Leader's Weekend Dispatch 1

Dispatch from the car: we are heading north from Perth after first stopping off at a petrol station just outside Dundeee for batteries for Bryony's iPod stereo and some Jelly Babies, (essentials of life, y'know) where we encountered a bus of rioting kids. We then stopped at All Saints Glencarre to retrieve the fabled Brechin Cross, where we met Max of the world famous Dog Blog (TM), a rather enthusiastic chap who smelled of (and according to his Human had recently been experiencing the joys of) stagnant water, so enthusiastic, in fact, that he scratched me as he greeted me. Are nearing Pitlochry and will update later, probably from the pub.

Security Blanket

So I was in Waterstones the other day, and I started reading the first book of The Complete Peanuts Collection, and one of the first things that struck me is how much Charles Schulz's drawing style changed and developed from the first strips in 1950 'til he settled on the recognisable style six or seven years later. The early strips lack the facial and bodily detail that later defined Schulz's work. Another thing that I noticed, something which amused me no end, is seeing Linus as a toddler. Although he is a toddler, the foundations of later character development is there, with several philisophical inclinations in amongst all the thoughts and feelings. It wouldn't be for almost another twenty years that there would be another Van Pelt, in the shape of Rerun Van Pelt, Lucy and Linus' youngest brother. It's fun to see that even in the early days, that Schroeder and Charlie had to ward off Lucy's amorous advances. Schroeder is, as ever, married to his music and Devoted to Beethoven.

It's begginning to look like this is going to be a topical blog. More tomorrow.

Teh Manga, lulz!!

Another of my speeches copied and pasted from a forum.

Eidderf: See that's how anime started, someone drew a little goku and everyone else created variations and then it became style of drawing for people who can't draw.

Me: Not entirely, but something along those lines. At college we had folk from both Dundee and Abertay Unis who came in to talk to us about their respective animation courses, and both said the same thing about manga; "If you aren't from Japan or China, and you didn't grow up in that sort of culture, don't put manga in your portfolio" They have a point. Too many kids are adopting Manga as their art style, and their actual, often undiscovered, art style is sacrificed as a result. You don't see hordes of folk drawing like Matt Groening or Charles Schulz after reading their comics or watching their TV shows?

Love with a U in the middle

Copied and pasted from a post I made on a forum:

"Love is weird guys. Or should I say, a lack of it. I haven't been in a relationship for over a year, and I think I'm ready for another one. I really hope I'm better at a relationship this time than last time, because last time the relationship broke down coz we just stopped talking. I don't think I was ready for one, plus we started going out just days after we met. Now I'm ready and I like a girl, and I'm almost certain she likes me (though I shall undertake further research to confirm this), plus I promise I'll keep talking to her! Fingers crossed guys, here I go!"

I'll restart blogging tomorrow, I've been lazy and not been doing it.

Penny Lane is in My Ears and in My Eyes...

In Penny Lane there is a Barber showing Photographs/Of every Head he's had the pleasure to have known/And all the people that come and go/Stop to say Hello.

So goes the first verse of a Beatles classic. The reason I mention it is that I've had it stuck in my head since yesterday morning, because I was watching a daytime TV property programme (that's my parents' fault, that is!) and the programme featured a property in the Mosley Hill area of Liverpool, which is where John Lennon and George Harrison grew up, and the house was on a street near the famous Penny Lane. It would be good to go there and walk along Penny Lane. I've got 3 days of posts to cover in this entry. So much for 2 posts per day! So, what's been happening lately? On Tuesday,
I went round to Pete's (a guy from college) flat, played Star Wars Batlefront, before heading to work. Nothing much happened yesterday or today, to be honest, so I'll talk about Pete. Tuesday was the first time that I got to properly talk to him, and he's a genuinely nice guy. In my mind, what I especially like about him is that he accepts you for who you are, he doesn't expect you to be anything greater than, or different to who or what you are. It makes a big change from last year in the NQ, when they tried to turn you into a clone of themselves. Life seems to have taken an unexpected turn recently, and a line from a church service blessing sticks in my mind:

From what we know, To what we don't know, God is calling us on

That has become my motto over the last few weeks, and I'm going to adapt my frame of mind thus so that I can look towards the next couple of months with hope, expectancy, and most of all, Courage.

Whoops, My Bad!

Ok, so I kinda neglected to post yesterday. I was staying over at Gordon's from Saturday night 'til this morning (Monday morning). On the subject of this blog, I was procrastinating again. On Sunday evening, we went out for Libations after Evening Prayer,with Kristin and Bryony, which was fun ("Someone stole my Gyroscope!"). We found out that Kristin is leaving us at the end of May to go home to Germany, and, Shock Horror, Bryony is leaving us too. Bryony is moving down to Edinburgh to a Post-Grad down there. Gordon assures me, however, that Chris Simmons is coming to Dundee to do "Psychology, or something like that", so hopefully, we'll persuade him to Libate. In other news, I'm looking forward to the summer, it looks like we'll heading back to the usual resort for our holibags, which suits me fine, as we know the place so well. Zack's Shack, here I come. Plus, this time, I'll be able to order alcohol when I'm there. On the band front, I think I've found amount and combination of people to mobilise this band: James Mitchell on Vocals, Charlie Anderson on Guitar, Gordon on Bass and Me on Drums. Now all I have to do is to get Charlie and Gordon to actually sign up for this thing! At least James agreed...

ONE SHALL STAND AND ONE SHALL FALL

Last night I watched the new Transformers film. (I say new, even though it was released last year because it is new compared to the original animated film.) I had very high expectations of the film, but I was completely unprepared as to how much it would blow me away. I don't think it's too much of an overstatement to say it was EPIC. There was the obligatory detail change, but I thhnk they added to the film, rather than taking away from it. For example, updating Bumblebee to a Chevrolet, I thought was a nice touch, and also replacing Primus with the Cube meant that half the movie wasn't wasted by telling the origins backstory. When I posted about it on forum I frequent, one of the members pointed out faults of the film, but to be honest, it was a minor detail.

All in all, I'd rate it 5 stars.