I have recently found myself with a new writer friend and so I would like to draw your attention to their work. Here is a link to her profile on FanFiction.net. Her latest project is a story called My Opposite and is based on the video game The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It contains a very interesting reinterpretation of the relationship between Link and Girahim, which all starts when Link finds himself having to care for a severely injured Girahim. I shan't give away too many details as I wouldn't like to spoil it. The story is told from the points of view of both Link and Girahim and it is all very emotional, you know everything that they're thinking and what worries them. The style is also very poetic, which sometimes makes it flow very well and also makes it quite nice to read. I was asked to include a quote to hook you all in, so here's quite a nice (utterly context-less) line for you "The moonlight was beautifully blissful and yet blinding at the same time, it made the floating island around me glisten under its seemingly perpetual light." Happy reading :) (I should give a quick warning though, the story is rather an explicit one!)
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This is the latest of my challenge entries, the random country picked using The Random Country Generator.
Now, British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) doesn't exactly sound like much of a catchy name for a place does it? Well, it does actually have a much more normal name (The Chagos Islands) but for some reason the BIOT name is the one which is more commonly used! I suppose that ‘proper’ name has most likely just been replaced due to history of the island (more on that later). Very strangely, much like Singapore and the Faroe Islands (the two other random countries I have done so far) this country is ALSO a collection of islands rather than a single land mass. I wonder how long it will be until I get one which isn't a collection of islands. As I'm sure you can guess from the BIOT name, this country was 'captured' by the United Kingdom (and France) during the British Empire years. It's quite sad really, the government has been slowly turning it into a place used solely for military reasons. At the moment the overall population of the islands is only at four thousand. Since the sixties, thousands of people have been evicted. In fact, there are no longer any native inhabitants, everybody who lives there came from France or Britain (or somewhere else entirely). On the upside though, some natural areas there are almost entirely untouched by humanity and, as such, steps have been taken to preserve them. This could mean that there are exciting undiscovered species waiting to be found there. That's about all I can say really. Since it's such a small place, and so few people live there now, there's not really any remaining culture to talk about. Nonetheless, I hope you have enjoyed learning about the British Indian Ocean Territory! My latest colaboration with David Tubb, and my personal favourite so far.
(click here to buy the book in the video) I expect that this joke is lost on a lot of people. There is a Japanese band called One OK Rock, here is a song by them if you'd like to try their music. Other than that, I guess there's really nothing to explain. And if I do say so myself, I think this was one okay joke :)
Finger puppets can be bought here. This game is a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time, but, as with the majority of Zelda games, no real knowledge of the other instalments is required to be able to enjoy it. The story begins with Link searching through the Lost Woods in order to find an old friend of his. This search goes very badly, as the Skull Kid appears along with two fairies appears and steals his horse, Epona, and all of his items. Link chases after him, but the Skull Kid curses him so that he becomes a Deku Scrub (he'll later find himself transformed into a Goron and Zora too), and abandons one of his fairies with him, who then becomes Link's companion for the story. Link finds his way into some sewers, then meets the Happy Mask Salesman who asks him to try and find a missing mask of his. Link leaves to sewers and goes out into the world of Termina, only to find that the moon is falling and will destroy the world in three days. You gain the ability to time travel though, and you are able to live the same three days over and over again as you try and save the world. The whole three day cycle idea is one which I like very much. There are a very large number of side-quests to do, and if you don't do them, you'll see the lives of the non-playable characters become really miserable. I would say, in fact, that the side-quests are the main appeal of this game, there are only four dungeons to do in this game (the least of any Zelda game) so you'll spending much more of your time solving people's problems, than fighting monsters and whatnot, and I certainly would not call this a bad thing. The game looks very similar to its prequel, but it is really very different. The tone, especially, is very different, Ocarina of Time has the big bright world of Hyrule which was full of interesting and funny characters, but the world of Termina is much darker looking, and while you may still have funny characters, they all tend to have a depressing backstory and, even if not, are going to be killed in three days when the moon crashes! Also, while Hyrule seemed big and bold, Termina seems very mysterious; there are several strange things hidden around and definitely many more secrets. On the whole, I have to give this game the high score of 9.5/10 (This game can also be downloaded on the Wii.)
(I do not own the copyright of the screenshot.) One thing which I have particularly fond memories of, are the English Language lessons I had in my sixth form. In the class (well, in one of the two classes) I was sat next to my friend Laura, and behind us were my friends Rory and Louise. One lesson I remember quite clearly, was when we were discussing the ways in which words find new meanings.
"So, you see," said the teacher, "in the past, the word 'ejaculation' would have only meant shout, or, to burst out with, rather than the sexual meaning that it has today." I frowned at this and turned to face my friend Rory. "Isn't the 'shout' meaning still the main one though?" I asked him, confused. "No! You'd better stop using it in that way, if you have been, it's very uncommon now," he told me. "What are you two talking about?" the teacher asked. "Oh, Adam's just talking about ejaculations," he replied before I could say anything. "Oh, right," she rolled her eyes at that, obviously thinking I had been making a silly joke about, what I had only just learned was the most common, sexual meaning of the word. The lesson moved on, and after a while Laura was having a chat with the teacher (her mum). "A problem I have," said the teacher, "is that it's hard to know what the class already knows! Just yesterday I found myself having to explain about the word '69' to a group of Year 8s!" I frowned again, "Rory," I said as I turned, "what's she talking about? What is 69 other than a number?" Louise and Rory both burst out laughing at that. "What is it? Please tell me, it seems to be quite important. Also, are there any other numbers like that?" "Don't worry, I'll explain it to you later," said Rory, and he did (I shan't explain it here, but if you don't know it, the best thing to do would be the ask somebody else, as searching on Google may well give very explicit images). "What are you all talking about?" the teacher asked again. "Oh, Adam's just talking about 69ing," Rory said, before I could answer. Again the teacher rolled her eyes, obviously thinking I was telling some childish sex joke. I never got a chance to explain the two misunderstandings to her either, which is a little embarrassing. But yes, that English lesson, I suppose, proved to be part of my sex education, with me learning about 69ing and ejaculating. Not quite sure how to wrap this entry up. A few weeks ago, my friend Naomi Brennan bought me a cow shaped cookie (actually, it was a gingerbread cow, rather than a cookie, but let's just use the American definition for this one entry) and I liked it so much that I decided to name him Cooklin and use him in a comic strip! I hope it's clear what's happening in panel 6: Cooklin starts talking, and then Colin takes a bite out of him. I'm actually quite proud of this strip; I consider it one of the funnier ones, I think it turned out quite similar to something which would happen in an Annoying Orange video. Though on the downside, this is another strip which was just photographed against a blank wall, this is something I haven't done in a while because I think they look a lot better when photographed at an actual place, but unfortunately it was late at night at the time and I didn't have time to find a location because, well, I wanted to eat Cooklin.
Finger puppets can be bought here. This nineteenth century book follows the life of a poor young woman named Tess Durbeyfield whose family discover that they are actually related to the noble d'Urberville family. You'd then think that this would be a story about a poor family who then suddenly find themselves living the life of the upperclass's, but that's not it at all. Instead, Tess finds herself coming into contact with a much richer branch of the family (in the capacity of somebody who works for them), one bad thing happens and things slowly spiral out of control, getting worse and worse for Tess as the book goes along. The best aspect of the book, for me at least, was Tess herself. She doesn't deserve any of the bad things that happen to her, she's just a nice person who keeps to herself, but her life is just so horrible. She's one of those characters who you feel so sorry for that you wish you knew them so that you could be nice to them and hopefully make them a little happier. Also, on the flip-side of that, some of the more unpleasant characters are just so unlikeable that you'll find yourself disgusted with them, so character is a really strong point of Hardy's. Another nice point is that this is a nicely progressive book for its era. I shan't spoil anything, but things happen which would not have been viewed kindly by the society that the book came from, but no judgements are made. Though on the other hand, because of the attitudes of the time, certain things are described very vaguely, and one important scene in particular was a bit unclear to me. The only real problems I had with the book are that I found it a little too long and I also found the ending a little bit silly. However, I didn’t find them to be a reason to dislike the book! I should also mention, in case it wasn't obvious from what I said earlier, that this book is a very depressing one, so, if you don't like to read rather grim things, you might wish to avoid it! Rating: 8.2/10 (buy it here, Amazon does not seem to have the edition I have anymore, so the link is a different one) (I do not own the copyright of the cover image) During my time in The Corsham School Sixth Form, I would quite often get terrible migraines. One morning I came in and had a free period first thing in the morning and so I decided I would head up to the study room and do some work for my philosophy class. Almost as soon as I looked at the computer screen, I realised that I could see the visual aura of a migraine. I suppose some readers may be unfamiliar with this, so I shall give a brief explanation: when you're going to have a migraine, the first thing you'll probably notice is a small grey blurry patch in your vision, this slowly grows over an hour or so until you can barely see at all, and as you can see less and less, your head hurts more and more and you'll find yourself with a growing feeling of nausea. So, yes, I knew I was about to get very ill. I made a little sign which said "ill, please do not disturb", found a nice seat in the study room and laid down to try and sleep.
Anywho, I liked to have high attendance (and, in fact, was congratulated during our leaver's event for being present every single day) and so stayed in and hoped it would pass, rather than heading home. The free period passed and then my good friend Rory popped up to the study room to find me and head to our philosophy class. Sadly, the migraine was still terribly painful and so I asked him to explain to our teacher why I wouldn't be present, and he did so. The day passed by and before long it was time for the final lesson: History. At this point in the day, I felt absolutely awful and the only reason I wasn't going home was due to the fact that I was not well enough for the ten minute walk back. I had moved out of the study room, and was then lying on a sofa in the common room, Rory had, very kindly, explained the situation to our history teacher and I planned to stay there another hour before attempting to head home. Ten minutes into the history lesson, the teacher walked into the common room. "Adam, don't be lazy! Get up and go to the lesson," she said. "I would, but I feel terribly ill and I wouldn't be able to read or write anything, and since it hurts a lot, I may as well stay here," I replied. "No, I won't have any of that! I'm gonna head back now, but I expect you to join the class within the next ten minutes!" and with that, she left. I really did not want to be in that history lesson, and so I thought up a quick plan: I'd hide from her. Despite being a very tall person, I was able to hide under the sofa without it being obvious that I was there, so I moved off the sofa and shuffled under it. A little while later, she came back up looking for me, but she didn't realise I was under the sofa and left again (heh heh). After that, I would have moved onto the top of the sofa again, but I didn't want her to come back and find me, and I felt so weak that I decided to stay under there. After a few more minutes passed, two sixth formers from the year below (a male and a female who I never learned the names of) came in and sat on the sofas. One of them sat on the sofa I was under and the other sat on a sofa on the other side facing it. Not wanting to have to explain myself, I decided to keep quiet and hope they didn't notice me. "Err," said one to the other, "there's a man under your sofa." "Ha ha, yeah right!" she replied. "No, seriously, there's somebody under there!" I decided I had to do something, and so I popped my head out beside her feet and looked up on her. "Hello!" I said, smiling at them. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "Your friend was serious," I told her, "I am underneath your sofa, as I'm sure you’ve realised. You see, I currently have a terrible migraine and ended up under the sofa to hide from my history teacher. So, if you don't mind, I'm just gonna try and stay here and sleep." The pair of them shared a small "well, that was weird" exchange, and then carried on talking as normal. Before long, a few more people came into the room and started socialising. I wasn't paying much attention though; I was just trying to sleep. I probably should have paid attention as they were thinking up some plan which involved me... A little while later, I was very surprised to find the sofa lifted off of me and carried away. I could see the blurry shapes of lots of people staring down at me through the dazzling light. I squinted and gave them a 'hello'. I then had the rather unpleasant experience of somebody in a skirt standing directly over my head. Eventually, however, they all left and let me stay under the sofa in peace. The day ticked away, and at around 3 p.m. I sent I text to my friend Rory and apologised as I would not be able to walk home with him as I did every day. I stayed there for about an hour more or so and then I began to wonder how exactly I was going to get home, so I sent another text to a friend of mine and asked them if they would be willing to drive me home, and, very kindly, they did! Although, on the other hand, they retroactively charged me about thirty pounds for that lift, meaning it probably would have been cheaper to hire a taxi... (On a serious note, if you happen to suffer from migraines, then you might find this article from Healthline very helpful and interesting.) Thanks to Rainbow Man, Colin has been revived after Dorium's violent murdering of him. In real life, of course, Colin was accidentally broken, and now, with the help of David Tubb, he has been repaired, with John-Boy's hat being used to hide the worst of the remaining damage. Since it was John-Boy's hat, rather than any old hat, I decided I'd give him a second appearance in the Finger Puppet Show, despite last time saying it'd be a one off. This will almost certainly be his last appearance. I never really thought the hat suited John-Boy anyway and he was never seen wearing it on The Waltons (his brother Jason had one though). In fact, I'm going to use this strip to explain away the inconsistency of the John-Boy figure owning that hat, despite him never appearing to in any episodes: This strip takes place immediately prior to the first episode of The Waltons (The Foundling, rather than the pilot, The Homecoming, since the figure looks slightly more like John-Boy did in Season 1 than in the pilot) and so the hat was never seen, because Colin stole it before any of the episodes happen (again, not including the pilot, where I guess it was in the wardrobe!)... heh heh. Although this does bring up the question of why Colin is suddenly in America in 1933 following his revival, and why he’s back home in the next strip, but let’s not take things too seriously :D Also, I guess I had better explain the joke, I've noticed that John-Boy has a slight tendency to quickly shout "What do you think you're doing?" when somebody does something bad to him, and I like to imagine a cow stealing his hat would prompt him to say that (though I guess he couldn't resist the chance to make a pun)!
EDIT: Sorry, it seems I posted the strip with quite a big error in it initially, it is fixed now though. |
About the AuthorAdam Randall is the author of the blog. Is he a good or bad writer? Who knows? Why not read a few entries and make a decision! New to this Site?
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