tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28926158116493651032024-03-13T06:57:03.089+00:00Life of DoonBeware Spoilers! Films, Games, Books, Programming, Diabetes & Life in general. Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror. A daily log of things about me & what I do.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07823504381749369098noreply@blogger.comBlogger812125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-49309580205965745402012-05-23T23:56:00.000+01:002012-05-29T19:57:25.377+01:00The Way of Shadows
Assassins, secrets, magic, plots & betrayal. Those are the key parts of this book by Brent Weeks. The books was a Christmas present but it's taken me a while to get around to reading it. The story of a young boy with dreams of becoming an assassin who eventually manages to become the apprentice of the very best in the land. They train while the king and various other families with some Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-27548418338915205572012-05-22T23:45:00.000+01:002012-05-29T18:47:59.453+01:00Goodbye HouseAfter eight years on our screens House has finally come to an end. It has been one of the lucky shows that had the opportunity to choose its own end. Although I think that most viewers have seen it coming for a while now. Things had not been the same since the Cuddy situation and while season eight has had some great moments overall it's not been as good as the previous seasons. This year has Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-91777991741667325262012-05-21T23:46:00.000+01:002012-05-25T21:47:38.016+01:00Extremely Early MaidenOf course only one of them is still in the band but I recently came across these pictures from the very very early days of Iron Maiden. I wonder what they think of themselves looking back now. More here
Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-62609038604750189842012-05-20T21:31:00.000+01:002012-05-25T21:34:04.437+01:00Hello ComputerThere be whales here! Or there could be if Commander Scott happened to need to transport any whales to the 24th century. In the film (Star Trek VI) Scotty trades his knowledge of Transparent Aluminium for some standard plexiglass and now we've finally figured out the formula. A company in Massachusetts has been researching the subject for some time but are now actually producing it for use in Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-81279437648719955002012-05-19T23:46:00.000+01:002012-05-24T16:48:41.387+01:00Botanical GardensIn Sheffield we have a fairly famous Botanical Garden. While I've walked straight through it plenty of times I've never actually stopped and properly visited it until today. There is a full gallery of photos you can view here.
Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-87890706091372626692012-05-18T23:25:00.000+01:002012-05-24T16:42:18.080+01:00Completed: LA Noire
This actually happened last week as I tried to tick some games off this list before Diablo 3 arrived but then I never found a moment to fit in a post about it. Overall I really enjoyed this game. The world of forties LA looks fantastic, the clothes, the cars and the buildings all fit together well and feel pretty authentic. I'm sure they've had to take some liberties with the road layout but Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-10756797181438940292012-05-17T23:42:00.000+01:002012-05-20T16:43:13.297+01:00It's So YellowAdding to my emerging collection of signed first edition hardbacks this week is News From Gardenia. Following Peter Hamilton and John Green comes Robert Llewellyn.
That's three very different authors. This was published in a non-traditional manner which definately encouraged me to help. It's been released via a company called Unbound which works similar to Kickstarter. An author sets up a page Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-89727089394853013532012-05-16T20:13:00.000+01:002012-05-20T16:14:53.668+01:00First Impressions: Diablo 3
The big question is, can Diablo 3 live up to all the hype. So far it seems to be doing a pretty good job, mostly. The cutscenes are awesome but that's a Blizzard speciality and is to be expected. The graphics look great are are pretty much what you'd expect from an updated Diablo 2. The story so far is interesting but I haven't learned much yet. Controls are accurate and intuitive. These are Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-7523384868933843352012-05-15T16:40:00.000+01:002012-05-18T16:41:05.004+01:00Birthday GamingToday is my birthday but for the most part it's a just very plain Tuesday. Nothing much ever really happens on a Tuesday and the real celebrations took place at the weekend. However of course there is actually one special thing happening today and that is the release of Diablo 3. Diablo 2 was released back in the year 2000 and at the time I played quite a lot. We were in the early days of having Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-10523206241418718512012-05-14T23:27:00.000+01:002012-05-17T20:28:56.317+01:00Delain LiveDelain are a fairly new band with only two albums out at the moment (with another coming in June). Prior to the concert I'd only listened to the first one and it didn't really stick out much to me. It turns out that their second album is much much better and they are an excellent live band. The performance was brilliant, it sounded and looked great, and most importantly the band really seemed to Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-81531790029616079442012-05-13T21:49:00.000+01:002012-05-16T21:50:06.868+01:00Gig TimeContinuing the weekend of outings, tonight it's time for a live concert. I'm off to see a band called Delain who I don't know a lot about. But what I have heard seemed okay and the date was right. Should be good.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-72050156347054813752012-05-12T19:22:00.000+01:002012-05-16T21:22:49.997+01:00CelebrationsIn honour of my birthday next week there will be celebrations this weekend leaving me with little blogging time. Off to meet some friends now for drinks and I expect to be back late!Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-41074487353618362072012-05-11T23:25:00.000+01:002012-05-16T17:33:35.230+01:00Views From The ISSA while ago there was the great photo of the Earth and aurora as seen from the the International Space Station circulating around the Internet. Now there are even more. This time we've got full time lapse photos combined into an animated photoset. Amazing stuff, click here to view.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-51885382367697720122012-05-10T22:36:00.000+01:002012-05-11T21:47:11.974+01:00Spring 2012 Gift ExchangeBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-65871656444900146182012-05-09T23:43:00.000+01:002012-05-11T21:45:44.912+01:00Perpetual Testing InitiativeToday Valve have released a free update to the PC version of Portal 2 called the Perpetual Testing Initiative. It's basically an in-game puzzle editor. They've already released the full development tools in the past and you many even remember me mentioning starting experimenting with them. However tools like that are always extremely complex and take a lot of time to learn and use well. Time I Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-78327288419084128762012-05-08T21:48:00.000+01:002012-05-10T21:50:00.255+01:00Limitless
I've had this film in my "to watch" pile for quite a while now. It was a surprize gift and I'd never seen it before. This weekend it was finally time to sit down and see what it was all about. I wasn't sure what to expect but a thriller involving Robert DeNiro has to have some potential. What if there was a drug which could unlock the full potential of your brain? What would you do? Quite a lotBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-44854344175839562532012-05-07T22:23:00.000+01:002012-05-10T21:26:54.142+01:00200 MillionNews this weekend is that The Avengers has taken over $200 million in its opening weekend in the US. Completely Hulk smashing the previous $168 million record held by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. To be honest given the previous films and the promotional work from Disney/Marvel it is not surprising that it's done well. However to completely destroy records like that is amazing. Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-84101042033085150792012-05-06T23:09:00.000+01:002012-05-10T21:10:11.980+01:00No VideoThere is no video to post today. This is for two reasons. Number one I still need to finish editing the last one and number two there will a special video later in the week probably. I'll let you know about that as soon as it's ready.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-65246278335011129702012-05-05T21:08:00.000+01:002012-05-10T21:09:13.642+01:00May BirthdaysIt seems like every weekend this month there is a birthday to celebrate, including mine of course next week. I'm off out this evening for round one of celebretions so no time for a full post today, sorry.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-31677890409890614602012-05-04T22:04:00.000+01:002012-05-10T21:07:49.095+01:00An Abundance of Katherines
This is John Green's second book of five and the third which I've read. It was a good read but I have to say it's been my least favourite of his work so far. I can't decide if Paper Towns or The Fault In Our Stars is my favourite because they're both great but for very different reasons. The thing about Abundance of Katherines was that to start with there seemed to be a lot of similarities to Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-19967451800180678462012-05-03T23:48:00.000+01:002012-05-10T20:49:49.586+01:00Lucidity
Delain are a band that I'm only vaguely familiar with. However I'm still planning to see them live in the near future. They're doing a local gig very close to my birthday and the couple of You Tube songs I listened to seemed okay so I figured it would make a nice trip out. With that in mind I decided I should grab a couple of their album to get a better idea and the first I listened to was Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-23553696897229622502012-05-02T23:46:00.000+01:002012-05-08T22:47:13.355+01:00Elder Scrolls OnlineAnother announcement to talk about, this time in the work of gaming. Bethesda has confirmed they are working on an MMO version of The Elder Scrolls. I'm not sure what I think about this. It feels to me like every major franchise is jumping to an online model because that's "in" at the moment. I'm sure publisher love being able to charge monthly fees rather than a one-off price but what about how Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-51204649555512210722012-05-01T22:24:00.000+01:002012-05-08T21:28:34.841+01:00More Fringe!Good news everybody! It's been announced that Fringe will be getting a fifth season. Although it is only going to be a shortened season as well as being the last one. Still that means the show gets to go out on its own terms, something which getting rarer and rarer these days. Excellent news for one of my favourite currently airing shows.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-64902040926625807822012-04-30T23:20:00.000+01:002012-05-08T21:22:01.573+01:00Manhattan In Reverse
I've been reading this on and off for a while. It's a collection of short stories which means you can do that without losing track. I'd read a story and then not start the next one for a couple of weeks or more. I don't really know why it just kinda happened that way. It was no fault of the book each story was great but it's been an odd first few months of the year. I enjoyed this book a lot butBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2892615811649365103.post-30994312878448147912012-04-29T21:44:00.000+01:002012-05-08T20:21:59.098+01:00April 2012: Music & FilmBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01527784200346425166noreply@blogger.com0