Italy Holiday, Table Top Day and Pillars of Eternity

Holiday, Coffee and Daredevil

Back from holiday. It was bitter-sweet... More details in upcoming vlog. I know, I'm a tease. But now I'm back and I'm nearly ten pounds heavier. I feel fat and crap. I need to get back to the gym and work really hard when I'm there. I'm starting to worry about my health, self diagnosing conditions left, right and centre. This week it's diabetes. I should really get tested, but I don't wanna add to my doctors' TATTs for the day. Anyway, I need to sort myself out... I type as a chocolate brownie stares up at me longingly...

Speaking of which, there's a new coffee place right outside my work which is in two shipping containers at the side of the road. But inside is really hip. Nice coffee and they do giant pasties and panini. A tad on the expensive side, but good for when I'm feeling flush or need a treat.

Started watching Daredevil last night. Again I'm gonna pour my love over streaming service exclusives and applaud Marvel and Netflix for going down the Marvel Knights route and keeping it really dark and violent, whilst still maintaining it's humour. Great casting, acting, characterisation with the help of not at all cheesy flashbacks, brilliant choreography which are often done in long, one shot takes. I love the coherent Marvel Cinematic Universe and the nods in this to the Avengers are perfect for solidly placing it as a part of the overall story whilst still managing to feel very different. It still feels very comic book like but in a much more adult way, with brilliant framing, lighting and weather effects. Daredevils 'powers' are portrayed in a very subtle ways, mainly through the use of slightly elevated environmental sounds. I'm very impressed and can't wait to see more.

Had a great Table Top Day the other day and a lovely walk in Porthkerry Park. For more on that, make sure you keep an eye out for my vlog later in the week and check out my Twitter for pictures of Table Top Day.

Take care x

Vlogging, Drunk Live Tweeting and Re-Building Cardiff

Got so many ideas for vlogs. Late last night, like at two in the morning I was having great ideas. And on the bike this morning. I wish there was record function in my brain. The scripts I was coming up with were great. Now I can't remember much. Just bits a pieces. Anyway. Hopefully I'll actually get in to the swing of things soon and actually start vlogging and specific things as well as a weekly round up with Laura and the kids.

Gym again tonight. Feeling a bit stiff and very tired! Not quite sure what my plans for later are. It's Comic Relief tonight so I'll probably end up drunk live tweeting that. So make sure you join me for that! But I know I'm gonna want to play Cities: Skylines and see what Xur has to offer on Destiny. I guess I could do that tomorrow.

I really want to make an authentic re-creation of Cardiff in Cities. Someone has uploaded a Cardiff map to the Steam Workshop but it's not very good. Will have a go at importing my own height map and tweak and populate in the map editor. Although SimCity was very limited in what it could do, it was interesting to see how all the traffic would congest in the same places as it does in real life. With Cities' much better simulation, I can't wait to see the results!

Take care x

The Only Way To Lose Weight

First gym session in ages last night. Didn't think I was hurting that much his morning until I got on my bike. Boy my legs didn't appreciate that! I've been reading a lot about gym work and weight loss. The more I read, the more I'm convinced. It's all bollocks. It's been scientifically proven that muscle burns three calories more per pound, per day than fat. Three calories. So does muscle help burn fat? Sure. Will it help you lose weight? Yeah, in about fifteen years maybe. The only way, THE ONLY WAY to lose weight is calorie deficit. All those bullshit diets. Every single one of them. All they're doing is dressing up calorie deficit in new and fancy way to get you to buy in to their products and schemes.

Use more energy than you put in. Lose weight. Simple as.

And the most efficient way of burning calories at the gym is cardio. So that's my bag from now on. Maybe when I've lost some weight down the line, I might want to tone up for aesthetic reasons, but for now I have no use for more muscle in my every day life. It simply won't make a difference. So for the last two days I've had a 350 calorie deficit. Which is not much and I don't know what that equates to wight loss wise. But it's a start. We'll see what happens.

Take care x

Slight Change Of Plan

Slight change of plan yesterday. We realized we had now food in the house so we went shopping instead of me going to the gym. So I'm going tonight instead. I'm really tired after playing four hours of Cities: Skylines last night and the ride to work today was a struggle. So the gym should be interesting eh?

Cities: Skylines is awesome. Keep an eye out on my YouTube channel for a "review" in a day or two. Suffice to say that it's everything any SimCity fan could want. I've been watching a lot of videos pre-launch, getting very excited and it hasn't disappointed.

The Grueling Task

Man I'm looking forward to playing Cities: Skylines tonight (as long as the launch all goes to plan). It's everything SimCity should have been and more. Made by a small studio in Sweden by nine people. Love it!

But first I have to get through the grueling task of my first gym session. I had my induction on Sunday, so I feel a lot more comfortable about just walking in there and doing my thing on my own. Been given an eight week all over weights regime by Laura. Even though it's going to start off light, I bet I wont be able to walk tomorrow. Cycling to work tomorrow with tight muscles is scaring the shit out of me. I'm really worried about gaining too much muscle and looking like a valleys roid head. I seem to do that. Well I did when I was younger anyway.

I was ten stone in college when I did no exercise at all and then I started judo and in three months I had put on two stone of muscle (and beer, probably). I don't want that to happen again. My aim is to lose weight, although I'm not planning on doing much about my eating other than trying to shrink my portion sizes. I eat a well balanced diet anyway. I always have. And I don't really indulge that much. Ice cream here, bottle of wine there... I don't go cray cray. Wish me luck.

Take care x

A Lot Better

Feeling a lot better today. The cloud has lifted, leaving only a light fog. Had the same old problem last night, that I didn't know what to do with myself. So Laura and I just sat on the sofa watching YouTube clips. Then I fancied a go on Destiny but immediately turned it off again as I was instantly bored. So I decided to have a go on the PC. Couldn't decide which of my new games to play so fished out a pile of old games instead. Settled on Titan Quest, an old isometric RPG that me and my brother used to play. I think that's what I'm lacking right now. A good old, huge RPG. Really looking forward to getting Pillars Of Eternity and Wasteland 2 and I think I might get Cities: Skylines too after watching a few videos of it in action (yes I know this isn't a RPG).

Haven't got much planned for this evening. Gotta pick up the kids on my bike as Laura's working late. Might persuade Laura to do a #DearMe video for YouTube or I might start editing a video we shot on the weekend. Probably end up playing Titan Quest again. A good alternative until I can afford one of those new RPGs.

Take care x

Depression

Really not having a good time lately. A combination of missing my pills, home and work stuff. All I wanna do is go home and hide. I noticed that I don't post much on social media when I'm down. I usually post everything. What I'm eating, watching, drinking, doing, going. When I'm down, I don't. Not because I'm shying away from social interaction, although that is certainly part of it, but because I'm actually not doing anything. I wonder around the house totally bored. I've got loads of really cool games that I'm really enjoying playing at the moment and we're watching some good things on Netflix and Amazon. But when I'm feeling like this, I don't want to do anything. I want to do something, but everything I think of doing, I don't wanna do! It's infuriating! Hopefully it'll pass soon and I can get on with enjoying life. I've got some plans for some YouTube videos. I definitely can't do them when I'm like this. Everyone who watched will probably kill themselves!

Wrote a whole load of shit after this but decided to delete it, because I know it's just the depression talking. I'm going to be fine in a couple of days.

Take care x

Leonard Nimoy

I was really upset when I heard the news about Leonard Nimoy's death the other day. I was in a pizza place, waiting for my order when I read the news on my phone. I nearly cried. Star Trek was such a massive part of our upbringing. Dad was mildly obsessed. We had a load of episodes on VHS and we'd regularly watch them on weekend mornings before my parents got up. We had so many Star Trek toys and book and whenever we'd play Star Trek, I was Mr. Spock. I vaguely remember playing a Star Trek RPG when I was in school and I played a science officer just like Spock. Also our latest obsession on the TV was Fringe which Leonard Nimoy played such a huge part in.

It's lovely reading all the nice things people close to him are saying on Twitter etc. It's nice to know that he was a lovely man that everyone enjoyed working with and just being with. I'm genuinely going to miss seeing him on my screens. The first celebrity death that has truly affected me.

Live long and prosper x

Focus David

Really tired today. My one year old son Irving, who still sleeps in the bed with us, was up all night. This coupled with working late on Laura's vlog meant that I didn't get much sleep last night. Now the coffee needed to stay awake is setting off my restless leg syndrome something rotten. Oh woe is me.

Still, it's Friday and I'm looking forward to buying some stuff off of Xur on Destiny tonight. My hunter is definitely getting that cool looking helmet and my warlock hopefully has enough strange coins to get that chest piece. Still waiting for my older brother to join PlayStation Plus so I can help him out on story mode.

Laura's pretty busy all weekend, so I'm going to have my hands full with the kids, but I hope to be able to do a YouTube post on some retro games that my younger brother managed to get working on my PC the other day so look out for that.

Starting to think about all the things I need to do next week and it's stressing me out. Focus David. It's Friday. Watch Angel with the kids, drink wine, eat nice food, play Destiny. That's all I've got to worry about for now...

What are your plans for the weekend?

Take care x

Nom Noms: Trofie With Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Check out my first foody video on YouTube and please comment and subscribe! Take care x

Bosch

We finished watching Bosch last night. I really enjoyed it. I've read reviews that say "it's not great television but it's very watchable". I disagree. I think it is great because it's not television. Amazon, Netflix and even PlayStation exclusive shows have a unique position, in that they are not yet bogged down in a mire of executive producers, brand protectors, accountants, accountants and accountants. This allows the very creative show producers an enormous amount of creative freedom and boy does it show in Bosch. 

If executive producers and commissioning editors editors are to believe, you the stupid audience might not get many elements of Bosch. There are very few establishing shots to let you know where you are. The show could cut from detective Bosch having a conversation with his lieutenant and walking out of the room, to a close up of a record player, playing some jazz. Then it would cut to an interior of Bosch in his apartment reading through the case files. Was I confused? No. Did I care? No.

The other amazing thing they did was not giving you any idea of passage of time. It could cut from Bosch waking up in the morning, drinking some coffee, noticing something in the case file, to later on that night and he's having a meeting with someone at a bar, then the next day and it's lunch time... It would skit all over the place like that with no indication of the passage of time. Was I confused? No. Did I care? Actually yes, I thought it was brave and brilliant.

There was very little non diagetic music in the show, very few surprises or twists, no shock deaths of main characters. There were a few clunky lines of dialogue, but it didn't bother me too much. In all it was a very rounded show. Ten episodes, perfect length. No massive cliff hangar. Left me feeling very complete. During the show however, and despite the lack of music, it had me feeling for every person. Real emotional attachments to very well written characters. There were some real tense moments without using any of the normal cinematic techniques.

Inevitably this microcosm of the industry will succumb to the pit falls of regular television, I have no doubt. Money always wins in the end. But whilst we have these truly independent productions, we should relish them and enjoy them for their differences to "normal" television. I'm looking forward to finishing watching Constantine on Amazon next and I'm very much looking forward to an adaptation of one of my favourite comics Powers, coming to PlayStation Network soon.

Take care x

I'm back!

That straight off the bike look.

Hi there. I'm back. It's been almost two years since I last used this blog. I've been feeling the itch for a while now. It's funny, I absolutely hated writing in school and college. I'd always leave essays until the last minute and rush through without a care. Now I really enjoy writing and wish I could go back and do it all again. Education in wasted on the young... So true.

I'm not going to regale you with tales of the past two years. You can figure it all out yourselves through reading my blog, following me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. If you are going to look me up on Facebook, don't try and add me as a friend unless you actually know me as I only add real life friends and acquaintances. But I have now placed a "follow" button on my page for everyone else, so please "follow" me :/

So let me get stuck in. I've recently discovered YouTube. Yeah, I knew all about it for years and have been posting videos of my kids for the family and what not. But I've now started following a load of vloggers and content creators such as Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton, Jenna Marbles, Julian Solomita and Epic Meal Time to name but a few. And it's made me think... I could do that. I don't know... I'm not going to pretend I'm gonna be as funny as them or as well thought out and well made as Epic Meal Time, but I thought I'd give it a go. I was gonna dive right in with a brand and some themes, but then I thought it might be best to start more organically. Laura is well up for it too and is already thinking of starting her own channel. So I've started videoing random things to see what happens. The first one that I think will be going up on my channel will be food related. I love cooking and do it a lot. I'm no Michelin star chef, just good old home cooked food. Sometimes I'm an out of the packet kind of guy and sometimes I'm a lot more adventurous. Last night I cooked trofie pasta with a roasted red pepper and tomato sauce with fresh basil and mozzarella. I filmed it. I'm gonna edit it together and post it and see what happens. Other ideas include weekly update vlogs, chats about video games, board games, film and tv, with and without Laura. So... keep an eye out and please tell me what you think. 

Take care x