Some photos I took yesterday

I know I've been pulling up a ton of old photos that I've taken and sharing them with you all, but yesterday I had a chance to take some more photographs. It's been a while since I've done any photography, so I'm really pleased with how some of these turned out. All photos were taken on Prestwick beach.

The beach was covered in frost, that's why the sand looks a bit weird, but it was a beautifully sunny morning when we were there. It barely felt like winter.

Tons of these little wading birds were dotted around the sea front, indistinguishable from the pebbles until you really looked at them and noticed them moving. I saw one on its own and couldn't resist trying to take its picture. I really like the wave breaking in the background of this photo too.

If you have any thoughts about my photographs, please leave a comment below. You can also get in touch over twitter (@kafoomph) if you want to, and, as always- Thanks for reading!

MK film review pt 2- Character Introductions

     Yeah I'm writing more on this because in my last post about this (here) I just slightly scratched the surface as to why I think the first Mortal Kombat film, released in 1995, is better than most folk make out. I'm going to be actually talking about the film itself, focusing this post of it's character introductions. If you've not seen the film this whole series of posts is possibly going to be spoilery, but the film was released over a decade ago, and I'm not sure if those kinds of spoilers count.

         I feel the way that MK introduces its characters is very clever. The film opens focusing on Shang Tsung, its main villian, killing Chan Kang in a nightmare of his brother's- Liu Kang, the films hero. In barely a few minutes the whole push of the film is shown, as Liu sets out on his quest for revenge. The film segues into the introduction of Sonya and Kano, as well as a brief look at their history together. Kano is set as Shang Tsung's willing puppet and the lure for Sonya to enter the competition. To quote Shang Tsung, "You [Kano] killed her partner didn't you? She'd follow you into hell..." And she does. We cut to Los Angeles, California next, and to Johnny Cage kicking the hell out of four armed guys in suits. It turns out to be the set of his latest film and we find that he is bombarded with accusations about being a fake. His former karate master visits him at the studio and tells him of a competition where he can prove to the world that he can actually fight, although all is not what it seems, as the image of Cage's master was just an illusion created by Shang Tsung. But Cage's desperation to prove he can fight means that he'll be at that tournamet. The next segue goes back to Liu Kang as a means to introduce Raiden and commits Liu Kang to entering the competition.

       Already we've been introduced to our main villian, our main good guy and our three potential heros. Liu Kang is the reluctant hero, revenge driven to avenge his brother, he knows the danger he is going into and he goes willingly, even if not for the right reasons at first. Sonya is, again, driven by revenge, unaware of exactly what she's getting herself into until she's in the thick of it. Johnny Cage is driven mostly by vanity, the want to prove himself in battle- not an ignoble thing in itself, but his motivations are selfish and he comes across as such. To me the characters introductions work very well at hinting to the characters of each person in the film and gives the reason behind why they're even at the tournament. All we're left to do is enjoy watching them overcome these flaws as they fight in mortal kombat.

This took so many attempts just to get finished thanks to my lappy's failings, but I'm so glad I got it done. I'm still looking forward to going into more detail about this film, although I'll try not to bore you too much with it, and I hope that if you've never seen the film, you're at least curious about it now. Thanks so much for reading and if you have any feedback I'm happy to hear about it. Bye!

Computer woes

Hey folks, my laptop keeps crashing. It's making it difficult to sit and properly edit the huge post that I want to put up and I'm out tomorrow (hopefully taking more photos). I thought I should let you know cause I've not updated for a wee bit, but I'm hoping to get the post done tomorrow, and get started on another series of posts that hoping to put up in a while. So because this is such a short post I'll leave you with a picture to make up or it. This is a bottle I engraved for practice. I still have the bottle and I now have a bigger version of the bottle that I'm hoping to experiment with.

Thanks for reading!

Reading Bad Machinery...

...And I love it. I've been reading it since the end of Scary Go Round. But I decided to marathon it last night. I love it way it's broken into cases the children in the comic investigate, a collection of short stories, each story kind of ramdomly wanders with somewhat brief flashes of surrealism. These stories are sometimes punctuated with stories from the former characters from Scary Go Round in their current lives. It's a great way to catch up with old characters from the old comic.
If you're in need of something to read I highly recommend it, it's one of my daily reads. Here's a link to their archive and I'd also suggest looking over Scary Go Round if you have the time. Both comics are great, but I do appreciate the childrens characters in Bad Machinery, they sometimes remind me of people I used to know.

Some more old photos

I used to go to gigs a lot. It was one of my favourite pastimes and when I started getting interested in photography it made sense to combine the two. I photographed mostly local bands, not many of the bigger venues that I went to were keen on letting people in with digital SLRs, but a lot of the smaller venues were totally fine with it. The picture below was taken in Preston at a Biffy Clyro gig, it's of drummer Craig Kneale of Twin Atlantic.

This other picture is of Katie Harkin vocalist of Wichita Recordings band Sky Larkin. This photo was taken at their headline show at the Captains Rest in Glasgow. 

It was a fun gig, support coming from Dutch Uncles and Male Pattern Band. Katie often works with other bands which keeps her really busy. To be honest, I'm not sure what's happening with her, or Sky Larkin at the moment.
If you have any comments about the photos, or the bands, please leave a comment. Sorry for the lack of posts yesterday. I found a livestream of kittens and then was out until the early hours of the morning, it was quiet distracting and totally my bad. Thanks for reading.

An in depth look at the Mortal Kombat film

This is probably going to be spread over a couple of posts because I started writing out my notes for this and  my notes alone took over a page once they were written out. I decided to write out why I love the 1995 film Mortal Kombat, and why, for a video game film, it isn't a bad film.

I'm starting with my weakest arguement, nostalgia. Of course I find this film nostalgic, I was seven when it came out. I still have my Mortal Kombat cartridge for my Gameboy, and I have strong memories of being really excited for this film when it was coming because I liked the game so much. Nostalgia is an easy argument to pull for any film made in the 90's I feel, but for me, Mortal Kombat is slightly different from films such as Jurassic Park or Ghostbusters. When we got rid of our VHS and moved onto a dvd player, I kept looking for a copy of Mortal Kombat on dvd because I didn't want to lose that film. I know now that it's really easy to get, but back when I was thirteen and had no internet, it felt like if I missed my chance to buy it in a shop, I could lose the film forever. Even then, I could recite huge parts of the dialogue from the film, nowadays I could probably recite all of it, and probably get a number of the songs used in it right as well. For some reason, when I was a kid, this film meant something to me, and that's stuck with me since then. The reason this is my weakest argument is because nostalgia is something that's very personal, and I hope I've conveyed my personal nostalgia eloquently for you all.

Another thing I want to touch on in this post is the ageing of the film. I still watch Mortal Kombat, probably more than I should, but it's something that I still enjoy. The fact it was made seventeen years ago could lead to it feeling dated, but I don't get that when I watch the film now. Heck, even looking up some of the actors now it doesn't feel like it's been 17 years. I think the reason that MK hasn't aged much is because the basic story to the film is older than anyone reading this blog. It's two parts revenge quests mixed with a little self proving, with a few ninjas thrown in for good measure, and lets be fair, revenge hardly ever goes out of style. Even the special effects in most places (not in all, but I'll get to that when I'm talking CGI) doesn't really feel dated, and to me that's one of the most telling things in a film to it's age.

If you agree or disagree, I'd really love to hear why. I'm going to write more on why I love this film, and I'm going to focus on more critical aspects of it, but, I'm always up for hearing other peoples thoughts, no matter what they are. Sorry it's such a long post, but Mortal Kombat is something I can get quite carried away with. If you do want to comment you can leave me a message here, or you can tweet me @kafoomph. And, as always, thanks for reading!

More Photography

This time the picture I want to share is one I took earlier this year. It's of a lily pond in the grounds of the St. Paul's Catacombs in Rabat, Malta. The catacombs themselves are a sight to see, but I did love the fact the surrounding grounds where so full of plant life and colour that I found myself taking pictures of things like this lily pond.

Malta itself was somewhere I'd never considered going before but I had a great time while I was there. The amount of history on this tiny island was an amazing thing to comprehend. There were neolithic sights open to the public, tons of history on the churches in the country and how they came to be in Malta, and even history as recent as the part they played in the second world war. I feel like I barely scratched the surface while I was there and I do want to go back, along with all the other countries I visited in the last couple of years. Any excuse to go exploring really.

Thanks for reading!

Dinosaurs

I spent most of today drawing some very happy dinosaurs.

Even though this is a rubbish picture (it was taken on my phone- I have no scanner :c) I hope you like it anyway. 

Sorry it's such a quick post today, but I'm hoping the picture kinda makes up for it. I've always really liked dinosaurs from when I was young, but I've missed out on a ton of discoveries since then. I'll maybe take a day to brush up on my dinosaur types and families. Do you have a favourite dinosaur, or are they just not your thing? Let me know in the comments below.
As always, thanks for reading!

Dilemma

I think I've fixed the legs! But now I'm afraid to ink it.
Because what if it's wrong? What if it's bad, or I change my mind, or if I've got the proportions wrong.

I used to love Batman, then I tried to draw him.

Also, planning out coding another game in my head. I'm looking at a different engine to Byond for this one, thinking maybe RPG Maker. It's tons more complicated than the Pacman recode that I did for the Gishwhes thing which is equally scary as it is neat.

However, it has been a long day so I best be off. Thanks for reading!

Neverending...

I feel like I've spent the last two days staring at legs. Not a wide variety of legs, just the same two legs. They're not even sexy legs- they're Batman's. Not that Batman's legs aren't sexy, they're just not my kind of sexy. Actually, are they sexy? And I'm rambling... Anyway, try as I might I cannot get this particular pair of pins to look right.

The story behind this is that I wanted to actually update my twitter and make it look semi decent. I've got a profile picture that I want up, and the background should be done, except for them damned legs. The problem is, if I keep the legs I've got (knowing full well you'd never be able to see the thing properly on twitter) the image feels very flat and disproportionate. I've got other problems aside from the legs, but the legs are the one thing that's really bugging me. I don't want to rush this either, it's been the first thing that I've wanted to create in a while that I feel I can finish. Maybe it'll even look good, who knows. Right now though, the picture feels flat and horrible, and I don't like it. But it can be fixed, I think.

I'm both dreading and looking forward to the colouring. I'm going to try and digitally colour it, something I am terrible at. Maybe I'll colour the original in too, I'm unsure as the paper's very worn. I think markers would work really well for it. Or inking it, but that would take a lot more practice.

Once the picture's complete I'll post it up here so you can see it in it's full glory, and I'll link my twitter when it's up in case you're interested in my bitesize ramblings, or you're curious to see who I follow online (it's not that interesting really...) If you have any comments I'm always happy to hear, of if you have an opinion on Batman's legs- sexy? Yay or nay? Just leave a comment below.
As always, thanks for reading!

Photos from a Gishwhes shoot

One of the Gishwhes hunt items was to get a video of a girl sitting with some snakes. While we were shooting the video I took the chance to take some photos. Now that the competition is closed and the entries are being judged I figured it should be okay to share my photo's here. I hope you like them : )

I'll share some of the other's here later, but I figured these two were a good place to start. The girl in the photos is Amanda and the snakes were provided by Pro-Exotics in Paisley. Pro Exotics is a pretty neat store in Paisley that has a sister store in Greenock, they sell a range of reptiles and reptile environments/foods and can provide boarding for a short while. The staff were amazingly helpful with our strange request to 'borrow' a few of their snakes and they were wonderfully helpful with the whole process. They have a facebook page here. They do have a website, but it's currently being updated.

Also, now I really want a pet gecko. I've always really like them, but seeing how cute the lizards in ProExotics were, just made me want one even more.
Thanks for reading! 

So yeah, normality?

Normality is totally not what happened, but it's my fault. I forgot some stuff was happening this week and I've been totally thrown off by it. However I've had an idea for some drawings that I want to do so I'm pulling out tons of research material on the Art Deco movement and how it's used nowadays. It's for a character redesign project I want to work on (purely for myself so everything will go up here) and I'm looking forward to sharing it.

One of my main inspirations for this was Aaron Diaz, author and artist of Dresden Codak (found here) and his redesign of Batman. Dresden Codak already implements a lot of art deco design in it's architecture and fashion, especially in it's latest story arc, and it's making it a real joy to read.

I must admit in high school I disliked art deco as a design. I prefered gothic architecture and for art I was still finding my feet with surrealism and impressionism. And none of them I indepthly studied. It's something I regret of high school. I was there for so long with people that just wanted to teach me, but I didn't want to be taught. I wanted to learn, but learning something and being taught are different things to me. So now I try to teach myself.

The other thing I'm using as inspiration is the Bioshock games. Mostly a playthrough of Bioshock 2 done by a guy on youtube called Rythian (see his videos here!) He has a tendency to pick gorgeous looking games with great and indepth storylines that are actually pretty fun to play, and the best bit is, he plays them for the story. So there's no talking over any really cool plot points. It's something I really appreciate. And it's good research because a gaming environment cab give a style more depth than it can on paper, so it's a good way to get a feel for the style without visiting tons of art deco style buildings (I believe there's only one where I live. GG)

When I get the redesigns started I'll share the process here. In the meantime we're all still waiting to hear what's happening with the Gishwhes stuff, and I'm hoping to do some engraving tomorrow, if I don't get distracted that is.
Thanks for reading!

Gishwhes is over

And we've done the best we can. Now we just have to wait and see what happens now. The likelihood is that we've not won but it was a strange experience. Some parts of it were even enjoyable, but I'm kinda glad it's over.

I don't know if anyone else reading this will have taken part, but do you have any crazy stories to share? I was mostly a background character in my group, but there were some items that were just too crazy not to get involved in.

So it should be back to normality now, right?

The worst possible thing

Fate can be a right pain in the behind at times. Especially when it comes to me and computers. My humble little laptop that I do everything on decided that this would be the week it broke in the most frustrating way ever- it refuses to connect to our wireless.
I've checked our router, and the problem doesn't seem to be with it, my brother can connect fine when I'm getting nothing, or worse, it sees our wireless but says that I can't connect to it without giving me an error report.
I'm wondering if I've maybe downloaded a virus, but the last thing I downloaded was the Byond engine, and that was safe. My partner has the exact same engine on his computer and it's ran fine. I don't know why it's my wireless that's been specifically targeted either, but it's a pain because a) I'm doing this Gishwhes thing and internet is kinda a requirement, b) I live on twitter and youtube, and c) I need the internet to look for work and keep track of my comissions.
It has been really frustrating this week but at the same time I know I shouldn't complain. There are people on the East coast of American that have lost everything. So I'll be annoyed at this a bit longer until I can get it fixed, and I'll keep reminding myself that it's not that bad in the grand scheme of things.

Thanks for reading this confusing ass rant.

No news today

I'm playing Worms Crazy golf with my brand new pet diggle. And hopefully gonna get a fairly normal sleeping pattern.
Have a great weekend everyone. Thanks for reading.

Another Gishwhes update

Gishwhes is taking up a lot of my time at the moment. However I'm hoping that later today (after I sleep and deal with a few things in the morning) that I will get everything that I can do for the competition done. Coding the Pacman reboot took longer than I'd thought (so many bugs :c not a bee in sight :,c) and it was finally finished and confirmed as working about an hour ago. So! The video for that will be recorded and we'll try to get a few other things done as well.

I'm doing Gishwhes with two of the guys from another blog that I used to write reviews for, Mark and Jim. The rest of the people in my group I've not met, or they're the American half of the group, in which case I'm not terribly likely to meet them unless we win. But it's been interesting. It's cool to see what items on the scavenger list that people think they can do, and are really keen to do.

The reason, well a few reasons really, that I'm trying to wrap up my participation tomorrow are so that if anything needs redone, checked or changed, I have time to do that. Secondly it means that everything I'm responsible for, and potentially stopping someone else on the team from doing, is done and therefore anything I haven't done is fair game. And thirdly, Gishwhes happened to fall when my birthday is, and I wanted to not have anything preying on my mind while I was trying to goof off and play computer games. Even though Gishwhes has ruined my sleeping pattern, it's been enjoyable, but I want to ruin my sleeping pattern getting stuck into some Cthulhu Saves the World for a bit. So I'll sacrific a few more hours to getting some stuff sorted, but then I'm done.
Thanks for reading!