Reno explains it all...

Absolute Certainty

2010-07-10T20:16:00.001-07:00

This blog post will expand on a video by Pat Condell which I’m very fond of called Absolute Certainty – the ways in which religious people offer absolute certainty through their belief systems, and how it is neither true nor a clear minded way to go about your life. In this article, I want to take a few moments to clear up the difference between what people know and what people believe. Some people may not see the difference between the two, but with a few moments of thinking on the matter it becomes clear that there is a separation.

I felt it necessary to write this blog after debating with Christians on the internet about the origins of the universe, their creationist theories and their view on the afterlife (among several other things). What upset me was the way they talked as if they had no doubt in what they were saying, they used scripture as fact, and in my opinion, this is more than silly. As I debated with them, I made a point to clearly express my agnostic standpoint on the physical and spiritual aspect to the world we live in, I would never claim to know how this amazing universe began or whether my beliefs are fact. Personally, I think that anyone who thinks they know the answers to these questions (from both a religious or scientific stand point) is both an idiot and a closed minded fool. Thus, as previously stated, I always make it clear that I am agnostic and open to absolutely any possibility, including the barbaric God of the Bible – and I’m not ashamed or embarrassed to admit that; whereas they’re open to absolutely nothing, and accuse me of being “pretty sick” for even considering the idea of humans having a common ancestor with apes. Similarly, they say they know that when we die, the theory of God’s judgement over man for his sin is the way things will unfold. It’s not “I believe it will happen”, it’s “I know it will happen, and you’ll be sorry when it comes true.” However, as you haven’t died and neither have I, you can’t guarantee anything of the sort, just as you can’t guarantee Muslims or Jews are wrong, or for that matter the flying spaghetti monster.

So, the difference between knowing and believing is the inability to deny fact on a basis of demonstrable theory through practise. To this end, knowing automatically includes believing because it goes beyond it. For example, I know that gravity is a real force. I believe that if I picked up a penny and dropped it, gravity would take hold and it will fall to the ground. I can put this into practise by doing so and every time I drop the penny it hits the floor, therefore I know gravity exists.

However, what is written in the scripture is not fact. To read that God made the universe in seven days and believe it is fine, to believe that God will judge all men at the end of their lives is fine, to believe that judgement day will come and this entire existence will no longer exist is fine, to believe I am a sinner and I will burn in eternal fire for not obeying your God is fine (if somewhat offensive) – but to say you “know it is true” isn’t fine at all. The basis for this is that you can’t put the creationist theory into action. You can’t say “okay, God made the world in seven days, let’s test that in a lab” or “let’s try that scenario in action” because it’s a theory that works on superstition and, for want of a better word, magic. However, you can use science to rectify this, by picking holes in the God theory with scientific practise, such as carbon dating and fossils which automatically disprove the idea of the world being 6,000 years old. I’m not here to disprove religion though; that would be a stupid idea. I just want to point out that nobody, not even the smartest scientist, knows source of man and his surroundings without a doubt – even Richard Dawkins (evolution expert) happily answers the theory of a God existing, he just doesn’t believe it’s likely based on what we’ve learnt and continue to learn – in the same respect that I (and a lot of other atheists) do.

So, there you go, feel free to believe what you wish – I’d never seek to quash the right of freedom of choice in such a belief, but don’t claim to know anything when it comes to the source and expiration of man’s existence, because you haven’t experienced either.

Thanks for reading, below you can find the original video by Pat regarding this subject. Enjoy!

The Ultimate Who Review: Series 5

2010-06-29T17:38:00.001-07:00

Why Moffat’s reinvention of Britain’s greatest TV show is the best it’s ever been…

Okay I’ll be the first to admit it, when Matt Smith’s Doctor burst on to our screens on new year’s day in the crashing TARDIS, I was more than apprehensive about his ability to take on the reigns of such an iconic character, especially after everyone’s love an devotion to Tennant’s brilliant portrayal of our favourite Time Lord. Even after three episodes (as you may have seen in one of my previous posts) I remained unconvinced that letting RTD and Tennant leave was a good idea. It’s true, this series had a slightly rocky start, but there have been so many brilliant episodes and since the disappointing narrative of ‘Victory of the Daleks’ the show has just gone from strength to strength. I never could have imagined that after my great love for David Tennant’s Doctor that I would be so impressed and so fond of our new 11th regeneration.

Matt Smith’s Doctor reverts himself back to the attitude of older Doctors like Pertwee’s third incarnation – fiery in temper, head strong, traditional fondness of peculiar dress, animated and exciting to a level where we can’t predict any moves he makes. It’s thanks to Matt’s performance and personal adaption of the character that we see older traditions of Doctor Who colliding with new ones; which is particularly interesting as he’s the youngest actor to play our time travelling hero. Each Doctor seems to have something about him that follows his character through everything he does, a central theme that can sum up his journey through seasons. Eccleston's was his loss of Gallifrey, the haunting of the Time War, the fact he was ‘born in battle and bloodshed’ as Tennant put it. Tennant’s Doctor expanded on this theme but in the end it was all about Rose and it was all about love. Our Tenth Doctor was so unlucky in love on so many levels that we felt for him so much, and after his first season he never got the chance to fulfil that yearning for love – all the way up to his regeneration, which is why we felt so bad to see our lonely Doctor go without giving his full potential; “so much more” as he said. However, Matt Smith’s Doctor has completely dropped that theme, maybe Moffat isn’t such a fan of it, as we never see the Eleventh Doctor even try anything with Amy, despite her numerous attempts to get past his suspenders and into his pants. In stead, he remains clear headed in his intentions and it is only River Song who we see him taking a real fondness to at the very end of the season.

Speaking of other characters, the companions of this series were brilliant. Amy is not only attractive but funny, sparky and flamboyant – she takes the idea of the Doctor’s sidekick to a whole new level. Though the fiery red head is seen as the Doctor’s companion in this series, but Rory’s character appears in so many episodes that he can be seen as one too, and his true importance shines through right to the end, which was really nice to see; even though his character is by no means easy to stomach at the best of times. The return of River Song was a welcoming flashback to season 4 and keeps us connected to earlier events…or future events in her view I guess. Either way, her performances get stronger and stronger – which is reassuring for her future performances.

It’s important to recognise that not only did the characters change completely when we saw Tennant go (the entire reasoning behind ‘The End of Time’ was simply to say goodbye to all those RTD characters, which is what made it a bit disappointing) but the entire way the show is created has changed too. From a production point of view, the show looks so much more real, the filming style is grittier and more dramatic – with a slower frame rate that gives it that cinematic feel. It was always my opinion that, despite how much I loved the Eccleston and Tennant years, they remained very cartoony. Davies had managed to reignite that camp and silly look of classic Doctor Who with the rubber suits and bad puppetry, which in effect kept it very British and very much within its own theme, but Moffat has taken those sparks of subtle CGI use in earlier seasons and vamped them up to their full potential – meaning a very small use of rubber masks. In fact, the only classical use of this is in The Pandorica Opens, where we’re reunited with the Judoon, Sontarans and many other villains of previous years, but this is for about 5 minutes, compared to the amazing CGI display of their warships above Stonehenge just moments before. Yes, it seems very clear, that Moffat is striving to bring a whole new kind of visual performance to the show, and good on him. Some classic Who fans would argue that this is taking away the true essence of what Doctor Who is, and I can see where they are coming from, but as audiences evolve and technology moves forward, it’s a shame to admit that we can’t stay in 1976 forever. Even the new Silurians had a much more dignified feel to them, which I’m sure we can all appreciate.

Episode Rating Run Down

Episode Name Reno Rating (/10)

The Eleventh Hour 10

The Beast Below 7

Victory of the Daleks 5.5

The Time of Angels 7.5

Flesh and Stone 8

Vampires of Venice 7

Amy’s Choice 7.5

The Hungry Earth 7

Cold Blood 8.5

Vincent and the Doctor 8.5

The Lodger 7.5

The Pandorica Opens 10

The Big Bang 9

Cracks in the Universe and Silence Will Fall

The cracks in time were a brilliant and intriguing story arc this year, they imposed a constant visual reminder of the impending mysterious finale, instead of relying solely on hearsay and other characters, much like Bad Wolf in the first of the new series, though less subtle than the hints of Harold Saxon in series 3. On top of this, the idea of silence falling (said or mentioned by many characters) was combined to give us an even more outstanding question about what was going to happen. We all knew from the start that there was going to be an explosion in the future that would threaten all of time and space – the Doctor said it himself – but I don’t think any of us could have expected what we were given in the end. The 2 part finale was brilliant, bold, exciting, intense and so utterly confusing that I’m still trying to get my head around it 4 days on. The inclusion of every major foe from the last 5 seasons was a great idea and something I think Who fans have been waiting for for a long time.

Questions remain as to who said “Silence Will Fall” in the TARDIS late into The Pandorica Opens (as well as who actually caused the cracks and made the TARDIS land/explode on that date). The truth is, we still don’t know and we probably won’t know until the end of season 6 – if not later. RTD always did us a favour by wrapping everything up into a nice little bundle and sealing it off for us, resolved and done with – whereas Moffat has clearly left the questions unanswered and even cut off the Doctor’s urgency to find out who said it when they introduced the beginning of the Christmas special for later this year; no doubt we’ll get some clues then too. There are many theories floating around the web, including the reintroduction of the Valeyard from the fifth Doctor’s time or even the most powerful Time Lord of them all; Omega (who I’m personally hoping for). Either way, it’s unconventional and very refreshing to have a faceless villain in a finale – one who doesn’t bathe in everyone knowing who he is, instead he sits back and lets chaos happen. I’m looking forward to finding out who he/it is – bring on next July!

In the end this series was better than any other because it removed the cartoony feel of earlier seasons and made it REAL. It was so much more real, so much more believable (if there is such a thing when talking about a time travelling alien) and it was so much more entertaining. The only thing missing from this season was a real involvement with people. For some reason, Moffat decided to keep heavily populated areas out of this season, whereas RTD saw his Doctor landing in London and Cardiff regularly, as well as world wide invasions by Sontarans and Daleks, humanity enslaved by the Master and Cybermen trying to delete absolutely everything with international reactions as they happened – but we don’t see any of that this time, it’s very localised and very closed off, which is a bit of a shame in my opinion.

My first astral projection experience

2010-06-22T09:54:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone, sorry for not posting a Phobia Friday video last week! I was away without a computer so I wasn’t able to upload anything. However, while I was back I experienced something amazing and refreshing. In case you hadn’t noticed or I haven’t told you, I recently took up Buddhism – I’ll be happy to go into this later but at the moment I’ll skip that and tell you about my first ever experience of astral projection.

On Saturday (the day before I came back to Stoke) I wasn’t feeling 100% so I decided to meditate for a while in my room. I was laying on my bed with my elbows down and my forearms raised to about a 45 degree angle. As I closed my eyes I played my thunderstorm meditation mp3 on my headphones and just sunk into my experience a little. As I sank more and more, I became aware of two separate mind states – one was the awareness of my conscious physical location and in particular where my hands were, as they were the only things that weren’t flat against the bed. From a visual perspective (though my eyes were shut) I knew that focusing on my hands I was looking in their respective directions, so my left eye looked left and my right eye looked right. When doing this, my hands would stay completely still. Then, my eyes would focus to the centre and my mind would clear, this is when my hands would begin to move and I could consciously feel them moving. After a few seconds of moving my eyes would leave the centre again and they’d stop moving. This process happened quite a few times until I was completely exempt of my physical situation. It’s a little hard to explain what happened next, in some respects I knew where I was but at the same time I couldn’t feel my physical body at all. A few minutes later I realised that under these waves of consciousness and focus I’d been receiving questions when my eyes were centred on this invisible column in the middle of my mind. I knew the questions had been there the whole time, I couldn’t tell you what the questions were or what my answers were, because there were no words. Soon after this, I met the woman who was asking me this questions – an old lady (about 60) from Thailand. I don’t know how I know she was from Thailand, but I do. She stood behind a market stall which was up against a grey wall. From behind the market stall she handed me a china vase with some bright flowers in it. Without speaking I said I couldn’t take them, but she insisted. Again, there were no physical words here, I can’t speak Thai and I highly doubt she speaks English. The only way I can explain it is communication with our minds. I thanked her for the questions and for the flowers, she smiled at me and it all just faded away. At that point I knew what was happening, I told myself I wanted to wake up so I could put it on Facebook and tell everyone about it – but I physically couldn’t do it, there was no control over me coming back to opening my eyes. At the moment of telling myself that I wanted to wake up I know I was looking at a cliff face, it looked like the grand canyon, I have no idea what the connection is there but it was very clear, I can still picture it now.

So the sceptics will say “you were asleep” – maybe, but it didn’t feel like sleep, never before have I slept and known of my physical situation, never have I been asleep and wanted to wake up, I am always fooled by my dreams into thinking they’re real. On top of this, the whole process only lasted about 9 or 10 minutes, as I woke up with several minutes left on the thunderstorm mp3 (which is only 16 minutes long). I didn’t feel drowsy or sleepy when I came back around, I felt very normal and refreshed.

I can’t tell you if she was real. I can’t tell you if she was a living person connecting with me or a spirit. I can’t tell you if I was asleep or if this was all my imagination. All I can tell you is I’ve never experienced anything like it in my life, I had no fear and no discomfort, just peace. A friend of mine online was very supportive and offered more information on the subject, as well as telling me the Thai lady was probably real. On top of this, she told me to see the meaning behind the offer of flowers – probably renewal and new life. It’s nice to know there are others out there supporting me and hoping for this new life who I’ve never even met. I can only hope to have another experience like it again soon :)

Reno

Phobia Fridays!

2010-06-11T19:34:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone, I just want to do a quick catch up of the last 2 weeks. I decided that, despite having no video camera, I would still start raising the game of my video blog channel on YouTube by starting a new video series (among other regular uploads) called Phobia Fridays. I’ve already uploaded the first 2 videos, you can find them below. I’ve taken Phobia Friday beyond YouTube though and made it a twitter hash tag – so keep an eye out for it and get involved!!

Episode 1 is an introduction to how you should approach phobias and how you should look at them from a logical view point.

It’s important to remember that there is no external source affecting your decisions and mental state. No matter what you think or feel or experience, you make your phobia what it is. If you like, you can treat your phobia like a child, it’s always there but its a matter of whether you will let it act out or not! As I say in the video, anything you can turn on, you can turn off as well.

Episode 2 was posted yesterday, it’s all about the law of attraction. You might not agree with the theory, but I felt it was right to explain my theory of it and how I feel it affects everything we do.

The law of attraction is a real thing, and I strongly advise you to check out 'The Secret’ in book form or on DVD (I’ve got both!) – it’s a riveting read and even if you don’t believe it, the theory is so encouraging and uplifting!

Thanks for watching and reading, new post coming soon about my current favourite topic – religion!!

Reno :)

Album of the Month: April

2010-04-22T18:39:00.001-07:00

Dragonforce – Inhuman Rampage

Though this album may have been out for several years, I feel it is time for me to give it the journalistic coverage it deserves. Inhuman Rampage is, without exception, amazing. From it’s inception of Through the Fire and the Flames (yes, many of us are sick of hearing this track from the repeated times we tried to play it on Guitar Hero III) right through to the softer ending with the outro track Trail of Broken Hearts. The outrageous speed and complexity that Dragonforce have achieved acclaim for with TTFTF is not a one off, and remains a prominent factor of the album and lingers all the way through to the second-to-last track The Flame of Youth (track 8).

This album is by no means easy to digest without time to understand how power metal works, and admittedly it may just be a bit too manic for some listeners. However, with the ability to keep up with the 100 metre dash that this album is (in both speed and adrenaline) then you’re in for one hell of a ride. Once experienced, the talent of the members in Dragonforce (whether you like their personalities or not) can not be denied. I’ve heard many objections to metal that doesn’t contain ballsy gruff voices and how unappreciated high pitched male voices can be in this overall genre as well. However, ZP Theart (who has since departed the band) doesn’t hog the musical light; which in honesty would be difficult as every track on the CD stretches beyond 5 minutes, most surpassing the 7 and a half minute mark with Cry for Eternity reaching an impressive 8 minutes and 13 seconds before it’s climactic close, leaving plenty of space for intense displays of instrumental mastery and progressive stages that lead to extensive guitar solos.

Unfortunately, this is where the album falls down a little, as sometimes it feels as if the tracks have a lack of direction and seem to just stem off into a world of their own just for the sake of it. Many first time listeners may get completely lost as to what is going on and the very samey sound of each track may leave some asking “is this the same song?” – however the fact that the same sound throughout gives the recording an all-in-one-go hell ride of metal and excitement, you don’t really need to know which track you’re still on. The best way to approach this album is to just sit back and listen through; soaking up the obvious time and effort put into it.

On a personal note…
Another thing to be proud of is the fact that Dragonforce are British. I’ve only seen the kinds of music that they are producing from the mainland European stage, and admittedly some members of Dragonforce stem from further afield than here, but they are nevertheless known as a British band and that makes me a proud man and will remain a fan of them for the rest of my life. Inhuman Rampage is an album that never gets old for me and always puts a huge smile on my face, a definite desert island disc!

Reno Rating: 9/10
Best track: Cry for Eternity

Check out the Dragonforce back catalogue at Amazon.co.uk

LiveJournal Tags: dragon,force,dragonforce,album,cd,review,metal,music,reno,discussion,inhuman,rampage,power metal

The Who Review - S5E03

2010-04-18T12:35:00.001-07:00

Victory of the Daleks? Not really.

Okay so, the Daleks are back. Despite being wiped out entirely under the will of Kaan and somehow avoiding the dalekanium reverse thingy majiggy that the half Doctor put into action (not that it really makes any sense). Oh well, the point is the they’re back, they’re making tea and they’re now all new. To an extent, when looking back over the episode, it made a lot sense to 'evolve’ the look of the Daleks as it were, because a lot of effort has been made to reinvent the new Moffat era of the Who and thus leaving the Tennant/RTD look behind continues this theme – and we can enjoy a whole new exciting look to the galaxy’s biggest villains from now on… the problem is it’s not very exciting at all. Okay, the voices are kinda cool and the idea of colour co-ordinating the daleks into a new functional colour system, but there are a lot of rumours that this is just a marketing ploy just to sell more merchandise.

Unfortunately, the new designs look tacky and they’re way too fat!! What’s with this random fat arse stuck on the back? They look hunch back! Admittedly in the picture above they look far more menacing because of their size over the older versions on the right. Still, not hugely impressed.

Amy Pond, whether this should be the case or not, is far more interesting than the Doctor in this episode, just as she has been throughout the series so far. She’s interesting, silly, ditzy and indirectly more intelligent than the Doctor in achieving desired results. Still, that last point is always the objective of the companions, so there’s an inevitability for you. Without going into too much detail, I’m still not feeling Matt’s version of the Doctor. Every person who has taken on the role of our cunning Time Lord has had his own style, but Smith is yet to stand out. Admittedly, we thought Tennant was a bit like this at first, but he only took an episode or 2 to get into the swing of things – we’re now 3 episodes in and he’s still nothing special.

For the sake of balance here’s some of the best bits of the show; The visuals were fantastic! Churchill may not have looked especially convincing, but he was played well enough and we could believe it was his character if we detached reality from fiction for the sake of enjoying Saturday night telly. The war rooms were very realistic, cinematography, lighting, continuity, makeup and costume were all perfect. The space battle was amazing, some of the best CGI I’ve ever seen in a British TV series. Another great part was the ending of the episode, seeing these cracks in the walls as a recurring theme is something we’re used to, which will obviously lead up to the end of the series and it’ll all make sense then, on top of the fact that Amy doesn’t remember the planets in the sky; what the hell is the deal with that?! Either way, this episode wasn’t enough to stop me watching in the future (I don’t think anything would) - so faith still remains there for me.

The problems with this episode were as follows; the story arc, even if the Daleks return later on, was just too short! When I watched the trailer for this episode, I saw it as a definite 2-parter; I mean it had to be! It was the return of the Doctor’s biggest enemy after what we thought was their end. Because of the fact they were only given the one 45 minute episode for their return, it seemed very rushed and all of the plot developments (which were potentially gripping and enthralling) just seemed rushed and almost too easy. If they’d spaced it out over 2 episodes we could have had the brand new Daleks coming out of their chamber (which also made no sense) at the end of part 1 and then the massive battle part in the second part. Shame. Cant argue that the battle wasn’t good, but again it was rushed and too easy to end.

One last thing, the title of this episode was Victory of the Daleks, okay, but why? In what way was it a victory? They killed about 2 people and then ran away. Admittedly they managed to reinvent themselves and escape, but that’s possibly the smallest form of victory they could have achieved. This = fail. Would have been better to call it “Cowardice of the Daleks”.

So to round up, the visuals were great but the story was just too short. It was rushed and lacked substance. Emotional involvement? Yeah it was there, but not deep enough. Character development? Not really. Endearing end? Yes yes yes!! Oh, and yeah, still dissapointed with Matt’s Doctor – just not filling Tennant’s boots yet.

Reno Rating: 5/10

LiveJournal Tags: Doctor Who,daleks,discussion,series 5,matt smith,episode 3,review

General life update – April 14th

2010-04-14T12:26:00.001-07:00

Wow, so there’s a few things I want to update you guys with; and most of them are moans – apologies in advance. I’m currently at my Mum’s house, taking a break from the bullshit that is Stoke-on-Trent and it has to be said that once again, I’m disgusted by the quality of the travel conditions I put up with on the way to Kettering was ridiculous. Sitting on the floor in the food carriage wasn’t what I had imagined when paying £35 for my ticket. I can understand trains being busy, but this isn’t the first time it’s happened – which frustrates me – but what really takes the biscuit is the fact the train had 4 normal carriages and 3 first class carriages. As the train pulled in to Derby I watched the first 3 carriages pass me and saw that almost all the seats were empty. Now I can appreciate that some people want to pay £70 for the sake of a slightly bigger chair and a free cup of tea, but there are a lot more of us who want to sit in regular class and therefore East Midlands trains should get their carriage priorities right, thanks.

So moving on to a more positive note – I’m voting Lib Dem. After debating my choices and having had support for the Tories due to the endless watching of Prime Minister’s Questions for the last 5 or 6 years, I’ve suddenly had a turn for the underdogs. I could sit here and try to justify what I know about politics and what in particular I prefer about the Lib Dems, but there’s no need for me to be self righteous – I wouldn’t want to sway your opinion, it’s your choice who to vote for, but do your research, choose the party who represents you best. I’ve found over the last few weeks that the Tories and Labour just get buried in their own squabbles and attempting to look more aggressive at each other without facing real issues.

I will say this though, if your vote is more about numbers than policy; a lot of people think that a vote for Lib Dem is a wasted vote, as there’s no chance they’ll get into power. It reminds me a lot of the old Revolver days during uni, where nobody wanted to go because “no-one goes” – this is an automatic defeatist cycle, which is stupid. A lot of people have faith in their own beliefs, well have faith in turning the tide. Remember that RATM campaign I was sooo fond of? Well the mac-daddy of that campaign Jon Morter has launched this…

Pretty cool huh? Click the picture and sign up for the awesome cause!! :D

There’s one last thing I want to moan about – when people have a completely lack of regard for knowledge and manners, on top of spelling ability and grammar. When I saw the comment below on the Lib Dem Facebook group I was literally outraged.

You may not like the fact that Prime Ministers Questions is broadcast on TV (oh no, 30 mins of BBC 2 broadcasting lost once a week!) but having a total disregard for the importance of politics or even being able to spell and construct cognitive sentences makes this person an utter moron. People who use the word ‘yous’ automatically get written off as morons in my mind, but within the context I found it, I had to make special recognition of it.

Done for today, thanks for reading!! Don’t forget to press the BECOME A FAN button over there >>>

Reno :)

Welcome back to the end of the start…

2010-04-14T10:40:00.001-07:00

So I fell a bit behind with my blog posts, but I’ll try to rectify that once more. Cre8 Radio, which some of you may have heard me on, was absolutely amazing. It’s funny how everything went, but in the end I had a regular slot for myself and the second week was just amazing. The whole experience was awesome, eye opening, mind expanding and of course humbling. It was great to hear from regular Stokies as well as being joined by international regulars and newbies. Thank you very much for joining me during the 2 weeks and all your input. Below is a screen grab of my listeners who held on to the end of Thursday’s show, amazing to see you all, thanks for being involved.

Life goes on though, and just as Cre8 Radio goes off air, One Media Radio returns. Catch me back on the internet airwaves after little hiatus this week – I’ll be on air this Monday coming (19th) with a nice re-branding of Reno Explains it All. Stay tuned for updates, and remember you can always join the Facebook group for my show and blog here :)

Catch y’all soon
Reno

Reno’s Moans: Fame Nation

2010-02-28T21:02:00.001-08:00

Welcome, one and all, to Reno Explains it All! I am here once again to sample you with servings from the bucket of thought liquids which leak out from the crack in my skull

This week I’m moaning about celebrities. Okay, so there are two kinds of celebs – there are good ones and bad ones, which is a pretty obvious way of classifying them, so let me break it down for you. We’ll start on the positives and go for the celebrities I like.

So what is the good kind of celebrity? Well, those who don’t seek fame through their chosen profession such as actors and musicians who pursue what they do to make a use of their talents for the sake of providing the public with some form of art.

And this is where pride fits in to this rolling theme, is it selfish for these indirect celebrities to seek a job such as a lead part in a sitcom or a movie for the sake of furthering their career (and thus, pride in their own work)? Or would it be better to be someone who set out their life from their early years simply to get into movies and become someone famous? Well when you consider the kinds of TV that comes out every year, there’s no real need for that anymore – if you want to seek your fame in one instance or another, you can jump on a crappy TV show like X Factor or Britains Got Talent or American Idol or World’s Sluttiest Idiot and take a shortcut past all that hard work that really talented people do in building a portfolio and climb the ladder through their work. A large portion of the people who’ll whore themselves out on Britain’s Top Moron are looking for fame, they won’t say “I want to be on X Factor because I want to be a singer” – they’d say “I want to be famous”. Those are the kinds of idiots who make a killing by selling every piece of their lives off, like its a fucking charity auction!

What is one step worse than these people? The magazines who publish stories about them every day. And you know what’s a step worse than them? You. The people who go out there and PAY your hard earned money on magazines which publish not only direct articles from the tools who love to have cameras follow them around, but also slanderous and lie filled articles which rip apart the people who are in the lime light without even having a say in it.

How would YOU feel if a pap took a picture of you while you were trying to have some private time away on holiday? Or following you around on motorbikes while you try to go and buy some clothes? Or, I dunno, being endlessly chased when you try and leave a party?

One thing that really upsets me is when one of those highly talented people who didn’t need input from the scum ridden magazines which slur about celebrities sells out and lets the lowest form of publication (yes I put Hello! magazine below a bondage porn mag) by letting them pay a million quid for an exclusive story about the strategic methods they shaved their balls when they were 24. It’s funny, because if these magazines weren’t in demand then they’d shut down after a while due to a lack of funds, which means there are hundreds of thousands of sheep going out there and buying this shit and it sickens me. What kind of culture have we come to where people take pleasure in reading about how someone’s life is falling apart? Who the fuck are YOU to judge THEM? Hey, I might not like some of the people who are in the limelight, but I sure as hell respect their rights to privacy. Is your life really THAT dull that you need to pay for a mostly fabricated story (always submitted by ‘a friend’) just to cushion the absence of anything substantial in your pathetic existence? Get a life. And for those people who go out and try to flash their lives for the sake of being in these publications, well, you are the epitome of human garbage.

And I’m done!
Tune in to this week’s Reno Explains it All radio show here on Monday at 2pm (UK Time)
Reno

Get more twitter followers for free!

2010-02-24T10:53:00.001-08:00

Hey guys, here’s your mid-week post that is detached from current topics I’m talking about. I want to tell you about an AWESOME and FREE way of getting a lot of twitter followers over a short amount of time. Up until last week I had just over 100 followers and that’s from over a year of tweeting. Now, a week later, I have 615 followers and the number goes up on a constant basis, in fact an email just came up on my screen saying I have another follower. So, what is this magical way of getting your name out there on Twitter? It’s simple; Twiends.

The system is pretty simple, it works on a system of credits whereby you earn credits when you follow other people on the system and lose credits when people follow you. When your credits reach zero you stop being listed on the follow page and have to either follow some more people (which is an easy and automatic system unless you’re picky) or you can pay an upfront fee for a larger amount of credits without needing to follow anyone! The system is great, and although you end up following a lot of people, you really can grow your online community online in a quick and easy way without paying a dime. 500 new followers in a week? That’s a no brainer.

Of course, there is an argument that these new followers are just following you for the sake of achieving the same thing as you – numbers on a list, which is true, it does happen, but it’s not all doom and gloom! If you’re looking at trying to spread your product/brand/presence online then you don’t need to know all your followers, because you’re doing it on a purely on a basis of spreading the word and I know that at least some of my new followers will have found their way to reading this page simply because I posted it on twitter, so go figure. On the other side of this argument is the fact that I have made some genuine new friends through this system who I tweet with every day, and anyone who you really can’t stand can just be unfollowed, nothing to argue about there! It’s also reignited my love for online content, which is where this re-branding and more regular posting has come from :D

So check out http://twiends.com/ and start getting more followers today!!

Reno

del.icio.us Tags: reno,explains,it,all,staffs,staffordshire,stoke,stoke-on-trent,advice,suggestions,twitter,followers,follow,tweet,retweet,facebook

Pride and Prejudice

2010-02-22T16:19:00.001-08:00

Hello world! So, to carry on from this week’s radio show (thanks for tuning in if you caught it), I’m discussing two feature subjects this week. The first is Pride and the second is Celebrities. Let’s start with the deadliest sin; pride. So what is it? Well, the free dictionary describes pride as;

1. A sense of one's own proper dignity or value; self-respect.
2. Pleasure or satisfaction taken in an achievement, possession, or association.
3. Arrogant or disdainful conduct or treatment; haughtiness.
4. A cause or source of pleasure or satisfaction; the best of a group or class
5. An excessively high opinion of oneself; conceit.

And Wikipedia notes;

In almost every list Pride (Latin, superbia), or hubris, is considered the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins, and indeed the ultimate source from which the others arise. It is identified as a desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self.

But taking the religious point of view and seeing pride as something negative, is it so negative for my parents to be proud of my achievements? Or is it negative for me to be proud of my friends accomplishing their goals, or is it bad for gays and lesbians to have a whole month dedicated to pride in their sexuality?

Actually, let’s scratch that last one, because some religious nutjobs would have a lot to say about it… but those idiots would have us believe that EVERYTHING is wrong, and I don’t want to stick on religion again – I’ve done it before and I just wanted to use it for the basis of the negative argument. Of course, there is a whole other side to the negative argument of pride, because too much pride can lead to so many things. For example, the inability to swallow one’s pride can lead to arguments, mistrust, lies and the general notion to go fucking things up on a daily basis, I know this because I’ve done it myself. I live a life based on pride and when I know my situation is one worth fighting for, I will often argue to the death before admitting defeat. And what does that achieve? Usually heated situations between people and/or you making a tit of yourself.

The other instance of pride becoming arrogant when you take the positive notion of having pride in your appearance and just become a jerk. Arrogance is one of the most ridiculous, moronic and petty things man can do, but unless you’re mother Teresa or some other figure above the rest of us shmucks in normal human life, you’ve done it. As have I. I guess what we’re learning is that attributes of humanity in both a physical nature and mental too are things that we can’t avoid, there’s probably a whole chapter on this written by Darwin – I don’t know. Still, we can take solace in the fact that we’re not all doomed and we’re not all jerks all of the time. Shame some people have to ruin the party for the rest of us, aye?

Have your say on this subject with this week’s poll!

Is pride a good thing?

Reno’s moans this week is about celebrities – who are they? What are they? WHY are they? Stay tuned for my post later this week with full info on the subject!!

Reno

del.icio.us Tags: reno explains it all pride prejudice celebrities sin ideas chat radio one media staffs staffordshire stoke stoke-on-trent advice suggestions twitter tweet retweet facebook

No More Fiction!

2010-02-21T13:04:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the new home of my brain.

I realised that my fiction posts deserve their own place online and Reno Explains it All isn’t the place for them. I’m going to be setting up a new blog soon for the Doctor Who stuff so keep your eyes peeled for it, but for now I’m going to take the advice of my fans and keep this blog just for opinions and lifestyle updates.

Don’t forget tomorrow’s radio show – the launch of me explaining it all on the airwaves, I can’t wait!! You can tune in over at One Media Radio at 2pm (UK time) for the best music, entertainment and chat!

We’ve had very odd weather lately, we had a blizzard overnight and then all the snow melted in the same day! Nice of winter to throw us a final flurry before it sods off for another 9 or 10 months – I’m sick of it now, BRING ON SUMMER!!

Anyway I’m late for a meeting with a man about a cat.
See you on the airwaves tomorrow!!
Reno

Doctor Who – Time Rupture

2010-02-09T20:07:00.001-08:00

Introduction

Hey everyone, I realised earlier that I haven’t blogged in ages and my posts always seem much more popular when they’re of the Doctor Who nature, so here is the first chapter of my second story Time Rupture for you to all enjoy. Stay tuned over the following weeks as I post more and more parts of the story! It is set in series 4 of the TV show and is in between the episodes of Midnight and Turn Left. Here is an opening video for context, there will also be one at the end of the story too, as it was with the last story. Enjoy!!

Prologue

Chapter 1 – Home

“Doctor…” Donna said timidly as she paced around the TARDIS console “can we go back to Earth?”

The Doctor looked up from what he was doing and analysed her a little “Of course” a little shocked that she felt she even had to ask

“I just miss Gramps” she smiled

“Okay” he smiled, pressing the large clear button that launched the ship’s time vortex manipulation and they were off on their way back to 2008. The engines were particularly noisy for such a normal trip and the Doctor peered up at the glowing blue tower as they groaned and churned their way through time and space. He grabbed his specs from his jacket pocket and fumbled them onto his face, squinting at the tower and then the screen below it.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asked rhetorically. Donna stood back, a little worried that she had caused this by choosing the wrong destination or some other alien thing that she hadn’t accounted for or even been aware of. Over the last few months she had seen things that had changed her, a lot of her bitterness had gone now and she realised that had this been her first day in the TARDIS she would have just made some kind of stupid remark about how the space man’s flying wasn’t up to scratch or making asking if the ship had an upset stomach and offering it a Rennie tablet. But this time she just stood back and watched, it was a humble life on board the Time Lord’s ship, even if the time they spent outside it was always hectic and often life threatening.

The groaning came to an inevitable stop, as it always did, when the ship appeared to land on solid ground. Despite the dynamics of the vessel, you could always feel the difference between flight and being grounded, it was almost like your feet were slightly floating when they the ship was in motion, not that they were, it was just a very strange feeling. Even so, the ship had landed and they prepared to depart when there was a very sudden jolt which shook the TARDIS for a few seconds and then everything was normal again. Donna was near the front door at this stage, eager to go and find her Granddad, but outside she found something she hadn’t anticipated, or more precisely it was some-when.

“That’s not 2008” she said “what did you do?” Donna took a step out onto the obviously backdated road and looked around. A newspaper blew across the road and to her feet, picking it up she shouted out to the Doctor, who was still inside the TARDIS “1981? You’ve got to be kidding me! I thought you knew how to fly that thing!”

“What?” the Doctor said, stepping out and adjusting the lapels on his long brown coat, then he looked around and noticed the evident change in where they should be. He ran back into the TARDIS and peered at the screen, which still said they had landed in 2008 “that doesn’t…” but before he could finish his sentence the ship shook again and a flood of summer sun now shone through the TARDIS’s doors. He dashed to the door and peered out, Donna was nowhere to be seen, just the world he had been expecting the first time. Donna was lost in time and he had no idea how to find her again…

TO BE CONTINUED

Dream Diary? No thanks.

2010-01-25T17:41:00.001-08:00

God, after last night’s dream I don’t think I want to tell you what happened. It was, in a word horrific, I would call it a nightmare but then at the time it didn’t scare me! It just grossed me out and it still does to think about it. Blech.

Anyway, first day at work was awesome today, had a really fun day manning the station and keeping an eye on Amy’s show. Not too sure what the plan is for tomorrow’s show but I guess we’ll see. The rest of the week is totally sorted so I’m a bit more relaxed about that.

I have a strange urge to go out at the moment, last week before gobble I was SO up for it, and despite the events that took place in the days following it I’m even more eager to find my perfect lady. Strange really. Oh well, bring on the party on Wednesday!!!

I was playing Super Mario 64 earlier and realised that our little Italian hero has a black moustache but brown hair…what’s the deal with that? Does he have a strategic hair dye system? Or is it just a matter of bad luck that those evil Nintendo programmers from the mid nineties decided to inflict on him? Who knows. What I do know is that I love that game, in fact I love old school games…and other old school stuff that reminds me of my childhood – oh well, no time machine so I guess I’ll just use these things as a little reminder, it’s all good :)

I was telling AJ yesterday about how I have the entirety of my next Doctor Who story planned out, it might end up being even better than Scavenger Hunt (which I was actually very proud of) – I won’t spoil too much for you, but it takes place in series 4 (yep, Donna will be in it!) and will have a return of Launda Fox as well as 2 spin off chapters and lots of other little appearances from things you might remember. I think that’s enough for now.

I better rap it up now, have a good day and I’ll catch you next time!!

Reno x

Dream a little dream…

2010-01-24T15:43:00.001-08:00

Hello all, I want to thank everyone who read Scavenger Hunt and gave me positive feedback, it’s been a real pleasure to write. I’m going to make you wait a little longer before Time Rupture starts, but I’ll be giving you a few spoilers between now and then so keep an eye out for them!

Anyway, there’s a few new things going on in my life – recently I’ve been having really really clear and strange dreams so I’m going to start blogging them as a dream diary (if I continue to have them) and you can post comments about them if you like, some people know the meanings to dreams so I’m all up for it. The other night I had such a crazy dream it had a million people from my past (not literally) and it signified the end to a lot of things for me, which was really refreshing, even if the imagery got a little trippy at times. Oh well.

My new (unpaid) job starts tomorrow as Executive Producer for the Home Time show on One Media Radio at Staffs Union, it’s going to be great managing a team of people, not too sure how good I’'ll be at it, I’ll be tweeting though so keep an eye at the top of this page or go to my twitter page to see what’s going on!

That’s about all for now guys, thanks for reading and I’ll catch you all soon :D

Doctor Who – Scavenger Hunt

2010-01-22T15:19:00.001-08:00

Part 13 – The Final Act of Critidan the Shadow Jailor

The TARDIS materialised in one of the larger cargo holds of the station

“And what is an orbital port?” Martha asked, stepping out

“Does exactly what it says on the tin” the Doctor said, kicking a large vertical girder as if to test its strength, even though he knew it was holding up at least two hundred and fifty tones of the port’s weight. They began to walk briskly down a dimly light hallway, from all sides of them they could hear shouting and booming music that echoed from deeper within the station “The orbital port was once a part of a huge network of stations which liaised between each other as ships came into the trade with Shantist VII and its moon. They’d supply safe routes to the surface or fuel or other things, a bit like a service station on the motorway… only with more space ships”

“What happened to the other stations?”

“A great civil war among the Netrikai, the orbital ports became battle stations which not only fired upon military targets on the ground but would also exchange fire with each other as they crossed paths on their orbital cycles, this is the last one left – the only one to survive the massacre. The planet below was ruined by the war and is pretty much a wasteland, there’s just the Capitol city and even that is pretty empty. The Netrikai are almost extinct now, once the greatest trade civilisation in the universe – now a ruined people.” the Doctor paused for a moment, remembering the similarities with his own kind “Now the orbital port is just a place for pirates to trade knock off goods or travelers to drown their sorrows in a sea of Net Ale. There are a lot of dangerous people on this station Martha, better not let them know we’re here” Martha nodded back in humble agreement.

They were in the personal cabin areas now; endless doorways with round windows lined the walls which lead to small rooms which were once accommodation for customers, then barracks for soldiers and now they were private lockers for people to keep supplies in. One room had a glow of white light inside but the Doctor ignored it, knowing that time to find Critidan was slipping away

A young female voice echoed down the hallway “Marthaaaa…” she turned back and noticed the light shining from the door they had just passed. It was as if the room was calling out to her, she couldn’t help but approach the big circular window and peer within. Inside was a room lit from all sides by bright white lights that could not be seen, it was as if the walls were made of light. The chamber was only a few feet square and had only one piece of rather odd cargo within; in the far left corner was a small blonde girl in a white dress, no older than 8 years old by Martha’s estimation, crouching down and hiding her face against the wall as if she was somehow afraid of the very person she had been calling

“Hello?” Martha asked “Are you alright?”

“Hello? Are you alright?” the soft voice said, repeating Martha word for word, rhythm for rhythm

Martha stuttered a little “Can…do you need help?” the voice copied her again. The Doctor, who was now far down the corridor noticed Martha’s absence and turned to look where she was. Upon noticing her trailing, he ran back for her, calling out her name. The girl in the room was now talking back to Martha

“Martha Jones… I can see you!” then she turned her head to display her face; eyeless and smiling. This terrifying little girl seemed horrifically misleading now and Martha feared a new threat, perhaps this was why she was locked away “Sweet kind Martha Jones… the one who will walk the path of salvation, the one who shall see so much that never existed, the girl of many faces, the great soldier!”

Martha was upset by the words the little girl had said “I don’t know what you mean…”

The Doctor caught up and slid sideways on his baseball shoes and peered into the window at what the hubub was about. The girl in the corner of the cell sprung up, staring at him with her absent eyes. To him, she looked like a child of the pantheon but within her shining smiling mouth her teeth were different and her whole face was not that of evil, for he had seen evil so many times before. She took a few steps closer and then stopped, through the thick door her muffled voice spoke

“Doctor…” it was soft and heavenly “you have come so far and yet your war is not won” he stared at her, it felt as though she could see right through him, his soul was naked and he could do nothing to cover himself

“Who are you?” he enquired

The girl pressed her hand against the small area of glass “I am Launda Fox, daughter of Jestix the Inquisitor”

“A Time Watcher…” he whispered, utterly dumbfounded just to acknowledge the impossible once again “but you can’t exist, that’s impossible!”

"And yet, I do.” her tone lowered to one of despair “I have seen so much, Doctor, and yet I know there is so much more to come”

He rummaged in his Jacket pocket for the sonic screwdriver “I have to get you out of here”

“No Doctor, there is no time, we shall meet again at the coming… of the end” she said softly

“What do you mean? What end?”

“Soon you shall see, as I have, the closing of everything – when time ends and every world dreams no more, the culmination of every timeline into one spot – I have seen this forever ending Doctor, and you will be…”

“What will I be? What do you mean?!” he shouted

“I cannot see…” she said, bowing her head in confusion “a Time Watcher’s vision is never clouded, what have you done?!” she snapped

“I don’t know, I haven’t done it yet!!” he said slightly confused “Look, whatever it is, we’ll get through it together”

“No Doctor, I will not be there to make this journey with you”

“Why’s that?”

“Because you killed me” the Doctor’s hearts stopped stone dead for just a moment as she told him the future that he no longer wanted “Fear not,” she smiled “now go”

As they continued down the the corridor the Doctor was weeping inside for another one lost, another helpless angel left in the heart of danger with only a forbidding prophecy to keep the faith in her salvation. Still, he and his companion had to keep moving, Critidan was somewhere ahead.

A trail of blood was the key to finding the traitorous jailor, spatters and droplets lead the two travelers across the quiet outer edges of the orbital port to a large open space with the limping Critidan on the far side, lumbering his way through a huge arch.

“CRITIDAN!”

“Too late Time Lord!” he muttered and slammed his hand on the door release, bringing the bulkhead doors to a close within the frame of the arch. As per usual, the Doctor withdrew his sonic screwdriver and began zapping and whirring at the controls to the side. It took a few minutes to access the ship beyond but Critidan had only made it a few metres down the dim green hall when the doors opened. They followed him hurriedly and around a left turn they found him, laying on his back with the wound Reelog had administered with his horn on the Hybrid Locker not long ago

“My masters will give me life” he squinted

The Doctor peered around the ship he was in. He had not taken any notice up to now for he was too fixed upon catching the jailor “No…” he whispered “We’ve got to leave!” – they made their way swiftly out as they heard Critidan speak again in the control room

“I pledge myself…to the family…” and with that, a mass of green gasses and energies floated down from the interface on the wall, seeping into his body and jerking him upright; Critidan was back to life, but he was not himself “this body is dying” he said in a bold, deeper voice “the mind is corrupted…I cannot see him”

Another younger voice swept in from somewhere else on the vast wall console, it was a girl “Go, brother of mine! Find the Time Lord!” Grabbing a blaster rifle he pulled his new body out of the ship.

Limping and lurching, the fatally wounded body of Critidan was hard to maneuver for the son of the family. The Doctor and his companion were now in the far distance of the corridor which would lead them down to the TARDIS. They disappeared around a corner and by the time he had reached it he could see them lumbering into the blue box. He took one shot through the door and then collapsed, the body was useless now and he would return to his family in his natural state for the hunt; wherever and whenever the family would have to go, for the Doctor’s capture would mean they could live forever.

THE END.

EPILOGUE

THE DOCTOR WILL RETURN IN MY NEXT STORY – ‘TIME RUPTURE’ COMING SOON!!

Doctor Who – Scavenger Hunt

2010-01-22T04:34:00.001-08:00

Part 12 – Pride of the Prisoners

Martha turned and slowly paced her way up the gangplank “Can’t we help them?”

“Martha that’s not our place”

“But you saw what they can do! Okay, they’re criminals, but they saved our lives countless times, don’t they deserve freedom?”

“No.” he said and circled the console “I’ve tried so many times to do the right thing, to stop the innocents from dying, giving freedom to those who really deserve it, but sometimes it all goes wrong. I can’t let that happen again, this is their fight and whatever happens is down to them, I can’t be responsible.” he paused for a moment and looked up at her with a slight smile “They’ll be alright”

“Of course…” she said, trying to keep faith in them “What will happen after? I mean, if they succeed”

The Doctor looked down at the console and rested two fingers on a few switches “I dunno” his eyebrows lifted up “Knowing Reelog he’ll take the ship back to the Proclamation so they can all serve their proper sentences”

“Sho! Co! Fo!” shouted a voice from a speaker on the TARDIS centre system, Martha’s face lit up and she swept over to the com screen, which held an image of the judoon commander oozing green blood from his forehead and nose

“Reelog! You’re alive! What happened?” she shouted in excitement

“Critidan escaped, we were tricked!” he grunted boisterously “He has set the ship to collide with colossal meteor” Martha let out a slight gasp as Reelog fell backwards and disappeared, Taan took his place

The Doctor pushed his way into view “Let me get you out of there” Martha looked across to her companion, who had completely gone against his previous statement, it appeared that primal urges could get the better of Time Lords too

“This is our fate” Taan conceded “If you save us then Critidan will escape, you must find him”

“But you can’t!” Martha wept, pressing her hand against the screen while a silent tear streaked down her left cheek. Sparks began to fly and pieces of the bridge could be seen falling apart in the background. Reelog stood back up, to which Martha let out a brief smile “You’re okay!”

“Affirmative”

Taan looked at Reelog and then peered around at the rest of the doomed crew, who were struggling to piece back together the equipment that their former jailor had sabotaged in the revolt. Turning back to the screen it seemed as if the Sontaran had found a possible solution “Maybe we can…” and then the screen faded back into static

“What happened??” Martha asked desperately, but the Doctor said nothing, he just looked at her with that face; the one that signaled the end of another life and his knowing inability to change their fate “No! Bring them back!” she said, slamming her fists on the screen again and again until she broke down. The Doctor slung his arms around her and held her tight

“Come on, we have to find Critidan” he whispered

“I can’t”

“Martha I need your help, I can’t do this without you” he pulled back a little to look at her without breaking the hug “If you want to preserve the honor of Reelog and Taan and the other Prisoners you have to help me find him” and with a hesitated determinism she nodded

TO BE CONTINUED

Doctor Who – Scavenger Hunt

2010-01-17T15:30:00.001-08:00

Part 11 – Sontaran Eulogy

Taan had made his way up to the large metal balcony that hung over the back of the control room and sat down; his legs dangling over the edge. Martha noticed him and took a quick look at what the other two were doing - they were discussing locations and vortex manipulation traces, which she had little interest in, so she took this advantage to learn more about her Sontaran counterpart. She climbed the ladder and made her way over to Taan, slumping down next to him and smiling

“What is your story?” the inquisitive Sontaran asked. The Doctor was too busy to notice their conversation this time, so without fear of judgment from her seemingly wiser counterpart she told him

“Gosh, there’s not much to tell, I’m Martha Jones and I’m a medical student"

“Where are you from Martha?”

“Earth” she smiled, Taan looked a little confused as to how she could come from that desolate little planet they had just left and then he remembered that they were both travelling with a Time Lord

The Doctor continued to fuss with controls in the pursuit of the Hybrid Locker, Martha heard him tell Reelog that they were travelling forwards through the 21st and 22nd century

Martha looked back to Taan “That wasn’t my world though, so many years ago, miles away” by this point she had almost fallen into a daze and began repeating a cycle of four taps of her index and middle finger on her lap

“Martha?” Taan interjected, she shook her head and looked at him “Are you alright?”

“Yes… sorry"

“Do you have family?”

“Yeah,” she smiled “Mum, Dad, Brother and Sister” their faces lit up in her mind for a moment

“Then why are you here?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well on Sonta war is all we know, this is what I am made for, but you have so much freedom – why would you make yourself a soldier?” Martha didn’t quite know how to answer this

“Well, I don’t really see myself as a soldier, I’m just a traveler”

“And yet, in the space of two days you have been imprisoned, fought your way out of jail and battled an interstellar crime lord – is that the way you wish to travel?”

“I don’t know, I guess it’s just a part of the adventure” she changed the subject “What is Sonta like?”

Taan sighed “My home world is one big military structure, the war is designed in every inch of every complex, we exist to fight and we fight to exist. The air is thick with a heavy vapor from the cloning factories and we breathe the lust for victory. We are not born, we are grown from living cells – only the best warriors are selected and the rest of the live stock is burnt. We know of the sacrifice that our brothers feel day by day, we taste the war before we even see it. We are taught only one thing; the glory of Sonta.”

Martha was taken back by the imprinted ruthlessness in Taan’s mind

“But you’re different” she suggested, he looked at her displeasingly

“I am not, I would die for Sonta, just as you would die for Earth”

“But I wouldn’t kill for it,” she insisted “and I don’t think you would either”

Taan paused for a moment, realising his new found compassion for others “Only one” Martha knew exactly which ‘one’ he meant, and soon he would get that chance.

“GOTCHA!” the Doctor shouted from the console

“You found them?!” Martha shouted as she hopped up and made her way over to the ladder “OH YES!” the Doctor shouted in return. Taan, meanwhile, had decided to excuse kind footing and jumped the six or seven foot down to the outer ring of the control room before hulking himself over to join the other three in front of the tilted screen with co-ordinates that only the Doctor could read.

“So where are they?” Martha asked

“I’ve stabalised the TARDIS in a spot where the Hybrid Locker will soon pass on its way to the orbital port, when it comes near Reelog can jump back on board with his teleport”

Taan and Reelog grabbed their equipment and made their way towards the double doors of the ship “We have to stop Critidan, if he makes it to the orbital port he will have bounty hunters and friends on his side, if that happens they’ll hunt us all down and it will have been for nothing” the Sontaran said

“Not for you.” Reelog held his hand up to separate the two criminals from the Doctor’s companion. The teleport lit up the two warriors and they disappeared; leaving Martha on the gangplank

“No!” she shouted, lurching forward, but they were gone.

TO BE CONTINUED

Doctor Who – Scavenger Hunt

2010-01-17T15:07:00.001-08:00

Part 10 – Ultimatum

An alarm on the central console started to beep, signaling the commencement of a tractor beam shift which had locked on to the TARDIS. The Doctor reached far across the controls and slammed him palm on a large circular button which cancelled the movement of the ship “Oh no you don’t!” he said hurriedly. Martha stepped up next to him

“What do we do now?”

“We send him back Martha, back to the Shadow Proclamation to face justice”

“But how? He’s got all those weapons and prisoners at his disposal”

Reelog interrupted “Prisoners irrelevant!” they looked at him intriguingly “Crew members of Hybrid Locker will fight for freedom just as we did”

“Those prisoners want to be free of Critidan as much as we do, they’re just waiting for the right time to make their stand”

The navigation screen flickered and blurred, a grey field of noise and interference overtook the previous statistics image and then a new image faded into view – it was Critidan, broadcasting from the bridge of the Hybrid Locker.

“Surrender, Doctor” his tone was triumphant

“Oh hello there” the Doctor smiled

“There is no escape”

“Well,” he mused highly “You’ve got me there, but who needs to escape when I’ve got this TARDIS?” Critidan looked confused “Ya see, this ship isn’t just for travelling, it’s a vessel of war. It’s fought off armies and hordes and crusaders, and I know how to use it, which gives me the upper hand” he chirped, then his voice deepened “Now go Critidan, leave this planet or you’ll see what Time Lord technology is known for”

The jailor looked into the camera and then away, then back again

“You’re bluffing”

“Try me” the Doctor aggressed, then the whole TARDIS shook from a blast of the Hybrid Locker’s ultra-cannon; a crude port side weapon that had been grafted on from a crashed Metal-Lord Trunk Cruiser. It fired again and the TARIS rocked heavily as the crew tried to keep a hold of their footing. The Doctor pulled himself back to the screen “Don’t do this Critidan, just stop”

The jailor yelled back “If you will not surrender then under the strictures of the shadow proc…” then he stopped, realising his own mistake, adhering to the old rules which he professed so much to hate now

“Aha!” the Doctor shouted “You were saying, Jailor? Or should I say, renegade? It’s all a bit of a joke really isn’t it?” Martha saw the charm and wit of her companion returning “See, for someone so intent on breaking away from law and obedience you do such a brilliant job of demanding it from your own crew! The really silly thing is though, the longer you force people into doing your bidding the more likely they are of finding a way to strike back at you, like the infamous prison break of…” he turned “what was it Reelog?”

“Surface 669” the Judoon grunted

“Surface 669!” he repeated quickly “And if there’s one thing you shouldn’t have done, it’s lock up a Time Lord and his companion, because the first chance he gets he might end up doing something like this!” he cranked a large handle on the control pad towards him, sending out an electrical pulse which shot through the Hybrid Locker and made everything cut out for a few seconds. Their plummet towards the surface was halted as the system came back online and the engines fired up once more. The Doctor’s voice deepened when Critidan returned to the screen “Now go, or I’ll make that disruption permanent”

“You’ll regret this, Time Lord” he snarled and then the screen returned to static. The four travelers left the TARDIS to watch the Hybrid Locker gain altitude as it began to leave Earth, then two large circular missile bays opened and fired down on the planet.

“GET DOWN!” Martha shouted as they all dived for cover. The explosion threw the clock shaped TARDIS into the sky and then it landed upright on the river’s edge. The ground here was unstable at best and the surface began to crumble and give way before it suddenly dropped the TARDIS into the water with an almighty splash!

“No no no no!!” the Doctor shouted running over to the waters edge and dropping to his knees. He caught a glimpse of the large clock sinking into the blue depths, followed by the emergence of a few bubbles. He stood up and ran his right hand through his hair, holding it at the back of his head while gritting his teeth “That’s stuck a spanner in the works, I was going to use that to get back to our TARDIS”

Reelog stepped forwards “Apprehension system will take us”. He pressed a switch on his wrist as he had in the junk room and in the blink of an eye they were all back in the meadow just a few metres from the Doctor’s glorious blue box, the sight of which made Martha smile inanely despite being thrown to the floor by the teleport.

She stood up and brushed herself off “Phew!” then looked across to the Doctor “So what do we do now?” The Doctor hesitated for a moment, he wanted to leave these events as they were, but he knew he couldn’t, luckily Taan stepped forward and did it for him

“We will chase them down, for the glory of Earthfall and Sonta!” he said, the Doctor looked at him, utterly dumbfounded at the new world that this bloodthirsty warrior now found pride in being a part of, never had he seen a Sontaran prize life in this way, but he looked at the bigger picture and knew that Taan’s race would not always be so generous in realising the value of this planet. Still, much like Critidan was one-of-a-kind in his rebelion, so as Taan in his lust for something better, and so he cherished these times while they took place

“Off we go then!” he said hesistantly, and they all ran into the TARDIS to pursue the jailor for one last time.

TO BE CONTINUED

Doctor Who – Scavenger Hunt

2010-01-12T15:44:00.001-08:00

Part 9 – Unwilling Alliance

A stealthy Sontaran, a mighty Judoon, an inquisitive human and the last of the Time Lords continued to brave their way through the pre-civilisation world on their quest to take back one of the most elegant vessels and dangerous weapons in the universe. Martha couldn’t quite tell if the thicker nature of the trees in this area was sheltering them or if the winds were actually dying down. Either way, she could see much more of her surroundings now; the huge black suit of her Judoon counterpart immediately ahead of her, the sweeping brown coat of the Doctor just ahead of him and behind her was Taan in his red decommissioned Sontaran body armor.

“So what’s your story?” she said, slowing to let him walk beside her. He didn’t look at her, instead he tracked the gun through the trees as they went

“I was part of the 196th Sontaran infiltration unit. Five of my brethren and I were sent to assess a primitive world, we needed a new outpost in the Tasket nebula and this looked like it could be perfect, but something went wrong.” the Doctor peered around, he didn’t trust their new Sontaran ally, nor did he appreciate Martha taking sympathy on him

“What happened?” she asked

“We took samples of the air, dirt and water on the planet. At first everything seemed fine because we were breathing oxygen within our battle suits, but when we took the samples back a virus developed on the ship. 18,000 Sontaran soldiers caught the virus across 12 different convoys. The virus mutated and infected a further 5 planets. My entire task force was arrested by Sonta high command, but before we could be executed, a prison transport from the Shadow Proclamation arrived and took us away. And here I am now”

“That’s terrible” Martha said softly

“Martha” the Doctor shouted cautiously, he would regret her getting the wrong impression of the Sontarans

“And what is your story, Doctor?” Taan asked “Who are you?”

“I’m a Time Lord” he said, looking ahead with his hands in his pockets

“Time…Lord…” Taan had begun remembering the stories of that mysterious race, the tales of the great battles within the Norbella Sphere, the final days of the Medusa Cascade colony and the banishing of Yeelson the Great. This man was the living story, the tales of his cloned youth, the epitome of things he was taught to fear and fight against. Would he really restore his honor? Taan doubted it, but then, he was outnumbered and quite ready to make an unwilling alliance to get seek vengeance on Critidan.

“Reelog!” Taan shouted ahead, trying to get the his shipmate’s attention. The Doctor stopped

“Commander Reelog?” the Doctor questioned in a shocked voice, turning back to the Judoon member of the party “No no no no, not the great Commander Reelog, the Judoon who piloted the Blasphemy Conqueror from its collision course with the Goliath Temple World? It can’t be!” Reelog grunted in embarrassment, he had hoped to keep his identity hidden from anyone who didn’t need to know it

"Tell me Doctor, if you know so much of the commander, why he is here?” Taan grinned with a sense of accomplishment over the mighty beast. The Doctor paused, realising what had happened just a few months after Reelog’s triumphant flight

Softly he spoke “The Queen…” to which Reelog grunted again in shame, looking down to the floor “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry”

Reelog found a few words “History irrelevant, we must continue” and so they did

The crunching of branches beneath heavy feet came to a sudden halt a short time later, the Doctor had raised his arm so that his fist was at head height - signaling the group to silently stop

“Doctor?” Martha whispered. He didn’t reply, he simply began to run forward as fast as he could and the other three quickly followed suit. Where the Doctor had stopped was the tree line of the forest and just outside was a large grassy area and a river on the far side which spanned for miles with islands dotted within it. In the centre of the area was the grandfather clock they had found in the future, standing proud, saved from the scratches and burning that the clumsy shock core had inflicted upon itself; this living ship knew how to land without a pilot.

They all stopped in wonder again a few metres away from the TARDIS

“This is what we came here for? A time keeper?” the Sontaran was disgusted, but nobody else saw it so simply. The Doctor took the fabled steps up to the clock’s glass door again as he had the first time and jolted it open. This time, the lights were already on and the command console was completely functional. As they all stepped inside and made their way around the spiral staircase, Taan was dumbfounded and remained that way for several minutes. Martha noticed that the art on the roof had changed; instead of the lion standing over the dead bear, they were now back in battle locked in an eternal moment of combat

“Doctor…”

He looked up in awe “Beautiful… that is… truly…” and then he stopped, looking back to the controls. He swept the navigation screen round in front of him and tilted it up a little “the last place this TARDIS went was the Silver Devastation, but I can’t work out the date”

“What happened to the pilot?” The Doctor didn’t reply, he continued to fiddle with widgets and doogangs on the navigation board. From outside came an enormous rumbling and a familiar sound of a heavy horn; The Hybrid Locker was back.

TO BE CONTINUED

Doctor Who – Scavenger Hunt

2010-01-12T15:36:00.001-08:00

Part 8 – Eye of the Storm

It was settled. The Judoon warrior, who still hadn’t identified himself, would repeatedly ram the gate with his head until someone on the other side was tricked into opening it, then the Doctor would find his sonic screwdriver and they would gain access to the junk room to find some way of getting back to the surface. From there, the Doctor would have the perfect way to send Critidan back to the stars.

“It’s time” he said softly, and they all got to their feet.

On the bridge, the rest of the crew continued to work as they had for the last 24 months at their respective stations. The ship flew in through the atmosphere and headed to the crash site of the mysterious other TARDIS.

“Sir",” Taan spat “there is a weather system in the locality of the drop zone, it could do some serious damage to our ship, request further instructions”

“Hold back, we can wait” Critidan peered at the differential time coordinator, there was still plenty of time before their rendezvous with the buyers. A red light began shining to the left of the bridge and a deafening siren blurted out a recurrent low alarm

The Bloodfist hopped light footedly across the bridge “The prisoners have esssscaped!”

“Find them! Find the Doctor!!” He shouted to the rest of the crew, who began scurrying around and disappearing off in different directions

On the other side of the ship, the three escaped prisoners had reached the door the junk room. The Doctor buzzed the sonic over the keypad which allowed access into the room but he wasn’t having much luck. From down the corridor came the sounds of a crew member in hot pursuit

“Doctor!” Martha shouted

“It won’t budge!” he gritted his teeth “come on!!!”

The sounds of the alien making his way down the corridor became louder and more distinct, then Taan appeared from around the corner in front of them. The Judoon stepped ahead of Martha and pushed her back against the door to protect her

“Sho! Co! Flo!”

“Disgusting creature” Taan, who was a good three feet shorter than his rival, shouted back. The Judoon was not impressed, and took it upon himself to prove exactly how powerful his race was. He dove forward, grabbing Taan by the neck and slamming him against a wall; holding him up so that they were face to face. The disgraced Sontaran squinted and then slumped down, by some miracle that thrust against the wall had hit the probic vent on the back of his suit and knocked him out cold. The Doctor finally got the door open, and upon his summon, the Judoon dropped Taan and followed them into the junk room.

For several minutes they scouted through the junk room for something that could take them back down to Earth, the Doctor was considering collaborating numerous pieces of equipment with his screwdriver to make some kind of Frankenstein jump port. Martha had no idea what she was looking for but in attempt to look useful she continued to stir around through various piles of scrap. Every once in a while she would hold up a large piece of useful looking metal and say “how about this?”, hoping that she’d gotten it right, but then her Time Lord companion would look and say something like “ahhh, that’s a…curling iron Martha” without trying to sound too patronising. The Judoon however had disappeared far into the room on his own mission. The Doctor realised his absense and began trying to shout over the taller objects which blocked his view

“Uh…Judoon? Whatever you’re called? Hello?” he turned to Martha “Rhinos, I dunno” Martha grinned at him before continuing to dig into piles of smaller rubbish and junk. A few moments later their Judoon counterpart stomped back onto the scene in a full Judoon officer uniform that he had found. The Doctor stood in amazement “Blimey”

The shame ridden Judoon officer stepped ahead with his assimilation tool and soaked up a garble of words from the Doctor and then pressed it into the port in his chest

“Language assimilated” he said loudly

“Oh that’s a shame, I was enjoying all those deep grunts, I’ll have to do it more often. Now!” he said, reaching down and picking up two ominous pieces of metal and shining the sonic over them at varying distances “If I can rotate the motor truncator of this hydro-lotiner and use it to displace the matter within a two metre radius we should be able to get out of here… I think”

“No need” the Judoon grunted “Spatial transference apprehension system working”

“Of course! That suit has a teleport for transferring prisoners off world! That’s brilliant - I could kiss you!” he paused to let the excitement go a little “of course, I wouldn’t, because, well, you know” the Judoon let out a short sound, almost the audible version of a dog tilting its head when it fails to understand something

“Let’s go!” Martha cried. The next thing she knew, there was a flash of light and then they were all falling over on the soft Arizona grass. Things looked very different to how she had last seen the area; far more trees and shrubs, indeed it was a veritable forest of life. It was a little hard to get a proper view though, as the wind was picking up and that dust they had experienced in 2007 was still very apparent.

“Come on!” The Doctor yelled as the noise of the storm increased “We have to find the TARDIS!” There was another flash of light in front of them and there stood Taan with a Sontaran blaster clutched in his hands ready to fire

The Doctor snapped his hand up to halt the warrior’s actions for just a moment “Taan! Stop! You have to help us!” the air barely carried his words “You know what Critidan is doing goes against every rule of the Shadow Proclamation!”

“And why should I care for the rules of that pitiful council? The rules of others do not rain down upon me, I fight for Sonta!” he snarled, preparing to fire

“And how do you think the grand martial would see this? Would your brethren applaud you for doing slave missions for an ex-council member?” the Doctor shouted over the howling winds “You can regain your honour! I can take you home!”

Taan thought about it for a moment, repeatedly lowering and then re-raising his weapon as if to suspect a trap, but then the truth dawned upon him “There is nothing waiting for me back home…” he began looking at the ground, then his eyes returned up to them “But for the glory of Sonta, I will do as I must” he said, and slowly lowered his weapon. The Doctor smiled and looked to his other two comrades standing behind him, “Alonze!” he shouted, and they were off again through the thick trees on the hunt for the TARDIS.

TO BE CONTINED

Doctor Who – Scavenger Hunt

2010-01-08T09:39:00.001-08:00

Part 7 – Mercy Mission

The gate into the cell opened with numerous clanking sounds, the Doctor and his two friends turned to see who would be waiting on the other side, it was the stumpy red suited Taan.

“Doctor, you will come with me” he growled. Though he only summoned the Doctor, Martha stood with him and grabbed his shoulder

“Don’t go” she whispered

“Martha, I have to” he said, peering round to her. She smiled a little and then took a step back. The Doctor’s long brown coat swept along the ground and disappeared around the corner before the large gate clanked and groaned to a close again. Martha sat down again and looked at her Judoon counterpart

“Hello” she said timidly

“Co, fo, tow, tow” he said softly.

The bridge door opened and the Time Lord entered; pushed in the back by Taan’s stun baton.

“Ah, welcome back Doctor” the jailor smiled “you had me worried for a few moments back there, I thought we’d never find you! Still, you’re back with us now, and that’s all that matters”

The Doctor approached Critidan from across the large room. He looked beyond him and peered down on the beautiful earth below

“What are you doing here?”

“I was sent here to retrieve a prize”

“No but really, whatever happened to the integrity of the Shadow Council? You were meant to be fighting injustice, not adding to it”

“It changed. You should have seen it Doctor, the bureaucracy, the laws and the rules tying every one of us to a life without freedom.” he took a few paces to a console and pondered the switches for a while with the tips of his fingers; not pressing them, just knowing that he could. “In days of old we had the ability to serve justice how we wanted, the proclamation was above everything and we made our own rules”

“But that freedom, lawlessness within law, that is what sparked events like those which destroyed my people. Without rules, you become as destructive as the Sontarans or even the Daleks; bringing death in anyway you choose simply because you can, when you become drunk with power you become more dangerous than those you seek to imprison” the Doctor pleaded

“And that is the way it should be” he snapped back “we are the law, so we should be the ultimate power that this Universe responds to” then silence fell over the bridge again

“And how exactly do you plan on restoring those values? Hiding in the shadows, pretending to be dead, turning prisoners into slaves, selling scrap to make a few credits? There was more glory in your old position”

“GLORY!?” Critidan shouted “Who are you to speak of glory, Time Lord? Your people are spent, your entire planet is locked in a cage of death and despair, the mighty race who befriended my forefathers years ago; now lost to war among savages” the foul words tore through the Doctor’s hearts, he could see it all burning; Gallifrey in its final moments “oh yes Doctor, I know of your time war, and the sacrifice you made, where was the glory then?” but he received no response, just a scowl from his priceless prisoner

“What becomes of me now?” he said through his teeth

“The buyers who want that TARDIS will take much greater interest in you than just that old thing, and you will bring in a much better price too!” he grinned “Take him back to the cell” and Taan did as he was told.

Martha was trying to get to grips with the language of the Judoon “Sho, co, flo, ro, tow” she said shakily

“Tow! Tow! Co!” the rhino grunted, grinning at her progress

Once again jail gate groaned and clanked as it slid open from the right hand side, the Doctor entered and sat with them again

“There’s something going on here, Critidan’s greed and anger have blinded him"

“What are we going to do Doctor?”

“We’ve got to escape” he said, turning to the Judoon

TO BE CONTINUED

Doctor Who – Scavenger Hunt

2010-01-07T20:34:00.001-08:00

Part 6 – Unlawful Disclosure

“What!?” the Doctor spluttered

“Breaking and entering into an official Shadow Council vessel is prohibited by Article 14 of the Shadow Proclamation, and as you here without convoy or paperwork I can only count this as an illegal breach of this ship’s sovereignty. I therefore have no choice but to imprison you on this ship until I can process your attendance at the next Shadow Proclamation checkpoint.”

“Ah, now, there’s a problem with that…” the Doctor said, stepping back. A number of the ship’s monstrous prisoner crew began to walk towards him, preparing to secure him for their master. “See, you tag all of your prisoners with those leg clamps to restrain their abilities and strengths” the horde continued to walk methodically up the tiered levels of the bridge towards them “and if I were you, I wouldn’t have given them all the same transmit frequency” and with that he dropped to the ground and jammed the blue end of his sonic into a port on the side of the Reeth’s tag and switched it on. Electricity shot through his body and all of the other aliens on the ship as the equipment failed momentarily.

“Run!” he cried, and they disappeared once again into the endless bowels of the ship.

For those few seconds, though they were being shocked, the prisoners were able to feel their own strength for the first time in years. The Judoon warrior, stripped of his armor and honour felt like he could lift ten tons, the reptilian Bloodfist could taste the chemicals in the air again and the Sontaran felt the need for war once more. The Reeth cycled through many different shapes during his few moments of despair until the power shut down and the Jailor rebooted the system.

“Find them!” he shouted. The prisoners had felt their primal selves again; they had seen a flash of the colour that the Shadow Proclamation had taken away from them for so long, and they liked it. But for now, they were back under the grey veil of the leg tags, and so they did what their master bid of them.

Half an hour of searching for the junk room found the Doctor and Martha lost in the service tunnels. They stopped for a few moments while the Time Lord tried to get his bearings.

“Doctor, how are we going to get out of here?”

“I don’t know” he said, this was the last thing the young human wanted to hear “every tunnel looks like the last, we could be going in circles! There’s not even a hint for directions, I have absolutely no idea how they find their way around here!” he said, looking back and forth down the opposite directions of the narrow corridor.

From an access panel on the flat side of the wall crawled out the Bloodfist, his tongue slithering out of his mouth as he stood up “Stop!” he hissed

“Time to go!” the Doctor shouted as he burst a steam pipe and he leapt down the hallway with his companion in tow. At the end of the corridor they turned and bumped into the Judoon from the flight deck.

“Sho! Co! Flo! No! Tow!” he grunted

“Co! So! Mo! Ho! Juscapo-tow-tow!” the Doctor said deeply

“Doctor?” Martha was highly confused as to why the TARDIS hadn’t translated what the giant rhino was saying

“He can’t assimilate our language and this ship has a barrier which stops the use of unauthorised alien technology like the TARDIS’ translation circuit. I have to speak in his native tongue. So! Ro! Tow! Co jo ron po no?”

The Judoon hesitated for a few seconds, looking around the corridoor and then conceded “Jo Jo topi-toe”

“He’s going to help us escape!” the Doctor grinned, and they continued down the corridor towards the junk room, now lead by the enormous warrior who knew the way. Unfortunately, at the next intersection they were stopped by a host of the crew and the Bloodfist caught up behind them.

The Doctor admitted defeat quietly “They’ve won”

The two intruders and the traitorous Judoon were taken to a large prison cell which was shadowed at the edges but had a large roof window which was encapsulated by sunlight and left a large glowing circular area in the middle. The Doctor sat in this area with the ex-interstellar police officer and had a lengthy conversation of grunts and groans while Martha sat in the shadows and thought of her Mother back on Earth, her Earth, the home that didn’t exist yet. It was strange, she had called her Mum back after their hectic time on the doomed cargo ship, but her phone wasn’t answering anymore. In fact, it wasn’t even ringing, every time she dialed all she got was the Archangel answer phone. This time, sat in the shadows, had given the Earth girl even more time to think about her life and the path she had chosen. Watching two aliens discuss things in a language which just sounded like primal noises while she sat as a prisoner on a ship 12,000 years before she was born, how could she have ever imagined this? Then she smiled, because she knew it was beyond her imagination, which was why she loved the adventures so much. She got to her feet and joined her friends on the floor in the circle of light.

“What has he told you?”

“All is not as it seems on The Hybrid Locker, Martha” he said softly “the man who has imprisoned us here is called Critidan and he isn’t part of the Shadow Proclamation at all. He’s a renegade, just like the rest of the prisoners here. He was trusted with their transportation and then he disappeared; ditching his convoy ship and building this one, making every prisoner he had a slave for his own benefit, selling pieces of junk they find. He’s just like every other pirate, but he’s pretending to be something more”

On the other side of the ship Critidan stood proudly in front of the observation window on the bridge. Now they were in orbit and he stared at the beauty of primitive earth. A few hundred miles away an object floated into view; the prize he had been sent to find had finally arrived “Taan!” he snapped, the Sontaran warrior stood to attention “Bring the Doctor to me” he said softly, grinning with pride at the large wooden clock which began to tumble to the surface.

TO BE CONTINUED

Doctor Who – Scavenger Hunt

2010-01-06T18:46:00.001-08:00

Part 5 – The Hybrid Locker

“Martha?” the Doctor’s familiar voice whispered across the darkness

“Doctor!”

“Hang on a sec” he said, then came the buzzing and little blue flash from the sonic, followed by a delayed slamming sound as all the huge purple lights of the room switched on. Martha pulled her way out of a mass of plastic pipes and small pieces of metal that had buried her lower half. The Doctor, however, was already up and scanning the enormous room which spanned at least four football pitches square. The roof was a dome shape and the long purple neon lights spanned the curvature like the veins of a creature. The whole area was scattered with different objects; from pieces of ships that looked like art to unidentifiable artifacts and burnt out engines like the one they had ridden in on.

“What is this place?” Martha asked

“This is a scavenger ship” the Doctor said in a hurried voice, still shining the sonic over the area “and there’s only one problem with that”

“What’s that?”

“All scavengers are out to make a profit, which means that TARDIS will be sold to someone unless I stop them. If it gets into the wrong hands, the entire universe could be blinked out of existence if the wrong buyer took possession of it”

“Then lets get it out of here!”

“There’s just one problem” The Doctor stopped scanning “it isn’t here”

A door behind them opened and the silhouette of a humanoid stood in the yellow light that shone from within

“Intruders! You will come!”

The Doctor hesitated, the figure walked into the junk room and revealed himself; it was a Magreeth – the race of shape shifters from the planet of Ralkoom, the most cunning shape shifters of all, and yet here he was; in his natural state. The Doctor knew full well that this ‘Reeth’ could easily become a Sontaran or a Raxicoricon or even a Dalek, but he chose the feeble shape he was born as; withered and short, green and lumpy. Then the Doctor noticed a clamp around his leg and realised that this particular Reeth was a prisoner. With grace, Martha took the lead and the Time Lord followed a few steps behind. Through old tunnels and corridors lined with huge piping which fired out steam at regular intervals. After a long walk, the bright yellow service tunnels opened out into a regular hallway with normal white lighting. This trapezoid hallway went on for a further few minutes before the intruders finally reached the doorway into the main bridge. Martha looked around while they waited for the bridge door to open; nothing on the walls looked similar, every single panel was different and the welding was always shoddy

“Doctor, do they use the parts they salvage to repair the ship?”

“Sometimes, usually just the scrap metal is used for ship repairs, but they might find something that’ll make the ship faster or more durable”

“Like the shock core?”

“Nah, it’s not compatible. That’ll go for a fair price,” he leaned over to look at the Reeth “won’t it?”

“Prisoners will enter” he grunted, and the enormous doors opened. In front of them was the vast bridge; wide and complex; pieces of command consoles from a hundred different ships, freighters and battle cruisers, and hurrying about them was a veritable zoo of alien outcasts; a Judoon, a Vamproy, an Axon, a Sontaran, a bloodfist and a numerous others. On the far side was a dark figure, cloaked and facing out through the huge viewing glass before him. For a moment he stayed still, then turned slowly and graciously as the long black cloak swept across the floor. As the deep red eyes locked upon his, he took a deep breath and a step back

“What is that?” Martha insisted

“A Shadow Jailor; a prison guard of the galaxy’s most infamous villains sent to look over them by the Shadow Proclamation.”

“And now you are mine, Time Lord!”

TO BE CONTINUED

Doctor Who – Scavenger Hunt

2009-12-30T09:48:00.001-08:00

Part 4 – The Meadow

In a peaceful meadow, nestled within a huge forest somewhere in Britain, numerous creatures that man has not seen in generations went about their lives; eating, sleeping, grazing and hunting. Then, as if from nowhere, the humming and churning of an ancient craft’s engines faded into the area. The swirls and groans of the TARDIS echoed out through the woods and the wildlife ran for cover into their respective holes and hideouts. The impossible choice had been made.

With the softened squeek of the TARDIS’ old door, The Doctor stepped out into the bright sunlight of prehistoric world they had tracked the other TARDIS back to; Martha followed swiftly after.

“Here we are then!” the Doctor said in his ever chirpy tone

“And where is here?” Marhta asked

“Weeeell, the TARDIS tracked us back about 12,000 years or so… give or take a decade or two”

“But why now? There wasn’t even any real civilisation in the Upper Palaeolithic era, let alone the need for alien technology!”

The Time Lord turned to his companion and examined her with an obscure expression, as if staring long enough would somehow explain why she knew so much about the previous time periods of man instead of simply asking. But this was a familiar trait with the Doctor, so she answered the non existent question for him

“A level history, I wrote an essay on the evolution of man, don’t ask”

“I wasn’t going to” the Doctor said with a slight laugh

“So why would the…other TARDIS be here?”

The Doctor looked up into the silent skies as if he could hear something she couldn’t, it turned out this was actually true, as he uttered in a slightly worried voice “I think we’re about to find out”

The roaring sounds of an alien object began to blast its way over the skies as it entered the atmosphere and burnt across the affluent blue. From within the mighty ocean of heavens came a large black object, growing nearer and nearer with an increasing volume that cracked like thunder and boomed like a torpedo. Then it crashed into the meadow in a ball of flames in a mighty crater of dirt and mud covered rocks. The two travelers came running over to the pit, inside which was the fallen object; a large elongated cylinder about the size of a car. Though covered in dirt and scratches, the natural reflective silver skin of the object was still very abundant. At the end of the cylinder was a long spike white protruded from the centre of it and outwards beyond the length of the outer shell.

“That looks like a jet engine” Martha admired

“It’s a shock core, part of a very large engine from a delta cruiser, these things fly off all the time; it’s like shedding a rotor blade on a boat.”

Martha insisted cautiously “If it’s something so trivial then why do you sound so concerned?”

“Torchwood never found a shock core, in fact I’ve never heard of any delta cruiser technology ever found on Earth, they hardly ever come to this side of the galaxy” the Doctor pondered as he began to look into the sky “unless someone else found it first…” and as if from nowhere an enormous ship floated over the meadow. From the ground, the shadow made it virtually impossible to comprehend the full size of the ship but he knew one thing for sure “scavengers!”

A bellowing horn pelted out a low blast of sound as a round hatch opened on the underbelly of the ship, from within this shone a large purple light which lurched towards the surface. The light encapsulated the shock core and began to raise it into the air. The Doctor grabbed Martha’a hand and jumped on top of the engine part with her, they gained speed as the silver bullet hurtled up into the bowls of the ship, then there was nothing; just black.

TO BE CONTINUED

Doctor Who – Scavenger Hunt

2009-12-26T15:21:00.001-08:00

Part 3 – The Impossible Choice

What was this incredible find that the final Time Lord now looked upon with his faithful companion in similar disbelief. He pulled himself forward and swiftly crawled on his hands and knees up to the opening in the clock. Though different to the Doctor’s coral interior design, there was no mistaking the TARDIS control room inside. Despite the obvious fact that it was bigger on the inside, there was a wide sweeping staircase that spun out from the opening and could be seen on the far side nearing the lower ground floor, from which there was a huge engine pillar the was glowing a soft blue – no matter how long it had been waiting there, the life of the TARDIS could not be extinguished, it was almost like it was waiting for the Doctor to arrive. And now here was here, and the engine groaned again, as if to suggest it was waking from a slumber – welcoming its Gallifreyan comrade to the resting place it had waited in for so long.

The Doctor, still suffering from the silent shock which spawned a rumbling of double heartbeats throughout his chest, continued to pant as he stared in disbelief at the room he still refused to accept he was seeing. Then there was a grip on his arm; it was Martha.

“Doctor?” she asked softly. He didn’t even notice her intervention on the moment.

“Doctor!” she said louder. he snapped out of it and his head jerked across to see her "Should we…go inside?”

“I don’t….I can’t…”

“Calm down Doctor,” Martha pulled him to his feet “let’s just go inside and see it”

They took steps together, ducking beneath the low entry of the clock’s door and finding their way through the dim light of the sleepy shadowed TARDIS to the bottom of the stairs. Around the room and the levels of the console platform were lights glowing at strategic intervals that hung in the dark like stars in the night sky. From the bottom level Martha looked up to the door above on the opposite side where a blaze of Arizona sunlight shone through. She was in amazement, much like she was when she first entered the Doctor’s TARDIS for the first time. Her Time Lord friend had already jumped ahead of her and started clicking buttons and leavers to try and revive the ancient travelling machine. Suddenly the room filled with light and the real theme came to life; it was a large square shaped room with dark, almost granite coloured walls which falsely looked as if they bent slightly towards the roof, upon which was an amazing piece of art; circles and stars of different colours all enveloped within each other, closing in to the central circle which bore a strikingly realistic painting of a blood soaked lion standing proud over the carcass of his defeated foe – a great bear.

The Doctor peered up at the art with his mouth open for many minutes, trying to decipher what the art meant or which Time Lord it might have belonged to. So many of the Time Lords personalised their ship to make their own mark; even the most ferocious took part in this almost ritualistic act. Even so, with the amount of Time Lords he had known and the numerous TARDISes he had seen gave him far too many possibilities and not one that matched this specific design. He slumped down onto the chair large leather seat in front of the control console and thought silently to himself for a few moments. Martha cautiously approached and sat with him, not knowing what he might do or say next; this was obviously a huge moment in the Doctor’s life, the size of this moment was unlike anything she had encountered so far and she had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next. Unfortunately it wouldn’t take more than a few seconds to come.

“Martha…” the Doctor muttered “…this TARDIS, do you know what it represents?” he turned to her

“Not really” she felt a little silly for not knowing the answer

“This TARDIS is the vessel of my people, the survival of this ship is a beacon; a symbol that Time Lords never die. Oh Martha, if we knew what this ship knew, if we could have seen what this TARDIS had seen…” then he stopped. He sat bolt upright and pulled his glasses off “THAT’S IT!” he shouted and dropped to the floor in front of the chair.

“What is it?” but the Doctor didn’t answer. Pulling out his sonic screwdriver he shone it over the metallic clamps of an access panel, peeled the floor open and dived inside to investigate a great torrent of machinery, wires, cables and lights; behind which he disappeared. All was quiet for a moment, then Martha asked again

“Doctor! What is it?”

Then his upper half surfaced again to address her

“If I can reconnect the signaling matrix I can find out where this TARDIS has been, if we do that, we can go back and find out who left it there…”

He continued to fumble and switch with instruments under the metal surface, then there was another silence. After a moment or two, a new section that had remained dormant and dark lit up. The Doctor sprung up from under the level and rushed over to the section which had a screen attached to it, he pulled it around and started analysing the display with is specs on. Martha was 10 minutes behind him, she still hadn’t gotten her head around this situation, let alone try to comprehend what the Doctor was doing about it, so she just stood there watching in silence – wishing she could somehow help.

“Aahhh the tracking system is damaged!” the Doctor said in a frustrated fuss. He ran his hand through his hair and scratched away for a few seconds at his infinitely clever head. Then he stepped back again, looking a little upset with something he had just realised.

“Martha… this TARDIS is different”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, my TARDIS is old and derelict; it isn’t meant to exist. It was only chance that brought the ship to me, stealing it from the decommissioning yard was lucky for both of us. Even so, that TARDIS is old and broken. It’s falling apart and slowly it is dying, but this TARDIS Martha, this TARDIS is unspoilt, it won’t ever make a mistake and it can take us further than we’ve ever been before – to the furthest reaches of the galaxy and back in the blink of a eye…” he paused “…but to do that I’d have to reboot the static loops and we’d lose the tracking co-ordinates”

“So we have a choice…” Martha said

“An impossible choice” he told her. He began to walk slowly around the island of the console, looking at the towering engine while running his right hand lightly over the buttons and gadgets on the more modern console; the kind of console he hadn’t seen in 2 regenerations. Martha waited patiently for him to speak again. As he approached the full lap of the control room he stopped and looked at her “Either we go forward with a new TARDIS and explore new words, or we go back and find out how this got here. But if we intervene, I can’t guarantee where this ship will end up, so it’s one or the other…”

TO BE CONTINUED

Happy Holidays

2009-12-24T10:58:00.001-08:00

I decided to change a few things this week, not enough happened to justify a daily post of events, instead I’ll just do a quick recap and then get on with my xmas eve message :)

Monday – Shopping! Oh the shopping! Far too much time in Hanley buying nothing at all, oh well, I managed to get 99% of my gifts sorted that day. I also planned my travel arrangements for the following day to get down to Mum’s.

Tuesday – Oh haiii packed trains and cold weather! What an idiot, leaving the house without a scarf! Oh well, managed to get down without my face turning into a massive icicle… just about. Was nice to be back in the countryside again. Mum’s house is nice and festively decorated, which is what the house in Stoke kind of lacks. Still, no need to worry about that anymore!

Wednesday – Managed to face the fear of fear itself, took a trip out to the shops with mum and was surprisingly calm the whole time! Travel tablets are a bloody miracle, can’t believe I didn’t put more faith in them before now! Steve, Lynn, Sophie, Katie and Granny Sue arrived later that day too and it’s amazing to be reunited with them all for the first time in years!

Thursday – Mmmm xmas eve! Well today has been quite uneventful to be frank, bit of relaxing, applied for a job and now there’s a large loud party (of sorts) shaking up from downstairs. I’m in my room just chilling out, it’s cool. Gunna hit the buffet in a while :)

So, that over and done with, it’s time for me to make a real jump into the festive style blogging!

So it’s Christmas Eve, the night before the biggest day of the year. The day everyone looks forward to. In fact it’s just 5 hours and 10 minutes until it officially happens; and how am I feeling about it? Great actually. This year has been one of the most evolutionary for me, I know that in the times I blogged over the year I’ve said some things that are a positive, some things that are negative and some things that are downright boring. Even so, everything that happens to us is something we develop from, and in this festive season I’m looking forward to the big day more than ever. Last Christmas it had only been a month since I revealed my biggest secret and I was still and very anxious person, so that Christmas was hard for me to deal with in one way or another. But this year I’ve had time to develop, time to prepare, time to think and time to get excited! I really can’t wait for Christmas this year and to be told I’m looking much healthier than last time I was here is a really big compliment for me, so I’m even more positive now! It’s awesome.

Anyway my friends, I’ll blog again tomorrow about what I got and how Christmas Day went for me and the family, so stay tuned!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good…

Night x

A week in the life: Day 1

2009-12-20T17:03:00.001-08:00

Sunday – Victory Dance

Today I got up at another normal time, it’s odd how much different things are when you sleep regular hours. In fairness they’re still not that regular – half past midnight until about 9:30am is still a few hours shifted forward in most normal people’s view, ho hum. Today was the end of a 2 week stint of my life where all I did was pay attention to the world of Facebook, in particular the Rage4xmas campaign. Nobody ever thought the campaign would get near the top 10, let alone number 1 – even Chris Moyles’ breakfast show on Radio 1 played a daily jingle saying that Joe would win the top spot and that “all the other acts should throw in the towel” – unfortunately they got it completely wrong. Still, getting up at 6 every day to listen to Moyles was quite fun, before crashing out for a few more hours of sleep.

The days are crazily short now; the sun rises from the far left hand side of my bedroom window at about 7:30am and doesn’t reach far above the row of houses across the alley from mine, so I get about 6 hours of proper sunlight every day – strangely enough it’s been very sunny lately so that’s an upside I guess. Time seemed to just float by today, things were easy to come by, drumming was a good release of energy and I managed to record a bit of freestyle drumming, though it needs to be edited.

Popped to the Spar for some food but my card was declined. Strange, as I was sure I still had plenty of cash in that account. Went to Minton News and used the cash machine – ta da, hello money. What was wrong with Spar? Oh well, they lost out on my custom! Though I was really looking forward to those bbq Pringles I had planned to buy.

Still snowy and icy in Stoke!

The chart show started on Radio 1 and my adrenaline started to go a bit mental. The next 3 hours went surprisingly fast, at 6:30 I listened to those top 5 songs and waited for the predictions of the Rage success to come true. The adrenaline became so bad for me that I started to feel really sick, and I wasn’t the only one! Several people said they felt the same about the situation, maybe I’m not so mental after all. As the number 3 track (Lady Gaga) played, I couldn’t stand it anymore so I went into the shower, knowing that by the time I came out the nation would know and I could just see the result on the Facebook group’s wall – which I did, and my hopes were answered! But it took a good half an hour for my body to relax again!

Chatted to Harry for a bit before going to the shop for some dinner. Unfortunately both Spar and Minton News had closed their shutters and I was forced to get chips from Brunchies as a fall back – not the most filling/healthy of dinners, oh well, Spag Bol tomorrow night!! One thing I did notice out on my travels today is how icy it is! There’s a layer of ice under all the snow that’s still here, so it’s really hard just to get down the street. All is soon to change though, I called Mum earlier and arranged to go to her house on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Despite the lack of independent activities available there, I want to get away from here – everyone else already has!

Watched another episode of Sarah Jane Adventures (got lots left to watch before Friday) and now I’m chilling to a nice mix of stuff on iTunes. Here’s today’s rightful song choice – it’s Rage’s first UK number 1, the first ever download-only number 1 and the best selling first week download single of all time too; it’s KILLING IN THE NAME!!

Reno x

The rollercoaster

2009-12-19T10:52:00.001-08:00

Good evening my lovely readers! Glad to have you back at my little spot. So, what’s going on? Well it appears this RATM vs. XFACTOR thing has exploded. It’s kinda crazy, because I’ve watched the group grow since the early days of the campaign and watching the way it has spiraled up into the proverbial mountain top of musical competition has just been insane! Last week nobody took us seriously (and yes Harry, I will continue to use the word ‘us’, as the group is now a community – a group effort to make this happen and I am an active part of it, so sue me). Now, we’re getting numerous plays on Radio 1 every day, interviews on Sky News, the BBC have taken a lot of interest (thanks to 5 Live for arranging the live performance) and the numerous other tabloids and media outlets for at least giving us the coverage up to now, though most of it has been slanderous slur from the mouths of establishment enforcing morons who can’t stand to see a different view on society and culture. Still, we got here. 5 hours until the count ends (midnight Saturday) and we’re going to find out if we can fulfill the prophecy we all hoped for. Tomorrow I’m going to start my new ‘Week in the Life of’ column on here so come back regularly to see a little peek into my life on Christmas week!

Reno x

(P.S – I’m bringing back the song of the day on my blog, so here’s today’s classic from Portishead!)

Technorati Tags: Rage,Against,The,Machine,Rage against the machine,RATM,#Ratm4xmas,Joe,x factor,music,Reno

Merry Ragemas Everyone!

2009-12-14T02:09:00.001-08:00

It Has Begun!

So, if all goes to plan this week, we’ll see the X Factor defeated to it’s regular position of number 1 in the UK this Sunday, having ruined the yearly intentions of the money spinning, square headed fame pusher Simon Cowell. It’s time to get Rage Against the Machine’s classic track Killing in the Name to the Christmas number 1!

Reality Inbound

It appears that over 700,000 people aren’t happy with the way that music is monopolized and smeared over TV screens in an attempt to make money through advertising while building so much hype up to who is going to win while destroying people’s dreams on a weekly basis, and then they are forgotten, kicked to the curb like last year’s toy. Can you remember any ex finalists from previous years? It would appear that this pathetic game of reality music TV is getting more and more annoying every year.

And in the end, that’s what the X Factor is; a circus. A coliseum whereby the masses sit and judge a few people who are naive and simple minded enough to believe that there really is glory in the process of entering the competition, what with Hello! Magazine selling your personal secrets to the braindead masses who breathe in the lives of ‘celebrities’ like it’s crack cocaine, giving them a rush because they can find out that Peter Andre’s left nipple is that little bit rounder than the other, or an article describing the ways in which Britney is a bad mother or how the world really needs photographs of the next orange celeb’s wedding. On top of that, you get 10 million odd people making their opinions on people who, they in themselves, have absolutely no idea about how to sing themselves. I know when I wrote my blog earlier this year entitled Responsibilities of a Gramophone I angered a lot of people in my opinions not only of the way pop stars conduct themselves but also the way the words they sing and the integrity of their music beyond the shiny layer of bleach blonde hair and £5000 outfits used for just one music video. After this rant I decided to be less of a tight arsed, snobby little shit and listen to more pop music simply to enjoy how it sounds (and yes, some of it is actually awesome – particularly my affinity with La Roux this autumn) but my opinions of how ‘real music’ should be remains, because I still believe that music without instruments, the kind of music that involves 4 guys sat on stools with a CD player in the background while the mime the lyrics to ‘their’ song (most likely written by someone else and therefore has no real emotional or personal connection to them) just looks to me like a travesty of how the industry now works – flooded with the same pretty boys and slutty girls who just want that five minutes of fame, the ones who will latch onto that publicity by selling their lives off like it’s a yard sale – and it really is a shame to me that this is what society has come to. Britain used to be a shining light in terms of music production – some of the stuff that came from this country has changed the world, but now we have nothing to be truely proud of on a global level, just manufactured artists who are molded into the same shape year after year by Cowell and his cronies, simply for the sake of making millions of pounds for themselves – that is all it comes down to; after all, why have 2 X Factor winners been dropped from their labels? Do you REALLY think he loves music? Even Cheryl Cole complained that there was a rock week on X Factor this year, is that really a fucking crime? Jesus.

The time of reckoning!

Anyway, back to the point, I urge you all to buy Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine this week (any time up to midnight on Saturday 19th) for the sake of showing that people really do have a voice in this country, a way to bring REAL music back to the people. The fact that it is Christmas number one isn’t the essentiality of the situation, the reason this has been done is to disrupt Cowell at the time he attempts to flourish the most. The fact it’s around Christmas (which is a coveted chart position anyway) is just beneficial because it will have even more impact on the public when they see what can be done! I remember the days when, in the early naughties, nu-metal was the coolest thing in music. Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and Papa Roach may seem done and dusted now, but it was a sign that there can be an alternative over produced tripe, and this campaign is more than proof that people want it! Just look at the kind of coverage we’ve got; BBC Radio 1, Five Live and 6 Music, as well as mentions on BBC One and News 24, Sky News, Kerrang! Radio, The Independent, The Metro, The Sun and countless online publications! On top of that we have celebrities such as Bill Bailey and Stephen Fry backing us as well as Rage’s guitarist Tom Morello too. We have the power, the publicity and the promise, now let’s make it happen!

Giving in the Name…

Some people have said that if everyone in the UK’s most traffic heavy Facebook group (and base of opperations for the whole campaign) has given the money to charity instead of buying the Rage song then it would be a more worthy cause, which may be so, but at the same time it isn’t as if the campaign is without charitable intentions, in fact it is far from it – £20,000 has been raised for the charity Shelter through the Facebook group. You can donate here!

Rally the Troops!

Think about it, the biggest chart surprise in history, the last ever number 1 of this decade put there by us! Don’t say “it’ll never happen” – defeatist talk never got anyone anywhere, oh and drop the Sony argument, it’s not even relevant! The biggest aim of this campaign is to have fun, so going a little overboard with ‘where the money is going’ is just silly! Right, with that out of the way, it’s time for me to say goodbye and time for you to go buy your copies of the single! Get on it! For more info, check out the Amped blog with more links on where you can buy! http://ampedwales.wordpress.com/

Merry Ragemas everyone!
Reno

Doctor Who – Scavenger Hunt

2009-11-26T14:51:00.001-08:00

Part 2 – The masterpiece

“That’s impossible” the Time Lord cried

“I know,” Martha said “just like I told you.”

“A grandfather clock in the middle of an excavation site, it doesn’t make any sense! Still, from what you’ve said Martha this seems to be an important part of your history, maybe we should just…”

“What…?”

“Leave” The Doctor looked sincerely at his comrade who was worried she wouldn’t achieve her dream of discovering the truth of this mystery she had read so much about, but then he cracked a huge smile and she knew the adventure was on. They walked together across the great plane of dust and sand and scattered shrubs toward the dig site in the far distance. The air was warm, though it carried a soft breeze upon it like waves of clarity upon an invisible ocean which swept the end of the Doctor’s long brown coat around as he walked and Martha’s hair was all over the place. As they neared, a lot of the staff involved in the dig appeared to move off and head back to the camp on the other side of the hill in a large group. Martha and the Doctor could hear them talking wildly and frantically as the hysteria of the clock’s origin exploded into a thousand possibilities. Luckily, the two travelers went unnoticed and they were able to walk straight through to the area where the clock stood; still half buried in dirt.

“That is gorgeous” the Doctor said

“But how did it get here?”

“I dunno… spatial time disruption?" the Doctor mused as he put his specs on “The amount of things that have happened to the timelines over the last few years could have moved anything pretty much anywhere! You’re lucky the Earth is still spinning!”

At that moment, a security guard tapped on the Doctor’s shoulder

“Can I help you?” he grumbled. The Doctor fumbled in his pocket and pulled out his psychic paper and held it up

“I’m Doctor John Smith of the London natural history museum and this is my graduate intern Martha Jones.”

“Hi” she said and smiled. The guard examined the blank paper for a few moments with intense scrutiny while the mysterious London Doctor continued

“We’re here to see Phillips’ amazing find, we won’t be here for too long!”

“Go on then” the guard said, to which Martha turned, jumped into the lower part of the dig and dashed over to the clock. Placing her hand upon it, she received an electric shock which threw her back.

“Careful Martha” the Doctor said as he caught up to his companion, who was now sat on the ground. He crouched down in front of the clock and pulled out his sonic screwdriver which was already glowing without him even pressing a button on it “That’s odd,” he said “it doesn’t usually do that unless…”

“Unless what?” Martha insisted, but the Doctor didn’t reply. Instead, he pressed the main switch of the screwdriver forward and allowed it to buzz for a few moments – then everything changed. As if by magic the clock began to tick, then from within it came a familiar sound – a noise he and so many others knew as the sign of a Time Lord’s presence.

“It can’t be” Martha looked desperately at the Doctor

Not believing in his own fear of what Phillips had found he reached out slowly for the golden knob on the front door of the clock. He pulled, and with a jerk it opened out; throwing the Doctor to the floor much like Martha beside him. Then, as the dust settled he could see inside, the sight he knew could not exist, and yet there it was; the mighty control room of a TARDIS.

TO BE CONTINUED!

Doctor Who – Scavenger Hunt

2009-11-23T20:03:00.001-08:00

PROLOGUE

Part 1 – The Impossible Find

“Come on Doctor!" Martha shouted from the doors of the TARDIS, she received no reply

”Doctor!” still nothing “Doctor!!”

The Time Lord opened swept into the control room from some other random part of the TARDIS

”Could you shout any louder?” he asked sarcastically. Martha blushed a little and felt somewhat silly for being so over excited, still, she had asked so many times to go to the grand canyon. For the Doctor, this was the first time his new companion had asked for something so simple

“Are you sure you want to go here? It’s just a dried up river bed! I could take you to see the tunnels of Gorxious! Now that’s a bobsled ride you’d never forget. Or at least let me take you to when the grand canyon was full, it’s so…boring now!” he insisted

You would have thought almost crashing into a sun would have been enough excitement for a while – Martha though to herself. “Come on Doctor” she smiled and turned out through the doors

“Humans, I dunno” he said, grabbing his coat

Outside, the Doctor jogged to catch up with his companion, who was power walking towards a settlement in the distance.

“If I wasn’t mistaken Martha Jones, I’d think you brought us here for a reason”

Martha didn’t look at him, she just replied “and why’s that?”

“Well I dunno… I was hoping noticing that would be enough for you to tell me!”

Martha turned to the Doctor and asked him what he saw here

“I…” he muttered “I see sand” he said, immediately admitting defeat to what Martha was obviously hoping he would find

“I was hoping you of all people would see it Doctor”

“See what?!” he insisted

“History” she said, and walked on. The Doctor, shocked and impressed, smiled and continued. As they neared the settlement ahead, Martha revealed more about why she wanted to visit on this exact date

“A few months before I met you I read a newspaper article about a dig in the grand canyon, they found something impossible, something nobody could believe”

The Doctor smiled again, “So you didn’t want something boring after all"” he grinned

“Never!” she chuckled

They arrived at the small group of tents and trailers a few minutes later, the wind blew dust around the site and the place was deserted.

“So much for the excitement,” Martha said “I wonder where everyone is!”

The door of a trailer to their left opened quickly and a short teenage lad fell out with his arms full of rolled up papers, blueprints and an assortment of other documents. He lost his footing and crashed to the ground; the papers following him. Martha and the Doctor rushed over and helped him up

“Thank you” he said in a slightly high American accent “who are you?”

“I’m Martha and this is the Doctor”

“Hello!” the alien traveler chirped

“Actually,” an older British voice grunted from behind them “I’M the doctor on this site”

The companions turned to see a short plump man with a bristly white mustache and pale clothes standing before them. He was no more than five feet in height but he made up for this in the bluntness of his attitude and his volume.

“Jeffrey, you’re bloody useless!” he snorted

“Sorry sir!” the American pleaded as he scrambled all the different pieces of work back into a pile he could carry again. Then he shuffled past them, up a path and disappeared over a hill, Martha was curious as to where exactly he was shuffling off to.

“This dig site is protected by law, we’ll have nobody spying on our findings thank you very much!”

“And what exactly have you found?” the Doctor asked. The short man looked a little shocked, somewhat excited and then composed himself

“All in good time Doctor, all in good time” he smiled “soon you shall hear the story of the greatest find man has ever made.” The Doctor looked suspiciously at him “Now, if you don’t mind leaving, we have a lot to do.”

The two companions turned away and began to walk towards the TARDIS, now a blue dot in the distance. The Doctor turned to Martha and asked her straight “What did they find?”

“I think it would be better if you saw for yourself.” she told him. They walked a long way around the area and ended up on a hill that overlooked a large open area of the canyon. In the distance was a large tower of rock and a group of people surrounding the base. From within his jacket pocket, which the Doctor shook and fumbled with, he pulled out a pair of binoculars. Martha was shocked for a minute and then she realized;

“Bigger on the inside…”

Catching focus on the area, the Doctor scanned from left to right as he saw Jeffrey and Doctor Phillips arriving back at the dig site.

The pompous Brit pushed his way through the scientists and other experts at the site, insisting on seeing his prize “Move, move, let me see it!” they moved, and there before him stood the most impossible thing they could ever have discovered; a huge grandfather clock, sticking out of the orange dirt.

TO BE CONTINUED!

22

2009-11-15T03:17:00.001-08:00

Wow, so my last blog stirred up a lot of fuss! I didn’t realise so many people actually read my blog and I was so unaware how fast news travels. There are a few things I need to clear up before we get onto today’s blog. Firstly, I should have made far more exceptions to the people who got the shit thrown at them than just Jenna. Bexx is one of them, as is AJ and also Millie, Kay and Liz. The question about being expendable was more a rhetorical question to the people who don’t talk to me anymore, not those of you I still have contact with. Even so, I stick to some of the things I said, not many people do make an effort with me, it’s just fact. Also, I need to clear up that my plans to move to Exeter aren’t immediate – sorry for not making that very clear. I won’t be moving there until next June/July. I want to move there and start over, so when that time comes and there literally is no connection between us then prepare to see no more of me on your Facebook or MSN etc. No second chances, that’s the rule. I’ll be closing off the first 22 and a half years of my life and starting a brand new one with just a select few of you. So that’s the clarification of that over and done with, lets get on with THIS post!

Today I turn 22 and I can say that I am a free man.

Well, near enough. It’s been a year since I revealed my biggest secret to the world and a lot has changed, though the biggest part of it has to be the changes I’ve seen in the last 5 weeks. Things fell to an all time low from last week through to this Tuesday when I wrote my latest post – when I wrote that I was quite literally at my lowest, so I apologise for the generally negative tone about myself and everyone out there. I don’t know what happened but it all changed Wednesday, I wasn’t doing anything special, in fact I went into Hanley for the first time in over a week just to sign on. Strangely though, when I got into town I wasn’t anxious and I wasn’t thinking “all i want to do is go home” as I usually do. I wasn’t dizzy or spaced out in the shops, I was just normal. In fact, it got to the point where I was willing to throw away all of my safety nets (you might have seen me carrying that water round on chomping on mints previously) but I just felt like I didn’t need them anymore! It was an amazingly uplifting feeling, but in case that was just a momentary thing and my anxiety came back Thursday or Friday then I’d better go to my new fallback plan; Kalms tablets. I’d used them to stay calm at a gig before and I thought maybe they’d help in the future, especially with how much I’d been panicking recently. The women in Boots were so nice, they said things like “you’re too young to be stressed!” and when I said I didn’t need them today because I was feeling good they said “yeah you’re looking good” – being told that is such a great reinforcement, especially from a stranger. The rest of that day was a breeze, I didn’t actually want to leave town but I had no reason to stay after visiting Rowfers and Wilko’s so I headed back and had a relaxed afternoon. Following this, I went to Gobble – possibly the best Gobble I’ve ever been to. No the music wasn’t any less cheesy and the place wasn’t any less scummy, but I didn’t give into anxiety, my lost friend was avoiding me instead of the other way around and I stayed all the way to the end. It was bloody brilliant, a stranger even asked me to be her bf! Haha. Anyway, it is fair to say that Wednesday changed my life, and I’m so glad it did – it is proof to myself and to the world that after a year I held to my promise and I’m now getting past my issues – SCORE.

Today is my 22nd birthday and I want to thank you all for your birthday wishes and lovely comments, calls, texts, emails and wall posts. I ruined my 21st by being a fool and getting priorities wrong, along with putting my fear/anxiety ahead of stuff too. Today I’m going to rectify that! Catch you later kids :D

Reno x

And the rest, as they say…

2009-11-10T17:20:00.001-08:00

…is history.

Fresh start, new design and a new vision for the future.

I’d like to say I have a clearer head than I have of late, but this isn’t true. Things are more confusing than ever and I really don’t know where I’m going anymore. Oh well.

I was going to start a new series of posts called Diary of a Free Man – based on my ongoing therapy and attempts to sort my head out but things aren’t going to plan as much as I hoped and therefore it wouldn’t be a good place to go to if you wanted news on me. I actually hate my life now. I really don’t have many people left in my life that I trust or really hold high anymore. They’re either gone or aren’t who I thought they were. Just as emetophobia stops me seeing possibilities for my future, my disgust for who people are stops me seeing any real meaningful connection with those people. So yeah, things are falling apart on both fronts; I need people to help me get through my issues but I don’t have anyone who means anything to me anymore and I don’t mean anything to anyone anymore either.

If you’re a friend of mine, really think about this, when was the last time you struck up a conversation with me? When did you really make the effort just to talk? Then think about the amount of times I’ve made conversation with you, or sent you a text asking to hang out or just seeing how you are. No effort, no respect, no care – not from any of you. In fact the only person who ever really bothers with me on that front is Jenna, and I love her for having that resilience and care. I really can’t think of anyone else who makes a real effort with me anymore and it’s a question I ask myself every day; why am I so expendable? What makes me so easy for you to turn your back on, and why am I so easy to leave behind without a second look? You tell me, because enough people have done it to me this year.

This is why I’m moving away from here. I can’t hang around this place full of bad memories and lifeless connections with whoever else is left here. It’s pathetic that I even decided to stay here and tried to keep something real going when there really is nothing left for me.

Next stop Exeter.

Better off without you

2009-11-03T05:08:00.001-08:00

This week I’ve learnt a lot about betrayal, lies and the worth of my friendship to some people. This year I’ve had a lot of people turn their backs on me for no reason, but I didn’t expect you’d be one of them. This year I made a blanket rule – no second chances, and even when I made an exception for you, you still managed to walk all over it. Here’s a message to everyone who knows me, play nice or fuck off. I’ve had enough of people lying and taking advantage of me – using me for their own pathetic problems and then leaving me behind, well fuck you. You’re not even worth these words, but at least this’ll give an outset to everyone in the future; take advantage and don’t expect a reprieve. I can’t fucking believe you.

Here’s a beautiful song that points out exactly how I feel. Pay attention.

On top of this, I would like to make public how much I miss Matt Chan, Phil George, Mike Eaton and Paul Knowland. I love you guys and I miss how great shit used to be,

Out.

Why this world is so… Religulous!

2009-10-15T11:51:00.001-07:00

Hey guys, I’ve been thinking a lot about religion for the last few months, I hadn’t thought too much into my ‘faith’ for the last few years until all this stuff about the EDL and UAF and posters made me very much interested in researching what all the current fuss is all about.

After realising my lack of faith and actually noticing that I am an atheist, I began looking at religion on a more regular basis and came to realise how flawed the whole idea of following the words of a book really is. Even with the amount of good will as you can draw from the scriptures of any religion, too many things have happened, are happening now and will no doubt happen in the future based on the sanctity of keeping religion alive – based on what? The book. Always the book. The book and the myth. You would think, based on how extreme and appalling acts based on religion are, more people would walk away from them, or at least speak up against the lunacy that surrounds faith in something that has no proof or eligible material to even back up a single piece of what it says.

Religion, no matter which one it is, has brought death and destruction into the world for hundreds of years and continues to do so on a daily basis. Let’s take this EDL vs. UAF madness for a start. Let’s forget who is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ on this level – maybe the EDL are racist, maybe they’re not. Maybe the UAF are communists or whatever else they’re accused of being, maybe they’re not – I’m not here to debate that. What I’m here to debate is the fact that it is through views upon religion that the recent riots came about such as violence against the police, as seen here…

The EDL are wrong for protesting against Islam as a whole religion, because it accuses everyone who follows it as an extremist. But it does make you wonder, from scenes like those shown above, how much easier the world would be if religion didn’t exist and how much more dangerous it becomes when it does. Let’s also not forget that craziness based on religion goes far beyond our shores, let’s look at America shall we?

Not every person under a religion acts this way, these are often minorities, but it is still a perfect example of religion turning to violence and disgusting acts of discrimination and hate based on the way people live or their opinions.

It is said that the difference between man and animal is intelligence. This isn’t to suggest animals are stupid! Of course, within their own habitats animals thrive better than man ever could, but then man could bring in a bulldozer, strip the land and build a mini mall and flourish there instead. Thus, the kind of intelligence I mean the ability to speak, think independently, complete complex mathematical equations, configure intricate machinery and contemplate the existence of the universe. Unfortunately, the intelligence to see the difference between myth and reality seems to be absent from a lot of people, which is a shame, as I’d hope we’d have that on top of all else, it’s called common sense.

Do you believe in Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny or Cupid? No, they are figureheads for fun events which keep children in line at times of need – be good or Santa won’t bring you any presents. Unfortunately, the event held by religion is death, which means people never let go of the fantasy because it is something you have to always live with and be in fear of; that lack of presents from God when the end comes is too much for people to bare if it exists, nobody wants to go to hell…or get a lump of coal in their stocking for that matter!

Also, a lot of people say God has a plan for everyone. Tell me this, what plan did God have for the Jews during the holocaust? What plan did a merciful God have for those Muslims who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan during the 2 wars following the deaths of the 2000 Americans who died in the name of Islam? What plan does God have for children who are murdered by their parents in the UK every year? Show me the chance, the mercy, the plan.

Let’s face it, faith in religion is an excuse for people to close subjects they can not understand or accept, such as the death of others, crimes, illness and/or the end of life for just a start. Man does not understand all and therefore puts his entirety of faith into that magical box with Christianity or Islam or Judaism stamped on it and then relies on a book that is hundreds of years old – full of unmatched facts and contradictions which simply does not make sense to today’s society, but because of that lack of knowledge and/or because they were simply brought up to believe what they were told.

After talking to a friend of mine about this subject, he linked me to the trailer of Religulous; the comedy documentary presented by American talk-show host Bill Maher which basically confirmed my entire way of thinking and stopped me feeling bad for not believing in something I’ve never seen. The film is not only funny and informative, but it also raises some key points in the lengths people will go to in belief of their religion, such as thinking nuclear war would be a good thing, etc. I’ll close this blog with the way in which Bill closes his film; consider the danger of the entire world being run based on religious beliefs – from my opinion it goes beyond ridiculous – it’s lunacy.

Due to the inability to embed the final scene from YouTube, please follow the link below to see the final (and amazing) scene of Religulous :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGFV6RXJmCA

I want to point out that I don’t want to discourage people from having their faith, because everyone has their own opinion and their right to believe what they want and this is mine. What I am saying is that religion is far too important in today’s society and as someone who has chosen not to follow anything I’m personally sick of it. Stick to your books, don’t bring it into politics or the way in which a country runs. I, as an atheist, don’t get special treatment, so neither should you.

Reno

A message for Assed Baig

2009-10-04T05:29:00.001-07:00

I have been contemplating this blog for some time now, there were many things that kept coming to me over the last few weeks as I walked around the Staffs Uni campus seeing more and more of the anti-fascist posters appear on walls, doors and windows across the area, as well as reading back over some of the debates Assed and I (along with many others) had over Facebook and MySpace last year following his GK News article which basically blamed the entirety of the world’s problems on white people.

Let’s start with a quick outline of this situation if you’re an outsider to Staffs Uni and/or previous events that surround this whole situation. Assed Baig is the current President of Staffordshire University’s Student Union. He is a campaigner for anti-fascist movements including campaigns against political parties like the BNP and EDL.

In 2007 he wrote an article in GK News (Staffs Uni’s monthly newspaper, now known as OMG Magazine) outlining his issues with British society and the ways in which white people are always used as heroes, along with his expression of blame for almost every problem in the world on white people – such as white people inventing the AK47 – which I guess removes all blame from the people who use them? Come on, that’s ridiculous, that’s like a murderer blaming whoever invented the knife. Anyway, after the article was printed there was an uproar across the university and the editor had to write an apology in the next issue. Nevertheless, Assed managed to find his way to the presidency of Staffs Uni’s Union, coincidentally because he accused his opponent of racist slander towards him, which I’ve seen no proof of, which leads me on to my next point.

My biggest issue with Assed and his campaigning is that he demonises white people at all times and never even raises the issue of racism towards white people, and I’ll tell you why, because he believes it does not exist. Me and a friend of mine (who gave examples of abuse he has received for being white) argued over this issue with Assed and he remained adamant that it does not exist. Then recently I read a disturbing quote where he said he did not care for a white girl who did not want to walk through Hanley park for fear of racial attacks. This, again, shows Assed’s one sided view on the whole issue. If he believes that racism is something that is only applicable to white-on-black then he has no position to campaign for anything, because it is far more than a one sided issue.

Another thing I noticed during our debates over the internet is how intentional he is in making everything a race issue. At any chance he gets, Assed will accuse any white person of being racist, as it seems to be at all times in this country. Question someone who isn’t white and you’re automatically a racist – which is what I was accused of being last year during said debates. To clarify this, what I said in one of my comments was that if he was so against the ways in which people live and think in this country then he should just leave – as I plan to one day. His response was “Why should I leave? I have as much right to stay as any white person.” – note that I did not mention the colour of his skin once, I made a remark based on his view of the country and that I similarly plan to follow my own advice – did I say “I plan to leave because I’m white”? Or “you should leave because you’re Asian”? No. This is a clear example of him using race as an issue whenever he can – which is fundamentally wrong and is so offensive to me, because he automatically branded me as a racist simply for making that judgement instead of realising it was a simple piece of advice.

I agree heartily that thugs like the BNP should not be allowed in British society politics, but I also don’t think it should be seen as a racist act to question things like Islamic protests in London with signs saying “Behead those who question Islam” – I mean come on, that would just be nonsense, I’m pretty sure people would say ‘wtf’ if I walked around with a sign saying something like that.

Assed Baig wants freedom of speech and equality, but only a certain kind, and that is just wrong. That is why I am against his presidency – because every single thing is about race and I don’t take his campaigning seriously because it is based on the opinions of someone who sees the world from an unequal viewpoint.

Much love,
Reno

Freshers, Varsity and a new schedule

2009-09-22T17:44:00.001-07:00

Hello friends, thanks for coming back to this little place my thoughts like to call home. I’ve decided that my blogs really are too sporadic and random these days. You’ll find me pledging more regular posts across the last year but I really want to make as much effort as possible to do regular blogs for you guys! So from now on there will be a new schedule – Wednesdays and Fridays will be new post days, with the possibility of one on a Sunday too (Sundays are so boring).

Anyway, the last few days have been hectic, what with this year’s freshers hitting Staffs Uni for another start up year of madness. It’s been great so far, really great to see them all settling in and having fun. I’ve met quite a few of them, been in halls, been in the LRV and also helped to inform them about Varsity Radio.

Speaking of which, things are getting really good for the station, the building is virtually finished, furnished and filled up with delightful stuff. Next comes the equipment and internet connection, followed by the final major steps of filling in the schedule and getting everyone into the station to meet for a day. Remember, Varsity is YOUR station, so get your ideas into us for what you want on air and also get involved as a Rep or as a presenter/staff member! Email Kris@varsityradio.co.uk for more information.

Speaking of Varsity Staff, I’d like to welcome Millie on board as the new Assistant Reps manager for the station, a good friend and an enthusiastic fan of what Varsity is all about. Saturday and Monday saw a whole lot of new Reps coming on board with the station, mainly down to Millie’s influence. Bring on the next step of the spoken word campaign!

Lots of new music on the scene for Reno at the moment, I’m really enjoying Muse at the moment but the big new album I’m paying attention to is La Roux’s self titled album, it’s my new contender for Varsity Album of the Year!

Here’s my favourite track from the album…

Can’t get enough of my ramblings? Follow me on Twitter for more regular junk! www.twitter.com/renoxcore

8 years, no justice.

2009-09-10T16:14:00.001-07:00

And so it falls upon us once more, for the 8th time we shall look back upon the anniversary of America’s biggest terrorist attack and remember the souls who were caught up in the tragedy, the fire fighters, paramedics and police officers who tried so hard to save lives and lost theirs in the line of duty, the passengers of the planes involved and of course all of their friends and families who have to endure the loss of those people every day – instead of our feeble attempts to try and comprehend once a year. In the media and in the view of the general public, 9/11 is a memory, the past. However, it is almost every day that we hear on the news of new British soldier deaths in Afghanistan, and we should never forget that our troops are there because we were taken there by the events of 9/11. But whatever happened to looking for Bin Laden? Or even looking for Al Qaeda for that matter? Now it’s all about stopping the Taliban and securing the country in order to stop terrorism at home. But what if we were lead into that country, that war (and subsequently Iraq) based on a lie? Some of the 9/11 truth movement have put forward theories I don’t agree with, I’ve discussed that issue in the past before, but I remain a truther. I still believe that there are secrets behind the events of that day and we’re being kept in the dark for the sake of an ex-presidency’s lust for oil, overseas military expansion and other interests. If this is the case, it means that those people who died on that day, who we remember but once a year, died for a lie. And it is that lie which we must face every day.

Pop quiz!

Did you know that the 9/11 commission – which detailed the official events of the terrorist attacks – was given just $15 Million to research and come up with their findings. It was monitored by the White House and had a close friend of Bush overseeing the commission – independency of the report is therefore nullified. It was also capped on time to publish the report.

Did you know that the federal investigation into Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinski was given $60 Million? That’s 4 times the amount of government funding to investigate an office blowjob than to find the source of the terrorism attacks!

Did you know that there are photographs, such as the one below, showing survivors of the initial plane strikes on the WTC standing in the impact holes?

If the fire within was so hot that it softened steel then how could she have survived in this area?

Did you know that WTC tower 7 fell at symmetrical free fall speed at 5pm (local time) on 9/11 – the building was not hit by a plane and took minimal damage from the falling towers compared to the gutted buildings of WTC 5 and 6 which stood standing throughout the cleanup operation and had to be forcefully demolished?

Did you know that during the investigation of the 9/11 commission, Bush and Chaney refused to give testify their accounts of the day in public. Instead, they appeared together, behind closed doors, no press were allowed inside, they were not under oath and any notes taken by the commission had to be checked by White House staff before being allowed to leave? Sound suspicious?

More and more questions remain unanswered. More and more lies become obvious.

Until we know the full truth, those brave people at ground zero, the pentagon and Pennsylvania died in vain. As did a million Iraqis, over 200 British troops and 800 American troops. They fight for us, and I am eternally grateful for their sacrifice, but what if they are fighting for a cover up? For the advances of a continuing lie?

Ask questions, demand answers.

Responsibilities of a gramophone

2009-09-01T08:38:00.001-07:00

For the last year or so, I’ve been questioning bringing this up or not… I stopped doing it for a good while because I thought it would sound really pretentious and that I’d get flack for it, but I’ve decided if you’re one of the people who think that then you can go get fucked.

So here it is, I have an ulterior motive for having a dislike of both pop and r’n’b music. The reason for hating this kinds of music is because both the image and the message conveyed by artists in their songs, music videos and public appearances. Let’s take a look, for example, at a top selling pop artist at the moment – Lady Gaga. Almost every song she sings involves getting drunk, meeting guys, having sex or doing other promiscuous activities. Example, from the song ‘Love Game’;

Hold me and love me
Just want touch you for a minute
Baby three seconds is enough for my heart to quit
Let's have some fun,
This beat is sick
I wanna take a ride on your disco stick
Don't think too much just bust that kick
I wanna take a ride on your disco stick

Or how about this? Taken from ‘Ayo’ by 50 Cent…

Just how it be, on me, backstrokin', sweat soaking
All into my set sheets
When she ready to ride, I'm ready to roll
I'll be in this bitch till the club close
What should I do, one thing on all fours
Now that that shit should be against the law
From side to side, let the ride, break it down (down down)
You know I like, when you hike and you throw it all around
Different style, different move, damn I like the way you move
Girl you got me thinking about, all the things I do to you
Let's get it poppin' shorty we can switch positions
From the couch to the counters in my kitchen

Sounds responsible to me…

I’m aware that this attitude I have towards these kinds of artists looks like I’m trying to police people, or like my opinion of things should be how people live, and that’s not what I want to convey at all. Hell, maybe without music that states going out to find boys is essential then people would still go out, get fucked and have unprotected sex. But what concerns me is that these sort of lyrics hardly do much to try and promote people acting responsibly do they? And let’s face it, the next generations will already be listening to and singing along to these words – it’s them who I’m worried about most. These words, whether heavily influencing or not, are being drilled into kids’ minds constantly by a mainstream society which finds it not only acceptable but promotes this kind of music style which encourages such irresponsible behaviour, and to be honest it makes me sick. I mean, what kind of role model is this for the thousands of kids who look up to these girls…

Here’s a nice little article from the BBC about the problems with drinking teens in this country, looks like I’m not alone in my opinion of the way mainstream society seems to be rearing its ugly head these days.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8227443.stm

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming the music industry for those figures at all, I'm simply stating that the songs listened to by people in this demographic don’t attempt to downplay these actions at all.

The funny thing is, when you watch the adverts for drink aware campaigns on UK television, all you see is mainstream people. There’s no need to advertise to those of us going to gigs or rock clubs, because we’re not fucking idiots.

Of course, the music is only a small part of the problem, but it is a factor nonetheless. Get some alternative music in you, it has a much healthier message in it, I’d suggest starting with Green Day’s new album – but then I would say that.

So, let’s have some comments, do you think music writers have a responsibility to promote healthy behaviour? Or is music just music and has no effect on anyone’s actions? Would love to hear your opinions!

Reno

Reno is back!

2009-08-29T13:32:00.001-07:00

On form, on top and boy do I have news!

I could write loads today, where I’ve been, all the gorey details, an update on my life during my missing weeks, etc – but I’d rather just say hey and tell you all that everything is absolutely amazing at the moment.

Varsity Radio is on the way up – building is finished, the furniture is set up, now begins the final stages of the setup; technology and man power! So, if you fancy broadcasting to 4 million students on the UK’s only national student radio station then give me a shout on kris@varsityradio.co.uk :D I also have a new business number, which you can ask for by emailing me :D

With the 8th anniversary of this century’s greatest lie looming ever nearer, I’ve decided to get back into my enthusiasm regarding politics and the truth behind the culture that all the sheep and dopes live behind. These issues are; the war in Afghanistan, politics here and in the US and also the mainstream culture – particularly the apparent obsession this country has with celebrity lives and why there are more pressing issues in the world than the count on the amount of times Katie Price’s new boyfriend tells her that he loves her, its pathetic and meaningless.

Long live the explaining of all things, stay tuned for new blogs, pictures and insight from your favourite Stokey.

Much love, Reno :)

Memories :)

2009-08-03T08:34:00.001-07:00

Re: The Dilemma; Bloody Emo Kids!

2009-07-24T08:56:00.001-07:00

For the last 5 or 6 years I’ve been seen as an emo kid, or scene, or whatever. Less so these days, but it still happens, I used to get it sometimes from the guys at 47, but we still loved each other :P

Anyway, I got thinking before about how pathetic these images and scenes can really seem, I mean particularly the ones who put no effort in and look very…half arsed about it. The wanabes. The 16 year olds who seem to have no direction. I saw 2 kids on the bus last weekend who made me chuckle, they reminded me of myself and so many other friends at their age, I felt so silly. They weren’t emo kids, they were that strange combination of greebo kids acting out to the extent their parents will let them – keeping their hair colour but wearing those checkered bags and fingerless gloves, trilby hats and random badges. They were on the tipping edge of commitment, I know that the next few months would be the time they decided whether to fit in or fit out. I wish them luck with it.

When I wrote the ‘Dilemma’ blog earlier this week regarding my image, I was so worried I was hanging on to my youth, but thinking about those kids on the bus has made me realise that I’m not, I’m crafting an image for my future, I am maturing at my own rate – like a fine cheese. Not the best analogy. Anyway, all in all it made me realise that we all go through it one way or another (unless you’re boring) and that in fairness I am more mature than first thought.

Another thing about it is the fact that I can say I have been a part of cultural history with every step I took (and continue to take) with this alternative lifestyle. All those people who grew up through the other phases of life (mods’n’rockers etc) made their impact on British culture and won’t ever forget it – well neither will I forget this. It goes beyond that though, we should never forget how amazing each one of us are and how much of a difference we make every day. Remember what I wrote a few months back about colliding into each other and finding the person of our dreams without even realising it? Well take that beyond two people falling in love and place it into the jigsaw of life – a flowing image of never ending electricity between people and beautiful pictures made through our own creation.

Smile.

Reno’s moans: Why I hate the internet

2009-07-21T16:09:00.001-07:00

I could go on about this for a fucking age but I’ll make it quick, a big reason I hate the internet these days is the amount of weight loss adverts splattered all over websites, ones which blatantly lie about their results. For example…

It doesn’t take a freaking genius to realise that’s not the same girl in the thinner picture. How about this; stop trying to lose weight without effort, drop the snickers, get off your fat arse and go for a walk – in time make that a jog. Harry knows where it’s at.

I’m sick of these adverts, they work in the same respect as get rich quick scams on the net; the only thing worse than them is the group of morons who fall for it.

DONE!

The Dilemma

2009-07-19T04:42:00.001-07:00

I’ve wanted to write about this for a while but couldn’t think of a suitable outlet for my opinions and worries. I don’t even know if this is the right place, I thought about writing anonymously in some forums or Yahoo answers to get some thoughts would be a good idea, but I guess this is where my thoughts should be written, it’s what blogging is all about. Okay, every year or so, I go through a period of doubt and indecision about who I am. Generally I lack self confidence in most areas but when I go through one of these phases (as I am now) I go down another notch and I just consider my life in every aspect in a criticised and confused way. Though possibly constructive in motive, this process is mostly pathetic and completely unnecessary. It comes down to three things;

Image
Mind
Age

What I mean by this is worrying about who I am, in terms of how I put myself across as a person to the rest of the world. I mean, I love sticking to this alternative look and stuff, it’s who I feel I should be, but at the same time I’m 21 – going on 22, should I not have grown out of this by now? Should I not be a little more mature and begin sticking to something a little more ‘normal’? But then I answer that and say “well no, because I’ve never been normal, I’ve refused to follow the crowds since I was 15.” But I was 15 then, and okay, staying that way while you’re a student is fair enough because it is a known trait of students to assert their individuality – which I did and I loved it. But now I’m a graduate, I’m not a student anymore, I’m a person with the responsibility to start building his own life. But then, from this comes Varsity Radio – for the next 5 years (at least) I’m going to be building this student enterprise – being the voice of students on their radio station. So do I need to stay in the student frame of mind? Then I’ll turn that around and say “well there’s a difference between mind and image”.

See how complicated this is getting? It gets worse.

Beyond that I could say “only a fraction of students are really alternative people, so this whole argument is flawed anyway" – I guess I could still represent the student life without forcing myself to adhere to this ‘look’ that I feebly attempt to pull off.

Last year I tried my hardest to let go of this image, as I did the summer before (2007) and the summer before that (2006) and both times it destroyed my soul. Sounds overdramatic, sorry. Anyway, when I did that, I hated the idea of letting go of this image and therefore let go of the group of people I feel most comfortable with. If I do it, I’ll end up not feeling right in the places I love and okay going to the places that I hate (i.e. normal nightclubs etc). When I did it before, I felt out of place at gigs and rock nights because I didn’t look the way that people there do – the way I love to look. So now you’re saying “for gods sake look that way then” – but I yearn daily to change my life a bit and grow up. If I don’t now, will I ever? I mean my brothers (and other mates) went through this stage and still enjoy alternative music without forcing ideals of a particular scene or style upon themselves, so what’s wrong with me doing that? The answer: I don’t know. I’ve always had issues with letting go of my youth, which is a big reason why I hate letting go of this style – it’s who I’ve been since I was a teenager – the years I loved the most.

I like to idolise my musical influences by sticking their posters everywhere, you can’t turn your head in my bedroom without seeing Oli Sykes, Dallas Green, Rob Flynn, Craig Owens or Ronnie Radke. These are the people who inspired me to be who I am today and I love them for that, but where does it leave me? If I drop this image will I feel inappropriate in having them on my walls, by growing up in image do I have to change my attitude and pull down all these posters and have a room with a coffee table and a suit already ironed for tomorrow and a time card for work? See there’s much more to changing how I look in this, it’s about fundamentally changing who I am as a person – on the inside and outside. I’m afraid of doing that – that’s what it comes down to. Maybe by refusing to let go of my youth I’m refusing to admit to the life of an adult – bills, jobs, responsibilities. Who knows.

I guess it comes down to compromise and finding a middle ground – as Lou put it “toning it down”. I’ve started doing that, lets see how it goes.

You’re probably screaming at the screen to “get over it” or “grow up” or “stop being pathetic” or better yet, the all time greatest, “just be yourself” – but there lies the problem; who am I? I can pull off virtually any ‘look’ but how which one should it be? Which one is me? It’s come down to a case of mistaken identity – I’ve lost myself.

Since when was image so important? Since I became a fucking egotistical moron.

Out.

The Next Chapter

2009-07-17T07:30:00.001-07:00

So I promised to blog every day last week, turned out there wasn’t enough for me to say and too much for me to do during those days, so I ‘jibbed it off’ as my comrade Phil would say.

Speaking of Phil (and my other comrades), everyone is gone now. It’s all over. Uni has really properly finished now, it’s weird to be honest. I’ve got a lot of pics I could share with you but I don’t want to make this post too heavy on photos and I don’t want to make it all about the past – as this blog is now going to focus on the next chapter of my life; the life of a Graduate. Before we get there though, here’s some of those awesome pics from the final week at 47 Ashford Street, aka, Death Weasel house or The Ashford Arms.

Graduation was hella fun, very surreal though. Still feels like everyone will be back in 2 months. Odd.

On the night before we left (Saturday) Matt let everyone write on his hot air balloon thingy and then we lit it and set it free over the skies of Stoke. It went bloody far! There’s a video somewhere, I might upload it if you’re lucky. Then came Sunday and the move – unfortunately I don’t have any pics of the new room or the move itself but it all went well and I’m settled in now. It’s a nice house with lovely housemates so I’m happy :D If you want my new address please feel free to ask!

Varsity Radio is on the move, funding is coming in, we’ve got the business plan completed, we’ve got our premises sorted and we’ve got a brand new website on the way. The logo is different too, check it out!

Hope you like it!!

Got a job interview at The Monkey Forest in Trentham tomoro, wish me luck! See you soon guys, here’s today’s song!!

Reno x

Sun and Rain

2009-07-04T12:56:00.001-07:00

Gosh it’s been hot recently, have been barely surviving at times! Oh well, today and yesterday has seen a lot of rain, so that’s a strangely refreshing respite from the burning sun!

Earlier this week I was watching a movie called ‘The Obama Deception’ by Alex Jones who runs infowars.com and was quite compelled. I’ve always been a fan of Obama but some of the stuff raised in the film is interesting, if it’s true. And here lies the problem – Alex is a great speaker and very well informed, a little stupid at times (some of the things he says on the spot seem a little misguided) but he is still very dead-on with what he believes. However, if you take notice to his earlier career he has been shouting things at politicians since the early 90’s (if not earlier) and it raises a question – is he a bit nuts? I mean, I agree with some of the stuff raised by him (and others) regarding 9/11 and the general war on ‘terror’, but he appears to lash out any person with power above him and thinks they’re all in on something. And the other thing I have to question, while being a part of this ‘truth movement’ is where we are going, I mean…let’s say it was completely uncovered that someone in the Bush Government had knowledge of 9/11 and it was publicised and sorted – what does that do for us? Okay someone goes to jail. Then what? We show the world that America (and by association the UK probably) is compromised by scandals and internal problems…where does that lead us?! Showing we’re completely fucked and leaving us to attacks (politically I mean) by anyone outside our countries. The other thing, if there is a subliminal cushion of lies and secrets keeping us in line, what would we do without it? Perhaps lies are what we NEED – whether dirty or not, it would suggest that the key infrastructure of the Western World is probably based on this form of secret keeping (no matter how small or big they are) and that if they’re taken away then we probably wouldn’t know how to function. I don’t know if that’s the case, but the world is a little too complicated to make it as simple as “arrest Chaney” or “stop lying to the public” – and so there is my dilemma; as much as I support the ‘9/11 was an inside job’ theory, I just don’t know what the in-the-end aims are of this cause. Maybe I’m losing a bit of faith. I just don’t know anymore.

Tomorrow sees the first day of the 'last week’ in this house. Sure, I’ll be here for 8 days, but Sunday won’t be a full day, so my final full week begins at midnight tonight. So for this reason, I’ll be blogging every day AND video blogging too, so stay tuned here and also on my YouTube channel.

Here is today’s song peeps!

Reno x

Forget the jokes. Forget the rumours. Forget the ‘weirdo’.

2009-06-25T17:24:00.001-07:00

Remember the legend.

The man who taught me what real music was.
The man who made me understand what talent was.
The man who inspired so much.

Mislead, misunderstood and a little lost, but still the king.

Rest in peace MJ

Reno

We will never sleep, coz sleep is for the weak!

2009-06-24T10:45:00.001-07:00

Despite the changes that Bring Me The Horizon have made to their sound (mainly Oli’s punkier gollows-esque vocals) they can still pack a punch on their latest record Suicide Season. The track I love the most from this album has to be Diamonds Aren’t Forever – it’s just so brutal and ultimately cool. One for the record books in my head regarding how good Deathcore can be – if that’s what BMTH are these days? Who knows.

Anyway, check my full review of this album on Ciao here.

Anyway, here’s the track I want you to hear, it’s epic!

Reno x

It’s about time…

2009-06-20T14:44:00.001-07:00

So it’s taken me a while to get my arse in gear and finally do this but I’m going to tell you about an album I’m absolutely fascinated by at the moment. As you may be aware, I have strange habits with music, the main one being that I will find an album I like and listen to it religiously for an undetermined amount of time. This obsession can last for months or just days, but when it comes to an end I will stop listening to it outright and will generally forget about it or refuse to listen to it for a year or so. The latest album to be sucked into this black hole of musical endeavour is Folie A Deux by Fall Out Boy.

Unsuspectingly, this album is full of absolutely fantastic songs. I’ve always been a ‘relaxed’ FOB fan from the outset, thinking their singles were alright but not interested enough to buy or even download an album. This trait continued when I heard I Don’t Care – the debut single from the album. The video to the single was really fun and I enjoyed dancing around to it when it appeared on Scuzz over Christmas. Then at Easter I saw the video for the second single – America’s Suitehearts (yeah I spelled it right, take it up with them!) and liked the song even more than the first. So I thought “screw it, 2 good songs, might as well get the whole album”. For a while I’d play the two tracks and then jump down my itunes ladder and play something different, but once I let the album play on after Suitehearts and was suprised by the catchyness of the next song. I still lacked faith in it, but last week gave the whole album a good listen and about half way through the amazing ballad that is ‘What a Catch Donnie’ I heard a familiar voice pop up. It was Elvis Costello. I couldn’t believe it. The song also includes cameos from singers like Brandon Urie from Panic at the Disco and a few others too.

Anyway, simply put, there’s nothing that can be put down about this album. Every song is a corker, though it does admittedly get successively better as it develops (that’s right, I Don’t Care and America’s Suitehearts are now my 2 least favourite tracks on the album now!!). Great sound all the way through, it is a tribute to the ways in which bands can successfully develop and mature without turning shit. Get the album, you won’t be dissapointed!

Best tracks: What a Catch Donnie, 27, The Shipped Gold Standard, 20 Dollar Nose Bleed

I’ll leave you with my favourite song – listen out for Costello’s cameo at about 3 mins in!

Reno x

Classic

2009-06-11T18:01:00.001-07:00

Lots of stuff happening recently, but not really stuff for a personal blog, so instead I’m going to write about classic TV from the old days, lets see how many of these intro’s you remember and how many “oh my god I forgot about that!”s these bring to you!!

I swear TinTin is actually a russian cartoon, look at the characters!!

The Moomins have always scared the living crap out of me, but I could'nt leave it out!!

Nice little 9 min clip of The Demon Headmaster to finish us off there :)

Catch you later boys and girls, here’s today’s song…

Reno x

And so it begins…

2009-06-01T12:03:00.001-07:00

Summer has, by the looks of it, arrived in the UK. It’s only a few days of ultra sun and heat but I’m hoping it’s a sign of things to come. If this is the case, 2009 could turn out to be one of the best years yet. It’s strange, because 2009 should really be a stepping stone year for me, I’m still getting back on my feet after the travesty of bullshit I went through during 2008, so I’m not amazingly optimistic about what this year can offer; things have been good and bad so far, but it would appear that it’s going to be more good than bad – I hope.

Friday – Party!
Some people are already leaving the uni area to head home to start their lives, Katie is already gone (which made me pretty upset) and others are going all the time. On Friday we had a house party to see everyone off, I didn’t attend all of it (due to 24 related commitments), but I was there for the second half. Had a wicked time, here’s some stuff…

At 4:30am I planned to head off to meet Dax, we were going to finally see the sunrise – the sky was crystal clear and we were totally up for it. Just before leaving, it dawned on me (no pun intended) that the rest of the house party survivors might want to come. It turned out EVERYONE wanted a piece of the early morning action, so we headed off in the direction of Dax’s halls and then the park! :D

In fear of missing the sunrise, Dax and I walked off ahead and the rest of the gang lost us! Sorry dudes, we were just a bit anxious about missing it. We got to the car park at the bottom of Dickson house and awaited the return of daylight…

After the sun arrived, we took some cool pics. Among them came this one, which turns out to be my fave pic of me and Dax ever…

Best buds to the end, dunno where I’d be without that guy.

After a while we headed back through the park to go home, there we found the rest of our group, playing on the kids playground, having given up on trying to find us earlier.

After that, we all headed back down towards Shelton and said our goodbyes.

The night had been awesome, little did I know what was going to happen less than 12 hours later…

Saturday – Assaulted.
So let me explain what happened on Saturday. So I wanted to do what I do every summer; grab my ghetto blaster and hit the sunshine. The other week the batteries were starting to fail on the blaster so I decided I’d go to wilko, buy some batteries then go to the park on the way back. However, upon leaving the house, the batteries were holding up nicely so I had no reason to go and buy some more. Instead I went straight for the park. A few people made positive remarks about my blaster as I went past them in Shelton, as they usually do, such as “Yeah man! Bring back the 80s!” etc. When I got into the park I was shocked to see how many people were there, the sun had brought out a hell of a lot of people. I walked around the big pond, passing Nikki as I went – I should have taken up her offer of chilling with her, but I didn't. Instead, I headed for the exit, passing a group of middle eastern chavs – I tell you this simply so you can get an image in your head, not for the sake of racism or anything like that. Anyway, as I passed them, I heard something being shouted at me but I ignored it as I always do with chavs back home. A few seconds later, something cold hit my arm, as far as I’m aware it was an ice lolly. Again, I ignored it. The next thing I know I’m being pushed from behind, I stumbled forwards and the ghetto blaster fell off my shoulder; hitting the ground and smashing. I turn around to see a guy coming towards me with some friends a few metres behind. I calmly asked him what was wrong and why he’d just done what he did, he said something in a foreign language, I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. I said “what?” and he repeated me in a sarcastic tone, i turned to walk away, suddenly I’m being grabbed around the neck, spun around and thrown to the floor. Then he kicked me in the back. I got up and ran as fast as I could, my shoes had fallen off and I was shaking with shock. Couldn’t get my head around the situation, the attack was unprovoked and just unnecessary. I called 999 on the way home and had the police sent out, they came round quickly and they were really nice guys, they listened and went looking the guy. Unfortunately he, his hang and my blaster were gone. Strangely enough they found my shoes under a tree! So it was good to get them back. I didnt have any major injuries, just some bruises and a cut on my arm…

How ironic that this happened on the same day that Stoke held the "’Love music, Hate racism” concert. Oh well. What really gets me about this is the fact that nothing was stolen from me – I could put some rationality behind the attack if they needed my stuff for the money, but the fact is they did it just for the fun of it, which in my opinion shows signs of a clear mental problem. Who gets off on stuff like that? It’s f***ed up.

Sunday – Healed.
Didn’t let the shit of Saturday stop me going back to the park and having fun on Sunday, I won’t be intimidated or forced to feel fear where I live. So I headed to the park to meet Ben and Dave, bumped into some of the other crew there too, had an awesome day, even avoided sunburn!!

Varsity Radio – Developments!!
Currently, Anthony and I are working our asses off to get Varsity off the ground. We’re working hard to land a HUGE partnership with another student company, more news on that coming very soon – we’re really excited about it. We’re working on a new flash website and we’ve also just set up a forum for the station.

See the flash website here.

See the forum here.

Please bare in mind that they are still very much under construction! Lots of stuff needs to be added and changed etc. But please join the forum and add a post to the introductions page about who you are which uni/college(s) you’re attending/attended.

Today’s song is a fun bit of hardcore!

Reno(sXe)core ;P x

Every day I write the book…I mean blog (141 days to lift off)

2009-05-26T12:12:00.001-07:00

Nice little Costello joke there for Dad, hope he’s feeling okay, he had an accident a few weeks back and is recovering currently. Chatted with him over Skype last night, was nice to catch up and check he’s all good.

On Sunday night Bex came to stay over. Was the best thing since sliced bread and already grated cheese in a packet (look out for that later). We had such an ace 2 days catching up and, when I think about it, talking about sex constantly. What’s the deal with that? Oh well. We watched videos, hung out with Dax, told jokes, I farted under the bed sheets and bex got her baps out…

What did you think I meant?!?

Here’s a video we recorded on how to create my ‘Ultimate Mega Triple Burgers’, give it a go if you get a chance!!

That was a lot of fun. Dax has given me 24 series 3 and I’ve been working through it for the last few nights. I’m about to start episode 15 (my lucky number) – watching it has further convinced me that 24 is the best TV show in history, it’s just amazing.

Season 7 has just finished, make sure you catch up on that shit, it was an amazing season. Also, got a bit of news regarding season 8 – apparently it be taking place almost immediately after the end of season 7, which is unusual as we’re used to having at least 18 months between seasons, so this is going to be a cool thing to see – and it means we’ll deffo be seeing president Taylor again, who I am a fan of. Season 8 will debut on the 10th of January 2010 :)

That’s about it for now, today’s song goes out to Dad, hope he enjoys it and you do too.

Reno x

Stuff of recent nature (143 days to lift off)

2009-05-23T19:19:00.001-07:00

Let’s start (for a change) with today’s song. Sorry if the quality is a bit shit.

Letter Bomb - Green Day

So, what has happened this week? Not a huge deal, the rest of my student pals finally finished all their work and are now unemployed student bums like me! Fun times. For this reason, it became essential that we all went to the Ember Lounge on Tuesday to celebrate…

Dax got more drunk than I’ve ever seen him (I think) and it was absolutely hillarious, here’s one of many videos I took during the night…

So that was good, somehow ended up there the night after for a quick drink but wasn’t as eventful.

Friday = Mill = FUN FUN FUN

That goes without saying, here’s some pics :)

It’s funny, I’ve been missing the commitment and other benefits of a proper relationship recently, and I got thinking earlier about how Miss Right is out there somewhere, and it’s likely I’ve not met her yet. If this is the case, then my perfect lady who is out there has no idea of my existence and vice versa. How crazy is that? She and I are sat miles apart (thousands of miles if she’s in Aus) and we’re so content with our current seperate lives – oblivious that fate and time are grabbing us by the arm and throwing us towards each other at a million miles an hour, like the collision course of two freight trains. Then take into the account that, no matter who you are with, you cannot guarantee you’re going to be with them in the future and in which case you too are headed on this same course; so many explosive collisions are going to take place (and are taking place right this minute) that will change our lives. It’s just a matter of time before we bump into each other…

Smile.

Reno x

1 Year.

2009-05-22T14:12:00.001-07:00

Time has flown, yet I have crawled.

‘Nuff said.

The week it all changed…

2009-05-17T18:59:00.001-07:00

So this week was the official end for everything that has any form of regularity in my life and to be honest not only is it scary but it’s also quite upsetting. For the last 2 years these things have had to close up but I knew I’d be coming back to relive them just a few months later (after summer holidays) but now it’s all come to an end officially. It makes me quite emotional thinking about certain things.

The first main thing that happened was the end of Rapture. If you’re unaware, there was a little controversy that took place before the show which involved Facebook, swearing and bad tags. I want to apologise for what happened in this instance, as I was responsible for how that turned out, so I’m sorry to everyone who was affected by what was said. Everyone has their opinions about censorship on the net and it is only right to respect each others opinions etc.

Anyway, the show itself – a four hour blow out show where Ben and I stuck our middle fingers up to the world and declared this momentous occasion was our legacy.

If you missed the show, please find the full show (minus the first 20 mins) on the player below! I warn you, it’s 3 hours and 40 mins long, contains a lot of swearing and screaming as well as a few controversial subjects, so if you’re easily annoyed or offended please don’t hit that play button! For the rest of you, click and enjoy!

We had the best show in Rapture’s history. I know I’ve said this already via Facebook but I want to spend a quick moment in case you didn’t get the email, I want to thank absolutely everyone who has ever had anything to do with Rapture over the last year and a half. It has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life and I love all of you so much. I shed a tear when we shut up shop for the final time, because GK (as shit as it has been) has been my first real radio home. I want to thank Ben, Anthony and Neil above all people, we’ve come a long way since Rapture’s launch in September 2007 and I owe you guys so much for being a part of the on-air team. Also, devout listeners who have been in for the long run and/or promoted the show to all their friends, including Katie, Dax, Laura, Dom, Ginawr, Elliot, Jack, Sylvia and any of Ben’s friends who I don’t know but worked hard to make Rapture popular towards the end of our fantastic run.

Our sign off message went down a treat

Classic times with Neil

Anyway, so Rapture is dead and there’s nothing we can do about it anymore! Instead, we can fill the dead air time until Varsity Radio starts up – PODCAST TIME. Your favourite DJ (me – lol) will be bringing you special podcasts presented by myself and special guests! It will be called Crystal Sounds – discussions and chats about random shit. Again, warnings of swearing go without saying, easily offended need not listen.

Check out Crystal Sounds here. You can subscribe through iTunes and listen to my intro show on that site so head over and prepare for the storm that approaches!

Okay, so that’s the Rapture junk over. Now it’s time to tell you about Friday and Saturday. Friday was officially last time I was to hang out with Ben (in uni time) so we headed out to The Underground to see Skin Deep support a pretty rubbish band who slaughtered some good hardcore songs (BMTH and ADTR) but the night was fun.

Ben went home Saturday and I got ready for THE SUMMER BALL!

The ball was an amazing night, not for the attractions (coz they were shit) but for the people and the chance to say goodbye to so many people I have come to love while here at Staffs. Here’s some of the best pics of the night…

The night was just the best, stayed until 5 am, that’s 7 hours of partying baby! Got closure and was just generally happier when I left. I want to personally thank Andy for being a bigger person than I was. He came to me, shook my hand, gave me a hug and we settled all the shit from before Xmas. I hope he gets to read this or Katie passes the message onto him because it was one of the highlights of my night. Saying goodbye to the LRV was weird but also a strangely refreshing thing to do, it was upsetting but liberating – moving forward to better things. To anyone who is leaving soon and I won’t see after last night, I want to wish you the every success in the future. You’re all amazing and I love you to pieces. Thank you so much for an amazing 3 years at uni, it was you who made it what it was.

I’ll probably write another blog about special uni people soon, in fact I’m certain I will – there’s something for you to look forward to…or is it? Oh well.

Speaking of special people, I just want to say I love Bexx, she’s the best.

I missed her off the home visit blog and she was very upset, I’m sorry babe! She’s one of the coolest ever people I’ve ever met and it was wicked seeing her for that brief 40 minutes at Kidderminster train station.

You’re probs a good way into Rapture by the end of reading this lol, it’s taken me a billion years to write it!! Anyway that’s it for now!

More golden nuggets of bloggish therapy on the way soon!

Reno (AKA Donkey boy) x

The catch up! (164 days to lift off)

2009-05-02T20:22:00.001-07:00

Wow, soooo much to catch up on with you guys!! Sorry for the lack of posts recently, don’t worry, I’m back properly now. Got looooads of pics to upload and plenty of random shiznits to share with you.

So let’s start at the beggining! I had my haircut on Monday 13th, Dax dyed the front of hair black that night and it looked like this…

And then it looked like this…

The next day Dax came back round and we did the back…

Dax had cut and coloured his hair earlier that night,

now he looks a bit like Gary Glitter…

Mint.

So that’s Reno and Dax’s hair revolution over. What else has happened recently? Well you saw the dissertation stuff in the last post. That shit was mental. Couldn’t believe how tired I was when that was finished, it messed up my brain and my sleeping patterns but I’m glad I got it done!

Cheeky grin and greasy fringe – eek!

Anyway, the next day I followed up on my promise to visit some pals back home as soon as my work was over. So the following day (Tuesday) I jumped on a train and headed to Worcester. Saw AJ and Naomi, then AJ and I went to see Kris’ grave, then we headed to college and saw Tom for a bit – had an awesome chat and caught up, was amazing to reconnect like that for the first time in 3 years. Can’t believe how fast its gone by. Here’s some pics from my trip…

Worcester: Sunny Birmingham: Thunder Storm

The clouds cleared beautifully just as we got to the church that day,

AJ and I agreed that it was Kris who cleared the sky for us.

We knew he was there with us and we miss him deeply.

On Wednesday we had the special Dave and Ben Rapture Session Take-over, which was absolutely mental! We broke the Rapture listener record (we hit 25) and just had an amazing time, even if the lads locked me out of the studio 3 times!! Here’s a few pics…

View Full Album

Afterwards Ben and Amy convinced me to go to Gobble for the first time since January and I’ll be honest, it was the best night out I’d had in absolutely ages. The pic below was taken during the night and its my favourite photo of 2009. It’s of me and my wife Amy :D

Love it.

Thursday I spend hanging out with Jade which was ace, drumming and guitar hero all day which was just so relaxed and cool to make a new friend. Then came Friday. The previous night Dax and I signed up for the Lynx Bullet Pocket Pulling Challenge – add our profile here!

Got some bullets and other essentials from Wilko’s on Friday afternoon then in the evening I invited my college friend Callum up for the evening. This really did complete an amazing week of reconnecting with my past and also looking forward to my bright future. I found new friends and was reunited with old friends, just a brilliant week. Here’s an album of pics from Sugarmill with Callum, Paul, Shane and Jade!

View Full Album

I didn’t even cover everything that’s happened but this post has gone on for ages so I’d better rap it up now. Posts will resume on a regular basis soon so stay tuned to Reno Explains it All from now on!!

Here’s today’s song lovely people!!

Reno x

It’s over (170 days to lift off)

2009-04-27T17:18:00.001-07:00

Way too tired and generally exhausted to write a big beefy post. Suffice to say, uni is over. It’s all done, it’s all complete. 5 hours sleep in the last 31 hours. Here’s a video from this morning when I was 90% complete and a few pics following!

Reno

This is England… (178 days to lift off)

2009-04-19T10:24:00.001-07:00

I love my uni’s library. Free DVD rentals, which I take advantage of regularly, supplied me with a copy of This is England for the weekend. I’d heard rave reviews about the film in the pas but was worried it wouldn’t be my kind of thing.I was wrong. So wrong in fact that I was so impressed I watched the film a second time straight after it ended and ordered my own copy off play.com.

Don’t want to do a huge massive review of the film because it’ll take ages to write and you won’t be that interested. Basically, it is the best film I’ve seen in a very very long time. British film making at its best, not only in story and production but also in realism – they took us back to the 1980’s so successfully. Plenty of violence in the proceeds of the film, as well as racism and general psychotic behaviour. Powerful, moving and just fantastic. 10/10.

Tomorrow sees the first day in the final week of uni, with the second hand in of my final projects – my Radio Comedy evaluation. Then I’ll be grabbing a hair cut, pics of the whole day will be up in the evening.

Chooch is coming over later, which will be ace as I haven’t seen her in over a week.

Here’s today’s song, it’s about the Falklands so it is quite fitting to This is England (if you know the storyline), it’s a classic track from my past so I hope you enjoy it :)

You only live once… (181 days to lift off)

2009-04-16T13:12:00.001-07:00

Every day, I receive uplifting little email titbits from The Universe (check it out at www.tut.com) and it’s cool to see when I wake up in the morning. Thing is though, I came to a realisation a few days ago that has changed my life around, without the need of anything like inspirational talks or uplifting emails. I remembered the saying “you only live once” – it’s such a powerful expression and even more powerful in its theory. Think about it, there are only a certain amount of seconds we’re all going to live – okay we don’t know the exact figure but there’s a definite limit, so why waste a single second, minute, hour, day, week or year being controlled by anything beyond our own mind. The world is your oyster; you can have, do or experience any single thing you want with the right attitude and enough effort. My life has been controlled by anxiety for over 3 years now, and although I’m kicking it in the nuts gradually, this realisation of me wasting my life in fear of my own feelings has woken me up – big time. I have a much bigger urge to break my habits, tear down my comfort zones, kill my anxiety and live the fullest life possible.

Back in Stoke, miss Mum’s house loads already – never said that before! Dunno what it is, maybe coz Dax isn’t back yet and Emma is away, but something doesn’t feel right about this place anymore. It doesn’t feel like home. I have to leave this house soon, I’m tired of it.

Anyway, back to the dissertation dudes, here’s the song that works alongside my new way of thinking, hope you like it!!

Reno x

Fast & Furious: The Review

2009-04-13T09:09:00.001-07:00

*WARNING – THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!!*

Okay, so the other night I downloaded a nice bootleg version of Fast&Furious after underestimating the cinema going public of Kettering. I’ve been a F&F fan since the beginning – the original is the film that connects me and my oldest brother Olly, so the franchise has been important from the start. I’ve always loved the franchise because of what it stands for – awesome cars, stupid impossible stunts, hot girls and some fun music. In fact, the main pulling point to these films for me is the fact that they are stupid. They make no sense, the special effects are over the top and the acting is… well it lacks integrity. Yes, you heard me right, these are the good things I enjoy about The Fast and The Furious.

The problem with the fourth film in the franchise is that it attempted to let go of these things – the acting may still have been lacking but this wasn’t in the comic way, it was just dull. They also tried to add too much sophistication and realism into the situations of the narrative, it seems a little too real for my liking. Think back to 2Fast2Furious, remember the stupid plot? Remember how ridiculous it was? It was almost like watching a cartoon! That was one of the funniest and best parts of what the film had to offer, because you immediately said “okay, this isn’t a serious film, let’s just have fun!” and that was definitely the pleasure of the text, for me anyway. The other thing that brings down this film is how rushed it is. The story jumps from section to section of key importance and the writers seem to have just ignored how important it is for us to know the characters. Maybe they thought there was no need for that as we already know Dom and Brian well enough from the first and second films. But they should have remembered that five years have passed and nobody really makes any reference to the ways in which they have changed in this time, because that is inevitable. Mia is the only one who really shows any form of character depth but even that is limited. It may seem like a contradiction to say a film needs to be silly but then it needs character depth, but it remains important to me. The story in itself is so short and yet they still tried to stuff in as much jargon as possible, instead of having depth, understanding and pacing to the narrative they rushed it all and yet it still seemed ridiculously crowded and claustrophobic to watch. The love scene between Mia and Brian was abrupt and too short, it had no development and no real reason behind it, other than showing that loose connection between the original and the new one (and leading to the end of the film, which we’ll discuss later)

One last thing that made this film disappointing; what the hell happened to the races!? The entire point of the F&F franchise was to base everything on street racing, it all revolves around this key subject; The Fast and The Furious had at least 5 races, 2Fast had at least 4 and Tokyo Drift had about the same. Whereas Fast & Furious had just one clear street race, which was wicked and very intense but even that had its shortcomings – what was with all the CGI satnav bollocks? It ruined the scene completely. After that there was no clear racing, no passion in pushing the car to the limit for just the thrill of the the ride.

Okay so that’s the bad stuff out of the way, what were the good points? The stunts and special effects were amazing, but I wouldn’t expect any less from this series. The tunnel sequences were really cool, as well as the aforementioned street race which gives Dom and Brian their ticket into the Cartel. The cars, though a little limited, are wicked too. It was great to see Toretto’s muscle car back in action after the big crash of the the first movie. Also, the use of the old locations (such as Toretto’s original house and garage) was wicked because it gave us a real feel of returning to the original story, this added to continuity and familiarities, which I loved.

One more thing, the ending; simply ace. The entire last few minutes of the film I had a hanging jaw; it was shocking, it was compelling, it was amazing and it ended with excitement. When the credits began to roll through the CGI of moving engine parts (as it always goes with this series) I was buzzing. I had that feeing I always get from Fast & Furious, so I guess ending on a good note is something that can be appreciated, just a shame the rest of the film had a sour taste to it all the way through. However, the good news is that this ending left a nice open door for The Fast and The Furious 5! Which, you’ll be pleased to hear, has already been confirmed and is in production! I have found from two different interviews with Paul Walker regarding number 5, one says it’ll be based in Europe and one says it’ll be in Brazil. Either way it’s bound to be fun, though I’d prefer the Europe option, mainly because I’d like to see my favourite characters racing through London, but that’s unlikely. Anyway, that’s a few years off, so we need to focus on the present production we have in hand; number 4.

One thing that can’t be denied of this film is the action, it’s virtually non stop and the adrenaline still pumps like it used to, so it was still fun to watch. If you don’t mind a lack of storyline integrity and a rush of narrative key points then this film is a definite for action junkies, which is what us junkies are used to, but in my opinion it falls below even the low standard we expect. A second viewing makes the film stick together better and you can understand the timeline better than the first time around, but paying £7 to get into the cinema again shouldn’t be required from a good film, so I’d suggest waiting for the DVD or be a pirate like me and get a shit cinema filmed version.

Overall, this movie get a 7/10 for me (the original get a 9.5, 2Fast gets 8.5, Tokyo Drift gets 8.5) which shows my disapproval in the film in its attempt to revive the original story and cast etc. (not that this was a bad idea, it just wasn’t done very well). Still, a 7 isn’t bad and I’d recommend you give it a chance if you’re into fast cars, hot girls, action, adrenaline and a mint soundtrack. Speaking of which, here’s the song to the ending credits, enjoy!

Reno :)

I need to tell you something…

2009-04-12T13:52:00.001-07:00

It came from the future; a message from a distant warrior, prophesising what is yet to come for us. A warning of the wars we shall fight and the heroes who shall save us. Found in the desert near Cairo, hundreds of pages of words burnt into paper that cannot be analysed or identified appeared in the sand. The work was found in 52BC by Aulus, a soldier in the Roman army, who took it back to Rome as a secret trophy for his work in the military. However, unable to decipher the symbols, he hid the work under his house. Aulus died suddenly in 67BC and the work was forgotten for almost two thousand years, until it was found in 1996 by a construction team who were renovating the site of where he lived. The work was sent to an anonymous British historian who requested in his will that it be sent to me and I was to publish it. Upon his death in 2009, I started work on formatting the book and it will soon be put into publication. Now you too can read the story of the world’s future.

The top page of the stack of papers which the book is based on reads;

“To Whom It May Concern,

I write this account to tell you of what the future has to offer for your very existence. Please find attached the first part of my work; The Awakening. This is the story of my Father’s past, your future. I beg of you, publish this book and tell all of the tales I write in this and the subsequent documents, of which there are many. It is my duty to tell this tale, and maybe prevent the deaths that have already occurred from taking place. Maybe my future is unset by sending this document to you, but I am prepared to risk this eventuality. Please, read, enjoy and prepare for the future.

Yours sincerely,

William Hungary”

Learn the truth of the future; the war, the love, the courage, and the fate of our planet in this first instalment of The Chronicles of The Chosen: The Awakening.

Coming soon!

2 muffins sitting in an oven…

2009-04-11T16:47:00.001-07:00

…one says to the other “it’s getting hot in here!!” the other turns and says

"ARGH! A TALKING MUFFIN!!”

Wins.

Emma finally hit my house for Easter fun part 2 (which should have been Wednesday but she’s rubbish!) Anyway, it was cool, we hung out for the afternoon at mine then planned the evening. Unfortunately the film we were gunna go see (Fast&Furious) sold out before we even left, so we thought this…

Despite the Sat nav being rubbish, I managed to direct Emma to the place properly. We hit Tesco, then the pub for an hour or two. Was lovely, even if we had 2 milfs sat across from us and then 2 people on a double date – the bloke was a total geek and was making his date a bit scared me thinks. We chatted about the most inappropriate things for a public area, especially as we were right next to the cue for food orders, so a lot of people heard us talking about sex and…well I won’t go into it lol.

Here’s a few pics from our adventure…

(I’m Jacko with pineapple hair!)

(omg loads of Weetabix!!)

(The aftermath at home!)

Great time was had by all! Thanks Chooch for an awesome Easter :)

I want to thank AJ for writing such a lovely and moving blog about Thursday’s announcement. It means a lot that people really care, but to have a blog post written about me was overwhelming to say the least. Cheers man :)

In Australia News, tomorrow Mum and I are sitting down and planning my future from now until I take off – including jobs, housing, locations, budgets, flights, visas, passports and pretty much anything else we can think of…HAPPY EASTER TO ME.

Nah, only kidding, I love the idea of doing that stuff, it’s gunna be MEGA!! :D

So excited!!

Today’s song is…

Best lyric ever is the first line of this song… “I wana slit your throat, and f*** the wound” lol, love it, real passion and hatred is what you need with metal.

Aaaaaanyway, I’ve rambled enough!

Reno x

The one where someone else explains it all…

2009-04-09T19:38:00.001-07:00

Check out what I just found…

Watch 1991-05-18 Clarissa Explains It All 1x09 Brain Drain.avi in Entertainment | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

So this is it, as promised…

2009-04-09T07:16:00.001-07:00

So I told you big news was coming, and I’m not going to fail on that promise. In October of this year I will be moving to Australia. I’ve been throwing around my two options for a few weeks; stay and work on a certain project in Stoke or move away, work and then hit the land down under. Officially, I took the latter choice last night.

A few of you will be shocked to hear this, and I’m sorry to tell you, but it’s something I really want to do. Don’t panic, it’s not like you’ll never see me again – I’m only going for a year! I’m sure you can all survive for a year without me, plus I’ll still be writing this blog and I’ll be on Facebook, MySpace and MSN regularly!!

So yeah, planning to fly around the 15th of October, so if we take that as the approx date of departure, it means that there’s 221 days until I leave! Until then things will be drastically changing in my life – once uni is over I’ll be moving somewhere new, working lots, selling junk, planning the journey etc – so I’ll be updating you a lot on that stuff as time goes by.

As you can see I’ve already started converting the blog into an Ozzy paradise, a nice new theme and a countdown of the days until I go too!

Anyway that’s all I’ve got to say for now, hope you’re all good, cinema to see Fast&Furious with Emma tomorrow! I’ll write a review after I’ve been :)

Also, don’t forget to check out the spin off that rocks the casbah!! Check it out here!!

Here’s the song of the day for you!

Reno x