The Cardiff Conundrum

So last week, Saturday (the 8th), we decided to head to Cardiff for a day trip. Tom rounded up the gang and drove us to Barry Island, where Philippa lives. The car-ride there was full of BEAUTIFUL singing and general joy-ness, as we drove through beautiful welsh landscape. It was great seeing Pip again, as we haven't seen her since... What, before christmas? Which was only brief as well. So it's safe to say that a day in Cardiff with her was a good idea.

Spent a little time on Barry, saw Pip's house and met her family, which was really nice. I think her sister might be scarred for life, bless her.
So we hopped on to a train to Cardiff from Barry Island, made many jokes about Gwen and Stacey, which was clearly a mistake as the show is called ... Gavin? Gavin and Stacey I think it was. I can't remember. The show is kind of shit anyway, so -erm- I digress...

So we hopped, skipped and jumped on the train to Cardiff where we immediately aimed our noses towards the food. Jamie, Tom and I went to Yo! Sushi, while Nicole and Philippa went on a picnic. Sounded really nice, but you wouldn't believe how nice the food was...

Had several food babies and two dwarves from that.

Don't be racist, I can mention dwarves without being offensive!

After food we browsed in a couple of shops before going to Americandy where some of us tried Twinkies for the first time. I must say, the feller in Zombieland is wrong.

Outside Forbidden Planet-ish, posing in front of
Cardiff Castle, like bad mother truckers!

They are really not that good. They LOOK good, but they aren't all that good... Was rather disappointed about that. The creamy bit ruined it. It wasn't really all that sweet... I think it may have been filled with nasty butter and nasty fatty goo-ness of nastiness. I was hoping for something more sugary, I think. No matter. It can be ticked off my checklist for sweets I have tried... :P

Anyway, we headed to Forbidden Planet, the best place for nerds, where a Spyro pillow caught my eye. It did not come home with me, though, which made me sad. I think everyone else found something, like Tom and his manga and Jamie and his Assassin's bracelet-thing.. You know, the thing the Assassin's Creed feller stabs people with. Without the knife. Which was still pretty bad bottom-looking.

Then we headed (or rather, went for a stroll as we went a terribly long way around) for the Torchwood tower-thing where we all posed like the bad bottomed mother-procreaters we are. Nicole and Jamie quoted both Torchwood and Doctor Who whilst we looked upon their beautiful faces in awe that they actually freaking remember the lines. Which is pretty bad ass, to be fair.

THEN we headed to the Doctor Who experience which we already knew was closed, we did, however, just want to gaze upon the glory that is.. That place. And it was pretty glorious... I can't wait to go there and nerdgasm all over the place. I really can't. And I'm totally buying that Tom Baker scarf even though it's like £50...

The sun was setting as we headed towards it, making it rather scenic, which I naturally went completely tourist over.

We walked past a Norwegian church as well, which was pretty cool. I do miss Norway so I may or may not have gotten a little crazy over that fact.. I swear I'm normal...

We sat down and relaxed after having seen the Big Building of Awesome, and had some crisps and just enjoyed what was left of the sun, as Jamie was vlogging, Philippa, Nicole, Tom and I were video-bombing him like nutters and were generally being very cool...

OH! We also saw Ianto's shrine, which was awesome. I can't believe so many people has written upon a wall for one single made-up character. Which is awesome (and super sad..! (the episode, not the act of making a memory-wall for him)).

This is a sign on the way to the Experience. I thought it was hilarious.

Then we went to Red Dragon Centre, where we strolled casually into an arcade and wrecked havoc. Tom won like 1000 tickets, and got to take two minion mugs, which was pretty cool, the lucky sod. Philippa and I played a 3D zombie game where we owned their buttocks with Epic PWNage and none-noobness. We took some photos in a photo-booth as well, which was fun, we managed to cram all five heads in, only just!

We headed back to Barry after quite a while, actually, in the arcade. We were all quite knackered. It was such a great day, though. No regrets!

We managed to nearly die by crossing in scary parts of the road, we probably freaked quite a few kids out in the Disney shop and we PROBABLY molested things in Forbidden Planet. All in all I think it was very successful day out.

Jamie vlogged throughout and it can be seen right here if you scroll down a wee bit! Do watch it, it is quite long, but I thought it was very funny...

Oh, and I made a short film in there as well! At 18.55 minutes in! Poor Jamie, having me stealing his camera all the time... I must say... When I get an Oscar for the best and most artistic short-film EVER I promise to remember the ones who were there when it all started...
Hah.

You should subscribe to his channel, he vlogs every day, so he's pretty damn active. So that's cool & chilly & junk. Oh, and check out Philippa's blog about our trip as well! Which is HERE!

OK, promotion time is over.

KTHXBYE!

To the old and new.

The puppet master and its puppets.
God I hate them (and I hate to say I "hate" things (heh) but sometimes human emotions takes over so much so you have to blog about them. Oh dear Lord, I should apologise in advance...).

The endless struggle for power and control.
I notice I am a bit of a puppet myself sometimes, the hunger for approval, the extreme satisfaction when I "get to be funny" or "do a good job". It feels good to be a part of the group and be included. I guess you could say that I'm happy.

It doesn't feel good when I'm not, though.
Being the outsider. Being different.
Why is being different so bad? Why are we striving so hard to be the same person?
I say embrace your quirks, don't hide them!

When friends join in on the fun, hiding behind a mask of humour. Or worse, hiding behind their own insecurities. A shell that is only there because they are unable to, or refuse to take it off.
I think it's the worst excuse in the world.
We are, however, kind of the same then. Enjoying to be the puppet. Embracing being weak.
It's like shouting "I don't want any responsibilities!"
I do that. I don't want to create drama everywhere I go, so I lie and just let them be a bad person with their shitty attitude. I don't want the responsibility of my own opinions. That makes me weak. (However I'd like to think I'm not like that all the time. I choose my battles. People I care about I tell the truth to. I let them know about their shitty attitudes or things that might be hurtful or offensive. It could be seen as "kicking off" as it is popularly called, but I try and stay away from that and say things as calmly as possible. I'm far from perfect, I'm probably overly sensitive about things, but if I get an (sincere) apology, then I will probably apologise back for being a bit of a shit.)

"Isn't it great to see how much this person has grown?"
Yes, of course it is. I just wish it wasn't into a piece of clay, moulded by their puppeteer.
For their own sake.
When they join in on the puppeteers train of thought it hurts.
Especially being the recipient. (You'd think a friend would be on your side. I'd like to think that most of my friends would be, though. I'm lucky like that. However it has happened where some haven't been, and it feels like an acid bath. I'm guessing most people can relate to that though.)

But I end up smiling when I realise I'm not the puppet. I realise that I am not the victim of manipulation or being told what to like or how to cause torment upon another person.
I realise I have a personality. I may even intimidate them. That is an exhilarating thought.
That's why I win every time I am the outsider.
I won.
Being fine comes in time.
I am the happiest being by myself because then there are no puppets, no masters. Only freedom to be who you want to be. Freedom to listen to whatever music you want to listen to, freedom to watch whatever you want to watch, freedom to do whatever the hell you like.
It might not be feel good right there and then. Not right away, anyway. But it will, and with that I will be happier than being that pretty puppet with silken strings and no opinions.
Because I won over your power-struggle. I refuse to be controlled, I have no interest in being your clone. You might not end up liking me, you may not agree with me, but why does that matter, really?
Who are you to be liked by everyone, anyway?
You're not that great. I'm not that great. Nobody is THAT great.

No, I don't like you. I don't even want to be near you. I've had too many experiences with people like you, and when I see you, I instantly know what you are.
You make me feel angry. An angry mind is not a rational mind, and nothing good comes from being irrational.

I hope you never experience being a puppet, because who knows?
Maybe you'll end up the outsider.
And I don't want you to be happy.
And that makes me lose because that means I am just like you, and that makes me angry.

Another Minecraft solo-style update.

I've been playing Minecraft a lot this Christmas, and a little bit throughout this year so far. So my world has changed a little bit since the last time I showed off my single player world.
I love showing off my shit.
I'm like a child proudly showing my parents a really shit drawing I spent hours on and it still ended up looking like a sheep with a gout.
It's really hard to make squiggles in Minecraft though.

I think evolution is fun. Well, I mean the evolution of something you create. Well evolution in the original sense of the word is interesting too, of course, but I am trying to say that "hey, it's cool to see how the world changes, even though it might not change all that much." Phew. There we go.

 I updated the enchanting room a little bit. Not sure if I want to add bookshelves into the spaces where the sandstone is, so you get the dip-in effect, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there... Bookshelves are expensive, yo! (I just said "yo"... Hello early teens.)

 So this one is new. Basically straight after I posted the second Minecraft post, I started building this fort. I decided that "Hey, I'm fed up with my cabin and I need to find some new chunks, because this Early-Beta (still gutted that my Alpha world has disappeared into the nothingness. It was such a cool place! But when I think about it, I don't think it actually was THAT cool (forest fires were involved), but I HAD captured an entire mountain so that was pretty cool...) chunk is getting kind of ridiculously boring and stuff-less. I want new stuff!" So I bravely went out and explored. Results are, well, all over the place.

 So I had another gardening-craze. Decided I wanted to display the new trees and flowers (fucking hell... My patience broke. Those flower-bastards are hard to find. Found most of them though, but creative mode supplied the rest... I'm ashamed.) as well as the new look on the mini-farm. And a "hot-tub" to add to the nothingness of the area that used to be there.

 So with new patches, I've got quite a changed view from the window. I painstakingly tracked down horses and led those fuckers back into this pathetic excuse of a pen. That will probably change soon. The trees are Acacias, but they're not usually there, only when I need the wood.

 A map room! The hut looked a little ridiculous with maps covering windows and shit, so decided to just make a new room entirely. I have no idea what to do for this room, but imagining a chandelier. Will probably raise the roof a little bit and add it. That will probably be good regarding the maps too, as I can add more of them.
I love maps. Maps are great.

Changed the roof into dark oak wood, or stairs to be precise. Felt it was long overdue with a stairs-roof so to speak. I also expanded it by 1 block because the fact that it wasn't centred annoyed me ridiculously. Was helped a lot by Malene and Peter to determine which was the best-looking wood (hah), because clearly this is so important I need to shake my friends into helping me. Thanks guys. <3 They are the best to see if it fits or not. I'm like a fucking colour-blind... Um, dog I guess...

Right, so I covered up a hole with leftover wood and it ended up looking like a cheque weird picnic place... I'm still not sure how I feel about it, so it will probably change.Built this over Christmas, the idea of the camp-site is Rebekka's. The location of this is behind the animal pens, so it's not the greatest place, but it will do.

 I also dressed up the mushroom-growing place when I dressed up the cave I mine in. I'm quite happy about this room. However I do think it kind of look like a mausoleum... Or a mushroom-growing place!

So this is going to be a watch-tower. Mark 1 is to the right, Mark 2 is on the left. Decided that Acacia wood is horrendous-looking mixed with other things. I quite like it though, but not on a watch tower. It's hopefully pretty obvious that it is a work-in-progress... Moving swiftly on...

 I updated the animal pens. I felt a little sorry for these poor pixels, so ended up adding a little bit of a twatty roof to it. However, they keep escaping, no matter how much I build on it. Really annoying glitch.

 OKAY! Last one now. This is the basement. Or cave. Whatever fits best really. As you probably can tell, I have a massive boner for the dark wood (maybe not the best phrasing). It looks amazing I think.

Christmas loveliness

So much food... So much food!
This is why I love Christmas. The endless hills of lovely food that you can gorge your face in. Oh I love food... Amazing.
And of course seeing family and friends, don't forget.
Which led me to seeing The Hobbit twice, which is why I'm here today on this lovely evening.
Rant time.

People who don't understand personal space...
In the cinema you are given a seat. A seat to watch the film in. Well I'm sure everyone enjoys having a seat to themselves. Who doesn't.
Then there's this lady-thing.
Sat next to me there was, only something that could be described as the biggest chav in Norwegian history. Probably on a date with her boyfriend or husband or whatever, treating themselves with this months benefits (OK that was mean...) to see this excellent film of extremely attractive short people (not that short people aren't attractive).
Anyway, this being of incredible arseness managed to elbow me throughout the whole entirety of the movie. One could say it ruined the experience ever so slightly.
I tried being polite about it, by slightly shoving her away, or should I say bravely attempting to undo the injustice that was happening in that cinema that faithful day...
Foiled.
Fucking foiled.
No hint was taken that day.
Infuriating.
When the film was done She-Beast and Boyfriend rushed out of the cinema like the impolite monkeys they are/were without apologising when they trampled over my bag... How... What.... I can't even....

Ah but Christmas, oh Christmas.
Filled with beautiful first world problems and glorious food.
I love food.
This holiday basically only consist of food. I could build a fort OF the food eaten. However I would not as it has already been digested, ha ha. Hilarious.
Many lovely presents, of course. Will be nice and warm if the winter properly sets in.
Weather.
Ah, let's leave it there, or one might age rapidly...

Busy bee

So-uh.... Wops...
Uni has been really busy lately with preparing for and doing assessments.
I had a weekend in London with Carina and Frank the 18-20th of October, met up with Aaron and we walked a lot. That was fun. Feet got fucking knackered, though. I'm an avid fan of sightseeing, but walking places can be a bit of a downer regarding that. We went to Platform 9 3/4, we saw the Parliament, unfortunately didn't go to see the Tower of London as the line was... "Massive" doesn't quite describe it.... However, we did catch a show of sorts outside it. That was cool. With canons and stuff.
We saw Charlie and the Chocolate factory - the musical (was good!) and went to a film museum. That was cool.

Going back to do more assessment preparations with Clown Lab which was a lot of fun. Very hectic and filled with very critical feedback, but very good. I really enjoyed that week and was invited to go to London to do another week with them. Which was incredible! I was insanely happy! I met some incredibly talented people, a hilarious lot, and got several pages in my notepad filled with games and exercises.
Score.

Then on out we had intensive bouffon rehearsal before the Great Reveal, or 'the performance' as some call it... It could have gone better, the performance, but good to get it over and done with. Then on to the next assessment, and next and next... It's safe to say that the Christmas holiday came in time this year. Before the waves of mental illnesses came wafting through the snow on a one horse open sleigh.

Anyway, came home and I found THIS beauty!

Looooooook at heeeeeer! I love that little bastard! So happy! Her name is Vitani and she makes me happy!
Such a cutie!