Category: Aa

How to Draw Absolutely Anything Activity Book — ILYA

By 5t4n5

How to Draw Absolutely Anything Activity Book -- ILYANot anything like i was expecting.

I bought this because i’ve just gotten back into drawing after nearly 30 years of not doing any and i thought it might help a little.   I was expecting a book about how to draw, literally, but this isn’t really about that.

This book is more about working on your expectations and why you draw in the first place.   It’s more about drawing as just something you should do and what it should mean when it becomes as normal to living as eating and drinking.   What’s the point in drawing if you don’t know why you’re drawing?

What are you drawing for?   What do you really want to draw and why?

These are a few questions that the book made think about without directly asking them.

So don’t expect a book that tells you how to hold your pencil properly or what lead you should use on what paper, expect a book about your expectations and then go and draw something, anything, it doesn’t matter, just draw.

To sum this book up nicely would be this quote from the last few pages:

DON’T SAY “I can’t draw” especially when what you mean is, “I don’t draw.” DON’T SAY that either.

ILYA’s Page

#art #ilya

The Dark Deeps — Arthur Slade

By 5t4n5

The Dark Deeps -- Arthur SladeMore of Modo and the Permanent Association with a very enjoable 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea flavour to it.

This time the Clockwork Guild have created an invisible man to liven it all up for us readers.

And a French secret agent joins in the fun.

Same caveat applies as in the first book of this series, and in Jules Verne’s books also: just don’t think too hard about the science.   Put your 21st century scientific judgement aside, simply enjoy the tale being told and let Modo and the rest take you on a journey to the bottom of the Ocean.

Well written and very enjoyable.

So now i’m going to dive straight into book 3: Empire of Ruins

Arthur’s Page

#steampunk #arthurslade

Zombieland: Double Tap

By 5t4n5

Zombieland: Double TapNormally i wouldn’t be seen dead watching a zombie film but the Zombieland films are just so fucking good.

Yes folks, finally someone who treats the whole zombie thing with the level of respect that it deserves: pure comedy.   Because, after all, the whole zombie thing is just fucking stupid and has been done to fucking death already — literally.

So yeah, our wonderful protagonists are back from the 1st instalment, all having plenty of fun again; and there’s even a whole bunch of new, non-zombied humans they meet/pick-up/fuck/kill along the way.

Personally, i’m very much looking forward the zombie apocalypse if it’s going to be this much fun.

And especially looking forward to Zombieland 3.

#5t4n5 #tvandfilm #zombieland #doubletap

Mr. Robot — Season 4

By 5t4n5

And so it finally comes to the end.

One of the best TV programs ever has just finished its fourth and final season.   And what a finale.   Best wishes, Elliot!

It was about time for a TV program to explore mental health issues — especially dissociative identity disorder — in the depth that Mr. Robot did.   It took us on the most incredible magic carpet ride through Elliot’s mind.

Rami Malek and Sam Esmail are rumoured to be working on something new and i shall definitely give anything the two of them make a good watch.

Basically, if you ain’t seen Mr. Robot then you need to go back and give it a good watching.   It really is . . .

. . . Fucking A!!!

#5t4n5 #tvandfilm #mrrobot

Modern Slavery at Waitrose

By 5t4n5

Modern Slavery at WaitroseSo yesterday morning, Sunday 22nd December, i thought i’d go out for a ride on my scooter — weather being nice and everything.

So off i went to Sidmouth, as it’s quite a fun ride from Exmouth going the back lane way over Peak Hill.

I planned on getting there just after 10am so i could pop into Waitrose and grab a free coffee before it all got busy.   Alas, it was not to be.   I had forgotten about all the mindless, senseless, automaton, baby jesus freaks running around in their mad, last minute, buying frenzies because they’d forgotten the fucking stuffing mix and aunty Jane would starve to death if they didn’t get out and buy some at 10am on Sunday morning.

It was so busy Waitrose had even draughted in the boy scouts to guide people to empty parking spaces as they became available, and also the air cadets to collect all the trolleys as all the mad people threw them madly into the air in their mad dashes to be away from the madding, fucking crowd — i kid you fucking not!!!

By the time i’d got through the crazy busy store, having bought some nice things i can’t buy at Tesco in Exmouth, i proceeded to queue for the free coffee at the machine.   Yes folks, a queue had formed at 10.30am in Waitrose.   And it was a queue of 5 people, plus me, and more people then queued behind me.

Normally i wouldn’t bother waiting in such a queue, but i’d rode 12.5 miles on my scooter in the middle of winter — albeit a nice day — to get to Sidmouth; and, if you ask me — which no one did — i was the one in that fucking queue that deserved that free fucking coffee the most.

Needless to say, the coffee machine was not having a happy morning.   When anyone finally made it to the front of the queue they proceeded to apologise to those in the queue behind them about the coffee machine taking ages to make their coffee: “It’s never usually like this.” they said.

And the thought occurred to me:

In the internet of things, and intelligent devices, i wonder, should coffee machines get a tea break?

It struck me that at baby jesus time when everyone is all good will and shit and over eating and seriously hating the whole fucking experience but they go along with it any way because that’s what they’re supposed to do — init — that no one cared about this poor little coffee machine being so utterly abused by the hoi polloi and all and sundry of Sidmouth as they all lose their collective fucking minds and binge shop for baby fucking jesus like it’s the last fucking birthday he’ll ever fucking have.

So yeah, spare a thought for all your intelligent machines, and even the retarded ones, at this time of year.   Buy them a present and make sure they get a fucking break from your family’s incessant, mindless demands.

And yes, i do consider the Waitrose coffee machine to be intelligent.   It can make a fairly decent fucking coffee from whole beans, grinds them all by itself and everything and shit — that’s pretty fucking intelligent compared to a dog.   I don’t see dogs making a fresh ground cup of coffee and plenty of people claim they’re intelligent and if you abused one like you abuse intelligent machines then you’d be arrested good and proper.

So why is it ok to enslave, torture and abuse an intelligent machine in this way — at christmas for fucks sake — but it’s not ok to upset someone’s doggie?

So yeah, give the coffee machines a tea break — and stay the fuck out of Waitrose when i’m visiting Sidmouth.

#5t4n5 #waitrose #ai #coffee #thoughts

The Expanse — Season 4

By 5t4n5

The Expanse -- Season 4Another super season from this great series.

Not as good as season 3, me thinks, but then i think the way season 3 ended left me expecting a lot, then the doubts as to the future, the rescue by Amazon —

* We  Amazon *

— and then all the time we had to wait for season 4 adding to the expectations; so yeah, it had an incredibly hard act to follow and even more to live up to, and i have to say, even with all that, it was still rather, very good.

But it was over soooo quickly.   All that time waiting and i binge watched it in 3 days.   I know, i could have savoured it a little over a couple of weeks or something, but what can i say, i’m weak, i’m a binger, i’m addicted to The Expanse.

But instead of piling into season 5 i decided to read the books instead.   I’ll watch from season 1 again after i finish the books.

#5t4n5 #tvandfilm #theexpanse

Mission Clockwork — Arthur Slade

By 5t4n5

Mission Clockwork -- Arthur SladeHaving previously read the first 2 books in the series many years ago — before the 3rd and 4th hadn’t been written — i looked forward to coming back and re-reading this when i finally collected all four books: it was as enjoyable as i remembered it.

It’s the kind of steampunk that isn’t going to explain the workings of everything to you.   The best way to approach this series is to just leave your curiosity on the shelf as to how everything actually works, not question the science behind it all, and simply allow yourself to be taken along for the ride.

And it’s a good ride that never lets up from beginning to end with some great characters that draw you into their story.   Arthur gives us some well-likeable, root-able goodies while conjuring up some despicable, evil-doing baddies to balance everything nicely, and even throws some double crossing in to make things fun — just coz.

Just some good old, well written, steampunk fun.

And i’m looking forward to devouring book 2 as i dive straight into that without a rest.   It really is quite unputdownable.

Arthur’s Page

#steampunk #arthurslade

How Emotions Are Made — Lisa Feldman Barrett

By 5t4n5

How Emotions Are Made -- Lisa Feldman BarrettA very interesting look into how Lisa currently believes our brains create our emotions.   Lisa pushes well against the tide of established beliefs and makes a fairly good case for her theories.

But, we’ll probably throw this one on the “scrap-heap-of-wild-scientific-ideas-that-came-and-went” in a few years time, along with all the other thoughts that currently suit the zeitgeist.

Interesting though.

Lisa’s Page

#lisafeldmanbarrett

Self Aware — Matt Martinez

By 5t4n5

Self Aware -- Matt MartinezA.I. and that — and it was free so i thought i’d may as well give a new writer a try.

It was rather a disappointment.

At no point does it explain how this AI is a cyborg — or how a cyborg could be classed as an AI.   It makes clear that it was completely manufactured so where the term cyborg is relevant to this i have no idea.   One would think that a when one sets out to write about a cyborg one would spend at least a minute or two at Wikipedia and find out what the term meant.

This is also a short-story/novella kind of thing and one would also think that with the couple of minutes at Wikipedia the writer would get a friend who can read to go quickly through the book and point out the errors.   Missing words and jumbles are pretty inexcusable for a book this size.

And the story is quite unimaginative and wishy washy, with no effort being made to the actual realism of experimenting with a military cyborg or AI or whatever it is.   How did this get out of the laboratory, why wasn’t it isolated from the facility’s mainframe/network?

Nothing much here to make me want to read anything else by this writer.

Deleted

Matt’s Page

#scifi #mattmartinez #whataloadofcrap