Twinklefeet’s Blog of Things.

September 14, 2009

Muse - The Resistance.

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 1:08 am

Ever since I first heard Feeling Good while watching some random music channel I’ve been in love with Muse. I’ve eagerly awaited every album they’ve released and their new offering The Resistance is no exception. The album opens with the heavy, rolling sounds of Uprising; The droning vocals of Bellamy and strong beats combined with familiar muse sounds should leave the old fans feeling happy. The album continues with some new and interesting sounds with songs such as Undisclosed Desires, with a beat-heavy electronic backing track, or the Queen-esque United States of Eurasia combined with a little Chopin in the form of Collateral Damage. Similar to the band’s two previous albums these tracks feel like a natural evolution of their sound while remaining distinctly “Muse”. Going into the album’s second half with the 7 minute Unnatural Selection throws the album into overdrive with a tune that starts as reminiscent of some of their classic songs such as Plug in Baby or Hysteria. The album slows down again with the jazzy I Belong To You, a piano heavy tune that wouldn’t sound out of place in a 1930s feelgood film. Again, a slightly different direction for the band but one that still manages to sound like noone else. I think I even made out a clarinet in there somewhere. The album finishes off with the three part Exogenesis Symphony totalling just under 13 minutes, starting off with the epic and eerie Overture. Bellamy makes a return to the soft, drawn out vocals of previous albums working seamlessly into the music. Building up in part two with a haunting piano it strikes familiar to the bands previous work, especially Origin of Symmetry. The queen style guitar makes a subtle return, but soon disappears as the song winds down into part three; the mellow and peaceful Redemption. A simple, soft piece that winds the album down perfectly.

All in all, I love this album. Again the band have managed to try out a few new things, go in a few new directions while still remaining the same band and would definitely recommend it to a fan of their previous stuff. Well worth the time.

May 31, 2009

Places to relax and the union.

Filed under: University — admin @ 4:17 pm

Over the last few weeks, while most other people have been revising, I’ve spent quite a bit of time reflecting on the way I spend my free time these days. It’s quite sad to see a lot of people I know get so flustered and worried about exams. Of course, occasionally the worry is sometimes justified, but still it’s sad. Also, I know that there’s very little I can do about this state of affairs, so I go back to doing other inconsequential things such as playing Braid, going to DDR in Birmingham or writing a blog post.

However, something occurred to me recently. I’ve been spending more and more time in the mathematics Linux computer room recently, as have many others. Their reason for being there? I assume it’s mostly for revision/work, massive youtube orgies and circle-jerks aside. But me, what was I spending so much time there for? Until recently I’d only spend a small amount of time in that specific room. It wasn’t so that I could specifically spend more time with the other people, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy their company, but I’d rather enjoy it somewhere a little more social. It wasn’t to do Project Euler either; I could just as easily go somewhere else to do that. Anyway, I went over a number of possible reasons in my head and finally one dawned on me: Was there anywhere else to go?

DCS isn’t an option for any non-CS students, or at least students with zero access to the building. It would be nice to go there, but it’s simply not viable. Places like the science concourse are also kind of what I’m looking for, but in reality are either far too busy or have other niggling problems. I used to go to the union. I very much enjoyed relaxing in the Kami Lounge/pool table area. I genuinely felt comfortable sitting there for hours on end either looking over notes, browsing t’internet over the union’s hotspot and playing pool when I could find an opponent. But this was cruelly taken away from me with the union rebuild, and so I defaulted to a place I previously only used for work, or at least something resembling work. Coupled with severely cutting down the amount of time I spent on WoW, this meant I was spending more and more time in this one room. Something I didn’t particularly want to do. I’m just hoping that when the union is finished there’ll be somewhere I can go to relax, much like before.

May 2, 2009

Cake!

Filed under: Food. — admin @ 10:51 pm

A while ago I made a cake as a prize for the AnimeSoc termly quiz and have just remembered that a couple of people actually asked me for the recipe. So here it is: Twinklefeet’s ridiculous Pancake-Cake.

Ingredients:

175g Butter

175g Caster Sugar

4-5 Eggs

175g Self-Raising Flour.

Bag of Plain Flour.

~2 pints of milk.

First off, preheat your oven to 180 degrees (If the internet is to believed this is apparently gas mark 4). Then mix together the Sugar and Butter in a large bowl. If you’re having trouble mixing them you can blast the butter quickly in a microwave to make things a little easier. Once you’ve got your sugar/butter mix add 3 of the eggs, put the other two aside for now. You should now have a very disgusting looking mixture, but don’t fret, it’ll look better shortly. Next use a sieve to slowly add the self-raising flower to the mix. You want to slowly fold in the flour into the mix making sure to try and get rid of any lumps. If you want to make a chocolate cake you can add some cocoa or drinking chocolate now too.

Split this mixture between two pre-greased up sandwich tins and put them into the oven for 20-30 minutes. When they’re done they will be firm to the touch and look like a cake.

Now, while they’re cooking, take out a jug or similar sized vessel. Add the other two eggs and beat them with a fork. When they’re thoroughly beaten, slowly add the plain flour, mixing as you go. I never really know what the ratio of eggs to flour should be, but the resulting goop should be very stiff and basically forming one big lump that sticks to your fork. Then slowly add milk to the mixture, stirring hard. Keep adding milk until you end up with a runny batter.

Take your frying pan and heat it up as hot as possible, greasing it with some leftover butter. When the pan is sufficiently hot add some of the batter. It will be quite obvious how well cooked the pancake is, and when it looks ready, flip it with a spatula or, if you’re feeling adventurous, without. Anyway, re-apply butter to the pan with a piece of kitchen towel or similar and repeat for moar pancakes.

Once your cake is finished remove from the oven and let it cool. Once they’ve cooled off construct your final cake. Personally I went with one pancake on top and one in the middle, glued in with some pre-made frosting. Then add whatever decoration you like and voila: Pancake-cake.

Enjoy.

April 27, 2009

Anime!

Filed under: Anime — Tags: — admin @ 3:31 pm

The new, allegedly spring, anime season upon us and now that there are a few episodes out for each series. Once again we have a huge variety of shows ranging from completely stupid to mildly stupid. Being the president of AnimeSoc I’ll just do a quick rundown of some of the more notable series this season.

Eden of the East

So far this series seems to have the most potential out of all shows I have watched this season. The first episode introduce a young female lead from Japan visiting DC. After getting into a slightly hairy situation while looking at the White House she is promptly saved by a naked guy with nothing more than a gun and some sort of hi-tech mobile phone. It presents itself as quite a light-hearted series but there are deeper, significant elements to the story that are keeping me interested. The art and music are both quite strong and, at least for me, seems like a good all round series.

Sengoku Basara

Without a doubt the MANliest series available of the new season. Truth be told, plot-wise I have absolutely no idea what this series is about. I think it was something to do with various warlords in ancient Japan competing amongst themselves for territory and honour. However, in reality, it is about manly men having ridiculously over the top fights with each other in a blaze of glory. It also has a horse with motorcycle accessories. If that doesn’t do it for you then…you’re probably sane.

Valkyria Chronicles

For the unaware. this was originally a game released for the PS3 set in an alternative universe of Earth circa 1940. The story focuses on the story of Alicia, a young girl from Gallia, a small neutral nation under threat of invasion from the East Europan Empire. As a member of the town watch on the border town of Bruhl, the first few episodes specifically deal with her and her fellow main characters defending their home. The series follows quite closely to the game with a few alterations. Overall it’s quite a competently made series. The animation style, while not as striking as the original, is still very nice and the music is lifted straight from the game. In short, it’s a series that you may not normally consider but you may just like.

Shangri-La

Truth be told I’ve only watched the first episode of this. However, I found it very interesting and I will definitely watch more of it eventually. It has art by Range Murata (for those who don’t know the name, he did the character art for Last Exile) so you know even if the rest of the series turns out to be crap it will always jizz beauty into your eyes. It has quite a wide variety of characters but hasn’t really told us anything about them from the first episode. Although, it does have a transvestite who appears to attack his enemies by either kissing them and/or using a whip he keeps wrapped around his arm.

Queen’s Blade

No list of this season’s shows is complete without this. The first episode contains an enemy who shoots acid from her breasts.

…

yeah.

That’s all for now, I may comment on some of the other series when I actually get round to watching a little more of them.

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