Well, the interview today was rather more formal than I've ever had before - actual questions and answers, much like the kind of thing I was warned about in the employment workshops I attended in Harrow earlier in the year. All the worst imaginable questions - why do you want to work here, give us some examples of x, how would you deal with y, etc. - presented as a basic list... and the funniest thing was that the two people interviewing me seemed as uncomfortable with the procedure as I was.
I'm honestly not sure how it went... there were positive elements - when some of my responses elicited something approaching a conversation, however briefly, before the next question - and there were negative elements - mainly when I was unable to remember specifics for some of the questions. It's also quite possible that they won't be too keen to offer me a role that's significantly more junior than anything I've done in years... but I did tell them I'm proud of my work, not my job title, and the fact that I'm available immediately must surely count in my favour.
Of the two (monthly!) titles they said I'd be working on, at least one is quite high-profile... which could be fun. Of the magazines in their portfolio, neither is one I'd choose... but beggars can't be choosers, as the old saying goes.
In other news, I may well be very near the end of Xenoblade Chronicles... Mechonis is moving, and it looks as though I'm about to enter the final area... That said, some of what I've read about the game only happens after this area is cleared, so perhaps I'm not quite so near the end as I thought... Whatever happens, I'm quite looking forward to getting to the end, not least because it'll bring my total of completed Wii games up to eight (or ten, if I include the two - ridiculously easy - Gunblade games). Woot!
Not quite sure what I'll focus on next... I may try to get into The Last Story again, or spend some more time in Pandora's Tower, or get spooky with Project Zero 2... or go back to something even older. Who knows?
Monday, 6 August 2012
Things Not To Do The Night Before An Interview
There are times when it seems I cannot resist the opportunity to watch terrible movies. Last night, Channel 5 served up a double whammy of unmitigated crap: Ultraviolet followed by Alien Hunter.
In the former, Milla Lubblyjubblybits supposedly plays a vampire - or haemophage, literally 'a thing that devours blood' - yet never actually consumes blood and only once displays the hint of a fang for the briefest moment. It's a sci-fi movie in the loosest sense, and seemingly purely for spectacle - high-tech gadgetry 'explaining' some of the wackier - and almost entirely computer generated - stunts. Being generous, one could give it points for originality in portraying the vampires as the rebel underclass - victims of a virus fighting for their right to existence in a world fixated on purity - but that might also be seen as adding plot where there is none. Much of the movie is made up of fight scenes, and most of the bits in between are clearly just padding... It is said that a good chunk of the movie (the alleged plot) was edited out to give the movie a PG-13 rating, and much of it was restored in the novelisation... but I'm not curious enough to read it.
The latter movie was quite bizarre, in that it really didn't seem to know what it was. Beginning like The Thing (nicking the snowy setting and the 'mysterious object dug out of the ice') it takes a full hour just to reveal the alien... and even then, there's a mixed message. The pod is giving out a signal which is eventually translated (thanks to a videogame reference) as "DO NOT OPEN", surely implying a nasty alien. Rather than being aggressive and dangerous, it's a peaceful alien that just wants to be friends with James Spader - a fatal mistake, as it turns out - only it came packaged with a flesh-eating virus which kills about half the team almost instantly (not that you'd care - there was no emotional investment in any of the characters, and their deaths are completely glossed over) while the others are just carriers/incubators and realise that they have to stay put and await destruction by Russian nuclear submarine. There's some side-story about genetically modified crops which also become victims of the alien virus, and then the survivors end up getting carted off by the aliens - a clean-up crew who were coming to collect their escape pod thing - about three seconds before the nuke hits.
Considering how much time it devoted to (attempts at) jump scares and building tension (both of which failed), it seemed quite bizarre to change tack quite so dramatically. It was like The Thing crossed with ET and The Abyss... only not as good as any of them. Spader's character was supposedly a womaniser, and yet (mercifully, perhaps) there was precious little evidence of that in the movie. The main bulk of the tension came from the debate over what the 'survivors' of the initial virus attack should do, and that was mainly accomplished through shouting.
The title of the movie seemingly comes from Spader's character - a lecturer of some kind with a sideline in looking for sentient life out in space... Very WTF?
I can honestly say that I regret staying up till after 1.30 this morning for that double-bill of dross...
In the former, Milla Lubblyjubblybits supposedly plays a vampire - or haemophage, literally 'a thing that devours blood' - yet never actually consumes blood and only once displays the hint of a fang for the briefest moment. It's a sci-fi movie in the loosest sense, and seemingly purely for spectacle - high-tech gadgetry 'explaining' some of the wackier - and almost entirely computer generated - stunts. Being generous, one could give it points for originality in portraying the vampires as the rebel underclass - victims of a virus fighting for their right to existence in a world fixated on purity - but that might also be seen as adding plot where there is none. Much of the movie is made up of fight scenes, and most of the bits in between are clearly just padding... It is said that a good chunk of the movie (the alleged plot) was edited out to give the movie a PG-13 rating, and much of it was restored in the novelisation... but I'm not curious enough to read it.
The latter movie was quite bizarre, in that it really didn't seem to know what it was. Beginning like The Thing (nicking the snowy setting and the 'mysterious object dug out of the ice') it takes a full hour just to reveal the alien... and even then, there's a mixed message. The pod is giving out a signal which is eventually translated (thanks to a videogame reference) as "DO NOT OPEN", surely implying a nasty alien. Rather than being aggressive and dangerous, it's a peaceful alien that just wants to be friends with James Spader - a fatal mistake, as it turns out - only it came packaged with a flesh-eating virus which kills about half the team almost instantly (not that you'd care - there was no emotional investment in any of the characters, and their deaths are completely glossed over) while the others are just carriers/incubators and realise that they have to stay put and await destruction by Russian nuclear submarine. There's some side-story about genetically modified crops which also become victims of the alien virus, and then the survivors end up getting carted off by the aliens - a clean-up crew who were coming to collect their escape pod thing - about three seconds before the nuke hits.
Considering how much time it devoted to (attempts at) jump scares and building tension (both of which failed), it seemed quite bizarre to change tack quite so dramatically. It was like The Thing crossed with ET and The Abyss... only not as good as any of them. Spader's character was supposedly a womaniser, and yet (mercifully, perhaps) there was precious little evidence of that in the movie. The main bulk of the tension came from the debate over what the 'survivors' of the initial virus attack should do, and that was mainly accomplished through shouting.
The title of the movie seemingly comes from Spader's character - a lecturer of some kind with a sideline in looking for sentient life out in space... Very WTF?
I can honestly say that I regret staying up till after 1.30 this morning for that double-bill of dross...
Sunday, 5 August 2012
The Sky Is Falling
Or, more accurately, the paper covering on my ceilings is coming down in the hall.
So, no, not a reference to the new Bond movie...
One strip of this paper, which had been hanging down in a quite distracting manner for weeks, came down with very little effort on my part.
There's something just not right about the ceilings in my flat... either they're leaking, staining and growing mould, or they're getting so bone dry that the glue used to put the paper up there is breaking down. I suppose it doesn't help that there's about a dozen layers of paint up there, so the paper is glued to a surface that is, to some extent, inherently unstable.
In other news, I've been called in to interview for a 10-month contract job tomorrow - I'd originally suggested this last Friday, given the option, but the company decide it's Monday or nothing... Strange, but still acceptable. Their address - or, more specifically, the postcode I was given - doesn't pinpoint their location very well, so I had to traipse down there just to be sure I knew where to go tomorrow. The route is simple enough and, just for once, it's not in Zone 1, so my journey would be slightly cheaper.
Meanwhile, I've made quite a bit of progress in Xenoblade - I'm in Agniratha, and at the point where I need to face off (har har) against Jade Face. So far, he's decimated me every time... I suspect I need to sort out my equipment and gems, to optimise my characters against his attacks. That he calls in support every so often - as one of his attacks - is a real pest, because it means breaking off from attacking him to deal with his support drones, allowing him time to charge up his other attacks. I'll get there eventually, I guess... It's kind of like that earlier story battle that gave me so much trouble, right up until it didn't...
I've racked up about 150 hours so far (possibly more), having gone back to previous locations to complete some challenge quests and pick up a few new sidequests. The setup, whereby some quests only become available when you have a certain level of affinity for a location, is quite novel... but it does get a bit frustrating tracking people down, and continually adjusting the clock to get the right people in any given location, in the hope that they will be ready to give out a new quest.
A couple of quests are no longer available to me - may not become available again - because of the battle currently being waged in Sword Valley/at Galahad Fortress... Not sure they're massively important...
One thing that really bugged me about one part of the game - Valak Mountain - was that there are a couple of areas of the map that are inaccessible except through complicated aerobatics. The game isn't really designed with these in mind, which makes some locations effectively impossible to get to. I'm sure it's all intentional - less skilled players surely shouldn't be allowed to try quests that would probably kill them... But the 'Balance of Power' mission is easily opened, yet ridiculously difficult to complete.
Of course, I can't sign off without mentioning Torchwood: Children of Earth. I wrote about it back in 2009, when I first saw it on telly, and my opinions haven't changed that much. I think the biggest problem with Torchwood as a whole, writ large in CoE and Miracle Day, was that too much of it relies on elements of Captain Jack's backstory that don't come to light until quite late in the story. Some of it - his past association with Captain John Hart, or the missing brother, Grey - are largely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things... But, when you have a story like Children of Earth, it's a huge mistake to make Jack's more recent family ties a crucial plot point when they've never been mentioned before. Just like Miracle Day, a previously undisclosed element of Jack's past becomes the crux, and what could have been constructive backstory ends up very obviously shoehorned in, telegraphing imminent events all too clearly.
It wouldn't be so bad if Jack's big, emotional twist at the end actually made sense (hell, if any of the story actually made sense)...
I quite liked the aliens, and the fact that they were essentially using human children as a drug... that was an original and rather chilling concept... but then, if these aliens are basically intergalactic stoners, are they really capable of destroying the world? On the whole, though, John Frobisher's reactions to everything, particularly the way he 'took care of his family', were the most believable elements of the show. Killing off Ianto was cheap and unnecessary, but it did show what a weak character Jack Harkness is - the moment he's threatened, he caves in and starts begging.
So, no, not a reference to the new Bond movie...
One strip of this paper, which had been hanging down in a quite distracting manner for weeks, came down with very little effort on my part.
There's something just not right about the ceilings in my flat... either they're leaking, staining and growing mould, or they're getting so bone dry that the glue used to put the paper up there is breaking down. I suppose it doesn't help that there's about a dozen layers of paint up there, so the paper is glued to a surface that is, to some extent, inherently unstable.
In other news, I've been called in to interview for a 10-month contract job tomorrow - I'd originally suggested this last Friday, given the option, but the company decide it's Monday or nothing... Strange, but still acceptable. Their address - or, more specifically, the postcode I was given - doesn't pinpoint their location very well, so I had to traipse down there just to be sure I knew where to go tomorrow. The route is simple enough and, just for once, it's not in Zone 1, so my journey would be slightly cheaper.
Meanwhile, I've made quite a bit of progress in Xenoblade - I'm in Agniratha, and at the point where I need to face off (har har) against Jade Face. So far, he's decimated me every time... I suspect I need to sort out my equipment and gems, to optimise my characters against his attacks. That he calls in support every so often - as one of his attacks - is a real pest, because it means breaking off from attacking him to deal with his support drones, allowing him time to charge up his other attacks. I'll get there eventually, I guess... It's kind of like that earlier story battle that gave me so much trouble, right up until it didn't...
I've racked up about 150 hours so far (possibly more), having gone back to previous locations to complete some challenge quests and pick up a few new sidequests. The setup, whereby some quests only become available when you have a certain level of affinity for a location, is quite novel... but it does get a bit frustrating tracking people down, and continually adjusting the clock to get the right people in any given location, in the hope that they will be ready to give out a new quest.
A couple of quests are no longer available to me - may not become available again - because of the battle currently being waged in Sword Valley/at Galahad Fortress... Not sure they're massively important...
One thing that really bugged me about one part of the game - Valak Mountain - was that there are a couple of areas of the map that are inaccessible except through complicated aerobatics. The game isn't really designed with these in mind, which makes some locations effectively impossible to get to. I'm sure it's all intentional - less skilled players surely shouldn't be allowed to try quests that would probably kill them... But the 'Balance of Power' mission is easily opened, yet ridiculously difficult to complete.
Of course, I can't sign off without mentioning Torchwood: Children of Earth. I wrote about it back in 2009, when I first saw it on telly, and my opinions haven't changed that much. I think the biggest problem with Torchwood as a whole, writ large in CoE and Miracle Day, was that too much of it relies on elements of Captain Jack's backstory that don't come to light until quite late in the story. Some of it - his past association with Captain John Hart, or the missing brother, Grey - are largely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things... But, when you have a story like Children of Earth, it's a huge mistake to make Jack's more recent family ties a crucial plot point when they've never been mentioned before. Just like Miracle Day, a previously undisclosed element of Jack's past becomes the crux, and what could have been constructive backstory ends up very obviously shoehorned in, telegraphing imminent events all too clearly.
It wouldn't be so bad if Jack's big, emotional twist at the end actually made sense (hell, if any of the story actually made sense)...
I quite liked the aliens, and the fact that they were essentially using human children as a drug... that was an original and rather chilling concept... but then, if these aliens are basically intergalactic stoners, are they really capable of destroying the world? On the whole, though, John Frobisher's reactions to everything, particularly the way he 'took care of his family', were the most believable elements of the show. Killing off Ianto was cheap and unnecessary, but it did show what a weak character Jack Harkness is - the moment he's threatened, he caves in and starts begging.
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