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'My Corduroyed Life' - Mark A's Journal
Number eleven of these. Good grief! I’ve nearly been doing them for a year!
WORK
Bored now. My job is boring, and it doesn’t challenge me. The pay is low, the fringe benefits non-existent, and the system old-fashioned, inflexible, and irritating. My colleagues are nice enough people, but ultimately not people I will ever want to be friends with once I leave. I’ve always worked to live, not lived to work, but now I’m just horribly, horribly bored. Of course, if that truly was the case, I’d have been arsed to actually look for jobs this month (which I haven’t).
JOB HUNTING
No comment.
MONEY
No comment.
LOVE LIFE
I have never been in such a volatile relationship; I have never been so much in love.
NINJA
I’ve had some real fun at Ninja recently. I used to dread sparring as it always ended up with the skinny guy getting battered. Not so any more, and all it was was a case of me lacking in confidence. I can fight, and if I do fight I can actually be quite intimidating. It’s fun slapping around new guys who haven’t got a clue, but even against much higher grades who’ve always kicked my ass and the big guys who always dominated me because of their size, I’ve been getting some serious licks in! One thing I’ve noticed this year is that the new guys are not the usual bunch of pussies! We’ve got some good lads/ lasses coming along, who aren’t afraid to mix it up, so I’m very positive about the fact it looks like the club is going to have a good year (about time too!).
HEALTH
Well I’ve managed to do the stairs at work for over a month now. I was hoping that it’d get easier, but it just doesn’t. I tried running them one day, and that was a big mistake!
Other than that, I’ve discovered Innocent Smoothies which are bloody lovely thick fruit drinks which give you your five daily fruits instantly in a tiny wee bottle! However, they are obscenely expensive, and it would be much cheaper to buy five real fruits. I even manage to be lazy in my attempt to be healthy!
BOOKS
I haven’t finished Why Do People Hate America. However, I have read a D&D sourcebook called Races of Stone (which is a book about dwarves and gnomes) from cover to cover. I really enjoyed reading it as dwarves are my favourite race in D&D, and it’s definitely the first one I’ve read from cover to cover. I’ve also started Join Me by Danny Wallace on a whim because I wanted something light when Why Do People Hate America was being too heavy, and I’m now hooked on it!
MUSICA
After a mild conversion from “Who?” to “I like some of his stuff” regarding Leonard Cohen after lessons from Rob, he decided to teach me further. I am now having lessons in David Bowie. There’s some weird stuff there, and I did actually know the very commercial and famous stuff, but some of the tunes I’ve been played have been really very good. The new Apartment 26 album is good too.
FILM
Believe it or not, I’ve hardly been to the cinema at all this month! Shocking! Also, Screenselect has been almost exclusively television programmes! However, I did get to see some films from lends and around friend’s places.
Ran
Another masterpiece from Kurosawa. I’ve always loved King Lear, and this ‘Japanified’ version is a wonderful and clever take on the story.
****
Sanjuro
The dark, badass, intelligent Samurai from Yojimbo returns for a slow-paced, but truly compelling film that even surpasses the first one! Akira Kurosawa is just the man!
*****
The House of Flying Daggers
This was breathtaking, and magnificent and beautiful… but it just wasn’t quite Hero.
****
Tomb Raider 2: The Cradle of Life
This was a fun romp with minimal plot and much action. Worth it for a lazy Sunday afternoon, but not quite as good as the first one.
***
Kung Pow
Cheers to Bowch for the lend. Fun and silly martial arts mickey take. After a big build up from geeky Ninja mates, it was slightly disappointing, but still watchable throwaway fun.
***
Murder She Said
Having grown up believing that the somewhat more serious telly Miss Marple, Joan Hickson, was the definitive Marple, this came as a shock! Rutherford's Miss Marple is a much more light-hearted and comic Marple, and she is (and I'm quoting the wonderful bit where she gets a leg up to see over a wall) 'magnificent'! This is definitely a light-hearted and fun old school Murder Mystery - perfect for a chilled out Sunday afternoon.
****
Murder At The Gallop
Another triumph for Margaret Rutherford’s Miss Marple. This was equally light-hearted, comic, and enjoyable. I’m already starting to get upset that only four were made!
****
The Incredibles
Pretty, reasonably entertaining, and incorporating a number of geeky in-jokes. Sadly, this just wasn’t as ‘incredible’ as I was expecting it to be. Still, worth a look.
***
TELLY
As said previously, of my Screenselect choices this month has been almost nothing but telly programmes. This is no bad thing, as I have watched some fantastic stuff!
Murder One – Season 1
Shocker was that this is nearly ten years old. It is slick, tense, gripping, and dramatic with brief injections of humour and excellent characterisation. A true gem with some wicked twists that puts your emotions on a rollercoaster!
*****
Murder One – Season 2
This is good telly. However, this is disappointing inasmuch as it’s not as good as the first series. It is, however, compelling and gripping stuff. Despite enjoying it, I can’t help thinking that they should have canned the series when Daniel Benzali left the series.
***
Dungeons & Dragons – Disc 1
Nostalgia, it’s great, right? Thing is, images of D&D bring back happy memories; actually watching it, it’s limited. Impressive animation for 1981, but ultimately too simplistic for me now, it disappointed. Dungeonmaster is still da man though!
**
Ulysses 31 – Disc 1
Drowning myself in sugary nostalgia this month, this too suffered from ‘I should have left it alone’ like D&D. NoNo is still cool though, and I still want my own!
**
Lost – Episodes 1 to 7
Cheers to Pixie for the lend. This is tense, clever, intelligent, extremely compelling television, but I would definitely say that it’s a one watch only. I was hooked, and am gagging for the rest of it, but doubt I’ll be revisiting the episodes I’ve seen.
***
RPG AND GAMING
When I met up with old friends as we always do in Blackpool in November, I flexed my DM muscles for the first time in over a year. I ran a Dungeons & Dragons adventure which carried on from a previous groups adventures (and included mcphee as one of the original ‘cast’). I thought this went okay, and everyone seemed to enjoy it, so I’ll be continuing the adventure at some point. I also ran a slightly adapted version of Angel – The Roleplaying Game which I think was enjoyed by all, and included some interesting and fun characters created by the players, but lacked the advantages of a decent system like D20. I loved the concept, but not the system, so it’ll be up to the players as to whether they want a new crack at that. Incidentally, I do intend to write up the D&D adventure, but I’ve been busy: sorry to the people waiting.
Ninja Oli’s D&D (where I play Havok) has been a little slow this month as we’ve only managed to get one night in due to people’s commitments on Thursdays. This is a shame, but I think it’s clear now ‘til Christmas which is good.
GZW is a lot of fun at the moment as I’m playing the General Manager of the company who has insubordinate employees!
Pixie’s RPG is getting more and more tense and exciting. I just can’t wait for the turns! Would love to write more about this game, but no-one knows who my character is!
As for Beyond, I was disappointed that a meet was cancelled at the last minute, and the turns have been slow. Still, when I do get the turns, they’re great.
BLOGGING & T’INTERNET
I can only apologise for being a less than frequent blogger this month. I’ve had other stuff on. Will try harder, promise.
I got some amusing forwards this month. I got this from Ninja Rich (Owy, owy, ow! Is all I can say!)., this from Backstage Mike (despite the fact it’s Eddie Izzard who I don’t find even slightly funny, this is silly fun), and this from ‘always mentions the salsa’ James (addictive, yet frustrating, yet addictive).
BLOGS I READ
Alley Katt
Blurty Friends: Jadash, Ajax, Fi and Deiselboi
Bowch
fishmonger malarky
Fluff (currently inactive)
mcphee
Mojo
Pixie
Prince Gaz
Shooting Parrots
ANYTHING ELSE INTERESTING?
Rob and I went to see Starlight Express (couldn’t find a website for it which was quite a surprise) at the Manchester Opera House for his birthday. It was a fantastic show, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it (and there was some great rollerskate flippy stuff going down)! We also went on the Manchester Wheel and had a meal. It was a really lovely day together.
As mentioned, I went to the usual November Quest Meet where I meet up with people who I like who once played Quest. None of us play Quest any more. We did lots of fun Blackpooly stuff such as indoor carting, bowling (I even won one game), watching films, monging about, drinking and going up the Tache, and much roleplaying. Fab weekend! It’s always good to see the boys as well.
I also visited Alf and Jodie in the lovely Hull too. We went to the wonderful, wonderful rock venue Spiders and drank Pangalactic Gargleblasters and Green Monsters. Good grief, I was drunk!
My cousins, Sam and Sharon, came to visit Manc and ‘see gayness’ with me as well this month. I eased them in slowly with Tribeca, then built my way up through to The Hollywood Showbar. Having never known a gay in their entire lives, I think they were a bit phased, but I do think they had a good time [gulp].
Everywhere in this country thinks that it’s Christmas from November, and as such the European Market is already open, and I’ve already got drunk on Gluwien. Fantastic!
THE WHOLE MONTH IN A FEW WORDS
Hectic, fun, hectic…
Have fun,
M
Current mood:
happy.Current music: Outside by David Bowie.
Bless ‘em…
I know it’s bad to mock other people’s misfortune, but these are all genuine names of people that I’ve dealt with over the last 6 months.
Chinese People Picking Dodgy English Names
Peter Pan
Jackie Chan
Bruce Li
Fanny Chan
Hunter Cheng
Unfortunate Foreign Names
I-Ming Lai
Ming Li
Yu Hu
Brenda Jumbo
Saheed Shitty
Shital Sodhi
Have fun,
M x
Current mood:
amused.Current music: The Heart's Filthy Lesson by David Bowie.