Yep, I'm done as an undergraduate!! Well, assuming that I pass my exams but I'm going to assume that I will. Finally, after 6-7 months of solid work and pressure I can now for the first time say "I have nothing to do!". And I can't begin to describe just how great that feels. On the plus side I can now finally catch up on everything I've been meaning to do, which also includes updating this blog. Way too many cobwebs!
Anyway, before the influx of articles over the week, I figured I'd highlight a few points such as my access now to an Xbox 360, meaning the scope of my reviews once again expands into new regions. It also means I can now get around to doing a hardware review of the big 3 which I've wanted to do for a long time, so keep tuned for that.
In other news my U13 team has won the league and gained promotion to the "Premier" division as I believe it is called and at the moment the situation looks like I'll be taking over full management of the team.
As well as that the following matter needs to be accounted for.....
CHAMPIONS OF ENGLAND!!!!!
And I completely missed out on getting to write about Leinster whippin' Munster in the Heinekin Cup semi-final. With that in mind the end of the month is going to be a crackin' one with the Champions League final on the horizon as well.
I've also come across a new website which I'll be commenting/reviewing soon which I think a lot of people will enjoy.
Yeah, I'm back. After a long slumber, or more accurately too much work and not enough slumber, I finally have the time to log back on and post some stuff. First and foremost the main thing that was keeping me back is done (a week now) and that was my final report/thesis/thing that we apparently set a new record in for early hand up. After months of work at it I'm very pleased with the final result and I think we've got some really good results. The only crap thing about the whole lot was that it cost us about €60 to get the damn thing printed!!
It doesn't really end there unfortunately, as now that the report half of the module is done (and yeah "half" is somewhat of an understatement) we now have to start our "Design Project". It's not as major as report, but it is approximately another 4-6 hours a week. Basically we've been given a set of architectural drawings for a building in NUI Galway, and we have to come up with the structural system. No problem.
On the other college front I've been getting pain in the balls assignments and essays that have just been a total inconvenience - which also contributed to my lack of posting. They, for the most part, are now under wraps, though I do have an essay hand-up the second week of April and two exams next week when I go back. Analysis of Structures is also becoming somewhat of a pain, but that's for another time.
On a more brighter note the promotion exams are over in the St. John Ambulance aswell, and while they weren't too stressful they did contribute to the overall stress as they coincided with all the assignments I was doing as well as the report. I'll know by the 10th April if I was successful in getting enough marks to earn a promotion so keep your eyes glued to this spot to find out.
As an aside I've also elevated to the level of a "Hard Mode" Guitar Hero player, YAY!!
Finally, the scope of gaming articles on the blog will be expanding, as I have recently invested in a new piece of hardware as you may have seen from the post below...
...since a few days ago, but it doesn't matter, 'cause I'm back in action. There'll be blog a plenty over the next week or so when I'm taking time out from the thesis, and I'm kicking off 2009 with the Fallout 3 review.
Also coming up we've got:
Far Cry 2 Review
Resistance 2 Post Release Analysis
2009 PS3 Preview
Grinds My Gears: Issue 18
Postulations Cubed
My Movies Preview
Interesting Damien Facts
Did you know: The more stressed I am, the more spots I get on my forehead? - Just a sample of the facts to come....
Long time no proper blog. Here I am once again, using up my free time in college to type up blogs... Day 3 of a long semester and my judgement is: good. My timetable is pretty damn good this year, with 3 o'clock finishes every Monday, and 1 o'clock finishes every Thursday and Friday!!! Wednesdays - today - are a little strange since I don't have to be in here till 2 for a tutorial (which right now I'm not even sure if it's even going to be on) and then I have a lecture in one module, an hour break, and then another lecture in the same module in a different freakin' place?!?! Like, what's that all about??? Tuesdays are easily the worst, 9-6 every Tuesday... :(
Anyway so the modules this year...
Theory & Design of Structures III - with only a 3 hour lecture Monday mornings I've enjoyed the past two modules in this and when I found out it is an open book exam AND that we will get about 60% in the final exam without even using a calculator you know you're on a winner!
Design of Structures - strangely this module is feeling like Theory & Design II and after looking at the book of notes I can see the exact same examples used last year!! Easy module perhaps....
Maths for Engineers VI - more bleedin' calculus, all about solving ODE's (Ordinary Differential Equations) and Partial Differential Calculus....*snore*
Professional Engineering Finance- speaks for itself really, basically business studies from an Engineering perspective.
Continuum Mechanics (Elective) - fluids, soils, solids and how they react to forces, shears and god knows what else. I smell the brother of the dreaded Mechanics of Solids I...
Design and Project - this one goes on for the full year and it probably the one I'm anticipating most. We will have companies working on projects coming into us asking us to come up with a solution to their task, then our solutions will be compared to theirs. This will also include site visits, YAY! The other half involves project work - in pairs - under the guidance of a senior student/member of staff. I'm also assuming that we'll have to write some sort of formal report like we did in Design and Communications...
History and Theory of Architecture IV - no, just no, I'm not going to ramble on about how f'n much I hate this subject. Last semester was so great with no History of Architecture and now...guess what...this module goes right back to the START!!!!!
I think my lack of posting over the last two months requires somewhat of an explanation, truth of the matter being that I’ve barely been at home. In fact, I’m writing this very post on my mam’s laptop, which I then plan to transfer to my computer within the week. As I mentioned in the last “Update” post I was on camp for a week and a bit, and most recently I was away in Germany for a wedding, which was INCREDIBLE I might add. I had considered writing a blog about it but the more I thought about it the more it seemed I was being a bit big headed about how incredible a country and experience it is.
Anyway, so what else has been going on? Well next week I’m off to Metallica in Marlay Park, then I’ve to register for 3rd year college. Actually I’m really looking forward to this year with our full year project, and it is degree year aswell!! After the 6 A+’s in summer, I reckon I got the 30% I was supposed to get for my degree contribution. I’m also interested to see if I can hold on to the scholarship I won last year.
I’ve also started pre-season back with my Under 13’s. After getting Kickstart 2 under my belt I’ve now got more advanced routines and sessions for the kids. With Division 1 the challenge facing us this year I’ve got a hell of a lot of work ahead of me. Not to mention the Under 8’s team I’m taking aswell, meaning my Saturday and Sunday mornings are going to be taken up completely, sorry ladies! (joke). Also coming up in September will be the St. Johns’ recruitment course for this year which I’m taking again this year. I enjoyed it last year and with some of the new training material Bren has in store I’m looking forward to the new challenge.
With the Under 8’s situation it seems I’m now coming under increasing pressure to get that elusive driver’s licence and I actually think I really need to get the finger out now and just get the mother fucker.
Other than all that I don’t think there’s much else going on, last but not least a big congratulations to everyone getting their Leaving Cert results, I’ve been there – two years ago now… - and wow does it make me feel old!
Stay blogged till next time, same blog blogger, same blog site, same blog blog!!
Apologies, apologies. I've just noticed it's nearly a whole freakin' month since I wrote a blog. I've been away for a bit doin loadsa stuff and just haven't had the time to write anything, but fear ye not, starting next monday I've a whole heap of stuff to post:
Whole Lotta Camp Death Magnetic It Is.... The Butter Debate ...And E3 For All News and Reviews More AVGN PS3 Momentum
I only realised when I signed in the other day that my blog performance for April was quite shocking. This was in fact due to the incredible workload I was under for the month including:
> An AED course > Divisional Competitions exam setting > NOVICE CUP - which we came 3rd in > 100 page report for my Communications module > 20 minute presentation in powerpoint for the aforementioned report > A set of steps made of cardboard which had to support my own weight > A Mechanics assignment
That is all DONE now of course, but alas, such is college life that I now must study for exams over the next two weeks which realistically means...no blogs!
So I'm going about posting all relevant blogs that I have hear in an attempt to keep interest while I'm away.
First and foremost is the exams themselves. Thankfully I've only 5 actual exams, one of which is a computer exam. The 6th module is in fact the one which took up all my time last month in the aforementioned project, presentation, steps etc. Speaking of that, we received an email from our Co-ordinator - Arturo - that our portfolios had to be in by Friday. When I arrived into college on Thursday for a tutorial, I found the office where we had to submit it would be closed for Thursday and Friday. So Arturo - the legend - said I could knock at his office on Friday and he would make the effort to have the office opened so I could hand it in. Dedication or WHAT! Anyway so as you can expect studying is a pain in the arse, especially for Mechanics and Surveying. The only one I'm looking forward to is really Theory and Design II, as the questions are very hands-on and you can actually visualise what your calculating - namely beams, foundations and rising elements for buildings. Computer Apps isn't bad either, and it's kindof hard to study for a computer based module. All I can do is practice on the pilot service MATLAB that's available through UCD connect, but it's hardly exciting.
What IS exciting though is one of the best games I've played to date which I managed to get my chubby hands on on Thursday when everywhere in town was sold out...GRAND THEFT AUTO 4!!! Initially I thought I would do a review of this. But since it's likely to take me in excess of 40 hours to complete - the main story - I can't see that happening anytime soon. I MAY do some kindof review in general but we'll see how it goes, and it certainly won't be happening till after the exams. I'm using GTA4 as an incentive to study, if I study well during the day, I can reward myself with virtual booze, sex and violence later on in the evening. But in short, IT FREAKING ROCKS!!!
The above means my review of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue is on hold, as the GTA disc currently sits in my PS3. I also managed to buy the two expansion packs for Warhawk a few weeks back too and they are quite fantastic.
The stress in my life does not end there however. This coming Sunday my youth team will be playing in the penultimate game of the season against the All Muslim team Clonskeagh who called us in for the racism charge earlier in the season. While we're quite sure they'll play the same overage players again and avoid punishment from the league again, victory would mean the league title for us, losing would mean league glory for them. My youngest brother on the otherhand, his team are in the final of their cup after a nail biting game in Ballyowen Park against Peamount. The game went to extra time and penalties but two fine saves from Esker's goalkeeper ensured a cup medal at the end.
Finally, I have a delicious teaser trailer from the legend Hideo Kojima himself. Pay attention...
I have myself sorted for the rest of 2008, starting this month we have....
Grand Theft Auto 4 - 29th April I believe this needs no introduction, with new added multiplayer, downloadable vehicles and 100+ hours of gameplay, I hardly think you would want or need any more.
Haze - 22nd May
If you've been watching this space then you should know a lot about it, and if you don't, just do a search in my other blogs with "Haze" in the wording. Free Radical's latest FPS promises to deliver new aspects to the typical gunplay of FPS's aswell as boasting a rather impressive multiplayer.
Metal Gear Solid 4 - 12th June
Again, no introduction needed. I don't know how many videos I've posted of this game up here, system seller in the waiting....
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - July
Lucasarts' latest expansion of the Star Wars Universe, with a whole heap of toys, figures and Lego to help with marketing. Players take control of Darth Vader's apprentice and using Lucasarts' new physics engine can interact with the environment and use the force like never before. While I hope it delivers, here has his doubts....
Resistance 2, Killzone 2, Little Big Planet, Playstation HOME - Sometime between August and November!!
Little Big Planet promises something special, creating your own world with seemingly limitless possibilities, and with the ability to upload to the PSN and play other people's world's, LBP is something which could very well bring the PS3 back to casual gamer market....
Killzone on Playstation 2 promised much...but didn't deliver. And whilst that demon still haunts the gaming world, people are optimistic that Killzone 2 - pictured below - will deliver. The in-game footage available on Gametrailer.com shows just how good this game looks. Though that video was some time ago. Here is hoping that there'll be a HUGE announcement regarding said title at E3 this year....
Playstation HOME is set to be released this year, allowing PS3 owners to enter a virtual world (much like Second Life) and interact with gamers all across the world. Whether you fancy a game of pool with a friend across the Atlantic or want to show off all your game achievements in your own house, HOME has it all. Like LBP, HOME - which is free - could well reel in those casual gamers still on the bench over 7th generation consoles. And with all the talk of trophies and cars being linked to the game, the prospect of HOME becomes more tantalising each day...
As well as all that, there's new albums from Metallica, Slipknot and Rammstein. Not to mention the Iron Man and Batman movies!
Ok, I apologise for the lack of posts...or rather the lack of posts that are worthwhile reading, but my Easter Holidays have been primarily wrapped up in the "Environmental Ethics in China" report I have to write for college. Fascinating I'm sure you will agree. So much so that if I get REALLY into it I might just grace a few snippets onto this very blogspace.
Anyway, I managed today to get hold of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Warhawk for PS3, so you can expect a review of them at some point.
More importantly - at least from an intellectual blog post point of view - I have the next issue of Grinds My Gears lined up. It's likely to be very controversial but it's something which has recently come back into the news which I thought was done and dusted a long time ago. And no, its not Madeleine Mc Cann despite the fact that there was a short outburst of articles on Sky News this week about said person.
Nevertheless keep your eyes stuck to this space. Wild things are gonna happen!
Long time no blog, but I've been VERY busy you see, particularly with college work. You see, not only do I have an assignment for Design and Communications every week, but I also have an 8-page report on top of that too, and given that last Thursday I had to prepare a short presentation for my group on Environmental Ethics in Practice in the same module, it kindof has taken priority over all my blog writing and time on the computer.
If that wasn't enough, I have a huge 2 and a half hour assignment for Mechanics of Solids next week and a test in Statistics for Engineers the next week too! On the plus side though I do get my official academic scroll/diploma/thingy for my scholarship on March 7th!
Recently, we started our sessions with the Architects for our studio work on Monday's, and I must say, it was the most awful psycho-blabble I've ever had to endure. I mean 3 hours of drawing with charcoal on butter paper! To make matters worse, I was drawing a shot glass! How many ways can you draw a glass? Answer: Not many. Nonetheless I had to spend all that time drawing! We were encouraged to ponder on our "discoveries" after the drawing and discuss it with our classmates. We also now have to keep a diary notebook, and draw things we see. That wouldn't be so bad if the damn thing didn't so inconveniently not fit in my pocket!!!!
Now that that rubbish is out of the way I can get onto some of the more hardcore stuff - most notably the fact that the Cork county players are still allowed to play in the National Leagues. If the GAA had any balls they'd have kicked Cork out. I mean, it's not even like they deserve to be in ANY position to argue. They didn't even give Kerry a game in last year's All-Ireland Final. The likes of Roy Keane and Stephen Ireland further enforce the argument that Cork are the England of GAA. WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE? One man seems more concerned about having a go at the FAI rather than keeping his own team in the Premiership, the other is a little shit of thinks that he can leave the Irish squad and then come back when he pleases. If Trappatoni has the balls - which most Italians do - he will leave Stephen Ireland out of the squad indefinitely.
On that note - hats off to FAI for pulling a wild card out of deck in snatching up "Il Trap". What a proud day it was to see the FAI reel in one of the masters of the game to lead our country for the next two years! Admittedly I was one of many who voiced their frustration at the time taken to find a successor to the Gaffer, but now that we can see the pedigree of the man chosen...it was worth the wait!
And lastly, before I sign off....a moment's silence.
Ladies and Gentlemen....HD-DVD's are dead. Blu-Ray is king. YAY! A turbulent week in the electronics world has seen HD-DVD crash out in incredible style. Big retailers and manufacturers announced the drop of HD-DVD's one after the other, until eventually Toshiba threw in the towel. Now with Sony's Blu-Ray the supreme winner, all those suckers who bought HD-DVD players...and even more so those who bought the add-on for the Xbox own something that literally has NO value whatsoever. Given now that the best Blu-Ray players are in excessive of €1000, a 40GB PS3 seems the way to go!
Holidays are over and as of today I'm officially a week back in college. So what's new? Well nothing much other than the fact I have 6 new modules really:
Maths for Engineers V Better known as STATISTICS :( , I was never a fan of statistics and probability for the Leaving Cert, but the lecturer says it's easy enough so we'll have to see.
Mechanics of Solids I After the awful Mechanics of Fluids last semester I wasn't exactly looking forward to this, but once the course outline had been delivered I saw to my delight that most of the course I had covered previously with my first year module "Theory and Design of Structures", WOOP!
Design and Communications for Structural Engineers When I first read the course overview I was quite excited, a really hands on course, but after the Thursday lecture for the "communications" part that excitement has been crippled, much like the way the Enterprise was crippled in Star Trek II after Khan....I'll stop there. Yeah so aswell as our studio work we'll have a huge mother f'n written project to do!!!
Theory and Design of Structures II I'm HOPING that this will be as good as last year, but the first week of lectures has questioned both the content and the speed which we'll be going. It may well go slower than French for the Leaving Cert.....
Computer Applications for Civil Engineering Easy peasy lemon squeezy - for now anyway. When we move on to MATLAB I expect it to get more difficult, but for now I'm enjoying it, plus we've the added bonus of Dr Yaqian Zhao who was brilliant in first year!
Surveying Definitely looking forward to this, interesting, hands-on AND field trips. Have you seen those saps around the city with the metre and tripod, yep? That's what we're going to be doing!!!!
So other than that what else is new? Monday's is footie night up in ASTRO PARK, so if you'd like to come along let me know. LOST and PRISON BREAK are BACK!!!! Mondays and Tuesdays - serious conflict on Mondays with football. I'm 3 weeks into the recruits course in the John's, I'll have them become the best damn recruits EVER! Especially after a certain someone did the course on his own two years ago.....
GRINDS = MONEY!
I currently have Goal of the Month in our little thing on Mondays with an average scoring rate of 7 per game too!
The 3rd and final season of my comics is underway!!! The promotional strip is available for download from ME via MSN or email or whatever.
This blog is pretty short but I cannot upload the image as you well know, so instead I'm just going to ramble here for a brief period in a vane yet also pathetic attempt to keep you interested in what I'm saying, giving you a faint prospect that I may indeed actually write something of use, who knows, maybe I've secretly encoded a cure for cancer in my words, or have given away the secret of life. True it's well known that I postulate such matters, and really, I DO need to write another postulation blog, possibly about abortion since that's a kindof serious issue, or maybe a postulating blog about postulations, now there's something to postulate. Have you ever seen "Are You Smarter than a 10 year old?", it really is amazing to see how stupid some people can be. Speaking of stupid people, you knows who's stupid, Jamie Lynn Spears, getting knocked up by her 19 year old boyfriend who apparently is being sued for statutory rape! Rape, there's another postulation blog there, but I think I'll avoid it. Did you notice that I haven't posted a blog about the Madeleine mystery because they haven't been in the news, well actually they have, they were sent hundreds upon thousands of presents for Christmas, which pisses me off because they neither deserve them and why should they get presents when there's parents who've lost a child aswell. Children can be annoying, one of my brothers dropped one of his presents behind the radiator, it couldn't be pulled from the bottom and took me about half an hour to get it out. See my Revenant below, it took me half an hour to get all the pieces moderately prepped and arranged like that for the photo. Oh, and did you notice I replaced my photo of Kenny Craig on the left because I went as Bjorn the Gay Swedish priest on Halloween aswell. I still have the goatee I cultivated for the costume though and have no intention of getting rid of it in the long run.
Speaking of long, I've made this blog long enough now to keep you interested!
Catherine said I had to update my blog, so today I thought I'd post up all the stuff that I'd wanted to post (including about 4 or 5 posts below this one). If she keeps it up though....she'll be getting a GMG all to herself soon! (Only joking!)
Anyway, I've been wanting to publish this issue of GMG for sometime, and it was only after I came across some videos on YouTube, which are available at the bottom of the blog, that I really encouraged myself to get on and type it up. Of course, I recommend you watch those videos after reading this.
So yeah, anyway, you know what grinds my gears?? Well do ye? The British Media! Those regular readers know that I don't appreciate the British Media at all, especially in regard to its coverage of Madeleine McCann (which Sky News has now removed from its site, YAY!) and Princess Diana, but this also extends to sport.
I think the issue which pisses me off most is that they will cover any story like this to no end, clogging up the TV when other minor stories get a little snippet (the Sky Sports News one best shows this). Take the Canoe story at the moment. You couldn't not find this story on Sky, at least the BBC did some different stories, I mean Sky were interviewing former co-workers and everything!! And don't get me started again on the McCanns and their bleedin' family friends!
Another thing that annoys me is the shear arrogance (probably isn't the right word) of the British Media regarding their sports stars. Remember Paula Radcliffe who "collapsed" during the marathon in Athens? Well Sky spent the whole week coming up with reasons as to why she gave up; the road was too hot, the race was too long, there were too many other athletes etc. Why can't they just admit she was CRAP! Or take Lewis Hamiliton this year, they were complaining that Alonso and Spanish Formula 1 board requested that an independent investigator be present at McClaren to make sure Hamiliton didn't get any preferential treatment. COMPLAINING!! It's all well and good to wish your stars good luck on TV, but to try and downplay a very legitimate request regarding a British driver on a British team is unnacceptable.
Before England failed to qualify for Euro 2008 this year, the English Panel would refuse to admit that there team was shit. We knew it over here, the whole of Europe new it, but the English panel felt they had a divine right to be the be the worlds best. I cannot describe to you the satisfaction I felt seeing Croatia score that 3rd goal, and credit to the BBC, there panel had the balls to say they were crap, but that still doesn't account for the years and years of rubbish we had to put up with.
The same goes for Rugby, no sooner had South Africa won, than the article on Sky Sports went up, criticising the decision to disallow the try that might have won England the game. Or most recently, in the Hatton Vs Mayweather fight, it was very interesting to read that the referee "favoured" Mayweather and didn't allow Hatton to get into his stride, whereas on RTE.ie, the referee had to "work hard" to keep the match clean and fair.
The shear ignorance of the British Media seems to know no bounds, and that is why I have the following two videos below.
First, is Apres Match's play on Sky Sports:
Second is called "Channel Hopping" where it illustrates the difference between English and Irish coverage of the English Team:
And finally this one, it has nothing to do with the blog but its just funny!
Apologies to all my fans but I've had much on my hands of late, be it college, football coaching, first aid, painting, etc and as such I haven't had much time to blog up here.
In news: my Warhammer Spearhead box set arrived with the glorious new High Elves book which I will discuss up here in the near future. My team remain unbeaten in the league with 5 out of 5 wins. Should you like to go see our home games in Beechfield Park let me know and I'll give you the details! Maria's birthday is coming up soon and I plan to lavish her with gifts, my sights are set on Diego's Adventure Base. (Yes it's a girls toy despite the boyish phrase "Adventure Base" in the name). In the John's the adult course has started and as soon as that is finished Paul has me set in line for an EMFR course!!!
In college....well nothing's really happened.
ANYWAY
In short I thought I'd give you an idea of what's coming up:
The next issue of Grinds My Gears, delving in the vile world of the British Media
Warhammer Armies: High Elves - A review
Call of Duty 4 - a review...as soon as I buy it
Top Movie Fight of All Time
That's all I think.
Don't forget to read the first Awesome Award blog below!!!!!
The struggle to coach 12 hyper 12 year olds on Wednesday and the stress of taking home a little sister and a younger brother on the bus home yesterday has left me somewhat worse for the wear. Barely able to speak (I can manage the odd croak) and a bleedin' cold have me down in the dumps. Not even the great news from earlier in the week could pick me up now.
First class today - Fluid Mechanics....boooooorrrrrring as ever. I wanted to do some last minute revision for my Environmental Engineering test at 11.00am but with that guy there was no chance of me getting a look in.
Maths - didn't have the foggiest idea what the hell was going on...at all in fact. Enough said.
The test, not a disaster, but could have been a bit better so we'll just see. Coming up is Building Construction (hopefully the results of our project) and then another Environmental lecture :(
On the plus side I met Brendan Kelly today for this first time in ages, just coming out of his lecture as I was heading in. And tomorrow I start my grinds with an enforced rate of €20 per hour....the mother said that, not me, I was happy with €10!!! If I end up with grinds with another girl and maybe another bloke across the road...time will tell...then I'll be absolutely raking it in on Saturdays!
After flicking through the papers today and from what I read online, I'm pretty pissed off at the latest story from Madeleine McCann's parents, where Kate describes how she spends everyday crying. Seriously, I could go on for ages over that alone, not something which would make me feel any better. There was the usual bull about Britney Spears and other celeb gossip. Probably the thing I enjoyed reading most was about The Playboy of the Western World in the Abbey, definitely going to try and see that next Saturday.
Other than that there isn't much else to say, so I thought I'd give you's an idea of what blogs are on the way:
"What I'm Looking Forward To" A kindof synopsis of stuff I plan to buy/do/see between now and Christmas
"Grinds My Gears!! - Issue 12" The Leaving Cert, there's a lot to go on so at the moment I'm just trying to work out what direction I'm going to go with it
"More Postulations" Just like all the previous blogs, those kindof things which boggle the mind
What's the point in raising the shields when the ship is already docked in starbase????
Konami has released another new trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4....and as you might have guessed I have only three words: OH MY GOD!!!
Where to begin???? The return of EVA from MGS3 who now calls herself Big Mama, details about the New FOXHOUND, the return of Johnny Sasaki, Olga's daughter, the FROGS unit, Metal Gear Ray piloted by Liquid Ocelot VS Metal Gear REX piloted by Snake.....I mean...just watch it...please!!!
Not too long ago, I posted a blog entitled "Time to Let It Go", and had you read it, you would've seen that I was mainly addressing the Madeleine McCann case. Rather than reiterate what I've already said, I'll let you read it here:
Although Catherine was the only person to actually comment agreeing with what I outlined, many others who read my blog agreed with where I stood on the matter.
It is however a strange coincidence that within a week of me writing a blog about how the Madeleine McCann case was dragging on, that we should bear witness to the startling events that occured on Friday. As things stand now (Sunday, 9th September), both parents are now arguido (suspects) and have since returned to England.
Now...
I'm sure many of you are aware of how the whole Madeleine situation arose, so I'm not going to take up this blog discussing it. What I am going to discuss is the parents, both of whom are now at the centre of the case.
The Police are suggesting - according to family friends - that Madeleine was accidentally killed by Kate, and even offered her a chance to confess in return for a shorter sentance. The family have declared this to be ludicrous accusations, and naturally they would being family, but thanks to the fact that I'm "neutral" in this affair, one cannot rule out the possibility that Kate, Gerry or both of them did indeed accidentally kill Madeleine.
While I do not want to believe that these people are capable of such a thing, especially to make such a worldwide coverage of the case, one has to wonder that the Police must have something linking them to the death of Madeleine, to declare them as suspects. Note that I am using "death" as opposed to "missing", purely for the fact that to me it seems the most likely situation now after 130 days. Perhaps the most startling evidence that we know of are the traces of blood in the apartment and the car the McCann family rented. Whilst the Police have yet to confirm that the blood is Madeleine's, it would be a very freak coincidence if the blood in both their apartment and car was completely unrelated to their case.
Assuming then that they are innocent on that front, many have pointed out that the parents are guilty of neglect, on two accounts. One being the very obvious fact that they left the children in the (unlocked) apartment on their own. - Note, conspirators were quick to point out that assuming the parents had killed Madeleine, having the doors unlocked would support their kidnapping claim - . And two, the suffering of their other twin children with regards to the media attention and what not. Leaving the children alone is bad enough, but in an unlocked apartment with no CCTV or nothing! Sure, in hotels, parents leave the kids in the rooms late at night, but hotel rooms are locked and have security cameras on most if not all hallways!!
There's a lot more that could be said here, some have suggested that the parents drugged the children into keeping them asleep, then finding Madeleine dead as a result of the drugs. It has also been said that Kate McCann is being considered the primary suspect, with Gerry being an accessory, since she was the last person to enter the apartment before Madeleine was declared missing.
Before I begin this blog, I would like to point out that some people may find it a bit controversial, and while the two main topics are of a very serious matter in themselves, my own opinions here reflect what I perceive through their media attention, not my direct feelings relating to the two cases.
The first one is the most recent topic, that being the disappearance of Madeline McCann. I'm not going to comment on what I believe may or may not have gone on, what I do want to mention however is the media coverage. The main thing here is that this has been a regular news item, particularly on Sky News, for more than 120 days now. Yes, for the first few weeks media coverage was essential, naturally of course, but recently it is now all about the parents. They're going to sue Portugeuse news papers for writing "lurid allegations" about their daughter. At this stage, people don't want to know. The issue is finding the missing child. More to the point, they have two other children - twins - who are suffering aswell. I can't say for sure that this case is the most publicised case in history, but after 120 days with no real hardcore leads...shouldn't they come home?
I'm not criticising the coverage when it relates to any leads regarding Madeline herself, but the fact of the matter is...there aren't any leads. The whole thing has got to end somehow and the only way I can see that happening is if the parents come home, the longer they stay the worse it will get. Yes, I understand that as parents they want to be there, but there is nothing they can do, because all that they are doing is drawing media attention, which so far hasn't help them find Madeline any quicker.
The other thing is also an English related story and that is Princess Diana. Ten years ago now, and I remember the day well, as my friends up the road had a huge Lego set spread out on the floor in the TV room representing Diana's funeral. Yes it was the anniversary recently, but let's not forget that there was also a concert (which was terrible) in Wembley in her honour, and the tabloids give anything Diana related inhumane amounts of coverage. Again, like the Madeline media coverage, is it not time to let this go. I mean really, I don't dislike the woman or anything of the sort, but I find it annoying that I flick to Sky for real news and they are instead interviewing an author of yet another Diana book. Can they not let the woman rest in peace, and cut all this attention? Yes we all have memorial ceremonies, and yes it IS a member of the Royal Family, but should these things not be more toned down?
I don't usually do these kinda posts, but I'm in an unusual good mood today, so I'm going to try hit this one out of the ball park, you diggin what I'm laying down? I knew you could, slide me some skin soul brother!
Anyway, earlier this year, Forgeworld (a sister company of Games Workshop) released the Eldar Avatar, pictured below.
Forgeworld tend to make resin models of the stuff GW only touches on, stuff that would perhaps be too big for regular games of WH and what not. The original GW Avatar is pictured on the right. Needless to say, the Forgeworld one is vastly superior. Since I recognised the talent at Forgeworld, I had aspired to eventually purchase something from them, to add a kindof 'final touch' to my army. And about 3 weeks ago, I did just that. I purchased the above Avatar to replace the crappy one. It arrived about a week and a half ago and is currently sitting -unpainted- in front of me here as we speak, fully assembled. Hopefully when I catch, torture and kill the gremlin hiding away in my digital camera, I'll start up some sortof 'Project Log' or something here on blogger.
As a follow up, I decided that this year I would save up to buy one of Forgeworlds 'Mega' kits, this being the Eldar Revenant, pictured below. At €250 this is certainly going to rape my wallet, but given the complexity of the build, not to mention the vast painting time that will go into it, I'm just relishing the challenge.
The footy season is back in business, not just the Premiership but also my youth team playing again in Division 1 after finishing 4th last year, though there was only about 3-4 points between the top 4 teams. This day last week we had a friendly against Iveagh Trust, and I was pretty satisfied after about 50mins, given that we were 5-1 up.... Unfortunately, we ended up losing the game 6-5. I still don't know what exactly went wrong..... But today we've a friendly against Esker Celtic, the very club that play in the park just beside my house, hence how we got the friendly, so we had better win, if not, its back on the rack!!!
Finally, today I managed to enrol for all my modules for this and the next semester. It's looking really promising as at the moment, I will finish at 12pm most Mondays, 1pm most Wednesdays, 1pm every Thursday (and starting at 11am), and 3pm every Friday!! Yippee!!!
I have two new pieces today, the first being a 15 minute video of in-game gameplay, carried out by Hideo Kojima at a Japanese convention.
The demo explores the environment Snake will be operating in, as well as the many new game features explained in the video such as Snake-Eye, Octocamo, new targeting system, new movement controls, the improved CQC from the previous game and many other snippets.
There's little point in me describing what happens in the video, as Hideo himself does a pretty good job on the running commentary (the subtitles, because as you may have guessed, he's Japanese).
Certainly one of the things that will strike you ahead of previous MGS games is just how intense the battles are. MGS has always been a stealth game, and it does continue that way in the 4th installment, the only difference is that you are infiltrating a warzone and the gameplay is designed to have you cope with a live battlefield environment.
The vast array of new controls is also impressive. Snake now has the lowered stance movement available, instead of just crawling on his stomach. Also, thanks to the SIXAXIS, the game can be played as a FPS (First Person Shooter), similar to how the earliest trailers of the game suggested the gameplay might be like.
I'll leave you to make up your own thoughts on the video, so do leave a comment if you've anything to say about it.
The second trailer is back to a real-time movie standard, entitled "Beauty and the Beast". The trailer reveals four of the bosses that will appear in the game.
Picture (from left to right); Laughing Octopus, Screaming Mantis, Raging Raven, Crying Wolf
Several things make these bosses special and unique, compared to previous bosses. Firstly, they're all women. Not that that's a bad thing or anything. Each of them was modelled on a real world (fashion) model. Previously the boss "unit" in MGS featured both men and women. Secondly, this is the first game to feature bosses that are -mainly- mechanical, although they're female form (aka the Beauty) is underneath the mechanical form (aka the Beast).
Thirdly, on initial inspection it would seem that each of the bosses is named after bosses from the first Metal Gear Solid: Decoy Octopus, Psycho Mantis, Raven and Sniper Wolf. HOWEVER, on looking at their names, it seems as though Hideo Kojima has also named the four women after the bosses in MGS3. Although I haven't covered this game yet, four of the bosses in MGS3 are named: The Joy, The Fear, The Fury and The Sorrow. Now, take into account the human response to each of those names.... Joy = Laughter, Fear = Screaming, Fury = Rage, Sorrow = Crying. Therefore, we can conclude that the names of The Beauty and the Beast unit are derived from both MGS and MGS3, thus showing another aspect of Hideo's creative genius and also his cleverness to incorporate minor references from the previous installments.
Enjoy the video. Speaking strictly of gameplay terms, these bosses are going to be a biatch.
On one final note, Hideo Kojima confirmed in person what we all hoped and that was that MGS4 is in fact PS3 exclusive!!!!
I'm 20 currently studying 3rd Year Structural Engineering in UCD going for my Bachelor Degree! Interests are many, including postulations about the unknown, painting, modelling, further postulations regarding the incomprehenisble, thinking, reading, creating THE EDGE (see past blog), classic metal and the odd love interest (rare nowadays)...
