharted 1 in just a few weeks, you begin to notice the number of things Naughty Dog revisited, that you seem to think ‘hmm, this is familiar... Wasn't this reused but blown up to a scale of a hundred?’, you’ll ever complain or be disappointed with it.



Note: I've only touched base on the Campaign here, leaving out the Co-Op and Multiplayer online options... because I haven't got a proper connection sadly ): I do want to play with other fans. I

I didn’t keep to my word and I chose to glorify it anyway. At least you got it in a nutshell. Bahahaha
..... That in the end, I will still firmly anticipate the upcoming of Mass Effect 3 and some other games on the list.

Gregorian Calendar Renewal. It's 2012!

You had probably heard this a million times, but it is the New Year. What’s so special about this post you might ask? Well, nothing. I’m just here to share the thoughts that had filled my head on that day.

But first of all, I had a reasonably good celebration. We were invited for a barbeque on a family friend’s rooftop. There were quite a lot of delicious Malaysian cuisine served up there in the cold, but I only made stomach for Bihun Noodles (which really is a thin type of noodle, cooked and signed perfectly Asian). I had a few good chats there, but what I was really looking forward to was the sleepover at my friend’s. Mind, I haven’t had a friend’s sleepover in a few months and this might be one of the last I’ll ever have in this country. After some inner drama of being an hour late to cater for my mum’s gossip sessions, we did indeed have a great time. There were no fireworks, so we went out of the veranda and made a series of shouts. We were at the top of the mountain, thus the echoes filled the lonesome street – we did get a few replies. Then, we retire ourselves to the guitar, some stories, and then ultimately a co-op game from uncharted 3. All of that took us till half past 5 in the morning. We never really won any map.

You could imagine us in the morning. We were the restless undead resurrected from our graves, and oh I kept on stealing some time to sleep. I slept when her brother was on Skyrim. I slept while writing a text to my dad. I even slept a bit through the epic build up in the courtroom scene from To Kill a Mockingbird film – which I was really looking forward to seeing a month back. But while I subconsciously (and cheekily) added dreams about last night’s co-op game system to the real time, I thought the day felt like back in the days when I was a small kid in Malaysia.

I always watched my brothers play games and television, and slept through a bit. We always got up and get hyped about a game or lunch - just about anything that would tweak our day, and went about it for awhie before leaning back on routine again. Then there's always this hazy heat from the afternoon sun throughout to battle ...Back in the good old lazy days.

So what is my point really?

Really, how long I’ve been spending my years looking for a perfect day that is reminiscent to my past? I’m blessed with a lot of fortune since the day I left my little hometown, and yet I've never really accepted it as my lifestyle – my mind and soul was anchored to the past. It’s like riding an extremely haunting roller coaster ride with your mind still worrying about all those glorious food you had in the restaurant just before. It makes me sad to realise that I’ve not made the fullest of my time here. Something does tell me it will hit me like a pan to the head.

This is my new year’s resolution: Confronting an episode of growing out of adolescence. You shouldn’t really beat your brains out to what it will all resolve to in the end – that a thought won’t change anything. But perspective does change nothing to wondrous results. Just sit tight and enjoy the ride.

Part 2: A friend once told me. So what connects us to our own past? The atoms in our body change, people around us change, our bones grew to different lengths, the place might as well be ripped apart if not now then soon. What proves that we're the same person as we were 5 years back, apart from the memory that connects us?

Introduction

What is there to say about me? For starters, I am a blessed with a great family. This brings me around the world, and I met new amazing friends and kept great old ones. I am eternally grateful for these simple things to start with, which made me who I am today. Of course, there are some silly dips in life, but as a whole, life is simply beautiful. I've not started anything particularly, but since it's new year I'll start with this.

I can also be quite a junky. I love a bit of games, a bit of films, a bit of books, passionate about art, about music, and just about how some things just work.

About time for a refreshing new start.