Link: http://www.amentsoc.org/events/exhibitions.html

October 17th marked the annual Amateur Entomology Society's show at Kempton Park Racecourse, this was the first time I had ever attended but felt that a show report would be necessary as when looking up about the event and exactly what takes place I could find no real information.

So here I am, helping all you lovely people find out.
Unfortunately I did not take many pictures, I'll have to make up for those in descriptions.

The show sees a turnout in the thousands, from elderly visitors to very young children you'll find all walks of earth interested in entomology and insects.

So I was very pleased to find that the previous day I was watching the one show on bbc one where this young girl Kiara was showing off her bugs, little did I think it, she was there too! I'd even met her on the train!

Now the one thing I didn't welcome too much with the entomology show was the high proportion of stalls selling dead bugs for the actual sense of term entomology, however to this there were also a lot of people selling live-stock.

There were millipedes, cockroaches, plasmids, hermit-crabs, spiders, scorpions, beetles and even a few stalls selling snails.

Not only was livestock available but there were also many stalls selling very reasonably priced tanks, books, substrate, and much more, in the past I've only been able to go to reptile shows as there are far more that take place, but I must say there was twice as many stalls if not three times as many as you would see at shows like ERAC and PRAS.

From the show I spent a small amount of money, I bought a new tank, a book on molluscs, some nicely cheap coir, some moss peat, and a new addition to my slowly growing menagerie.

Meet copernicus, an achatina achatina, or tiger snail, one of the largest snails kept in captivity, he isn't too dissimilar to their cousin fulica, however they do like to be kept slightly hotter and humid, hopefully he'll grow to a nice big snail!

If I could have I would have gotten a lot more than little Copernicus. I'm sure I would have walked away with a burrowing cockroach, a millipede or two, a couple of pill bugs (which were very very cute) and in particular a megalobulimus oblongus, a very special snail with an awesome mustache, however my bank would not accommodate to purchase one, or many of the other snails that I wished to purchase, so for now I will make do with little Copernicus and wait to see what I can get next year.. who knows maybe someone will come with me then.

In conclusion, if you are interested in insects at all, or found them interesting as a child, take a trip down to the AES entomology show next year, it only costs £3 to get in, and who knows maybe you'll come away with something that you'll treasure for years.

Say hello to Fortescue who is a Hadra Webbi, or Australian Tree Snail, he's a little shy and you don't see him much but he's always hiding somewhere, he definitely won't say hello to you like Cornelius and Phylis but if you're lucky you'll spy him out of his shell! He makes a happy addition to my little family.

Plus his shell is a beautiful shape and a nice earthy colour, hopefully he'll grow big and strong like my others.

Look out in the next couple of weeks I shall be attending the Entomology show 2009 at the Kempton Park Racecourse to peruse for any new and interesting little guys that take my fancy.. if anyone is selling that is, although I've promised not to come home with a cockroach...

I came to the realisation that I have yet to introduce my two pets, Cornelius and Phylis, I've had them for around 6 months now, having bought them for my film production the snail and the swan which as the title says required a snail.

In the six months that I've had them they've eaten, pooped and grown more than you would think imaginable for a snail, to me they are just as cute and exciting as any other pet you can own, if not better, they love baths and like to say hello every now and again, better yet they are easy to feed and don't cost the earth, they have whatever I happen to be having in a particular week, while they seem to enjoy cucumber the most, I give them occasional treats; they love a little bit of watermelon when I treat myself to them, the same goes for grapes. They also go crazy for sweet basil.

But recently they blessed me with a huge clutch of eggs in their tank, so I kept around 20 of them, and two weeks later I've got babies! to make things even better babies are five times cuter than their fully-grown counterparts!

So encase any of you want to see them here they are.

August 4th marked mine and Tim's 2nd anniversary, so I decided to treat us to a surprise trip to Chessington World of Adventures, although the day started a bit miserable we had a great time, managed to get on every ride we wanted to go on, and had a real nice lunch at their new pizza and pasta buffet which had an amazing salad bar!

The zoo section of the park was great fun as usual and even had some african land snails, including some little babies! Tim had lots of fun watching the penguins, plus I got to meet a dragon! He was extra soft and furry, made my day.

We were out the whole day which did suck a little, seeing as I had to work the following day but I wouldn't have skipped it for anything, an awesome time was had, and Tim has to top it next year hehe so looking forward to that!

So I went back to playing Bioshock a couple of days ago, and I must say, if I knew the horror aspect was going to fizzle out so soon, I'd of probably finished it two years ago.

The main disappointment of Bioshock was it's lack of variation; enemies were placed into the game far too often, the game would have been far more intense with less enemies.
Too much ammo was readily available is another reason I can feel this happened, where it got to the point that I was literally running into rooms killing splicers with no apprehension, because there was no need to fear them with such an arsenal in my hands,

There were certain aspects of the game that kept the experience fresh, throwing in the Houdini splicers, along with the 192 serum screwing up your plasmids, which I found entertaining.

Another good portion of the game was Sander Cohen's level, slotted in as the one section of the game where it was not a requirement to kill a boss, giving you the choice instead to just let him live, his level also put quite a nice spin on the game, taking photos of the people who had betrayed him once you'd killed them.

I did quite like the death of Ryan, and the 'Would you kindly' segment did play well, if not a bit cliche-movie-twist, but the whole idea of mind control with the phrase had been used to a nice effect, but to be honest I couldn't stand Fontaine, his voice was far too annoying, and as a final boss he was slightly disappointing.

Becoming the big daddy was lacking somewhat, and should have been slower, but again, it was a nice variation.

The end was definitely lacking, not sure what I was expecting, but it was not it. While it was half decent, I'd of liked to have known what had happened to everything else, such as Rapture itself.

I appreciate what 2K were doing when they made Bioshock, they pushed the boundaries on the appreciation of asthetics that FPS seem to lack, but too many ideas were put into the pot, and made for a disappointing game that was perhaps regarded a bit too highly.

This weekend just passed marked the annual LFCC, which I had the pleasure of attending with Tim.

The trip there was far more pleasurable than usual, only taking around an hour and a half compared to the hellish travel I used to have to experience from Newport.

Unlike usual there wasn't that many people that attracted me to the event, it was more of the ritual of going down and looking at the stalls that made me want to go, I just really wanted a change of scenery, I did however want to meet Michael Ironside, a legendary actor who has nowhere near as much recognition as he should, and Keeley Hawes; Alex Drake in Ashes to Ashes, so they gave the event a bit of a bonus.

The cosplay was a little disappointing, not many more than your run of the mill people, there was a very nice poison ivy, and a small child doing a very good scout, its a shame cause I do enjoy seeing them.

Didn't come away with any games purchased, I was close to getting a gamestation metal gear watch but it wouldn't have been worth it.. all the stalls were a bit too expensive for me really, I saw a few things that I would have bought could I of afforded them, but nothing so amazing that I had to own it.. which was a shame.

As for the guests I only saw Michael Ironside, who was pretty much everything I had hoped for him to be, he remembered me when I had my photo with him, and asked where Tim was which was nice.

I also had a photo with Keeley Hawes who was absolutely stunning, can't wait for the third series of Ashes to Ashes. I do regret not meeting her though cause apparently she was nice and chatty.

Unfortunately I am still awaiting my photos of Keeley and Michael as me and Tim just couldn't be bothered to wait around for the photos to be developed because we were so tired, should be receiving them shortly however.

Biggest highlight of the day however was the appearance of a Japan Centre stall which was marvellous, and had the most amazing fresh mochi, I was really tempted to get the underground to Piccadilly so I could get some more but I was dead tired by the end of it all.

Also a shout out to Super Wok in North Camp for the genius of shredded duck fried rice!

Not only have I failed to post recently, my games are suffering harshly from my increase in stress and work.
Ironically, Lash La Rue has improved greatly due to its source of positive procrastination, which means that my negative procrastination; the playing of games has fallen of recent.

I turned on my computer for the first time in ages and played some Strong Bad, as I cannot start playing Telltale's Wallace and Gromit without finishing the Strong Bad series, but it felt strange and wrong, and although I didn't have any work to be doing, I could not continue playing it.

Similarly my console gaming is down to possibly a record low, I have not even touched Resident Evil 5 yet, granted I did play a little Fallout last night, and delighted in a chapter of Left 4 Dead while Tim was home, however the only real game I've been playing is Peggle deluxe on the 360, it's become my new Freecell, an addiction I can never lose until I become a professor of Peggle and finish every challenge.

Which makes me think over the last few months and has me question, have I simply become a casual gamer, I divulged in games like Zuma, and Jewel Quest over Fallout and Resident Evil, I play more time on Solitaire on my netbook over doing anything productive, as a former hardcore gamer it has me worried, questioning if I am slowly getting over gaming, and progressing to a state where short-term quick games are a thing of the future *gulp*

Update on Eidos pumpkin competition: yes they may be busy with their take-over, but I still don't have my damn prize!

Link: http://gamesoc.newport.ac.uk/ggj

Over this weekend I will not be doing film related work, and I will not be doing my dissertation, this weekend I am taking part in Game Jam, a global event where in various places groups of people will be getting together and making a game from this Friday at 5pm til Sunday at 3pm, so if anyone is wondering where I have gone, it is there

Hopefully something nice will come from the experience, not sure what input I can give, but I'll try my best.

I'll post up the results possibly Sunday evening, depending on if I decide to make a Falling in Love Chocolate Mousse Pie as seen in the Waitress

Toodles

Oh, also if you check the web address in the title of this post you will find the website of my local game jam event in Newport, where upon commencement tonight there should be a live webcam feed

A discovery has been made, I now have found perfection, and it's name is Krispy Kreme; never before have I eaten such doughnuts of perfection, especially in the form of the simple commonplace ring doughnut! yum.

I also would like to add that I won the pumpkin competition on the eidos forums! yay! although they have yet to send me my prize...

But prizes I need not when I've got a nice house, and Tim to keep me company, not to mention that I'm still playing Fallout 3 and still absolutely loving it.

Also managed to pick up Suda 51's Flower, Sun and Rain in the sales at GAME, quite an interesting game, very Suda-licious!

Halloween is such an amazing time of the year, not surprising when my birthday falls on it, but also for the excitement of choosing what to carve on your pumpkin, and waiting patiently on your sofa for some small child dressed up as a knight to knock on your front door in search of candy.

Another fun thing with halloween is the contests that take place in the gaming spaces of the internet, sadly no doublefine contest this year, not that I entered last year. Telltale had another competition; the winners having some awesome entries. Kotaku had an epic contest to win a dead space helmet, sadly Catherine didn't win I entered as well, but I think I did it too late.

Doesn't matter though, because I carved two particularly awesome pumpkins this year!

And the very first Adam Jensen pumpkin straight from Deus Ex 3!!

Fallout's vault boy was my own halloween pumpkin for this year, Deus Ex's Adam Jensen was for a competition on the Eidos community forums; fingers crossed I win something!

Tune in the same time next year for more pumpkin carving action!