Yup, that's the time I'm writing this at. (GMT, as most of you should know by now... does it really matter?) A curious thing about me is that the only time I tend to get anything done is when I'm tired. I guess it's because that's the only time when I'm bored enough of my usual activities like video games, TV and YouTube to actually be bothered to do anything else.

So, how is everyone? Do I still actually have any readers? Who I don't have to remind over MSN? Probably not. Ah well... such is the way of things when you take several months off. Can't really expect people to check by after that long, I suppose.

Well, my life recently... I just finished my exams. GCSEs. Some of the most important exams I'll do in my life; they'll go a long way to deciding whether or not I get into whichever universe I want.

Needless to say, I barely revised for them.

Probably should've, though. I honestly do need to learn to do more work rather than wasting all my time on games, TV and the internet. Hopefully I can manage that in the Sixth Form. Free periods (if I get any; I'm doing at least 5 A-levels, for the first year at any rate) should help, but it's at home that I really need to kick the habit. Oh well. That's still the better part of 2 months away. For now I can relax without any worries! Fun times...

Anyway. Other details. Well, having gotten more or less bored of the Warriors series at last, I decided to start playing The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age again today, seeing as I finally got my rather dog-eared strategy guide for the game back from my friend recently ("dog-eared", incidentally, is a rather accurate description of it given what it's apparently been through; also, note that it wasn't dog-eared when I gave it to him). Managed to clear the first episode and the accompanying Evil Mode tonight. Stopped playing about 10, 20 minutes ago.

Oh, an issue that some of you might be familiar with. I'm sure many of you are aware of the rather controversial miscarriage storyline in Control+Alt+Delete recently, either because you yourselves read it or through hearsay. For all of you for whom this has somehow managed to pass you by (ie. those of you still with some form of a social life ), CAD is one of the bigger gaming webcomics on the internet. However, rather than constant gaming one-shots, CAD also has a cast of about 5 or so regular characters who sometimes have non-gaming-related plotlines. Alright, this explanation is becoming rather garbled, so I'll cut to the chase: a while ago, two of these characters hooked up, and are in fact now engaged. A month or so ago, the female character got pregnant. Then a couple of weeks ago now she had a miscarriage. This, as you may expect, was rather jarring for most people as CAD is, primarily, a humour comic.

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure why I bothered with all that, since my next question probably only applies to the people who are already familiar with this controversy, and with the reactions it's caused amongst the internet community in general: what's your opinion on it? Was Buckley (the author of CAD, although again if you don't know you're probably not answering this) justified in writing (or drawing) this plotline? Was the whole thing doomed from beginning? Or does CAD just suck overall and this simply a new low on its ever-plumetting chart?

My opinion. First of all, let me just say that I don't subscribe to this theory that primarily humourous webcomics must never deviate from one-shot comics and have no drama, plot twists or even recurring characters whatsoever. I believe that storyline does have it place even in comics; Questionable Content is proof of this. And by and large, I'm definitely a fan of CAD; not a fanboy, as that would just be stupid, but still, a fan. Many of the criticisms usually levelled at it (bad artwork, too much dialogue, poor punchlines etc.) I either disagree with or simply don't care about. And yes, I still regularly read it.

But all that said, I think Buckley has somewhat murdered this particular plotline. Whether or not it had potential at the start (which is debatable, although I'll reserve my judgement on that), I think he's completely failed to capitalise on the potential it gave for character development. It started off fine; the comic which actually introduced the miscarriage was well-done indeed, with a succinctness which I doubt even the comics critics could criticse it for (either way they were too busy frothing at the mouth about the miscarriage thing in general). Then we had some character development with Lucas for strip. Ok, so we were back to what Yahtzee would probably call verbal diaorrhea, but still it worked well, I thought, and I liked it.

Then we had filler, or as Buckley termed it "cutting to commercial". That was probably the first sign for me that he'd quite literally lost the plot. Ok, so I realise he's already said he likes being able to switch between one-shots and storlyine as he pleases, but where's his sense of timing here? He can hardly call it an ad break if it lasts as long as the actual show already has. All he's done is made the storyline lost momentum. Perhaps because of this, when we did return to it, it had lost its edge. This wasn't helped by the fact that there was none of the promised character development between Ethan and Lilah; no friction, sparse few tears, and indeed little interaction at all. Frankly, it's just left me hoping that Tim hasn't lost his talent entirely.

But it's getting late, so enough about my thoughts. Tell me yours! And please, if you read this, comment. It would make me happy. =D

Ok, sorry it's a little late. First of all, the answer to the riddle I set last blog. Like I said, there are two possible solutions:

1) Mathematically. If you add two halves, then obviously get 1. But if you multiply them, you get a quarter (0.25).

2) The more clever solution: if you have the following scenario:

Jack and John are half-brothers with the same father. John also has a half-sister called Jane, whom he has the same mother as. Jack and Jane marry and have a son, James.

Now, John is James' half-uncle on his father's side, but also on his mothers side, make him his half-uncle twice, so to speak - two 'halves'. But it would be incorrect to say that this makes John James' 'whole' uncle. Therefore, in this case, two halves don't make a whole.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed that. Now for another song, as promised. This week: Sixpounder, by Children of Bodom.

The song

The lyrics

Hello all. Not much new going on in my life, but I didn't think of a pretty decent riddle, and even managed to write a poem based on a dream (or nightmare) I had a few nights ago.

First, the riddle:

I've thought of two possible solutions so far. I'll say what they are next blog.

And now, the poem:

Soon, a noxious gas
If that it can be called
A destroyer of life and worlds
Pours out and fills the night sky
Smothering all with its blackness
And leaving the remains to the Reaper

And as I looked up at that dreadful Calamity
In the sky
It was horror
That I felt
Not fear, fright, or terror
For they are quite different
Terror is the unkown, the hiding shadow behind thought and feeling, the question, "what is happening?"
Horror is knowing full well what is happening
And knowing that there's absolutely nothing you can do to stop it.