Daft Day Punking Around

I've been out all day and after very very VERY little sleep I'm just absolutely wrecked, but it was pretty damn awesome. Don't want to say too much, not to be mysterious but because I'm too bloody tired to type too much. I'll hopefully have photos from today's Daft Punk event where my buddy Jon went as one of the favourite musicians with his buddy James and rocked Perth like a mother.

Blunderstruck

So today I squirted my face with red paint and covered my finger tips with Superglue... Yeah it's been one of those days.

Postal Posting

Well I didn't get a chance to upload an entry last night due to typing up a storm on other things, including submission guidelines for potential media project for PAC... long story. I did get some work done on some costuming, I got the foam base done for my Cybershade mask which was kinda awesome to accomplish if I do say so :)

Just need to reinforce it with some wire, putty it, rivet it, paint it etc...

Preparing PAC Pages

So I missed a post yesterday (although I wouldn't say I missed it ha ha ha *groan*), but I spent practically all day working on graphics for Perth's Allied Costumers as I am now for the time being their official pixel monkey. Same story today although I did spend some time at a friends house discussing costuming for an event in July. I almost didn't write this blog but I honestly don't like missing posts, even when I've been completely slack in the writing of them. I've still got three posts I need finishing but haven't had the.capability to do it. Hopefully this will be rectified within the next week or so as I want to write a con report for Supanova. Btw I'm using an interesting text swipe thingie on my new phone, kinda neat but does require more concentration than I have at this time. Time to a letup, or sleep... Stupid phone.

Busy Day And Plans Are Afoot

Too much going on, and I'm completely knackered... got a couple of things on the boil, one I'm unsure if I can talk about it yet which I'm excited about, and some I desperately need to be sane and well rested before tackling (so maybe never).

Too Tired To Blog

Been a long day after very little sleep followed by a fun night with my PAC friends... hopefully when I'm fully rested I'll actually get around to finally writing the things I'm wanting to write. Until then.. errr.. I dunno, if you're that desperate to read something go to a library.

Cards Against Humanity ... Potentially Offensive Post!!!

Do not continue reading if you are easily offended, especially about religious views... or about Pac-Man or Mimes for that matter. What I'm about to show was my "winning" entry for the 'Make a Haiku' card to end our game tonight. Also do not criticize on the form or the fact it doesn't uphold to the function of the poetry, it was mostly done to a) kinda be offensive and b) to be incredibly wrong and very hilarious. 

Downs and Ups

So today I had a pretty horrible experience, and unfortunately it had to do with a "job" interview and was followed by this post on faceblargh.

"Okay, bad signs for a job interview...

- After turning up 10 minutes early to see the previous applicant still chatting isn't bad, the fact that they are still talking 15 minutes after your allocated time is.
- Knowing the interview took a turn for the worse when you want clarification some of the obscure terms; specifically when the interviewer says, "We pay the company money..." turns out to actually mean, "You pay the company money..."
- Being told you foot ALL the upfront costs, including hire of equipment and possible hotel accommodation, and THEN pay the parent company a $80 fee per customer (regardless), all of which you then have to attempt to retrieve from the customers by up-selling a service being pandered initially by the company for free.
- Lastly taking approximately five minutes to conduct an interview it took the other person at least 25 minutes is never a good sign."

What made me more angry then anything was the fact I deeply suspected going into this interview it wouldn't be a simple "Hey we're going to pay you to shoot things!" .. just for clarification it was a Photography job .. however when it was "Your interview is taking place at a public café..." alarm bells started to ring in my head. I've had this experience before when an old friend from primary school suddenly turned up out of the blue and asked me to get involved with essentially the same thing... I haven't spoken to him since, he obviously wasn't interested in reconnecting further after I turned down his glorious offer (also know as a PYRAMID SCHEME!!!).

And then I listen again to the latest Book Was Better podcast and Luke and Suzanne asked for a cheaply made picture based on certain criteria, which I promptly delivered because I thought the idea was stupid and funny... and this is it!

 

(Based on the terrible Judge Dredd movie... the more you know)

 

Well it made me chuckle,  in fact about 5 seconds after uploading it and realising how utterly ridiculous this whole thing was I was overcome with hysterics. Lets just say I needed it. Interesting side note; it was prompted that it should be done on MS paint, but I had too much difficulty working in such a restrictive program so this was actually done in Photoshop made to look like MS Paint :P

Boldly Going Back To Where We've Gone Before...

Over the last couple of nights I've been re-watching the older Star Trek movies, quite specifically the good ones, namely II, III, IV, and VI, and it's been quite enjoyable and I enjoy watching these fantastic movies and will do so again and again. To say that the effects do reflect the time period in which they were made, I think the movies have held up extremely well (well lets face it, well made Sci-Fi has a tendancy to do that) and yet I still enjoy watching these "tired old men" more then I enjoy watching the fresh young crew of the reboot, in spite of knowing a little bit too much of behind-the-scenes with the old crew and the animosity towards a certain Captain. In spite of everything, these particular movies are incredibly well made tales that just made me want to be absorbed by the storytelling.

Tonight I popped in Star Trek VI as a break from cobbling together a photography portfolio ready for a job interview tomorrow, and I was only wanting to watch it whilst I finally ate my dinner and get back to finishing sorting through seven thousand photos. However I just couldn't stop watching. I grabbed my pizza when it finally cooked, eat it and just couldn't grab myself to stop. The movie itself isn't the best of the franchise, it certainly isn't the worst, however with all this b.s. in my head surrounding 'Into Darkness', namely the fact that it seems that I'm in a minority of not enjoying this movie (especially when it keep constantly kicking me out of the suspension of disbelief), that I realise that I think I'm right about my thoughts on that film. Star Trek VI isn't a movie that's all about two men having a fist fight nor gratuitously phallic black starships; it's got intrigue, drama, betrayal, anger, comedy, plus it doesn't have plot holes you can drive a Constellation class starship through. It may not be the best Star Trek movie ever made, but I enjoyed the hell out of it a lot more then the new ones.

Wow Is That The Time?

I was about to start writing a blog at about 11pm, it is now currently 1:34 am and I've been prepping on one of my upcoming costumes, needless to say it took a little bit longer then I was expecting but at least it's finally getting to a point I can actually work on it... so hurray when I finally have the energy I know wtf I'm actually doing!

Wiped Out.

Been feeling completely wiped all day, hoping to get an early night and hopefully have more energy for tomorrow.

I Awoke To Find Myself In A Dark Room...

Just about to head in to see the last performance this year of John Robertson's "The Dark Room". Well when I say 'just' I mean I'm about 20 minutes early and completely surrounded by strangers and am trying not to freak the fuck out. I haven't seen the show since Wai-Con with an audience at least 10x what I'm guessing the capacity of this theatre from previous experiences... In fact the last time I was in this theatre was the first time I dressed up as a Ghostbuster several years ago for a comedy performance and screening.

Well that just killed several minutes, now just several more of social awkwardness before seeing a guaranteed cackfest. I wonder if my mobile has enough juice for several rounds of sudoku...

Didn't I Do This Already?

I've been wanting to write up my thoughts and feeling on 'Star Trek: Into Darkness' but I've been so unbelievably busy this last week that every time I have an hour to myself I'm just wiped I can't write. I keep thinking about what I want to say about the movie and try and wrap my thoughts around why I seem to be the minority that thought that movie just wasn't that good, and certainly wasn't a good Trek movie. As I was driving home from another round of duties today I thought "Hang on, didn't you already do a rant about Abrams' Trek?" and yeah I did, it is here!

Strangely enough re-reading that just then my overall thoughts haven't really changed, and even though they improved on a few things which I'll get to I still think they dropped the ball majorly in other areas.

About the only real positive thing 'Into Darkness' has given me is a desire to imbibe more Trek, and a hope that someone takes the franchise away from Abrams and makes something good for a change.

Great Night of Gaming...

And I finally managed not to fuck up being the spy in The Resistance. Such epicness to be had this evening, but it's been a long day and I'm exhausted.

Just saw Tenacious D live...

It was awesome

Genroulette

Today I saw one of the most amazing improv shows ever, Genroulette by the amazingly talented duo of Tegan Mulvany and John Robertson. It was definitely one of the most funniest performances I've ever seen live although sadly it was one night only, but I'd definitely recommend it if they ever do another performance again! Kudos to my friend Jon Goon whose film title of "Bogans vs Predator" was the final skit, and it was brilliantly performed in the style of a Musical and the genre of Shakespeare.

Wait What?

I just shocked myself, I thought I forgot to blog yesterday and came to make an apology post and beg for forgiveness... naw not really but I was going to say "Sorry, got a lot on that's making me distracted", and low and behold I forgot that I made a post about Distractions. Well here's today's post over and done with, hopefully I'll find time to finish a couple of posts I've been working on or even get around to writing my proper review of Star Trek Into Darkness.

Distractions

I was about to start writing a post 3 hours ago, but I got distracted by prop building. Had an incredible amount of fun today gaming with friends at Good Games St James, and I'm looking forward to the next time. Don't really want to type much more, I really want to get some sleep!

Busy Busy Bee

Spent all day working on a project that I'm going to refer to as [SECRET PROJECT X] because I honestly don't know if I'm supposed to even talk about it at this stage. It probably won't be revealed for quite a while yet as it's only in its early stages but when it does come out it'll be pretty awesome.. I hope. Also did a lot of driving around this evening, but again I'm not at liberty to divulge such information... although driving around in an evening is such a common thing for me that it really isn't anything special lately. Either way I'm going to attempt some form of sleep, I doubt this will occur.

Into Dorkness

Got home from watching the latest Star Trek movie 'Star Trek Into Darkness', full balls out review pending as I've got some work to catch up on. As a teaser though I probably have to honestly rate this 5/10 .. specially I'd rate the movie in segments, first third 1/10, second third 10/10, last third 3/10.

Yesterday's Post...

Yeah I was about to write it last night at about 9pm after a pretty busy day, but I wanted a quick game of Game Dev Tycoon... next thing I knew it was 1:30am *facepalm* I'm currently working on some stuff for tomorrow's Star Trek Into Darkness screening, well I would if I can actually get up off my arse and get motivated, didn't help that I slept like crap last night and I've got a mild headache... oh well better get too it!

Whilst I Remember...

Still having an off day, it's been pretty busy with organizing stuff for P.A.C. and getting my costumes cleaned, and dragging stuff out of the shed, and trying not to wrench an already pretty messed up back. So yeah I'm pretty much brain dead at this time. I've been hoping to get started on a new project, I just don't have the concentration to do so at this moment.. oh well hopefully I'll get started by the end of the week.

Still Shattered

On Saturday I was with PAC (Perth's Allied Costumers) to help promote Free Comic Book Day at Quality Comics Perth and I'm still trying to recover from it, so I'm still a wee bit brain dead and my back feels like someone took to it with a crowbar, but it was a lot of fun so hopefully I'll get around to writing about it a day or so.

On Storytelling and Self

I’ve just been reading someone’s post about Neil Gaiman’s speech at the Texas Library Association’s annual meeting, which unfortunately didn’t include the entire transcript but more of an analysis of his talk, and it got me to want to write for a spell. I will admit I haven’t read much of Gaiman’s novels, except Good Omens but that was due to it being co-authored by Pratchett, but I have read a several different articles and internet posts he’s done and I have a huge amount of respect for the man. One thing I got from this analysis of his speech was about storytelling and about how people respond to it, namely if a child doesn’t comprehend something they’ll move onto something that suits them until they are able to. This in a roundabout way got me thinking about myself and what I strive to do.

Lately I have been struggling with what I want to do in regards to career and life in general, one of the drawbacks from having to fulfil job searching requirements imposed by the government so I can afford to do things, and honestly it has been getting me down a bit. It’s that paradox between doing something you want but for no reward or doing something you hate to get a reward, and lately I don’t want to do the later. I have a very loose and broad skill set I’ve developed over the years, not really a ‘Jack of all trades’ but definitely ‘master of none’ so to speak, especially because if I’m interested in something I’ll try my hand at doing it, which makes a lot of what I do very flexible but I feel I have nothing I can showcase. Whilst I have a couple of IT degrees, IT is the last thing I want a job in (a few bad experiences have kinda ruined that pursuit for me) and I just don’t fancy pursuing my current degrees any further at this time (academia gets in the way of learning things). About the only thing that gives me any kind of satisfaction has been costuming, but it’s becoming a rapidly expensive habit again with little reward... and yet I’m actually okay with that to some degree but I just don’t see my current skill/exp level as being able to afford me a career.

The long winded point I’m trying to make is that I’ve had a lot of time of self-reflection lately, looking over what I’ve done recently and trying to assess my strengths and weaknesses when I came along a recurring thread amongst a lot of things I do. I have a lot of creative pursuits, some old, some new, some fresh, some atrophied, but all practically revolve around storytelling. Lately nearly every single thing I try and do I try and tell a story with it. A perfect example is when I’m weather proofing an object, I always just and think of what happened to it to become damaged in what way, even including when I included a boot mark on my helmet to look like someone had kicked me in the head. Even recently when I’ve been gaming, I’m either consciously (because of the game) or subconsciously meta-gaming, adding my own layers upon the game itself... and yes I learnt it from watching Wil Wheaton, and it is such a fun way to experience things.

It was a revelation, albeit it one that wasn’t accompanied by a beam of light or a chorus of angels or any sort of life affirming change, but it did give me some sort of comfort. Just like writing this blog, I post daily and I know no one reads it unless I promote certain posts on faceblargh, but having an outlet even at my most shittiest of times is somewhat comforting (or at least when I’m not feeling like utter crap or wallowing in self misery). I think I’m happy I reached #100 posts, and I whilst I don’t want to negate what I said all the way back in post #1, I’m unsure just how far I can push this thing but I’ll sure give my best shot and I hope some people will come along for the ride.

Lots of Typing But Not Here

Well I've been writing now for around 1-2 hours, and I've scheduled tomorrow's #100 post .. as I'll be at Quality Comics in my Forbush Man costume helping promote Free Comic Book Day. As such I'll be so gobsmackingly tired afterwards that I doubt I'll be wanting to write at all. I'm also currently writing one of my longest and thought provoking (well maybe not) posts, and it's currently at three pages worth and I'm barely 50% through.

Running Late Again!

The annoying thing about trying to keep this to a daily schedule that I myself don't keep to the same schedule. Being an insomniac and getting back into a bad routine means I'm going to sleep at 2-3am and not getting up til midday, which also sucks when I'm having to get up early to prep for things, so by the time I feel like writing it's late in the evening or after midnight sometimes. It does kind of get frustrating trying to keep up content on this site, especially when I'm feeling so damn tired and rundown like I have been lately, and the last thing I want to do is keep writing for an audience of 1.

The frustrating this thing is that I have at least one full days worth of costuming on this weekend which coincides with my 100th post and I want to at least try to a decent length on it. I was feeling bad for typing out these long ass diatribes but know I feel bad for just vomiting out content via obligation. I want content to be fulfilling, one of the reasons I don't bother posting such shitty posts any more. Oh well I've at least got something on the boil for the big post, I'm hoping I can finish it tomorrow.

Had A Little Conversation With My Squirel and Chipmunk Friends...

Goggle "Jonathan Coulton First Of May" for more information .. I think I'm legally obliged to say it's NSFW, but I won't.