The Sunday Supdate: 08/01/12

Like a newsletter, but with less effort.

Happy New Year everybody, and welcome to the first Supdate of 2012, where I'll be implanting mostly useless knowledge into your heads. First on this weeks agenda is concerning a certain promise I made a while back:

Short Film Sadness...
In the last Supdate I mentioned the Short Film I'd been working on at school, entitled Facehook. While I can confirm that post-production on the epic mini has indeed wrapped, something else has unfortunately come to light. Due to certain "Plagiarism" rules in the exam board, the film can't be posted online until after it's been officially marked. So despite my best wishes, you're just going to have to wait until this June to witness what critics are already hailing as "a masterpiece". At least this way it'll have a "Summer Blockbuster" vibe going for it...

Expanding The Empire
In a desperate attempt to stay current, I finally gave in and created a Facebook Page for the blog. Complete with a tacky, Microsoft Paint-created profile picture, the page now enables you to "Like" me (because liking in the real world counts for nothing these days) and be treated with all the latest posts and whatnot via that feed. Here it is here if you failed to take the other link hints. That's right, just click here. I won't bite. Promise.
 Likes are very much appreciated, thank you!

     I've also been thinking about a couple more feature-type things to get started, especially after the amount of fun I had with the beat-boxing, vocal thingy I did. A couple of helpful "How To" articles too, perhaps? And maybe some more Single Epsiode reviews of shows, like last week's Sherlock episode that I looked at. The Podcast project has also taken another step toward actually, maybe, kind of, hopefully happening, especially after all the research I've done by listening to the awesome podcasts over at the Nerdist Network. Template: found. And maybe once all these blasted exams I'm having to work for this month, I'll be able to do some more networking.

Nearly 1 Year Old
Tomorrow (9th January 2012) marks the first birthday for the blog. I'll be celebrating in numerous ways, such as:

• Doing a post about it (obviously).
• Revising for exams.
• Giving away a free DVD boxset in the anniversary giveaway I'm going to set up.
• Drinking a lot. Mostly tea. I am British (and 15) after all.
• Sleeping.
• Making a blanket-fort.

Hey, can't blame a guy for wanting to party, am I right? Especially if Magnitude turns up:



Catch ya later.

ATR

The Obligatory "What I Got For Christmas" Post

Ah Christmas, that annual time where most people celebrate that snowballing mish-mash of traditions and joy, and get given a bunch of stuff from friends and family, as well as giving back to them in a gracious show of love. Now, of course, the question on everyone's lips is obviously, "What did you get, Arnold?", because that's how god-damn inspirational I am to the world. Well alright, if you insist then... Don't worry though, I'm not going to start talking about all the pairs of socks I was given, no matter how awesome they were. Just significant, perhaps more exciting gifts, the majority with a hint of my absolute nerdiness.

Here are some awesome tile coasters, via my lovely Sister, each with a nice little nod to certain pop-cult entities. Left: Castle reference, Right: Superman/Smallville reference. 

A tidy set of Blu-Rays, featuring the coveted Star Wars set.

Some shiny brown work boots, just 'cause. 

Halo: Anniversary, and Assassins Creed: Revelations: Because no Holiday is complete without a fair share of video games.

A couple books, both with the Comic book industry in mind. On the left we have Grant Morrison's documentation of the world through superheroes and panels (signed, of course), and on the right, a visual commentary on the timeline of Marvel. 

A very pretty letter opener (because I suck at doing it with my hands), with an awesome Limited Edition Supes theme going on. 

Another sweet Superman thing: This huge canvas will look epic on my wall.

Writer/Actor/Comedian Alan Davies' new part auto-biography, part "talk about people he is inspired by" book. 

3 Graphic Novels, 2 of which changed the face of the industry forever (The Dark Knight Returns and The Sandman), while Old Man Logan is just too awesome. The quilt cover they rest on was also a present.

My highly-anticipated Jayne Hat, straight outta Firefly, complete with replica box and letter. "How's it sit?  Pretty cunning, don't you think?"

And the "I wonder what this could be used for" Blue Yeti USB microphone, for all my vocal and musical needs. Seen here accompanied by my new "We're not fancy, but we still rock" JVC headphones. Unlike me, who's always fancy. (Each gifted separately)

'Course, this is just a taster of all the awesome shizzle I got this year, because I don't think it's safe to expose your minds to the actual level of generosity that I was granted by my family. So thanks to all of you who were silly enough to spend unheard of riches on my humbled, yet grateful self. 'Tis a kindness, truly. Most of what you see here is from my Mum, Sister and Dad, so big, big props to them, and I hope you too were gifted such nice products of materialistic properties. "And a Happy New Year".

ATR

The Sunday Supdate: 09/10/11

It's been a while since we last caught up, and so a steady amount of talking points has arisen for tonight's agenda. So sit back, relax and enjoy the nonchalant show. It all began with the 3 P's...

Publicity!
Regular visitors should easily recall my recent posts regarding and praising the new web series, Husbands. And they aren't the only ones... Writer Jane Espenson and actor of the show, Cheeks, have both shown a huge amount of acknowledgement for me, with ReTweets and links (also via Twitter). I was even put on the Husbands Press page, with a quoted excerpt from my RE:Commend! And you know what? Recognition rules! +5 Fame!

Podcast?

It would seem I'm becoming quite the internet media addict, and as such have decided to possibly extend my medium. Hot on the heels of my "famously successful" (read: crashed and burned) Vlogging experiment, the Dude Meister Podcast could bring something new to the table. I think the problem with the Vlogs was that I wasn't entirely comfortable with myself on the screen - I didn't really feel I could be myself. Take out the image and you've got just my voice, which could inspire confidence and fluidity when I'm only to be judged by ear alone.

   I could talk about movies and TV, games and books - basically geek culture in general. Guest co-hosts would be downright awesome, although probably currently limited to immediate friends and family... Interviews would be nice, hard to secure, but nice. Hell, I could even throw in some transitions of my own composition. Weekly most likely, and a while yet. I don't want to hype it up any more than that though, in fear of eating my words, choking violently on them, and then hocking them up in a great sticky mess, staining the metaphorical carpet with splashes that are still lingering months after... So I'll leave it there. Stayed tuned.

Patrick.
These quotes at the top aren't for nothing you know, so please take the time tor read them. The past couple have been courtesy, as it states, of Fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss. Now this guy is relatively new to me - I hadn't even heard the name until a few weeks back. He is the writer of The Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy of books and the first, The Name of The Wind, has been preoccupying my life for the past fortnight. Now with only 20 pages left of the 662 page epic, I'd just like to savour it with this section. INCREDIBLE. I'd go as far to say that this was one of, if not the, best book of my life. I'll drop the RE:View sometime this week, but I'm a little anxious as to whether I am worthy enough...

RIP Brian Jacques
On the subject of books, I discovered some upsetting news recently. Acclaimed British author, Brian Jacques, passed away at the age of 71 on February 5th this year. Now Jacques was the man behind best-selling series, Redwall - the series that dominated my childhood experiences of reading. To date, I have 18 Redwall titles sitting on my shelves upstairs, the majority proudly cracked with creased spines and folded pages. The tales of the creatures of Redwall (woodland-type animals) and their epic battles with the evil vermin would keep me entertained for years, frequently taking a torch to bed for some late night stealth reads.
 
   To say this was what got me into the fantasy genre in the first place is a huge understatement. So the (belated) news that their creator was dead was quite emotional for me. Even though it's been a few years since I last picked one up, I've got the greatest amount of respect for this man and his series - so much so that after reading the news (and I am in no way ashamed of this), I threw on some emotional music via iPod (violins and everything!) and sat, at my bookshelf, gently grazing through the pages: smelling the finely peeled paper, feeling their weight and getting hit by a warm wave of hard nostalgia that ran right down to my heart. I won't lie; I welled. But that's me. A soppy, reminiscentful type of guy. Long live Redwall. Long live Brian Jacques' legacy.

Brian Jacques
1939-2011

And on that heartfelt note, I will make my exit. Thanks for reading and thanks for being.

ATR