This past week was a series of impromptu viewings of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, specifically the first three. It was my girlfriend who wanted to watch the movies, so I did not entirely sit through each one. I’m familiar with the series already, but having them on throughout the week got me thinking about trilogies, and the many things the series did right that made it compelling.Read More »
This past week I began watching Breaking Bad, a series known to be one of the best to ever grace television. Despite its notoriety, I’ve only just now gotten around to starting it. So far I am only two episodes deep, but I’d like to talk about first impressions because of a comment my friend made when we started it together. They remarked that they — and a lot of other people — didn’t like the first couple of episodes of the series, and it wasn’t until the season really got going that the series began to shine.Read More »
For my birthday last month I received a copy of Hyrule Warriors for the Nintendo Wii U, which is a Dynasty Warriors styled game set in the Legend of Zelda universe. Although by this point I’ve had the game for quite a while, I’ve only just started getting into the meat of it. I’ve never played a Dynasty Warriors game before, so it took me a while to both fully grasp what I should be focused on while playing, as well as become more invested in what I was playing. I found how different it is from a traditional Zelda game to be more of a barrier to entry than I thought.Read More »
This past week, the topic of writing was briefly brought up between a co-worker and I. He mentioned that he’d always wanted to write a novel, but he could never think of an original story. This is something I have struggled with, along with many other young writers I have met. We all strive for the one idea that will grow into a great and original story that nobody has quite read before. Another friend and I also knew of a young writer who apparently had an idea “so original” she dared not explain it for fear of it being stolen, leaving her without any constructive feedback.
Maybe she did have a very original idea that could be a phenomenal success, but I have my doubts. My reasoning for this is not out of jadedness or cynicism, but simply that I have come to learn that there is no such thing as a purely original story idea. Furthermore, if you strive too hard for this ideal of originality you can potentially stonewall your creativity.Read More »
As I’ve mentioned and written about a number of times already, I have been watching a lot of Doctor Who. I refrained from writing about the show during October, since I wanted to focus more on horror in honour of Halloween. Now that we’ve entered November, however, I feel free to return to the well of Doctor Who once more for a topic of musing.
At this point, my friends and I are almost completed the sixth season, so we are well into the Matt Smith period of The Doctor. Despite this, however, I feel I need to pay my respects to the tenth Doctor, David Tennant, who has easily been my favourite of the three incarnations of the Doctor I have known so far.Read More »
This past week I finally managed to watch Xtro, a 1983 British science fiction horror film directed by Harry Bromley Davenport. I first heard about the film when it was discussed on RedLetterMedia’s show Best of the Worst, where they deemed their selection of the film an accident because they found it to have legitimate quality. This piqued my curiosity, so watching it this Halloween season became a priority of mine.Read More »
The Halloween season has had me watching a lot of horror movies, but unfortunately there hasn’t been a singular film I’ve wanted to talk about. There is one exception, but I’ve yet to watch it, so I’m putting writing about it on hold until next week. What I have been thinking about, however, is my feelings about what I’m watching when it is with other people.Read More »
This past week, while visiting family, my father asked me an interesting question — which I’m sure was inspired by the Halloween season. He asked me if I thought it might be possible in a place where great human suffering had taken place that something could be imprinted upon that location; something that could be measured by science, but right now is outside of human understanding. Essentially, it was a question of whether or not I see any possible truth to cases of hauntings in the world.Read More »
This past week October began, and in keeping with the season building up towards Halloween, my friends and I began watching horror and Halloween themed films. While there are many more classics to watch as well as some new great and interesting stuff, a lot of what we have watched so far have been in the realm of the “found footage” subgenre.Read More »
Over the past three weeks I have been watching a lot of Doctor Who — which I discussed starting here — and I am currently in the middle of the fourth season. David Tennant is still going strong as the Doctor, and the companions have changed a number of times now.
Knowing what’s to come in the future with Matt Smith and subsequent companions, coupled with all the changes that have already taken place, I have been thinking more and more about how daring of a series Doctor Who really is, and how brilliantly flexible the universe has been written.Read More »
Muse with Me 