Happy Halloween 2017!

Celebrated Halloween with a toffee apple and a sticky toffee pudding ale - both were rather sickly but it was all part of the holiday spirit. We went out for a movie night with Rebecca's friends and since we are all scaredy cats when it comes to proper horror movies, we watched the most delightfully cheesy, teeny 90's slasher flick I've seen: Urban Legends. I was invested the whole way through and I always found myself guessing who the killer was, the last 30 seconds though were dreadful, and not in the good way.

Monster

Good start to the week, applied for one more job to be a video editor for a local youth magazine and then I arranged a charity to pick up our old mattress once our new on is delivered.

Hands down though, best thing I did today was watch Monster, Patty Jenkins's film about the serial killer Aileen Wournos. Obviously it hard to talk about the film without noting Charlize Theron's performance which is something to behold and it probably had the best use of Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing' I've ever seen. Really powerful movie that affected me on the same level as Heavenly Creatures, excellent stuff.

Jelly and Pumpkins

Got up a littler earlier than I would like on a Sunday to add some more layers onto my Halloween jelly. Turned out to be the perfect amount of time to get it all set and looking good. I took a quick snap of it while it was being back-lit by the fridge - check out those layers!

To envelop myself further into the Halloween spirit I decided to carve our pumpkin. Classically, Louis and I would pick a stencil online and mum would draw it freehand onto our pumpkins, seeing as I can't draw for toffee, I ended up doing the 'tape a printout onto the pumpkin and poke it full of holes' technique. Never did that before either, but it ended up being very fruitful. Decided to go with a Super Mario design off the back of his new game, and I pulled the look off nicely. In fact. I daresay its the best pumpkin I've ever carved, but I'll let you decide for yourself:

Resident Evil 7 is Pretty Scary

Went on down to Mark's house so we could play the first few hours of Resident Evil 7. Seeing as I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to scary games, I had to ask Mark for some help doing the spooky bits... As in he plays the game for me while I hide behind a pillow. We made a pretty good team and shared a lot of scares, really enjoying it so far though! Got back home and started whipping up a batch of multi coloured jelly with Haribo inside - just like mamma used to make when the Durrant's had Halloween parties.

Super Mario Odyssey

Got up bright and early to get a head start on Super Mario Odyssey. I intentionally starved myself of any trailers or potential spoilers in the months leading up to its release so a lot of the content was a genuine surprise for me. Really loving it so far, enough to want to take my time with it and not charge through the main game.

One thing I really had no idea about was the included photo editor stuff. At any time you can pause and take a snapshot and basically apply Instagram filters. Here's a few of my favourites I got in the New York themed level.

I especially like the last one since its like a classic uni student poster of the big city, but with a casual Mario Cameo.

Midnight Mario

Walked into town with Rebecca to secure my copy of Mario Odyssey at GAME in the Galleries shopping centre... at least I thought there was a GAME there. Spent most of the morning walking up and down the same bit of the shopping centre doing a double take on every shop, I was certain I'd seen one in there. Couldn't find it, no bother, there's one near Cabot Circus... oh wait, that wasn't their either. Thought I was going crazy, then I remembered they opened up this new swanky one just off the main street, went in and pre-ordered the game without any fuss. In actual fact, I kinda lucked out a bit, turns out they are having a midnight release of the game (and several others, huge day for games it turns out) so I'm gonna head on out a bit later to stand around with my fellow nerds and get Mario in my hands as the clocks turn midnight. Never done on of these midnight things before, could be a lot of fun.

Other than that, I had another driving lesson and I thought this one went a fair bit better. I was still making mistakes, but they felt less frequent and I seemed to grasp a bit more of how to handle the car. Guess I'm a bit of a slow learner, but I'm getting there now.

Journey for an Odyssey

Had a fun old time trying to sort out a pre-order for the new Mario game coming out on Friday. I always leave this kind of thing til the last minute and occasionally it bites me in the rear. At the moment, Argos is sold out of copies, they were also the cheapest place in the UK to get it outside of Amazon so I reckon they were snapped up by people looking for a deal. I'm going into town first thing tomorrow to ask around if anyone can reserve a copy for me to pick up on Friday, GAME may be my best bet. Just hope I get better customer service in there compared to when I tried to buy the Steam Link.

Outside of that, I just carried on working. Philpott gave me a call since he may have a sound recording job going sometime next week so that'll help me get some pocket money.

Runny, Runny Eggs

Continued writing up the next script for my next video, my main goal is to make the time feel less formal, and the best way to do that is simply by having a bit of fun with it. Got some good points that I can make in a funny way, and I'm eager to get it done.

Made eggs florentine for the family plus Rebecca tonight, Mum gave me some flak for slightly under doing her eggs since they weren't rubbery as hell, but when I'm cooking everyone gets runny eggs! Back in Bristol now, planning on buying a pumpkin soon too to really get in the Halloween spirit!

Jim Jarmusch Film Number 4

Tried to be extremely work oriented today, sat down in a quiet room and finished up my application. On top of that I managed to seriously plan out the script for my next video, I'm already really pleased with its direction so I've got a good feeling about it.

Louis and I sat down to watch Down By Law, yet another Jim Jarmusch I can tick off. There's something about his style that makes his films so charming, but I can't quite put my finger on it. While I watch his films, I always question if I'm actually enjoying them. Ten minutes til the end though, I always feel like I've been on a well rounded journey.

Newbury Surprise

Made an impromptu stop back home in Newbury, Rebecca's going to be away from Bristol for a few days so  I thought it would be a good opportunity to see the family. Earned my keep by helping Dad moving around the lawn mower and reassemble the garage. Got a haircut after that and went on a short walk with Mum and Louis, spent the rest of the evening playing games with my bro. Was a really lovely and relaxing day, feeling recharged now.

Underwhelming turned Good?

A couple of years back I tried to make a burger stuffed with cheese, I thought it would be a taste sensation, but in reality it added nothing to the eating experience. It really put me off the idea. Over the years though I half convinced myself that I did it wrong and now that I have watched several Binging with Babish videos which titillated my palette, I thought I'd give a mozzarella stuffed burger a shot. Surprise, surprise: it was just as underwhelming as the first one I tried to make. I'll be sticking to normal burger making from now on I reckon.

But you know what's best to watch when chowing down on burgers? Kit Harrington looking broody in BBC1's new drama Gunpowder. It was a bit bland though. Everything felt a bit one-note and a overly worthy - not sure if I'll be tuning in for future episodes.

Cinema Responce

Shot off another application and actually heard back from another. A nearby cinema have offered me an interview in two weeks time which is pretty cool. Apparently its a group interview, haven't had to do one of those since I worked for Wilko way back in 2011, hopefully my charm hasn't worn off.

Upping the Twitter Game

Tucked into some more covering letter goodness today, spent a good chunk of the day just hammering out words that made me sound amazing so I treated myself to an episode of BoJack Horseman with lunch.

Evening was spent playing Overwatch with Louis and I ended up having a really nice chat. He gave me some pointers on how to improve my Twitter game and basically just went out to follow as many other like-minded folk I could see.

A Literal Old Lady

Think I had what is often referred to as 'The Bad Driving Lesson' today. Went in with a really good attitude to learn and to smash my goals, just over halfway through though, everything just started getting worse and worse for seemingly no reason. At one point, a very literal old lady started crossing the road and I had no idea what to do so I just slammed the brakes on in the middle of turning into a junction - driving instructor wasn't a fan.

Picked myself up a bit after the lesson since I got into a bit of a slump, but I managed to nail most of the next covering letter I'm writing - that gave me a good buzz. Just finished playing a good old game of Overwatch with Daniel too and we just synergized effortlessly and had some really good games.

Wii Games in the Limelight

I'm currently in pursuit of a games journalism job that was forwarded onto me, need to write a covering letter still alongside a short review on a game of my choice - in other words its a fun application! Brewing up some pukka words for it all now and hoping to send it off very soon.

Spent the night round a friend if Rebecca's playing games on the good old Wii. Years of playing Raving Rabbids 2 finally paid off when I wiped the floor with the competition... If only Mum was there to see me.

New Banners!

Decided to give the old blog a little bit of a sprucing up with some new sidebars! I spent a little longer than I wanted to making them since Blogger offers zero visual guidance on how to position them, but after a lot of trial and error I thought I'd give them a whirl. Hopefully they are formatted correctly to everyone's screen resolutions, if they are broke for anyone then gimme a shout. Think they add a little something more to look at though and they show off some of my favourite games and films. 

The job hunt continues its march forward, I spotted a few more to apply for this week and every constructed a handy spreadsheet to log them and keep me motivated. Sent one application off and started work on another one that want a few extras on top of the CV + Covering Letter combo so that will take a smidge longer.

Giant's Cave

Stepped outside and trekked up to Clifton Suspension Bridge with Rebecca's friend from London to show her the sights. The view is always great up there and we even dared to go into Giant's Cave, the little nook you can squeeze down to see a lower angle view of the bridge which was good fun. Lot of steps and cramped spaces, I had to do a lot of crouching 'cus I'm a tall bloke but it was still very cool.

Took it easy and had some mushroom burgers this evening, Rebecca had such a good weekend, but its clear to see that she is getting the late Sunday blues, and so am I to a smaller extent. Its been a good fee days though.

Catan Man

Board games were the main focus of the day, specifically The Settlers of Catan which is immensely popular but I only just got a chance to play it at Bristol's Chance and Counters board game cafe. I was designated 'rule book person' as I was given 10 minutes to learn how to play from scratch and teach my group what to do, think I did OK too since we had a really fun game. Mr Philpott earned a sneaky last minute victory at the expense of my eternal chagrin.

Rebecca's London friend is also staying with us tonight, we cleared out the living room and gave her every fluffy thing in the flat as bedding so we hope she sleeps well. Watched Shaun of the Dead with her too which is just brilliant, it gives you something new to love on each watch and in this case it was definitely its craft. Everything is just so well constructed and shot and thought-out, its nothing short of aspiring.

Free of Grime

Rebecca's got a friend from London coning to stay with us over the weekend so I thought I'd get a headstart in sprucing up our flat for the occasion. I cleaned spots I never even considered today, that weird damp patch by the balcony window, the grimey bit under the washing machine... I won't go on in case anyone is reading this over breakfast. Long story short, the flat is spic and span and I took advantage of the clean space to begin plotting how I want this blog to look. I tinkered around with a few of the settings, but nothing felt quite right. Thinking I need to take some photos to go around the header or the background, I'm always telling myself that I need to commit and do some kind of photoshoot, perhaps I should start listening to myself.

Call of Duty WW2 Beta Impressions

Editing all day long to put out my latest video about the new Call of Duty game and here it is:

While making this one, I begun to seriously consider my style of voice over. In all my videos, including this one, I think I sound rather deadpan and you can certainly tell that I'm just reading my script. It's a funny thing though, to record voice over in your bedroom, just feels odd to be talking to yourself effectively. I tried to spruce this one up a touch with some comedy here and there, but I still sound like I'm 'talking to my grandma' Louis' words. It's the biggest thing I want to work on going forward and I think sprinkling in some more humour would be a big bonus too. 

Waiting for BT Man

Got asked to do a bit of an odd job for most of the day: housesitting. Some of Rebecca's friends moved into a new flat last month and they needed someone to stay at theirs and let the internet bloke in to do his magic. Upside of it was they have a PlayStation 4 so I got to log in a bit of Metal Gear Solid HD. After that though I cracked on with work and planned out the rest of my week.

Was a little bit weird staying in someone else's house though, reminded me if when I looked after cats for Miles up in Clifton. Good times.

Bedside Editor

Got started on my next video, finished up the script, recorded the voice over but wasn't 100% happy with the way it turned out. Reasoned it was a problem with how I wrote the intro so I took it back to the drawing board. Hoping to get it up by the end of the week though!

My bedside manner was put to the test again as Rebecca camped put on the sofa wrapped up in duvet once again. She wasn't as poorly as she was yesterday which meant her request for cups of coffee and lemsip were a little less endearing, which I teased her mercilessly about. Hearty doses of painkillers and sass, that's cure-all for a cold.

Driving Lesson Number 2

Did my second Bristol based driving lesson and I don't think I improved that much by the end of it. It was frustrating because I kept making the same few mistakes over and over again, I'm honestly trying to do better each time, but it feels lime I keep slipping up. Can't quit now though, practising will help me hammer out the tough spots, and if literally millions of other people can learn to drive on sure I can too.

Rebecca got sent home sick when I got back from my lesson so we parked ourselves on the sofa and both worked there. I continued the job hunt, and even wrote up an application for a cinema in Bristol to sell tickets. I literally butchered my recent CV, taking out all my uni expertise to make room to boast about my practical knowledge of working a till based on my time at Eddie Catz. Felt bad doing it.

Blade Runner 2049

Went out with the usual suspects to see the new Blade Runner 2049, went in with high hopes and they were generally exceeded. This is the kind of sequel that doesn't feel like just another installment, instead it uses character's from the original to tell a much more human story, it's a narrative that suits the amount of time that has passed since the first film. While it's quite long, I didn't mind one bit, in fact there was a lot of breathing room in general that really added to it, and it gives you a chance to soak up some of that amazing Blade Runner world. Camera work and music are on point too, but frankly the composer only needs to lean on a synthesizer to give me goosebumps at this point. This is borderline Terminator 2 levels of 'good sequel' since it takes what worked so well with the first, but gives it a unique spin, that doesn't feel completely gimmicky.

How 'Bout a Boat?

Spent more of my day on boats than I was expecting. Late start to the morning and rest of the day since I was ironing out the last little bits of my application alongside writing up a swish looking portfolio document (sent it all off now too.) Following that, Rebecca and I headed down to the Three Brothers Burger boat for my belated Birthday lunch. Got ourselves some tasty burgers and some nice draft beer there too, and it was a boat! We walked off the calories with a short walk along the river and hopped on a ferry to take us back on our side of the river, which was about as lovely as a 50 second boat ride could be.

Settled into My Life as a Courgette this evening, an animated film I've been really eager to see for sometime now and it didn't disappoint. Very cute story that doesn't sugar coat reality, which was refreshing because it didn't feel dark, it just felt genuine. Short and sweet, its a great little watch.

Down With CV's

My latest job application is ready to ship out now, after employing the assistance of Rebecca and Mark my covering letter and CV are in tip top shape. Latterly I found it quite hard to stay focused writing it, especially when Down With Love turned up on Film4. It really dose tickle me that movie.

Happy 7th Birthday to The Blog!

Wow, wow, wow. If the blog was a kid it would be old enough to ride a bike without stabilisers, and I would be one proud father - they grow up so fast. In all seriousness though, thank you everyone for continuing to stick around and watch this space as the years went by. Knowing that you lovely people continue to read my daily ramblings really keeps me motivated to do this day after day, and for that, all I can say is a very humble 'thank you.' Unfortunately, I don't have any big announcements like saying I'm going to grow a beard, or anything equally as witty, I guess if anyone has any ideas then feel free to leave a comment - I'm up for a good challenge or dare.

And if your feeling nostalgic like me in these Blog Birthday times, then here's one of my favourite old videos the Cafe Studios gang did together: Sunny Side Up!

Ticking up Views

Working on an application for a job I'm actually really holding out for. Its a position writing guides for video games, all those years buying and reading Prima's Official Strategy Guides might just pay off. Going in all guns blazing talking about my passion for gaming and then a segway into my most recent YouTube exploits... Speaking of which.

Took a stab at putting one of my recent videos up on Reddit, wasn't expecting much, but so far my least viewed video is now my most viewed! Only gone up by 30 views, but I'll take it as a little victory. Earned one brand new subscriber too which is a bonus, very pleased I actually had the nerve to put it out there a little bit.

Back Behind the Wheel

Its been a long time coming, but I at long last committed to another driving lesson! Sat down with my instructor, who's a big old Irish bloke, we went through the handling basics and I drove along a 30 mile hour road up in Clifton Downs. Pretty standard first lesson, until the very end when I had to drive back home and we got caught in a massive traffic jam. Really got a chance to practise my clutch control, and I really got my moneys worth since the lesson over ran by about 10 minutes. Learnt the hard way that traffic is even more boring when your the one who's actually driving the car.

Booked another lesson for next week too, really hitting this with all the momentum I can this time round!

Cuphead Review

Eyy, it took a little while to muscle through this one and wrangle over 4 hours of gameplay footage, but here is my review for the new darling, indie platformer/shooter: Cuphead!

Worth a watch if your a fan of jazz music or 1930's animation too since it has a wicked sense of style. 

Finishing Cuphead

Finished up the last remaining hours of Cuphead, the game Louis got me for my Birthday.  In turn, I've also written a review script for it which I'm ready to turn into another new video by the end of play tomorrow hopefully.

Rebecca baked cookies today too, flat smelt amazing for ages after and I got to tuck into some sweet treats while I wrote up my script. She watch The Girl on a Train in the meantime and vented about all the ways it was different to the book afterwards, maybe I need to get my hands on a copy of the book.

Animation Tour

Day trip to somewhere really special... Aardman Studios! Mark and I knew someone working there and got to go on a brief studio tour of the film sets for their upcoming film Early Man. Saw a handful of sets and character rigs, all the things I'd seen on DVD special features over the years, but up close and personal. Some people might love the magic behind Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, but for me, I love animation with every fibre of my being, and walking around there was like Christmas come early.

Mark came back to mine briefly so he could play a bit of Cuphead with me. I'm hoping to do a review of it very soon, and I needed some footage of some co-op gameplay. Actually had a blast playing with him too and it certainty made some of the harder levels a bit more bearable.

Just got back from another boars game session with Rebecca's old work friends. These nights have become more and more common now and we each get on really well with each other, and you can't really go wrong with games on a Saturday Night.