What I'm reading Wednesday - The Wicked Girls

I remember this girl I went to primary school with that never had shoes, her hair was covered in lice and her house was one that I never wanted to go inside.

Her house was opposite the park and the magpies would swoop me while I'd ride past in my fluro pink helmet that I spray-painted to be brighter.

That girl completely reminds me of one of the characters out of the The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood

I'm currently almost half-way reading it and it has really sucked me in. I'm new to the crime genre, but I've read enough to be fairly confident what I like and do not like.

What I like: 
- To be surprised
- Horrified
- Feel good that my life isn't as nuts
- Realistic characters that I feel like I could have a conversation with.

What I don't like:
- Stereotypical characters (everyone has flaws, but making a thing that that is what makes them different lame).
- Unbelievable plots or storylines
- Words and phrases and descriptions that are stupid

The Wicked Girls ticks all of my like boxes.

It is engaging, highly disturbing, not filled with police jargon (another thing I hate) and doesn't treat you like you are an idiot. Alex Marwood has been able to create characters that are realistic and a plot that is completely fucked up (in a GOOD way though). Although it is a familiar style jumping back and forth and between characters, it is building to something that is hopefully worth it. These girls did something pretty messed up when they were little.

I'll keep you posted.

Halo 4

This week's game review is that of Halo 4!

Halo 4 is the next game in the series featuring John-117, or the Master Chief. This game is developed by 343 Industries, the new developers of the Halo series.

The game is set 4 years after the events of Halo 3, set mainly of Requiem , the recently discovered Forerunner Shield World. 343 Industries has you fight new enemy types, known as Prometheans, a group of "advanced defense AIs" There are only three types of Promethean, but they are formidable enough when you fight them.

The campaign, while short, is enjoyable enough. for any average gamer, the campaign will take 5-10 hours on Normal difficulty. To find the collectibles and gather achievements on each mission will have you replaying the game several times. The story is coherent enough though one of the later missions really felt like a half hour filler.

The chief also teams up with Spartan IVs in the campaign, which was nearly a game breaker for me, as the Chief is meant to be "The Last Spartan" and a "Lone Wolf". However, the missions were varied enough, I actually needed the spartan's help.

The scenery is full of intricate detail and looks wonderful throughout the whole game. The soundtrack wasn't by the usual composers of the Halo series, but it sounds great. 343 Also seemed to have some trouble with the strength of the opponents in Normal difficulty, something I hope to see fixed in the future.

The Multiplayer has been given some time and thought, however. It has been separated into two categories  Spartan Ops and War Games, and it has been given a proper backstory for the first time in Halo's history. Spartan Ops is an expansion of the Campaign, however, you play as a Spartan IV rather than the Master Chief. War Games is the new name for competitive multiplayer, and contains all of the best gametypes from past installments, though I was unhappy to see some of the old game types not reappear in this sequel.

Altogether, I enjoyed this game and I give it a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars. The Multiplayer still has a few bugs and the game is a little too difficult, with ammo few and far between, but the game is a must for any old halo fans.

Finally, Here is my NaNoWriMo widget:

Real life is boring to write about.

So I'm beginning to think that my mind is a little dark and twisted. I've been attempting Nanowrimo for the past 8 days and I am really really REALLY struggling.

I had an idea. It was a beautiful idea that I wanted to write about, but for some reason it is really boring me and I have no direction with it. I had real life characters, who were doing real life things, and that is cool and everything, but I am starting to feel bored with it.

Like I always do, when I attempt to write about something normal.

Which is kind of sad, because it actually had quite deep meaning to me and about someone who I really care about.

I like the dark and mysterious. I've always managed to finish stories that I can incorporate the strange, weird and wonderful into. Real life is really boring to write about. Normal is really boring to write about, and I don't know about your experiences, but normal is REALLY boring to read.

I'm sure the person who I had been writing about is looking down on me and rolling their eyes and muttering 'Stop writing rubbish you goose, I'm not going anywhere. Take your time!!" 

I need to stop writing for the sake of writing and actually make some plans.

Plus, they need a kick-ass story instead.  

Do stories need passion, drama, bad things happening for them to be interesting? I think so. I've struggled with the idea that someone will judge me for something I write about, but I feel that I have overcome that hurdle. I don't need to justify the things I write about, and just for the record: no, I did not stab that vampire with two heads in the chest in real life.

I dream about sharks swimming in my front yard, even though I live in the country.

Think Ill stick with writing about that.

Sorry Nanowrimo. Kudos to you Stuart for continuing the challenge. I'll catch up some other time.

Just some clarifications...

So I need to settle something with you (and myself) here.

I am a fan of other things apart from vintage horror movies. I don't actually spend too much of my time watching them (1 a week at the most!), so I wanted to share some other things that I am passionate about.

This is, after all, a blog about stuff AND things. Not just stuff and not just things.

I love music. Like seriously love music. I have my headphones in my ears most of my days at work and have my stereo pumping at home on the weekend. I love finding new music, you just never know when your new favorite song will pop up! Live music = heaven.

I love movies. So today I have discovered the world of Vimeo and short movies ( I know - where have I been?) and will be watching as many as I can forevermore. I love movies with real substance, with real beauty - some explosions are necessary and I hate romance movies.

I love the world. After travelling to Vietnam at the start of the year, I have the itch to travel and my list of places I want to go has grown quite a lot in the last few months. Pretty much, everywhere. I want to experience as much as possible.

I am a news junkie. Hands down. I need to know what is happening as soon as it happens. If I hear an inkling of something happening, I will track down what is going on. It's probably kind of sad. Oh well.

I love to write. But I'm terrible at keeping deadlines or sticking to a particular story for a long period of time. I write because I need to, if I didn't I would be a sleep deprived zombie with a brain too full to function. Writing =sense of the world.

I love to read. I am naked without a book in my hand or on my bedside. I will read anything, and sometimes I will be reading three books at once.

So pretty much to sum up. . . I love life!

A very NaNo weekend!

Hello all! Welcome to another NaNoWriMo post!

Over the weekend, I have been able to achieve a much higher goal than last NaNoWriMo post! I am now close to the 10,000 mark and counting! I have so much story lined up and so few words! I never expected this to happen, to be completely honest.

The story that I am writing sprouted out of my brain and into my laptop first in February this year! I never expected it to grow so large. While I m once again under par for today, I am quite happy with my progress, and I aim to write more than par every day this month, in the hopes that even with off days, I will still win the competition.

Of course, then comes the hard work of editing the novel, and editing again before it is completed some time through next year. I hardly expect this story will stop at 50,000 words either, with the way that I am going. Anyway, here is the little widget that displays my word count:

Here is a sample of what I have written over the weekend:


To be a hired sword, Eikki needed to find a means of sharpening his long nlade. To be a
knife in the crowd, he would have to find a way to practice his skills. Eikki never was one for
stabbing another in the back. He was for fair fights with plenty of flashy sword-play. The life
of a murderer was a bad path to go down, and once you started, you couldn’t come back.
You had to see it through to the end, whatever the end may be. Who knew, though, when
Eikki would get a chance to confront the man? He would have to act as Judge, Juror and
Executioner for the justice system to even notice what was going on.

As you may notice here, I have a new character named Eikki! However, this isn't a new character. It's only Buck with a new name! I didn't feel the name Buck quite suited him, so I renamed him.

Finally, Halo 4 is out TOMORROW, so this week's review may be Halo 4! See you all on Friday!

Universal Monsters Collection - The Invisible Man

I'm slowly making my way through my Universal Monsters collection and the latest instalment was The Invisible Man. 

I seriously liked this movie. Apart from the over the top screaming from the Innkeepers wife anyway. That part was pretty painful and unnecessary but who can ignore the witch-like screams of an old lady?  

I liked that the movie started off with him already being invisible. It wasn't a story about a man going mad with his experiments and suddenly becoming a monster, he was already there at the beginning.

The Invisible Man: "The drugs I took seemed to light up my brain. Suddenly I realized the power I held, the power to rule, to make the world grovel at my feet"

The special effects are so good. Even though you can see his outline and you can tell its fake, there is just something cool about it! 

The vigilantism in this movie is exactly the same as all of the other monster movies - with the hunt on with flaming torches through the bush and finally burning the monster and everything goes back to normal. 

I've worked out that these movies are more about scaring people into fearing God and conforming to societal expectations than the monsters themselves.  

The Invisible Man: "I meddled in things that man must leave alone"

Super Assassin's Creed III Review Post

Hello everyone!

As many or most of you guys know, Assassin's Creed III was released over the last week around the world. With Halo 4 a few days away, I really wanted to get this review out of the way.

I have been playing the single player for maybe 5 hours focusing mainly on the missions, and I'm about 50% through the game. However, I've taken a liking to the new weapons, such as the Rope Dart and the Tomahawk.

Add to this a solid story line with at least one extremely unexpected twist, and you have yourself a reasonable game. To fill it with a vast array of characters from the American Civil War, and the great voice acting just push this game a little further.

Conner also has new skills (moving assassinations, hunting) as well as losing old ones (Ezio's way with the ladies). These new mechanics, when brought into battle make for an interesting advancement from the previous games.

The multiplayer is also strong, however, the multiplayer story line isn't as prominent as in previous releases. There are two new gametypes, Wolfpack and Domination. While I haven't played the latter, Wolfpack is a nice addition to the previous gametypes of the series.

I must admit, when the game was first announced, I wasn't much of a fan, but as more details have been released over time, I have found myself wanting to buy, wanting to play. I am glad I did. I give this game 4 stars out of 5, as there are still a few bugs that needed to be fleshed out before the release of the game.

Finally, just before the australian release of Assassin's Creed III, Smosh released a song titled "The Ultimate Assassin's Creed III Song" Have a listen to it!

For those who are interested, you can keep up with my NaNoWriMo progress by watching this image here: 

This image will be at the bottom of every blog post made by myself this month! Stuart out!

Super Special NaNoWriMo post

Hello internet!

If you haven't read my previous post, (or Googled anything to do with writing), today, November 1 is the first official day of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)! Of course, I am participating, as writing was the reason I started blogging, but now I mainly do it for video games!

Anyway, today, I actually had a HSC exam (the exams I'm sitting in a year) because I chose the right subject to do it today! So, because of this exam, I couldn't actually start writing until 4pm. I wrote non-stop for about an hour, however, and I am about to update my NaNoWriMo account! Because I love you guys, though, I have written 1,396 on day 1, and although I am likely to write more, I'm still 250 words off target (to win you need to write at least 1,669 words a day)

What's that? I haven't actually told you what NaNoWriMo is? Well, it's a writing competition where you aim to write 50,000 words in the month of November. Sound hard? It's actually relatively easy if you are into writing. The hardest competition I have participated in is the Rabbit Hole, which is 30,000 words in one weekend! It's safe to say, I quickly lost that one.

Anyway, I'm just going to throw this in here to test it out:

And here is an extract from my "novel" out of the work I have written so far today:

Emily’s television flicked black and burst into colours as her Xbox powered on. EmiBomb has logged into Xbox Live. A quick button press and she would be playing her favourite game, Knuckleplex – The Last Civilisation. She would feel free of any burdens carried by her and she would be immersed in her gaming world, immune to her surroundings.

It was good to talk to you again! Tomorrow night, I review Assassin's Creed III! The latest game in the Assassin's Creed series! look out for it!

Mind-blowing sentences

So I'm reading the Godfather at the moment.

I've just started book two of the three part series and I'm totally hooked now. Although it was set in the 1940s, I feel like I could run into these characters in the street, and it's a story that surpasses time.

I had to share this one line from the beginning of the story, that I read at least three times and then couldn't stop thinking about it. It's a drool worthy concoction and almost sums up the complete story in one sentence.

After all, we're not murderers, no matter what that corpse valet dreams up in his foolish head.

Sigh.

I immediately thought of this crazed man who drives around taking corpses to dinner, or orders them to be taken straight to the cemetery (for some reason I picture them as skeletons though?).

I'm someone who is big on books being better than the movies and seeing as though the movie is at the top of many ultimate movie lists I wanted to read the book before I watch the almost three hour masterpiece (I'm sure I'll love it :))

What's your favorite classic movie? Comment below!

Happy Halloween!

Welcome minions to one of my favourite days of the year!

I get to talk about horror movies without anyone rolling their eyes and going 'OMG shut up already,' there are skeletons everywhere, and I have an excuse to wear black nailpolish and spiders without anyone looking at me weirdly.

Because of my strange love of vintage horror, I thought I would change things up for a day and do a quick poll around my office about the scariest movies people have seen. Non B & W, gore and slash galore, the stuff freakish nightmares are made of and things that have made people cry uncontrollably.

I have seen a fair few of these, but most I would not ever attempt to watch. I like vintage horror, and I don't like seeing intestines and other things that should be inside one's body.

Feel free to add to the list of movies and of course; HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

So grab your popcorn and watch in no particular order:

- American Psycho 

- Jeepers Creepers

- Wrong Turn

- Paranormal Activity (F*& that shit!)

- Blair Witch Project

- Silence of the Lambs (I loved this so so much). 

- The Birds (Loved it!)

- Psycho (Got a copy for Xmas!)

- The Exorcist 

- The Ring

Halloween CANNOT be complete without at least some reference to the master, Vincent Price. This is a gorgeous film made in 1982 by the then not so known director, Tim Burton. 

Halloween countdown - Classics are the best

Sup peeps.

There is only a few days till the horror that is Halloween and I thought I'd share a true masterpiece I watched over the weekend - Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

I only was introduced to the book not so long ago and even though it was written some time ago, I read it cover to cover and loved it so much.

So when I was looking for something to watch over the weekend and saw they made a movie from the book in 1931 I went GO GO GO!!

My goodness it didn't disappoint. This struggle between good and evil can be interpreted in so many ways, and I love the idea of making a potion to bring out a person's inner demons. Society is made up of so many rules, expectations, ideologies and this stories is about questioning all of them.

They have made a few versions after this one, which I am now reluctant to check out because I liked this one so much.

It made me think though - do re-makes lose a lot of the point in movies through special effects?

I also checked out the 1992 version of Dracula. Apart from Keanu Reeves being a horrible actor (it was like he was just reading his lines!), it was still quirky and weird.  The original was one of the first black and white movies I ever watched, and Bela Lugosi is THE ultimate Dracula. Native Romanian accent, and those facial features that the Count off Sesame Street emulates.


Gary Oldman did an amazing job as Dracula in this version, but I think I just have a soft spot for the original.

C. :)

Halloween countdown - A tribute to Vincent Price

Confession: I haven't blogged in awhile and I haven't actually watched any horror movies in long time either.   I have missed it though.

I think I was trying to be normal? I even began writing a story about 'real life' but it seemed to fail miserably.  It was boring, predictable and I couldn't visualise it without filling it with stereotypical characters.

I guess I was bored and felt boring.

Then I realised my Pinterest boards were filled with dark, mysterious skeletons, spooky pictures and LOTS of black and white photos of history that seem a little creepy these days. I even brought in Halloween decorations for my desk at work.

I missed my creepy vintage horror. I shouldn't fight my love of crappy zombie movies, ghosts, skeletons and the macabre.

I should embrace.

So in celebration of this rekindled romance, I have decided to do a small countdown to Halloween (seeing as though its less than a week away!). Today, is a tribute to a true master of the vintage horror scene - Vincent Price.

In my recent memory anyway, I have only screamed in one movie and you will all laugh at me that it was made in 1956 and featured THE most FAKE skeleton I have ever seen. There is a scene in the movie where one of the women go down into a room in the basement by herself and she is in there by herself until the shot pans out and there is a crazy lady standing next to her. I screamed SO loud because I wasn't expecting it and then laughed at how ridiculous it was. There have been a few remakes of this movie but nothing compares to the original.

Enjoy! 

Novel Tuesday!

Hello everyone! It's my first Novel day Tuesday post, as well as the first non gaming post!

Recently, (almost a month ago) I was shopping around my local Dymocks when I saw the cover of a book that caught my eye. Of course, I had to pick it up and read the blurb on the back cover. Interested, I returned home and Googled the book, fascinated. I read the prologue and decided to buy it the very next day.

If you must know, this is my normal ritual when I discover a new book that takes my interest. I don't really want to go out and buy a book I don't like!

Anyway, this book I picked up was The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. I started reading immediately to find a well written novel by an emerging author. The novel follows Kyler Stern's rise to power from the Warrens (aka slums) to becoming a wetboy or skilled assassin. Throw is a slight hint of magic and the recipe is complete. With the first plot twist about 200 pages in, it is a slow moving book, but after the second on about page 400, the novel keeps twisting and turning unimaginably.

After the initial confusion of a new book and new characters, locations, etc. this book provides a pleasant reading experience, however, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone younger than myself due to the violent and adult themes in this book. However, my younger sister picked this book up as I finished and enjoyed it as much as myself.

I give this book a rating of 4/5, being from an emerging author there are a few flaws in the language used, but it is an enjoyable novel and a good use of 650 pages. This novel will take a proud place on my bookshelf.

As a final little add-on, next month is November, and the month for NaNoWriMo, a competition in which you aim to write 50,000 words during the month of November. However, there is no prize apart from the novel you have just written to edit and send off to a publisher etc.

There is a lot of support throughout the month, along with a giant community who participate with you. If there are any emerging/aspiring writers, I highly recommend you take up the challenge, so if you wish to, click the link below!

NaNoWriMo

Returning to the Roots

Hello again! It's game day Friday and a lot has happened since I last typed!

All across the globe, Pokémon Black 2 and Pokémon White 2 versions have been released in the last week. Due to the incredibly unimaginative titles, I originally didn't intend to buy a copy, however, as a last minute change of mind, I bought Black 2 version on the release date. My local EBGames also sold me the limited edition for regular price because not enough people preordered. Anyway, I recieved a nice little Black Kyurem coin for my troubles.

I haven't made much progress into the games, but the sequels to the original pair do contain original characters, along with flashback missions and a load of bonus features. So far, I am enjoying what I am playing immensely and my 3DS is getting a nice workout after a few months of inactivity.

Anyway, as the newest in a franchise I have so closely followed for nearly 10 years, I am extremely satisfied with the amount of content in the games. What I am dissatisfied with is the lack of good new Pokémon from this generation. They're all rubbish... Example ->

While it's been nice to fill you in on gaming details for the last few weeks, but coming soon is an irregular post on Tuesdays for book rants/reviews... I am close to finishing one book and about halfway through a second, while I also have a third ready to blabber on about. Finally, I have two more sitting on my table waiting to be started. So I should get that up and running soon.

Finally, the next big releases I'm looking forward to are Assassin's Creed III on October 31 and Halo 4 (which I preordered) on November 6! Until then, there won't be too much news about new games that I have, but I still have games that I can talk about which I am currently playing such as Portal 2, Skyrim, etc. There won't be any lack in gaming posts, just the book posts will be all over the place.

Timeless classics

So I have an extremely long to read pile that seems to grow and grow every day. Someone will suggest 'Oh have you read this Carrie?' and if the answer is no, then it is immediately added to the list.

Same with movies and TV shows. I'm keen for anything, open to anything and if it sounds interesting, I will give it a go.

I sometimes think I should just start at the beginning of time and then move slowly forward to catch up. But then I remember this is a silly idea and something I will never adhere to.

So my current list of things I need my brain to consume are:

Books:
- Chocolat (After seeing Joanne Harris at the Writers Festival, this is probably no.1 on the list).
- 1984 By George Orwell
- Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (TOTALLY in love with her work)

TV
- Mad Dogs - Totally obsessed with Ashes to Ashes and British cop shows in general.

- Ashes to Ashes for the reasons mentioned above

- Sons of Anarchy... MUST. FINISH. IT

Movies

- OZ - the Great and Powerful ... OH. MY. GOD. 

- Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter - I read the book while in Vietnam and am skeptical but keen to watch the movie. 

Keen to hear suggestions on what else I should check out.

Friday Nights are for Gaming

Hello everyone! I'm here with more gaming news (I'll mix it up soon, I promise)

I finished Halo 3: ODST (or rather, watched my sister finish for me) finally! This is a very interesting take on the halo franchise, where instead of playing as a legendary Spartan, you play as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST). This game is a semi detective game, in which you wake up 6 hours after drop and must roam the city of new Mombasa to find clues to the rest of your squad's whereabouts. Finding a clue triggers a flashback mission where you play as a squadmate until you eventually link up with your squad and complete your main objective.

This game holds a strong campaign, but the multiplayer is just Halo 3's whacked on a second disk. Props to Bungee for an interesting side game, but they could have worked on it a little more. 7/10  (9/10 for campaign, 5/10 for multiplayer)

I picked up Assassin's Creed: Revelations at EBGames for around $35, on an impulse. I was never going to play this game after the bad reviews I've heard from my friends and the internet, but I felt compelled to complete Ezio's story before starting Assassin's Creed III.

As a strange fan of the series, who never really liked Altair, the segments which you have to play as him don't phase me too much, just so long as it doesn't effect Ezio in any way, which it doesn't apart from learning crucial information about the Apple of Eden.

The multiplayer is tougher than I expected, with no sepperation between ranks, which pulls the overall experience down, but this has to be the second game I've played where the multiplayer is fleshed out properly (the first being Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood), given a story. It's relatively easy to find a game on Xbox, though I have heard it can take up to two hours on PC.

Anyway, I'm satisfied with my recent gaming ventures, and I will hopefully be able to bring you something new soon!

New season TV

I've been waiting for this moment for about 6 months now...

My favourite shows are back!!

It's been too long since Homeland has been in my life and I cannot wait to watch the first episode in the new season. Revenge season finale was mind-blowing and the last bit, with the Florence song was seriously good TV. New Girl is back as well as Parks and Rec! HOORAY!

But there are few other new shows that are making an appearance in the next few weeks that I'm keen to watch.

I do like a good British cop drama... Life on Mars anyone? so I'm keen to check out the new show Hunted which has some chick from Home and Away - Melissa George.

There are a few others but I think the other one I'm pretty keen on is called Arrow. Maybe?

I cut things off as soon as I'm bored so let's see how these go.

What else should I be watching?

Friday Fun

Hello everyone!

I went shopping yesterday for 3 hours. You know what happens when I'm in a shopping centre for so long? I convince myself to buy something.

This time, I bought Alice: Madness Returns. It's a twisted game, showing Alice's story from a more mature perspective. I haven't started playing yet (I was too scared last night when I got home) but I've seen a couple videos on YouTube of this game.

You play as Alice, a psychopath, as you travel through wonderland, murdering all your favourite characters! Why? Her house is burnt down and her family is killed. Alice loses it and Wonderland is twisted by her broken mind. She must find a way to fix it... Or something like that.

When I bought the game, I found out that it comes with a free copy of it's prequel, American McGee's Alice. This is to provide backstory to the second game, though I'm not sure its necessary. I think it's just a free bonus!

However, I bought the game preowned, so I may not be able to retrieve my free copy of the Alice. I'm going to try anyway, so I'll probably let you know in the next post.

This video is the launch trailer for Alice: Madness Returns, just to show you a bit of what it's about better than I can explain it!

Monster Mash Friday

In celebration of these marvellous movies making their way into the world of Blu-ray, which is now at the top of my Christmas wish list, I wanted to share some delightful posters from these movies - part of the reason why I love them so much.

The details, the words used covey a complete overreaction (now anyway) about the movies and the fact that they are not photographed, photoshopped and manipulated is something that adds to the nostalgia.

The movies included in this DVD release are:

• Dracula
• Frankenstein
• Bride of Frankenstein
• The Wolf Man
• The Mummy
• The Invisible Man
• Phantom of the Opera
• Creature from the Black Lagoon.

I have seen most of these movies but when I saw them they had that fuzzy black and white sound to them, fraying edges of the screen and were pretty poor quality. The versions in this collection have been remastered and seriously look cool. This clip shows what the before and after looks like and I must admit I was fairly impressed. 

Movie poster for the Phantom of the Opera:

And just saying, he looks pretty freaky. 

Movie poster from Creature from the Black Lagoon - I want to hang a copy of this one in my study. 

Movie poster from the Invisible Man - HG Wells dreamt some pretty freaky shit. 

But they are all just so cool. 

Laneway excitement!

The Laneway festival lineup was announced this morning and I was SO excited to hear MS MR and Of Monsters and Men are coming to Australia early next year.

The full lineup is available here but to celebrate this excitement I wanted to share a few songs that you might just fall in love with.

Breezeblocks by alt-j

Ash Tree Lane by MS MR

(TOTALLY in love with this film clip)

Book Review Tuesday

As we have moved back to Blogger and have developed a bit more method to our madness (our mother would be so proud), welcome to Book Review Tuesday.

As a distinct number seven personality, please don't think this will happen EVERY Tuesday or even again on a Tuesday, it just happens to be a Tuesday and I have a book I've just finished reading that I want to write about.

So I had a fairly strong dislike to crime fiction and mystery books because either I read the ones that were crap or just the ones that included a very stereotypical main character ... I hate stereotypes and will/have closed books if I even get a whiff. Yep - all it takes for me is a whiff.

I was recommended Gillian Flynn's latest book, Gone Girl by my delightful boss (thank you for my study leave today! I totally nailed my assignment ;-) ) and completed devoured it in a record two days. It was one of those awesome books that I couldn't put down, and then when I did, it spoke to me in my head and I swear my Kindle was making me read more.

So I was keen to read her other work but I didn't want to fall into the trap of being in love with an authors first book and then having those feelings crushed by reading other books and feeling disappointed. It has happened before.

I started reading Dark Place late last week - it was finished on Sunday afternoon - I yelled at the Kindle. Yes. I yelled. Usually I save my yelling for TV and have only done it a couple of times when I've been reading.

If you could describe a book like this without giving too much away, I can do it for this book in five words:

This shit is messed up!!

Holey crapola!! Gillian has this amazing ability to tap into a dark part of society and portray a story that you can completely see it playing out in your head. It's not sugar-coated, the characters have HUGE problems and as a reader - I LOVE IT!

I want to horrified, mesmerised and get insight into people and although this is fiction, you can see it happening and like a crazy stunned bystander, you simply cannot look away.

Find the book on Amazon.

We Are Live From Blogger

Hello once again!

We have returned to blogger in an attempt to mix things up! the perfect day for it too!
As many of you (don't) know, I recently bought an Xbox 360 and I'm slowly expanding my gaming collection. Well, today I bought Halo 3, preordered Halo 4 and bought a 3 month subscription to Xbox Live!

Anyway, We'll be covering a variety of Things here, including gaming, reading, music and movies! I'll be covering most of the gaming side of things, with posts all about the games I pick up and play, whether I like them or not! Also, you will be able to find me online as I play though different games such as Halo, Portal 2's Co-Op campaign, etc.

Not only did I preorder Halo 4, I got the limited edition and it came with a sexy poster which is flattening on my bedroom floor. When that comes out, it'll be around $90 more for me, but I can afford it so I'm quite happy to pay for a bunch of extra stuff.

Seeing as I did go out and spend money on Xbox Live, I redeemed my 3 moths straight away and started playing online. I think I got a rough 2 hours of online play earlier. Anyway, if you wish to play with me (and lose) you'll find me as CorruptedCheese. If you wish to play against me (better idea), fair enough, I won't judge you. I will, however, scream at you through the television. Good thing I don't have a mic.

Anyway, I have been a fan of the Halo series since early on and I have played every game, so I think it's fair to say I know what I'm talking about when I judge the games. To be completely honest, while some reviews have said Halo Reach was too short, I quite liked it as a game and the missions were long enough (about 30 minutes each). The plot was predictable, but that's because you already know that Reach will be destroyed at the end of the game. The ending is quite sad, but the game is pretty nice and tidy. 8/10

Halo 3, it has to be one of me least favourite of the Halo games. The campaign is short (6 hours) but it's about as lengthy as Reach and Halo 1 or 2. The creepy flood infecting the deceased is quite creepy and it scares me every time I see it happen. For this simple thing (should have been there from day 1), I give this game 6/10.

Hopefully Halo 4, under the development of a subdivision of Bungee names 343 Industries, a group focusing solely on the development of Halo games, can live up to its predecessors and surpass some of them. I'm looking forward to playing it with a release date of November 6, I'm really looking forward to this one.

Finally, here is a video I found on YouTube, (It is pretty old) but, enjoy!

Also, Carrie, I hope you don't mind that I made the first post?