Uni, Uni.. and well, Uni

Life at University is  a waste of my creativity. I am unable to ‘create’ as I once was able to whilst living at home. Perhaps its the limited technology I have, or maybe the mass amount of work I have been given (probably not that one). But no, it is neither, it is simply the fact that University has a massive social aspect to it which cannot be ignored, especially for someone in my position. After leaving Kent to attend Liverpool John Moore’s University, like most human beings, fear of rejection and fear of having no friends is very apparent, and making friends becomes number one priority.

But fear not! It is not all doom and gloom, I have created some creative aids.

Like this green screen (second attempt) which I am quite proud of!

Pretty nifty eh?

Made out of an ex-printer box and a large piece of green card, pretty simple really. Now comes the hard part of getting the lighting correct, I currently have natural light from the tiny, cell like window in my flat, the flats ceiling light, and two little lamps. A bit more tweaking with the set up and I think I will start animating hopefully by January. My parents have been kind enough to let me borrow the video camera too!

I am finding it hard to remain ambitious on my University course. Because it is a Foundation course in Computing, it is completely what I am not interested in. I have to keep telling myself to keep it up and when next year comes, I can actually do some interesting, and to me, meaningful studies. For those of you who do not know, next year I will be moving onto the degree course of Computer Animation & Visualization, which I can’t wait for!

My modules I am studying at the moment are:

• Computer Fundamentals

This module is the only module that is slightly worth while, because I really enjoy learning, and this module is quite a complex one. Involving binary addition/subtraction, truth tables, adders and half adders, and other interesting, yet unimportant computing methods.

• Computer Application Tools

This module confuses me, not because it is hard, but because I do not think it fits in with the other modules. For example, our first in class test was on Microsoft Word. We had to follow about 30 steps, telling us to use various functions that Word possesses, instructions like: Print this document, Create a table, Insert a picture. Now I understand that if some people have never used a computer before (my Nan) this would be hard for them, but for students who have probably been studying ICT since year 7, this is..well this is year 7 stuff. And God help the students who are struggling in this module, I wonder if they even know what is going on in Computer Fundamentals.

• IT Project Case Studies

This is a hard module for me to stay focused in,  being a hippy at heart, I hate bureaucracy, and our first assignment was to portray System Analyst’s and help an imaginary business with some IT problems. A presentation was also involved, where, as soon as I started talking, I instantly turned into Alan Statham from Green Wing.

• Personal Development

Apparently this other annoying module is meant to be beneficial to us, so we’ve been told, so I will give it a chance. Yet there is also a presentation involved, bad times. Basically this module tells us how to win at life.

 

I havent written a blog for a while, it is 3:56am and I can’t sleep, or maybe this is a dream and when I wake up it will all…no thats stupid. Anyway I suffer from a messed up sleeping pattern, like many students. I feel more like an owl than a human. Humans are designed to have a nap around 2-3 in the afternoon, which is why, if you have ever noticed, you start to feel tired around then whilst at work, time for a 30 minute power nap! But because my sleeping pattern is way out of sync, my 30 minute power nap is around 8-9 pm, which I then wake up at around 12-1 am, then not being able to sleep for 4 hours, bad times.

Things I miss from home:

• Family

Of course everyone misses their family, no matter how much of a hard case they think they are. Families are awesome!

• Home cooked meals around the table

Living of Iceland ready meals cannot be healthy (Iceland the shop, not the country, I do not get my food specially imported from Iceland), but they are too easy and quick to prepare. Plus they kick Tesco’s ready meals up the arse!

• My friends

I have few friends, but I am not complaining, I prefer my company to anyone elses, no offence intended. But I still miss them.

• The countryside

I think there is such thing as ‘Countryside’ up north but I think they just call it Scotland.

• Old English pubs in the middle of nowhere

Going to visit an old English pub, in the middle of nowhere, the sort of pub that has a sign that says: ‘No kids, dogs, French’? What more can you ask for.

• My Dad’s Camera

*Sad face* I love taking photos, and being in a vibrant city such as Liverpool offers countless photo opportunities. I will have to put up with the camera on my phone until I can afford my own awesome camera… Photos are on their way!

 

Quite a long blog post this morning, I am hoping making this blog post will spark my creativity again. I plan to review a couple of films in my own special way very soon.

America declares war on the Moon!

In an obscure, and slightly hazed view of the headlines, this is basically what has happened. It is a lot like Iraq. America invaded Iraq because they thought that there was weapons of mass destruction there. Now America is invading the Moon because they think water is there. Are they going to be so wrong again?

Or perhaps America has ran out of interesting countries to throw bombs at, so they decided to take it out on the poor old Moon.

Also Obama has won a peace prize? Maybe he has won it because this is the longest amount of time a president has endured after being made president and not invaded another country.

Why would you bomb his cute little creamy face?

Stupid people

Yes there are stupid people at University. You would think that they have been flushed out by now, slowly sieved out from the rest of normal society. I am not being snobbish, but some people really can say the most stupid things.

For example, I heard a girl say ‘Where is Ireland?’, and ‘I didnt know Ireland had its own island’. Surely people with that low IQ shouldnt be able to make it into University?

Oh no

Saw this on a piece of plastic wrapping. Which made me think, if someone was stupid enough to come in contact with a different piece of plastic wrapping without this warning sign on it, would he/she/it immediately put it over their head to see what would happen. Which THEN made me think about natural selection. Because natural selection isnt really happening as much as it did as, say, when we was being chased by lions and horrifically eaten alive. This may sound evil…infact it does sound evil, but the humans that wasnt supposed to survive, have survived and are passing on their genes, which may not be beneficial to the human race.

Example

Can you imagine these people escaping a lion? No, which is why there was no stupid cavemen.

Well to be fair it was fitness over intelligence then, but same principles.

Started Uni = No spare time

First things first, for those of you who think that Uni is ALL spare time, it isnt, and let me explain. The spare time is filled up with socializing / drinking / eating badly.. Oh and studying. So I do not have as much spare time as I used to, so new blog posts may be few and far between.

I started Uni a week ago and so far it is pretty cool, living away from home is just what I wanted. And what better city than Liverpool to do it in. Liverpool is such a great city. I am at Liverpool John Moore’s University studying Foundation Computing… Which is pretty lame because I know everything already. They put me onto this ‘Foundation’ course and said something about ‘getting the right grades’ or whatever. I originally applied for Computer Animation and Visualization, which sounds like an epic win course to do, for a guy with my interests. BUT DO NOT FRET I am able to pursue my interest in animation whilst doing this course simply because this foundation course is easy. For example, todays lecture consisted of finding the Help function in Microsoft Word, writing a paragraph and Justifying it, then creating a table. Fun? I think not.

Pictured from left to right: Me, Laptop, Microsoft Word.

And guess what, I seem to have made something quite cool:

More animation equipment!

I have been inspired yet again! After mindlessly browsing YouTube, I found something of meaning in amongst the countless videos of pointlessness. His name is Patrick Boivin and he is a very talented film maker and animator. So watching his ‘making of’ clips showed me a few of the techniques and made me realise I am missing a few important ingredients for animation.

One of which is a camera mount / track / Toy car.

I needed something the camera can attach to, and that something had to have wheels of some sort. Ended up using a Playmobil car I found in the loft, and a scrap bit of metal (probably from ikea). Couple of screws, some super glue, and ta da, here’s what I made:

Close up of the screw that the camera attatches to

Cool eh, and what else do I need but a Green Screen:

Ok…the green screen did not quite work out the way I had envisioned it, but the camera mount works a treat.

I think I might have to use a green T Shirt, or something fabric to make the colour true…for my printer is shit.

Now maybe I can get down to some serious animation!

Life and Death

I saw this, and my Car Crash Syndrome kicked in, and I just happened to have my trusty camera with me.

Fate

Car Crash Syndrome is basically morbid curiosity, when people slow down to see car crashes, sub-consciously they want to see something gruesome. Only the real sicko’s would admit to wanting to see some gore, but it is Humans nature to be curious of this morbid sense of entertainment. Throughout Human history there has been many times when Human suffering has been used as entertainment, most notably the Gladiators of Rome.

Why people find this fascinating I cannot answer, I can only simply guess. Perhaps it is some prehistoric instincts that are still hard wired into our brains even though we do not have use for it anymore. Without curiosity Humans would not have evolved, they would not have thought what would happen if you attach a flint onto a stick with a bit of string. And with curiosity, comes morbid curiosity.

Now this then made me think how insignificant Life is, the majority of people will only do what millions have done before them, they have no ambition or creativity. Why not create something new. People seem to only want to do what everyone else is doing, goto Uni, have relationships, and of course, breed. Now all this is good, but why not ALSO be creative? instead of getting into a 9 – 5 insignificant job, create something that changes how people think or view life.

Then comes Death, something we all have in common. I have heard the saying ‘we all die alone’ which I think is very true. Even if someone is with you when you die, you are going to pass on by yourself. Yes this sounds very depressing, which is why my outlook in life is to instead of doing what millions have done before me, I am going to, or at least try my best, to create.

Carpe diem

Back from France!

Well this post is a bit late, I got back from the South of France on Saturday the 8th of August. I haven’t got round to posting to my imaginary readers as of late because I recently found out I have been accepted at University in Liverpool, although not the course I originally applied for, they bumped me down to a foundation course and said something about ‘getting the required grades’ or some bullcrap. But I am happy, I will now be at Uni for 5 years instead of 4, that’s one more year of debt to pay off. I think I shall take advice from the Peep Show and ‘just change my address once and they will never find me again’. Although I am scared of those vultures in the adverts, are they there just to remind us that we have to go back to the shit real world after Uni ?….I think so.

What do you wanna do?

Anyway!

It was hot! Basically 30-35 degrees celsius every day, except the one day we had torrential rain and a thunderstorm which I called a Monsoon. And during this monsoon I was halfway through watching The Hangover (which was surprisingly good,  review coming soon) in a caravan with two Dutch people. And these two dutch people were fine watching The Hangover with the rain battering down on the caravan and thunder thundering every 2 minutes, all because they had Dutch subtitles… I had nothing, so we joint decided to run to the Bar for cover. Although…this plan did go unscathed, my holiday may have ended early, because to get to the bar, you have to go across a field the size of two football pitches…and in a thunder storm, that isn’t the best idea. Once we got to the bar, I realised I was missing a brother, so the worry started setting in. He likes to hang with all the cool kids, the kids that think its un-cool to be with their parents. Someone told me that he was under the bridge?? In this weather the river must have been above the bridge. But my worry subsided when I found him in the payphone area which is underneath the bar…with guess who…all the cool kids, smoking, hiding from their parents….lame.

Everyone who smokes was like this as a kid

So apart from my brother annoying me because he is the complete opposite to me, I had a great time on holiday. I went on a bike ride….up a bloody mountain, and what annoyed me even more was, all the people on the bike ride kept calling the mountain a hill…. I would hate to see what they call a mountain. On this bike ride I was kindly reminded how unfit I am by use of lactic acid in my muscles and the occasional Tour de France stray that would zoom past me…uphill.. After this bike ride I decided to get fit, which should be easy seeing as I am going to Uni, the one place where I wont be able to afford to snack.

A big part of my holiday was spent improving my photography skills. I took 450 photos over three weeks, and some of them are really quite nice.  Although one opportunity slipped past me, an old French lady was leaning out of a town house window about three stories up. With a really wrinkled face, she would have made an iconic photograph, but I wasn’t brave enough to take photos of people without their permission.

I am not going to show the photographs here, because I have been busy making a cool little website to showcase my creations…Click Photography, for those of you who have three brain cells.

We stayed at a place called Mas De La Cam in the Cévennes region of southern France. If you look hard enough on the campsites website you can find photos of me and my family. Although the campsite is 99% Dutch anyway, and that I learnt more Dutch than French which is ironic seeing as I went on holiday to France. The Dutch are nice people, although a bit samey, they all wear the same clothes, and listen to the same music. I could see no alternative people there who liked metal and hard rock. Anyone with long hair (like me) was called an emo. For example one girl asked me, ‘are you an amo?’, no that is not a typo, she actually said amo, instead of emo, either way she was wrong. What made me laugh is i bought a pair of aviators glasses before the holiday, and within a week all the Dutch kids was wearing them too! I am not saying they copied me, I am just saying they copied each other.

Be cool, wear aviators

Going on Holiday!

Ok ok, I haven’t updated my blog for a while, so you will be pleased to hear I am going on holiday for three weeks! So the streak of no new content will continue a little while. In the mean time, check these photos out:

Walking about in Rainham I came across probably my favorite piece of graffiti Ive seen.

And the next day, excitement arose! An emergency helicopter landed close to my house. Photo taken from an upstairs bedroom. As the pilots got out, wearing grey jumpsuits, it was almost like aliens landing.

ALSO I recently got a new phone, the LG Cookie, It is cool because it is named after a biscuit, I keep telling everyone. The camera is pretty decent, 3.0mp, I took the two photos above with it, and this one below:

The camera seems to struggle with close up shots, this shot is the closest I can get without it becoming blurred.

After my adventure in the South of France, I will be sure to document it in detail when I get back. I am taking three 2gb memory cards for my camera. No not my phone camera, a slightly better digital camera (7.1mp).

BRB

The Day the Earth Stood Still

AKA ‘Another day Keanu Reeves fools the entire population of the planet that he is actually any good.’ I used to like Keanu Reeves until I realised I was being hypnotized by all the pretty shiny colours made by the special effects team. Keanu Reeves has just about the same acting talent as a ton of solid Oak, he always plays the ‘not saying very much but means alot’ character, apart from his awesome performance in Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure.

Pictured right: Before Morpheus gave him a haircut

I liked him in The Matrix, the first one that is, two and three were piles of giraffe dung. But when I realised how bad he actually is I stopped liking him all together.

ANYWAY onto The Day the Earth Stood Still, apart from Keanu Reeves, I quite liked it, I am a fan of Sci Fi, and I guess this film has some Sci Fi in it, in the form of weird ass aliens who look like Keanu Reeves. So this massive space ship? comes out of nowhere, us noobs here on Earth think its a comet of some sort, until it starts to slow down, land in the middle of Manhattan, and spitting out Keanu Reeves.

ON a side note, ever since 9/11 there has been piles and piles of movies involving some sort of disaster situated in either New York itself, or other major city’s in America.

Cloverfield – The one about the giant monster you partially catch a glimpse of, terrorising New York

Picture unrelated

The Day After Tomorrow - The one about the day that was not actually after tomorrow but more like after the tomorrow after tomorrow which is after yesterday right before next week. Again, set in New York.

(Ok ok, there are others, perhaps I should do more research when I create Blog posts, I am just writing this of the top of my head.)

So lets have a look at the DVD covers for these films:

Coincidence?

Is it something to do with 9/11? Or am I just being one of those weird conspiracy guys that live in their Mothers basement adding videos to YouTube in candle light. Perhaps it is the whole scare tactics thing going on with the media, perhaps the media are producing all these films to keep the nation, or the American nation, in a state of fear.

The next big disaster movie coming out has got to be 2012, which looks like a laugh.

Junkmail + Religion

Junk mail, an ancient ancestor of Spam emails..

Just an example of the kind of crap that gets shoveled into my letterbox.

I got this flyer this morning that made me laugh, basically its a Jehovah Witness convention that claims they can answer this question. But I know what the answer is already, believe in God and all that crap and you will go to heaven and what not, but that isn’t surviving the end of the world is it, you will still die. That’s if the Jehovah Witnesses even make it to the end of the world with all their bullshit beliefs like no blood transfusions.

Anyway, if the world was going to end, I would prefer to put up with an eternity of pain with fire in Hell, than an eternity of pain ‘living?’ with Jehovah Witnesses and Ned Flanders in Heaven. Going with these beliefs, anyone who lies will go to Hell, anyone who drinks will go to Hell etc etc. Which means no interesting people will be in Heaven. It will be full of people dressed in smart clothes, ‘knock knock knocking on heavens door’ asking to convert you. Who would you rather have a conversation with, Charles Manson, or a Jehovah Witness?

By now you probably think I am an atheist, but I consider myself agnostic, because if atheist means for sure you believe there is no God at all, then aren’t you just as bad as religious people? How can we possibly know for sure there is no God.

On a side note, this is how mad religion actually can be, if taken so damn seriously:

“Repent dummies”

Fred Phelps, the pastor of the God Hates Fags church is a strange fellow, who I believe is actually homosexual but in denial, if you think about it, it makes so much sense that he is Gay, and so insecure about it he decided to create a church that ‘hates fags’ just so everyone will immediately presume that he is not gay. It is cruel what they are doing to those children, filling their heads with this crap. How can you possible think that what they are doing is right, I just don’t understand it.

Oh, and is it just me, or do those kids sound like South Park characters?