Ok, so I had this crazy idea. I'mma go read one of Jesus's parables a day, and then spending an hour sitting thinking about it and what it actually says. Which is fair enough.
Then I decided I'm gonna take it a step further. Now lately I've been sending out quite a few emails to various friends with bible commentary and things, and I thought to myself, "why not try blogging it? Could be interesting."
So that's just what I'm going to do. Oh dear. So anyway, set up a new blog, where I'll be posting said daily musings. Or hopefully daily anyway, assuming real life doesn't cause me to miss the odd day. Aparently there are a total of 71 parables in the gospels, but some of those are repeats. The catholic encylopedia reckons 33 total, I've seen a list of 57
somewhere, aanother with 40, aparently if "proverbial phrases" are included it can reach up to 60. So I'll have to work out exactly how to handle this, write up a list etc, but I'm estimating it'll take maybe 2 months to go through? Should be fun.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Nanowrimo
So like, midnight. Which means that as it's November 1st I get to start on my nano novel for this year. Crap crap crap! Need to get a few thousand words in to make up for the three days I'mma miss at the end of the week.
So I'm picking up with Benny again this year. Amongst other characters. Gonna do a sorta encyclopedia of the Woodsman setting through the eyes of various different characters. Should be either pretty good or a pile of rubbish ready to be chucked out, methinks...
So I'm picking up with Benny again this year. Amongst other characters. Gonna do a sorta encyclopedia of the Woodsman setting through the eyes of various different characters. Should be either pretty good or a pile of rubbish ready to be chucked out, methinks...
Monday, June 11, 2007
Well this is inconvenient
Ever have one of those weeks you have ansolutely no memory of whatsoever, and're only vaguely aware that you manged to do an unhealthy amount of work?
Yeah. So from what I recall, I spent the last week finishing off a huge amount of colelge work I was seriously behind on, culminating in my staying up until 2AM on tuesday, failing to actually fall asleep for more than an hour before i had to get up at 6, and then, for various reasons,
being totally unable to catch up on lost sleep. At all. Carn't be healthy. I also had a scare partway through the week where I thought I might be at risk of a heart attack, but it turns out it was jsut stress.
Oh, and my script's been untouched since last sunday as a result. Not cool.
So anyway, if anyone happens to reads this and knows of something important i've forgotten, tell me. ASAP.
Talking of scripts, I believe I have wandered into one of the greatest cases of word padding yet. Y'know when y'suddenly decide that jokes are good? And that turning your script into an excuse for lots of jokes is ewasier than actually having a plot? Yeah?
Exactly. Prison jokes and airport jokes are in, actually bothering to work out where the whole thing's going is out. Even been coming up with my opwn variants on some classic sketches in the hope that it works. Fan-bloody-tastic.
Worst bit is, some of them are actually quite funny. And most of those are the bits I came up with myself, which is just wrong on so many levels.
The plus side is, I had a dnetist appointment today to get some fillings put in. And it was a bit nasty. Horrible experience in fact: came quite close to having a panic attack a few times. Nasty, naty. Now that's great inspiration for a scene...
Yeah. So from what I recall, I spent the last week finishing off a huge amount of colelge work I was seriously behind on, culminating in my staying up until 2AM on tuesday, failing to actually fall asleep for more than an hour before i had to get up at 6, and then, for various reasons,
being totally unable to catch up on lost sleep. At all. Carn't be healthy. I also had a scare partway through the week where I thought I might be at risk of a heart attack, but it turns out it was jsut stress.
Oh, and my script's been untouched since last sunday as a result. Not cool.
So anyway, if anyone happens to reads this and knows of something important i've forgotten, tell me. ASAP.
Talking of scripts, I believe I have wandered into one of the greatest cases of word padding yet. Y'know when y'suddenly decide that jokes are good? And that turning your script into an excuse for lots of jokes is ewasier than actually having a plot? Yeah?
Exactly. Prison jokes and airport jokes are in, actually bothering to work out where the whole thing's going is out. Even been coming up with my opwn variants on some classic sketches in the hope that it works. Fan-bloody-tastic.
Worst bit is, some of them are actually quite funny. And most of those are the bits I came up with myself, which is just wrong on so many levels.
The plus side is, I had a dnetist appointment today to get some fillings put in. And it was a bit nasty. Horrible experience in fact: came quite close to having a panic attack a few times. Nasty, naty. Now that's great inspiration for a scene...
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Plotting
In theory if I do enough planning, I won't suffer writers block in the middle of my screenplay.
So, so far I've worked out two characters, who'll form the main focus of the story. James Maddox is the leader of a religeous cult who believes that the events of the book of Revalation have come to pass, and leads his followers on a pilgrimage to Meggido. That's tel-meggido, a settlement in israel near to har-meggido. And sometimes I wonder why I could never grasp hebrew...
Aaaanywho. T'other character's Ayman Farrakhan, a somewhat inept terrorist who really just wants to be accepted by his peers. This is one of the screenplays that'll never be picked up by a studio. (¬_¬)
What's really tricky is that, if there's a clear protagonist at theis point it's Ayman. Trying to convicne the audience to support a bastard who wants to kill lots of people isn't exactly easy. So I'm thinking I'll need to come up with some more characters to sort that out. Not sure exactly how it's working as of yet.
I reckon if I can work out what's gonna happen this week, get a treatment written by next week, hmms. COuld work, i guess.
So, so far I've worked out two characters, who'll form the main focus of the story. James Maddox is the leader of a religeous cult who believes that the events of the book of Revalation have come to pass, and leads his followers on a pilgrimage to Meggido. That's tel-meggido, a settlement in israel near to har-meggido. And sometimes I wonder why I could never grasp hebrew...
Aaaanywho. T'other character's Ayman Farrakhan, a somewhat inept terrorist who really just wants to be accepted by his peers. This is one of the screenplays that'll never be picked up by a studio. (¬_¬)
What's really tricky is that, if there's a clear protagonist at theis point it's Ayman. Trying to convicne the audience to support a bastard who wants to kill lots of people isn't exactly easy. So I'm thinking I'll need to come up with some more characters to sort that out. Not sure exactly how it's working as of yet.
I reckon if I can work out what's gonna happen this week, get a treatment written by next week, hmms. COuld work, i guess.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Stephen gets his site stolen by the Iranians
So I log on to winterrevolution this morning, and get a 403 error. That's "you do not have permission to view this site", for those folk who aren't big on netspeak. My immediate reaction is "good grief, some idiot's gone and fiddeld with something", so I log in to the ftp only to be told the NTFS definitions are out of date. And a quick check at entfirms tells me my ftp's empty. At this point I'm beggining to wonder.
So, I go to a quick check with some of my resources and find out how pinging works: every country that pings gets a 403 with one exception: Tehran.
Oh hells yes. The nutters who sent me death-threats have finally managed something. I'm now the proud owner of some sorta jihad site or somethign! Yay!
...or not. Someone from the US was ncie enough to let me know she gets not a 403 error, but "site down for maintenance, will be back at 11:03 EST". Which is kinda odd to say the least. So either it'll beback to normal soon, or I'll find out what the Iranians have done to it.
Two years I've been with netfirms, and this is the first time they've put me down for maintenance and given me a 403.
So, I go to a quick check with some of my resources and find out how pinging works: every country that pings gets a 403 with one exception: Tehran.
Oh hells yes. The nutters who sent me death-threats have finally managed something. I'm now the proud owner of some sorta jihad site or somethign! Yay!
...or not. Someone from the US was ncie enough to let me know she gets not a 403 error, but "site down for maintenance, will be back at 11:03 EST". Which is kinda odd to say the least. So either it'll beback to normal soon, or I'll find out what the Iranians have done to it.
Two years I've been with netfirms, and this is the first time they've put me down for maintenance and given me a 403.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Script Frenzy
So, I decided to enter Script Frenzy this year. I mean, I was planning on doing so anyway pretty much from when I heard about it. Which was some vague mention of a possibility somehwere iirc...
Anywho. by my reckoning writing a screenplay should make two weeks tops, which gives me an extra two weeks oif planning if i need them, although that';s liekly to end in disaster if I get too overconfident about my writing ability. Goodness knows I need a plan of the whole outline to get it to work properly.
Which is where the problem comes in - I honestly haven't a clue what I'm gonna do. So many ideas floating around, most of which are completely stupid. Is it a sci-fi? Set in mdoern times? Fantasy? Historic?
Well I have a vague idea it'll be set in the UK. And be something of a surreal dark comedy. And possibly be ridiculosuly offensive to folk who don't see the funny side of nutters who blow themselves up in the name of their god.
So, yah. Islamists will feature. Be trying to avoid being overly-political about it, mind. Just seems that having terrorists as the target for jokes oculd be interesting. Other than that, I don't really know.
Im part of group TPF this year, just like with NaNoWriMo
although this time there's jsut three of us. Myself, yamPuff and vicious. And Yams has exams and stuff the first two weeks, so shes in a worse position than I am. Hmms. We've set a rule that everyone has to use the phrases "SPARTA!" and "Tonight we dine in hell!" in their scripts, and on top of that I've set the optional challenge of using "I'm Spartacus" at some point, so I'm not sure how that'll work out. Have to fit them in somewhere, and try to keep them not standing out as obviosu references. Not easy.
This is gonna be fun.
Anywho. by my reckoning writing a screenplay should make two weeks tops, which gives me an extra two weeks oif planning if i need them, although that';s liekly to end in disaster if I get too overconfident about my writing ability. Goodness knows I need a plan of the whole outline to get it to work properly.
Which is where the problem comes in - I honestly haven't a clue what I'm gonna do. So many ideas floating around, most of which are completely stupid. Is it a sci-fi? Set in mdoern times? Fantasy? Historic?
Well I have a vague idea it'll be set in the UK. And be something of a surreal dark comedy. And possibly be ridiculosuly offensive to folk who don't see the funny side of nutters who blow themselves up in the name of their god.
So, yah. Islamists will feature. Be trying to avoid being overly-political about it, mind. Just seems that having terrorists as the target for jokes oculd be interesting. Other than that, I don't really know.
Im part of group TPF this year, just like with NaNoWriMo
although this time there's jsut three of us. Myself, yamPuff and vicious. And Yams has exams and stuff the first two weeks, so shes in a worse position than I am. Hmms. We've set a rule that everyone has to use the phrases "SPARTA!" and "Tonight we dine in hell!" in their scripts, and on top of that I've set the optional challenge of using "I'm Spartacus" at some point, so I'm not sure how that'll work out. Have to fit them in somewhere, and try to keep them not standing out as obviosu references. Not easy.
This is gonna be fun.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Walking up a giant uterus, smashing demon sperm with a 2 by 4
I said I wouldn't go waste this blog dragging up past articles, but I figure seeing as I haven't updated for a while yet I'm currently in no mood to come up with something original (long story. Suffice to say I really aint up to much at present), here's one from nintendowned.com which I personally think is worth reprinting. Enjoy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following was published to Nintendowned.com in April 2006, in the "Retrospective" column.
So I'm sitting here consuming vast quantities of caffiene in an attempt to reache the state of mental breakdown required to actually complete a coin-op, when it suddenly hits me. I'm sitting here playing retro games, and I'm wasting so much potential. I have hundreds of games, good and bad, fun and boring, worth writing about and worthy of throwing in the bin. And some of them, not all, but some, are begginers of series. So read on, dear reader, as I tell you of some of the wonders you may have missed. The great games that will forever have a place in the hearts of those of us who enjoyed them at the time. Whether you're too young to have played them or just didn't come across them for whatever reason, these games are ones you should hunt down. Now! And if you played them at the time, maybe you'll enjoy revisting them from an interesting perspective.
Now, I don't want to try preaching here. I'm not gonna explain to you that Street Fighter II was one of the most influencial games of it's era and all that junk, oh no. Street Fighter II was and still is a bloody amazing game, plain and simple. But then, I'm not going to talk about Street Fighter II today, oh no. To start with, we're going to the amusement arcade. The box we're looking for? A little thing called splatterhouse.
---------------------------
I'm sure most of you have played at least one survival horror game. Resident evil most likely, all though of course there are many others. Alone in the dark, say. Whatever. The fact is that they all owe their roots to one game. Splatterhouse. Picture the scene. A mansion, owned by one Dr West, a parapsychologist who mysteriously vanished. Two students, Rick and Jennifer, take shelter in the mansion during a storm. Unfortunately, Jennifer is captured and Rick murdered. He is brought to life through the power of the "terror mask" and thus our game begins. Simple side-scrolling action as Rick fights his way through the mansion, killing demons with his fists or with weapons. Violent weapons. In fact, it was the first arcade game to be given a mature rating. Possibly something to do with, I kid you not, the level in which Rick walks down a giant uterus, smashing demonic sperm with a 2 by 4. Splatterhouse spawned three sequels, Wanpaku grafiti for the famicom was a Japan-only release and featured super-distorted characters. Splatterhouse 2 and 3 were improvements on the first game, keeping the difficulty level maxed whilst continuing the story. Splatterhouse3 was also notable for its multiple endings. For each level! Basically, you had to complete each level within a time limit to avoid the death of Jennifer, or Rick and Jennifers son, or what have you. And obviosuly depending how the game went, there were multiple endings. Smoothly done.
Splatterhouse: violent, impossibly difficult horror fun with a character who looks like Jason Voorhees.
---------------------------
Of course, if I'm going to discuss splatterhouse then I should start following a theme. Splatterhouse: side-scrolling beat 'em up. Streets of Rage: also a side-scrolling beat 'em up. Also known as Bare Knuckle, the SOR trilogy for the sega genesis featured one or two players fighting through a number of levels against hordes of punks in order to reach "mr X" and kill him. Sounds simple, but of course it's rather difficult. Many was the time I reached the end, only to be cut off at the last hurdle by an inability to win against the man with the machinegun. We're talking grade A fun here, people. Like Goldenaxe. A fantasy battle in a similar vein, goldenaxe featured three skimpily-clad warriors with swords, axes and magic fighting against the undead and other skimpily-clad folk to defeat Death Ader and reclaim the goldenaxe. Although of course it wasn't that simple. Riding on dragons was commonplace. Fighting was simple, yet the sheer number of enemies on screen at a time made the whole thing difficult, particularly for those of us who onserved out magic for jsut the right moment. A whole world of pain was visited upon your little man during those games. And you enjoyed it.
-----------------------------
Back to more familiar territory now, as we move onto a more conventional game, one which has survived over the years. Or rather, game type.
Tachibana Ukyo is, to many people, the epitome of "cool". Those of us who understand how to get the best out of him will tell that with Ukyo, it's not about winning but about looking good. It's known as the Ukyo philosophy. There's also a good chance you haven't heard of him. Personally, I was first introduced to him on the ferry between Brodick and Ardrossan. For those of you who don't know where that is, it's off on the North coast of Scotland, Brodick being the only main port on a small island called Arran. That arcade box was removed years ago. Doesn't mean I don't remember it though. The game in question? Samurai Shodown. I used to be very very good at that game. Still am. It's a beat-em-up very much in the style of Street Fighter, the main difference being that the characters have weapons. Swords for the most part. It also had death animations including chopping in half and extreme blood loss. Something removed from the American release. The impact of Samurai Shodown? The story goes that it was an inspiration for Soul Caliber. It also spawned a number of sequels, and the fifth game even got a rerelease on Xbox recently. You may know it as Samurai Spirit, or you may not.
Killer Instinct was also a beat-em-up with weapons. Or at least one or two characters waved the things around. 3d characters with moving 3d backgrounds. Of course the big selling point was the combo system. It had its flaws, sure, but it was also very very impressive. By hitting the correct buttons you could string together huge and complicated combos, which weren't exactly easy to block. Not like the combos in street fighter II. Those combos weren't even real combos.
Ah, yes, Street Fighter II. How many games are there? Hundreds. All of them Street Fighter II. Street Fighter 3 was a bit pish and not many folks really remember it. SF2 on the other hand was the biggy. Special moves that were easy to pull off, speed, great characters, and of course the tournament system. It was a particular arcade box, the championship edition if memory serves me correctly. You used to have a few of these things strung together. You had two players fight each other on each box, and then the winner on one box was paired off with the winner on another. Classy it was. A really good player could stay on a box for ages, getting any would-be challengers to stick in their 20p to try and beat him. And if they did, they got to play until someone could beat them. Hundreds of games, all for 20p. And that's what it's all about, hmm.
Sadly, I'm not going to continue. There's so much more i want to say, but I just don't have the time. If I write much more, I'll have to start cutting more bits out than I already have, and that just won't do. Maybe if this little rant turns out to have gone down well I'll look at some more games. Or the same ones in more detail. But for now, that's your lot. Go out and try some of thsoe games if you haven't already. Y'might be surprised.
Stephen Whitehead
21 April 2006
20:47
------------
Ignore this.
b3188c2af7db5f46c6464d43dcfc5897
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following was published to Nintendowned.com in April 2006, in the "Retrospective" column.
So I'm sitting here consuming vast quantities of caffiene in an attempt to reache the state of mental breakdown required to actually complete a coin-op, when it suddenly hits me. I'm sitting here playing retro games, and I'm wasting so much potential. I have hundreds of games, good and bad, fun and boring, worth writing about and worthy of throwing in the bin. And some of them, not all, but some, are begginers of series. So read on, dear reader, as I tell you of some of the wonders you may have missed. The great games that will forever have a place in the hearts of those of us who enjoyed them at the time. Whether you're too young to have played them or just didn't come across them for whatever reason, these games are ones you should hunt down. Now! And if you played them at the time, maybe you'll enjoy revisting them from an interesting perspective.
Now, I don't want to try preaching here. I'm not gonna explain to you that Street Fighter II was one of the most influencial games of it's era and all that junk, oh no. Street Fighter II was and still is a bloody amazing game, plain and simple. But then, I'm not going to talk about Street Fighter II today, oh no. To start with, we're going to the amusement arcade. The box we're looking for? A little thing called splatterhouse.
---------------------------
I'm sure most of you have played at least one survival horror game. Resident evil most likely, all though of course there are many others. Alone in the dark, say. Whatever. The fact is that they all owe their roots to one game. Splatterhouse. Picture the scene. A mansion, owned by one Dr West, a parapsychologist who mysteriously vanished. Two students, Rick and Jennifer, take shelter in the mansion during a storm. Unfortunately, Jennifer is captured and Rick murdered. He is brought to life through the power of the "terror mask" and thus our game begins. Simple side-scrolling action as Rick fights his way through the mansion, killing demons with his fists or with weapons. Violent weapons. In fact, it was the first arcade game to be given a mature rating. Possibly something to do with, I kid you not, the level in which Rick walks down a giant uterus, smashing demonic sperm with a 2 by 4. Splatterhouse spawned three sequels, Wanpaku grafiti for the famicom was a Japan-only release and featured super-distorted characters. Splatterhouse 2 and 3 were improvements on the first game, keeping the difficulty level maxed whilst continuing the story. Splatterhouse3 was also notable for its multiple endings. For each level! Basically, you had to complete each level within a time limit to avoid the death of Jennifer, or Rick and Jennifers son, or what have you. And obviosuly depending how the game went, there were multiple endings. Smoothly done.
Splatterhouse: violent, impossibly difficult horror fun with a character who looks like Jason Voorhees.
---------------------------
Of course, if I'm going to discuss splatterhouse then I should start following a theme. Splatterhouse: side-scrolling beat 'em up. Streets of Rage: also a side-scrolling beat 'em up. Also known as Bare Knuckle, the SOR trilogy for the sega genesis featured one or two players fighting through a number of levels against hordes of punks in order to reach "mr X" and kill him. Sounds simple, but of course it's rather difficult. Many was the time I reached the end, only to be cut off at the last hurdle by an inability to win against the man with the machinegun. We're talking grade A fun here, people. Like Goldenaxe. A fantasy battle in a similar vein, goldenaxe featured three skimpily-clad warriors with swords, axes and magic fighting against the undead and other skimpily-clad folk to defeat Death Ader and reclaim the goldenaxe. Although of course it wasn't that simple. Riding on dragons was commonplace. Fighting was simple, yet the sheer number of enemies on screen at a time made the whole thing difficult, particularly for those of us who onserved out magic for jsut the right moment. A whole world of pain was visited upon your little man during those games. And you enjoyed it.
-----------------------------
Back to more familiar territory now, as we move onto a more conventional game, one which has survived over the years. Or rather, game type.
Tachibana Ukyo is, to many people, the epitome of "cool". Those of us who understand how to get the best out of him will tell that with Ukyo, it's not about winning but about looking good. It's known as the Ukyo philosophy. There's also a good chance you haven't heard of him. Personally, I was first introduced to him on the ferry between Brodick and Ardrossan. For those of you who don't know where that is, it's off on the North coast of Scotland, Brodick being the only main port on a small island called Arran. That arcade box was removed years ago. Doesn't mean I don't remember it though. The game in question? Samurai Shodown. I used to be very very good at that game. Still am. It's a beat-em-up very much in the style of Street Fighter, the main difference being that the characters have weapons. Swords for the most part. It also had death animations including chopping in half and extreme blood loss. Something removed from the American release. The impact of Samurai Shodown? The story goes that it was an inspiration for Soul Caliber. It also spawned a number of sequels, and the fifth game even got a rerelease on Xbox recently. You may know it as Samurai Spirit, or you may not.
Killer Instinct was also a beat-em-up with weapons. Or at least one or two characters waved the things around. 3d characters with moving 3d backgrounds. Of course the big selling point was the combo system. It had its flaws, sure, but it was also very very impressive. By hitting the correct buttons you could string together huge and complicated combos, which weren't exactly easy to block. Not like the combos in street fighter II. Those combos weren't even real combos.
Ah, yes, Street Fighter II. How many games are there? Hundreds. All of them Street Fighter II. Street Fighter 3 was a bit pish and not many folks really remember it. SF2 on the other hand was the biggy. Special moves that were easy to pull off, speed, great characters, and of course the tournament system. It was a particular arcade box, the championship edition if memory serves me correctly. You used to have a few of these things strung together. You had two players fight each other on each box, and then the winner on one box was paired off with the winner on another. Classy it was. A really good player could stay on a box for ages, getting any would-be challengers to stick in their 20p to try and beat him. And if they did, they got to play until someone could beat them. Hundreds of games, all for 20p. And that's what it's all about, hmm.
Sadly, I'm not going to continue. There's so much more i want to say, but I just don't have the time. If I write much more, I'll have to start cutting more bits out than I already have, and that just won't do. Maybe if this little rant turns out to have gone down well I'll look at some more games. Or the same ones in more detail. But for now, that's your lot. Go out and try some of thsoe games if you haven't already. Y'might be surprised.
Stephen Whitehead
21 April 2006
20:47
------------
Ignore this.
b3188c2af7db5f46c6464d43dcfc5897
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