Games of the Week - Song Pop and Pocket Planes

Song Pop

If you have been awake the last couple of weeks you've probably heard of SongPop. I started playing a couple of weeks ago thanks to the recommendation of my friend Bex. Since then it's gained about 70,000 likes on Facebook. I will take all the credit for the trend!

It's an highly addictive name-that-tune game available on Facebook, iOS and Android. The idea is pretty simple. You get to listen to up to ten seconds of a song whilst being shown four possible answers of either song title or artist. You answer five per round and try to get a higher score than a friend (or a random opponent) by guessing quickly and by getting chains of correct answers. 

I have a feeling it will be around longer than Draw Something because of the ease of play and the option to buy more playlists.

Some things which would improve the game for me:

1 - A choice of rewards at the end of the weekly tournament (I never use those power-up things. I'd prefer some coins. Thanks.)

2 - A lifetime high score table. I got +22k and this was lost at the end of the week. This made me sad.

3 - A little preview of some songs on each playlist, it's rubbish if you buy a playlist and realise it wasn't what you thought. Especially the ambiguously named "I love NY". Apparently it's just songs about New York. How odd!

4 - A limited time refund option in case you accidentally choose the wrong playlist. Easier than having to email customer services.

Here's me getting thoroughly beaten by Toby:

Pocket Planes

Another recommendation from a friend, thanks go to Angela this time. Pocket Planes is a lovely little time-wasting game for the iPhone (no Wi-Fi required) where you purchase airports all over the world and fly people and cargo around. I'm currently dominating Europe with plans to expand business into the US and Asia ^_^

It's quite easy to make money in the game by completing journeys and so gameplay does not rely on those in-game real-money purchases I loathe so much. Have a go, but be warned it's rather addictive!

In other news, I think asshat may be my favourite ever insult. "He's such a total asshat!"

Things I like - 7- Kawaii Stuff and Japan

Those who know me will know I have a minor obsession with anything Japanese or generally kawaii. Kawaii means cute in Japanese and the word tends to be used to describe things such as cartoons of food with faces, miniature items or plush toys.

Here's my new kawaii desk tidy from Paperchase!

Hello Kitty is kawaii. Especially when she's wearing a kimono and is accompanied by a big pink bow! My housemate Kate got me this wicked-cool necklace for my birthday from Tragic Stitches:

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I also love Japanese animated movies and TV shows (anime). I'm currently awaiting the next new episode of Naruto Shippuden on Crunchyroll (it's all getting very exciting in the Hidden Leaf right now with another Great Ninja War kicking off) and I own a number of Studio Ghibli movies. The Hayao Miyazaki range includes some pretty beautiful and random typical-Japanese stuff, like Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle, but also includes an anime version of The Borrowers, entitled The Secret World of Arrietty (Karigurashi no Arrietty). This story is a bit Americanised but with the lovely animation and charm of Miyazaki I'd give it a watch if I were you!

Image from here.

I first got introduced to Japanese music by listening to the theme tunes from the Naruto series. If you like Japanese music or think you'd like to give it a try, listen to G3 radio online on Tuesday evenings. My friends in Area 11 have a radio show where they play lots of sweet tunes and there's a chat room type thing so you can request songs and answer the question of the week if you are so inclined!

Here's a video with lyrics for Bluebird by Ikimono Gakari:

I have never been to Japan, a fact which makes me sad, and I will go one day I'm sure. Until then I will keep watching anime, eating sushi and katsu curry, listening to J-rock and buying stuff I think is cute. In short, continuing being an embarrassing Westerner who doesn't really know anything about Japan. I tried to learn more about Japan by taking a module of Japanese language in my second year of my undergraduate Biology degree. I spent months learning hiragana and katakana and trying to remember the Japanese for post office, business card and newspaper but instead remembering aisu-kurimu (ice cream), hanbaga (hamburger) and terebi (television) because they're pretty much just English words put into Japanese syllables. They're fun to say, give it a try!

Here are some sites I enjoy:

Ji Ji Kiki: A jewellery shop named after the characters in Kiki's Delivery Service. They sell lots of cute necklaces and earrings, a large proportion of which have cute faces on them. Say it with me now: Ka-wa-iiii!

Flutterscape: This is a marketplace which sells many things from Japan. Lots of collectibles and accessories to be found here.

Tofu Cute: A UK based store which sells accessories, stationary and Japanese snacks. I love the great selection of Puccho and Pocky, and the endless edamame popping keyrings!

Tokyo Kawaii Etc.: A website/blog written by a Japanese lady called Kirin. She writes about things going on in her life, makes videos and explains how things in Japan are different from other countries. 

Japanese lunches are the coolest!

Exercise

I haven't put "Things I Like" before "Exercise" because I'm not really sure if I like it yet. I was one of those kids at school who would fake a parent's letter or forget my gym clothes accidentally-on-purpose to get out of PE lessons. On the rare occasions I was forced to play team sports I'd loiter in a corner in my knickershorts (not to be confused with knickerbockers) hoping an errant kick wouldn't send the ball into my face and break my glasses. My teachers would despair on sports day trying to find something for me to do because I was crap at everything but eventually they dropped the "it's the taking part that counts" spiel and let me get away with being a spectator.

Unfortunately our school-issue knickershorts were not girly and flowery.
They were maroon. Nobody should be made to wear maroon.
Image from here.

Approximately 10 years later I was feeling optimistic and thought it might be fun to join my friend Katy in a spot of jogging. I downloaded an app for my iPhone called 5K Runner (there is a free download from the NHS which does the same job) which assumes you are a couch potato and starts you off slowly doing a minute of running and a minute of walking and builds you up over 8 weeks to be able to run a solid 5km. A nice male voice (we named him Lionel) tells you when to walk and when to run. Despite it being an easy introduction into the world of running I very nearly threw up after the first one and probably lost half my body weight in perspiration. It was a total of six minutes of running. Yes that is how unfit I am!

My body was pretty shocked by this sudden attempt at faster-than-a-stroll movement and promptly punished me for trying to get fit by giving me a nasty bout of shin splints. For those who don't know, it feels pretty much like your shin bones are about to snap in half and just pop on out of your skin. It is highly unpleasant and may make you cry a bit.

That meant I had to stop the running for at least two weeks and so I thought I'd try a bit of swimming instead. Unfortunately the day I chose to start my new regime was the day the under-15 Nottingham swimming team practises. It's not great for the ego when little wiry 13-year-olds with six packs are tumble turning all over your best effort at a breaststroke. Plus one of them chucked up in the loos. I was a little sympathetic knowing how nauseated I felt after my first run, but it was still gross and has put me off going for another swim in the near future.

The shin splints also stopped me playing badminton (now there's one sport I really do enjoy playing), because the stop-start nature of the game means there's a lot of pressure put on the ol' shins. Now I'm better I will start playing again and I will also return to Zumba classes (it's a mix between aerobics and latin dance) so one day I will look like this: 

Image from here.

Since I went on holiday I've put back on the few pounds I'd managed to shed with the running. All-inclusive buffet meals will do that to ya. I am determined to start eating better (as soon as I finish this last bag of Cadbury's Caramel Nibbles), to start exercising properly again and to catch up to my mum who also started the 5k running challenge when I did and is almost at the 30 minute continuous run stage. It's nice to have a goal to aim for!

In the spirit of sports, here's a dog called Maddie who's really good at standing on stuff. Check out the blog maddieonthings for more!

Image from here.

Image from here.

On Ho-li-day!

From today all will be quiet on the blogging front for two weeks. I'm off on holiday! Yay! I'll bring you back a gift ok?

Things I Like - 6 - Games

I started gaming at a fairly early age. Having an older brother probably had something do with this because there were consoles around the house. I guess I must have been about 5 or 6 when I started playing. I'm just gonna name some games here that I was pretty obsessed with at some time or another in my life.

The first game I properly got into, along with the rest of my family, was Alex Kidd in Miracle World. I was pretty good at it until the stupid motorbike level where there are spikes on the ground and monkeys which throw killer leaves at you. I used to get my dad to do it for me. The video below shows someone doing it in ~30 seconds which upsets me because I still repeatedly fail at this level now I'm grown up!

Whilst Googling for things relating to this game I found this in the Wiki article: 

"The game did have an undocumented "continue" feature, where the player could continue the game with three lives from the beginning of the level where Alex had died, by holding the up button and pressing the 2 button eight times during the GAME OVER screen." 

WHAT?! I did not know this! In the dark days without saves this would have been good to know! A lack of save ability also meant if you got tired and wanted to play another day you had to leave the console on pause overnight. I wonder if any house fires were started this way.

Other games of note for the Master System include: Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap and Taz-mania.

Scene from Discworld II. Image Here.

When we got our first home PC (a Gateway 2000) I couldn't find anything more exciting to play with than MS Paint (which has come a long way on Windows 7), Encarta 96 (which is amazing) and MS Bob (which I had lots of fun with but didn't comprehend the actual purpose of) until someone in the house bought Dragon Lore: The Legend Begins,  Simon the Sorceror and Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!? I hadn't read any Discworld books by this point so I was mostly amused by the characters of the Luggage, the wizards and the beggars (favourite being the Duck Man, least favourite being Coffin Henry), but I've since realised the game is based on three really good books from the series, namely Lords and Ladies (the elvish stuff), Moving Pictures (the movie set stuff) and Reaper Man (Fourecks and missing DEATH stuff). I no longer own this game but would really love to play it through again. I think it should be re-released for download on Xbox or PS3. I'd also like to have a go at Dragon Lore again. It was much too hard for an 8 year old me, but I think I could figure it out now. Same goes for Myst.

Weird dog thing from Dragon Lore

One Christmas I got an N64. This was probably the best Christmas ever. I think I got a bike too. Spoiled much? For weeks and weeks on Friday film night I would go to Global Video and rent out Banjo-Kazooie and hope my save game from last weekend was still there. Recently I downloaded it for Xbox 360 and got as far as the final battle with Gruntilda but she kept on kicking my ass and I got grumpy and gave up. Even the Jinjos couldn't save me. I think it goes without saying that Zelda: Ocarina of Time was also an obsession and so, too, was Diddy Kong Racing. I still believe that Nintendo make the best games for pure fun purposes.

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Next, the advent of the PlayStation. I had a PS1 and PS2 and was introduced to the Final Fantasy series by my cousin Rob. I wasn't too into FFVII. Sacrilege to some I know, but I couldn't get past the stupid snake at the start and I got sad when Aeris died. I was instead firmly addicted to FFIX. I liked collecting the cards for Tetra Master and I love the towns and scenery and the airships. After that I played a lot of FFX, and once when I had some teeth extracted and had a general anaesthetic, I had an incredibly vivid dream that I was a character in it. It was the best dentist trip I ever had.

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Most recently I got my hands on an Xbox 360 and entered into the absorbing Bethesda world of Oblivion. And then Skyrim. Both of these games have eaten a huge chunk of my waking hours. I think they're so addictive because they feel impossible to complete and fully explore and this keeps me turning on my console and trying to get my Archery skill to 100. [Insert arrow in knee meme here]. Although I will say that I wish some of the quest lines like the Thieves Guild and Companions could have been a little longer. I still enjoyed playing them through though!

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Feel free to educate me if I missed out on some awesome games so far!

Things I Like - 5 - Reality TV

I think of the term "reality TV" quite lightly. I'm fully aware that everything you see on telly is produced and edited for entertainment purposes and is not "real" in almost any sense - and it's a darn good job it is edited, otherwise shows would be incredibly boring (like when they used to show 24 hours of live Big Brother. Yawn).

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When I'm home in the day and able to select from the pretty dull rice, beans and pasta smorgasbord that is UK daytime TV, I've got to admit I'm partial to a little bit of The Real Housewives of Orange County (above) and Supernanny (below {in case you couldn't tell which was which}). I don't have kids but I do have big respect for Jo Frost who is incredibly good at her job, and who seems to have to work more on the parents than the kids. She goes from being your typical nanny to mediator to councillor with a mere flick of her ponytail. I just want to be her friend!

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Two "reality" shows I have drawn the line at watching are Made in Chelsea and The Only Way is Essex. Luckily, to this day, I have only seen adverts and not actually seen the shows. I feel like I've had a lucky escape. Frankly I'm a bit of an inverse snob, I'm pretty working class and watching a load of toffs get drunk and embarrass themselves is just too much for me to take. I saw enough of that kind of behaviour during the rugby team initiations at uni to last me a lifetime. TOWIE on the other hand turns me into a regular snob. I find myself looking down my nose at them and their common vajazzling ways and would rather stick pins under my nails than watch either of these shows...

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...buuut maybe you think the same about shows like Britain's Got Talent, The Voice UK (who is that Irish guy anyway?!*) or The X Factor. I suppose I should confess right now that I'm a massive fan of talent shows. I never went to Butlins as a kid but I imagine that's the kind of place where the British fascination with talent competitions began! Since Diversity (and Ashley Banjo *swoon*) became so successful and awakened me to the existence of modern street dance I have harboured this secret desire to join a crew. Yeah that's right, a street dancing scientist! Unfortunately my dancing looks like someone put me in a straitjacket and set my feet on fire so it's unlikely my dream will become a reality.

Anyway, daydreaming aside, I just watched last Saturday's episode of Britain's Got Talent and was really impressed with Hope Murphy's cover of Maxwell's cover of Kate Bush's 'A Woman's Work'. Skip ahead to 2:40 in the video if you want to avoid the small talk. I love the kind of stunned silence at the end when the audience are unsure if it's over and then everyone starts cheering. My heart got truly warmed!

Another BGT video I've added here just for good measure is the one with Charlotte and Jonathan who sang something (from 1:55) that I've never heard and were incredible! Well I have to say Jonathan was incredible... Charlotte was lovely but unfortunately paled in comparison.

And just to round off on the reality theme, here are some minature foodstuffs a talented dude from Israel is selling as jewellery on Etsy which look very real but aren't. Please don't eat them!

 

*Interestingly when I just Googled "That Irish guy off The Voice" the first hit was Peter Griffin. That's right, even Google doesn't know who he is! Eeek!

Things I Like - 4 - My Kindle

Two Christmases ago I was given an Amazon Kindle (thanks Mum). At the time it hadn't crossed my mind to get one and I was a bit unsure what I'd use it for. I mean, I LOVE books. I'm a great fan of that musty, papery smell and I'm a bit hooked on the excitement of finding a literary treasure in a second hand bookshop. What would I do with an e-book reader..?

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Well! I use it all the time! I never go anywhere without it because it fits perfectly in my handbag. I get the bus and train a lot and so it's really useful to have instant entertainment. It stays charged up for a really long time too so it's better than reading things on my iPhone. The only vaguely negative things I have to say about it is that it's very easy to spend money on the online shop, it's hard to gauge how far through the book you are even though there's a percentage read bar at the bottom, the majority of Discworld books have not yet been made available (come on Terry!) and, because I have one of the older versions, the QWERTY keyboard is a bit unnecessary day-to-day.

Since getting, what I think of as my "Amaz-ing Kindle", people have started talking to me randomly on the bus, in the lunch queue, as I'm wandering around with it in my hand and asking me if it's any good. After stammering for a bit (I'm a bit shy around strangers) I eventually find my words and I tell people it's great. Especially if you're someone who takes public transport a lot, hasn't the space for many books in the home or are going on holiday. It's fantastic to have hundreds of books available at the touch of a button and e-books tend to work out cheaper than hard copies, or in the case of classic novels, are even free.

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After I've explained just how handy e-book readers are, these people tend to respond with: "Oh, but I just love real books" or "I enjoy going to the library" or "I like the feel of a book in my hands". It's like they started speaking to me just because they want to berate me for abandoning paper books and want to feel smug that they are still in the "real book" club. 

My answer to these comments is always: "You don't have to give up paper books!!" It seems like people believe there is some unwritten rule that states you can no longer buy hard copies of books once you own an e-book reader! Trust me, it's not like a siren goes off when you step over the threshold of Waterstone's. A security guard does not come over and say "Sir/Madam, I see you are carrying an e-book reader. You no longer appreciate the ink and paper world of the written word. Please leave."

Owning a Kindle is not scary, it does not automatically make you a member or a weird book-burning cult. E-book reader owners simply appreciate the convenience of reading books any time on a lightweight gadget. For example, think about when you're lying in bed with The Lord of the Rings (or equivalent) hardback trilogy and you get hand and neck cramp from trying to keep the pages open at a suitable reading angle. Compare this thought to one of holding a little grey thingy at whatever angle you like, turning pages with a press of a finger. In my mind it's not much of a contest.

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Saying this, I have only had experience with using the Amazon Kindle. If anyone out there has used and can tell me more about pros and cons of other brands of e-book reader I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Here are some books which I recommend:

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins - Recently made into a hugely succesful movie, The Hunger Games is book one of a trilogy of the same name following Katniss Everdeen before, during and after she takes part in the fight to the death that is the 74th Annual Hunger Games. The book and movie are both excellent. Supposedly they're aimed at children, but everyone else I've spoken to who has read them had enjoyed them as much as I did (I'm 23 in case you were curious).

The Help - Kathryn Stockett - From the point of view of a few different characters, this book details the world of 1960s African American maids working for white families. I don't know much about American history so I found this quite enlightening as well as a great read with engrossing characters. I haven't seen the movie yet. I hope to do so soon!

Confessions of a GP - Benjamin Daniels - I do not work in the healthcare sector so I can't share in the frustrations vented within, however, from the point of view of a patient I learned what I should and shouldn't do when visiting my GP. It's a faintly amusing collection of anecdotes which made me feel amused, guilty and a bit sad in turns. Pretty cheap as an e-book, well worth a read!

QI Book of General Ignorance - John Mitchinson & John Lloyd - I'm a big fan of the QI TV show. After reading this I kept on spouting facts to everyone around me. I guess they thought it was pretty annoying but I revelled in that smug feeling which comes from arguing back with the words "it was in the QI book so I must be right".

The Painted Man - Peter V. Brett - I'd like to know what the 'V' stands for. This is the first book of the Demon Series and is also known as The Warded Man in the US. It's based in a world in which the human inhabitants have to use magical "wards" to keep night-time demons at bay. It's pretty epic!

Storm Front  - Jim Butcher - Book One of The Dresden Files. About a modern-ish day wizard who helps his buddy in the "Special Investigations" US police department and ends up kicking lots of magical beasties' butts in a charmingly candid fashion. I feel the writing style is aimed at men but I have been appreciating the lack of flowery language sometimes thrown about in fantasy fiction.

Darker Things - Rob Cornell - Book One of The Lockman Chronicles which I discovered via Twitter. This book is about an ex-secret agent type of chap who is thrown into all kinds of supernatural drama following the appearance of a teenage girl at his front door claiming to be his daughter. I'm not usually one for action type books but I really enjoyed this due to it being coupled with the element of magic/mojo. The story was refreshing and at one part I was actually surprised at the turn of events. Normally I see things coming from a mile away so this gets a  big thumbs up from me!