Dude Meister Blogs 2.0

In the words of clichéd dialogue, "that went well"...

Approximately 11 weeks ago my summer began, and I made a promise to you (the world), and me, myself (or 'I' as he has also been called), that I would write and that I would be truthful and generous and varied in said writings. I have not. Written. Anything.

So tonight, I apologise for my misgivings; my failure in motivation, inspiration and productivity. I apologise for my laziness, my boringness and my absence. But most of all, and by default most importantly, I apologise if you do not care about any of this. For surely, an apathetical audience is an unsatisfied one, with which blame lies solely with me. Myself. Or, 'I'.

Like the end of a second act, things are looking bad. The protagonist is losing, everything's going wrong, the antagonist has the upper hand. Feel free to slot me into any role you like in that scenario, but the truth of the matter is this; I am down, but not out. The darkest times supply the strongest rises (just ask Batman), and that is every bit what I intend to do. (Rise, not Batman).

This is Dude Meister Blogs 2.0. A little bigger. A little better. A little more badass.

From here on out (or until I hit another lapse), this is how it's going to be. Clearer, Copiouser, Cleverer. And all brought to you by the beauty of scheduling, regularity and alliteration:

• Tuesdays are for Trailers, as they've always been, with the ever time-consuming popular, Trailer Tuesday.
• In Web Weaver, I'll be bringing you a menagerie of original web-content I've found along my travels into the WWW. Ideally this would be for a Wednesday, but that'll be a bit tough to guarantee, so these will just come along as they will, any day.
• Thursday will be a deep, unrelenting journey into philosophical and psychological lands, usually focusing on some aspect of pop-culture, no doubt. But something so intellectual needs a genius name, nay, it deserves one. Thinky Thursday it is!
• And finally, the accursed day of Rebecca Black. Fridays - not all of them, just occasionally - will be reserved for Film Content, in some way of another, from yours falsely truly.
• In between that, I'll try and churn out at least one review of something each week. Most likely there'll be some light, list-type filler posts here and there too, 'cause they're always fun and easy. God help my social life. Or failing his existence, friends. Please? Anyone?

It'll all kick off this coming week, and with a stretch of effort, most weeks after that. Because it's time I upped my game, and became the moral centre of the show, to be the integrity! Welcome to 2.0 people.

See you back here next September for the inevitable 3.0!

ATR

Kudos to anyone who picked up on what I was kind of riffing off with this; you have good taste in Sorkin-created HBO shows!

The Hiatus... Explained

So you may have realised something of late. Ever since the 16th of April, there has been virtually no activity on here. Some have been worried, some have been overjoyed and a few have been heartbroken. Or, most likely, you've shrugged it off and merely moved on. Well, there's a few reasons for the distinct lack of stuff to be read/skimmed/mocked for the previous 6 weeks, of which may contain at least some justification for my sheer absence.

Reason 1: Exams
It's exam season, pretty straight forward. Me + Revision = Good Exam Grades. Me + Blog (-Revision) = Bad Exam Grades. Whether or not the exam grades will in fact be good is yet to be seen, but if so, I'll be sure to process the correlation of no blogging and lots of A's.

Huh, well I guess there really was only one reason. How 'bout that? So this leaves the whole part of next. In approximately 3 weeks' time, I'll be faced with an arduous 11 week Summer, whereby the sun shallt shine and the waft of the great outdoors will be wholly resistible as I sit at my desk thrashing away at the keyboard for some hopefully quality articles (and other projects too...). It'll play out kinda like this, but you know, lonelier and probably with more singing/dancing:


Yep, that sure was a fearless High School Musical reference and drop-in.
If you stick around long enough you may even hear a song or two of my own, catch a 4-minute short film or perhaps simply enjoy the delights of some stories I've written. None of which happen to involve Zac Efron (yet!).

Now if you don't mind, I need to get back to doing everything under the sun to delay revision.

Ciao amigos. (What? I don't speak European!)

ATR

The Sunday Supdate: 04/09/11

Because I'm a true believer in structure, I've decided to break Supdates up into relevant sections. Nothing major, just helps with the flow of transitioning into new topics and what not. So dive in!

Worst Summer Ever?
As school begins to leer its head once more, further devouring the fading light that was the Summer break, you can't help but reflect on what you've done these past 6 weeks. Maybe you went on holiday, somewhere grand and beautiful and relaxing, maybe you did an amazing thing or met amazing people, doing things you wanted and needed to do, or maybe you just spent 3 fortnights sitting on your arse doing naff all.

   Unfortunately, I fall into this latter category. Yep, almost 42 days and nothing to show for it. In fact, I could probably teach a crash course in procrastinating and laziness after this. I wanted to blog a lot this Summer, but instead only pushed a mere 3 pieces in August, a laughable amount considered to the previous month. Distractions take over and before you know, I'm here. Oh and a tip: don't make big "To-Do" lists, it just makes you more depressed when you look back and see NOTHING crossed off. But I digress. Besides that wasn't the only reason that this has been a somewhat lacklustre Summer, because as usual the Great British weather decided to be a douche and treat us like a soggy slice of towel roll... It's not a perfect simile...

Writer's Block and A Little Inspiration

Thanks Felicia!

Like I've said, articles (and my writing in general) have become... constipated, to put it into context. They just don't want to shift out of my head and onto the page/screen. So after 5-ish weeks of that I read this: http://feliciaday.com/blog/how-i-started-writing - a great piece from The Guild (an awesome webshow) creator, Felicia Day. Turns out, she too used to just sit on her bum and think about writing things, rather than getting up and doing them. She even used to be a World Of Warcraft addict, spending hours of her time a day on the game (which actually gave her inspiration for The Guild). Anyway, the short article gives her tips on how she embraced her creativity and took hold of her writing prospects, through various books, websites and exercises. Definitely check it out if your having trouble with any creative projects, because it really inspired me and gave a lot of hope to a shrivelled dream. Also try ZenHabits.net, another great blog full of helpful hints on how to prioritize, organize and get through life that little bit better. It really is shame I didn't discover all this cool stuff at the start of the holidays.

The Awesomeness of The Guild
So while we're still on the topic of Felicia here, I'd like to talk to y'all about her aforementioned web series, The Guild: focusing around a group of MMO players as they try to juggle their totally unimportant real lives around their much loved (and addictive) RPG. Funny as hell, and littered with awesome references to video game culture, The Guild's an incredibly satisfying series, chock-full of laugh out loud moments and a rich, varied cast of hilarious characters.


   You can catch up with it from the very beginning now, for free, over at watchtheguild.com, or on their YouTube channel! Also, if you happen to have Xbox Live you can find seasons 3-5 all in great quality on the Zune marketplace for free too, and episodes appear there first exclusively, every Tuesday (the latest was insane, due a very awesome special guest cameo). So long live The Guild: The show about gamers, for gamers, by gamers! Here's the crazy-hilarious Bollywood style music video from the "Guildies" themselves:

Enjoy! And I'll catch you all on the flipside.


The flipside being sometime this week.

Hopefully.

Arnie is Out.
ATR
Follow Me: @DMeisterTweets

The Monday Supdate: 25/07/11

Woah, a Supdate! Haven't seen one of those in a while! And on a Monday! By heck this is a rare occasion!
Well, actually, it's not. The Supdates are coming back, and at a weekly basis like before. Thanks to the Summer, I've got a lot of free time, so there's no excuse for any mishaps. They may not all be on Sunday (I'll try though!), like today, but they'll be Supdates none the less.

    So, for the return of the Supdate, I'd like to start off by thanking everyone for the 4000 hits I've now got. These past couple months haven't been as strong as the mighty 1077 hits-April that we had, but it's gaining more momentum now and should be back on track for something special. And look, just another 939 until 5000!

 
This weekend just passed was of course the San Diego Comic-Con, and a lot of stuff went down. The thing that got me the most though was this awesome concept art for The Avengers movie, coming out 4th May 2012. The movie features Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk and more in a big Marvel Super Hero team-up to end all Super Hero movies. And the best bit for me is the fact that it's being helmed by the superb Joss Whedon, creator of DMb favourite, Firefly, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, not to metion his deep history in comic writing. His knowledge of the heroes combined with his expertise in big ensemble casts full of strong characters makes me have no doubt that this film will rock. Here's the poster:

Click to enlarge and properly appreciate it

  Along with that, the Con also saw the release of a slew of new trailers for Film and TV, which you can expect to see on Tuesday. While we're on the subject of Films and Comics, Captain America: The First Avenger hits cinemas this week for us Brits and I for one am seriously excited about it. Expect me there opening day and perhaps a RE:View afterward.

   So I also did a presentation in English class this week about the Blog and Blogging in general, in a pretty shameless plugging attempt for 3 minutes. Meaning we may see a rise in viewers soon, or a loss depending on how it went. Fingers crossed?

While preparing the presentation, I delved quite deep into my future plans and where abouts it might be going. In fact, I've got several bits and pieces planned for over the Summer which could see a rise into a new medium and networking. YouTube, anyone? And I've been searching the net for some semi-famous candidates for an Interview section. Heck I've even got this global idea that could find its feet over the next few weeks! But I fear I have said too much, and in fear of eating my words, I'll give this a rest. For now...

Until next time readers.

ATR