Yesterday was a Day of Orange

Our old friend Vlad is no longer with us, but his younger cousin will be with us soon. Yes, Nathan is getting a new car; exactly the same model. It's orange too, just like Vlad was.

R.I.P Vlad.

Yesterday's Games Evening was a hit, I think. We started by playing Street Fighter and after about 30 minutes we switched to Halo 3, on which we decided to play "Team Slayer". People were split into two groups:

Team Blue
Bob
Cal(l)um
Chris
Nathan


Team Orange
Liam
Me
Ryan
Sarah
Sarge

We took it in turns and played two-on-two matches, up to 20 kills. I'm not sure of the final score by the end of the night, but even when Nathan swapped with Sarge to try and even up the teams, the Orange Team won 6-4 (I think). The Orange Team definitely won anyway.

:D

So I get home after a relatively long day, and the UEFA Cup final is on. Of course, Shakhtar Donetsk beat Werder Bremen 2-1 and I'm happy because Shakhtar play in an orange kit.

Jean Grey Walks into a Bar...

By the ocean there is a bar… They called it Hannah’s Roadhouse once… I don’t know what they call it anymore. I just knew that she’d come and bring that thing with her. That thing that to me, was so precious, so deeply moving that just looking at it would blind me. But I had to have it and I knew that I couldn’t have it if she didn’t show up today…

There she was red hair with a slight orange fleck in the Ocean’s sunrise. She wasn’t old, in fact, she was new, as if reborn, and she didn’t see me as she opened the door to the bar. I let her walk, I had no plans. She bought 2 drinks and sat at the bar…

Maybe she already knows I'm here, I thought to myself. I paused for a moment to gather my loose thoughts and braced myself for her mind games; approaching her would take more preparation than I first predicted.

It had already been ten minutes since her arrival, I was quietly confident that the extra drink was mine. I stood up, removed a dusty comb from my jacket and steadied myself. Seeing her again had an affect on me which I couldn't explain. I took the first step towards the bar. Then the second step. Every step forward felt like a leap as my nervousness began to overwhelm me. Take a deep breath, Scott, I thought to myself; she was only metres away, I had to pull myself together. What if she heard my every thought? The nervousness descended into blind panic; I couldn't stop my feet but I had already reached the bar...

"Relax Scott, I know how you feel."

I took a deep breath, and looked into her eyes,

"You know me too well, Jean." I picked up the drink that she had left on the bar and took a hearty swig. Jean looked surprised, but I thought nothing of it and continued the conversation.

We spoke for a solid twenty minutes about nothing in particular, most of the time reminiscing on past events. Being with her was so relaxing, I began to question my earlier emotions.

"Are you still modelling" I asked, noticing that she was still as slim as ever.

"I'm finished with that", she replied. "They fired me because I'm not as slim as I used to be." Her face lit up seemingly caught between two emotions; she appeared disappointed but amused by the situation. As she laughed, she showed me the thing most precious to me.

Her smile. I felt a surge of excitement shoot up my spine as I opened my mouth and joined in the laughter. What an amazing moment! Thoughts and feelings were flowing through my mind, I felt free of all tension.

Suddenly, the doors to the bar swung open and a brash voice echoed around the room.

"Hey, Four Eyes"

Huh? I instantly recognised the voice; I stood up and turned my body to face the door. "I should have known", I replied, as I looked him dead in the eye.

"That drink was mine, Scott. Move out of my way."

I heard the fast moving sound of metal scraping against metal as the claws were revealed.

"It's time, let's settle this Logan."

X-Men 2 / X2 Analysis

Three themes of X-Men 2 which advance the story.

ANGER
There was a lot of anger on display in the film, but it was an action film so the violence had to be stirred up from somewhere. :P

That aside, most of the anger in the film came from Magneto and his associates who generally wanted to erase all remaining non-mutants from the planet.

In contrast, the humans were also angry at the attempted assassination of their president by Nightcrawler, a mutant. It is safe to say that the majority of anger in the film stems from the constant disagreement between mutants and non-mutants.

LOVE
To differentiate from all the anger and violence in the film, there are relationships between the X-Men. Relationships are essential in developing the story and making the characters seem more realistic and more relatable. This is important because their abilities as mutants could distance them from the viewers.

The most obvious example of love was the long-established romance between Jean Grey and Scott Summers, which was potentially under-threat from beardy old Logan.

Other examples of love include Rogue and Iceman, and even possibly Storm and Nightcrawler; though this could be interpreted as motherly love rather than romance.

RIVALRY
The competition between Scott Summers and Logan seems like an obvious rivalry in the film as they spend almost every moment together arguing over Jean or staring each other down.

A less obvious, but equally as important rivalry, would be that of Professor X and Magneto; we see them going head-to-head due to a difference of opinion. They aim for the same goal, yet they want to achieve said goal in a completely different way.

Morality and Karma Systems in Video Games [External Source]

There's been news of a survey going around asking if a karma system in the next Grand Theft Auto would make the game more enjoyable. I've recently become a bit cynical towards karma systems. It seems that giving the player a moral choice is an ever increasing trend in gaming, but does it really make the game more interesting? It certainly did a few years ago, but since then I fear they've become so common that simply giving players a choice between good or evil has lost its emotional punch. Richard Clark on Christ and Pop Culture suggests the next logical step...

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Games Evening is back again!

Hi everyone,

Most of you will already know, but last term there was a drop-in games evening on Wednesday nights. It hasn't been widely advertised until now, so all Confetti students are hereby invited.

The first "games evening" of the term will be held on Wednesday 29th April at 6pm, in the Atrium. The Xbox 360 is booked; there will be a few games but you are welcome to bring your own.

If you're interested then leave a comment on this post, along with your name and group.

Alternatively, send me an email: craigo917[at]hotmail[dot]com

I hope to see some new faces,

Craig. ^_^