Back to that College Life

It was different falling asleep last night. Different, but not necessarily difficult – I had to simply retrain my ears to get used to the loud street noise from outside. Over the summer I had gotten used to living in my suburban home with my family and all the perks that go along with that. Not only were dinners made for me every evening, but I also went to sleep at night with only the occasional cat running across my roof to stir me.

As I type this post there are many noises to be heard from the street below me. A man spitting loudly at the door of one of the many pubs near me, young girls laughing and screaming obnoxiously and always cars motoring past. I don’t really notice the general car noise, only the boy racers with loud exhausts and loud horns make me glance out the window.

Tomorrow is the first day back at my final year of college and I’ve moved back out to be nearer to campus. I am fully independent once again and unashamedly happy to be so. I love taking care of myself and for want of a better phrase, choosing my own bedtime. It’s all butterflies and happy thoughts tonight on the eve of a new beginning but I think once the work load gets piled on me I will change my tune. I hope that this year will be even better than the last two.

Fat Princess – Review

When thinking of Fat Princess you only have to think of a simple game of capture the flag, however Titan studios have managed to take the genre of team play to a whole new level with their personal breed of humor and twist on gameplay that makes fat princess a must have for any PS3 owner with access to the internet.

When the game was first announced it received some criticism for the name of the game as well as the core mechanic. So let me break said mechanic down for you. There are two teams, red and blue (original I know), each with their own castle and both teams have a princess who begins the basic game in the opposite team’s castle. The object of the game is to get the princess back from your opposing team’s castle while preventing the opposing team from taking their princess back. The kicker is that you can find slices of cake on the battlefield twixt the two castles and by feeding it to your princess you make her fatter and more difficult for the opposing team to carry.

I do not believe for one moment that there is any malice behind this mechanic or the title of this game I think it is simply very clever and the approach to it is very light hearted and it is hard not to giggle as the Princess shouts for more cake or watching 4 soldiers struggle to carry a behemoth princess while defending themselves from enemy fire.

As a player you can be one of five classes – warrior, mage, priest, ranger and worker. Each have their own set of easily guessed skills which can be upgraded. The priest can heal teammates but when upgraded can become a dark priest and instead sucks the life from enemies. One can switch classes at any point by retuning to base, allowing a great variety of play styles in just one round of play.

The game is best played online and was very much intended for playing against both strangers and friends over the internet. It did suffer from some hiccups at launch but it has now been out for a while and I personally have not run into many problems during online play. Here’s hoping the major kinks are ironed out. My only other grief is with mismatched team balance, as sometimes one team is obviously better skilled simply sweep the other group every round, but I believe that this is something that can also be solved as the game continues its lifespan.

This is a download only game, which is well worth the money you pay for it, and with downloadable content on the way, including possible new classes in the form of pirates and ninjas I think this is a fun game that is a good investment as this blogger feels it will only get better with age.

My Name is Charles Saatchi and I am an Artoholic – Review

Everything you need to know about art, ads, life, god and other mysteries – and weren’t afraid to ask

But not really…

Being a person interested in art both historical and contemporary it is hard not to know who Charles Saatchi is and when I read he was releasing a book about himself and what he does I of course had to pick it up to have a read. (Plus he’s married to Nigella Lawson who I adore.)

What I didn’t realise was that I could read the entire book in one sitting. No joke, it took me well under 2 hours to read the book and even the word book is a bit of an understatement. Indeed it is pages printed and bound but the content should not be called “book” instead it should be called and interview, or perhaps a Q&A. The book is a collection of questions in bold text followed answers written by Saatchi. The premise of the work is that he always refuses to be interviewed and now finally various journalists, critics and members of the public have put forward questions that are answered in the book.

I did enjoy the read, it gives great insight into who Charles Saatchi is, however that does not mean that he gives straight answers to to many of the questions. I’m not sure if this is because the questions are phrased badly or if Saatchi is trying to dodge and answer, but I can always tell that whenever the submitter of the question reads the response published they will be left unsatisfied, as I was to an extent. For example there is one quick fire section of the book with either or questions. There are 8 questions, to 4 the response is “Both”, to 2 the response is “Neither” – it’s like Saatchi wasn’t told the rules of the game or perhaps he likes breaking them. Also some of the questions seem be repeated, or at least receive repeat answers. This may have been an effort to give an uncensored response from Saatchi meaning there was little editing, but I think that some of the fat could have been trimmed from the piece.

This all sounds a little negative but for someone like myself with a vested interest in the contemporary art world it was a very interesting read, it is not something one could use to reference in an essay really but it does give a glimpse into the thought process and life of Charles Saatchi. Plus he’s married to Nigella.

The Difference Between Twitter Friends and Facebook Friends

Last night I needed some advice and possible cheering up after something shocked me and got me quite blue very quickly – so I turned to twitter. I typed my less than 140 character message with the word “thoughts?” at the end. The wonderful replies I got not only brightened up my late night, but the majority were from people who I have never met. However I would consider them friends at this point, I mean I follow their interesting updates on twitter and have short fun conversations with them. They are also people that I would enjoy meeting for coffee or going for a drink with in real life because they’re awesome.

My problem last night was not something I would broadcast on facebook. The social network behemoth is now closer to a clone of twitter than ever before but I would never tweet on facebook. What I post to twitter is for the internet world, what I post on facebook is for a few of my friends, friends who I made the old fashioned way. What I post to twitter is often random and silly observations and I really would rather not have friends in college bringing up my curious musings as that conversation is far more awkward than meeting a twitter friend for the first time in real life.

A Life Without Deadlines

A blogger is free to make their own rules. They say when, they say where and they say how much – or does that only apply to Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman? Regardless, it is very easy to invest a lot or a little into an online web log because there are oftentimes few forces keeping you from doing work on it. Of course this applies mostly to personal blogs, but since I haven’t been hired to write for any blogs yet I’ll speak on what I know.

I met a very cherished friend of mine today, whom I love meeting with because she gets me like only a few of my peers do. Meeting her at this time, the opening of my final and very important year of college has left me very inspired, with a positive outlook on the coming months.

She reads my blog and complimented me on updating often. I try to put a post of substance up at least every week day but I couldn’t help but wonder – what is stopping me from taking tonight off and letting my blog go idle until another time when I am more in the form to write some words. A personal blogger has no editor sending urgent emails and phone calls questing for a piece of work, they have no income that will be lost if they don’t make the deadline. I couldn’t help but wonder what drives one to make the post?

I look at the clock and know that my personal deadline of midnight is fast approaching, no one but myself is responsible for getting a blog post up. I could turn over, play some playstation and fall asleep. However I had to remind myself that my blog is the best outlet I have in my life for what I wish to do with my career and neglecting that is a self-inflicted anguish.

At a party once I made small talk with a fellow partygoer that I wanted to work in journalism, and that I keep a blog that I enjoy. He scoffed at the thought that the two are related in any sort of way. Firstly I think he didn’t realise that the future of journalism most likely lies online and not on print and also I completely disagree. For some blogging and journalism aren’t at all related, but personally it is. It is easy to live without deadlines as a blogger but I choose to be my own editor and that is what encouraged me to pull the laptop close, get my hands comfy and write these words. I’m not sure if other bloggers feel the same of have similar motivations but it works for me and I hope that this way of working will stand to me, or at least give a small taste of what lies ahead.

Playstation 3 – First Impressions

I have had me PS3 Slim for just over 24 hours at the time of writing and have done nothing but play it for the majority of that time. What i present to you now is my first impressions of not just the newly redesigned console, but the next-gen experience offered by this Sony console.

You would assume that I will spend a good bit of time discussing the new design of the PS3 and the lovely price drop. The price drop is wonderful, I paid €300, which now sets the system in the same price range of its competitors, the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360. It is still a lot of money for a student in these economic times but it’s 100 quid less than it once was, which you inevitably spend on games, a second controller, bluetooth headset, etc. The redesign is not a huge factor for me. This is because I have been lusting after this console for longer than I’d like to admit, but since I didn’t own the old version I don’t feel the relief of having a smaller, quieter, more energy efficient console. I took it out of its box, smiled at it and turned my attention to the screen where all the action is happening.

Being a PSP owner, I am very much used to the Cross Media Bar Menu (oftentimes abbreviated to XMB) that Sony uses. It has never been a system of navigation that has stood out to me as being inherently user friendly, nor has it been incredibly difficult to use. It is simply apt. There are many different sections of the bar, mainly photos, videos, music and games the latter being the most used in my case. I will definitely be using my PS3 as a BluRay player, but not so much as a place to store photos or music. The system attempts to be a media centre but in all honestly, I will only ever use it for gaming and HD movies – I suppose it’s nice to have the option if you are so inclined.

Now for some thoughts on what little I have played of the following games;

LittleBigPlanet
Fast becoming the cute mascot of PlayStaion, Sackboy and his adventures do not appear to dissappoint. I have played though a little of the game’s story mode and some of the user-created levels. I haven’t even begun to look at creating my own levels but stay tuned as I look forward to spending some time with my new best friend.

Valkyria Chronicles
Not being averse to a good RPG I knew I couldn’t over look this Strategic Role Playing Game. A critically acclaimed game that seems to be completely off the radar of the regular PS3 gamer, Valkyria Chronicles has me very excited after only playing about 2 hours into the game. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into it, but I hope it doesn’t prove to be too much of a distraction once college starts up again in 2 weeks time!

Fat Princess
A downloadable game with a controversial name, Fat Princess takes the idea of capture the flag and makes it capture the Princess. The twist is that you can feed the Princess cake to fatten her up, making her more difficult to carry and harder for the enemy to steal her away from you. It is adorably cute, clever and gory – a great one to play online with friends I would think.

PixelJunk Eden
Another downloadable under the PixelJunk name, a third in a series of games from a developer who innovate like no other. Eden is almost like an artistic musical experience that can give one a lovely break from more difficult and heavy games. With beautiful visuals and accompanying music it is something I see myself playing just to enjoy the experience and not necessarily to “beat the game”

This is only day one and I am thrilled to finally be a part of this latest generation of consoles because the gaming industry has never been so revolutionary, evolutionary and fun.

MacBook Pro 13inch Review

Things I adore about my new MacBook Pro:
- The Colour Scheme
I love the look of the aluminum and the black, which is strange because when I first saw the new line of MacBook Pros and their revolutionary unibodies I really didn’t spark with the black and silver. However I have greatly warmed to it now and I think that it makes them look more expensive, study and clean than the old white plastic MacBooks. Also the backlit keyboard adds a beautiful touch to the laptop, making it easier to use in the dark – always a plus.

- The SD Card Slot
Here’s something I thought was cool when the 13 incher moved into the Pro line, now that I have it myself and can put it into use I have found it to be even better than I imagined. I love being able to grab the card out of my friends point and shoot cameras and stick it straight into my laptop. I tend to carry my Mac with me most places but USB cables do not seem to be common items found on one’s person.

- The Shape and Size
Before settling on this model I toyed with the idea of getting a MacBook Air, since I mainly use my laptop for note taking during the college year and internet browsing for the rest of the year. However I don’t think I really missed out on much by finally settling on this model. It has a weight that is solid yet not uncomfortable to carry and the smooth edges make it as good looking as the slim MacBook Air.

- The Screen
My boyfriend has remarked on this also and I’m not sure if it is the quality of the physical screen or the fancy NVidia graphics card that makes the colours on the screen so lush and beautiful. I’m not too bothered which it is because I’m too busy being hypnotised by its beauty. The blacks are dark and the colours just sparkle and I have yet to be in any way bother by the shiny glass screen, it’s something that you rarely notice and by no means be a deterant if you are considering this laptop.

- The Big Cat
I had previously been using Tiger on my old MacBook and now I have skipped right on through to Snow Leopard. I took to OS X like a fish to water when I first switched and it keeps getting better. It’s smooth, fast, clever and it just works. I can never go back to using Windows for my personal computing.

Things I could have done without on my MacBook Pro:
- A screen that loves dust
It’s the price you pay for the good looking glass screen, thankfully a cloth is supplied to clear it off. It’s a toss up between aesthetics and functionality, a more matte screen might have not been such a dust magnet.

- The Very Strange Trackpad
Macs are notorious for having only one mouse button, but now they have done with that all together and now you are left with a trackpad that clicks. I have found that it only clicks towards the bottom of the trackpad and I can’t move the mouse with my right hand and click with my left, as the tracking gets a little confused. I’m sure it is something I will get used to or adjust to but for the time being it is a bit of a inconvenience.

Video – 4 Gorillas, iMovie Demo, London Fun

The Importance of Internet

Firstly my apologies for not supplying a blog post yesterday, I’m sure it was greatly missed. The reason for my lack blog update was because I had no internet access and to an even greater extent, no electricity. While over visiting the fella in London I decided to take a day off to just lounge around his house, nap, watch telly and play with my brand new MacBook Pro. Instead builders arrived to continue renovating the kitchen of the house and left the electricity off for the majority of the day. I watched DVDs until the battery of my laptop ran out and then in a last ditch effort to entertain myself I turned to reading. But I jest, it actually allowed me time to finish a new book I got. While reading my book I kept on coming across terms, ideas and people which, had I had internet connection, I would have searched for on Wikipedia, instead I had to simply scribble them in my notebook for future reference. The whole experience sparked a thought in my head, in the future – will an Internet connection be on par with electricity?

I spend too much time on the internet and I know it. I have an addiction but I prefer to say that I am a power user, it implies I’m doing something important. The reality is that oftentimes I’m reading silly blogs and watching sillier YouTube videos, or I am spending time looking at what’s in people’s bags on flickr. You get the idea, but there are also things of great importance to me that I use the internet for. Things that could almost be branded my internet needs. I need access to email to organise various college plans, I need access to my internet banking in order to make sure my landlord is paid there’s money waiting for me when I visit the ATM. These are two of my few but I’m that the list is much longer for those whose business is the internet or there business is handles primarily through the internet. It’s possible to say that a company could grind to a halt during the work day equally if the electricity or the internet connection was down.

Of course my grand idea of the future relies on the idea that public opinion on the importance of internet is on a par with that a electricity. One could argue that particularly in private homes, the internet is not a need, it is simply a comfort, a form of entertainment or a pastime. With that being said, technically another one could argue that you do not in fact need electricity either, people got on just fine for many years. What tipped the scale where the thought of a household without electricity became an outrageous thought? When did a connection to the grid become seriously commonplace? And when will the idea of a household without internet become truly an incredible thought? Personally I think we are well on our way to that world, because we live in on where you can see the shock and awe on the face of a friend when you tell them you’re still on dial-up.

London Calling

Here I am in Greenwich Park looking proudly out over at the view of Canary Wharf. I saw a squirrel in the park which is always a fun thing for me to look at, therefore I took my furry friend to be an omen for a good day of adventures.

Next was a speedy boat ride up from Greenwich pier to Embankment. On said boat ride we passed under Tower bridge and got a much better view of it than a bus tour ever could. We also passed beneath London bridge which is not in fact falling down. They also appear to have rebuilt the Millennium Bridge since the death eaters destroyed it in the latest Harry Potter movie.

Finally here is my good old reliable MacBook migrating over to my fabulous new MacBook Pro. More on that later on in the week. I’d like to get to know my new family member before I talk about him so openly on my blog. Stay tuned!