My Scottish Adventure - Part 2

I have returned from my travels safe and almost well; one chest infection that I took with me is still bothering me but I have drugs now so will be fine. The second part of my Scotland Adventure took me to Stonehaven and while there I went walking about to see Dunnottar Castle (probably not the wisest thing to do with a chest infection, but I swear the sea air helped). The pictures below will do far more to convey the beauty and splendour of the place than any words. The place took my breath away with how majestic the scenery is. I had to stop every few minutes while walking along the coastal path to take a picture, as every step revealed a new perspective that was even more stunning than the last.

My Scottish Adventure - Part 1

This is a day of firsts. It will be the first time that I've written a blog post from my phone and it will be the first time I've gone on holiday by myself. It may only be to a harbour town in Scotland and only for a few days, but I think it still counts. Here's hoping I can format this post right on my smaller screen...

I've been up here a few days now to offer moral support to friends running the Edinburgh Marathon and had forgotten how stunning this city is. Of course the unusually sunny days have helped, though even on this colder grey day it's still beautiful. My friends have also been astounding, both managing to not just finish their first full marathon but to go out afterwards for dinner and drinks. I'd be a useless pile of limbs, gibbering and shivering, if I'd just run 26+ miles! So bravo ladies - you are an inspiration.

At this very moment I'm sitting in a generic coffee shop, that doesn't pay a lot of tax, waiting for my train to Stonehaven on the east coast of Scotland. I decided to go there after reading about it in a book (as good a reason as any) called Sophia's Secret by Susanna Kearsley and discovering that the ancient castle Dunnottar is still standing. Look the place up on Google and you'll see why I just had to see it.

With a tummy filled with haggis I should br on my way in an hour on the next leg of the journey. I'm hoping for dry weather so I can draw and paint in the open air, maybe with a wee bottle of whiskey in my bag to keep me warm. And Evernote is being used extensively for writing ideas and snippets. Fingers crossed for a creative few days to come.

Xbox Reveal Reaction

Finally adding something new to this ol' blog - my personal reactions to the Xbox One reveal. Watched the live event via the BF's Xbox360 and our core reaction was much the same; "Ooh, the machine looks nice but where are the games?" From the look of the #XboxReveal on Twitter we weren't the only ones. Digital Spy have the full video if you missed it and want to see what's I'm rabbiting on about.

I've been through a fair number of console reveals by now (hand me my cane you whipper snapper), and I don't know if it's the age or rose-tinted specs talking, but I remember console reveals being more exciting back in the PS2 days. Or maybe I was just more easily impressed with FMV than I am now. After the "meh" PS4 reveal I hoped we'd see more from team Microsoft, and they kind of delivered. Sort of. At least we now know what the new Xbox One will look like which is more than can be said of the PS4. I also really like the name of the new Xbox, odd as that sounds. It's nice and simple. I imagine it took ages to come up with though. No seriously, I've been in meetings like that; it probably went back and forth constantly before they decided on the obvious.

Once again there was one core feature that wasn't talked about or shown much, the single thing you'd expect a game console reveal to cover: GAMES! Unless you were a sports game fan (of which there are many, I know) there wasn't a whole lot to get excited about. High points for me were:

• Halo TV show - yay!
• Two women presenting - yay! (seriously the way the industry's been going, it's a welcome surprise)
• The instant way it flipped from TV, to movie, to internet browser, to game, and back to TV again. Very cool.
• The pad looks great (i.e. it looks almost identical to the 360 pad)
• ...The home page looked nice?
• Ummmm....

Yeah. So not a lot wowed me. Sure Call of Duty looks nice and the dog was well rendered but there was no real in-game footage so I can't tell just how good the graphics are really. I'm sure they're amazing, I'd just like to see them in actual motion, rather than in super-duper worked on movie sequences.

Of course the real news that was important to gamers only got leaked unofficially afterwords and it's not good news:

• Mandatory game installation from discs - and that a second user of the same disc would have the "option" to pay a fee to install the game on their separate machine so they too can "play it without the disc". I can't tell if there's an option here to just play from the disc, without installing, but it doesn't sound like it. The editor of Official Xbox Magazine has since said that when you install the game on a second machine it uninstalls it from the first... which means my BF will never let me play his games until he's completely finished it. Or maybe not at all if it affects the save data... I know I wouldn't if it were my games!*
• No backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 disc or online arcade games - bummer, but not entirely surprising. At least the top of the new Xbox is flat, so I can put by Xbox 360 on top of it. Silver linings!

Overall I'm not totally convinced by the Xbox One. Oh, have no doubt - I will get one. I'm a gamer, it's what we do; we bitch and complain about the many ways in which the latest console sucks and then we go out and buy it anyway. It's a like a form of madness that's really expensive and leaves you feeling a bit disappointed but excited all at once. I'll just keep my little fingers crossed that the game line-up is more than just racing/American football/basketball/football games, and we get to see more of them in action at E3. A girl can dream.

*For those of you wondering, we tend to play very different types of games to each other, but I like trying out the ones he has months/years after he's played them. He rarely wants to play my strategy or RPG games for some strange reason...

Book Review: World War Z

There's something strangely compulsive about zombie stories. Whether it's a Romero style satire or period pieces featuring women in bonnets kung fu fighting the walking dead, there always seems to be something new to add to the genre. The downside is that all too often creators can end up playing it safe and giving us nothing much in the way of originality. Thankfully World War Z is an exception and while the story may reflect a well known narrative that anyone familiar with the genre will instantly recognise, it tells the story on a much larger scale and in a very different way.

World War Z is an account of events in the past. The undead are still walking around but the tide has turned and humanity appears to have been victorious, albeit at a terrible, high price. The book is made up of different people's accounts from all around the world sharing their experiences of the war, from its mysterious start and right through the darkest days. Some are told in monologues, others in Q & A style interviews. From soldiers, to criminals, to ordinary folk caught in the crossfire, all have a story to tell and with it advice on how to survive a zombie apocalypse. In fact this is the single most useful book for governments if they want to get a Zombie Plan in place. For example; all that military might makes not an ounce of difference. Tanks, bombs, drones - none of that is going to help if the dead rise from the grave. It will be down to peeps on the ground with a good aim and a reliable gun, plus those brave enough to use axes, scythes and samurai swords in close combat.

Politics plays a surprising part in things too. The political atmosphere that permeates the world before the zombies arrive is one that will be familiar to everyone. There are surprising alliances, revolutions, and saviours here, giving the book a fascinating real world feel (though North Korea probably won't like the implications). It's this "realness" that gives World War Z that little something to mark it out from the rest of the zombie genre, and keeps you reading through the snippets of events it takes you through. In many ways it feels like a short story collection  all around the theme of "what would happen if zombies really did try to take over the earth and eat us?" The only downside to this is that there is no strong central character to root for, no one humanising soul to support through the nightmare. This creates a certain distance to the plot-driven story, which some might find uninteresting without that single emotional string you normally get in more character driven stories.

Refreshing and entertaining, this is a book for anyone with a thing about zombie stories, especially for those tired of the same old group of kids/adults hiding out in a mall that has a staggering capacity to maintain power throughout the crisis. The upcoming film will no doubt change a lot, and introduce a much more focused point of view of things, but the trailer already shows they're sticking to the scale of the book; this is a worldwide tale, and can't be told in just one location. It is worth trying to read the book though, even if you delay it until after seeing the film (just in case) as there are plenty of surprises, action and heartfelt moments in World War Z for even the most hardened zombie fan. 

The Obligatory "Thatcher's Death Brings Out The Worst In People" Post

It's been a while since I've posted anything so if this is what it takes to spur the horse than so be it. Social media has been awash with vile, self-congratulatory, shallow and occasionally funny but mostly sexist things in response the death of Mrs. T - from both sides of the political spectrum. Out of the bat I'll say I'm far from a fan of hers - not just because of the impact her government's policies had on my own family, but because I deeply disagree with her politics generally. I personally wouldn't go so far as to call her "Evil" (though some she championed certainly were) but selfish, greed obsessed, narrow sighted and superior? Yeah, I can go with that for a start.

But does that make me glad she died? No. I am remarkably ambivalent about her being dead. Dancing in the streets or feeling jubilant over the death of an old, senile woman who once held great power seems like a total waste of energy to me, not to mention crass. We also shouldn't feel "happy" about her death because her spirit, her attitudes and her politics are still here, and still causing misery. Every time you see a headline about "Scrounger" families living off the state, but nothing about the estimated £5 billion in tax avoidance from businesses and individuals, you have to accept that she won. She got her way, and worst of all we all fell in line.

There's a brilliant bit in the Guardian today about George "Gideon" Osbourne's own constituency, and I highly recommend you read it. In essence it shows how one area can be a microcosm of the whole country and, worse still, that no one is all that upset about how unfair it all is. They want their kids to have the best chance in life, so stay in an area they struggle to afford to send them to the best schools. And there's nothing wrong with that per se; except the chances any of their kids will get to the top is nearly nil. Oh, they may get up the ladder a bit, but all the way to fortune and glory? No way, no how, and no matter how smart or dedicated they may be.

Maybe I'm just a cynic; you may think that there is social mobility in British society. I just can't see it when I look at who runs the country, or even the people who run the biggest businesses in Britain, whether they're home-grown or foreign companies. And maybe that's been the biggest success of Thatcher and every Prime Minister since who have gleefully followed in her wake; the cynicism in the system that surrounds us and our willingness to accept it as the price for "prosperity".

So RIP Maggie - your legacy will live on, for better or worse, for many, many years to come.

Raindance Before the Snowfall

Britain has been hit by cold weather again, which despite the country being in the Northern hemisphere, always seems to surprise and upset those of us who live here. I'm tired of it already and it's only been a couple of days - I'm purposely listening to music whenever I'm outside just to keep the inside of my ears warm.

Just as the weather was turning I actually managed to have a productive weekend. Rather than sit about watching multiple episodes of Castle and/or Battlestar Galactica I fuelled the ol' creative juices and went to a one day Screenwriting course run by the friendly folks of Raindance Film Festival. I got the deal via Groupon, so it was extra good to have only paid £30 or so for it, instead of the usual £100+, and it was worth every penny. I learned loads about the screenwriting process and writing in general so if anyone reading this is thinking about doing it my honest opinion is: fantastic for newbies, or for those who have a script and want to learn more about the pitching process. If you can afford the usual price (i.e. it doesn't make your sphincter clench at the thought of spending that much money on a one day course) then go for it. If your budget is a little more like mine, than look out for deals on Groupon - they do them on a pretty regular basis. It's presented by the founder of Raindance, Elliot Grove, and he's very easy to listen to.

Apart from learning that I know more about screenwriting (and indeed storytelling in general) than I thought I did, here are some of the highlights of the day, without ruining the point of going along for yourself:

What Disney's Paperman Taught Me About Story

The Oscars have been and gone, with plenty of worthy winners and notable moments. Jennifer Lawrence has earned a place in many people's hearts after her little trip on the way to the podium (though for me her reaction to meeting Jack Nicholson was the highlight of the night). But rather than run through the films that got nominated and those that won, I want to cover just one: Disney's Paperman, which won the best animated short award.