Alive And Kicking

Before you think But the Saturday morning show was actually called 'Live and Kicking', it has nothing to do about that, nor has it to do with this song, by Nonpoint.



Obviously, that song is not to everyone's taste. But yeah, hi. =].

This post has to do with this little called examination results. I know it's late, but yeah, I'll carry on regardless. =].

On the day of resultness, which was yesterday (Thursday the nineteenth, fact fans), I woke up at roughly half five in the afternoon. Ha, fooled you, it was actually the morning. I will spare you the details which are pointless, like the fact I went downstairs and saw my mother watching tellie, 'cause she couldn't sleep for some reason.

When the clock struck six, I logged into Edexcel's results page. And a shroud of doubt filled me, like helium filling a balloon... Overall? I had a D in Music Technology.

Shite.

I needed at least a C to get into university.

So, I was worried at what the other two subjects - Chemistry and Physics - had in store. But, just in case the worst came, I looked at the available courses at Glamorgan University on the clearing pages.

And you know that balloon simile that I said before? Well, nothing has changed to that yet. But, I will say that I saw my course, Creative Technologies (Multimedea), appeared in the list of courses available through clearing.

What could this mean? Did I get in? Did I miss out and my place on the course up for clearing? Who knows...

Well. I do. Since, in a vain hope (I thought), I tried to log into the UCAS track section at about half six. And after two attempts, I got in. And guess what it said...

Congratulations! Your place at University of Glamorgan, Cardiff and Pontypridd (G14) to study Creative Technology (Multimedia) (HP63) has been confirmed.

And at that moment, the helium escaped from the balloon with great excitement (I am really crap at similes, aren't I?). I, with at least a D to my name, have gotten into university. I'm going to Glamorgan University, baby.

Though I know I was into university, I still wanted to know what I got in Chemistry and Physics. But alas, I had that letter that looks like a B but without the middle support. Yes. I had a D in both Chemistry and Physics.

I am, a D student.

Granted, I took (apparently) two of the hardest subjects you can take. And I took a subject that the school didn't even allow until two years ago (and apparently, D was the highest grade out of our Music Tech class, but I'm not sure if this is correct). But, as you hear your friends getting high grades, it does question your intelligence.

That said, I don't think I'm clever. I've been told I'm clever a handful of times. I honestly don't think I'm clever. Okay, I'm not thick, but I at least hoped for one C in my A level results. But at least I didn't relive the image I had when I was in year eight.

What was that image? It was me, aged eighteen, running from the Neuadd (this was before I knew of the new school) in tears because I failed miserably in my exams. Granted, the sky was grey and everyone was laughing at me in that image, and I was taller. But that image was not relived, like a freaky deja-vu moment. I walked out of school rather happily, to be fair.

But, I had three D's in my subjects, and as a D works out to be sixty UCAS points. So, three sixty's are 180. And even if I did get a pass in Key Skills, I'd still be under the needed points by at least fifty, and the fact that my course was in clearing, it got me thinking.

Did I get into that course, because hardly anybody tried for it?

To be fair, I have no idea what the answer to that question is. My parents keep telling me that the interview was the place where I sold it to Glamorgan, that I am actually not bad at knowing stuff. But I don't know. Damn, why can't I remember the right stuff for exams?...

Hang on, I don't have to worry about that now...

But yes. In three (or four, possibly) years, I will (hopefully) become a Bachelor of Science, with a degree in Creative Technologies (Multimedia). Who knows what will change in those three years. Maybe the course name will change to Creative Technologies (Production), or maybe the word in brackets will disappear totally.

But, all I know is, I'm going to study something that really interests me. Yeah, Chemistry, Physics and Music Technology, but stuff like web design and typography really interest me. Granted, people call me sad when I know the difference between Verdana and Trebuchet fonts. But who cares?

- Oh Nemo, you have a really small FIN there...

An Ode To No-One.

For some reason, I've gotten really into lyrics, of other people's creation. My post title, I believe, is a song by the Smashing Pumpkins, on the 'Infinite Sadness' album (the same album as 'Bullet With Butterfly Wings'). So yeah, that's the blog title today.

I was going to write something about death, 'cause for some reason it's been on my mind since about a week ago, but since it's going on for ten, I don't want to start typing about it (well, I was going to say talk about it, but you can't hear my voice... at least that's a plus side for all you readers...), because if I do, it'll be on my mind all night and I won't be able to sleep for ages. Y'know, my brain's a bastard like that... Anyways.

This has turned into a picture post now. I would've said 'picture perfect post', but what is perfection?... shite, does anyone really care?

By the by, I shall carry on. I've done two desktop backgrounds (or wallpapers, for you hip old-schoolers who play solitair on their Windows 98's). So, here's the first...



One thing, don't ask me who the girl is in the background, I can't remember myself. Just found the image on a site and thought about editing it, and finally did when doing this image. This is maybe the most 'blue' image I've done. Y'like? =).

Next.



Yeah, such a happy thing. I only did this in like, an hour or so. And it shows. Anyways, if you're interested in how I did it (and, I'm just guessing, you aren't), it's basically feckloads of overlayed wall and paper textures. Used some brushes for added grunginess. That's what I do on PhotoShop. Grunge. 'Tis my speciality. Well, it isn't really grunge... just an attempt on it. No idea why I put 'Welcome to hell' on it though, I just thought about it while looking on Abduzeedo, for a lark.

Oh yeah, if you want the full size one, click on the image. It'll take you to my Flickr account. There's only three images on it so far (these two and one of Hayley Williams). Should use it more. I also have DeviantART, but a link to that is on the side where a linke to my RedBubble, MySpace and all that shizz is. So yeah, feel free to critique me. Would be nice, like.

Oh yeah, to dive into infinite sadness further (what a link to the title of the post, hehe), I've got the Ashes Cricket 2009 game. Woooo. I'm pretty shit at it, only managing 100-odd runs on the first go, and losing to Bangladesh (yeah, I was Australia for that go... man, I'm crap). So yeah, must work on that game...

Talking about games... there's a news piece on Ultimate Guitar...

'Kurt Cobain: Your Newest Guitar Hero Character'.

So yeah, Cobain's the second dead person to appear on Guitar Hero, alongside Johnny Cash in Guitar Hero 5 (Jimi Hendrix was the first one, on Guitar Hero World Tour). On that news piece, there are hundreds of different comments on it. Some in favour of it, believeing that the inclusion of Cobain into Guitar Hero 5 will be benificial to Nirvana in a way to spead the bands music further into people's knowledge. While other people believe it's a disgrace, believing that they should leave Cobain to rest in piece, or thinking this is a way for Courtney Love to earn more money from his name, or explaining that Cobain was against this type of commersialism. Other people were saying that he doesn't deserve to be in it, since that he wasn't the best guitarist.

And yes, that last sentance is true. Though, Cobain was a far superior lyricist. Lithium is a good example of it, in my opinion. So is Come As You Are, and Rape Me... But then again, those are my opinions...

Anywotsits, while people were saying all those things about Cobain's inclusion into Guitar Hero 5, one thing they were pleased about. Matt Bellamy of Muse will be in it, along with the song 'Plug In Baby'. Yeah, it's a good thing, though, I think it would've been better to have all bandmemberes in the game, alongside a song deemed 'harder' in the Guitar Hero ranks. But, that, as they say, is that.

I must dash. Well actually I've got a bit of a beard, but hey ho. Lets go.

- Fin.

PS - Happy 17th birthday to RuhBuhJuh for this Monday. Have a good'un, eh? Hehe.

Critique Fanatique.

I'm a bastard. Yes.

I go on about things. This is also true.

Now, I'll tell you why.

I've had no comments about the designs I done for the clic thing.

So, this is another plea (again) on the images. And this time, no links needed. =).

Anyroad, firstly, this is the begining one, the first of two welcome pages. Only thing is that it's all in english, but meh, here it is...



Yeah, a tad big... onto my second bigg'un.

This is the multi-ligual one, thus, to my pain and misery, it's actually all in english... for now. But it's just to show what it will look like... here it goes...



I've just realised how rubbish the RCT's look, so unsmooth... But, that's not the logo. It's just RCT in Century Gothic font but slightly stuck together. How imaginative. It's the same RCT as the background... wich is loads of RCT's in different sizes and shades of grey.

Well, onto the home page... this is the home page (well, main content page). The english side of it... well, most of the info is on there anyways... =).



Yeah, sorry if the text's a tad blurry...

So yeah, please respond in a comment on here. I wanna know what people who might (though not sure exactly) use it when/if it's started before I send them to the 'clic' people.

Er. Nothing else to say really. The only thing I've done inbetween this post and the last one was watch Blackadder Goes Forth (best final episode ever) and Paramore's new music video. It's not that bad actually (I'm on about the song, the video's a bit quackers). But meh, this ends my image-mad post.

Thanks if you comment... =).

- Fin.

And Now, The Fun Stops.....

I've already made a few posts to a blog that I doubt anybody has read.

And, I've realized, I haven't introduced myself (now you understand the stupid title...).

Well, basically I call myself CrazyDistortion online. I came up with the name CrazyDistortion when I was thinking of a new username for my new BEBO (because I deleted my other one, along with some of the skins.... damn bastard BEBO... hehe). At the time I was a Devil May Cry 3 fanatic, and my favourate weapon was called "Nevan" (Hence my name also being "Nevaan" online... yes, I am THAT sad...), which was an electric guitar that shoots bats when you played a sweet, sweet melody. One of my favorite moves you can do with the Nevan is called Distortion. I tried that and it said that it was used up, which is a right bugger. So I remembered another move that I love killing demonic bastards with. Called the "Crazy Roll" (think of the guitarists in Fall Out Boy, but with bats flying around and electriciry shooting everywhere...). I took away the roll, and instead added distortion. And alas, gave birth to CrazyDistortion. (This was taken from a blog from my group on Bebo, called CrazyDistortiong Media, if you feel like becoming a fan, please feel free to search for the band). One main reason why I've stuck with CrazyDistortion is because, maybe it's just me who thinks this way, but it's like my identity now. I know it's not a famous thing, but it's raising, slowly but surely. 

For instance, on YouTube. Even though my username's NevanIWannaWii, I pretty much have CrazyDistortion in the tag line every time, so you'll know it's me. So far my videos have been viewed over ninety five thousand times collectively (I have fifteen videos, though three have been refused due to accidental copyright infringement), even if they've been up for a year now. It's obvious that the favorite is the  speeded up version of 'Misery Business' by Paramore. I've also had a lot of stick too, for the edit I have done of 'I Write Sins, Not Tragedies' by Panic At The Disco. In the title, I said it was edited (which is true), though I may have been misleading by saying this, because many people have believed I meant edited as in audio (bleeping out the swear words), at that moment of my life, I had no idea how to do it. Also, I didn't even think of the audio dubbing. All I concentrated on is the editing of the video. Luckily, many people have watched it and liked it. If you are offended by swear words and you have/are about to watch the video, please don't blaspheme me just because I didn't dub the audio. That will be greatly appreciated.

Then, once I left the video editing bug behind in its dusk of Windows Media Player, I carried on with the main thing I wanted to do in life - image editing. It has changed drastically over the year I've actually done it. This, again, is from the blog I posted on the 'CrazyDistortion Media' group on BEBO, though I might have corrected spelling mistakes or updated a few things.

The way I entered into the wonders of skin edits though is a different story (of course it is... the birth of Crazydistortion is not the same as actually making skins eh??). I got interested into photo editing when I saw my sister, Lowri, looking at one of the pictures one of her friends have jazzed up for her. It was brilliant like. I looked at it and was thinking "Yeah, I could do that". So the next day, I was on this program I just realised I had on the computer. It was called Picasa2. Though it is the most simplest editing program in existance, it was still a handy tool.

Then one day, everything changed. For the world of photo editing. For me. I found a program so good I could make the sun appear in someone's eye. This program is the man. Which is funnily called the GIMP (version 2.0 or higher). This program really set me off on all the photo editing possibilities. With more filters, more tint styles, I thought I was the best alive like. Until, I realized, I could go one better. Only one thing stood in my way... and for that... I needed PhotoShop.

Thanks to my uncle Graham (who is, like an brilliant person), I got PhotoShop. Now I can do the thing that the photo edit that Lowri's friend done for her made me want to do - colourise photos in more depth. At first I just had a look around, see what filters I could do with this titan of a program. Then it hit me. I have the godfather of the photo editing world at my fingertips (well in my hard-drive, but that's irrelevant like). Now I was churning photo edits like there was no later on (yes, it was that fast like this.... see told you it was fast). from that moment on I was making edits, while my friends were "proud owners" of brand-spanking new edits of themselves (I tried to make the girls more beautiful than normal, I tell you it was a hard thing to improve on such lovely ladies like.... he-he).

I know you are getting tired, but don't worry. I'm finishing soon like. One fine day, I was looking for a new skin and was thinking "*sigh* Oh I want to make my own skin..." and then I saw it, a link that says "Roll Your Own". So I read the specs of the skin, made up a quick skin on PhotoShop, changed the size of it on GIMP, uploaded it onto BEBO and hey presto... my first skin. I called it Black and White, because....erm.... it was a black and white skin?? It was shaite really. I wouldn't be suprise if someone commented on my profile saying "F**k off, you pansy!! Let the pros make the skins!!"

Then the rest went on from there really. Made new skins. Made new photo edits. My friends saying to me on MSN "Ga.... you know that awesome skin you made??.....Well, can you make me one on yadayadayayda please??" Hehe it was mad... =D

Then, after that, friend at the time said about advertising my skins and edits, that is the birth of the 'CrazyDistortion Media' band (now group, now you get why I keep calling it a band).

After a mad while of making skins for BEBO (I must admit, they were pretty rubbish compared to the ones I can do now), I created my first profile on an art social network (if that is what they are called). I started off with DeviantART (username's CrazyDistortion, again, if your interested). Nothing major has happened on it really. I have had at least one work added to somebody's favorites, but maybe they've taken it off now. Once I read in a magazine (full of PhotoShop tutorials, I admit) about a new website called RedBubble. Thhngs have (sort of) taken off now. My work (if that's what you can call them) is now viweable from Manchester to Melbourne. I know that could happen on BEBO, MySpace and the like, but on RedBubble, there's far more people that are into all sorts of art, and you can be sure when someone comments your work, it's not some wannabe joking around. I've had loads of comments and critique, and I've taken on the comments (hopefully) very well. There's a massive difference from my first attempt at a website design and my most recent one. I also have made some tee-shirt designs, which so far (to my knowledge) no-one has bought any yet. Lets hope in the near future, I'll make something out of it...

Aside from editing, and you can tell its a big part of my life, I am learning to play the bass and electric guitar. I've only started since Christmas of '07 with bass, and a month later with the guitar. To be frank, I suck. I am not learning to play guitar to be one of those guys who does nothing but guitar. I just feel like sometimes, its a good idea to express yourself musically. Though I know I'm not going to be on the same level as Herman Li, Slash or Tom Morello (you might've guessed that I play Guitar Hero too? I'll leave that for now...). Same as on bass. I just want to be able to play out some cool sounds. I can pretty much do half of songs on guitar, but can do whole songs on bass. But, then again, bass is easier than guitar...

Right, back to the Guitar Hero reference. I have GH 2 and 3 for the PS2, and the game says that I'm an expert. I can pretty much complete GH3 on expert (apart from Raining Blood.... bastard) and the same on GH2. Cherub Rock, Talk Dirty To Me and Before I Forget are my favorites from GH3, while I love the bass to Slow Ride. GH2 favorite's include Heart Shaped Box, Bad Reputation and War Pigs. I'll shut up about Guitar Hero for now..... =)....

I pretty much suck at other aspects of life. Take sports. My main sport is cricket. Bowling, I'm a demon at. Batting, I generally suck. That's all about cricket. I also enjoy playing rugby and football. Many people are surprised on the way I play rugby. I can play either wing or full back, but I'd like to think I'd do well in any position as long as it's in the backs. My strength in rugby is mainly running with the ball, while my weakness is tackling, though I did do one good tackle in a competition in my school last year. Football, I'm still in the attacking aspect of things (I'd say, anyways). Mainly a winger, I can play wing back or any attacking position (as long as you don't mind me not scoring so much).

Well, that's pretty much it really. Other than the vital statistics such as gender (I have a penis), birthday (hint - I have a sting in my tail...), and other things.... but they can keep.

I must apologize about two things though. One being how long this thing is. The other is the language. I'm from Wales, but as I am using Safari, it's saying that everything I type is wrong. As it's American (I believe), then some words will be different to the English dialect that I'm used to.

 Anyways, if anyone's read this, thank you for taking the time to read this very pointless blog. Might edit it to add some edits that I've done and links to my profiles. But for now....

Cyanide.

What? It's goodbye in any language!