The Old Man's Still Got It

Congratulations.

No, not to you.

I am congratulating myself, as it is my third time doing these pathetically pointless blogs where I go on about how the past year went, hence the Final Fantasy XIII quote for the title. Perseverance points +3, don't you agree?

Anyway, last year I wrote one about 2010. The last part of the post was me just giving me six points to do over 2011. Now, I get to see if I've got them. Thanks, December 2010 me (you're welcome, December 2011 me).

If you are interested in knowing what they were, but too lazy to click on the above link and scroll down a bit (first world problems, eh?...) then here they be.

1. Do well in university. That's a given.
2. Get better at all instruments. I'll make a detailed list of what level I'd like to get at the instruments of choice.
3. Improve my Welsh. Right now, it is at a shocking level compared to my fiends in my year at school. I want to keep my ability of speaking Welsh, fact.
4. Save money. I haven't done too badly this year, I just need to do more.
5. Do better when helping out with Wicid. All I've done really is write a lot of articles and edit some of the article in the back end. Maybe I could be more involved somehow.
6. I'm not even going to bother having a 'could there be someone special in 2011' one here. Obviously there won't be anyone. Ah, forever alone. Ha.

So, let's see what's happened, eh? 

So, first off, do well in university. I think it's safe to say that I've done that. I've passed myself with as close to a 2:1 as is possible without actually getting a 2:1 and I've started well in my second year. All I've got to do is keep it up. Woop.

The next two points (improve my Welsh and instrument playing abilities) have been an utter fail. I have used the Welsh language more this year (well, more towards the end of the year, really), but I really haven't improved. All I've done is realised how terrible I am at the language.

Musically, I haven't done much. I've came up with two riffs where I have trouble writing them down due to my inability with life. But look on the bright side, I can now play the F chord on a guitar. Granted, only the top strings, so I still can't do barre chords. I am a failure to the music profession (or is it called amateurism?). So with music and the Welsh language in mind, I've been rather mute.

Money wise, I think I've done better than last year. One main point is that I've started the road of earning money. First with Tantrwm, covering an IATEFL event in Brighton, then a quick report of the Eisteddfod in Swansea for Clic (not really a job, but I got paid expenses for it, and considering I didn't spend much of it straight away, I count it) and then I got a part-time job with Promo Cymru to help out with Clic stuff. And yes, I have spent a fair few times, but I'm still in the black in all accounts. So with point four, I call that a success. Joy.

Well, with five, I'm kind of doing that already with me now working for Clic (unless the funding's not going to be there next March, which if it does I won't complain, I'd just be glad for the opportunity in the first place). I've written nearly 52 articles for Wicid alone (almost all of them my Dear World articles), and some of them being live on Clic. Win. I've also helped out with editing a few videos for Clic and will start a vlogging channel for it too (nobody'll be interested, but I'll write a plan of attach tomorrow or something). Happy days, eh?

And lastly, that point will never change. I've accepted that.

So, three out of six isn't that bad, right? But on the whole, I'll call it an above average year.

And I've just reread last year's post, and I found this...

One thing that I've just realised is that I hate Winter. Why? Because it feels like it brings shrouds of doubt and pessimism into my life. I mean, I was looking at all the fireworks displays from countries that are already in 2011, and the only thing I can think of is "we were in an economical crisis not long ago, why are they wasting money on celebrating the entrance of 2010?". 

And this brings me to another point. I need a new outlook on life. For the past few years, I've seen the world through monotonous eyes. Either it is, or it isn't. I can't really describe what my outlook on life is at this moment, bit all I can say for sure that even though I can see happiness and all that everywhere I look, all I can think of is the depression that grips this world, the hatred that fills it and the devastation that is left in it by bastards of it.

So, without me knowing (or admitting it) I had another point for 2011, to change my outlook on life.

And have I?

No. I haven't.

Though rereading that, I wouldn't say that I have pessimism filling up my life. I've started to believe that  I'm a realist. Yes, sometimes I have that thought where the fireworks are just explosions of burning bank notes that will fall and burn on the poorer classes of Britain. But, I don't think that at any point this year, I thought "life isn't worth living" or something similar.

But then again, I've never thought like that. I know that's not really pessimism, I just have no idea how to quote a stereotypical pessimist. Regardless, all I know is that I'm beginning to train myself to see things as they are. I know I complain last year about only being able to see the world through monotonous eyes, but now I think I only do that on certain things. I mean, I don't think that way with people, neither do I think that way with other situations.

I don't know how to describe it, all I know is that I'm beginning to think realistically. I don't become so egotistical and thinking that things can never be bad, while on the other hand I don't pray that things don't get worse. Basically, I know that in the current situation I'm in, things can be better and they can be worse. When you think like that, life seems different. Kind of. I think.

So yeah, I've actually wrote this up much quicker than I thought I would. And now comes to the part of the end-of-year blog post where I state a few points which I hope to do in 2012. In no order whatsoever...

1. Stay up there with my university course. Basically, I'm aiming for a first overall, but I will be content with anything from 2:1 up (or a extremely high 2:2 and up).
2. Improve my abilities with the Welsh language. This should get better due to me translating stuff, but I'm not doing too well at the moment...
3. Don't go into debt (and, if they allow it, stay as a Clic employer for as long as possible - optional).
4. Keep writing my Dear World series (though it might turn from a weekly thing to fortnightly, depending on what else I'm doing).
5. Improve my musical abilities.
6. Complete as many Final Fantasy games as possible. This isn't being serious, I just think it's sad that I've only really completed two of the games (three if you count Dissidia Duodecim) and I've got about five or six of them. It's rather sad to just not complete the games from this epic series (and write reviews for them - optional).
7. Improve your new media skills. And no, I don't mean social media, I mean with editing and design stuff.
8. Build up confidence. I don't mean this so I'd go out more and start performing Shakespeare's plays in the middle of Cardiff, but more so I'd be able to edit a video of myself without flinching over the sound of my voice or how hideous I think I look...

As with every single year, I'm not really bothered about finding "that special someone" in 2012. Not that I don't want to find someone, no. More like I'd rather just let it happen rather than me look for someone in a bar to have awkward sex with them. I'm not going to be disappointed if I don't find someone, and if I do find someone I probably won't tell anyone due to me being rather secretive. Ha.

That's it. I've actually blogged at least once every month of 2011. Do you think I can do it next year? Nah, nobody cares. Ah well, let us stand upon the epic sphere of life and roll into 2012. 

Blog to you next year.

- I hope that someone gets my message in a bottle, FIN.

Winning, Work, Wankers

That basically sums this past year.

But like last year and the year before, I'm going to be somewhat of an arsehole and write a "review" or my year on New Year's Eve. Well, unless someone suddenly goes "oh G, come over mine and we can do ze funky, ya?"

Anyroad, hello. It's been a while. And is it just me, or are nearly every article or post I write begin with a short sentence and then a longer follow-up sentence? I don't know, I think it's just proof of my inability to capture someone's attention. It is a shame.

So yeah, I've ben busy with work and university. Oh, and since I've bought it, I've played Dissidia Duodecim every day. I've clocked over 150 hours so far. I need a life. But then again, it's a Final Fantasy title

Also, I have realised that I am extremely agist when it comes to playing as a manager in the Fifa games.

Every time I have a title, I start a season with Chelsea. Every time, I sell anyone over the age of 25. I sell Drogba, Lampard, and the like, and I start buying players. Usually, I get players who are between 17 and 21, and I buy players who are between 70 and 85 overall rating. Why? Because I can. That, and I think of the situation three (in-game) years down the line. Well, that's what I think, anyway.

Anyway, I started writing this on the seventeenth of December, and now it's Boxing Day. Here is the obligatory review of Christmas.

I woke up at eight in the morning, and then went downstairs with my fellow siblings. One was overly happy that it was t'baby Jesus' birthday, the other extremely annoyed because she didn't get her way. Joy.

Anyway, we turned downstairs to give and receive gifts. But before I continue, a word from our sponsors. Wait a minute, I have no sponsors... Shit.

Off topic, but a note to the program "Most Annoying People 2011" for the BBC - you do realise that things like 3DTV, Harry Potter movies and zumba dancing is not dancing? You do realise this, yet your program is called Most Annoying People? BBC, I am disappoint.

Also, why must the media revel in disappointment and embarrassment instead of celebration and achievement? Where's the "Best Things of 2011" show? Where's the feature about the happy things of the year? Nowhere. Fuck you BBC, and all that you stand for when it comes to producing television programs.

Anyway, this year was just as the last and will be next year. Basically, two of my sisters gave me clothes while one sister and my mother presented me with technological gifts. Shame nobody got me Final Fantasy Tactics: War Of The Lions or any gift cards for PSN to allow me to get a Final Fantasy title on my PSP, but it doesn't matter, really.

After doing other stuff, like going up my sister's house to see my nephew and all that, I was home for three hours in my room, most of which I slept because I was up until three the previous night (because sleep is one bodily function that I will despise all my life). Then, I was told that we wouldn't have Christmas dinner, so we just had a form of curry. Lovely.

Anyway, I can't think of anything else of worth to say, apart from that I honestly cannot wait for Final Fantasy XIII-2. Oh, and Type-0, which I really hope comes with an English dub soon to the PSP. Come on, Squeenix, you know you love us fans, yeah? Hehe.

Talking about gaming, am I the only person who thinks that the Uncharted series is extremely overrated? To me, it just looks really boring gameplay-wise, and the graphics aren't that good either. The only saving point that it has is the lighting's rather good, but nothing more.

Also, I finally watched a scene from Big Bang Theory, and I just find it... I don't know... It just seems rather boring and forced. Nothing's organic in it. Maybe I over-think stuff. Maybe I secretly hate every US program. Meh.

So, with that unpopular opinion, I shall end this post. Au revoir, boo.

- Now give us some FINny pudding...

Something To Do With That Thing

Guess what?

No, but close enough.

This week (as in the 27th of October (roughly the first year anniversary of the inception of my Dear World articles.

What, no fanfare? No half naked people walking around with pheasants dancing on their shoulders? Ah well, maybe next year, yeah?

But, it's true. On (roughly) the twenty seventh of October last year, I wrote my first Dear World on Guitar Hero. Since then, I've written over forty articles in the series, ranging form to topical to the idiotic.

Now, enough with that. Some news.

If you haven't guessed, this post has been resting in the basket of draftness since the last few days of October. Why? I really couldn't be arsed to write something.

First of all, I had a mini fuck-up. That is all.

Second of all, I got a job. And it's part time with Clic. I highly consider that a win. That said, I'm rather unsure of what my role will be. I don't mind, though. Work's work, and I'm liking it so far. Hopefully I'll do good.

Third off, I had a test in setting up a camera for audio and got full marks. I know, I'm a God at this sort of thing.

Lastly,  I've discovered that I have a thing for asymmetry. Well, when it comes to women's hair. No idea why though. Ah well.

And to catch up on all the latest news, here are some stock replies. Use them however you wish.

- "Whoa, didn't think that would happen".
- "So that's what they mean by steaming an ostrich..."
- "Why is this news?"
- "It's political correctness gone mad"
- "I know, right?"

So yeah. g'bye.

- "What's wrong, Timmy?" "Nuffin..." "Sorry darling, I can't hear you..." "I said NIFFIN. Gaaaaad." (Yeah, I really need to improve on these outros...)

I Wrote This While A Film Was On

Most interesting blog title ever, don't you agree?

Okay then, couple of things.

First off, university.

Next week will be the fourth week or something of my second year, and it's going swimmingly (if, that is,  my course was of the aquatic nature). This year is more towards video and sound than it is to imagery and the like, but that's a good thing.

Sound Tech has just made me want to buy the Sony Z5. But since it's about four grand, maybe I'll order one when I'm rich, which would be in about ninety years. Virtual Environments and Computer Graphics are both crackingly good. After Effects is my type of programme, even if I am utterly wank at it. Luckily, the amount of shit lecturers have gone down to only one, so that's good.

In other university news, I have bitten the bullet and bought a Canon EOS 600D to aid my creations. No more, will I need to book a HandyCam camera from the loans department and I'll have a decent stills camera that will last me a long time (or until I think I need and have the funds for a better camera). Should have it next week, so all ready for any filming needed. Win.

Secondly, gaming.

I think I have a slight obsession with the Final Fantasy franchise. Does it matter? No. Some people love the Harry Potter books (and the movies), others are crazy for the Lord of the Rings and shit like that (and by shit, I'm not calling the Lord of the Rings shit). So yeah, I'm in possession of a Final Fantasy fascination. Ha.

But that doesn't really warrant a section on its own, doesn't it. It'll be like me writing a whole article about how I despise gossip and everything it stands for (oh shi-).

But yeah, for the past few months now, I haven't played a game other than a Final Fantasy title. It's kind of annoying me a bit since I have two games - InFamous and The Third Birthday, if you wanted to know - that I haven't played yet at all. Well, I pressed the start button on InFamous and then I had to get off straight away since I had to be somewhere for some reason on some occasion. Fuck.

But yeah, ever since Final Fantasy X was announced to be remade (or at least tweaked to be at a HD level) and the trailers for XIII-2 and Type-0 (please let there be an English release of that game...) have just made me want to play more of the series. Fuck.

So yeah, a really interesting section of my life there. Moving on.

Third part, I think I've watched too many vlogs on YouTube. Can you tell?

Fourthly, is it just me or does the new iOS 5 slow everything down on the third generation of the iPod Touch? Is it just me? Possibly. Is it that much of a noticeable difference that it warrants a mention on my blog? Fuck no, I just have nothing else to talk about.

Look at me, thinking I'm talking to you when all I'm doing is writing inane bull on a blog. What luxuries we have in this world..

And lastly, I'm done.

See you, dudes.

- FIN me like like one of your French girls.

Blinded by Light

Before I start, I should admit that this will be a Final Fantasy heavy post. But not all of it will. Maybe.

First of all, an update on me. I am still alive, as you can tell by this post. I've just been abducted by the purchase of a PSP and the Clic residential in Welshpool. I'll link you up once the article is up on Wicid/Clic.

About the PSP thing. One of the only reasons for me buying Sony's portable system is to play the older Final Fantasy games. I've only played the newer ones. Well, that's a lie, I've played the first half an hour of VIII, but it bored me to death, though these days I'm willing to give it another chance. But yeah, so far I've only played X, XII and XIII, and ever since I played X I've wanted to play them all. And expensive task, but one helped by the fact that I don't spend much anyway. Win.

Anyway, I have a problem with something, and that is mainly with the fan base of FF games. No, I don't mean the whole "my fuck, VII should get a remake and not X" and all that shit, but the VII fans need to realise that it will virtually mean creating a new game from scratch, not just tidying up the bugs and the graphics ready for the HD age. It'll probably take Square Enix under a year to do that (give or take six months), while a remake of VII will take ages. Just look at how long Versus XIII has taken, and that's not a remake.

But it's not that, it's the "shippers". At first, I have no idea what "ship" means (and I have no shame in admitting that I only found out a few months ago), other than the boat type ones. I looked into it, and I realised it means when someone pairs two characters up.

I understand why they'd pair up some characters (like in X, if someone paired up Wakka and Lulu I'd somewhat understand, considering in X-2 they were married and waiting to have a child), but not any character whatsoever.

A perfect example is in XIII, and two characters in particular - Lightning and Hope.

To those who don't know the story (and I'm going to power phrase this part, and there might be spoilers if that effects you somehow), those two characters (as well as the other playable characters in the game) are hiding from the army as they are considered fugitives. Lightning, being an ex-soldier, tells those around her that they need to press on, so she does. Hope, who is somewhat in despair due to seeing his mother die in the events leading to the party to be fugitives, wants to get stronger for his future plans, thus he heads off in Lightning's direction and meets up with her.

At first, their relationship was more civilian and soldier, with Lightning just destroying everything in site while Hope throws down some magic support. But a few chapters in, and Hope's plans didn't go to plan, and from there you can see that the relationship between Light and Hope changing, but only in a sibling manner. I mean, some people may see everything between Light and Hope in the cutscenes and think "that's proof that they are meant to be". No it doesn't. That's like saying every time someone punches Snow, that means they want to bonk his hat off.

Personally, there is nothing between Hope and Light, nothing sexual anyway. I mean, if someone actually plays the game they'd see that. At most, Light (and to an extent, Fang) is more like a mother figure to Hope than a lover. I mean, look at the scene where Hope unexpectedly summons Alexander for the first time. Who goes to his defense? Fang and Light, but not in the "we've got to save the penis, for he'll create our babies" way. They are giving him advice and confidence while preparing to fight the eidolin, not to mention that nearly everyone treats Hope differently due to his age and his situation prior to the third chapter.

Also, it makes no sense that people link Sazh and Vanille together. It seems that when people partner characters up outside of the game, they just see any time where they are together in game, and that's the case with Light-Hope and Sazh-Vanille. Those two pairings are together for the most of the game. Why? Because that's how they split up during the game, and that's no reason to partner them up sexually.

On another note, FFXIII-2 is coming soon, and I have three problems (well, one of them is if SE decide to do it that way). The first one, is Serah's costume.

I mean, look at them. Her in XIII is on the left and the right is her possibly in XIII-2.

I don't know why, but I don't really understand why they could have just modded the XIII costume up a bit. Granted, it's not a brilliantly designed costume. Personally, I'd have made the skirt slightly longer and make Serah herself slightly taller (because in the scenes with her and Snow, it makes Snow look like a pedophile). But the things that annoy me about the new costume (and animations) is that for starters, she has a choker-type thing on her neck. It just looks awful. And the way she holds her weapon (when it is in sword form), it is horrible. It's next to identical as how Cloud held his sword in VII, which is horrible too.

And while I'm on the subject, I understand why they chose the roles they did for Serah (as they are the same roles as Lightning, her sister), but I can't understand why Serah's main role is a commando. Why couldn't they spiced things up a bit by making her a saboteur or synergist? Would have made things interesting in a party with a commando already (the new guy, Noel).

And now I'm on the subject of designs, I'm going to talk about Yuna from X, and how awful I thought her design was in X-2 (and this is the same problem I have with Hope in XIII and XIII-2).

Right, same thing again. Here's Yuna in X and X-2. Her in X-2 is the more revealing one.

Now, before anyone goes on me on ranting about the clothes, I'm not. Well, I am but not as much as I will be doing where her face is concerned.

I mean, look at the left one. Now look at the right one. Now, do the same, but this time concentrate on their faces. They are supposed to be the same person (albeit with two years difference), but they look nothing alike. Yuna's face in X is more rounded than in X-2, which is much more pointier and longer in general. Surely that wouldn't happen in real life? Nobody that I've known long enough has had their face change that much. And I don't understand why they had to "slut her up". Yes, I understand there was a change between the world she lived in between X and X-2, and the attitudes of her world had changed considerably, but surely faces stay the same?

And the fact that SE made X-2 for a sequel to X makes me worry about the story for XIII-2. At the end of X, Yuna basically loses someone she loves/feels very much for (depending on the region you play), while all that seemed to be washed away as she (in one of the endings) gets her man at the end of X-2, that makes me think that SE were thinking "give the fans what they want", and at the same time basically shitting on one of the best endings I've ever witnessed in a game.

I fear that SE will bow down to the fans again, and make Lightning and Hope a couple. Please, if you're reading this Square Enix, please don't let that happen. If there is a legitimate reason or way that they somehow fall in love or something, then that's fine. But not for them to just see each other after three years and then decide that they want each other. Oh, and while you're reading this, SE, bring back Fang and Vanille. But only in a legitimate way. Thanks.

Right, that's me done on Final Fantasy for now. And if you've read all that, bravo.

In personal news, I have an EEG examination this Monday to see if there's a chance that I have epilepsy. I'll get the results during October. That should be fun.

I also begin university for the second time this week coming. I have my induction on the Thursday coming. I think that's the twenty-third or something. I don't know. Anyway, this year I shall be learning about green screen stuff and maybe some mobile technology. Win all around.

So yeah. That is it. And I know my ranting is annoying and that, but yeah, it's just what I think.

Oh, and the title to this blog is the title of the battle music of Final Fantasy XIII. It's brilliant. Have an ear-gander here. It's the long version. Win...

Fucking gorgeous, that.

- Can't think of anything witty, so I'll end this with a FIN.

Redesigning Clic

I've been off from studying for roughly four months now, due to me not needing to do exams during my introductory year in university. It has only been in the past four days that I have actually used the techniques that I've learned during the year of learning.

I looked at the Clic homepage, along with a few other websites that I cannot remember the names of, and I came up with a new front page idea for Clic. And before I start, I don't think it's better than what Clic has currently, it's just an idea that holds more ideas. If that makes sense, free e-cookie to you.

There were a few ideas that I had in my mind when I came up with this design. The first thing was to try and use the Clic Network bar (which is at the top of every website in the Clic network) in a way that doesn't hide it once the reader scrolls down the page. More on this later.

Anyroad, if you've clicked on the link above to Clic, you'll see the current homepage. the images for the articles are above the article name. What I found, though I might be the only one to be like this, is that when looking at the homepage, I view the image first and the the title of the article. I have no idea why I do this, I just do. As the title is more important to the image of the article, I thought what if we merged the two? So that's what I've done. For the featured articles, the text is only overlaying the lower half of the image, while for the two next to the Flash area (the place that says "Welcome to Clic"), it is completely overlaying about half of the image. I also got rid of the information as to where the author of the article comes from and the time the article was published, though these'll still be seen on the article itself (well, in my mind only the published time will be, the information on the user will be on the user profile).

I also changed the social media icons to be the Clic icon with the social network design within them. These can be seen on the very top of the design and the What's being said on Clic area, which I've now merged the Twitter feed and the commenting on the site into one feed, as I thought it would be better to have one feed instead of two.

Another thing I changed was the links at the top of the design. In the original, they are in eight boxes of sorts. Personally, I prefer the way that the links look on the Wicid homepage, in a straight line and not having a holding box. That's why in this design, I've done is so then the links are in one line, though having the same holding box. Is holding box the right term for it? Who knows.

Obviously, I've kept the same theme as the original. That was done by someone at Burning Red, I believe. So a da iawn to them for a good theme design.

So yeah, without a do of a further, here's the design that I've done.

If this isn't that good in the terms in visibility, then click the image to make it biggerer.

As you can see from it, the Network bar at the top of the website has been replaced with a button thing that hugs the left side of the screen, and the idea is that every time you scroll up or down, it will follow you. This will be the main place to log in, sign up to the site and to go around the Clic network, but instead of a drop down menu, there will be the full map of Wales visible the moment you click on the button.

If someone is logged in to the site, the username of the user will replace the words "log in or sign up". The new function of this sidebar thing when it is clicked is not just so they can go around the Clic network, but an easier place to upload articles/events, edit their information and the like.

I also had an idea to expand the "My Clic" thing that is currently available. So far, all that's there is the ability to add content to be moderated, change your information and to send a support ticket if there is a problem with the workings of the site. I had an idea that this could be a living hub for the user, and add the ability for users to favourite an article/information page, in the originally thought out process that I'll call "Clic'd".

The idea I have is this. On the top of nearly every article or page on Clic, there are options to share it with your friends or followers on Facebook and Twitter respectively, though (for the time being, at least), there is no option to favourite the page on Clic itself. Hence the name "Clic'd". If someone likes an article, and wants to return to it or just to show others that they liked the article in question, they could click the "Clic'd" button and a link to said article will be added to the user's "My Clic" area. And, as well as the amount of people who liked or tweeted the article, there'd be a new icon on the top of the article stating how many users had "Clic'd" the article. Aren't I inventive?

So yeah. for the past four or five days (well, on and off), I've redesigned Clic (sort of). Not because I think I can do better than the original design (far from it), but because I needed to do something in between playing endless hours of Final Fantasy XIII and sleeping. My, how my life has improved these past few years...

So yeah, please let me know what you think of the design. All comments will be taken on board, even if it is "man, this is worse than [insert something horribly bad and rubbish here]". I'd rather know than not. Also, let me know what you think of my ideas. I want to know if these are actually interesting ideas or just inane rubbish that flows in between the satellites of mine called ears.

Well, see ya.

- Your FIN ends here. And your meaningless existence with it (yeah, I really love that battle in Final Fantasy X...).

Sunburst

Wel siwmae, hên frind. How's it hanging?

Well, that's the first tine in an age that I've used Welsh in a blog. Or in anything in general.

If you have not guessed by my activity on Twitter or Tumblr, I am better from chicken pox. Huzzah for recovery from ailments.

At this moment in time, I am currently writing a Dear World for Wicid which, hoping that it'll go to plan, will be published tomorrow. And if not tomorrow, I shall ask what the problem is on Tuesday as I shall be attending an accreditation workshop in Miskin run by Clic, I believe.

Anyway, it seems when I am stuck on a piece of writing (be that work for university, a blog post, an article for Wicid), I turn to YouTube in my hour of writer's block. For what? Well, to see endless videos of comedy, that's what.

How does it help? It doesn't. It hinders more than anything. It just makes me go "mehehehe, I want to watch more" and all that jazz. And then the hours sail past, it's five in the morning and I need to sleep before the sleep owls scratch my eyes to the endless slumber.

Anyway, this is just a thing for me to spur myself to write more of my Dear World. For some unknown reason, the last Dear World I wrote went up a week and a half late. They had nothing to say about it, but all I knew is that it was up when I queried it.

So yeah, that's it really. Nothing exciting happening in my life. Apart from me reliving  Final Fantasy X again from the beginning. Probably the best game that I've ever played on a PS2, possibly ever.

Not only that, I'm having the temptation to play its sequel, Final Fantasy X-2. I know that the story is extremely cheesy and there's a lot of "girly"parts in it (not being sexist when saying that), but the look of the gameplay (the battles, more than anything) is beginning to interest me. Hmm. Maybe I'll just wait until FFXIII-2 comes out. That should be a laugh. and don't get me started on how epic Versus XIII looks. Thank fuck I bought a PS3. Ha.

Yeah, I'm done, ya?

- All we here is, radio FIN FIN.

A Pox On You

There has been a few things going on since the last post.

For reasons only known to me, my laptop and the hideous graphics that the BBC decided to use for the T In The Park festival (seriously, if that was the best idea, you need to sack that person), I shall do it in the good ol' format - the good, the bad and the ugly.

First off, the good. It is rather a lovely good piece of news. To cut a long story short, I've passed my first year of university. Those many few already know my surprise to this knowledge. Allow me to expand.

For some reason, Glamorgan University doesn't tell you how you've done for the year, just for the assignments and the mean marks for each module. For my university (and I guess every other one, though correct me if I'm wrong), I'd need over seventy for a first, between sixty and sixty nine for a two-one, fifty and fifty nine for a two-two and then anything higher than forty for a third (the basic pass). Anything lower than forty would mean I'd failed the assignment/module.

Luckily, that was not the case. Overall in each modules, I had one third (Video Production), one two-two (Radio Production), three two-ones (Media Technology For Applications 1, Internet Technologies 1 and Computer Graphics Technologies for Integration 1) and, the one that shocked me the biggest, one first (Electronics for Music and Media). As you can see, the subjects that I like the most are the ones I was best at. Well, that and the two modules where I had group assignments were my worst. Grr.

Granted, these are probably not the final grades for the year. Maybe they'd chance slightly, but probably not enough to change the grade (though some of the marks are close to the threshold). Anyway, I was intrigued to see what was the overall mark I was given for the year. So, I did what naturally came to me at first but then deteriorated as the years eroded its abilities and used my maths skills. And what was the value I got? I shall tell you, it was 59.5.

That's a two-two. I should call it a 2:2, which I shall now. But yeah, that's half a mark away from a 2:2. Get in.

I was further intrigued, and wanted more accuracy in my results. I then added up the marks from all assignments individually and divided by the amount of assignments (which, for the few of the few who are interested, is twenty). And what did I get for that? 59.55.

Ooh, only 0.45 marks away from a 2:1. Yes, a low 2:1, but one all the same.

I'm not miffed that I didn't get that fraction of a mark to get a 2:1, I'm just pleased that I've passed my first year and rather decently. Maybe if I was bossy enough and told my groups in the Production modules to wise up and finish the work, I would've had the 2:1, but you know me, I'm no good at that.

Next up, the bad. Not going to dwell on this too much, though. The people at Wicid decided to give the members of the editorial team a charter to fill out. In short, it stated that if we signed it, we'd agree to not write anything that could be considered pornographic, sexually explicit, abusive and political. Please say you looked bizarrely at this idiotic blog as you read that last sentence.

Anyway, some of us disagreed and are now trying to make a new charter that will mean that the council would not block us out all the freaking time. Oh, and to let us write about whatever we want, be that on whatever subject matter the user wants.

To finish off, the ugly. It's me. I have chicken pox. At this time, I've been plagued with it for about six days now. The first day (Saturday, I think it was) was just me being bed bound. I couldn't get up at all. For all of that day, I think I was only conscious for about eight or nine hours. Not good.

The next day was when the spots came out. The doctor told us just to take Beechams and that will be fine. That was wrong. On Wednesday morning, going on for about three I'd say, I was heading back to the hospital. I had an epic fever, though by the time I got to the hospital to see le docteur, that had gone. Throughout, he told us tales of when he had chicken pox at the grand old age of thirty one, and he knows how bad it can get in adults (me, adults... ha). For that, he instantly gave me antivirals for the virus, and some stuff for the fever. Hopefully I should get better in a week or two. Enough of that.

I'm off now. For the moment, ya?

- I pity the FIN.

Spend It Like The Last Day Of Spring

Oh, hello there sport.

Before I begin, may I ask a question? Do you fancy watching this video for me? Thanks.



Should really introduce it and whatnot. Ah well.

This is the second video written by Sam Patterson for The first one was scripted, but more like a monologue. This new one's more dialogue-driven and full of characters, half dead and alive alike.

Let me know what you think of all aspects of the video. T'was a bugger to edit due to my lack of ability with editing. Grr.

In related news, I need a camcorder. I've decided that I'll need one for a few things. One being for my course. this year, I'll be doing some green screening and a few more videos for projects, so I guess it'll be easier to get a decent one and use that all the time than to book one out all the time and worry about getting it back before the due times.

The second is Clic related. We used the camcorders from Promo Cymru (the guys who run Clic and theSprout), so getting my own one will make it easier in the sense that I won't need to go to to their offices to loan a camera out from them. That, and I could do some videoing for Wicid. Y'know, stuff.

Adding to that, why couldn't they just put me on a contract. Not a paid one, but one saying that I promise not to share any login details with anyone or that I wouldn't bring Wicid's reputation down. But that would be too logical for RCT, wouldn't it? Hmm.


That said, my username on the Clic network still has "Sub-Editor" in the name. Maybe they're too lazy to change that, hmm?

I should go, before I start ranting...

Though, before I go, Glastonbury's on. There's a band called Two Door Cinema Club on. I'm no judge of music, but by fuck they are crap...

Oh, and the blog title. I have no idea why I called it that. Ah well.

- FIN, FIN, FIN. Another one bites the dust.

Encore

I have a weird way of beginning blog posts.

Usually, it's me spending about half an hour thinking of an interesting title, and as you can see, I failed. Apologies.

First things first. And for the first time in a while, I'm going to talk about football. But, unlike many of my fellow penis-wielding humanoids, I am about to discuss one thing - their kits.

No, not dicks. Kits.

Whoa, that was a fail joke.

Anyway, for those who are still reading this after the word "Encore", Liverpool have released their design for their third kit. There have been a few die hard fans of Liverpool have been complaining about it.

Why?

Well, take a look...

Liverpool's third kit for the 11/12 season.

Oh, by all that's Scouse, there's blue in the shirt.

And I shall begin my opinions on the kit after I have quoted one man, who has been a rock to those who has seen him...

Oh nooooooo.

And yes, that is supposed to be a Family Guy quote. How modern of me

What is the reasonings behind the Reds defiance of the new kit? It has blue on it, and blue is the colour of their rivals, Everton.

Can I just start off by saying, you don't have to be a genius to see that this is cyan, and Everton is mainly a darkish blue colour. If anything, this looks more like a Manchester City kit than something that looks Everton-like. What fools.

Also, I read a comment where someone said "bin the shirt and the designer". My instant thought was, why?. Personally, I think that the shirt is rather nice design wise. Compared to other third kits, it trumps the Chelsea third kit, with its green-with-a-blue-stripe combo. Talk about feeling sick in your mouth...

Anyway, I needed to vent that out. I find it idiotic of people complaining of colours of their choice of football teams their support. Does it really matter in the end? Granted, I'd find it odd if Chelsea began to wear red as their away kit, but it would be so much better than the travesty of a design they have for the upcoming season.

Look at me, pretending that I know about design. And football. Oh, how I have many faces in this world.

In other news, I've began playing Final Fantasy XIII again. It's one of the only games I've played where I've liked it more the more I play it. The others were Final Fantasy X, Devil May Cry 3 and the third Ratchet and Clank game. They are epic games, to be fair.

And that, my possible yet improbable reader, is the end for this post. For the moment, boyo.

- I'm nobody's FIN.

Want You Gone

Oh, hello there, squire. How goes it?

Oh, that's nice.

Well, that seems to wrap everything up pretty nicely. See you in the next blog.

I'm kidding. Oh, how I fooled you. I fooled you rather splendidly, didn't I? Well, unless you've looked at the amount of text in this post before actually reading the wall of text, meaning you already knew I was joking... Ah well, worth a try, eh?

Anyway, I somewhat apologise for the lack of content on this here blog. I've either have been busy, or just couldn't think of anything of worth to waste your precious moments that are universally known as time.

This is really an update of my life. And, as I haven't done any updating of my life (other than how my jokes and humour has gone from terribly to close to apocalyptically bad), I shall start...... now.

First off, I now own a PS3. I've probably told you already, but I thought I'd remind you. And no, not for bragging purposes. I just fancied one, so I got one. Then again, I bought it the moment some blasted hacker decided to attack Sony's gaming network. Curse you, unnamed person or group.

Since then, I've been really tempted to write game reviews. Maybe if Wicid or Clic someday get a contact who'll let people in the editorial team to do game reviews on new releases, I might do that. Then again, I've only got two "new" games - LA Noire and Portal 2. Both are very good titles, it must be said. And I feel odd reviewing old games. Ah, I might review them games, as practice. I'll be rubbish at it, mind. Ah well, worth a go, eh?

What else... er... oh, I attended the Eisteddfod this year. In Swansea, so it goes. Fancy reading about it? How about having a gander in my latest Dear World article? Oh, I'm a master of linking things together, aren't I? No? Ah well.

Oh, that reminds me. You know that post I did a while ago, about my Dear World on Insults had been taken down due to there being swearing on it (even if there was a note on the top of the article saying that there was swearing In the article)? Well, it's up. And you know what the best thing about it is? It went straight away up onto Clic. Fuck yeah. I'm rather surprised that the one after that, about Politics, didn't have the same problems due to it being of the political persuasion.

I have also filmed some stuff with Sormer007 for a new project. And yes, I did use his Clic username. Read his stuff. S'good shit, there. But yeah, hopefully there'll be more videos in the future. Yeah...

I honestly can't think of any other subject matters to discuss. If I do, I'll post a new post.

For the moment, dude.

- I used to want you dead but now I only want you FIN.

Rap It Up

It's quarter past one in the twentieth morning of May in 2011. I should be asleep.

I was asleep. Well, I thought I was.

Then, I freaked out. For no apparent reason.

And yes, it's about fucking death again. I really hate my fucking brain.

According to some Americans or someone else, the Rapture'll come on Saturday. Apparently, it'll definitely come due to some calculations and all that jazz. And before I continue, I don't believe it'll happen.

But, it's brought everything back. Everything I tried to fight against for the past four or so years.

I don't know why, but all this talk about the Rapture's freaking me out.

You should know me by now if you've read some of my blogs and articles on Wicid, I'm no religious person. The logical side of my head is thinking "this is utter bullshit" and "how can anyone believe this?"

The other side? One word - FUCK.

For the past half an hour, I've just laid in bed, staring at the walls and my doom, be that in two days or four decades.

But, you know what? The one of the things that's bugging me about this? Is just that. Why am I worried? Why is a part of me thinking that this is true? I know, I look like a complete gullible fuck here. I also know by writing this, that I'm potentially showing everyone a weakness that someone in the near future will exploit. I don't give a fuck. I need to write this down, for future purposes.

The other thing is, why are there people on this planet blatantly searching for the date of the world's end? Why are there some religious people who actively seek out that date, go on the streets and share this prediction with the world? Do they know what they could be doing to the population of the planet?

Yes, I know the most of them are just thinking "well, might as well max out my credit card then". I know the reason why they're chanting "Judgement Day is upon us" and all that is because they are trying to convert people to their religion through fear, but there could be so many bad repercussions from this. I won't go into detail with it, as it's kind of obvious.

I just don't understand why people revel in the end, y'know? Makes no sense to me whatsoever.

I'll leave you now. I've given you enough ammunition to judge me for at least a year.

- FINIFINIFINIFINIFIN.

Electrified Weight

Yes, by the rather idiotic and stupid name of this blog post, I am going to talk about Brighton (Brighton... Bright Tun... get it?).

During mid April, I was asked by Tantrwm to accompany them to Brighton for six days. Why? It was to help them cover the 45th annual IATEFL conference. Or the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language.

As you can guess by the long title, it is an association of teachers from around the world to aid their students to learn the English language as their second language. The conference consisted of many a talk, five plenaries and some interviews. Tantrwm was asked to stream the plenaries and the interviews live onto the internet while recording the variety of talks to place on their website at a later date.

I was picked up by Chainey at nine-ish in the morning. Three and a half hours later, we arrived at the Brighton Centre. The first thing I did? Helped unpack the van and then begin to build the studio with the rest of the team. Well, the majority of the team, as three of them (one of who was Craig, Editor man of Wicid) was still on the road, and ended up in Brighton in the nighttime.

At the end of day one, this is what the studio looked like...

The next day was really another build day, with just adding the final touches to the studio - adding screens, placing the furniture and laying out the cameras. It was only on the third day where I actually did proper work. Well, all I did really was carry cables and stands around and at the same time write on and take the tapes down to the studio to keep copies of the talks. Did that for three days or so. Wasn't that hard. Just made me wish I was both stronger and taller. Ha.

The nights were alright too. I gained the nickname "Waterboy" due to my water drinking. It's better than being called impotent or piss head. But yeah, all the Tantrwm and the British Council guys were pretty funky. I just hope I did good for them and not look like an idiot like at the first plenary (basically, I walked into a camera stand and a boom microphone). Ha.

But yeah, it was a good experience. First time I stayed somewhere outside Wales for a few days. It was also the first time I had a Japanese and a Mexican. Food now, not women.

So yeah, nothing gobsmack worthy to state. Apologies for the lateness on this post. Ah well. I may actually write a Dear World this week to compensate for the Insults one not being up for about three weeks... Ah well...

- FIN me up inside.

Fuck This Shit

Yes, this is about swearing.

If you didn't know, my recent Dear World article is about insults. In the article, I talk about how insults have become lazy and short like "motherfucker" and "penishead". I also urge the youth of Wales (well, RCT) to marvel at wonderful insults that are thoughtful and bamboozling at the same time. Well, I think I did anyway.

In this article, I do swear, though I don't write a fucking fuck after every fucking word. At first, the article went up fine. Then, I had a call, saying that the council wanted to edit it so the swearing won't be obvious (so, instead of twat, it would be tw*t). For some reason, they are still unhappy.

They now want to blank out all the swearing in the article, meaning that a rather light swearword like shag (for example) could be misunderstood for a fuck or a cunt.

Because of this reason, I asked if they can just have the first letter of it (so it would be t--- instead of twat), but apparently they are still unhappy with this.

So, for a website that is supposed to be giving the young people a voice, it has pretty much failed due to some rather stupid council people being unhappy that I've said the word "twat" and "wanker".

I'm sorry, but I've sworn in an article a few times before (and the majority of them in a Dear World article). So, why are they censoring it now?

Also, I don't understand why they are censoring it. If their train of thought is that the younger end of the Clic age group (say, eleven to fourteen) are going to go on a swearing frenzy just because I used the word wanker in an article. I write how I talk, and I usually talk to an eleven year old the same as I would a twenty five year old. I don't see how I should shelter, if you will, the younger generation by censoring my writing (well, anyone's writing on Wicid and all the Clic sites).

It's not like they don't know about swearing, right? I mean, people in the same year as me were swearing during the late years of primary school. What age is that? About nine, ten, eleven? They know all about these words these days. I don't think that, on a website that gives a voice for young people in Wales, that anyone should cover their arse by not saying arse. Yet, ass would probably be acceptable. Fucking Americanisms...

I apologise to you, my possible and improbable readers, as I'm ranting to you about the council's doing. I really don't care if they know that I've written this. Fuck, I won't even deny doing so. It makes no sense.

For my last part of annoyance, I'll wish you would click on this link. It is the swearing section of the Wicid (and Clic) style guide. If you cannot be arsed to click on a like, here is what it says.

Gratuitous swearing cannot be allowed on the websites due to the age range of our readers (11-25). If you feel you absolutely have to swear, please keep it light and ensure it is in context with your article, although we can’t guarantee its inclusion.

I understand completely why this is in the style guide. As the age group is eleven to twenty five, we must make aware that our content is between these ages. But, to my defense, I do believe in all of my being that my swearing is well within the context of the article. I'll stick it up on my Dear World blog for you to read. I was going to write one on swearing, though I guess that's out of the question.

Anyway, I honestly believe that I needed to swear in the article. For one, it was a form of quoting. Second of all, it was a reference to the quote and lastly it was an example of other swear words.

I only used three swearwords - twat, wanker and prick. I didn't type something racist, nor did I use something that is derogatory of women. It's three swearwords, and all in context.

Why? RCTCBC, why?

- Fuck the motherfucker. Fuck the motherfucker. Fuck the motherfucker. He's a fucking motherfucker. Fuck the motherfucker. Fuck the motherfucker. Fuck the motherfucking FIN.

Film Me In

I apologise that my blogging has been rather rubbish of late, I have been rather busy doing some stuff.

Anyway, it's done.

Finished.

I have completed my first year of university... kind of.

My lectures have finished formally. No more this year do I have to go to university and endure hours of lectures with people who seem uninterested in the subject matter in hand. Don't get me wrong, the lecturers were decent enough, it just seemed that only a handful of the students in the course want to learn, the others just seem to be interested in getting pissed or thinking that getting into university is enough. Ah well, don't have to worry about them for another few months.

Saying that I'm off from university, I have six assignments due in by May sometime - one for each module. Yes, I have to resit one assignment for Video Production. Yes, it was the group assignment. I knew we didn't finish the video, but the rest of the group thought otherwise. Ah well, can't change that now, can we?

In other news, I've received my second first in an assignment. Guess what for? Yes, for Electronics, again. Fuck yeah. And the next assignment for Electronics involve logic gates, something I learned about in GCSE Electronics. This is going to be interesting.

So yes, I have six assignments due in on May, then I'm free for the rest of the educational year. Though, during next week, I shall be heading Brighton for a video conference thing with Tantrwm, the guys who help run Wicid. Apparently, I'll be helping out with cameras and all that, maybe some editing (but probably nothing major). Should be fun, should be interesting.

Interesting thing to note to the fans of facts, this will be the first time I'll be sleeping somewhere outside of Wales that I can remember. Yes, I've been to France when I was younger, but that was when I was three, four.

Anyway, I shall leave you now. I have a pain in my leg. E-cookies to the first one to guess what leg.

- Fuck me, I've FIN'd university for the year...

The Ghost That Wasn't

I survived.

Indeed, the first Wicid residential has been completed.

As I can tell by your good looks and your beautiful eyes that you read anything that compliments you. So, allow me to elaborate.

It was Friday. It was sunny, and I missed university because I gave in the assignment a day earlier than needed. You did not need to know that. Moving on.

We had our mission, to do some stuff for Wicid. Allocated time? A weekend (that's two days, fact fans). Where? Sealyham Adventure Centre in Pembrokeshire.

Somehow, we actually got to the destination roughly on time. And yes, I am looking at you, Clic's most recent residential up in Anglesey. Argh is indeed the word for the moment.

We arrived, some time not long after the sun went to visit the other side of the world, outside a Georgian house. It was a rather nice house, to be fair, and the surrounding area was rather dark, as it was night. I'm babbling. Forgive me.

After devouring the food that was in front of us, we had the whole "get to know each other" thing, this time we had to say two things that we liked about ourselves. Lovely. Luckily, all I had to say was that I was the sub-editor of Wicid. Talk about easy runnings...

But yeah, we went on a ghost walk thing in the nearby woods, which wasn't that scary. It was a bit unnerving, but the fact was we were in near pitch darkness and I'm not a fan of the dark (not phobia level, I just prefer light than darkness). Luckily, I had a torch on my phone, so I just stood by Craig (Wicid's editor when Cat's away) so he can find his way as he was filming. Well, I'm guessing he didn't want to damage his camera, so y'know, I thought I'd be nice. Ha.

After that, t'was plain sailing. The only other interesting thing after that was a story of Goldilocks told in the style of Stacey Solomon by Ricky Paveltish. Pretty epic story, to be fair.

Next morning, we had stroganoff for breakfast. We didn't, but even if we did I wouldn't have recognised it or had it. I had a roll from my bag. Hardcore isn't even the word for me. Neither is bird. Anyway.

The workshops began. As Craig went out to pick up some spray paints or some weed, we're not entirely sure what, the Detached youth workers began the first workshop, an OCN in creative writing.

Luckily, one of them came up to me saying to me and four other, older members of Wicid "you can sit this out, we actually want you to go around and helping the others". Result.

I went around, not helping anyone. Not by choice, but by the fact that I had no idea about creative writing. Granted, nearly everyone I know says that I can do creative writing because of my Dear World articles, but I can't see them as creative. They are just the stuff I think about and write them down. Ooh, I'm babbling, forgive me.

Later on that day, Crag returned with some spray paints, and with a rather spaced out look about him. The rather large group was split into two groups. One continued with the creative writing workshop, while Craig led the music workshop.

It was a songwriting workshop. He asked me to help out, I was rather rubbish with my attempts to help. I did, on the other hand, think up a riff for a song now. That is all.

So, in all the Clic residentials, there were activities, with the one up in Anglesey being something involving circus stunts and that. This time, we had a choice between high ropes, coast steering and archery. And since I have a thing about both water and heights, it was obvious for me to go to archery.

The walk was long, but to be fair the scenery was epic. When we arrived, and after the instructor told us how to do archery, we had some practice shots. Unfortunately, I didn't kill anyone. Ah well.

I'll be honest, I've always liked the idea of archery. I've always wanted to try it, yet I have failed to try. I didn't think I was going to be good at it, I just thought I'd try.

I stood up to the plate (well, the bow and a piece of wood, but y'know what I mean), picked up the bow, placed the arrow in place, aimed and fired. I hit the board, and not a bad shot with that. I continued, with the next three arrows going close to the first one. None in the bullseye, but no total misses either. Lovely.

After two or three rounds, I stood up once more to the piece of wood. I then asked the instructor something. Can I try it left handed? He allowed me to do so.

And, to the surprise of both of us, I was at near the same level I was doing it right handed. It seems as though I am ambidextrous in archery. I bet you'd give your right hand to say that.

After a few more rounds of hitting balloons with arrows and crisps, we headed back, had nomage and began the next workshop. I still stayed with the music lot, though I was worse than I was in the beginning. I'm rather crap when I need to help people on a subject that I'm not good at. Ah well.

After that went on for a bit longer, dinner was served. For them, it meant lasagna and other foods. For me, it meant a few welshcakes and a ham baguette. Don't ask me why.

The Saturday night ended with a few people watching the Wales game, though I, along with a few other people, went to some room where they had some games and that. After that was some film about a social networking website or something, I don't know. After that, bed. Nice.

It was a rather disappointing residential overall. The place was supposed to be haunted, we were supposed to have heard coughing in the night and feeling like we were pushed down in our beds. It didn't happen. Nobody went missing, which I thought would have happened. Ah well.

It did end on a high. I went with Craig on the way home. We stopped somewhere near Neath to have some food. He then thought it would be funny to tell the girl who served us that "Trevor sent us", referring to the car shop that was near. He insisted that he heard on the radio that if we said that Trevor sent us to McDonald's, they'd give us a free Big Mac. Worth a try, but she was having none of it. Ah well.

Apparently, there's going to be more Wicid residentials. Ah well, maybe they can pick a place that has internet access, eh? Ah well.

- With karate I'll kick your FIN.

Pixel You In

Oh, how do I think of these blog names...

Anyway, this blog is just to ask you something.

What do you think of this?


DC1S01 Sound Sync Animation from Gareth Aled John on Vimeo.

This is a rubbish version of the final project for university. I was supposed to do a 60-90 second animation on either sound syncing (matching imagery to sound) or moving picture (having an image and animating it), using Adobe's After Effects to create the animation.. As you can tell, I went for the sound syncing option.

I had no idea what to do. Then, I though fuck it, I'll do it about Wicid. So, this is my university assignment about advertising Wicid. Ha.

For some cocking reason, it didn't upload in widescreen format. It turned it into 4:3 ratio. No idea why. I would up it onto YouTube, but it'll be taken down due to it having a song by Gob called Face The Ashes. Grr to them, I say.

Anyway, what do you think of it? Any good? I know that the text's a bit odd and slightly shit, I honestly has no idea what to write for it.

In other news, I'm off to Sealyham tomorrow for a residential with Wicid. Should be decent. I'll write something about it when I get back.

Ah, a nice short update here. Lovely.

- You got it. A FIN FIN FIN FIN.

Welsh Invasion

I'm rather shocked, if I'm completely honest with you.

Because I'm a rather sad child, I recently looked at the stats of all my blogs. This blog seems to get (on average) about three views a day, which isn't bad at all in my eyes. My other blogs, which are an extension of my Dear World articles on Wicid and on Clic, aren't doing as well. But then again, they are doing well on both sites (this blog and Wicid/Clic).

As I looked upon the stats of all my blogs, I turned my attention to the Welsh Dear World blog, named Annwyl Fyd, and its statistics. And I turned my attention to the referral links.

And what did I see?

A referral from Hedyn?

What's this? I thought to myself.

I clicked on the link, and this was the result.

If you don't go on it, it gives a small introduction (with links) to my Annwyl Fyd website. I was gobsmacked. Why is it up there?

I dug further, and Hedyn seems to be some sort of portal for blogs in the medium of Welsh.

That is a win in my book.

I was intrigued by this. So, like the sad child that I am, I searched Annwyl Fyd into Google. Unexpectedly, my articles were the first ones in the search. Then, as I entered the third or so page of the search results, I stumbled upon another Welsh-based blog, Blogiadur. This has a collection of all Welsh blogs. To me, the win level has increased tenfold for me.

I don't know if this means that the Dear World articles are any good. Maybe they just add any Welsh blog up to those sites. But yeah, it's still an achievement. Fuck yeah, indeed.

Talking about Wicid and Clic, there shall be a Wicid residential soon. I shall let you know how that goes.

Oh, and in university news, I've passed my first Radio Production assignment with fifty five percent. That means that I'm still on track of passing every assignment first time. Yes, I know I failed my second Video Production assignment, but even then only by five percent.

I shall leave you now. Mwahahaha.

- Find me somebody to FIN

Wish You Were Here

It's been a while since I talked about some meaningless drivel for you. And yes, I do mean university.

I have no idea if I mentioned this is another post, but I received two things for the first time. The first one being a fail. Yes, I failed an assignment for Video Production by five percent. Hopefully, I have scraped a pass with my evaluation essay and only have to re-edit the video.

The second thing that happened for the first time is the fact that I received my first first. Yes, I got seventy-two percent in an essay about capacitors and filters, which results in me receiving a first. Fuck yeah.

In other news, I'm starting to dislike the people in my course a lot. There's only like, five people who are decent (y'know, you can talk to without having the feeling that they're judging you). Sadly, only one of said five people (who I won't name, as you don't know them) is someone I hang around with. Shit. Anyway.

The majority of them are arrogant English people who think that Facebook and alcohol are kings of modern life. It's rather boring, to be honest. I doubt half the people in my class respect me, and I do believe it's because I'm Welsh. Well, something to do with being Welsh. I'm not playing the race card, but it does seem like some of those arrogant English people treat their fellow English folk differently to the Welsh people in the course.

A prime example is during Electronics, when an English girl was behaving like she would normally to her English friends (and to the ones who were not her friend), and the minute she comes over to me to ask to look at my results (I say ask, she just glanced at them) and said "thanks" in that mundane Anglo-American dud sound that pollutes the planet these days. Didn't even ask to look at them, just assumed that she can since she's "the only attractive girl in the class". Which is a bare faced lie. But then again, there's only three girls in my Electronics class, and I'm not continuing with that. Ha.

In other, more happy news, you know that I write a series for Wicid (and a bit for Clic) called Dear World? Well, during the residential, I was rather forced to enter the "staff room" by Wicid's part time Editor, Craig. I'm not sure if he's going to be editor of if he is just part time like Cat (the main editor).

Anyway, I entered the staff room to see Alex, the guy who owns (I believe) Burning Red (the company who designs the Clic websites), bringing a folder out of a bag. He hands me a book.

But, as you can probably guess, I hadn't seen this book before. I read the title - CLICannual 2011.

Craig told me to look at the contents, and what do I see? Well, apart from the contents of the annual. I see two words repeated in two places - Dear World.

Yes, two of my Dear World articles will appear in the first CLICannual - God and Nationality.

Somehow, the guys at Clic think that my articles are among the best in Clic. That's rather an odd thought. I hope I don't sound arrogant in saying that. I personally think that all the stuff I do writing wise is rather terrible. Well, that's exaggerating a bit, though I wouldn't be a hundred miles away if I stated that my writing is less than below average. The rest of the Clic annual is pure gold, mind. It's rather amazing what young people around Wales can do.

In other, less happy news, I went to Bristol Zoo with Wicid. I won't comment on the whole experience, as that article (written by the Editor of Wicid, with help of people who went too) well inform you with all the happenings of the day.

All I will say is, I don't like zoos.

It seems wrong, somehow. The first animal we saw properly was a lion (who we ended up adopting for a year via Wicid). Kamal, I think his name was. Well, either that or Keith (as some of the Wicid team called him). He looked depressed, and not because he was in Bristol. It just seemed wrong, keeping all these animals just for the entertainment of human boys and female girls. But then again, I may be wrong. Ah well, life, as some people say, goes on.

I shall end it here. This post, not my life. All I can say on that matter is that I'll never kill myself, or even self harm. But enough about my fucked up family.

- Never gonna FIN you up.

Land Of The Green And The Home Of The Sheep

Guess what?

No, not that. Guess again.

No, not that either. Would it be easier for me to just tell you what's what?

Okay then, on Friday I packed my bags and finally left home. To Anglesey. For a weekend. With Clic. Lovely.

It started on Friday. The sun was hidden by clouds, I wore jeans. The coach was what you'd expect from any coach. Though I was rather unsure at first why the driver decided to head back into Rhondda Cynon Taff after picking up our fellow residential dudes from Ebbw Vale and Newport. We had no idea that our journey would last longer than the estimated four hours.

Yes, the pesky sat nav decided to go the scenic route up to the little patch of Wales in the North. The chosen route was also a shroud of deceit on our phones, as for a good section of our journey we had no signal. So much so, that a girl called Jess Preddy and I began to improvise a song about retweeting, with the main lyric being "We need to retweet, why can't we retweet?" Aye, I'm sure we annoyed the living daylights out of our fellow travelers of the South with this song. Ah well, could be worse, we could have stalled a few times. Oh wait, we did.

Unfortunately, it was rather dark once we finally landed on Anglesey soil. So dark, in fact, that the coach driver didn't notice a sign post that said "no wide vehicles" until after we went down that street. Ah well, at least it gave the other members of the Wicid editorial team, along with Sam from theSprout, to sing about the bus travels up in Clic's Got Talent thing that was happening on Saturday night.. Lovely.

As the chickens sang their song in the morning, the day began with breakfast. Then, the young people of Wales were split into five groups. I, along with a few others, ended up in the first group, meaning that I have to sit through the accreditations workshop first, which was rather good. Then, we did the information introductions for Clic in video form in front of a green screen. Though, to be fair, I do think that some people were more interested in the large remote control that was discovered in one of the rooms. Like this one. Nice.

After a little break, the group made their way to banner making, though it was changed to kendo. There were a few matches between the people on the group, though I don't have a clue what possessed Jess to ask Geoff "can me and Gareth have a go?" Before we actually chowed down in bamboo warfare, I was unsure what to do. Though, as we commenced the battle, I wasn't going to let her win. Apparently, I'm really aggressive. Ah well, doesn't matter. All that matters is that I won, which led to this image being taken...

Image via ClicOnline, with slight editing done by yours truly (CrazyDistortion).

Yeah, that's me, doing a jumping attack on Jess' head. How hardcore am I?

Anyway, after a few handful of workshops, some breaks and another handful of workshops, we had Clic's Got Talent, where the name of it says it all.

There were only two different activities in the Clic's Got Talent - singing and dancing. As Sam, the Swoosh girls and others showed us what they've got in the dancing stakes, Paul from Defaid and others sang for the group. To be fair, everyone was well good, it was a relief when someone said that it was just for fun and not a competition.

After that, there was some sleeping done, as it was night by that time. The Sunday was the day of goodbyes, as we left homeward-bound at roughly half eleven in the morning. Again, it took us well over the estimated time for us to get home from Anglesey. We headed into England, further than I imagined. Ah well, the driver dropped the Wicid group at the stop well past seven in the night. Lovely.

As I charged my Mac in the comfort of my own room, I realised that I had an email. It was from Clic's sub-editor, Dan. All it said was "I've driven to Anglesey a few times before. It usually takes this long."

A quote by the bus driver before heading to the depot. Lovely.

So, on the whole, a good residential. Hopefully, there'll be more people from Rhondda Cynon Taff coming to the next one. Oh, and remind me to bring a guitar with me so then I can have a jam with Paul from Defaid. Nice.

- I did my time, and I want FIN.

Wake Me Up, Before I Go Go

I apologise.

Why?

Because I'm going to talk about my problems with sleep.

This time, I cannot recall what I dreamed about. All I know is that I felt really tired at about twenty to eleven last night. I know it was that time, since Lunch Monkeys started on BBC Three after another Eastenders episode.

Anyway, next thing I know, I was screaming. Screaming worse than before. Screaming so bad, that the next door neighbours called the police because they thought something sinister was going down. But no, it was just my fucking brain playing tricks with the rest of my body. Thanks, brain. Thanks a cocking lot.

But yeah, again my mother met me outside my bedroom door. This time, apparently, I was pushing against her, trying to evade her grasp. So much so, that she said that it felt as if I could have pushed her down the stairs with my strength (which I can't understand, as I'm as strong as a mild cheese).

It took a good three minutes for me to come around, with the first thing I could hear clearly was my mother telling my father to get changed so he can take us to the hospital.

Great.

After a couple of whiles, we saw a doctor in accident and emergency. She said that she has no idea what the problem could be. She also said that she cannot give me any medication for it, as they hold no sleep-related tablets there.

That meant that I had to see another doctor about it.

After a good five minutes talking about my situation, he went on his computer and he came to the conclusion that it is a form of night terrors. The only thing that is different is that night terrors usually occur in young children, say six year olds. They have no idea why I'm getting these at nineteen.

The doctor then added that giving me sleeping pills will just aggravate the situation, either making these episodes more frequent or more intense.

So, what did he suggest? He told my mother to wake me up roughly fifteen minutes before the terror happens.

In a way, they'll have to "wake me up, before I go go."

So, my mother will have to wake me up an hour or so after I go to sleep. See? Another reason for me not to be in accommodation in university.

Nothing much to add. I thought I was done with it, but my brain decided to bring a shroud of terror upon my sleeping state. If this is what death has coming for me, I want to live until I'm at least five hundred.

- Carry on my wayward son, there'll be peace when you are FIN.

Man Of Two Views

Guess what?

I'm not going to discuss my sleeping problems.

I know how happy you must feel. But to compensate, I'll discuss what I've done recently. And yes, they involve Wicid and Clic. Lucky, lucky you.

And before I do, what do you think of the new look? Granted, it's only a new background image and a change of colour for the title but yeah, any good?

Right, back on topic.

First off, last Wednesday, I had a call from the editor of Clic, who told me that I was the name who was picked to go and review Russell Howard's Right Here Right Now show that he did in Cardiff the following day. If you fancy reading my first ever review, you can click here to jump to it. Please, if you do have an account with Clic and its sister sites, comment on it and let me know what you think of the review. Or, if you went to see him too, tell me what you thought of him. Thanks, babes.

Anyway, if you don't click on that link, he was pretty amazing to be fair. Bloody brilliant. It was lovely to see someone who I highly respect, do what he does best. If he comes to Wales again, I'd definitely go and see him again.

Though, as I had to review his show, I had to do another thing for Clic. I had to interview fellow comedian Steve Williams. The Newport-born funny man was rather a nice person, to be fair. Though, at the beginning, the whole problems with the phone didn't really help my nerves, which I began to sound like a dalek. Nice.

Anyroad, those problems were fixed, and we started to talk. He then learned that I was interviewing him, and this was the first interview that I ever conducted. Luckily, he was rather nice about the whole thing, even if he did extract the urination slightly out of one or two of my questions (which, I admit, were rather shite). But yeah, on the whole, it was a really good interview. Well, I think so anyway.

I'll send a link or embed the audio in a blog post when it's live. So, if you have a fetish for terrible voices with Welsh accents, then you'll have to hold onto your knickers and be patient.

Ha.

Anyway, I'll let you go now. And I know I owe you, the possible reader, a post about how I want to improve my musical abilities. I'll do that on the weekend. Nice.

- Wake me up, before you FIN FIN

Dead By Sunrise

Yeah. As you can tell by the blog title (and, if you're following me, on Twitter also), it happened again.

Fuck.

This time, it wasn't as hardcore as the last time. Yes, I woke up screaming. Yes, I also hugged a family member (this time, MkIII). This time, I had no idea what I dreamt of to make me, apart from the fact that there was a girl in this dream (and the dream that I had after that, which I'll talk about later).

All I remember in the dream, before waking up, was a girl. I'm not going to lie to you, she was ugly. She was short, with an extremely large head. Freakishly large. She was also white, with really dark, dull, straight hair. I have no clue why I'm describing her, maybe it's just to document my pathetic sleeping problems. Fuck, I hate the human body sometimes.

After watching the whole first series of Blackadder again, I went to sleep (this time, with no problems). This time, she came back, but it was different. This time, I actually grabbed on to her. And when I say that, I mean that I grabbed her throat as she was coming at me, not that I molested her. As I dragged her around the place, trying to find something, I suddenly woke up.

Last night, it nearly happened again. I say nearly, as this time I woke up just in time before the dream took hold on my pitiful excuse of a brain. It felt the same as the last few times, so I guess you can say that I've learned from past mistakes. Yet, after watching the majority of Blackadder The Third, I fell asleep.

Obviously, Baldrick was in the dream. He asked me "can you hear that phone call?" There was no phone call, as we were walking on an alley. Then, a fucking train tried to run me over. Bastard. Then, after I saved Baldrick, the train reversed back and tried to run me over again. Luckily, I woke up before it run me over. Grr.

But yet, I have no idea why. Ah wel.

And before you ask, yes. Yes, I have been to see the doctor about it. Guess what? They have no idea what's wrong either. I have no idea what to do now. Bugger.

In other news, I went to see Russell Howard on Thursday. Fuck yes. What made it sweeter? I went for free. Whoop. Thanks to Clic. Haha. I had to review it mind, that was the reason I went. But by fuck, he's brilliant live. I'll add a link to the review once it goes live on Clic.

I'll leave you to it now. I've bored you to hell and back, I bet.

- Area FIN-ty one

Save Me Sorrow

No word of a lie to you, I'm pretty scared.

Not in the sense of oh shit, there's a spider scared, mind. And you've probably guessed what it is about.

Yes, it's that thing that I mentioned before. Sleep.

Ever since the happenings from my last post, I have been feeling extremely paranoid about falling to sleep. As the clock at the top right of the screen on my Macbook graces ever closer to the late night, my brain just begins a cycle of panic and doubt.

I can't deny it, and I won't deny it. I fucking well hate sleep. I've never liked it. The more that I exist, the more I think sleep is just natures way to steal hours from our lives from under our noses. But it's a hate-hate relationship. I hate sleep, and by raisins it hates me too.

But, and it's just a guess, I think sleep hates me more than I hate it.

After the whole thing last Tuesday, I've had some minor versions of it happen at a rate of once every two to three days. Last night's sleep is an example. I went to bed at about half one, and then half an hour after, I wake up, feeling extremely bizarre.

But, I have found out something that is rather curious. This is happened exactly, nearly, a year ago. This is the first mention of when my problems with sleep occurred first. Look at the date. What is it? January the sixteenth, 2010, with this being the second mention, eight days after.

Now, look at the date of my last post. Eleventh of January. Roughly a year ago.

One thing that will make me panic, is either if this thing will occur next year. And, if so, what sort of period of time am I looking at. Or, will it only be in January when I have these fuckups in the sleep department? No idea.

There is only one thing that I definitely know for now. For the next few weeks, I will feel rather nervous about going to sleep.

I think I need help.

There is two possibilities that could be the reason that I have problems like these with sleep. The first, which kind of fixed it the last time, was vitamin deficiency. After the first few times that the whole sleep paranoia happened, my mother advised me to take Berocca. I have no idea if that is the right way to spell it, but then again who gives a shit.

This time, even though I've started to take Berocca again, my mother believes that it could be something else. Caffeine. I could have a caffeine intolerance, meaning that if I have too much of it, I have trouble sleeping. Though, this might not be the case, as I have consumed products that contain caffeine (such as coke and tea) for ages, so maybe not that then.

I'm hoping to see a doctor soon about it. Maybe then they'll find out something about me that I fear. I don't care if that sounds pathetic. If you found out something about you that's wrong with you, no matter how small, you'll (probably) feel a bit worried, yeah?

I don't know. Maybe it's just my brain trying to tell me to stop being an arsehole.

Time will tell, eh?

- Mr Sandman, give me a FIN.

Revenge Of The Myth

It happened again.

You know before, I had problems sleeping which was fixed somehow by the magic of Berocca. Well, I had forgotten to take them for weeks now, and it seems like my sleeping pattern has gotten worse every day since, which ended up with my worst experience I've ever had.

For the past few weeks, I've found myself waking up early in the morning, sweating like a bitch. I know, you didn't need to know that, but it gives you an idea on how I've been sleeping up to now. I've been sleeping rather fine for the past few days, to be fair. I've woken up earlier and went to bed relatively late. But I wasn't tired, it was just a minor inconvenience, really.

Last night, at about two-ish in the morning, I finally decided to go to sleep. The next thing I knew, I was having a nightmare. I can't tell you exactly what it was about, because I hate you. No, that's a lie. I just cannot remember properly what the dream was. All I remember of the dream is that I felt that I was being sucked into a piece of metal. A form of suffocation and falling rolled into one hell of a dream.

The problem was that it was not the fact that I had the dream, I've had worse dreams than that before and coped (relatively) well with it. It's the fact that I've had some sort of a hallucination.

I woke up, screaming. At this point, I still felt that I was being sucked into some metal. I was screaming so much, that my sister thought that it was the dog barking. They rushed in, they being my sisters and my mother, and they just hugged me (well, one of my sisters went to get me a cup of tea). Why they hugged me? I guess it was because I was shaking and crying. I know that makes me sound like a weak wazzock, I'm not bothered.

As I regained sanity, I realised what the situation is. I was there, in my mother's arms, staring at the floor, realising that it was just a bad dream. I knew at that point that I have something wrong with me. No idea what, but it seems to be something that can be easily fixed by drinking a Berocca once a day. The one thing I thought during all this was that I had woken everyone else up. I think it freaked everyone out. Me especially.

I know, this isn't a good subject for a blog. That, and it makes me look like a mentalist who can only be calmed down by his mother. I don't know, I just wanted to document this. I fucking well hope that anything like this happens again. I'm sure you'll hear about it if it does.

Fuck.

- Fly me to the moon, and let me play among the FIN