Partwork magazines

I bought the first issue of one of those partwork magazines today - you know, those ones which appear at the start of the year with a really cheap price, then sell for the rest of the year at a much higher price, by which time no-one is buying them. This one is called Manga Force and each issue you get a very thin magazine along with an anime DVD (the magazine title might confuse some people). I normally dismiss this type of magazine, after laughing at the advert - usually the gifts are something silly like hand-painted soldiers.

I haven't really watched much anime or read much manga, even though I'm interested in Japanese culture and starting my course has motivated me to watch more anime and read more manga. I've enjoyed the majority of what I've seen so far and I thought this magazine would be a good opportunity to watch some cool anime and expand my collection of DVDs. Also, in February I'm beginning a module in East Asian cinema, so I would like to view a few more East Asian films than I have already, which isn't too many. It's just a shame that the price of the magazine leaps from £2.99 to £8.99. It'll be interesting to see how far I get.

I've been playing around with the feed setting for my blog recently. There's a link in the sidebar on the right to the correct feed now.

End of the year

We're currently in limbo, the period where everyone's still feeling ever-so-slightly Christmas-like whilst preparing for New Year celebrations. I've started to revise for my January Japanese examinations, and I'm glad, in a way, to be doing some work again - I feel productive. I still have the majority of my days free too, which means I can get the none-work related work done - I have a small stack of books and DVDs to read/watch.

The other day I wondered into a clothes shop in town and I found a t-shirt with basically the same design as this web page - bright blue with horizontal red stripes. I bought it, and I should upload a picture at some point. It's pretty cool. I've been playing Mega Man 2 lately. The music and visuals in that game are amazing and I actually took inspiration for the design of this page from the Mega Man aesthetic. Now I can pretend I'm Mega Man in a very roundabout way whenever I wear the shirt.

Christmas

Christmas Day is now done. It was fun, although it was the least excited I've ever been about Christmas. Which is probably good actually, because the day never lives up to expectations anyway. I got up at around 10am and opened the presents from my parents, then read a comic up until lunch. As always we opened the remainder of our presents after eating and I got some cool gifts. After that we watched The Wizard of Oz on DVD, which I've never actually watched before. It was a remastered version or something - it was really colourful and looked good for an older film; I enjoyed it. We then played Monopoly, watched some TV and the day was finished.

I now have some money to spend that isn't part of my student loan/grant. I think I'm going to buy some new cymbals for my drum kit, which should be cool. I like adding to my drum kit, customising it like a car or something. When the shops have stocked up on Wii again I think I'll buy one of those too.

I think I'm going to have to start doing some studying soon though, which always sucks.

Christmas holidays

The Christmas holidays have now arrived for me. I think I'll be doing nothing and catching up on sleep for a while before doing quite a lot of revision for my January exams. I've been going for just about 12 weeks straight, so I'm pretty glad of the rest.

Recently I created a simple, little Christmas chiptune using Famitracker. The tune is Joy To The World, and if you're not feeling festive yet give it a listen.

MP3

Dragonforce

I went to see Dragonforce with a load of friends last night at the Octagon in Sheffield. It was pretty fun, even though they didn't play Once In A Lifetime. They were quite a spectacle though with lots of lighting effects and a fan which constantly blew air upwards, making everything look quite impressive. I still don't understand how the Dragonforce drummer can play so fast for so long. The first suppport was a Greek metal band called Firewind, and although I didn't hear their whole set they sounded pretty good.

I think this weekend will be quite good. Apart from going to see the new Tenacious D film tonight it's the first time in a while where I don't really have much to do, and I need a break. But the Christmas holidays are nearly here anyway. And being at university I get a good month off.

Thursday and the weekend

Thursday was a pretty good night. There was hardly anyone in the room at the time of my friend's set, but it was good to hear some chiptunes blasting out of some pretty large speakers. I travelled to and Nottingham by train. The train was too full on the way there but the return journey was OK. I got back in time for lectures and then attended band practice. I'm really enjoying writing some new songs with the band and look forward to the shows we'll be playing soon.

On Saturday I got to play the Wii for the first time. There were 2 Wii (I'm guessing that's the plural) at Meadowhall for people to try out - I played the tennis game from Wii Sports with my brother. After observing others whilst waiting in line I found the motion control really easy to pick up and I look forward to playing more when I get one for Christmas.