End of Year Wrap (As seen on Facebook)

I was going to do something a bit different and narrate this end of year review as an audioblog, but it seems my social media presence, Facebook especially, doesn't have an easy way to upload audio files. So here is yet another post year text post.

Alpha Retrospective: Bugs Season 1 Episode 5 "Shotgun Wedding"

We dive into the murky world of international politics and Assassinations (again). An Italian politician ends up attracting the ire of her enemies while a logo designer gets paranoid over rivals stealing his work...or is he?

Alpha Retrospective: Bugs Season 1 Episode 4 "Down Among the Dead Men"

For this episode, we do a deep dive (Pun most certainly intended) into murky waters, as the Bugs heroes attempt to stop a major bank from being defrauded. We also learn that despite his previous Naval experience, poor Beckett doesn’t take to the sea very well.

Alpha Retrospective: Bugs Season 1 Episode 3 "All Under Control"

One of my all time favourite episodes. This was the first actual episode I watched on the original TV broadcast, if only because I was (And still am to a lesser extent) a bit of an aviation geek before I even knew the term existed. The trailer caught my interest because it involved planes and looked exciting. At the time, I had no understanding of the intricacies of technical systems and story writing, so it all looked plausible to me. Looking back on it now, there are a lot of plot holes and silly moments that make little sense when you think about it.

In case this wasn’t apparent by now, there will be spoilers so if you don’t want any plot twists given away, do not read these write-ups until you have watched the episode in question!

Alpha Retrospective: Bugs Season 1 Episode 2: "Assassins Inc"

Before I begin the next write up, I should elaborate on the purpose of these blog posts. Bugs was a show I greatly enjoyed in my youth, even when the writing was sub-par. However, with hindsight, there was a lot of silliness including but not limited to plot holes, gross misinterpretation and mis-use of technology and downright ridiculous moments. Having said that, I still enjoy rewatching the series and developed a new appreciation for the type of 90s cheesiness the show provides. Some of the predictions, despite the poor execution, turn out to be scarily prescient. And as mentioned in the first episode write up, shows after Bugs take a bit of inspiration from it with the way tech is featured heavily along with the gritty but fanciful storylines.

Nonetheless, there is a lot to ridicule in the series, so my write-ups will be full of snide remarks, amusing observations and dry (and not so dry) sarcasm. If you are looking for a straight write up, this is not the place to look for it. I would direct you to the official Bugs website, but that sadly went offline many years ago. There are some archived pages on Archive.org which is what I'm using to help write these blog posts.

Anyway, on with the show!

Alpha Retrospective: Bugs Season 1 Episode 1: "Out of the Hive"

Recently, due to a bunch of comments on a friends DnD post on Facebook, I was reminded of an old TV series called "Bugs" that I used to watch as a child. It was as nineties as it got. A sci-fi series about a bunch of crime fighters who used all manner of computer gadgetry to stop various ne'er-do-wells. I found it exciting to watch but never really appreciated the story or noticed the silly nature of some of the plotlines and the many, many IT and hacker clichés it portrayed. Despite it's failings, it was still a fun show to watch and if you look carefully, you can see where other later, argubly superior prime time TV dramas got their inspiration from Bugs.

With this in mind, I bought the complete DVD boxset of the entirety of Bugs and intend on watching the entire run slowly. I am also going to sporadically do write ups of the episodes as I watch them. I will tentatively title these entries "Alpha Retrospectives" and the style will change as I figure out what I want to write about each episode. With that, I bring you Bugs, season 1 episode 1.

"Buy all the film you can get your hands on..."

I got a bit of a confession to make. I was getting bored of taking pictures.

Although I'm an avid amateur photographer, I have found myself getting into a bit of a rut regarding the hobby. This was probably not helped by changes at work and it picking up in what should be a fairly quiet period, as well as a lack of major holidays and conventions for me to go to for this half of the year.

The problem I was getting is that I have been in the photography game for a while. At least 13 years if you only count the years I've been in the hobby seriously and continuously, possibly more than 15 if you count the years I've been taking pictures on and off. After this amount of time, things get stale. Familiarity breeds contempt and it is too easy to get fatigued, not just in photography but any hobby.

I had some money still left over from my trip to Southampton, despite the amount spent to travel and stay there. That in itself is a dangerous thing. Boredom and money are an even more lethal combination. After doing some brief research (Read: Typed words into a search engine and skimmed through the results), I ended up deciding that I needed to go retro.

Really retro.

Cosplay Experience Retrospective

As we come to the end of another year and enter a new one, I feel it would be appropriate to look back on my time in the geeky community and why this year is particularly important to myself, especially from an emotional standpoint.

I had been watching Anime during my early childhood, mostly through video tape cassette recordings sent from relatives in the spiritual Motherland that is Hong Kong, and after a long gap, got back into watching it when I started attending University. I am not sure what encouraged me to return to Anime, but it happened. Until then, however, I felt like I was only just scratching the surfance of the fandom. At some point, I caught wind of certain events where fellow Otaku would congregate, so-called “Anime Conventions”, where geeks would actually be able to see and speak to each other about various geeky topics in the same place. It was only after I attended my first Anime Convention about 12 years ago where I felt I had finally felt like I was a full blown Anime geek. But there was one thing I felt I was missing out on but didn’t have the confidence to try.

That being Cosplay.

Some Post-MCM Scotland 2018 Ramblings

In light of the lack of long form written content on this blog, I felt it right to post something after MCM Scotland 2018. Something that requires me to do a bit more thinking while I put words to paper, or in this case screen. Something that isn't as quickfire as a Facebook status update or a Tweet.

Content/Trigger Warning: I do bring up mental health topics here, including references to suicidal thoughts and general negativity, so keep that in mind before you read on.

So, MCM Scotland 2018 came and went. I thoroughly enjoyed myself despite the fact that it really is nothing more than a large dealers hall with maybe a few panels going on at the peripheries. But then it has always been like that since I started going in 2013. So I am used to it. Doesn't stop me attending when I can because I still find it enjoyable and there are not many geek type of events north of the border. However, I admit that about 2 year ago, I started to have a crisis of confidence, not just regarding attending MCM Scotland but going to any geek event, especially the fan run "residential" conventions I've been going to for a long time, the major ones being Amecon and until it's demise, Ayacon.

"Don't follow the rules and don't shoot for anybody other than yourself..."

I am not a good photographer.
At least, I don't think I am.
A lot of people seem to think I am.
But personally I don't feel that way.

At best, I consider myself an "average" photographer who understands the limitations of his equipment and own skills quite well and has learnt through a lot of experience gained through trial and error (And advice from friends and other photographers) how to be creative within those limitations.

Y U SO SRS?? (AKA: Why the sudden mood whiplash?)

Some may be confused about the recent more serious tone of my first post in a while and wondered why I made it. Well, aside from that certain Overwatch cosplay incident, a discussion between friends that sadly lead to disagreement between them prompted me to try to articulate some of the incidents of racism that I've had to deal with throughout my life. There isn't any particular political view I was trying to push in this instance though. Just thought it might be useful to try to give people an idea of things are like for those of us who are non-white.

Often a lot of the attention regarding ethnic minorities is focused on Asians (In the British sense of the word rather than the American sense i.e. South Asians such as Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis rather than other Asians like Chinese, Koreans and Japanese) or on Black people. There has always been, anecdotally, this feeling in the Chinese community that reporting incidents to the police or other authorities is pointless as either nothing will be done or things will get worse. Also the Chinese have always been less visible in the UK, even as more and more Mainland Chinese appear overseas to study or fill in gaps in industries which have not been able to fill vacancies with local talent. In some ways this is a good thing as it means some of the heat is taken off us compared to other ethnic minorities but when things happen to us, it does get a lot of coverage.

Anyway, I am going to ramble about another topic. Relationships...

The R Word from my Perspective

It's been a while, to put it mildly.

Most of the time I prefer to type my thoughts in rapid fire on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Maybe not be best places to vent or state strong opinions especially recently, as these sites have become more and more polarised and problematic. Contrary to what people like to think, you are not entitled to your own opinion any more and anything that deviates from the echo chamber will result in a lot of anger, resentment and harassment heading your way.

Today, I thought I might take some time to post about a bit of a problematic subject. One that probably is pretty relevant given the world may be taking a few steps back in social progress and equality. Some may accuse me of taking the "Social Justice Warriors" path in posting about this, but I thought it might be interesting to recount my own experiences when it came to racial discrimination.

The Madness of Photography

"No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness." -Aristotle

I have to admit I am not a creative person when it comes to words. I am not a particularly eloquent writer when it comes to words. Nor am I particularly witty when it comes to speaking. I tend to stumble a lot over my words when speaking to other people. I tend to repeat myself and get nervous easily. Even typing something longer form like this blog posting takes a lot of effort for me to think of what I would like to put down in words. I suppose this is why I ended up taking a more visual approach to creative hobbies. Why I use photography as my outlet for my imagination and find it somewhat simpler than trying to convey those same emotions using text. It is easier for me to create using photographs than it is for me to type about something hence why I have Thesarus.com open in another browser window to help me put into words my feelings here.

Independence Referendums, Politics and the Great Unifying Theory of Internet Hysteria and Paranoia.

For a while, I have decided not to mention the Scottish Independence Referendum, from here on referred to in this blog post as the "indyref", much even though I normally like to rant and rave about politics. Now, before I go any further, I will admit I am not the best person to talk about this. I didn't formally study politics at any point in my life. And I don't claim to be an expert either. What I am about to say here is my opinion and mine only. If you don't like to read my misinformed, cynical and possibly angry rantings, I suggest you stop here and find something else to read. Or do what I do to clam myself down and watch videos of cats on the world wide web. Or just sell your computer and smartphones and never use the internet again, ever, because the internet is full of misinformed, cynical and possibly angry rantings that are much more offensive than what I say. Mostly... :-P

With that out of the way, are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin...

Google Plus. Friend or Foe?

So, I have spent a while using Google Plus. Along side my uses of Facebook and Twitter.

Ultimately, I didn't like it.

There wasn't anything in particular it did wrong. But it didn't do enough to keep me engaged either.

I have to admit all I used it for was to crosspost stuff from Facebook and Twitter onto it instead. Some of the technology podcasts I listen to liked to talk about who it was somehow better or at least where more of their types of people hang out on the internet.

Land of my Forefathers

A few weeks ago, from the time of me starting this blog post, I finally set off on a holiday I had set my eyes on for some time. For two weeks from mid-April I set off for Hong Kong. A place where a large number of my relatives still reside and a place I have not been back to since 2011. I went there expecting to get some relaxation and have some fun. What I did not expect to do was to come back with a renewed sense of my ethnic background, a moment of self-discovery and a better understanding of the kind of sacrifices my grandparents and parents generation made to give me and possibly countless many others of the diaspora I'm part of, the opportunities my grandparents and parents never had.

In the Shadow of Ayacon...

About two weekends ago from the time I started writing this entry, I went to my first Kitacon, a relatively small convention that has been running for some time in the spring of every year for a while, from what I could gather. Although it was nice to be away on a holiday for once, I will have to admit something right here, right now, while everyone else lavishes praise on Kitacon 2014.

Meh.

Literally that is all I have to say on the convention.

OK I will elaborate. It was fun but not spectacular. As much as I enjoy being at these sorts of events, this Kitacon turned out to be a bit of a damp squib for me. There are various reasons for this. Some directly related to the convention. Some not. Some personal. I will go into a long and possibly rambling posting here on some of those reasons.

Laughter through (Web Video) Cruelty

About a month ago, I started watching videos of people from various places around the world traumatising themselves via a horror video game called "Amnesia", developed by Frictional Games. It is a, now possibly infamous title that revolves around some poor sod stumbling around various rooms and corridors of a castle trying to avoid getting torn to shreds by monsters and his own nerves. The amusement for me comes from these people panicking over said monsters when they are being chased by them (And occasionally by their own friends trying to trick them into thinking a monster is chasing them). That and the fact that when faced with something extremely scary in said video game, even the toughest of males is reduced to screaming and blubbing like a 10 year old girl...

You Know You've Entered a Timewarp When...

For strange reasons possibly related to a previous job, I have a version of VMWare Player installed on this PC. There is no real point to it at the moment. Previously, when I was working in Technical Support for a large Mobile Network Operator, there may have been some point. But now, since I no longer work there, it is more of a plaything. Something to allow me to mess around with other OS's, some older, some newer. I still have, for unfathomable reasons, a Windows 2000 installation disc from my university days. As a result, a basic Win2K virtual machine resides inside my PC. There is no real point to it. I just thought it would be funny to run an older OS. I suspect, as I have aforementioned, it would've had some use for me to research older machines in case some customer called up and mentioned they were still running Win2K. But now it is mostly irrelevant.

Faith of the Transient Worker...

So far, I've said little about my current job, other than to moan frequently on the lack of shifts being provided. The reason for this is due to the nature of the work. My current employer is a, shall we say, moderately sized company that specialises in various security related areas. And frankly, I'm not sure how much of what I do is allowed to be revealed in public given my employers have issued guidelines on the use of social networking sites and blogs. So to cover myself legally, if I need to refer to specific moments at work, I will fictionalise a lot of it to prevent getting into trouble. Or avoid it as much as possible...