Life with Gideon

9 Months later.

2010-05-23T11:13:00.002+02:00

Hello again. I am back and it has been, hmm let's see... 9 months since my last blog post. 9… That’s incredible. I can’t really say why though. I’ve been super busy since October last year earning minimum wage (I think) at a video store, which subsequently put everything else I was working on, on hold.

I haven’t worked on my book in months. It is really quite depressing considering the fact that I have so many wonderful ideas for it.
Actually, that is quite an interesting story in itself.

I was busy working on it like I normally did, 50000 to 60000 words or 200+ book pages in total at the time, when suddenly I stopped and decided to read through my work. About 4 hours later I came to a very clear conclusion. Save for a few chapters, the story was developing into something SO incredibly corny, I am sure one would get whiffs of corn when opening the book for the first time if it ever did get published. Normally I would get all depressed and scratch the whole project, but corny as it was, I had grown attached to the characters I had created. I couldn’t just cast them aside.

Basically, I was inspired to radically change the story and to radically change the characters. They needed more life, more purpose and more, well, character. It was an epiphany. An epiphany that succeeded in exciting the hell out of me, so even though my writing has been put on hold for the time being, the project is still very much alive in my mind.

Anyway, moving on… Lets face it. It has been 9 months since my last post, and in that 9 months my love for Anime and Manga has not evaporated into thin air. No… if I were to list everything that I have watched and read over that period of time, the culmination of that list would take roughly 9 months to read. So instead of doing that, I will only mention the shows and stories that have stood out among the others.

First up, Green Green… the most perverted show you will probably come across. Honestly, if there were three boys in the world who did the things three of the characters did in this show, it would become international news and they would be castrated and locked up forever. Or so I would think.

Instead, they get away with a severe beating only. In all honesty it is actually pretty funny. As far as the story is concerned, it goes as follows: Somewhere up in the mountains of Japan, where no Cell phone gets reception and no TV or radio probably works, an all-boys high school gets a surprise. Their school is considering going co-ed. Meanwhile down in the city an all-girls high school is contemplating the same thing. In order to find out if it would be easier to just merge the two schools, they propose a one month trail run. A bunch of girls soon gets on a bus and heads for the boy’s school. Chaos ensues.

In the end, the show is shallow as hell, but if you can get past that, it is funny as hell. Upper-class ladies should probably steer clear though. There is a reason why the show was aired at 1 in the morning.

Next we have To Aru Magutsu no Index and its spinoff To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. Here is one seriously awesome anime series. Both are based on light novels of the same name and both are, as Barney would say, Legen- wait for it… wait for it… still wait for it… dary!

I don’t want to say much about the story, but I will say that both are your typical good vs. evil shows, and both take place in a city called Academy City which consists mostly of teachers and students. It really is worth the watch, so I am not going to say any more.

I do have one warning though. While Railgun has non of this, Index does touch a bit on religion. What I mean is there are numerous well known religious factions in the magic community of the show and we all know that in the real world, most religions have a strict magic-is-a-no-no policy. Keep an open mind when watching it and don’t take those things to heart. Do what I did and simply ignore it. If you do that, you’ll be fine. (Also keep in mind that this explanation makes it sound a whole lot worse and more prominent than it really is)

Lastly there is K-On!! (note the extra “!” in the title)
Yes, the second season is airing as we speak, and although it is still far too early to report on it, from the 6 or so episodes that I have seen, you can expect the same fun that we had in season 1.

That’s all from my side for now, so, be it one or two or nine months from now, I will post again soon.

Till next time…

Jya ne!
Gideon

August Entertainment

2009-08-28T20:02:00.003+02:00

Well! Its been almost two months since my last update, hasn’t it?
I admit, for the most part, I just forgot about this blog, ha ha! Imagine my surprise when I saw it on my list of bookmarks this morning.

Over the course of the last two months, I have kept myself rather busy. I wrote a lot on my book, watched movies, watched a lot of anime and read a lot of new manga series. I also tried to get a job, but that’s a story for another time.

First of all, I haven’t written anything for my blog in a while, so I can’t remember whether I have mentioned this before, but my book has headed in a whole new direction, and as such, I have had a LOT of stuff to cut, rewrite, work out and more. It’s a lot of work, but it really is heaps of fun! The book is nowhere near complete though, so nothing more to report on that.

The last movie I reported on was the reboot installment of
Star Trek. It really was a great movie… Since then though, I have yet to see a film that has had me quite as excited (which makes it rather hard to try and find one to report on here), so I am not even going to try to think of one to recommend today.

As for Anime and Manga… There are a couple of notable things out this season.

First, Pandora Hearts, which actually started airing last season and is nearing its end, comes to mind. I’ll just post the wikipedia synopsis for you here:
“Oz Vessalius, heir to one of the duke houses, has just turned fifteen. His life is rich and carefree, darkened only by the constant absence of his father. At his coming-of-age ceremony, however, everything changes. For no reason that he can discern, he is cast into the prison known as the "Abyss", only to be saved by a "chain" known as Alice, the bloodstained black rabbit. The mystery there begins as Oz unravels the mystery behind Alice, the Abyss and the strange organization known as Pandora.”
I really recommend this show to anybody who likes a little more mystery and darkness mixed in with their comic moments.
I did notice one rather interesting thing about the show, and that is that this anime has numerous references to Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Watch it, and you’ll see what I mean.

Then, there’s Sora no Manimani. A charming little show about a freshman guy in high school who is drafted by his rather energetic childhood friend into the astronomy club, adventures (and chaos) ensues. It’s funny, it’s energetic and it’s fun to watch.

In contrast to a comic show such as Sora no Manimani, I have also been watching a new show called Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. The show is a lot more deep. Not at all a comedy, but definitely touching:
“The series is set in Tokyo after an earthquake measuring a magnitude 8.0 on the Richter scale shakes the city's foundations and landscape, resulting in the Tokyo Tower, Rainbow Bridge and other noted landmarks falling.Amidst the chaos, siblings Mirai and Yūki, who were visiting a robot exhibition in Odaiba at the beginning of their summer vacation, struggle to reach their parents in their house in Setagayaassisted by a female motorcycle courier named Mari, who is striving to reach her own daughter and mother in Sanjengaya.”
This show can, sometimes, be downright tear jerking, but it is oh so worth it. Check it out!

Lastly, there is Valkyria Chronicles, but I have already reported on that one… Suffice to say, if you’re not watching it, your missing out.

I have also dabbled in some new Manga series, but I’ll tell you about those in my next update (in another month or two, ha ha).

Thanks for reading.
Till next time…

Jya ne!
Gideon

Time off.

2009-06-22T11:17:00.001+02:00

There is not a whole lot of new things to report on from my side, but in between my doing other things, I played around in Photoshop, and created a wallpaper based on my favorite K-On character, Mio.

I present it to you here so feel free to use it… By clicking on the smaller version bellow, you will find the 1024x768 version.

Enjoy!
Till next time…

Jya ne!
Gideon

I love the Entertainment Industry!

2009-05-11T18:42:00.003+02:00

I will start this post with a very important fact.
The new Star Trek movie, is the best Star Trek movie EVER!
Whether you are a returning fan from the days of ‘The Next Generation’, or a newcomer to the franchise, there is just no being disappointed when you walk out of the cinema… Go and see this movie as soon as you can… No really, go… In fact go right now… That’s right, stop reading this post, turn off your computer, get into your car and drive to your nearest cinema… It really is that good…

Leave yet?

Okay, for those few who are still here, lets move on to other things.

I realize that I have been quiet over the last month or so, and the reason for that…

…is my book. I have really been putting all of my time and effort into it and if I do say so myself, it is shaping up to be very nice indeed. I remember posting my character names at the end of a post, a while back… Well, in the end, the names have changed. *laughs*
I did say they were subject to change, did I not?
I’ll let you in on the name names sometime in the near future.

Even though I have been working on my book like crazy, I did crave a Manga of the romance variety a while back, and was able to find two specific gems. The first was called ‘I's’ (yeah, I know, strange name indeed…) and the last was called ‘Kare First Love’.

‘I's’ is a story about a guy who falls in love with a classmate and goes through all sorts of adventures to try and confess his feelings to her.
While reading it, you won’t be able to stop. You will have an uncontrollable urge to see what happens next and, for the most part, will be rewarded for that urge.
When you come to the ‘end’ of the series however, you will sadly be left wanting more. Still, it is worth the trouble. The series also features a few, potentially, nose bleeding scenes… *winks*

‘Kare First Love’ on the other hand, is nothing short of brilliant. It follows the growing love of two young people from the moment they first get together, right up to when they- whoops, almost went too far. (I will not spoil it for you here.)
This series was a joy to read, from start to finish, and it will remain on my list of all time favorites for many years to come. (not to mention my ‘when-will-they-make-this-into-a-wonderful-magnificent-stupendous-incredible-anime-series’ list…)

Speaking of anime, I have started on three new series this season: K-On, Valkyria Chronicles and Hatsukoi limited, all of which is worth checking out.

K-On is about four girls who join the ‘Light Music Club’ at their school before it is abolished due to a lack of members. There was just one snag, their fourth, and desperately required member, could not play any instruments!
It is a charming series that will leave you tearing up from laughter over and over again. Do yourself a favor and check it out!

Valkyria Chronicles is the anime adaptation of the exclusive PS3 game with the same name. It is set in a fictional European country which has been invaded by an evil empire. The show features a wide variety of interesting characters, and lots of action. (not to mention a rather catchy theme song at the end!)

Lastly, we have Hatsukoi Limited, which, pretty much, follows the Manga of the same name, down to the letter.
The story involves a series of intertwined short stories all featuring a different main character’s first experience with love. (Translation Check: Hatsukoi = First Love)
The Manga’s ending was a little disappointing, and as such, you may as well expect the same from the anime adaptation, but it is still worth watching.

That is all I have for you for today, so, in conclusion, be sure to head to your nearest cinema complex, buy a ticket for Star Trek, and commence operation ‘blow-your-mind’ as soon as you can.

Till next time…

Jya ne!
Gideon

A somewhat boring month finally comes to an end

2009-03-29T09:05:00.001+02:00

It’s been more than a month, so I suppose I should try to think about something to write on my blog.

To be perfectly honest, the last month was not really packed with newsworthy events. I am still writing. My story has gone in a new direction that will take a lot of planning, and as such, I have decided to take a little break from writing with the hope that it will clear my head and give me some new ideas.

I still watch my anime and read my manga, though its still the same shows and stories that I have discussed in past posts, so there is no point in bringing them up again. I do have one thing that has been bothering me though. I am sick and tired of some of these wonderful anime shows that suffers severely from the lack of proper endings. Two of my favorite shows ended blander than a dehydrated cream cracker on a Sunday! It is infuriating!

Let us hope that they learn from these mistakes in the future! If one more show has to end like that again, I’ll cry for sure.

That is all from me this time. Perhaps April will bring exciting new adventures that might lead to more interesting posts from me.

Till next time

Jya ne!
Gideon

Moving hurts

2009-02-22T11:23:00.001+02:00

Wow I am really sore today. Yesterday was moving day and i can’t remember the last time I worked so hard. Manual labor, it is tough!

I have been going over my story, reading it from front to end (end being somewhere in the middle of the actual storyline) and I have found lots of places where I could make little improvements. I am nowhere near finished though, I have so much work to do, its insane. More on this in the future.

Before writing this post, I read through my previous one. I have to say that I am pretty disappointed in it as a whole. The content is about what i wanted to discuss, but the grammar is awkward, the style is abysmal and overall, I just plain think it failed horribly. The point of this analysis, is, I will try to be better. In my defense, however, that whole post was written in a rush. Sure, I could have waited until after Grey’s Anatomy was over, but why do that when you can rush to finish the post before the show’s intro was over.

Anyway, on the anime front, I have already discussed Toradora, Clannad After Story, which is getting more and more interesting, and Minami-ke. That leaves me with White Album and Asu no Yoichi.

Lets start with White Album. This is a show about a carefree college student and his relationship with a rising idol. The show is super slow paced and very relaxed. You may want to get the entire series before you start watching it, because the episodes end abruptly and they almost always leave you wanting for more, but by wanting more, i mean you can’t wait to get your hands on the next episode. However, not everybody is going to like it. If you don’t like a slow romance with a hint of comedy here and there, you won’t like this show, but for those who would like to watch a show that is a little more emotionally charged, this show is for you. I enjoy it very much.

Next is Asu no Yoichi. The show revolves around a character named Karasuma Yoichi, Yoichi being his first name, (in Japan, people’s names are written and pronounced in the order of Surname, Name…) Yoichi is a samurai in the modern era. He was trained by his father on a mountain, but his father sent him down to the city to further his training and to give him experience. He goes to the city where he lives in a dojo with a family that consists of three girls. Need i say more? Comedy ensues. It has only just started airing, but its definitely worth a look.

That is all I have for now. so, until next time

Jya ne
Gideon

February is here…

2009-02-03T15:28:00.002+02:00

It's February already… Time doesn't like to loaf around, does it?

I have been pretty busy lately, but this is mostly thanks to my book.
It’s coming along nicely, to date I have written exactly 24465 words, which is worth 50 A4 pages or 100 A5 pages. The best of all is I am not even half way yet! One thing is for sure, I’m enjoying every moment of it!

As for anime, I am still avidly following a couple of series. I don’t know if I have ever mentioned this before, but when it comes to the entertainment industry, I am very easily pleased. Having said that, sometimes you just find a show that is above what you expected it to be. Clannad After Story is one of those shows.

Off the top of my head, I cannot remember if I have discussed this show before, but I'm not going to delve into in detail. Yesterday I watched episode 16 and it was as good as the rest of them, save for one thing. It was the episode that I knew was coming and dreading to see, the one with the sad ending. Potentially spoilerific, I know, which is why i wont say any more about the plot. I will say this, however, if they do not pull some Sci-Fi tricks out of the hat, to undo the tragic ending of this episode by the end of the series, i will hate this show forever.

After watching that episode, i had to find someway to lift my spirits a bit. This came in the form of Minami-ke, or The Minami Family.

Its all about three ordinary sisters going about their daily lives, and as the show says itself, “please don’t expect to much!”.
Do not worry though, it is funny, sarcastic and energetic. A joy to watch. So much so that I am already busy with season 2 and have almost destroyed this month’s bandwidth allocation in the first three days as a result…

Other shows i am following this season, includes Asu no Yoichi, Toradora and White Album, but more on them later.

Other than that, everything is pretty quiet. I am sincerely hoping to get a new Computer soon so that this one can be laid to rest (use evil imagination here).

Please look forward to my next blog post.
Till next time

Jya ne… <-- (See ya or Bye in Japanese…)
Gideon

Books and Assassins

2009-01-04T11:12:00.001+02:00

Hello again...

Its been a while since my last "real" update, hasn't it. I can't say that things has been overly busy, but I have been working on my book like crazy. I am very excited about my story and when I get excited about something, I really have a hard time doing anything else. As of this moment, I have written more than eleven thousand words in total, and that is just the opening chapters. I still have a long way to go before it is finished, but who knows, maybe I can get it published, so wish me luck.

Recently I visited my cousin in Wellington, and I had a go at Assassin's Creed on his computer. It was awesome. I really want to get my hands on that game. I haven't finished the main story yet, and as a result, I am suffering from major withdrawal symptoms! If you are eighteen years or older, you simply have to try out this game, trust me, it's rockin!

As for anime, I started on a show called Girls High yesterday. I only downloaded two episodes thus far, but it looks promising. I Can't really say anymore about it than that, I'm afraid since its still to early to tell. I did finish with Kurozuka though. It was cool, but had a truly disappointing ending. Maybe I'm just stupid, but I still don't really get it. I get it, but it just doesn't make any sense from a "here is some closure" point of view. Perhaps they are planning a second season, because the first one ended where the whole thing began...

Other than that, it has been the most quiet Christmas and New Years eve in years. It wasn't bad, just not what I would prefer.

Here's hoping that 2009 will be the best year of my life, and that is also my wish for you...

Till next time

Ittekimasu
Gideon

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

2008-12-30T09:46:00.001+02:00

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all.

Not much is going on at the moment, since it is the season of family, friends and a whole lot of laziness.

I have been working on my story like crazy. As such I have not downloaded any new anime series other than the ones I was already following. In all honesty, I hope that next year will be a far more exciting one than this past year.

That is all I am going to say, so till next year.

Have a good one

Ittekimasu
Gideon

Kurozuka and Hakushaku to Yōsei

2008-11-10T21:36:00.001+02:00

Two posts in two days you ask? I haven't done that in a while. Don't let your expectations wander to high though, I am sleepy and only came to finish what I started yesterday.

So the other two shows I am currently indulging my time in are called Kurozuka and Earl & Fairy.

First we have Kurozuka, a popular manga series authored by Yumemakura Baku. To save some time for myself, here is the description copied and pasted straight from Baka-Updates Manga

"Escaping from a brother who had just ascended the throne, Yoshitsune, along with his servant, comes across a house in the middle of a desolate mountain. Oddly enough, only a young woman lives there, who seems to possess a very dark and ominous past.
This long journey of more than a thousand years focuses on our main protagonist Kurou. It can be somewhat confusing at the beginning, but once you understand the plot this story can be quite entertaining.
The main thrust of the story goes like this: Kurou meets a beautiful woman by the name of Kuromitsu, and begins a relationship which transcends life and memory. Kurozuka tells the tale of a journey undertaken by immortals, and those who chase after immortality.
The majority of this story takes place many centuries in the future, after Kurou has been separated from Kuromitsu. Having lost almost all of his memories, Kurou seeks to understand why he cannot die, to rediscover his identity, and to find the woman that haunts his dreams."

Its full of vampiric action and is well worth a watch...

Next on my list is Earl & Fairy, also known as Hakushaku to Yōsei. This show is set in Victorian England and follows the adventure of a fairy doctor. Full synopsis to follow. The show is a typical Romance anime set on a Sci-Fi backdrop. Its entertaining, and that is all one really wants from anime.

"Earl & Fairy follows the adventures of 17-year old Lydia Carlton, who is nicknamed the "Fairy Doctor" due to her interest in fairies. Her life takes a 180-degrees turn when she meets Edgar J.C Ashenbert, the "Legendary Blue Knight Count" and his crew on a sea voyage to London. Edgar hires her as an adviser during his quest to obtain a treasured sword that was supposed to be handed down to him by his family." Courtesy of wikipedia.

Well other than that, I spent the day drawing a picture. This time I chose to draw an Angel crouching down. I have always wanted to draw an Angel, so I am rather proud of what I have created. It is not quite finished, since I still need to do the background, but it looks good in its present state and I feel like showing it off anyway...

That is all from me today...

Till next time

Ittekimasu
Gideon

Books and Anime

2008-11-09T20:24:00.001+02:00

And so its been a month since my last blog entry. Its not like I was so busy that time just never granted me permission to write a short piece of mumble jumble and it post here, but, I did do quite a few things. Most of my time has been going into the book that I am writing, two books, actually... I think I might have mentioned this at some point, but there are to many posts to go through just for that.

I am currently developing the story, having already created my main cast of characters, one of which you have already met in a previous post of mine. I already have the entire story in my head and an outline on paper, but most of all, I am quite proud of what I have created. I am not aiming to get these books published, since its just something I have always wanted to do, and now have an abundance of time to spend on it. More on that later...

I am still following a couple of anime shows that I feel would be appropriate to mention. I am not going to go into every single one in detail, but here is a brief look at a few...

First we have a new show called Kannagi. It is currently airing in a weekly spot over in Japan. To make things a little simpler, as always, I am just going to copy and past the plot outline from wikipedia and then give my own impression of the series thus far...

So, back to Kannagi...Kannagi is a new anime show based on the ongoing manga series by author Eri Takenashi.

"Nagi is a goddess who wakes up after years of slumber with Jin's unexpected help. Her mission as a deity is to cleanse the impurities of the world, but as her powers have weakened over time, her body is easily harmed by them, and she ends up having to do it with the help of Jin"

The show is interesting to say the least. It is still a bit early in the story to truly give it a proper review, but it has been very entertaining thus far, and I recommend you to see this Romantic Comedy/Drama for yourself. If I might just say one potentially negative thing about Kannagi, in my experience, Anime shows that are based on ongoing manga usually suffers from an incomplete ending, so, be forewarned. Other than that, it's a hoot.

Next, is a show called Toradora! and is based on a series of light novels by author Yuyuko Takemiya.

"Toradora!'s story begins with the male protagonist Ryūji Takasu who is frustrated at trying to look his best as he enters his second year of high school. Despite his gentle personality, his eyes make him look like an intimidating delinquent, so he is utterly hopeless about his chances of getting a girlfriend anytime soon, and does not have many close friends either. After being greeted by his hungover mother in the morning, Ryūji goes to school and is happy to find that he gets to be in the same class with his best friend Yūsaku Kitamura and a girl he has a crush on, Minori Kushieda. However, it is then that he unexpectedly knocks into "the school's most dangerous animal of the highest risk level"—Taiga Aisaka—who just happens to also be in his class, and is a good friend of Minori.

Taiga has a negative attitude towards others and will not hesitate to snap at people. After meeting Ryūji, she takes an instant dislike of him. Taiga comes from a rich family, but she has moved out to live on her own due to family issues. She is coincidentally living in an apartment next to Ryūji's. When Ryūji discovers that Taiga has a crush on Yūsaku, and Taiga finds out about Ryūji's affections towards Minori, Ryūji suggests that they cooperate to win the objects of their affections. Taiga exploits the fact that Ryūji will do anything to get closer to Minori. She makes him her personal servant, getting him to do all her household chores (cooking and cleaning). Taiga spends a lot of her time over at his house, so much so that she could almost be considered a member of his family. Since Ryūji spends a lot of time with Taiga, he has opened up to her world and to a side of her that most people do not see. The two also try to help each other improve the way people view them. However people they know from school start to become curious about their strange relationship and rumors begin to spread about them behind their backs."

If you have seen the show Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, you'll feel right at home watching this. It is funny enough, but sometimes feels like it has trouble moving forward, nevertheless, check it out...

I am following another two series, but more on them in my next post, which will be in the next few days.

I leave you then, with the names of the rest of my characters, subject to change, of course... Ben Cleary, Jonathan Wright and Makoto Akera.

Till next time

Ittekimasu
Gideon

Airshow 2008, amongst other things...

2008-10-08T12:26:00.002+02:00

Wow, I haven't updated my blog in a while, but I guess you can say, I was busy with other things. I still watched plenty of Anime and read a Manga, but I have also been busy with other things.

Lets get started then.

A few weekends back we had our biannual African Aerospace and Defense Expo at Ysterplaat Airbase, Cape Town, South Africa and to sum it up, it was awesome!

I'm not going to go into a detailed explanation, but on that wonderful, not to mention noisy, Saturday, we saw Fighter jets, formation flying and heard sonic booms, etc etc... Once again, it was awesome.

Here are some pictures from the show...

If you weren't there, you missed out, so if, in two years, you're in the neighborhood, be sure to see this show...

Well then, on to my Anime, for lack of a better word, recommendation.

I have watched a few shows since Ouran, so to name just a few, we have Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, translated to "The secret of Haruka Nogizaka. Its a cute story, worth checking out.

Then i watched Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun, translated to "My condolences Ninomiya" Its also a nice story, more on the Sci-Fi side of things, and filled with Ecchi Fan Service, but funny non the less.

And lastly, there is Ichigo 100%, I have no idea what it translates to though. Its a nice story, but it has no proper ending, since the anime ended before the manga was completed. In other words, stay away unless you read the manga

That's all I'm going to say about anime this week, I also read a manga series that was very nice, and I'm currently looking for the anime series, which is out there, I just haven't found it yet. This Manga/Anime story is called Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou, but can be shortened to Kare Kano and is translated to "His and Her circumstances". Its more of a romance than anything else, but it does have some comic moments.

That's all for this week, sports fans, since I never really know when I'll get the urge to write my next post, lets hold our collective breaths and see if it'll happen this month...

Till next time

Ittekimasu
Gideon

Ouran High School Host Club & Kaze no Stigma

2008-09-15T10:03:00.001+02:00

It’s been a while, but here is a brand new action packed “episode” of Life with Gideon.

Well, this month has been a little more interesting than your average every other month. Firstly, I applied for a job at a video store, though I haven’t heard anything from them yet, but you know, “they’ll call me…” and secondly I have now moved out of my parents house and for the time being I am living with my sister. It is now official, I have, as my parents say, launched.

It's been quite a while since my last post, so, I will use this post to recommend two anime shows that I have recently indulged myself in, starting with a little comedy gem called Ouran High School Host Club.

Even though they say it’s a romantic comedy, I would say it is a pure comedy with a hint of romance here and there. Ouran High School Host Club, or Ouran HSHC for short, is all about a girl, mistaken for a boy by the members of the host club, whom has to work off an eight million yen debt as a host in the club. All sorts of adventures ensue. The show is worth every megabyte of hard drive space it takes up, so do yourself a favor and watch it.

To give you a more thorough synopsis of the show, I will once again copy and paste the “full” synopsis from Wikipedia.

Haruhi Fujioka is a scholarship student at Ouran High School, a fictional school located in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Because of the superlative cost of the school uniform, Haruhi resorts to wearing long slacks, polo shirts and vests. Combined with her large glasses and tousled short hair, Haruhi's look causes her to be confused for a boy.

Looking for a quiet place to study, Haruhi stumbles upon the Third Music Room, the working place of the Ouran Host Club, a group of six extremely attractive male students (Takashi Morinozuka, called "Mori"; Mitsukuni Haninozuka, called "Honey"; twins Kaoru and Hikaru Hitachiin; Tamaki Suou, and Kyoya Ootori) who spend their time charming and entertaining the school's girls for profit. During their first meeting, Haruhi accidentally knocks over and breaks a vase valued at ¥8,000,000, estimated to be US$80,000.

In order to pay off the large debt, Haruhi is employed as the club's "dog" and is constantly ordered to do menial tasks like serving food or cleaning up. The club president, Tamaki Suou, without knowing she is really a girl, promotes Haruhi to "host" as soon as he discovers her potential. Even after the truth comes out in the Club, Haruhi continues the charade and is allowed to pay off the rest of her debt working as a host; in order to accomplish this, Haruhi conceals her true identity/gender from the customers and the school.

There you have it. Go check it out, you won’t regret it.

Next on my anime list is a show called Kaze no Stigma.

Kaze no Stigma is an anime show of the more serious variety originally based on a couple of Japanese light novels of the same name. The novels is apparently significantly darker than the anime, but the anime, in my opinion, holds its own.

Once again, here is the synopsis from Wikipedia.

Four years ago, Kazuma Kannagi was defeated by his cousin Ayano Kannagi for the right to be the successor of Enraiha, a sword passed down in the Kannagi family. His defeat, along with his lack of talent for En-Jutsu, the fire arts, the Kannagis' specialty, resulted in his banishment from the family. Now, Kazuma returns as Kazuma Yagami, a skilled master of Fū-Jutsu, the wind arts.

Over its 24 episode run, the show is filled with Japanese mythology and lot of cool magical battles, as always, some romance, comedy, sadness and one rather disturbing scene on the last episode that, for some reason, sent shivers down my spine and left me going over it in my mind over and over. Other than that this show is also worth watching.

Since it’s so hard to find wallpapers of anime shows, I have gone ahead and found this one of Kaze no Stigma for you. Just click on this small version for the large 1024x768 version.

I am not really all that picky when it comes to anime, as a matter of fact in the past there has only been one show that is so disturbing to me personally that after I watched the third episode I deleted it from my PC and tried to forget that I ever even heard of it.

The show is called Hell Girl, and its not that there are any graphic scenes in it. The content of the show is just so sinister that I can’t watch it anymore. The idea behind it just seems evil… In a nutshell Hell Girl is very far from my “Recommendation List”.

Well there you have it, Ouran HSHC and Kaze no Stigma aren’t the only shows that I have watched over the past month, but I’ll tell you about the other ones later.

So until next time…

Ittekimasu
Gideon

Life with Gideon, and Anime...

2008-08-24T15:45:00.001+02:00

Today I will dedicate my post to.... erm.....hmm....ah, today I will dedicate my post to a new Anime show called Special A.

Before that, however, here is where I currently stand, this being "Life with Gideon" and all...

Last week was not a nice week in my life or in that of my family, but since that is none of your business, that's all I'm going to say about that. This week has once again been rather slow, but we did receive some good news that will change things completely in the coming weeks. More on that later.

A week or two from now will bring with it the launch of the highly anticipated game, Spore, and I am looking forward to that tremendously! I even saw that my stupid ass computer will be able to run it. I haven't bought a new game since Final Fantasy XII, so Yay!

There is a strange excitement present within me, and I can't really explain where it is coming from or for what it is, but I haven't had such feelings in such a long time that I welcome the sensation. That is pretty much my current standing, so to sum all that up, I am still happy.

Now, Special A. This is a nice little Anime show of the, once again, romantic comedy genre that is well worth a look. I don't feel creative enough to actually write my own synopsis of the show, so I'm just going to copy and paste it from somewhere else and then give credit where its due.

"Hikari Hanazono has always been second to Kei Takishima. When they were six years old, their pro-wrestling loving fathers introduced them to each other. Assuming that she was the best in wrestling, young Hikari challenged Kei to a wrestling match only to be thoroughly defeated by him. Ever since that fateful incident, Hikari swore to beat Kei in school grades, sporting events - anything. To do this, she has enrolled in the same school as Kei since elementary. Now she attends Hakusenkan, an ultra elite school, that costs her carpenter father a lot of money. Hikari and Kei are the top two students in the school, with Kei holding firmly to that number one position. While Hikari considers Kei to be a rival and important friend, she is completely unaware that Kei loves her. The story primarily focuses on Hikari and her constant attempts to defeat her one and only rival, Kei, and how she finds love in their rivalry." Courtesy of Wikipedia...

The show isn't soppy. It is a lot of fun to watch, so check it out...

Since I like a lot of things Japanese these days, Anime and Manga being the culprits that sparked this interest, I will end each of my posts with a new line in Japanese. The line being Ittekimasu and meaning something in the line of "I'm leaving" or "I'm off", usually used to inform others before leaving home. Unfortunately I'm not sure if you spell it with one or two T's since there are contradicting versions of the word on the Internet. I'm going to go with two T's, since I found it like written like that on the most credible website. Forgive me if its wrong.

That being said, until next time...

Ittekimasu
Gideon

Itazura Na Kiss...

2008-08-04T22:46:00.004+02:00

Hello and welcome...Maybe I should start every post I write with that line, Hello and welcome. hmm maybe not. Anyway, sadly I don't have much to say at the moment. I have been a little busier than usual, but you can only sit around with nothing to do for so long, so it had to happen. Nothing major though, its not like I'm doing that much more than always, just not nothing... Hmm, I'm blabbering. Lets get to the point. No, I don't have a job. No I'm not doing nothing at all. No, I'm not actually looking for a job. No, I'm not just typing random things...Ok maybe I am, but I'm tired and I'm craving the next episode of my favorite new Anime show that has yet to be sub-titled. Its taking forever! Naturally I'd get busy in order to waste time so I can get the time to pass faster, right?

Ok ok, I'll start making some form of sense now... Recently while looking at pictures of anime characters kissing, (like I said, slow week) I came across a picture of two characters in school uniforms standing next to each other, they were not kissing. They weren't even looking at each other. I clicked on the link. Why? I didn't really know at the time either, considering that I was looking at kissing pictures and these characters were doing the opposite. Maybe it was some twisted form of reverse psychology from my computer, or Google, but lets just say the picture looked interesting.

Upon arriving at the site, a bigger version of the picture stared back at me with the title Itazura Na Kiss at the top, a plot outline underneath and finally, links to episode downloads below that. I read the plot outline and thought, "hmm, this looks kind of interesting..." and thus I decided to download the first two episodes to try it out. Fourteen episodes and a lot of bandwidth later I have found yet another anime gem that deserves one's full attention. It is a bit more on the Romantic Comedy side, a lot more, but hey, even suckers like me can appreciate the occasional soppy story of love between a cold hearted bastard (initially) and a cute, friendly and unintelligent girl who is willing to put up with it...

You might as well try it out too, it is worth it. There will be twenty six episodes in total and we are currently on number seventeen.

To celebrate my new favorite show, I made a little wallpaper (again, slow week) using the picture that drew me to the show. Click on the image bellow for the full size...

Don't worry, even though the show's logo looks all girly, the show really isn't that much.

That's all the mindless ramblings I have in store for you today, so stay tuned till next time for more on life with me, Gideon.

Till next time then...

Check you later
Gideon

Batman 2 and School Rumble.... Thumbs up

2008-07-29T19:22:00.001+02:00

Hmm, its been a while since my last post, but I was busy with other things. Anyway, this afternoon, after a long time of waiting, I went to see The Dark Knight. It was awesome! I give it nine out of ten. It has action, drama, suspense, everything! Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker more than lives up to that of Nicholson. Excellent, I can really see why they want to give him a posthumous Oscar. Go and see it, this movie will not disappoint, so if you cane spare two and a half hours do yourself the favor.

On another note, I have recently started watching the Anime show School Rumble. It is really funny! I love it. The story uses Romance as the main plot device, but its more of a comedy than anything else.

The Manga, as always, is better than the Anime, but for the most part, the anime follows the original story so closely that it feels like your reading the story board for the anime. Only around the end of the second season do they deviate a little from the Manga, which is a shame, because it does break down from the original story and just gives it a silly feeling, but other than that it is excellent! I'm not done with it yet, but I will read it through to the end.

The new month can not come fast enough! I need it to come now, since our Internet bandwidth is just about gone and I still have so much I want to download! Grrr!

Well then, I'll see you in the new month!

Till then...

Check you later
Gideon

Boredom + Cool Games - My Crappy PC = ??

2008-07-11T21:20:00.001+02:00

I am bored. Yep boredom have struck again. Not only does it feel like there is nothing to do, but I am just about freezing while doing nothing. That is just not a nice combination. As I am sitting here in my room, writing this post, it is a mere twelve degrees Celsius in the house. Brrrr!

To pass the time, I am watching movies of games that will soon be available and out of all of them, the two that I am most looking forward to are Far Cry 2 and Spore. They are going to kick ass. Do yourself a favor and head on over to GameSpot and download a couple of preview movies or look at some screenshots from these two titles. They will make your mouth water, so to speak.

Hmm, I cant really think of anything more to write. I am only writing this to pass the time and ease the boredom... Here look at one ore two screenshots from my future favorite games.

Spore...

Far Cry 2...

Next time I think I will share some of my latest drawings. Here is one I'll share now, a character of my own design, her name is Yuna. At the moment all I can say of Yuna is that she is a mage with a staff I kind of borrowed from Negi Springfield.

Something about the drawing below is bothering me, but I don't know what, it just looks a little off...

Plenty of pictures for this post, who knows what'll come next, till next time...

Check you later
Gideon

New Layout, Again...

2008-07-04T16:56:00.002+02:00

Today, or rather, yesterday I changed my blog's color theme a little bit and modified the main logo a bit too. Since I was already messing around in Photoshop, I used the Kanji character for love to make a nice and mushy wallpaper with the English word Love combined with the Kanji character. This new wallpaper is what inspired the whole blue theme for my blog as well. Here is the small version.

The wallpaper below is the the first wallpaper I created using the kanji character, and the wallpaper above's inspiration.

Well, that is all for today, so

Check you later
Gideon

Kung Fu Panda Indeed.

2008-07-01T22:19:00.001+02:00

Just a short "Start Of The New Month" post. I went to see Kung Fu Panda today and it has to be one of my favorite movies of the year, so far... Excellent, I Loved it! Go and see it now! Right now! You will not be disappointed, unless you, you know, hate laughing!

That is all....

Check you later
Gideon

No rants from me today...

2008-06-20T22:06:00.001+02:00

In a break from tradition, (see last post) I will not be starting today's post with the usual "my life sucks" speech. Instead, I'll just think happy thoughts and then think about all the wonderful things that happened to me since I posted last time.... hmm.... err.... ah! Now I remember....

Tuesday night, being "half price at the movies" night, my father and I went to watch Narnia 2: Prince Caspian. It was a really nice movie and we both did enjoy it very much. I think the thing I like most about this one is that it, along with the first Narnia, doesn't end in a "to be continued" fashion. It is also not aimed solely at a child audience, and I say that, because I just don't think that a children's movie would sport child actors hacking and slashing enemies to death without second thoughts. Its cool. The story is quite different from the first one and I can almost guarantee a fun experience to anyone who is into the fantasy genre.

Recently , after reading a certain Manga, one of the chapters gave me an idea for a story of my own. I'm not talking about an idea for another Manga story, but rather an idea for a book. Since I still have so much free time on my hands, maybe I should try to develop it into something more. It might actually be something fun and different to do.

Other than that there is not much more to report. I was playing around with Photoshop again, and this time I made a wallpaper using a colored picture I found on the Internet. The original black and white picture is that of Evangeline AK McDowell and is taken straight out of a chapter of Negima! (chapter 132, if I'm not mistaken).

Some one used their computer skills and colored the picture into the one you can see below. This is the picture I used to make my wallpaper.

And finally, this is my wallpaper and I am quite proud of it, its small, but if you click here, you can get the wallpaper in its full size and glory. You are welcome to use it of course...

That is about all I can think of today, so I'll see you again soon

Till then....

Check you later
Gideon

New me coming soon.... or rather.... New me should come eventually....

2008-06-14T19:33:00.006+02:00

I just came to a realization. The past few months’ blog posts have been pretty dull, regardless of the fact that they contained such cool anime shows as subjects. I have also realized that each post starts with me telling you how dull my life was at that time. Isn't that interesting?

The truth of the matter is, until my financial position changes ie, improves, I just don't have very eventful and exciting days. This past week, for example, is just about a blur, a void or just a complete lack of interesting situations worthy of remembrance, with the exception of Tuesday night's movie, What happens in Vegas.

Today was much more fun. I went to watch Rugby at a good friend of mine's house and at the same time met up with some of my other friends, gorged myself on burgers, chips and coke and ultimately had much more eventful day. Although it's still not eventful enough to devote an entire blog post to it alone. (Note all the mindless rambling up to this point)

Tomorrow is Father's Day and I'll be spending it with my family at my grandfather's house. As much as I like family gatherings, I can't help thinking that starting Monday, another week of dullness, voidness and blurriness will ensue, which in turn will cause me to start my next rant.... er, I mean my next blog post with the usual "my life sucks" speech followed by the Anime/Manga I am currently watching/reading. (This is the part where you shake your head and make "tch" noises or say "sucks to be you" and then walk away....)

Things will get better though, don't worry. All cycles are eventually broken and this one is no exception....

Now on to what anime I'm currently watching......... (insert, if you will, a drum roll here)..............I'm still watching Samurai Champloo,

and I'm still reading Mahou Sensei Negima! sorry to disappoint.

That's about all the time I have for today, so till next time...

Check you later
Gideon

What to do, What to do....

2008-06-06T10:05:00.002+02:00

Whilst waiting for the results on my exam the other day, I really have very little to do. With my current financial standing, I have little more than a TV and Internet with which to pass the day, so as of yesterday, I started to download Samurai Champloo, the show I spoke of a couple of posts back. It is excellent! really worth every bite of bandwidth it takes, and at about seventy apiece, it is a rather big bargain, so to speak.

I have only watched about three episodes so far, but all that will change today.

My family and I are waiting for and hoping to receive some big news today, so even if you don't know me, cross your fingers on our behalf. It will change my days considerably, making them much more interesting and that will lead to more interesting posts on my blog. Some thing other than Manga and Anime.

Since it is still morning here, I really don't have anything more interesting to say, at the moment anyway, so...

Till next time

Check you later
Gideon

School Days

2008-06-03T13:50:00.003+02:00

You may have noticed that my recent updates all contained, or was about some Anime show or a Manga series. It just so happens that I currently have a lot of time on my hands, and no proper way to make use of it. In other words, I will once again report on an anime series I have just finished watching.

This particular Anime is a little show called School Days. It is only 12 episodes long and must be one of the most depressing shows I have watched this whole year! Its not bad, but it really makes you feel weird inside when you finish it.

School Days is absolutely not meant for the younger audience, I recommend an age restriction of at least 16.

The show follows a young high school boy named Makoto who meets a girl named Katsura Kotonoha during the entrance ceremony of Sakakino Gakuen High School. At first glance this might seem like an ordinary high school romance story, but a few episodes in it changes. Without giving anything about the story away, I will say this. School Days can teach you a valuable lesson about the consequences of premarital sex and what happens when you see women as nothing more than disposable pleasures. It also shows how this type of thing can tear apart friendships that will ultimately lead to tragedy.

If and when you watch this show, do so with an open mind.

In conclusion, it has decent character development, and sinister music and ultimately has a good message. It is sad, but that is what makes it good, just remember to have an open mind. I will give it about four out of five stars. In the end you should be the judge...

Interesting facts have been discontinued due to extreme laziness of this author, bear with me, I might bring it back some day.

Till next time...

Check you later
Gideon

Download, Download, Download....

2008-05-31T11:09:00.001+02:00

Do you know what I hate? Do you? Of coarse you don't, but I'm going to tell you.... I really, absolutely, undeniably and unfathomably HATE bandwidth restrictions! How am I supposed to download a four gig file, if I only have three gig bandwidth to download each month? This country must have one of the greediest "free market" systems in the world, (note the "" around free market) If it isn't ridiculous bank costs, fuel prices and general food prices, its bandwidth bills, phone bills and who knows what else. I know you might say that these are things you get all over the world, and that is true, but you do not get bandwidth restrictions all over the world, and I know that for a fact.

Stupid monopolizing telecommunications company....

Anyway, today is the last day of the month and since the bandwidth isn't regulated on a minute basis, I am going to get my moneys worth today. I am going to download everything I want from Manga to my favorite TV shows, music, the whole shebang! I'll push it to five gig over the limit if I have to... Revenge!

Later then, no time for interesting facts today, too busy with bandwidth revenge... see you next time...

Check you later
Gideon

Manga and Anime... I need a Girlfriend...

2008-05-15T14:50:00.001+02:00

Its been a while since my last post. To be honest not much has happened. I still watch a lot of Anime and recently discovered how much fun it is to read Manga. On that note, might I just say that the Manga series of Magister Negi Magi Negima! is so much better than its Anime counterpart, you just can't compare the one with the other, even though it feels like you are reading the story board of the anime at the beginning, the Manga takes a completely different route than the anime after the incident at Kyoto. I will show you the first page of the Manga as a little preview. (note that the entire Manga series is in black and white and that this page along with a few others are exceptions only.)

Another cool Manga that I just finished reading last night is Love Hina. Love Hina was drawn by the same artist that is responsible for Negima. It is a fun read and the Anime series is also worth a look. Again, here is the first page of the Manga.

In the next few weeks I might finally get my new car, I don't want to jinx it, so I'm not going to say anymore on that for now.

I have to start preparing for an exam again soon, so that might be responsible for an about turn of my mood, but bear with me, I should be back to normal after the 28th of May.

Not much more to say today, I'm still drawing pictures and soon i will share a couple of them with you, but not today, today i am lazier than usual.

On a side note, the teaser trailer for Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is out and very funny, so head on over the www.apple.com/trailers to check it out.

Today's interesting fact is...Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lightning than women.

Till Next time

Check you later
Gideon

I Remembered the name.

2008-04-20T10:17:00.001+02:00

I finally remembered that Anime show I was talking last post. By remember, I mean I took the name Alucard that I knew from the start and combined it with the word vampire in a quick Google search. Who needs a healthy memory when there is Google. Anyway, the shows name is ( insert drum roll here) Hellsing.

Hellsing is a show that follows the story of the Hellsing Organization, whose sole purpose is to eradicate all unholy creatures that roam the world, mostly vampires and ghouls. They do this with a wide range of weapons, but their most impressive weapon is Alucard, a vampire himself, and his right hand girl, Seras Victoria, whom he turned into a vampire too. Though she is still a vampire in training, together they fight the forces of the night. Throughout the series, it is implied that Alucard is actually Dracula, but it is never stated outright.

The show only spans thirteen episodes, but it is truly excellent. The story and setting is all very dark and this Anime is definitely not for children, but it is cool to no ends.

To commemorate my "remembering" the name, I drew a picture of the wallpaper I am currently using.

This is obviously the drawn version

And this one being the original

Next post I will share some of my other drawings, but till then, here is today's Interesting Fact.... Peanuts are one of the ingredients in dynamite.

Till next time

Check you later
Gideon

I love Anime

2008-04-10T20:47:00.001+02:00

I am a great fan of Anime. All kinds of anime. Today's post is dedicated to some of my favorite Anime shows.

First there Is Dragonball, Z and GT. A lot of my friends do not regard this series as real anime, but it is one of my favorites. You should have heard about it though. Its about a a group of people known as the Z fighters, who fight to save the universe on numerous occasions. It follows the story of Goku, a saiyan boy from the planet Vegeta, who crash landed on the planet earth. He grew up on earth without knowing about his alien heritage and spent his time learning the art of fighting from the old man who found him. The story follows him in his quest to find the seven magic dragonballs which, when all seven is collected, summons the eternal dragon, who will then grant the summoner a wish. Of course there are evil maniacs who want to find the balls to realize their dream of galactic domination. Its quite fun and spans more than four hundred episodes from start to finish.

Next there is my latest favorite show, Magister Negi Magi Negima!
It is a bit of a Harry Potter rip off, but with some prominent differences. The show follows Negi Springfield, A ten year old graduate of the Merdiana Magic Academy in Wales, he is also a fully licensed teacher. At the beginning of the show he travels to Japan to look for his father, the mage known as the Thousand Master, but to no avail. He is then hired as a English teacher at the Mahora Academy for girls. He soon runs into a feisty girl named Asuna Kagurazaka and all sorts of adventures follow. Sometimes the show ends a bit abruptly and only spans twenty six episodes, but it is all good fun, definitely worth checking out.

Another of my all time favorites is Samurai Champloo. A show about two Samurai Rivals guarding a fifteen year old girl in her quest to find the "Samurai who smells like sunflowers". It is excellent. Any self respecting Anime lover should watch that show. Its funny, sad, and full of samurai action.

That's about all for now. I do know about another very cool Anime series, but for the life of me I can't remember its name. Needles to say I watched it quite a long time ago. Its about vampires in England, and all I know is the main Vampire's name, Alucard, or Dracula spelled backwards. More on that when I can remember the shows name.

Oh and for the record my new favorite Anime Girl is Asuna, and I found a cool wallpaper that I am currently using.

Now far an Anime related Interesting Fact.... Anime fans often dub themselves as "otaku". The word has several meanings, but in this respect, it translates to 'fanboy'. In Japan, being an otaku is not a good thing. It's a word reserved for those obsessive fans who are scorned by others.

Till next time

Check you later
Gideon

Games, Games, Sweet Games

2008-04-09T12:04:00.001+02:00

It is Wednesday morning and I have almost nothing on my daily planner for today....still....

I'm itching to play a nice first person shooter, something like Crysis or the yet to be released Far Cry 2, more Far Cry 2 than Crysis though, I'm not that much into the shooting monsters-who-jump-out-at-you-from-nowhere-and-get-a-heart-attack-as-result type of games. No, I like the sneak-up-and-snipe-from-a-distance-so-you-cant-go-around-the-corner-and-flank-me-because-you-don't-know where-I-am kind of games, like Far Cry 2 is promising to be. I cant wait. If you haven't seen or heard anything about that game then shame on you, check out their website and read up on it immediately. Click here now.

Anyway, right now I have nothing better to do than wait for tonight's episode of Jericho. I thought I'd install Command & Conquer 3 again and give it a chance to redeem it self. Ok ok its not the game its my computer. My computer, the one I'm working on right now, duh, sucks. It crashes for the dumbest reasons. I think if I even show it a picture of the Far Cry 2 box art or logo it will explode in my face. It is just spiteful like that.... I will replace it soon, though, just not right now.

All that said, its time to finish off with today's Interesting Fact... According to statistics, The most common time for a bank robbery is Friday, between 9 and 11am. The least likely time is Wednesday, between 3 and 6pm.

Till next time

Check you later
Gideon

A Brand New Logo

2008-04-01T20:14:00.001+02:00

I had nothing better to do for most of today, I couldn't even think of a good April Fools Joke, so, instead I decided that the brand new month should bring with it a brand new Logo for my blog and here it is.

Not much more to say, I'm afraid, so without further ado, here is today's Interesting Fact... A mole can dig a hole 300 feet deep in one night.

See you soon

Check you later

Gideon

Its been a while...

2008-03-31T15:48:00.001+02:00

I haven't posted anything new in a while, but that is mostly because nothing new has happened. At least nothing new I can talk about, at the moment.

I will give you a nice big update by the end of next week, though.

I have been spending most of my time playing Final Fantasy XII, which is a kick-ass game. If you haven't played it, get it, but be warned. It will take about two hundred hours out of your life and you can pretty much say good bye to any social life you have, or were thinking about starting.

Till then here is today's Interesting Fact.... A cockroach can live up to nine days without its head.

See you soon, but till then

Check you later

Gideon

A Fable for a Fable

2008-03-12T19:30:00.003+02:00

The process of buying a new PC game has been rather unpleasant and has taken me three days longer than it should.

Let me start on the first day. I decided to buy Fable: The Lost Chapters, because I don't own it and lets face it, the game kicks ass!

Step one was to find a store that has it in stock, so on to the phone I go. "sorry, we're out of stock", We don't have that game anymore", "I haven't seen that game in store since 2006". That happened at every store I phoned, but I wasn't giving up hope just yet.

Next I tried a few online stores and to my great delight I found it on all the sites I visited. I looked for the best deal and just when the mouse pointer was about to hit the "add to basket" button, just when hope had been restored, it hit me. I don't have a credit card. Damn!

Thinking fast I got my solution. My sister has one and I'll just transfer money to her account and use hers. One problem though, it was already three thirty in the afternoon, the exact time the bank happens to close. Double Damn!

On to the next morning....

I got up nice and early and called my sister to get her bank details. After that I went to the bank, made the transfer and even had time to get a McDonald's Egg McSausage McMuffen McBreakfast. McYay!

When I got home I went online again. Keep in mind I had to do all this before twelve to benefit from the 24 hour delivery service. It's eleven forty five, and I cant reach my sister to get her credit card info, because she is teaching a class! Triple Damn!

Having no chance of next day delivery I went into a mini depression, but all is well, I'll just wait another day. When she arrived at our house, I eagerly took her credit card and raced to my PC only to find the website was down for scheduled maintenance. Quadruple Damn!

After that I gave up for the rest of the day. Some higher power just didn't want me to have this game....

This morning the site was back up and I ordered the game, first the company checks if they have stock and mail you a conformation, at which point payment is required.

Having finally gotten all the info I required I tried to pay, but it failed. I tried again and it failed again. Turns out there was insufficient money in the credit account. Double, Triple Damn!

Back to the bank, another deposit and a drive home later, I finally had everything I needed. I tried to pay and at long last someone loved me enough to let the payment succeed. A mere hour later I got an e-mail saying my order has been dispatched and I now eagerly await its arrival tomorrow.

What a drama, and all for a silly game. It better rock harder than ever before!

That's my three day dilemma and what an interesting three days it was!

Now for today's Interesting Fact...The leading cause of poisoning for children under the age of six in the home is liquid dish soap.

Till next time

Check you later
Gideon

It's my Birthday, Weee!

2008-03-10T19:33:00.002+02:00

Today was my birthday. It was rather un-extraordinary. That might be because my party was yesterday though, so I’m not complaining. As for what I got. I got an IOU for a BMW from my parents and an IOU written on the side of a carwash cloth from my sister. haha, and a little spending moola from the rest of the family. Sadly I didn’t have enough money to do anything with my friends. I’ll accommodate them next year.

So now I am twenty-two years old, or rather twenty-two years young. There is quite a lot I have planned for this year, but I’ll comment on that when the time comes for something to be mentioned.

Next weekend is Hartenbos Season 2, last year being season 1, and it is promising to be a lot of fun. We’ll expand on the fun stuff and learn from the mistakes of season one, by not repeating them. Oh, and for the love of all that is good and pure in this world, will someone remember the salt!

The new trailer for Iron Man just came on to Apple/Trailers, so check that out and I’ll post more on the life with Gideon soon.

For now, here is today’s Interesting Fact… More than half the population of Kenya is under the age of 15.

Till next time

Check you later
Gideon

Birthdays and Holidays coming up

2008-03-06T11:21:00.002+02:00

Hmm, my birthday is only days away. I like this time of year, but I don't look forward to my birthday the way I used to. Maybe that’s just part of growing up. What I do like about birthdays is the shocking similarity between it and paydays. Who doesn't look forward to getting money one day a year for doing nothing but being alive another year. It rocks.

On the twenty first, a couple of friends and me are going to a little town called Hartenbos for Easter. I'm really hoping to have a car by then and so far things are looking optimistic. It is about four hours drive from where I am now and I would like to drive in the comfort of my own car. That and I'll get petrol money.

The price for a liter of petrol is insane these days, its like the government is deliberately trying to kill the economy, and they are succeeding!

I'll finish off today's post with my new signature. Donkie737 is the alias i use on any forums or websites i might be part of.

Interesting Fact of the day.... A B-25 bomber airplane crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945.

I almost missed the Oscars

2008-02-27T19:11:00.001+02:00

This week has been slow, I almost missed the Oscars on Monday night, but one of my friends was nice enough to record it for me. I only got to see most of it, the tape ran out before it ended, so I ended up watching the Best Actor and Best Picture on Youtube.

The rest of the week has been pretty slow, quite frankly...

Interesting fact... There are 92 known cases of nuclear bombs lost at sea.

Lunar Anomalies

2008-02-21T22:17:00.005+02:00

I feel a little weird. I think I may be coming down with something. I don’t know. The weather is a little weird here in Cape Town. Its humid and cloudy, but still warm and at the same time, not so warm, strange...

This morning, at about 2:55AM, there was the first of two lunar eclipses that will be occurring this year. The next one will be in August, so I hope you didn’t miss the first, like I did. Incase you did, I have a nice picture of the occurrence. Last night's eclipse is the only complete lunar eclipse for some time to come, the August eclipse will only be partial and the next complete eclipse is not expected until Dec 2010.

This was observed from Sasolburg, South Africa

And this one from Boulder, CO.

Astrology is truly fascinating...

I hoped to find a nice moon related interesting fact for today’s post, but I couldn’t, so you’ll have to be happy with this on.... Sound travels fifteen times faster through steel than through air.

Clocked it...

2008-02-19T19:12:00.001+02:00

I finally finished The Movies. It was really hard. Fun, but hard… This is the first time I have gotten so far since I bought the game back in 2005.

In other news, I got an idea for a story the other day. I decided that over the time, I will write it and see where it goes from there. Not much more to say than that at the moment.

Not much to say about anything at the moment, to be honest.

Today’s interesting fact is… Elvis Presley got a 'C' in his eighth grade music class

Till next time...

Check you later
Gideon

Happy Valenwhatsits.....

2008-02-14T22:25:00.007+02:00

And so it’s Valentines Day. Whoopee, I don’t have anyone to say happy Valentines Day too just yet, so I’m not all that fussed. To be honest I didn’t even remember it was Valentines Day this morning when I woke up. What is the big hoo haa anyway? If you ask me it’s just a way for companies to take more of our hard earned cash. I’m sure I’ll sing a different tune once I get a significant other, but until then it’s just another cash-in gimmick.

Today was the first cloudy day in a while, I loved it! I am tired of the summer, its just too dang hot, but for more on that read my older posts.

I spent most of the day playing Texas Hold ‘Em on Facebook. When I started this morning I had a thousand points, but this evening I am the proud owner of a full thirty six points! It’s a very good thing I don’t gamble with real money, or I’d have a real problem. It was fun none the less.

As you may have guessed, the week has been really boring and I am getting tired of just sitting around. For some reason, when it comes to getting a job, I get this mental block.

I can’t explain it. Sometimes I get really excited at the prospect, but soon after I start doubting my abilities and eventually I just give up, even before I start. It’s very frustrating and gets even more frustrating since I can’t really explain, to myself, why I doubt myself so much. Somedays are worse than others.

Maybe I’m just being stupid, I don’t know... I think I’ll spend the rest of the week, and a little of next week, thinking about possible reasons for such a stupid mental block.

But right now I’m getting tired. Without further ado, here is today’s interesting fact.... 'Second Street' is the most common street name in the U.S.; 'First Street' is the sixth!

And another one for yesterdays lack of update.... On Sunday, it is illegal to sell cornflakes in Columbus, Ohio.

Till next time

Check you later
Gideon

Nothing to see here

2008-02-12T20:18:00.000+02:00

Move along nothing to see here, the week is off to a dull start, so I’ll just leave you with a interesting fact... If you went out into space, you would explode before you suffocated because there's no air pressure.

Still Frying, Still Weekend...

2008-02-10T19:52:00.000+02:00

I spent the entire day in my room, with the exception of going to the kitchen for food. There was really no point in leaving. Whenever you go outside, you fry in hot humid air. The strange thing is the sun wasn’t even out, it was raining. This has passed beyond ridiculous. I want winter, I vote winter!

My uncle was here with my two cousins today, they came over for lunch and a little catching up since we don’t see them that often. My cousin just wanted to watch Hannah Montana the whole time and my other cousin wanted to watch Dragonball Z, all of which is on my computer, so we have been switching between the two the whole day long!

Needless to say, I am tired of Hannah Montana, for now… I do find it funny occasionally.

I have no idea what is happening this week, deja vu, and so I cannot comment on that, but it does look like the writers strike may be over soon. When that happens I can get back to watching Heroes and Scrubs, but till then lets move on to today’s....

Interesting Fact.... Americans collectively eat one hundred pounds of chocolate every second.

Till next time

Check you later
Gideon

Frying over the Weekend

2008-02-09T19:10:00.000+02:00

Ok this is getting ridicules! Summer us almost over, but only now does the sun decide to fry us all to a crisp. I am all for winter, or rather I like fall. Fall is the nicest time of year. It’s not too hot, but it isn’t too cold either!

Enough about the weather though. Last night I went to a friends place for a barbeque, or as we call it in South Africa, a braai. Despite it being to hot too stay dry for more than five minutes, I had a blast. It was nice seeing my friends again, whom is always very busy, and just chill out with some food and drinks. I will get some photos of that soon, so watch this space.

There isn’t much happening this week to come, but there is a lot I want to finally happen, I still haven’t sent that letter, so I might do that at some point, but other than that, its just too soon to make any plans...

Last night I got in at two am, so I didn’t update my blog, I hit the sack instead. Maybe tonight I can have a full nights sleep.

Just finished watching a movie called Superbad. It is a really filthy movie. Funny, but filthy, the kind that makes you want to take a bath afterwards. I did enjoy it none the less.

Not much more to say, so on to today’s interesting fact.... Even Antarctica has an area code. Its 672....

Till next time

Check you later
Gideon

The Summer streak must end

2008-02-07T17:04:00.000+02:00

I am SO HOT! And I’m not talking about my good looks... It must be like two hundred degrees outside. I am really growing weary of the summer. I always say I like winter the most, because in the winter when I’m cold I can put on extra clothes, but in the summer when I’m hot, I can’t keep taking clothes off.

It is time for the winter to return. It might even help for my moods, which have been making some heat related jumps... quite a lot...

Now, on to Movie Watch....

There is a new movie on its way that looks very interesting, called Fools Gold. Fools Gold stars Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. It’s a comedy about a married couple who is on the brink of divorce when they go on a treasure hunt. Check out the trailer at apple.com/trailers.

Today’s interesting fact.... There are 53 Lego bricks manufactured for each person in the world.

Check you later
Gideon

Raw Fingers

2008-02-06T18:37:00.001+02:00

This morning I started to mess about with some Guitar Cords and since I am a complete beginner, I completely sucked! It is really harder than it looks, and my fingers are killing me. I am such a noob. Not to worry, I will keep going until I can play like a professional. Consider it one of the items on my bucket list.

Nothing else really happened, tonight will bring a new episode of Jericho and I’m looking forward to that, so I’ll post again tomorrow.

Interesting fact…The IRS employee’s tax manual has instructions for collecting taxes after a nuclear war.

Check you later
Gideon

The Bucket List

2008-02-05T20:59:00.000+02:00

Do you still remember the other day, when I said Bicentennial Man almost made me cry, of course you do, it was like two days ago. Anyway, I'm not embarrassed to say that The Bucket List succeeded. It must be one of the best movies I have ever seen. Funny, sad, dramatic, all these words can be used to describe it. I enjoyed it so much that I’m not even going to talk about anything else today. If you want to see a really good movie with two legendary actors, possible the two best actors to come out of Hollywood, go see this movie....now....

I’ll leave you with two interesting facts, since I’m in such a good mood.

Fact 1... The first domain name ever registered was Symbolics.com.
Fact 2... The Yo-Yo originated as a weapon in the Philippine Islands during the sixteenth century.

Snoreville

2008-02-04T23:34:00.000+02:00

Wow, today was monumentally dull. Absolutely nothing happened. I didn’t get a guitar yet, but I’m working on that. I did decide to write a letter to a celebrity and see if I will get a response. I have never written to a celebrity before and I am quite curious to see when, if ever, I will get a reply. I am of course talking about physically writing a letter with pen and paper and then posting it through the mail. Nothing Electronic about this letter... :) I’m not going to say who I am writing to, though, so don’t ask.

Since I live in South Africa, though, I think it will take at least two months, but if I get a reply, I will tell you all about it. I might even be ready to tell you who it is. Its not really all that expensive, but it’ll probably be around R50 or $15, something like that, I’ll make sure. Cross your fingers.

Not sure what’s happening tomorrow, so let’s just wait and see. I haven’t played any games in weeks. I’m just too bored with everything I have, so my PC is turning into a real snore fest. I need to upgrade it. More on that later…

Now it is time for today’s interesting fact… A volcano has enough power to shoot ash as high as 50 km into the atmosphere.

Till next time

Check you later
Gideon

Things are looking up

2008-02-03T22:57:00.000+02:00

Another day of relaxation is behind me. Tomorrow will be a bit busier for me. I am going to start up this years exercise regime and I have decided to get a guitar so I can be a little more musical.

How exciting! This year is going to be very exciting. It took me a whole month to get to the point where I can tell myself, “no more waiting” or “get your butt of the couch and start doing something positive again”.

At the moment money is a little hard to come by, so my studies or on a temporary hiatus. Not to worry though, I have no intention of quitting my studies and as soon as I am able, I will continue. There is so much I want to do. French lessons, Accent Lessons, dance Lessons, Piano Lessons and who knows what else. All I know is I have sat around long enough and its time to start taking action.

I have accomplished one thing last year, though. I have lost, in the course of about six months, twenty kilograms in weight. That’s about forty seven pounds if I’m not mistaken, and I still have about that much to go before I reach my target weight. After that I’m going to join the gym and get my strength back. Right now I am a weak sissy, and I wasn’t always like that. I was two belts away from black in karate, but I had to quit because of some knee condition.

Overall, there are lots to do this year.

On another note, I watched Bicentennial Man on TV this morning, and it is a very touching story, with very beautiful music. It takes a lot from a movie to get me teary eyed, but this one almost succeeded! Kudos to the makers and writers of Bicentennial Man for almost making me cry… Almost…

That’s all I have today, though kiddies, so check back again soon. For now, here is your Interesting Fact… The search engine Google got its name from the word ‘googol’, which refers to the number one with a hundred zeros after it.

Check you later
Gideon

A beautiful day off

2008-02-03T00:13:00.001+02:00

Man, I slept like a baby last night. I haven’t slept like that in a long time. When I woke up this morning, I felt rather refreshed and ready for the day. Overall it was a fun day. It started with a breakfast made on a gas frying pan underneath our pepper tree, progressed to lying around on my bed or in front of the TV with no regard for personal hygiene, until about mid-day and finally ended with eating a chicken pot at my uncle’s house in Wellington.

Hmm, Wellington South Africa, it must be one of the hottest places on the planet, and I’m not talking about good looks or fun hangout spots. I’m talking forty five degrees Celsius and no air conditioners! Torture! I have heard that being in Florida in the summer is even worse. Hot weather coupled with very high humidity.... Its feels like you’re drowning in the air... hot air. That can’t be fun. Luckily I haven’t experienced anything like that yet.

Overall this has been a relaxing day with minimal computer interaction, nice.
No idea what’s happening tomorrow though, or rather, later today, its 12:10 AM...

Today’s interesting fact, or rather, yesterday’s interesting fact is.... The bark of an older redwood tree is fireproof.

Till next time

Check you later
Gideon

My Oscar Blues

2008-02-01T19:47:00.001+02:00

As we broke into February, this morning, I decided it was the perfect day to see just how realistic my dream of attending an Academy Awards ceremony is, and to sum it up in short, it ain’t gonna happen!

Short of being nominated for an Oscar, there is just no way to get in. Every year the Academy has a lottery of about six thousand tickets for their members. Keyword in that sentence… members.
If you, by some miracle, get the opportunity to get tickets through the lottery, you still have to pay the face value of about $100 or so. May I remind you once again that this is only available to members of the American Academy of Arts and Science.

To become a member of this very exclusive academy is the tricky part. You can’t actually apply for membership, oh no, you have to be invited. The invitations are approved and sent out by a Board of Governors, consisting of two or three people from each department i.e. Actors, Directors, Producers, and so on and so forth.... Once again, just about impossible, so let’s try a different tact, buying a scalped ticked online or from the guy in the brown coat behind the dumpster or in that dark alley we all hear about.

Don’t let that get your hopes up though, since those tickets could fetch as much as thirty thousand dollars. Even if you have that much cash burning a hole in your pocket, it won't help much. The Academy keeps a close eye on the resale of its tickets. If you are an unknown i.e. not a celebrity, you have to have positive I.D on your person and if the name on the ticked and the name on the I.D differ, some friendly security folk will escort you off the premises.

Bottom line here, start saving for the Emmy’s or the Golden Globes. A ticket to the Emmy’s will be around $300 to $400 for the good seats.

Mark my words; Someday, I will go to the Emmy’s and the Golden Globes.

Start saving your money, I’ll....

Check you later
Gideon

P.S. Since I sometimes neglect to update the blog, I don’t always have anything to say, I will, from now on, try to, at the very least, leave you with an interesting fact to finish off the day.

Today’s interesting fact…. When you walk down a steep hill, the pressure on your knees is equal to three times your body weight.

Till next time....

January closing down...

2008-01-30T17:45:00.000+02:00

Another month is coming to an end and to sum it up, it was nothing special. A birthday here and there and I’m almost going back to university. Whoopee!

As you may well have read from previous posts, the end of 2007 and, so far, the beginning of 2008 has not been the best time in my life, but finally there seems to be hope.

I’ve been thinking about getting a job in the meantime, but I’m not really interested in over-the-counter jobs. In 2005 I had a short lived experience working for a video store and even though it wasn’t all that bad, it did have its sucktacular moments. The people were, in most cases, rather nice, but the owners and one or two of the co-workers really did not help my experience at all.

What I will remember most is the slow days. Those days were fun. After finishing my work I would sit around watching the latest movies or play a little PlayStation. Those days were fun, usually in the week.

Some of the customers really knew how to make your day, but all of this just doesn’t make up for the work conditions. Long, Long, LONG hours, Relative low pay, ungrateful bosses, co-workers with certain unmentionable traits and more just makes you tired in the end.

Anyway, that was 3 years ago.

Now we move on to February. It’s looking to be a very exciting month for my family and me. This may finally be the year that we will start seeing the world. Personally I am most looking forward to going to America. I don’t know where I’d like to go first, but something about that country makes me excited, I would love to tell you which part, but then you’d think I’m just being silly.

Speaking of America, one thing I would love to do is to learn to speak with a proper American accent. That would be cool. I know it can be done with a little hard work, just look at Charlize Theron. She is a South African like me, but she learned the American accent by watching TV. That just tell me it can be done! I can do a little bit, but it isn’t good enough just yet.

After that I still want to learn to speak French and Spanish. But leave that for another day.

Until next month, I’ll…

Check you later
Gideon

Fable 2

2008-01-12T08:40:00.000+02:00

Fable 2 is starting to look really cool. The amount of detail that goes into making a game is astonishing. I have been a fan of Lionhead Studios games for almost ten years now, and even though I am not nearly as active on the community boards anymore, I still check it out every so often.

In the past Lionhead has made the mistake of over hyping their games to a point where disappointment goes hand in hand with the new release, but with Fable 2 they are taking a different approach. Peter Molyneux has always been very outspoken about the features of his games, but sometimes the idea just didn’t work and had to be cut from the game. Examples of such features is the ability to plant an acorn and watch it grow into a tree in Fable 1, a feature that eventually did not make it into the final game.

This time, I’m happy to say, he is very tight lipped, and he only speaks of features that are already implemented into the final cut.

Lionhead Community Pet, Sam, has been making Video Diaries of the progress the development team has made on the game. It’s rather interesting and I am going to post the latest one just below, but if you haven’t seen any of them, a simple search on Youtube will most certainly help you out of your small predicament.

For now, though, you can enjoy the fourth installment of the Video Diaries. Enjoy.

Check you Later
Gideon

I’m back…

2008-01-03T11:00:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I came home from a little vacation at a friend’s beach house. It was fun, we spent new years there and I got to catch up with some old high school buddies of mine.

Now it is a new year with new possibilities. I don’t have any real new year’s resolutions, but I will continue my diet. I have lost about 20 Kilo’s, although the holiday season has taken its toll. At least I went very easy on the alcohol.

So, we went to the beach, had a braai every night, played cricked, played darts or we just hung out. It was fun.

Now its time to get back on track, start getting ready for year 3 of university and see where life takes us in 2008, which promises to be a very exciting year.

Check you later
Gideon

Woo Hoo

2007-12-18T14:53:00.000+02:00

Things did not go according to plan, so no new car yet. My sister got the chicken pox. Since I haven't had it either chances are good that I'll get it too.

Christmas isn't looking too great this year. Too much is going wrong.
Things could be worse, I guess, so....

Merry Christmas and I'll check you next year
Gideon

Nothing to report

2007-12-12T08:42:00.001+02:00

Well, still no new car, nothing else to report as a matter of fact. Life is still going strong, especially in the boredom department. I haven’t had anything new to do except watch Balls of Fury at the cinema. Its not a good movie, but it is funny at times. The kind of movie you watch when you have nothing else to do, like I did…

See this space for more interesting updates in the months to come, oh and I got slaughtered in the exams this year, nuff said…

Check you later
Gideon

My (Almost) New Car....

2007-12-05T17:14:00.000+02:00

Today I test-drove my future car, a 2003 BMW 318i Automatic. It is grey with a touch of blue and green, really good looking. It has about 63000 KM on the clock and is still under motor plan.

Wow, I really enjoyed driving in that puppy. It has the Executive package, so that means it has a couple of neat controls on the steering wheel, an armrest in the center, 6 CD shuttle in the back, Cruise Control and Park-Distance control at the rear bumper. There is only one thing that I would change if I could, the rims, they are not my first choice, but I can live with them though. That is so my car. If all goes well, it will be mine before Christmas, wee!

Wish me luck…

Check you later
Gideon

Change is Immanent

2007-11-30T21:32:00.000+02:00

And so November comes to an end, one of the quietest months I have had in a very long time. Within the next few days the Transformers movie will come out on DVD and I will race to my nearest DVD store to get it. It is just about my favorite movie of the year.

Hopefully this coming month will hold big changes, shifts in lifestyle and the opportunity to throw this PC I’m using right now out the window, literally if possible. Also next month is now the month of the Xbox for me, meaning I will do everything in my power to get a Xbox360 before the end of the year. I have been dying to play Assassins Creed, and I am really excited about Fable 2.

I think I am going to re-read the Harry Potter series. It’s been a while and I’m getting rusty on my Harry Potter Trivia knowledge. Maybe I’ll watch the movies again, I don’t know, all I know is that I need something to do. I have been playing oblivion for sixty nine hours now and I need to take a break. It has frustrated the hell out of me, because it crashes every time I go through a door. It’s maddening!

Until I get something new to do, I’ll probably just listen to my music. Until then….

Check you later
Gideon

Quiet Time

2007-11-23T19:09:00.000+02:00

I’ve been really quiet, but that just mimics what’s going on in my life right now which just so happens to not be a whole lot. I did grow a beard though.

Other than beard-growing, I’ve been sitting around at home, watching TV, going to the movies, eating out, going to friends and playing Oblivion. Not very exciting, but the funds is very low at the moment. That will change soon, though, so I’ll just be patient.

Christmas is almost upon us, this year is just about spent, which is just amazing, and on the 13th of December I’ll get my results from the exams. I am dreading that day! It’ll probably suck, no, scratch that, it WILL suck and I don’t like thinking about it, which in turn means I’m thinking about it all the time.

Phew, ok happy thoughts……. Right, I’m hoping to go oversea soon, visit America, so I really hope things work out in that department. I guess I’ll just take it one day at a time. Till then…..

Check you later
Gideon

Holiday! Wee!

2007-11-07T20:03:00.000+02:00

So I finished my exams on Monday. I think I’ll be lucky if I even pass one test. Wow, that was the toughest exam I have ever written, Crazy, anyway... that’s water under the bridge.

Yesterday I spent the whole day watching season one of Heroes on my computer. I still have four episodes to go. It is a really cool show.

I am hoping to get a new computer soon. The one I have now really sucks! I installed Oblivion this afternoon and not only did it look terrible, it lagged as well, awful, just awful.

The upside of all this is that I am finally on holiday and there is nothing that can make me happier right now! Now I have to find something else to do with all of this time I have on my hands.

I’ll keep you posted.

Check you later
Gideon

Almost Done...

2007-11-03T18:21:00.000+02:00

Wow, these last two weeks was murder, only one of the five papers I wrote was easy. I don't know, but I think that Unisa's standard has gone up.

Monday is my last paper, then I am on a three month holiday, yay!

Wish me luck.

Check you later
Gideon

Exams have come....

2007-10-22T20:18:00.000+02:00

The week of exams have come, this morning I spent an hour and a half writing a paper I hope will one day burn in hell, Financial Management. I can understand if you’re into that sort of thing, but damn! It is one seriously boring subject! Why is it usually the boring stuff that makes you rich? Doesn’t that suck? Hopefully I’ll pass and be rid of it for good.

On Wednesday I write Risk Management. I feel a bit better about that, but to be perfectly honest, this whole semester sucked big time. I wasn’t really interested in any of the subjects. At least there is only one more year before I get my degree, unless, off course, I fail something and have to add another six months to the three year total.

When all this is done, I’ll be a lot happier. I hope you have a better week than me…

Check you later
Gideon

Springboks Wins IRB 2007 World Cup!

2007-10-21T10:15:00.000+02:00

The Springboks are the Champions! Yeah! Viva Springboks!

Check you later
Gideon

Fiesta, Ariba!

2007-10-12T17:10:00.001+02:00

So far this week has been pretty quiet. Tomorrow night I have a 21st birthday party to go to. The theme is “Mexican Fiesta” and I have to dress accordingly. No idea what I’m going to do yet, but I’ll probably have to get hold of a poncho and a sombrero, maybe mustache and some boots. It could be fun.

I like Mexican food. Ours is probably not the real thing, but its close enough for me. A man can only take so much hot food before said man’s mouth disintegrates.

I have also had a strange craving for Spare Ribs lately. That and steak, hmm, weird. I’ll have to look into that sometime.

Check you later
Gideon

Monday

2007-10-08T08:53:00.000+02:00

Hey, it’s Monday. A brand new week has come.

This weekend I went to the movies. I watched Shoot ‘Em Up with my dad. One thing I can say with absolute certainty, the title of the movie is very appropriate. It’s a fun movie filled with senseless, mindless, over-the-top violence. The main character takes no nonsense from anybody. He has all these one liners and most of them are hilarious. He also has very little regard for the law. What a fun movie...

So this week I’m going to have to focus a little more on my studies. The past few weeks I have been in a certain degree of denial about the whole thing. If I don’t start now, I’ll fail, and that is something I am not willing to let happen. That means that this week is going to be pretty dull, along with the rest of the month. I’ll probably check a couple of websites in the mornings, go for a walk to try and get into shape, take a bath and study. Joy...

Yesterday I played Lionhead’s The Movies, and I managed to get a five star studio. It’s a big accomplishment for me. Not many have managed to do it. I even took two screenshots.

Now I still have to push an Actor up to five stars. That’s going to be tough.

Check you later
Gideon

The Holiday Season is upon us....

2007-10-04T13:12:00.000+02:00

Wow, this week is just flying by! This year is just shooting past like you can’t believe it. This is a good thing, because by now you will realize that I have absolutely no love for exams, so the faster time flies, the faster the exams will be over. This time of year is really stressful for me and that makes it hard for the people I live with, but I will work on that shortcoming.

So, holiday plans… Yes, we must think of the holidays, the year is flying by faster than Chuck Norris can push an Express Train, you know. If all goes well, which I really and truly hope they will, I might just be going overseas. America or Europe, anything is fine, really. All I want is a total change of scenery. I have always wanted to see the world, but this desire has been fueled to a point where I might scream if I don’t get what I want.

In the end, I believe that if it is supposed to happen it would, and if it’s not, then that really sucks.

But before then, I will have to get my act together and study for my upcoming exams. Heck, I might just get an Xbox360 in the deal. Yay…

Check you later
Gideon

The month of concentration

2007-10-02T18:28:00.000+02:00

Even though I should have been studying all day, I thought that it would be a much better idea to listen to music, get a haircut, watch scrubs and go and see a movie. Isn’t that just the most self discipline you have ever seen? I think so. Why study for a degree when I can waste time now and try to cram my head full the day before the exam. Its genius!

Seriously though, the last couple of weeks have really sucked, actually it’s been the last couple of months. Now the exams are looming and this time of year is usually the time of year I get all depressed and down right grumpy. Never interrupt me when I am concentrating, especially when I am struggling with the work, you may walk out of it without a head.

I just saw the trailer for a movie named “Shoot ‘Em Up”. I think it will be worth checking out. Action, action, action, what can top that? You tell me…

Check you later
Gideon

What makes a good writer?

2007-09-29T11:26:00.001+02:00

Is it their ability to entertain us with fancy words and plots, their ability to take us into a whole other world, or is it their ability to make us forget about our own problems and instead focus on the lives of fictional characters who live out their lives according to their author’s design?

I like to think that it is the latter. When I read a book, I want to be taken to another world, it can be fictional or it can be a different version of the world we live in now, bottom line is, I want to live through another person in other circumstances.

For that to happen, the character must be rich. It must feel like it is a real person and I must be able to relate to it. Take a normal person with a normal life and give him something abnormal to accomplish. Take, for example, Harry Potter. Harry Potter was a normal boy who lived with normal people, until he learned that he was, in fact, a wizard. I can relate to it, because I can imagine how I would react in the same situation and the moment that happens, the writer has hooked me. I believe that is the reason the books are so successful.

Another example can come from the hugely successful children’s program Hannah Montana. The show may not appeal to everybody, but it is still very successful, and I believe that is because of the relatable characters. A normal young girl with a normal life, friends and problems has a secret; she is a hugely successful and famous pop star at night. A lot of children can relate to that and they even dream about it.

When people can relate to characters they become interested in that character, and that is when you’ve got them hooked.

Off course a good story to accompany the character is essential. You need a good story, but with out believable, relatable characters, the story will fall flat.

So in a nutshell, I believe that a good writer with great writing starts with the creation of great, believable characters.

Gideon

Exams! Blah!

2007-09-27T20:02:00.001+02:00

Have exams coming up? Feeling a little depressed? Not feeling up to the challenge at the moment? Whish you were someone else like an actor with twenty movies under his belt and a hundred million bucks sitting safely in the bank?

I know EXACTLY how you feel!

I hate exams! The hate flows through me as if I have fallen to the Dark Side! I sometimes think they invented it just to torture good people into insanity.

This brings me to another topic, who are “They”?

If you ask me, “They” are the most powerful force in the universe. “They” know everything, “They” invented everything and “They” will live forever, but, more on that another time, back to the looming exams….

You are probably wondering what to do about this annoying thing “They” refer to as exams, right? Well, I’ll tell you.

Nothing, absolutely nothing! There is nothing anyone can do to stop “Them” from making us take exams. It sucks, but it’s true….

Suck it up and get to studying! If you don’t, “They’ll” make you do it over and over, again and again and again until you meet “Their” standards.

I know, I know…. that’s not what you wanted to hear. You wanted some genius way to escape “Them” and “Their” evil exams didn’t you? Weren’t you listening?! You can’t defeat “Them”! “They” are unstoppable!

Sorry, but as a fellow human being under “Their” inescapable power, all I can really say is I know exactly what you are going through so, Good Luck, God Bless and…..

Check you later
Gideon

Scrubs it be.......

2007-09-25T22:12:00.000+02:00

I got my hands on a couple of seasons of Scrubs the other day and I love it, seriously, I haven’t watched anything else the entire day. We are talking hours of staring intently at my computer screen. I can’t feel my butt and my eyes are on fire. Not much different than any other day, but a slight change from the norm at the least……

On the upside, Scrubs is hilarious! If you ever need a pick-me-up, or just a break from normal day life, I highly recommend it……

Not to my surprise, Zach Braff is a really talented guy, not just as an actor (he is the lead actor of Scrubs), but he is also a director and writer of movies such as Garden State, a few episodes of Scrubs and the upcoming film Open Hearts. Really impressive…..

Well, break is over, so........... Back to watching Scrubs!

Check you later
Gideon

Return of the Cousins

2007-09-23T20:41:00.000+02:00

A couple of weeks ago my cousins, along with the rest of the family, came to visit for my grandmother’s birthday, the party was at our house. Unfortunately for them I was in a Photoshop mood and needed some guinea pigs to create a couple of Star Wars pictures. Now, here I present them to you....

This is Gerhard

This is André (No, you’re not imagining things, that really is a deodorant can)

Striking a pose together

Starting a fight

Still fighting

It was fun to make, soon I'll try my luck on a movie, but for now this will do.

Check you later
Gideon

Waterfront

2007-09-21T15:59:00.000+02:00

This morning my family and me went to The V&A Waterfront in Cape Town for breakfast and a walk in the shopping mall. It is a very nice day in Cape Town today, The sun is shinning and it is getting warmer and warmer, summer is arriving at last. If you ever come to South Africa, be sure to visit Cape Town, it is probably one of the most beautiful parts of South Africa.

Here is two pictures of Cape Town and the V&A Waterfront.

Nice hey....

Check you later
Gideon

Now you see it! Now you don't!

2007-09-20T19:17:00.000+02:00

For some reason my blog disappeared, but its back now. Don't worry, you didn't miss a thing.

On a side note, Nothing interesting has happened today, so.....

Check you later
Gideon

Los Angeles or Nashille?

2007-09-19T16:15:00.000+02:00

The two places in the world I would like to visit more than any other would probably have to be Los Angeles and Nashville. Don’t ask me why I want to go to Nashville, because I won’t be able to answer you. I have no idea if there is even anything to see. I still want to go though; I have quite the soft spot the people with southern accents.

I will go there soon, it’s not THAT expensive, and when I get back, I’ll show lots of pictures on my blog and tell you what there is to see.

Till then, I’ll have to read up on it on Wikipedia.

Check you later
Gideon

Funny Youtube Movie

2007-09-17T17:52:00.000+02:00

I found this YouTube movie called Teenagers, using footage from Hannah Montana. The song is what makes it funny, Its Teenagers by My Chemical Romance...

Take a look.

The Simpsons Theme

2007-09-17T15:37:00.000+02:00

I find myself listening to the theme song of The Simpsons Movie over and over and over….. I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t get tired of it. It’s a catchy song!

Even when I am in class, I find myself humming it. Don’t worry though, I’ll soon get it out of my head…..

Check you later
Gideon

I Now Pronounce you....

2007-09-16T21:57:00.000+02:00

Today I went to the movies at Cavendish Square Mall in Cape Town. I watched “I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry”. It was hilarious! If that should ever happen to me in real life, it would be one of the most uncomfortable situations ever to be in! If you haven’t seen it yet be sure to check it out if you still can.

Tomorrow is back to college for another fun filled week of learning (end sarcasm)

Have a Great week

Check you later
Gideon

Weekend

2007-09-15T09:30:00.000+02:00

Yeah! Another weekend!

Man, the time is just shooting by. Its starting to worry me, has someone pushed the fast-forward button on my life?

Anyways, not much will be happening today. We only have one car, so I'm pretty much stranded here while my dad is out in Cape Town Bay sailing. Later I might meet up with my friends at the Dross (local steak house and bar) for some drinks and a chat....

What do you do on weekends?

Springboks WOW

2007-09-14T23:13:00.000+02:00

Almost all I can say is WOW. They were cooking. SA played England tonight and crushed them 36 - 0.

Amazing!

This week is going to be boring. I am going to spend most of my time Studying for the exams which are little more than a month away, while waiting for Disney to air the latest episode of a show I’m not yet comfortable letting the public know I watch. Then after i watched it, I’m going to study some more......Joy.........

Have a Great Weekend!

Gideon

Rugby World Cup 2007

2007-09-14T20:13:00.000+02:00

The World Cup has been running for about a week and so far i have watched two matches, South Africa vs. Samoa and Italy vs. Romania.

South Africa was great! .......... I know I have to say that, since I’m a South African, but they really were.

Italy and Romania on the other hand..... Wow....... What a Joke! They were playing like Grade One School Children. Throwing the ball around like a hot potato is one thing, but they were passing the ball to who ever were nearest, friend or foe.

The commentators were having so much fun; they made it fun to watch. The referee, poor guy, he was more like a coach than anything else.

I hope they get enough practice for the next World Cup since they will need it.

Tonight it’s SA vs. England, so I’m getting ready to watch that.