Travel: Scottish Lochs, Castles, Houses, and Gardens and Stuff

For one more time, I took the opportunity to take an excursion to Scotland.  This would be the fourth time I’ve done so, through the same company nonetheless.  Lochs and Glens offers bus tours to various sites in Scotland, with exclusive hotels along the many different lochs.  One relatively low price pays for the travel, the accommodations, and food for any number of days.  Going on these trips is a leisurely and relaxing affair; I never have to fret about driving or scheduling the stops or arranging meals or anything.  As long as I’m there at the right place and the right time, the bus will whisk me away to the next greatest sight.  If there’s anything amiss with this service, it’s simply that I seem to be the youngest person to ever attend these trips.  Most everybody else on the bus are somewhere between thirty to fifty years my senior.  I’ve never been certain as to whether L&G caters specifically to this demographic, or if every young person in the UK prefers to make their own way to Scotland.  Regardless, I’ve been pleased with these trips.

This time around, I stayed at Loch Achray.  For the next few days, the tour would take me to some National Trust sites; mostly castles and stately homes.  All of the first day was spent in driving; despite spending something like six hours on the bus, I slept for most of the journey, and it was over before I knew it.

This is not the actual hotel; this was the view from the hotel.  The building was a former hotel made into luxury apartments.  This might be my favorite picture taken on this trip.

One of the biggest attractions to the L&G sites to me is the areas surrounding the hotels.  All of them are located within a close vicinity to a loch, each offering a gorgeous view of tall green hills and expanses of crystal-clear water.  Loch Achray is not terribly huge, but it offers as much of a pleasing view as the others.  In the evening, the gray clouds parted and the sun came out to illuminate the rolling green hills and the tranquil loch.  There were highland cows all over the place (rather cute, distinctive beasts that always remind me of the Banthas from Star Wars).  The opportunity for pictures was abundant, but above all, it was tranquil.

The next day, the bus took me to see Pollock House, near Glasgow.  It’s an eighteenth century estate, featuring a fairly lavish interior with a collection of fine Spanish paintings, antique furnishings, and exotic ceramics from China.  On the exterior, the castle features a decent garden laid out in solid geometrical patterns, and some nice countryside to explore.  Later, we visited Green Bank Gardens.  It was a nice, orderly perimeter of greenery and fine flowers. 

Next, we visited the town of Falkland.  The town is a small but characteristic place; the buildings show lots of history with their construction and preservation.  The town features a few interesting shops, selling antiques and crafty items.  Most importantly, however, the Falkland Palace dominated the town.  It has a long history, going as far back as the fourteenth century.  Parts of the palace were in ruin, especially since a fire had taken out part of its roof and some of the old apartments.  A lot of it is intact though, and is especially noteworthy for the preservation of the king’s and queen’s quarters.  These rooms featured very lavish furnishings and finely painted walls and ceilings.  The palace also features a garden.

On the next day, I had the chance to see a tenement house in Edinburgh.  I skipped out on that one; I had been to Edinburg just earlier in the year, and had little desire to see it again.  Instead, I spent the day hiking around the hills of Loch Achray.  It rained on me, but the path to Ben Venue was never too treacherous.  I walked through the bitter rain until I got sick of it; it was clear that the path continued to wind all around the hills, and it could take half a day to traverse all of it.  Going back to the hotel, I was content to relax for a while.

Next, the weather managed to clear up some, and the bus took me to Culzean Castle.  This was an impressive eighteenth century palace along the coast.  It is a massive, square building surrounded by walls and cannons, with an astonishing panoramic view of the ocean.  Inside the castle, the rooms are clean and well-preserved, and are laden with incredible naval history.  One of the very first rooms in the castle had swords, guns, and bayonets all along the walls; hundreds of them formed patterns on all the walls.  The only display more impressive than that would have been the Leeds Armory.  In all the other rooms, there were fine paintings, exotic architecture, loads of cannons, ship models, and old photographs.  The next most impressive room would have been the kitchen, which is spacious and loaded up with all kinds of copperware.  Outside of the castle, the grounds are huge, encompassing an archway, a visitors center (which appears to me made from another old building), and at least two gardens that feature plenty of exotic flowers and plant-life.  On the drive back to the hotel, I got a good glimpse of Ailsa Craig:  an island on the sea that appeared like a giant mystical mound sitting on top of the water.

On the final day, the bus first took me to Geilston Gardens.  There is a quaint little house there, but the gardens are quite colorful and lavish, loaded with wonderful flowers, ripe fruit and vegetables, and tranquil woodlands.  It was a fantastic opportunity to photograph butterflies, which fluttered around all over the place.  Afterward, the bus took us to Helensburgh; a rather run-down coastal town, but with enough character to make it a pleasant stop.  It was a chance to walk around the small town, shop, grab a quick lunch, and take some fine pictures of the coast.  Up the road from the town was our next biggest stop though:  Hill House.  Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the house has an extremely funky and blocky exterior, appearing like an ultramodern mini-castle of sorts.  Its interior is a sight to behold though:  using the architect’s signature combination of geometric shapes and organic motifs, the house has a strong art-deco appeal.  The use of squares, lines, colors, lighting, and mood helped make the place appear modern, stylish, and welcoming all at once.

Before I knew it, an entire week had passed by.  I had seen quite a few good sights and had taken well over a thousand pictures.  It has been a fun and satisfying excursion altogether.  Truthfully, all my trips to Scotland have been great; something about Scottish food, culture, and countryside strikes me as being pleasurable, tranquil, and wholesome altogether.  It is a rugged yet beautiful land full of history and character.  For all who are interested in traveling, visiting Scotland comes  highly recommended.

Film Review: The Amazing Spiderman

It’s hard to approach this movie on its own merits; it’s only been ten years since Sam Raimi’s first Spiderman film, and only five years since his series was rounded off in Spiderman 3. With these films still fresh in the consciousness, one can’t help but to approach this reboot with the forethought that it’s completely frivolous and unnecessary, especially since it covers some of the same ground as the first original Spiderman film. Chances are that your decision to see and enjoy this film will be entirely biased based on your views on this, and your opinion on the other Spidey films. Hated Tobey McGuire and Sam Raimi’s cartoonish style? Then perhaps this reboot will satisfy you better. Otherwise, you might really will think it’s unnecessary.

If you can push your memory of the other films out of your head, The Amazing Spiderman is a perfectly serviceable blockbuster. It has its share of action and special effects, especially toward the end with the climactic duel between Spiderman and the villain. There are some fun heroics in the middle of the film. Even when Spidey isn’t kicking butt and taking names, the movie’s comedy is successfully funny and the melodrama/romance is not too overbearing. If anything, I felt this movie’s drama was more entertaining than in the other Spiderman films, thanks largely to the film’s style and acting, but I’m sure other viewers may disagree. The pacing is admittedly not perfect; some parts whiz by and skim over some plot points, while other parts take their time. The best that can be said is that the film rarely drags.

The story is familiar territory, albeit told differently. It may irk some viewers to have to sit through Peter Parker’s drama all over again; I also found it a little disconcerting that many details have been withheld, presumably to be revealed in a sequel. Still, the film does a fine job of telling the origin story, detailing the main character’s transformation into a superhero, and establishing all the characters and their relationships.  In fact, character development is where the film excels:  Peter Parker (and in turn Spiderman himself) is a far stronger character, showing a broad range of emotions.  It is a blast to watch his wisecracks and his attitude, but he does show a perfectly serious demeanor when necessary.

Filmed with solid, quality photography, the film looks stylish, without being cartoony like Sam Raimi’s films. The editing is good most of the time, with only a few parts that appeared choppy. Acting is pleasing; Andrew Garfield is impeccable as Peter Parker, Emma Stone makes for a perfectly likable love interest, and Rhys Ifans does his best with the villain. The writing is pretty decent. This film features plenty of good-looking sets, props, and costumes. There are some special effects that don’t look that good, but most hold up. Music is pretty decent.

Ultimately, I felt it was a good film, and I really can’t say whether I prefer this one or Sam Raimi’s films better. As it is, I like them all pretty equally. As for recommending The Amazing Spiderman to anybody else, I would only recommend a rental, because your enjoyment will depend on many variables.

4/5 (Entertainment: Good | Story: Good | Film: Good)

The new writing on the block (and a glimpse of evil).

I've always been a little dissatisfied with the layout of this here blog; my color and pattern scene has always been rather plain.  So I finally took the time to modify some things, changing the background and stuff.  Holy crap, I never realized that blogspot had such a fine selection of backgrounds! If all else failed, I figured I'd use this image as a background:

That's right, it's an actual writing block, to give this blog's title more relevance and substance.  As it is, it makes for a fine and dandy header picture.

At any rate, I also realized that this blog really hasn't touched upon much actual writing,  Sure, I've reviewed some things and posted a couple of stories, but concerning the actual act of writing, I haven't really been forthcoming.  And chances are that you're reading this wanting some info on writing, rather than me rambling on about random stuff (what can I say, I'm still a noob at the art of blogging).

The good news is, for the past few weeks, I've been attending a local writer's group.  It's a small group, consisting of five to six people including myself, and we've all been covering different types and genres of writing.  The important thing is that we get to exercise our brains and skills, improve them a little, and get a healthy dose of motivation.

Last session, the group provided some practice on characterization.  Characters are the key, most important element to any story; the more complex a character is, the more interesting he or she is, and the more interesting the story overall becomes.  In fact, characters often motivate me to write out a story moreso than the events.  So we had to conceive a character, identify the appearance, the actions, and the qualities that bring him or her to life, and then write something to portray that given character.

I had a slight advantage over everybody else; I wrote about a character I had preconceived for one of my manuscripts (which reminds me:  I finally finished drafting Ouroboros:  Angel-Craft! It's a fantasy novel that's taken me five years to get typed out.  So now, I can move on to book number three in this series, which is where this character makes an appearance).  I had a scene in mind that could shed some light on who this character is and why she is the way she is.  Although the book will be written in first-person perspective, I wrote this in third person, with the sole purpose of providing a glimpse of this character (think of it as a sneak preview that won't actually be in the finished product).

So here is the scene I wound up writing; most of it is the same as what I jotted down in my notebook, but I extended the scene and finished it off with a brief fight.  Feel free to read on, and see if you can identify what manner of character this is, what her motivations are, and what her defining attributes are.
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Ouroboros:  Demon-Blood; Excerpt, Chapter [Unknown]

    Having fought their way through the castle’s bailey, the thegns had finally breached the keep.  While they kept the dark elves at bay, the young prince Theisel charged down the corridors and ran up the spiral staircase to the top floors.
    There, he faced the wicked tyrant, Vykara Guntirsdottir.  The tall woman turned and regarded the prince with angry blue eyes.  As the queen of the elves, she had red elfin war paint ordaining her pale cheeks.  Her long black hair was braided and decorated with elfish wood tokens and iron clasps.  Covering her voluptuous figure was a set of iron armor, engraved with ornate knots and dwarven runs.  A set of sharp metal spikes extended from her pauldrons.
    Regarding Theisel, Vykara sneered in endless contempt, and drew her sword:  the legendary blade Άlfarschrei, which was said to invigorate (if not outright control) the dark elves.  Pointing the sword at Theisel, Vykara mocked, “Come, boy! I’ll run you through before I have you steal my glory from me!”
    “Your glory?” Theisel challenged with a high-and-mighty tone. “There is nothing glorious about your vile campaign! You’ve murdered hundreds, razed all the townships, and single-handedly destroyed the Kingdom of Narsing!”
    “Oh come now, is what I do any worse than what your kingdom does already? My former husband was a thegn who murdered, razed villages, and conquered nations, all in the name of Nordsten! How hypocritical that you’d condone the viciousness of your thegns, but condemn mine!”
    “You vile kinslayer! I know you murdered your husband! That makes you a traitor as it is! Now, as you command the Svartálfar, you betray all of mankind!”
    “Mankind betrayed me first!” Vykara seethed. “My husband was a drunken brute! For all the times he brutalized me, he deserved to die the way he did!”
    “You justify your actions through your suffering?”
    “I justify nothing.  My actions were done from pure impulse.  The purest, darkest impulse from the purest, deepest pit of my soul.  Embracing my passion has set me free.  And by the eye of Odin and his host of Æsir, I will slaughter anybody who interferes with the freedom of me and my allies!”
    “You’ve caused far too much damage to the Kingdom,” Theisel said, drawing his sword. “You have to die.”
    Running to Vykara, Theisel swung his sword.  His opponent blocked the attack and parried.  Theisel swung again, aiming for Vykara’s midsection; she deflected the blow again.
    Retaliating, Vykara stepped forward and jabbed at Theisel’s head.  He parried the attack, but Vykara rammed her body into his.  The impact caused the prince to stumble across the floor.  While he staggered, the queen advanced with her sword raised, ready to bring it down on his head.
    Whirling, Theisel swung low.  With quick reflexes, Vykara leapt, allowing the blade to slice the air beneath her.  When she landed, she advanced on Theisel and heaved her sword at him.  He deflected the attack expertly.
    Standing on his feet, Theisel stood in an aggressive stance, and attacked Vykara again.  As his sword came at her, she flung hers downward, bashing her blade against his.  With a loud clang, her sword cut off the end of his; the tip of Theisel’s sword clattered uselessly on the ground.
    Gasping in surprise, Theisel realized his mortal mistake; he failed to recognize the gleaming red metal on the edge of Άlfarschrei.  The Marzenite coating made the sword far stronger than his standard steel weapon.
    He reached down for the broken sword tip, hoping he could still use it offensively.  Before he could grab it, Vykara grabbed him by the collar.  With one hand, she raised him in the air; her strength caught him by surprise.  Even as he squirmed and struggled, her arm was stiff and unwavering.
    Looking into her steely blue eyes, Theisel stammered, “You can’t be human!”
    “You have no idea,” Vykara remarked as she jabbed Άlfarschrei into the prince’s chest.  The sword pierced in between Theisel’s armor plates, penetrated the flesh beneath, and severed his arteries.  With blood dripping from his wound, Theisel’s life gradually faded from his body.
    As Vykara dropped the body, she let out a sinister, mocking laughter.

The people who lived.

The Grapes of Wrath

Maybe not the most thrilling movie ever made, but it’s hard not to get caught up in it.  You just can’t help but to feel for the plight of the main characters, and follow them intently as they continuously journey onward searching for hope and prosperity.  In a rather grim fashion, the characters are forced to confront disappointment, and ultimately persecution and hardship at every turn.

This classic John Steinbeck story is perhaps as relevant now as it was back in the 30s; it serves to criticize the ideals of the American dream, and it proves quite effective as it documents the migration of displaced farmers and workers across the nation.  The story is a journey that pushes the characters to extremes, and provides a fairly hellish view of the dustbowl in general.  It’s driven by a constant pattern, in which the characters come close to finding what they’re looking for, and then having it snatched away from them.  It’s pretty bleak, but the characters remain endearing, especially with their endless conviction and motivation.

On film, the story is immortalized with excellent photography and editing.  The acting is swell:  Henry Fonda, John Carradine, and heck, just about everybody inhabit their characters quite well.  The writing is superb.  This production is loaded with good, real-looking sets, props, costumes, and locales.  The music used is fitting.

Recommended!

4.5/5 (Entertainment:  Good | Story:  Perfect | Film:  Very Good)

Happy 4th of July!

Woohoo, it’s Independence Day! That means I have a free day off! What could I do today? I could watch the movie Independence Day on Independence Day for the trillionth time.  Perhaps I could do some actual writing today.  Perhaps I could devote all my time into a single video game (the first [Prototype] game has been the focus of my gaming energy lately).  I could even venture outside of the house and actually go wherever I want to (and potentially expose my nerdy self to fresh air and sunshine)!

Well, my day is actually sizing up to be uneventful.  It’s a rather bleak and dreary day, so travel and exploration wouldn’t be all that great today.  I’m just as happy spending a day indoors though, to rest and relax, especially after two weeks’ worth of tiresome work in the office.  What’s important is that the freedom of choice is always available, not just today, but every day because of what happened some two hundred years ago.  Thanks to the struggle, the bloodshed, and the sacrifices made during the American Revolution, we Americans are all free from oppression, and we have the freedom to do and say what we please.  If things were different (and there’s always the frightening chance that things will be different in the future), we could all be in bondage to some corrupt, tyrannical system of government.  I’m always grateful that the American Republic has prevailed for so long, holding back the threat of oppression, thanks to the efforts of America’s founding fathers, and all the soldiers of history who have fought to protect the country.

Feeling gratified in spite of all this, I spent some time this morning to vote in the Primary Elections.  It’s rather time-consuming to comb through the candidates, searching for the ones who seem like they would do good, and avoiding the flakes.  Although voting is what gives the public its power, I felt more gratified in my voting than powerful; it feels like I’m another part of something larger, one voice in a crowd of millions, which could guide the future of the nation.

There will probably be no greater decision to be made than what will come in the Presidential Elections coming this year.  Such will likely impact the future of the country with massive repercussions.  When that election comes around, I will certainly be adding my voice into the chorus of millions.

Well, I feel that I’ve rambled on about random stuff for long enough.  For now, I’m off to gorge myself at a cookout, watch some endearing American cinema, and possibly do some writing.

God bless America!