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Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
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When this is the sort of thing that appears in respected journal papers you're researching for your PhD, you know you're pretty much fucked.
[Zinar7]
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Monday, September 21st, 2009
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This is just mad awesome:
I've been banging on about Monkey Island since circa 1992, but it's finally quite comforting to finally be bathing in almost universal appreciation of the series, thanks to Telltale's reinvention of the franchise (and, quite possibly, the whole adventure genre) with Tales of Monkey Island. Ask me what my favourite type of game is, and I'll flatly tell you "Point and click adventures" without a thought, and it was almost totally Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge that caused that to start. Curse... was flawless, and while Escape... had its faults, it was still a worthy addition to the series. And judging by the first two-fifths of Tales so far, the series seems like it's about to take off again.
So yeah, I'm pretty proud of all this universal back-slapping that seems to be going on with Monkey Island; including the aforemention above Cryengine mod that shows that a lot of other people are proud of the series' resurgence in recent months, and seriously, I can't be pleased enough ^^
[Zinar7]
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Saturday, September 12th, 2009
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Further to this post, here's an updated list of what's on the agenda. I've expanded on a few thins and added a few more items from the list of things I've been playing/doing/watching yada yada over the last couple of months. Maybe as I plough through some of it I'll delve even further back to things I abandoned quite some time ago, but there's even on there to harvest from for the time being anyhows.
This is mainly a boot up my arse to stop flitting about and to focus on things until they're done, in addition to meaning that I can draw a line under a ton of games/books/series and move on to a whole new bunch of stuff very soon, which is deeply exciting. Either way, I'm hoping that it at least amuses me enough to fill the time I would otherwise spend being largely bored and trying to amuse myself in the gap where I'm in no-man's land between not quite being at uni and properly being at uni. Oh well, here goes v2.0 anyhow:
Video Games: (no order)
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (Nintendo DS)
The World Ends With You (Nintendo DS) [complete remaining post-story secret reports]
Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS) [complete all remaining Mirror Class cups and time trials]
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Sony PS2) [finish story mode and complete do-able side missions]
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Sony PS2) [complete remaining songs on Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert]
Super Paper Mario (Nintendo Wii) [finish story mode]
Peggle Nights (PC) [finish single-player adventure mode and challenges]
Theme Hospital (PC) [finish remaining single-player scenarios]
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC) [finish single-player adventure]
World of Goo (PC) [complete single-player levels]
Monopoly Tycoon (PC) [finish remaining single-player scenarios]
Books/Manga:
Nick Hornby - How to be Good
Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
New Scientist - Does Anything Eat Wasps?
Tv:
Peep Show series 1-5 box set
Anime:
Mahou Sensei Negima! [Magister Negi Magi eps. 04-26]
Devil May Cry [eps. 05-12]
Hellsing [eps. 07-13]
Expect more updates/evolutions to this as time passes *grins cheesily* =D
[Zinar7]
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Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
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It's come to my attention that I have so much damned stuff hanging around that's about half done. This list includes a bunch of games I've half-finished, books I've half-read and TV/anime series I haven't finished yet. So, since I've just come back from a spectacularly enjoyable week with my Bryface and just over two weeks before I head back down South permanently to start PhD-related activities, I've decided to officially denote these remaining two weeks to sorting out those things that I've been too lazy, distracted or forgetful to complete.
This is by no means an exhaustive list (just what comes to mind at the moment), but I'm determined to -at least- determinedly finish-off:
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (Nintendo DS)
GTA: Liberty City Stories (PS2)
Nick Hornby - How to be Good
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2)
Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Super Paper Mario (Nintendo Wii)
Mahou Sensei Negima! (Magister Negi Magi)
There's also a bunch of casual games I've been playing (Theme Hospital, Worms: World Party, Monopoly Tycoon, Peggle Nights) that I'm yet to get entirely through all the scenarios/missions, some casual books I've been flicking through (New Scientist 'Last Word' compilations comes to mind), and while I'm not going to earmark them in a defined list, maybe I'll spend a few more hours on each to really polish them off before I largely say goodbye to the fun and frolics of games, movies and literature in favour of some actual proper work for a change =S
Anyways, I'm going to head off to ponder over how in the name of Raptor Jesus Derren Brown can be so fucking good at things. Meh, until next time; courage.
[Zinar7]
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New video of our beautiful rats (Malkyn, Elphaba and Tonks) being their usual menacing selves whilst I was down South visiting Bryface:
I'd forgotten how much I hate the sound of my voice on film, but I guess it's overshadowed by the enormous amount of cute our rats seem to possess, so I'll let it slide ¬_¬
Kayaking with the gang tomorrow. Awesome.
[Zinar7]
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Man, my head is hurting so dicking much today. Also, I've been tired as hell and practically unable to concentrate on just dozily making small conversation, let alone doing anything productive or even being able to keep track of watching a TV programme.
Actually starting to think that there's something wrong with me, since I'm always really, really tired regardless of the sheer deluge of sleep I've been getting at the moment, and it's becoming incredibly infuriating to not be able to concentrate for more then ten minutes on a book, movie, game or TV show without switching off in my head, or just wanting to lie down and shut my eyes for the rest of eternity.
Currently reading King Solomon's Mines, which is turning out to be a whole lot fucking better than I even thought it would, and just started The World Ends With You on the DS, which is about as whole lot fucking awesome as I thought it'd be. Bryony's staying over at my house for the foreseeable few weeks; present just in time to make our way over to Tewkesbury for the Medieval Festival weekend, plus any other shenanigans with any of the other crew that may still be in the vicinity. [Switch? Davidros?]
Guh, going to slink back off the sofa to lie down again and wallow in some delicious laziness. Over and out.
[Zinar7]
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Nothing much to speak of today, bar dumping a bunch of photos from my recent trip to Thorpe Park that've just made their way to Facebook, but haven't made it here yet. Plus, since I haven't made any sort of decent entry about it (or in recent memory at all), I'll wrap everything up here, too.
Woke up dastardly early to get picked up by Alice at 8am to get her, Bryony and me on the road; pulling into the park at around 9:15 ready for opening at 10. Since we'd nabbed half-price tickets (well, 2 for 1) we decided to go for FastTrack tickets, meaning for a few rides at particular times we could pretty much just walk on without having to queue, meaning we'd have more time in the rest of the day for some of the long-queueing rides like Saw: The Ride and Stealth. By happy chance, however, it appeared that upon opening everyone had scampered over to the queue for the newly-opened Saw that there was literally no queue for the second most-popular ride in the park, Stealth, which accelerates from 0-80mph on a horizontal start in around 1.8s before launching you vertically upwards, over the peak and then vertically downwards and screeching you to a halt on level ground again. As an instant rush, it certainly does its job, but if you'd had to queue for around an hour (as is usual) for the five seconds of thrill, maybe you'd feel a bit short-changed.
We then headed for the Rumba Rapids ride and spinning teacups on Storm in a Teacup, before persuing more traditional rollercoasters in the form of Colossus and the inverted Nemesis Inferno; both of which were most enjoyable. I think, out of the park's whole amusements, these were the two I enjoyed the most - I'm a sucker for old-school rollers that dip and duck you all over the place, yet having the longevity and stamina to last the length of a full ride, unlike Stealth or the disappointing X:\ No Way Out, which is a 'backwards' ride which is contained entirely indoors and in the dark.
We then sourced lunch from the car, having pre-packed everything before we set out, and then proceeded to get completely soaked on the aptly-titled Tidal Wave; so much so, in fact, that I was still wet in patches at the end of the day despite it being pretty much the warmest, sunniest, most beautiful day of the summer so far. We went on a few other rides from then, like the spinny Vortex and the free-fall Detonator before investigating the thrills offered by Saw: The Ride.
I'm a fan of the Saw series, despite its relative death at the hands of the law of diminishing returns, so I was intrigued by what Saw: The Ride had to offer. It built up tension quite dramatically from the fore, with the queueing system set up to appear like huge 'pens' for humans, topped with faked razor wire, to simulate some sort of death camp. The ride begun in an (simulated) abandoned warehouse, covered with fake CCTV to simulate Jigsaw watching your every move, and with the compound full of old pieces of saw machinery, rusty pieces of metal, an abandoned police car and speakers playing looped messages of a cop who's apparently breaking into the compound in search of Jigsaw, only to hear all other officers shot down or killed by trip-wire. Indeed, once inside, you'd be queueing then suddenly hear the cocking of guns at which point you'd look up to see a couple of shotguns fire at you (simulated, of course), with the rushing of air at you. Deeply thrilling. Other props included a mannequin in a room of razor wire, emulating a scene from the original Saw, and a Jigsaw/Billy puppet on a tricycle challenging you to at the start of the ride to 'play the game'. The ride itself was a short, sharp monster; the main attraction being a pitch-black section near the beginning of the ride and a 110-degree vertical drop toward a set of giant, rotating saws in the outside section. Perhaps it wasn't quite worth the two-hour wait to get on it, but it was a darned fine exercise in rollercoaster thrills.
All in all, a mighty fine day; and for further proof, check out some of the photos under the cut:
( Thorpe Park 24/06/09 )
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Saturday, June 27th, 2009
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Just got back from seeing the Compagne Transe Expresse perform a, frankly, amazing performance called 'Mobile Homme' at an evening open-air performance at Southampton Guildhall.
A French street performance troupe, it consists a bunch of drummers marching around in marionette/Napoleonic uniforms among the crowd before being attached to a crane to be lifted into the air (still drumming) as part of a giant human mobile which is then rotated above the audience, accompanied by a trapeze artist performing on the uppermost rung of the mobile. The display was backdropped by a beautiful summertime sunset, and a stunning fireworks display, acting as a exquisite finale. As a piece of performance art, it was simply mind-blowing; the power of the drums seeming to reinforce the visuals in your mind by forging them straight into your brain. Simply awesome.
Videos of the show seem to be thin on the ground, but Youtube's thrown up this one from a 2007 show; give it a watch if you're at all interested:
Their website (see link at top of post) shows that they've got a lot of other shows on their books (mny including other mobile-based extravaganzas, one involving violinists), and I'd be very intrigued in seeing them again if they're ever on tour anywhere nearby again ^^
[Zinar7]
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Thursday, June 25th, 2009
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Man, I want pretty much all of these so hard:
12 Bad-Ass Chess Sets
I'm not the world's greatest chess player or indeed be any good at it at all, but some of these are just so damned pretty ^^
[Zinar7]
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
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Just came across this whilst scouring the intarwebs: Flickr: Ghost in the Machine.
Really like this guy's work; maybe it's just the concept that totally appeals to me. This is one is by far my favourite ^^
Anyway, I've got things to do; catch y'all later.
[Zinar7]
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Having lots of fun with this site: The Ultrainteractive KungFu-Remixer. Some of the stuff you can do with it is pretty funny, but it's a shame you can't save your best remixes and re-watch them or something; well, if you can, then I haven't worked out how to do it, bah. Anyway, yeah, Bruce Lee is awesome.
Finally managed to sign all my PhD paperwork today so will probably head up to uni after lunch to go and drop it all off, given that it's reasonably sunny outside and I've been putting off doing it for over a week now. Sorted!
[Zinar7]
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Had lots of fun with this on the Common today; well, not exactly a proper Air Bear but a reasonably decent rip-off one from Ebay which seems to do the job pretty well. Headed out with Bryony and Kim expectorating a few others to join us, but who were sadly unavailable. Picnicky lunch was made of vast quantities of food and awesome, leading to copious face-stuffing and overeating but pleasantly full tummies.
The sun as being a bit of a recluse but at intervals made it out of the clouds long enough to warrant suncream and things, leading to some very pleasant lazing around on Bry's new picnic blanket with books and/or napping before digging out Air Bear and spending an absolute age trying to untangle all its wires before an excitable dog approached, managed to get its feet caught up in the freshly-untangled chute and totally freaking out, running off and tangling the bastarding thing up again, grr ¬_¬
Anyways, there's a few photos of Air Bear's maiden flight (our previous attempt a couple of weeks ago doesn't count =P ) are under the cut. Fun!
( Southampton Common Kite-Flying 15/06/09 )
Currently watching a very silly detective spoof with Bryony and Alex, and enjoying general lazing around out of the early evening heat. Awesome.
[Zinar7]
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Thursday, June 11th, 2009
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Discovered this today, and it's just awesome:
Wish I could do stuff like that; sure as hell takes a lot more patience than I'm likely capable of, gah.
Currently hanging out in the living room with Bry, Kim, Jose, Umbra and Trim mopping up the rest of the nachos made for Shamikebab's leaving lunch and waiting for Jeremy Kyle to come on. Going to head off in an hour or so to meet Alice in town for afternoon tea and cake and things because I haven't seen her for ages. Shame that it coincides with Dan leaving for pretty much forever, but I guess that's how these things work out sometimes =(
Also got through a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX on the Gameboy Colour which I'm extremely looking forward to playing. Zing!
[Zinar7]
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They're making new Monkey Island and things. How did I not know about this? =\
[Zinar7]
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So I joined Twitter. Yes, it's bandwagon-jumping and so on and so forth but I guess I've beat down on it for long enough without trying it (like I did with World of Warcraft before actually playing it and giving me justification to all that slagging-off) and I've tried pretty much every other hyped-up Web 2.0 application, so I guess I'm due to at least give it a try.
I'll probably end up using like I do Digg; not actually tweeting/digging anything but checking it pretty much every day to see if there's anything interesting going on as some kind of alternative news service. I'm more interesting in upping my blogging count back to levels around a few years ago and linking my use of Facebook and Eljay a lot more, so I'm game enough to give it a try, at least.
Anyway, I'm zinar7, so if you're already on there then hit me up ^^
Righty, I'm going to get on with some Zelda: Twilight Princess and Animal Crossing Wii, so I shall see y'all soon. Eep.
[Zinar7]
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Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
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Greetings thar; it's been a week or so since my last post, so I guess it's my duty to fill in the gaps with what's been going down, and also to post a few links to a few things that've made me chuckle quite recently ^^
Spent the last weekend staying at Bryony's and making full use of the extra day afforded by the bank holiday - Saturday turned out to be the Newtown village fete, which offered much silliness and amusement with watching children fail at country dancing, dogs fail at agility trials and ourselves win with ice-cream and glorious sunshine; followed by a three-way-birthday-lunch-buffet-thing at Bry's grandparents' house which involved a ridiculous amount of home-made food (including my awesome pizza, Bryony's amazing caramelised onions/goats' cheese pastries and a selection of spectacular desserts) which left us unable to get through even half of it all, and through which my unwise attempt to stuff as much banoffee pie as possible into my face was still making me feel sick a whole twenty-four hours after the event =S
Last Tuesday Bryony and myself jaunted over to Winchester for an enjoyable day's excursion, filling ourselves up on cheap pasties; heading over to see the Round Table in Winchester's Great Hall; annoying the snobby man in the museum by going round the place the wrong way round[*], messing with the hands-on activities originally intended for 3-7 year olds and sitting at the toddlers' colouring-in table to crayon-design our own piece of Roman pottery for a good fifteen minutes whilst getting many odd looks from the other visitors; hanging out in the Cathedral's park-like grounds in the sunshine; charity-shopping our way round the whole town with a bargain-hunting vehemence; and finally heading to a charming Italian restaurant for a frankly delicious meal in the evening which otherwise rounded off a mighty awesome day out. I've always liked Winchester, and it's to my loss that, even though it's only a short skip from Southampton itself, I haven't made an effort to visit it more; particularly for an entertaining evening out, since my one experience remains the time myself and housemates went to an awesome cocktail bar that not only did some delicious non-alcoholic cocktails but also had the savvy to be playing Transformers: The Movie on big screens (albeit without sound) whilst doing it ^^
In other news, Green Day's latest album has still had me hooked since I got it - It's certainly a grower, and repeated listens oust more and more the initial feeling or disappointment on first listen; so much so that -bar a couple of tracks which I just can't get my head around- some of the songs are even elevating to some of my favourites ('Peacemaker', in particular, is a delight). I've liked Green Day for nearly ten years now and while I was very aware of my attitude of 'they used to be better in the old days', their latest material still manages to stand up on its own. I'll have that proper review for you when I properly sit down to properly write things (most likely this weekend, when I'm heading back to Kingtonshire for a charming weekend home), but the longer I listen to it and the further I delve into it, I like it even more; anyway, expect a more rounded critique sometime in the next few days.
This has just had me in stitches for weeks. I know I can't get enough of Picard YTMNDs, but this is one of the best I've seen in a long time =D
I think I had more to say at this juncture, but I've completely forgotten what the hell I was going to talk about - I had intended to head off into town to pick up a few things and collect some ingredients for a exam-finishing curry I've got planned for Bryony, so am hoping that the precipitation wears off in the next couple of hours else I get distinctly damp during my scouting expedition =Z
Anyways, that's it from me for now; catch y'all soon. Eep.
[Zinar7]
[*] The conversation happened to go something like this, perhaps with some slight exaggeration:
Snobby Museum Guy: *imitates snobby voice* "But it's a timeline! You'll get the most from the museum if you start from the top and work your way down!"
Us: "But we want to go this way."
SMG: "But the timeline works best if you start from the first floor and work down!"
Us: "But we want to go this way."
SMG: "Yes, but the timeline! THE TIMELINE!"
US: *walks off*
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#2: Beautiful Katamari (Xbox 360)
It was the mighty Davidros who first introduced me to the glorious world of Katamari nearly three years ago now; and three years on, I haven't looked back. That introduction was the PS2's glorious We Love Katamari, an experience I recall quite simply as "several guys staring fixatedly at the screen in overjoyed wonder of a small green person rolling things up into a ball in an attempt, ultimately, to roll up the Sun"; something that, had you told me that I would be experiencing, would probably resulted in me backing away from you very slowly before having away as fast as my rather unathletic build would take me. Be that as it may, I wasn't prepared for the simple joy that Katamari would bring to my life from that point onwards, and it is probably all the better for that.
You see, the world of Katamari is really unlike anything you will have ever witnessed in a video game, and I'll explain why first before explaining why that's a good thing. The story revolves around the King of the Cosmos, and his son, The Prince, who must take charge of a sticky spherical object with rounded points on it (the aforementioned Katamari) to negotiate the gameworld collecting all manner of strange objects, usually to fulfil such requests as tidying up Earth, building new stars and planets from the junk you've collected, or using it to plug up a black hole which has formed in the Cosmos and has forced the King to halt his game of tennis to investigate. Thus, the player must push around Katamari across various different levels (usually gaining in size during the game, so you'll be rolling up metre-high Katamari at the beginning but eventually rolling up galaxies and stars during the final stages) using a rather intuitive control system, bundling up objects, people, animals, buildings, vehicles, islands, trees, and whatever-the-hell-else along the way like a snowball that just keeps on getting larger and larger; so far, so bizarre. It's just one of those niche games that never really makes sense until you play it, and even then it doesn't really make any sort of real sense; it just triggers some tiny button in the back of your mind that makes your brain think: "I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing or why, just that, right now, this is the most important thing in the world." So much of its charm is that sheer 'what-the-hell' factor that approaches everything that you're doing; something that you're constantly questioning yourself: "Why, dear Gods, why??," but never letting it stop your manic, unstoppable rolling.
In essence, the gameplay remains exactly the same as the series' previous releases, retaining the same stylings as the aforementioned We Love Katamari. Aside from a few graphical tweaks and converting it to HD (all resulting that there's slightly more onscreen to roll up at any one time), it looks just the same; including all those clipping issues as bits of your katamari pass through walls, the floor and everything else. Though since I'm guessing clearing all that up would cause the game a major headache to sort out it's slightly preferable to leave it unresolved in order to maintain the fast-paced, steamrolling motion, one can't help but wonder whether any work at all has been done to update the game from the PS2 originals other than that HD option and a few quirky features utilising XBox Live - The graphics maintain the same style of its predecessors, thus retaining the blocky, polygonal nature of many of the objects in the gameworld: While this added to the charm of the original games, now the series has made its first step onto next-gen platforms it's a slight disappointment to discover that all gameworld/rollable items keep their primitive visuals and that no evolution has occurred to make full use of the 360's improved performance over the the PS2's Emotion Engine.
Likewise, each stage's structure maintains the same ethos - The Price is dumped into a particular environment (unique to that stage) and must roll a katamari of size xcm in y minutes; a failure to do so within the defined time limit leads to an amusing cut-scene in which The King places The Prince on a snooker table, chastising him for his failed effort whilst simultaneously rolling Prince-sized pool balls around, which the player must dodge. A victory, however, leads to The King unleashing a glorious Royal Rainbow and a results screen in which the completed katamari is sent careering joyously into space, to become a new celestial body in the Cosmos. Often, it is here where much of the game's satisfaction lies in outdoing a previous attempt at a level or locating one of the hidden Presents or Cousins which are secreted around the various levels and which unlock further goodies - It is this combination of the player's desire to collect one of every object in the game (of which there are thousands of distinct types) and the push to beat your last record that perpetuates the gaming experience through endless repeats of previous levels, and where you'll lose complete track of how many times you'll mutter "just one more go," but throw all caution to the wind and carrying on for another hour regardless.
This unravels one particular, Cosmos-sized gripe in that the main game is painfully, painfully short. In all, discounting DLC and levels available from XBox Live, there are a meagre thirteen stages forming the game, and within which there is a noticable recycling of other levels as it becomes apparent that there are only a handful of unique locations spanning the total experience. Where We Love Katamari displayed superb level design and a heap of different environments with changing, interesting objectives, the only variation in Beautiful Katamari remains merely a couple of levels where the premise shifts from rolling up the largest katamari possible. Since this means that your strategy on each level is always the same, you'll soon tire of rolling around the same living room/candy store/garden area in the early levels and it's only when you advance to the world-sized stages near the end of the game that things get really interesting. All this means that as soon as you master the game's controls, you'll gallop through all the stages and complete the game itself in a couple of hours (and all without that 'what the shit?' storyline and cutscenes that accompanied WLK), from that point the only way forward is by repeating previous stages to collect all the bonus items, and it's a game that's polished off in six or so hours and with little to lure the player back again and again for a quick, quirky blast that its predecessor still has me doing, three years after I first started it.
Perhaps its the feeling that it's a game that's been pushed through in a rush to appease fans and retaining little of the fine attention to detail and clever design that has perpetuated the series so far, or perhaps that it seems a unfathomable step backwards after the We Love Katamari, but the upshot is that Beautiful Katamari just doesn't sit right in my heart, and after the rewarding, grin-inducing gameplay of its predecessor leaves me feeling just a little hollow - Sure, all of the essence of Katamari is still there and there's no doubt that it's still a unique, enjoyable experience but it just doesn't have any of the longevity that'll have you coming back for more time and time again that has somewhat become the mainstay of the series. Maybe it just feels like it should've been a stopgap or online/downloadable release; perhaps the 'EP' accompaniment to the 'full album' experience that the first next-gen Katamari release deserved to be. If you're a fan of the series, then it'll swing you just enough to push all your buttons and keep your interest long enough to find everything there is to find, but if you're not then you may end up finding yourself saying "is that it?"; in which case, give We Love Katamari a try, and I'm sure you won't regret it ^^
[~]
Okeypoke, that's this week's entry; I'm not sure where I'll be headed with the next one since I have a few ideas so far but nothing solid, so await that one with great expectation sometime next week or so. Until then; courage.
[Zinar7]
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[First, a disclaimer - For some reason my 'n' button is playing up so if I unexpectedly miss one out there, don't be alarmed; my sense of basic spelling and grammar hasn't been consumed by the zombie hordes quite yet XD]
Well, the QI trip was awesome; just cosmically, cosmically awesome. Managed to snag some cheap National Express tickets for £15 return which got me into London Victoria by 1220 on Thursday afternoon and over to Switch's pad in Holloway Road by lunchtime, which was pretty cool. London was HOT; I'd left Southampton all packed with both a hoodie and jacket on and instantly regretted it, since I had to dispose of both as soon as I disembarked from the coach into what appeared to be central London, but was actually the centre of the Sun =Z
Anyway, us (plus two of Olly's other friends from college) toddled off to the London Studios near the BFI at around 1600ish to join the already growing queue ready for doors opening at 1845; at the same time a lot of other people were queueing up for recordings of Have I Got News For You and Loose Women, which meant that there was a fuckton of Busy in the general vicinity and consequently a large quantity of people milling around not really sure what to do with themselves. We eventually got let in through the main gate and shepherded to queue outside of the back door, meaning we were lined up against the outside wall, which has been decorated with a row of commemorative plaques from a bunch of celebrities who've appeared in shows recorded at the studio (such as Al Murray, Stephen Fry, Ant & Dec, Lorraine Kelly, Paul O'Grady, Vernon Kay, etc.), each with a bronze replica of their hands, which was mildly awesome ^^
I think we eventually got our seats in the studio at about 1900, where were greeted by the usual QI set plus a load of monitors hung from the ceiling being operated by one of the QI Elves displaying a lot of QI factettes and asking us to guess the theme of the night's show based on the decorations on the QI set, which included a couple of grotesques either side of Stephen Fry's chair, bats hanging from below the desk and a candelabra burning at the front of the stage [the theme was 'Gothic', in case you haven't worked that out]. A mildly amusing warm-up came on before introducing Stephen, who then proceeded to chat with the audience for a while and got us to record a 'mystery G-word' Twitter message for him (see: linky linky) before getting the guests on, who were Jimmy Carr, Jack Dee, Sue Perkins and the usual Alan Davies.
I'm not going to spoil the jokes/quite interesting bits for anyone who wants to wait for the actual show, but the recording was damned funny. Seems strange that they were recording for over two hours and that a choice thirty minutes will come out of it, but it was damned funny all the same. All the guests were really good, particularly Sue Perkins, who's never appeared before (nor has Jack Dee), and Stephen Fry was just awesome from beginning to end. Kind of just wanted it to go on forever, since it didn't drag at any point, possibly because of the sheer awesomeness of the situation (I'm watching QI being filmed!) didn't allow for any negative feelings to actually reach the brain.
I guess the following day and the coach journey back became a little of an anticlimax, but I still entertained a reasonably enjoyable five hours of wandering around central London (Piccadilly, Leicester Square, Coventry Street, the Strand, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace) getting lost and buying Totoro hats before getting on the bus back to Southampton at around half three, and then back to my Miffsey and dinner at The Stile nom nom ^^
Other stuff that's been going on was last night's Eurovision and Snore-way winning by a ridiculous amount and the awesome Estonian entry (linky link link), and trip out to the uni's Nuffield Theatre for student performance of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which was pretty rad. Other than that, not a great deal has been happening except a lot of lazing around with immense fatigue and playing some Dragon Quest: The Chapters of the Chosen on DS. That review of Beautiful Katamari is still on its way, but somewhat hampered by the fiendish Red Ring of Death, which should get ironed out and finished in the next few days, fingers crossed.
Anyway, on that note I shall then make my excuses and head off in the hunt for food and/or sustinence, and I shall check in again sometime soon. Adios!
[Zinar7]
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zinar7's journal
tired.
cheerful.
sick.
curious.
