Beethoven and Boris Bikes

So this weekend I went to the 28^th Proms with my dad. The orchestra played Strauss’ By the Beautiful Blue Danube, James MacMillan’s Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Overture Coriolan and Symphony No. 5. Oh the symphony was in C Minor, obviously.

It was a great evening, if the beginning felt a little rushed because we had lagged a bit (not my fault – I wasn’t navigating). The conductor, a Mr. Donald Runnicles looked like your typical conductor and did this great little jig during upbeat parts of Beethoven’s symphony that really added to the performance.

But for me what really made the evening was MacMillan’s concerto. It had three movements or acts, from what I could tell. The first ‘act’ was of the violinist, Vadim Repin performing solo in a quick, hurried way which was answered sporadically by the orchestra with discordant notes. It was a chase and made us all feel quite threatened. The other two acts, now a blur in my mind, consisted of Repin answering the discordant orchestra with futile, trilling notes, as if fighting the orchestra off but with each response becoming more exhausted. I interpreted it as someone fighting off their insanity or sickness and failing to do so. The piece ended on one quiet, long note of the violin as it finally succumbed to whatever it had been fighting. I was near tears – a first for the RAH.

After the concert ended my dad and I headed for the nearest station when we noticed a Barclays Boric Bike station. We looked at each other and figured – why not?

I’m telling you, they are the way to get around London. It was probably good we rode at night, so I didn’t have to look over my shoulder every two seconds and the traffic was quiet. I hadn’t ridden a bike in months and was a little rusty. Those things aren’t light either, nor do they take into account some people are below the average height.

Still – they were good fun. I recommend everyone has a go on them at some point this summer.

Handwriting Basics

This is yet another blog of me just musing about things. It’s amazing how productive I am on this blog when I have work to do instead.

I know that at least eligible handwriting is promoted in primary schools in the UK, which is great. But it doesn't go much further than that, does it? When I was at university I came across so many students who had handwriting that was illegible, childish or both and I could hardly believe they were taught to write neatly in the first place.

So I was wondering – should good handwriting be a skill taught in schools? As far as I know some skills that used to be taught in my mother’s time have gone out of fashion – home economics, sewing etc. so maybe it’s been neglected because people just don’t write as often as they once did.

Yet I think it’s such an important skill to have. I don’t think it’s important for graphology – which is nonsense anyway. Just that it’s good to know you can write an application form or letter or some notes without needing to decipher it a few months later. I’m left-handed so my handwriting isn't the best, but I self-taught some calligraphy for a little while and it helped my letter sizes become more even.

Despite that, my letters still slant to the left.

The JSA is a Nightmare

Someone I know is on the UK’s Job Seeker Allowance programme. He’s had next to no job experience, so he has to do 13 weeks worth of volunteering to get his benefits. Which is fine – except it’s a nightmare. There’s loads of paperwork and every two weeks you have to sign on in one place and visit your ‘employment coach’ in another.

Which means if you’ve got a full-time volunteering job where you have to do 30 hours per week, you are going to have to make up for that hour or so you spend driving to the centre – where you sign a piece of paper and then getting back to your job. And that’s assuming you can drive. If you can’t drive the whole thing takes even longer. And the money you use for petrol or bus fare isn’t subsidised by the JSA or the Career Development Group (who run the volunteering placements) – so you’re already out of pocket before you’ve even got your first benefit instalment.

Told you – nightmare.

What is a blog?

I've started a new job as an editorial assistant at a publishing firm. Lots of fun. It’s only on a trial basis for now though, unfortunately. Through this new job I've started to read a few more blogs and news articles and had a thought – are the majority of bloggers simply people who have the brains to express their opinion but no idea on what to focus on? Or simply put: blogs are for those with brains but no ideas?

If it is, I feel a little discouraged to continue writing this. But I will. Why? Because I like to write, and blogging makes good practice. I suppose that’s what a blog is too – practice.

If anyone reads this, tell me - what do you think a blog is quintessentially?

Preview Event: The Sims 3 Supernatural

Hello!

I was lucky enough to go play The Sims 3 Supernatural in London yesterday and asked the Sims 3 community here to give me some questions and some things to look out for.
The answers are in the order I wrote the questions down which are in the order that they were posted, FYI :)
Scroll down for info on the new CAS items and for information on Bonehilda.
So, here is what I found:

• The Lunar Cycle doesn't really seem to have an effect at all unless it's a full moon however when it is the New Moon some SN Sims will have a 'Missing the Moon' negative moodlet.
• You can control the types of Sims that spawn in your neighbourhood but only in a discontinuous sort of way. In the options menu you can tick/untick what you wanted. There was the option for 'Pets', 'Horses' and 'Celebrities' but they were greyed out due to missing expansions. There was only one option for Vampires which means LN vampires are really no different from SN vampires.
• The magic mirror had interactions like 'Admire Me' and 'Chat to' and it also had 'Magical Makeover' which could pretty much make over your Sim to be all flash and handsome or put their moods right down.
• I realised that curses were negative, and charms were positive. All of them are only temporary though.
• There was a Velvet Lounge that looked like it was designed for the vampires and a few other community lots that looked Sim-specific.
• The new music type was called Dark Wave.
• The phonebooths are like teleportation pads for the Sims and are dotted around the neighbourhood much like the subway stations are in LN.
• There is a skill for broom riding but it only builds in the arena, I think as a hidden skill. The arena had options like 'Joy Ride' and 'Do Stunts for Tips' or something similar to that. It kind of looked like a Quidditch pitch too and the broomsticks had the feet-holders like the Harry Potter broomsticks do.
• You can now make ghosts in CAS and choose their type of death. From what I saw there were 5 new deaths: watery grave, human statue, transmuted, haunting curse and jelly bean death. Jelly bean death is just eating from the jelly bean plant and one of the jelly beans will eventually kill your Sim.
• You can harvest honey from bees yourself. One of the new CAS hats was a bee net thing and you could buy beehives in the Buy Mode section.
• Zombies can't really do much of anything, but if a Sim is turned into a zombie it only lasts for around 2 days then wears off again. However when it is the full moon zombies will spawn around the neighbourhood that will always be a zombie.

CAS Items

• These are the new items for female adults in CAS: 16 tops, 11 bottoms, 7 outfits, 2 shoes, 13 hairs.

The tops mostly were just to suit certain species, like ripped up tops for zombies and majestic-looking ones for vampires. There were some normal looking tops in it though. There was only two new shoes; a boot like one and a dolly shoes type one. The hairs were all quite short or quite voluminous.

• Items for male adults: 17 tops, 9 bottoms, 1 outift, 1 shoe, 11 hairs. The hairs for males were quite short and there was one hairstyle that looked awfully like a famous vampire in popular culture these days ...

Bonehilda

• Bonehilda can be bought in Buy Mode via her coffin.
• The only interactions she had were 'Chat' and 'Dismiss'
• When a Sim interacts with her she did not show up in the relationship panel.

Other Info

• When a fairy walks she walks like a normal Sim and but when set to 'Run' she will fly instead. The wings don't move at a faster rate though.
• Moonlight Falls had no past pre-made Sim families that I recognised but it did have a family of ghosts from the Goth family. There was a zombie who popped up on my lot that was also a fairy called 'Oberon Summerdream' though.
• I thought there were quite a few references to media figures. Bewitched, Twilight, Toy Story, Sabrina and Being Human being some of them.

All in all I'd say this expansion pack is a lot of fun and worth the money.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask here or on the forum topic.

Thanks for reading!

Elder Scrolls Online Announced

Bethesda have announced today that they are making an online game set in the Elder Scrolls universe. It wasn't much of a shock to most of the community but hey, it's still good to hear an official announcement.

It's the first project made by Zenimax Online Studios and is said to be set a waay before the events of Skyrim or even indeed of Oblivion and Morrowind and will be about Prince Molag Bal, the Daedric Prince of domination and enslavement of mortals. So it doesn't bode well for the mortals in this game.

It's said to involve three player factions, PvP combat and areas such as Skyrim, Cyrodiil and Elsweyr. According to the Kotaku article there have been rumours that the three factions will be represented by a lion, a dragon and a bird of prey.

Even better is that a teaser trailer will be up tomorrow. Bethesda have been busy, haven't they?

Sources:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/05/03/elder-scrolls-online-announced-an-mmo-set-in-the-world-of-skyrim/
http://kotaku.com/5907372/the-elder-scrolls-online-coming-next-year
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/05/03/june-cover-revealed-the-elder-scrolls-online.aspx

Skyrim DLC Announced 'Dawnguard'

So today the first Skyrim DLC has been announced with little more than a picture of the typical Helmed Nord with the word 'Dawnguard' underneath. Not much to go on, huh?
Something to take note of, however is the glowing eyes. Kind of reminds me of a Draugr personally except a yellow hue instead of blue.
Others have speculated that Dawnguard could have something to do with Dawnstar and its museum, especially the bit about the Mythic Dawn (remember them?).
One attentive player even found these files referring to snow elves (ancestors of the Falmer) and crossbows inside the Creation Kit.

So who knows what this DLC will be about. Considering Bethesda promised expansion pack-like DLC we should be able to expect quite a lot.