Merry Boxing Day!

Yes, I know, I'm a bit slow with the wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. But better late than never. Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Zombie Hamlet

For the next few weeks, every Sunday the next scene of Zombie Hamlet will appear on Delivering Awesome. Right now I have Act 1 all ready to go; the next three scenes (there are five total, and the first two are already posted) will be appearing automatically every Sunday at 12:01 am. Act 1 is the act that I wrote for my school group project, so luckily it is already written. As I commented on the blog, Scene 2 is hands down my favourite scene.

At this point, I am thinking of writing my own versions of the other acts. My group did a good job on them, but their versions are not how I envisioned the story should go. (That is also why I renamed it Zombie Hamlet; the group project's title was Horatio). So stay tuned next Sunday for Act 1 Scene 3!

Spacelord to Return this Coming Monday!

After giving the matter some thought, Spacelord will be returning Monday December 15th!!!! I will be continuing with posting it every second week, as that seemed to work best for me. I am hoping to do some work on the story; if I end up a couple of posts ahead, then I'll have some leeway for when school gets bad in the spring.

Mr. Something Something

To celebrate exams being over, I went out last night to The Apollo to see Mr. Something Something. I thought they were fantastic, along with the local band who opened for them! They play music with a fun latin beat. I picked up a few of their cd's and signed up for their mailing list. I'm so glad I got to see them on their way back home to Toronto!

Exams are Finished!!!!!!

Yes, I know, this is a day late. But I finished my last exam yesterday!!!!! It was a bit brutal to get through (3 essay questions in 3 hours) but I made it and I am done! I now get to enjoy a couple of weeks off from school before Christmas!!!!! :)

What's Happening this December?

I haven't really done a post about what is going on in my life for a while now. So I figured, now is a great time, as I have a lot in store for December!

Well, I just finished an update on the List. The List has 102 books on it as of this moment. As I said in my post, I am planning on doing a lot of reading. I have started another anthology, I have a few graphic novels to read, and I'd love to get another List novel out of the way before starting into next term's school books.

But before I can even begin to tackle my reading projects, I am in the middle of exams (quite literally. I has one exam yesterday, and my last one is on Monday). My first exam went well (I hope!) and I have to get going on studying for the next one. Oh yeah, and I have to keep going with my applications to Grad school.

While this is happening, I have decided to stay away from Xbox Live. I've been itching to play a couple of games (I finally opened Assassin's Creed! It's fun! Why did I wait so long to try it?). I most likely won't be able to get back onto Live until Tuesday night.

But more important than Xbox are the writing projects. I know I already wrote an Apocalypse Madness story this month (so I'm off the hook as far as that goes), but I have an idea for another story or two. I can't make any promises, but hopefully they'll work out.

And now the moment that everyone's been waiting for: Spacelord should be returning next Monday (the 15th)!!! This isn't official yet (depending on how things go, I may have to hold off until the 22nd) but that's what I'm aiming for. My official decision will become public by the end of this week. So stay tuned!!!!!

Be Kind Rewind

I just watched Be Kind Rewind at a friend's house, and man, I haven't laughed so hard at a movie in a long time! When I first saw the previews for it, I thought it looked funny, but I was afraid it would be stupid funny. Well, luckily, I was wrong!

I rented Be Kind Rewind from the library last week. At the time, I didn't realize that the library had it, otherwise I probably would have rented it sooner. So I brought it with me to my friend's house. We attempted to watch it, but it wouldn't play. We looked, and it wasn't really scratched. Eventually it started playing, but would skip every so often. So we decided to run down to rent it before the movie store closed.

The movie really starts out when Jerry (Jack Black) accidentally erases all of the tapes in the movie store Be Kind Rewind. He and Mike then decide to make their own versions of the tapes in order to stay in business. From Ghostbusters to Rush Hour 2, they "swede" all your favourites! This has got to be the funniest movie of 2008!!!!!

(check out their sweded videos on youtube!)

Hamlet 2!

No, this is not a post in reference to the movie titled Hamlet 2. Rather, this Hamlet 2 is the play two of my friends and I are writing for a class. Our play centres around Horatio, the last surviving Dane from Hamlet 1. While lamenting how far Denmark has fallen since Fortinbras took control, he discovers the ghosts of his friends wanting revenge. So Horatio sets out on a journey into the bowels of Hell in an attempt to set the souls of his friends free!

Meanwhile, Fortinbras is making a pact with the Devil for troops to put down the revolting peasants. And Claudius is plotting to retake Denmark from beyond the grave!

I got to write Act 1 (there are three acts, as there are three of us). It was a lot of fun writing. Scene 2 is easily my favourite. I will be posting it eventually on Delivering Awesome (probably after it is handed in). I am also going to be drawing some pictures of scenes and characters for the play. If they turn out alright, I will post them on Delivering Awesome along with Act 1!

Home from Toronto

I know, I didn't really say anything when I was going, but now I'm back home! I was in St. Catherines and Toronto for a week, from Nov. 11 to today. I did waaaay too much shopping and barely managed to stuff everything into my suitcase! All in all, it was a great trip (although I was a bit sad that I didn't get to go and see Eagles of Death Metal).

While on my trip, I managed to read a couple of books (Twilight and Spud in Winter; see the List for my reviews), and take a ton of pictures (they will be on my Flickr account hopefully in the next day or two). I took in the new Bond movie. I went to some of my favourite Toronto restaurants as well as a couple of new ones that I enjoyed. I took in the ROM, and managed to catch the end of the Christmas parade. And I still had time to hang out with my bro, playing random video games and watching cartoons. The only thing I didn't get to was and writing; I wanted to get my Apocalypse Madness story written, but just didn't have time. But all in all, this was a great trip!

English Papers

This week, I have found out that I can't write an English paper to save my life.

Alright, that's not entirely true. I can write an English paper. It will follow the MLA format. It will even be written rather well. But I'll still end up with a crappy mark. And why would that be? It appears that I write the papers the way I write psychology papers. I guess that's what I get for being a psychology student in English.

What exactly does this mean? No, it doesn't mean that I'm psychoanalyzing Hamlet, or writing about oedipal complexes in characters. It is more of the style that I am writing in. I don't jump right into the texts and go; I give background information, acknowledging what came before. This isn't always a bad thing, but in the paper I was working on all week, it really wasn't necessary to go back to Plato.

Yes, the writing style may be alright, but it's my content that is lacking. I'm failing to analyze the literature properly. So I have worked on one of my papers since last weekend every day, getting help and trying to rectify the problem. Hopefully this time I'll do alright. I have one more paper due next week, and that's it for the term.

One way or another, this is a learning experience!

Spacelord Once Again on Hold

Sorry to everyone, but I will not be posting any Spacelord for a while. I've got a couple of other things that are a bit more important (papers and applying for Grad School) so Spacelord will be on hold until those are out of the way.

Next Apocalypse Madness Quote Coming One Week from Monday!!!!!

Yes, the next quote is almost upon us! The third quote is due on October 27th, so there is just over one week left for the current quote!

I have written a rough draft of my story, so it should be posted within a few days!

What's Coming Up

The next month or so is going to be rather busy! First and foremost, I have two papers due at the beginning/mid November, so they are going to be the priority. I also have a group work project that I'll have to work on, so that will also be important, but a bit less so because it's due at the end of November. But of course, the most important thing that's coming up is the deadline for Grad school, so I'll be working on that in amongst everything else.

Non-school things that I also need to do includes a lot of writing. I need to get working on my Apocalypse Madness story. I also would like to revise the story I wrote for the Artery (but I might hold off on it for now and submit it for the next one). I am hoping to be writing Spacelord in here somewhere, but I may need to put that on hold for some of these other projects.

There are also a few other projects I've alluded to. I want to revise the Rhyssa Thorn story. And maybe write part two to the Phantom Dust story (it was originally intended to be three parts, but I don't know if that will happen. We'll see when I start writing it, if I do!)

I also have a few things to read, both for school and for fun. I want to read Twilight before the movie comes out. I have to read one more Shakespeare play, Richard II. And then I have several books in Children's Lit (the first of which is The Black Cauldron).

This is going to be a busy month!!!!

No Spacelord this Week

Sorry everyone, there will not be a Detective Spacelord post this week. I have been extremely busy and just haven't had time. I'm hoping to have one written for two weeks from now, but that will depend on school and everything.

Shakespeare's "As You Like It"

This week I watched two versions of Shakespeare's "As You Like It" from the library: the BBC version and the Crown Video version. The BBC version was made in 1978, starring Helen Mirren as Rosalind, and the Crown Video version, starring Elizabeth Bergner as Rosalind and Laurence Olivier as Orlando, was made in 1936.


Hands down I preferred the BBC version. It was very complete, and, although a bit long, very enjoyable. The BBC really captured the spirit of the play.


The Crown Video version, on the other had, was kind of bad. Parts of scenes, and in some cases whole scenes, were missing. It sort of reminded me of "The March of the Wooden Soldiers" in some parts. You could really tell it was an older movie, as some parts were a tad over dramatic. But I really liked the actors in this version; everyone was a really good match to the part.

One Week to 2nd Apocalypse Madness Quote!!!!!

Yes, there is only one week left until the 2nd quote goes up! I'm extremely happy with the blog so far - all of the stories are so different, and great to read! I hope the fun will continue with the next quote! I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

There is still lots of room if you'd like to contribute! Just send me an email!

Link Change

You may have noticed that the link for this blog has changed. I decided that "deliveringawesome" wasn't really right for this blog. So I have created the new blog at http://deliveringawesome.blogspot.com. Delivering Awesome is going to be a blog devoted to random character back stories that I have written, or any other random stories that really don't have a place anywhere. And this blog, even though it has a new url, will continue to do what it does, namely provide news about what's new and exciting in my life.

The Wasp Prince

Yes, yet another thing I found on Flickr!

I've been meaning to read this ever since it was posted, but I never seemed to have the time. Finally, I read it a few minutes ago. "The Wasp Prince" is a series of photos with an accompanying story by Aaron Nace and Rosie Hardy. I thought all four parts were hilarious! The characters were fun, and the story was highly entertaining! I'm hoping that they will continue writing as I cannot wait to read the next part!

Trapped in Our Own Fairytale

I was surfing Flickr after uploading my images, and of course I wandered over to Aaron and Rosie's photostreams (and their blog!) On Rosie's photostream, I found this shot, and fell in love, both with it and the description. The image is beautiful (and it was fun reading and seeing some of the behind the scene shots on the blog), reminding me of Rapunzel trying to get away from the tower. But what really struck me was the description: "So this image is for anyone who has ever felt kinda out of place in the world, anyone who wonders if maybe they'd belong in someone else's fairytale, anyone searching for their prince charming, anyone who hates happy endings altogether, anyone who is living their dreams." Thank you Rosie!

Fire in the Sky!

I am really excited about this photo, so I am going to write a whole post on it!

I went for a walk with my friend last night after dinner, and luckily I brought my camera. Last night had an absolutely beautiful sunset! Lately, I have seen sunsets with too much cloud cover, with the clouds obscuring the sun, or else too little, with no clouds at all. This time, there was just a bit of cloud, enough to give the sunset some beautiful colour, rather than just the glow.

I took a few shots of the sun, silhoutting the trees and lamp posts, but then right after the sun dipped below the tree line, I saw that the clouds looked amazing! The way they were positioned, it looked like the sky was on fire!

I had a bit of problems with the settings on my camera, but I did manage to get just this one shot showing the brilliance of the sunset! That totally made my entire night!!!!!

You can find "Fire in the Sky" on my Flickr photostream here.

My 1st Apocalypse Madness Story is Up!

I'm excited! The first story I wrote for Apocalypse Madness is up! I've been working on it for about two weeks now, and I've finally decided that I am happy with it! If you'd like to check it out, you can find it here. It is the longest story to date on the blog, so it'll take you a few minutes longer than the others to read.

Apocalypse Madness is still looking for contributors! We're currently at 8% capacity, so there's still lots of room! If you're interested, email me here!

Spacelord Post Scheduled for Midnight!!!!

I'm really excited - I figured out how to schedule posts today! I had tomorrow's Spacelord post ready to go, so I originally just saved it as a draft so I could come on sometime tomorrow and just post it quickly. But now I don't have to worry at all - it will automatically be posted at 12:03 am!

See this page if you need help figuring out how to schedule posts.

Apocalypse Madness

If you are interested in writing for Apocalypse Madness, then please send me an email! The blog can support up to 100 authors and we are currently up to 6, so there's still lots of room!

The List!

As mentioned on The List, with the conclusion of The Gypsy Morph, I am officially down to 89 books!!!!!

Tin Man

Today I watched Tin Man with a friend. Tin Man is a made for TV movie in three parts that appeared on the Sci Fi channel. It is a re-imaging of Oz.

It starts out when D.G. is swept into the O.Z. by a tornado. Her parents pushed her in to save her from the Long Coats who had come from the O.Z. to kill her. D.G. then finds herself on a quest to find her true identity and to save her family, her friends, and the whole of the O.Z.

One of the friends she encounters is a Tin Man (a police officer in the O.Z.) He had been captured years earlier by the Long Coats and imprisoned, watching a replay of the event over and over until D.G. comes and saves him. He then goes on a quest for revenge which is headed in the same direction as D.G. is going. They, along with the other friends D.G. encounters along the way, help each other to reach the Central City, where upon they part ways. But Wyatt Cain (the Tin Man) soon finds himself heading back to save D.G., and is charged with protecting her from the evil Azkadellia by the Mystic Man. From there, they set out to find D.G.'s mother, and also the Emerald, which holds the key to saving the O.Z!

The first two episodes of Tin Man were absolutely amazing! I loved every minute of them! From the characters, (the Tin Man in particular) to the flying monkeys, Tin Man had it all! But I found that in Episode 3, things started to fall apart a bit. I thought the ending was a bit weak, and D.G. seemed to lose some of the spunk that made the first two episodes so much fun to watch. Other than that, Tin Man was a good movie and definitely worth seeing!

First youtube Video!

I'm extremely excited - today I made my first youtube video!!!! The video features my brother demonstrating the craziest thing: when making a float out of coke and frozen yogurt, it'll fiz like mad when you add a spoon! Here's the video:

Apocalypse Madness!

Well, today another blog was born! There are going to be a few other contributors to this blog. We will be posting a quote from a Magic card, then writing stories based on that quote. We're going to try posting one new quote every month, giving everyone one month to write. If someone is too busy, or just uninspired by the quote, then they may not write.

I think this is going to be great fun! You can check out the blog at: http://apocalypsemadness.blogspot.com

Spacelord is Up!!!!

Well, I am glad I planned ahead a little bit, as this week's Spacelord post is up! I wrote a rough draft a few nights ago, so I just had to fix it up a little before posting! This is the first post that has been posted before I went to bed since I restarted writing Spacelord in July!

More Camping!

Well, I got back earlier this evening from Quetico Provincial Park. I went tenting for one night in a rather unplanned camping trip. It was a lot colder than expected at night, and we were sort of unprepared for the chill....luckily everyone survived! We're all happily back home and warm! :)


I'll be posting some pictures on Flickr from the trip over the next few days. I didn't take a whole lot, but I got a couple of neat pics of some ducks and a groundhog.

The List

Be sure to check out http://booklistreview.blogspot.com, my blog dedicated to my adventures in reading! The List started out as a record and review of all the books that I have on what I call The List, a list of novels that I own and need to read. Although the actual List is far from over (there are still about 90 books on it for me to read) The List blog is evolving to include all of my reading adventures.

Camping Pictures Finally on Flickr!

Yes, it only took me 3 days since I got home, but I am finally putting my camping pictures onto Flickr! I took 164 pictures over the four days! I am not putting all of them up, but I will be posting quite a few! I have just started downloading the day 2 pictures, so once these are up I will have 2 more days to go through! Expect lots of new pics on my photostream!!!!

Canada

A friend brought this to my attention about a week ago, and I thought I would share. I thought it was hilarious!

http://imago.hitherby.com/?m=200403&paged=2

Home from Camp!

I'm ba-ack! I got home from camp yesterday, but I didn't make it onto the internet until today. I had a great weekend with lots of fishing! I went fishing on two different lakes, and caught lots of fish! The only problem was that I got a bit too much sun and got some mild burns on my shoulders (from too much time in the boat!) I also didn't get much of anything done (no writing, very little reading . . .) but I feel more relaxed and recharged!

Camping!!!!!

Tomorrow morning I'm off to camp!!!!! I can't wait!!!!! A whole weekend of fishing, biking and relaxing!!!!!!

Getting Ready for Camping!

I am getting really excited - this weekend I am going camping!!!!! This is the first (and possibly only) camping trip for me this year! I have a nice long weekend, getting Tuesday off as well as Monday. So I am going to go and relax, read, fish, and have fun!!!

In preparation, I do need to go and buy some more fishing lures though - I found out on Sunday (my last fishing trip on the Kam) that I only have boring lures in my tackle box. So Friday I am heading shopping!

Spacelord is now every Second Monday

I have just posted the new Spacelord, and I have decided that I will only be posting every second Monday. This coming Monday I will be at camp, so I know I won't be able to post. I am going to try it every second Monday to see how it goes.

It was really nice this last week though. I felt like I had lots of time to think of exactly what would happen!

Monday's Spacelord Post

I am pleased to say that I have begun work on the next Spacelord post! I started writing it a bit while I was roleplaying this evening at a friend's house. It's definitely going to need a bit more work, but it has some of the elements I wanted to work into it. I'm hoping it won't be as tough to write as the last two were! Once this one is written, then the real work will begin . . .

Ninja Gaiden 2

Ok - I am a very big fan of the original Ninja Gaiden for Xbox (well, Ninja Gaiden Black anyway. I'm told it's the same game only harder). So when I found out Team Ninja was making a new Ninja Gaiden, I was ecstatic. But after putting the game into my 360, my excitement slowly but surely trickled away and was replaced with disappointment.

Ninja Gaiden Black was an amazing game. It had everything: a hot ninja, fighting, puzzles, a well-developed story line, interesting characters. Everything seemed to flow together nicely, nothing seemed tedious, and everything seemed to have a reason behind it. It had so many twists and turns that you never saw what was coming next. And did I mention the hot ninja?

Ninja Gaiden 2 was not so amazing. Yes, the hot ninja is still there. And the fighting. So much fighting. But that was about it. It drags you all over the world (at one point you're dumped off in South America with no real warning or reason. They also call the level "Heart of Darkness," which is kind of lame - it should have been set in the Congo) with nothing to really tie all the levels together. There was only one puzzle in the entire game that had me stumped for a few minutes (and then it ended up quite easy to solve in the end); otherwise it was an incredibly linear path throughout the game. They also had a chance to give 2 an awesome ending (similar to Black) but they blew that, too! Oh, I was also really mad at the invisible walls everywhere - the game doesn't let you explore at all! You have to stay on the path!

The one thing I will give to Ninja Gaiden 2 were the graphics. Some of the bosses looked amazing! It's just too bad that most of their characters seemed really stupid. The game would have been so much more enhanced if the characters had had a bit more background to them. Also, their design often didn't seem to match their elements. (The first Greater Fiend was hurling lightning at you, and then the second one claims to be the Lord of Storms? How does that work? And why is the first fiend creating a lightning waste land, while the Ruler of Storms is sitting around in what looks like Venice?)

I was also impressed with the weapon selection. Ninja Gaiden 2 kept some of my favourite weapons from the first game (Vigoorian Flail anyone?) while adding some exciting new ones (Eclipse Scythe). While I was sad that not all of my favourites made it into the new game (I miss you, Dabilahro!), the new ones more than compensated (Eclipse Scythe). I was a bit torn on the new upgrading system for the weapons though; in Black, every weapon had a different number of levels, while in 2, everything had 3 levels (except the Dragon Sword, which ends up with 4).

Overall, I was really disappointed with Ninja Gaiden 2. I was expecting a game that would be as amazing as the first one. Sadly, I felt that Ninja Gaiden 2 fell far short of Black. The weapons and enemies were entertaining for awhile, but the whole game wasn't put together nearly as well as Black. With Black, I was playing the game to know what happened next. With 2, I was playing the game just for the sake of beating it (and for some gamerpoints, cause hey, why not?)

The Ninja Gaiden series is, in my opinion, reflecting the Halo series. Hopefully if there is a third one, Team Ninja will do more than just work on the combat.

Fishing!!!!

Today was the first time I went fishing this year!!!! I tried going on Sunday, but it started pouring when we were about halfway to Whitefish. So my dad and I decided to head out onto the Kam river after dinner for a little bit. It was so relaxing, being out on the boat!!! Sadly, I didn't actually catch anything; I just fed the fish all night! My dad was able to bring up a nice sized bass (see my Flickr photostream for the pic!) But all in all, I had a great time. And I even managed to get a nice picture of the sun setting!

the Dark Knight

Yes, the main reason I wasn't able to post Spacelord yesterday was that I was too hyped up for the Dark Knight! I went to see it last night, and it was amazing!!!! Heath Ledger was amazing as the Joker! I totally agree with my brother - the Joker is now one of the top on my list of best villians ever! Right from the beginning you were sucked into Gotham City, and you didn't want to leave your seat until after the credits were rolling! And there were a lot of things that surprised me throughout the movie - I won't say anything here, I don't want to ruin the Dark Knight for anyone. Loved it, loved it, loved it!!!!!

No Spacelord This Week

Sorry to everyone, but there was no Spacelord this week. I was extremely busy yesterday, between work and going out afterwards; I didn't have a chance to finish or post the new post. But don't worry - it will be ready for next week!!!!

Strawberry Picking!

I went strawberry picking today! The picking was alright - I had one row with amazing strawberries, and one that wasn't so great (so I didn't use it). But stupid me, I left my camera in the car, and I found a couple of great shots that I totally missed! First was a grasshopper that totally looked like he was smiling! But then second, I found this big grey moth hiding in some strawberry leaves. I carefully picked the leaf, and then managed to pick almost my entire second basket of strawberries while holding onto the leaf. I made it back to the tractor that was going to take me back to the car, and then he flew away! Well, I guess that will teach me not to leave my camera behind again!

No Sunshine Shot For Me Tonight....

I went for a walk today with my brother along a river in town. I wanted to see some wildlife (I've seen a deer and a fox along that trail before) but I was also hoping for a really nice silhoutte at sunset. Well, when we were heading back to the car, right at sunset, the sun was hidden behind a gigantic cloud! I took a shot, but it just wasn't the same - I needed the sun to be peeking out from the clouds, not covered! I've been wanting a nice silhoutte for about a week now, and so far no luck! I also didn't get to see any deer or fox tonight, but I did see lots of geese and something swimming that may have been an otter. And I got a nice shot of the moon, so I guess it wasn't a total loss. I'll be posting some of these pics on flickr tomorrow.

I've gone Pro!!!!

Well, today I finally went and bought myself a Flickr Pro account!!! I've been taking tons of pictures, and I blew through my 100 mb of storage for July about a week ago. So today, after taking even more pictures, I had to put my money where my mouth was and buy it. So I get to put an unlimited number of pictures up on flickr for the next year!!! I figure I'll try it out for a year, then I can decide if I want to stay pro or go back to the free account.

A Love Story

A few weeks ago, I was surfing on flickr when I came across some pictures by Aaron Nace (http://www.flickr.com/photos/aknacer/). I thought his pictures were amazing, but even more amazing was the story I found within the pictures. Aaron had met someone on flickr. And even though an ocean separates Aaron from Rosie (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosie_hardy/), they have fallen in love.

I hope that no matter what happens in between, this modern fairy tale has a happy ending!

Also, be sure to check out Aaron's blog, http://aknacer.blogspot.com/. I enjoy reading it (when he updates it!)

The Spacelord Delimma

Well, I have just finished another incident in Detective Spacelord, and now is a good time to consider whether or not I should continue posting every Monday, or if I should drop it down to every second Monday? This last post took a lot of time and effort before I was happy with it, and I know the next ones will as well. However, I do still have time and could make it for every Monday right now (come September, when I head back to school, I am thinking I may drop it down to every second Monday so I have time for school work). So I am asking anyone who reads Spacelord to let me know what they think! Reply to this post, or email me at inkscribbler@gmail.com.

Welcome to My World . . .

Hello everyone! I've been thinking about starting a new blog for a little while, ever since I started looking into getting more traffic to the Detective Spacelord blog. After a comment from someone on yahoo answers that said the Spacelord blog is closed to people, I thought it might be easier to start a new blog, and hopefully people will find their way to Spacelord from that. So here we are!

This blog is going to be a lot of things, but mainly it will be telling what is going on in my life. If something is going on, and I won't be able to post a new Spacelord post, then you'll definitely hear about it on here! But I may also talk about important events, other blogs of mine like The List (http://booklistreview.com/) or any others I may create, and whatever!

Welcome to my world . . .