girlofprey

( Dragon Age: Origins spoilers )

In other news I still cannot with fandoms where people get SO het up about other people 'liking the bad guy', and self-congratulatory about arguing with people about it. I mean, some people like bad guys in terrible ways, but. What are you doing? What are you achieving? asjdaklsjdklj.

AND OF ALL THE FANDOMS TO GET HUNG UP ON MORALITY, BORDERLANDS? BORDERLANDS, REALLY?

Hello. I went to Crete. I am now back from Crete.

Here are the places I visited:

Agios Nikalaos (where we were staying)

Spinalonga

A Cretan Olive Farm experience place.

Elounda, and the surrounds.

The Knossos ruins.

Heraklion, though mostly the Archaelogical Museum bit of it.

These are the things I wish I'd known before we left: That even though it was October, it was still going to be hot. I would have bought some suncream BEFORE I got sunburn. And that it was a four hour flight from Manchester to Crete. I would have bought a book, before the only ones I could find were about 13 euros in the Duty Free shop in Heraklion airport.

It was a bit of a funny holiday. Before we went I was barely able to muster up any enthusiasm for it, since it had dropped in the middle of a bunch of other things I needed to do. My mum, while packing, kept saying that sometimes it felt like these holidays were more bother than they were worth, and my dad said "I'm fed up already". Then, on the day we travelled there, I ended up coming down with some sort of stomach bug, and spent most of the evening doing things whatho wouldn't want to hear about, and other things the rest of you probably wouldn't want to hear about. I couldn't actually stand to go into the dining room, and ended up going to bed at 10 o'clock with the shivers. Mum thought it was just because I didn't get much sleep before we went, then travelled all day, and maybe ate too much chocolate on the plane. I suspect it was something to do with the fact she had my ON over the night before we left, and my MN had been throwing up that day, and my ON then apparently was throwing up that night. My dad was also suffering on that first day with some sort of stomach thing. My mum saw no connection. Hmm.

But after that, it turned into a pretty nice holiday. I felt much better by the next day, the weather stayed pretty nice most days of the week, and it was sort of nice that it was so relaxed. It was a bit funny because we went at the end of the season, and there were basically no tours, or trips, or anything to really just go on. As the man at the Cretan Olive Farm, who was very nice, explained, most of real Crete is up in the mountains, and all the towns and stuff by the sea were basically built for tourists. So essentially, everything just started to close down. Even our hotel, which was huge, was apparently closing today, 1st November, until next Spring. So it was sort of quiet. The boat trip we took to Spinalonga was the last one for the season, so we were lucky to go on that too. It was a lovely trip though - Spinalonga's a tiny little island that has in the past been a Venetian sea fortress, then a settlement for the Turkish, and finally a leper colony. We joined a tour group on the island to learn a bit more about it's history, and I really thought the leper colony aspect would be the one that was least interesting to me. But the woman explained it, and it was really pretty cool. The lepers couldn't leave the island, but they had houses, and markets, and grew their own vegetables when people from the mainland tried to price gouge them, and had constant access to medical care, and got to hang out with a bunch of other people who didn't just hate the sight of them. There were a bunch of marriages on the island, and 154 children were born there, even though their parents couldn't keep them. Only 10 of those children ended up with leprosy when they grew up. So it was pretty lovely. The guide woman said she always cried on the last day of the season, and she did, but it was lovely all the same, and really sort of eye-opening. Also she was pretty permanently annoyed about an art exhibition that had been set up on the island, which was pretty fun too.

So yeah. We wanted to go to the Knossos ruins - had been wanting to since we booked the holiday - but there were no trips still running, so we had to rent a car. Pretty much the last time we rented a car abroad was in Barcelona, when we had that crash, so it was a little bit nerve-wracking. But without a Sat Nav distracting dad, and basically just a lot of highways between us and Knossos and Heraklion, and with us all pulling together to spot the signs for where we needed to go, we made it there relatively easily. And because it was off season, it wasn't crowded, and because it was October, it was a little overcast and windy instead of baking sunshine, so it turned out pretty nicely. We got another guide, who explained some of the history and about the Minoans. It was pretty fascinating really - I couldn't always understand because of her accent plus high winds, but it sounded like the Minoans came over from Egypt, so there culture was a lot more Egyptian-influenced than Greek-influenced. It was pretty cool. Then we went to the Archaelogical Museum to see some of the artifacts they found at Knossos and other Minoan palaces and - I cannot even explain, except that the craftmanship and the detail on some of those things were insane, and just blew me away. For things made in like 2000 BC - yeah. I thoroughly recommend looking into the Minoans, if you're interested, and going to the Archaelogical Museum in Heraklion if you're going to Crete. It's all pretty amazing stuff.

And then I came home on Tuesday. And unfortunately, after getting on pretty well with both my parents for the entire week, my dad and I fell out - and I got pretty angry at him - the night we came back. Which is a shame. But other than that it was really lovely, and good weather, and a pretty interesting time. Also I swam in the sea! Which I haven't done in quite a few years. It was lovely.

And yes, now I'm back. Halloween was yesterday, and I missed most of it, between computer games and unpacking. I started playing my computer games again, and as I largely suspected before I went away, I was pretty much near the end of Dishonored and Bioshock 2, which is always an annoying place to leave it. Except actually, I wasn't expecting Dishonored to end so soon. I finished it today, but it was a little bit anticlimactic, with a lot of loose ends that didn't seem that tied up, and irritatingly, I'm assuming - I'm pretty sure - it's because they want to pad the game out with DLCs. Which is annoying after enjoying the game so much during the beginning and middle. And I haven't finished Bioshock 2, but I'm pretty clearly on the home straight. So I should be done with it before too long - and before the next game comes out. Hurrah!

I'm largely caught up on my flist, and even managed to get through my ridiculous email inbox. The other main news I have from the internet is that Evil Villains Studio made another vid about villains being villains, and I love them. It's called Monster, and it probably deserves an epilepsy warning. Also the song is a Dubstep remix, so apologies if you hate that sort of thing. This is probably the first Dubstep-y thing I actually like though, which is nice. I can finally be one of the COOL KIDS now. It's much better than Crush On You, at any rate.



HOPE YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WELL IN MY ABSENCE. I know most of you have anyway.

It's my sister's birthday tomorrow and my ESA assessment the day after that. Ughhh.

I've been replaying Infamous 2 lately, mostly because I'm still upset about the lack of Cole/Bertrand slash. Also the lack of any fandom at all for Infamous, as far as I can tell, so I can't even go look at it and pretend I might talk to people someday. ALSO THAT. Mostly I have figured out, or rediscovered, that the reason I probably find them so slashy is because- bizarrely - they keep Cole's dialogue the same for all his cutscenes whether you play him as good or evil. So they give you a lot of reasons in-game for why Cole might hate Bertrand in either case, but they don't actually talk about them ever, so it ends up seeming like Cole is just fixated on him for no good reason. As though he ends most of his cutscenes thinking "Bertrand. What's his deal, anyway?", and then staring moodily off into the distance, thinking about what IS his deal.

Also I relearned that Bertrand is despicable. Pretty much completely. BUT I DON'T CARE. Here the scene where Cole and Bertrand first meet, found on Youtube. The actual (short) conversation doesn't start till about 5:04, but if you care it's worth watching all of it just to see what Cole - and the player - has to do just to catch him. Also it's a Let's Play, so you do have deal with the player talking over it. But other than that.



( SPOILERS )

Also, in my ongoing obsession with Southern accents in videogames, I have noticed that the only accents that seem to get a reprieve are Texan accents, or other similarly 'cowboy'-ish ones. Apparently they are okay. Everyone else = evil.

Also I've learned that I really do quite like Kuo and Nix. It's a shame the game is so racist is about them. It's a shame the game is so racist. Note: Infamous 2 is in many ways a terrible game. You shouldn't buy it. Sadly I already bought it and sort of love the gameplay, graphics and a bunch of the characters. Also the music. But I do not really recommend anyone else get into it.


But anyway. In non-Infamous 2 related news, I also went to the cinema this week. I was trying to see Ted before it goes out of cinemas, but the next showing of it was too late for me, so I went to see The Watch instead. I'd sort of wanted to see it because of Vince Vaughn and Richard Ayoade, and I quite like the sound of the plot. But I'd heard it was pretty terrible. And it was...pretty terrible. It had some nice moments and some quite funny lines, but so much of it just seemed like dreadful, immature and not that funny adlibbing. Apparently it was quite affected by the Trayvon Martin shooting, which made the screenwriters rewrite a bit so it was more about the alien plotline than the overzealous Neighbourhood Watch antics. Which was probably the right decision, but you can see how it might have affected the story. But on the other hand, they still ended up making a finished film, and that finished film was this one. And, unfortunately, it was also racially sort of appalling.

( The ways in which it was racially appalling, some massive spoilers, also some general spoilery talk about it )

So yeah. It was a weird film. Vince Vaughn had some lovely moments though. I KNOW HE'S NOT THE MOST RESPECTED ACTOR OUT THERE, BUT I JUST THINK HE'S SO BEAUTIFUL WHEN HE'S SERIOUS. I want to make GIFS of how his eyes move. He was best in The Cell. He doesn't seem to make films like that anymore. Sadly.

I did see some trailers though. Judge Dredd looks wicked. I don't know why his female trainee has to fight in gunfights without a helmet though. Perhaps they explain it in the film.


Other than that, last week on Tumblr I was searching through a tag, and I found a video that led me to a Youtube account, which seems to deal exclusively in making multifandom songvids for villains. It's called EvilVillainsStudio. Mostly they do bad guys, and a series of same-fandom and cross-fandom pairings for them. It's a little bit like some is making Youtube vids just for me. So I have been watching my way through their videos for the past week or so. A lot of them are really good. This one I watched last night for example, called Sail, which seems to be about what it's like to be a villain and kind of a badass. It does have a lot of quick-cutting of clips, and effects that deliberately make the clips look the wrong colour, or more grainy or scratchy than they are, which is annoying, though I assume it's to cover up the various sources being used, and their filming styles. It's still good though. And if you can ignore a few rubbishy Doctor Who clips, so can I.



I think that's it mostly. Also I've been watching more Poltergeist: The Legacy, which continues ridiculous. I genuinely think it got a bit better in the middle, but we're at the end of Season 1 now, so it's all got a bit more ridiculous and Derek-filled. Also it's my sister's birthday tomorrow. Arrrrrrgh.

Hello all.

I finished the storyline in Saints Row 2. That's the main news in my life at the moment. Also I have a can of sour cream and onion Pringles.

( Spoilers up to the end of the Saints Row 2 storyline, I can't tell if this will be better if you know anything about Saints Row 2 or not )

Also, it turns out that Shaundi - the main and pretty much only female secondary character - is voiced by Eliza Dushku. That makes two characters in the past few months who I've sort of loved, partly because of their voices, who turned out to be voiced and performed by Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Eliza Dushku. I don't know what your plan is, but it won't work! It's kind of nice though, video game character voices. Like finding out that Johnny Gat from Saints Row 2 is voiced by Daniel Dae Kim. And the main character in The Darkness is played by Miguel Alvarez from Oz. Happy days.

Anyway. Skyrim is still ongoing. I LOVE SKYRIM. And I recently found Blackreach, which has officially taken the title of most beautiful place in the game, for me. More beautiful even than Markarth. Where I did finally manage to get a house. But it's not terribly feasible for my character to just up and move underground, and to a place filled with monsters. So I have to sort of be content with having seen Blackreach, and perhaps going back to visit sometimes.

Also, I went to see Safe House. The first film I've been to see at the cinema for a couple of months, at least. But I've been looking forward to it since December, so I wanted to go. I really enjoyed it. It wasn't quite the storyline I was expecting from having read about the film, and I didn't find it particularly slashy, but I thought it was really really good. The main problem with it was that - being an action thriller - they shot it in sort of a grainy way, and everyone did a lot of muttering, so I wasn't always entirely sure what was going on. I sort of want to see it again just to try and fill in some gaps in things I didn't understand, and still don't. But perhaps that was the masterplan of the people making it. ::shakes fist:: Hollywood!

Oh, and, they didn't put on one of those "You are stealing films, STOP STEALING FILMS" adverts up before the film came on. But they did put on one of those annoying slow motion "Go to the cinema for the EXPERIENCE ads", and then flashed up the rules about not recording films TWICE. Way to be massively irritating, you guys.