Oh yeah, I have a blog

Just getting that title out of the way so that I don't use it again, although the reason behind using it will doubtlessly recur (ie it completely slipped my mind that I should be updating this thing). Turns out I've gone up to two and a two-thirds regular readers now (since I'm not sure Marsh counts as a full person, but this does count as a full shout-out), so I should make more of an effort on their parts, I guess. Also for my own benefit. Because this totally benefits me.

So the busyness of my weeks continues, basically a colleague of mine quit the other week, gave 10 days notice (should have been a month) and only worked 2 of those days (saying that he had back pain for the rest). This has kinda screwed over both me and my beloved supervisor, Delicious Tommie (that's what his mother calls him, anyway). I'm stuck working double my normal hours and Tommie had to cancel his week off since we're now short staffed. I mean, James was an okay guy and I hope he does well at his new golf-club making job, but it was kind of a harsh drop on us.

So I was going to talk about films and tv shows and stuff. I'll split it up into the next one as well (so that I know I definitely still have something to write about). First up, what I've been watching on the iPlayer lately:

Josh.

So it's the completely middle of the road sitcom from Josh Widdicombe, but it's got a decent basis for how to actually craft a sitcom script. Basically they just need to amp up the quality of the humour, because they've got a decent set of foundations and I like Beattie Edmondson subtle panache. It's kinda bland overall, but it's an easy watch.

Trump's Unlikely Superfans.

So I just stumbled across this tonight and it scared the shit out of me. I know that it's just scratching the surface really, but it's really terrifying that Americans are actually seriously considering voting for a sexually-molesting-bankruptcy-declaring-Orangutan instead of a politician. More thoughts on the impending American Election sometime soon (there you go, two reasons).

Class.

So yeah, the new Dr. Who spin-off. I'll be honest... Dr. Who stopped being something I watched sometime in the last season and I can't quite remember where. Not even Peter Capaldi's excellent skills could make Moffat's writing bearable anymore and I'll wait until Chris Chibnall takes over before I get back to it. So here I am watching the first couple episodes of Class and thinking... well...

I can see the potential. The characters look kinda fun but run the risk of growing really boring, really quickly. The concept is a bit tired but it's a classic one so I won't complain about it too quickly. The first episode (directorally speaking) was pretty shit, but I know that non-feature-length first episodes suffer from having to introduce everything and find an actual story. This one hit all the basics but was so poorly paced that I almost gave up on it. The second and third episodes, however, managed to strike that balance an lot better, so I'll stick with it for the rest of the season and let you know what I think of it's ending.

Ripper Street.

So it's not on there anymore, but is still on Amazon Prime. The fourth season (haven't seen the fifth yet) just aired on the BBC and I was honestly surprised that they managed to resurrect it from the totally convincing cathartic ending that season three had. I mean, it was fully done, there was an end, a cracking good end. Why did they want to add more? Well, I would've suggested that they not do it, but to be honest the story built up well enough over the seven episodes that by the heart-breaking conclusion I am well and truly sold that we needed more of this show. It's gruff, it's Landan, it's surprisingly posh and it's brutal. I'm gonna miss it when it's finally done.

Also, LET ME IN is currently on there, I haven't watched it this time round but I've seen it before and I (shamefully) much prefer it to the Swedish original LET THE RIGHT ONE IN.

Next time, either American Politics or Dr. Strange.

Busy Week, Huh

So I had meant to contribute a bit earlier than this, but this week turned out to be kinda busy. It's not even over yet and I've already worked double my normal shifts at work, mainly due to an overly grumpy co-worker of mine quitting. So yeah, it's pretty much been work and sleep and then work and sleep. Then, on Thursday me, my brother and Tim went to go see Doctor Strange and then on Friday I proved how much I suck at bowling for my friend Idge's 40th birthday. In between those I also had to deal with that overly complicated crap-fest that is my not-really love life. So yeah, busy week.

Since my brain has dribbled out of my ears, I'll do another post tomorrow about my views on Dr. Strange and the new series Class, a spin-off of Dr. Who.

Checking out for now.

Perfectly Possible People

So normally I'd have waited until New Year to do the whole new blog, new approach to life (I'm attempting to be more laid back, since I know that I'm kinda easy to wind up), but I figured that I'd just do it now since it was on my mind. I've got a feeling that this is all just a reaction to getting older (I turn 33 in a few months) but I'm sure that most people do stupid things because they're getting older and starting a blog is at least less energetic than most of the other options.

That being said I'm working on going swimming more, since it's the only real form of exercise that I properly enjoy. I went this afternoon and I'm going to try and organise myself into going before I work on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays each week. You know, if I can drag myself out of bed for 9ish. Sleeping has always been something of an issue for me, either I do too much of it or I don't do enough of it and it's probably all at the wrong times anyway, but that's just me.

So from January to September this year I was pretty heftily unemployed, which certainly had its perks, but it really didn't help with giving life structure and having a good getting up time and all that rubbish. I basically vegetated for a goodly while. Like I said, it has its perks, I could go where I wanted, when I wanted. I got a shed-load of writing done. I played a mountain load of Dawn Of War. I... yeah, I pretty much wasted eight months but I don't really regret it. It was kinda fun.

I was looking for work during that time, but not like I actually needed a job, I was looking more casually. Eventually I find my job at the card shop because I just saw the notice in the door one night and figured 'why not, I can sell cards'. Didn't know at the time that I'd actually be working for WH Smiths, but it has its advantages, there's a certain security working for a big company and at least I know I'm getting paid at the end of the month and there's all sorts of extra hours going.

So... that's my job side of things.

Gaming, that's the other side really.

My Tuesday group had a semi-collapse a couple of weeks ago when my brother and Tim basically just dropped out quite suddenly. I know that the game I was running had gotten stodgy and painful and stuck in a muddy corner that was going to be a pain to break out of, but we were so incredibly close to the end that I was kinda pissed off that we didn't get to finish it off. Especially since the end of that game would have informed the end of another one that we've been holding off for a while now.

My fault really.

So the Tuesday group are starting a new game, missing two and a half of our members (Alex says he can now only do every other week, which isn't very helpful). Andy has a number of games he wants to do and one of them struck me personally, which is an Wild West Hunter: The Vigil game. Seeing as how I bloody love Hunter: The Vigil but never get to play it (I'm too busy running it), I stuck my hand up for that one and I'm finally going to get to play a murderous preacher, which for some reason is an ambition of mine. We've also invited Dan3 to join us for that one.

Why Dan3? We have many Dans. Too many.

Checking out for now, Xan

Will you need a bag or any stamps today?

Basic Info to get us started;

Name (on the internet)

  - Xan

Name (for real life)

  - Al

Age

  - 32

Height

  - About 6"

Weight

  - Considerable

Occupation

  - Birthday Card and Novelty Balloon Peddler

Reason for Blogging

  - My therapist thought it might help me out

Actually that last one is kinda round-about, I suggested it and she approved, so it's not technically a lie. Anyway, I've done some serious blogging before and kinda missed it, but my attempts after that first one never went anywhere and I let it slide for... hmmm... several years.

So yeah, here we are. I suppose I want to talk about me, about the world, about movies, about the things we see everyday and don't think about. But then I guess that's what everyone kinda wants to talk about, so I'll get back to you on making this blog startlingly original at some point.

Carrying on...

Hobbies

  - Wargaming, Table-top Roleplay-Gaming, Pretending to be a Writer, Cooking, Chain-watching entire series on DVD (I'm not onto Netflix yet)

Ambitions

  - To drop the Pretending part of the last entry

Love Life

  - We'll talk about that some other time, shall we

Political Alignment

  - Liberal Democrat (I miss you, Clegg)

So yeah, that's me in a nutshell. I'm trying not to be a borderline shut-in and having a job over this last month or so has really helped me out a lot (before that I was unemployed for eight months, which certainly had its perks, but getting paid was not really one of them). I like to think I'm a nice guy, I like to think that I'm friendly and funny (although to be honest I have no real idea if I am either of those things).

I figure that there's a lot of things I'm going to want to sound off about over the next few months/years (if I keep going with this one, that is, I could well leave it bleeding out on the roadside next week for all I know), but for now I'll just leave it with the virtual handshake that is me sharing a whole bunch of semi-personal details on the internet. Again. Because this time it's more or less personal.

Currently Reading

  - Yarrick: Imperial Creed (David Annandale)

  - Girls With Slingshots (Danielle Corsetto)

Currently Painting

  - 8 Heavy Bolter Devastator Marines

  - 7 Bolter Devastator Marines

Currently Writing

  - Episode 1-02 of Impact Winter

Checking out, Xan.