The world of Beer

For a bit of a change in pace I will go on about different kinds of beer, Gauteng Beer fests, and a few of lovely beers I've had.

Beerfests

Admit it, you've either been to one or you're dying to go to one.  Let me start off with the best one:

Octoberfest
No, not the one in Germany, but still a great one.  The Deutsche Schule in Pretoria host this one, usually mid September (yes not in October, but hey, who really cares?)  This festival is great.  One stage for Oompa loompa bands, one for more pop/rock tunes and a stage for your more classical music. Lots of great beer, food and souvenir stores.

If going to Octoberfest for pure drinking purposes, then I would advise the Friday night.  The less popular day, which in turn means shorter queues, plus you can be certain that there will be stock of the mug that you want.

If you would like a family outing, Saturday through the day is a great choice.  There is always something for the kids to do, beer for the adults and not many annoying drunks. 

Saturday nights are the busiest at Octoberfest, this is due to the vibe, the fireworks, and not having work the next day.  This is one huge party and great fun.  Meet new friends and drink cool pints.

Sandton Craft Beer Fest
This sounded like an awesome festival.  Unfortunately for me I went in its first year and have since promised never to go again.  This festival only has craft beers, this year there were 11 breweries with 40 different kinds of beers and ciders.

Probably one of the worst events I've ever been to, and after giving my feedback to the organisers I was treated with disdain as if it were my fault.  The event started late, used a token system (which they didn't advertise at the entrance where you actually had to buy them), and didn't adhere to some of the things they promised.  Their 'big screen' for sports was actually just five 41cm (roughly) TVs, with no sound and big bands playing through the game.  The beer stall closed two hours early, leaving me to use up my tokens at the venue's overpriced champagne bar.

Food-wise you had a very limited choice, pizza, schwarma or gourmet hotdogs.  All the pizzas had Avo on them, all the schwarmas were extremely hot and I wasn't going to pay R40 for a hotdog.

As for parking, what a nightmare.  As it is the streets of Jo'burg don't have much space, but if you had to drive there you might have wanted to pull out your hair.  No dedicated parking area meant you had to park in the street, effectively turning a two lane street into a narrow one lane street.

Beers
Some of the types of beers, a bit about them, and an example of each

Ale
Usually fermented with top-fermenting yeast, meaning the yeast floats on top of the tank during fermentation.  I find this to have a somewhat stronger, more in-your-face beer flavour compared to other beers.
Recommended: Clarens Red

Lager
A Lager is a beer that has been bottom fermented, meaning the yeast lies at the bottom of the tank when it ferments. Probably the easiest to drink and recommended starter beer.
Recommended: Castle Lager

Stout
This one is nice bitter beer.  Usually a nice dark beer with a creamy white head, best served at room temperature (roughly 5-8 degrees, yes measured at european temps)
Recommended: Guinness 

Weiss
This is a bit of an acquired taste, so not really suited for everyone.  Distinguished by it's slightly white look.  This beer is made from wheat.
Recommended: Altstad


Mead
Yes, its not technically a beer, but its awesome.  Made from honey, this is a great sweet drink.

Of course there are many other kinds, such as your pilsners and dunkels, but its up to you to go out and taste them!

Other notable South African beers worth a try:
Jack Black Ale
Copperlake Brewery's light lager
SAB's Black Label
Boston's Pumpkin ale
The maboneng maverick (biere de saison) from Smack! Republic

South African Conventions

Today I'll be talking about some of the conventions I've attended over the years, my ideas of each and some ideas on how to improve them.

UPCon (now the con formerly known as UPCon)

UPCon was the first of my Anime Conventions.  Up to this year it was always hosted in the conference centre at the University of Pretoria.  Run by GGC (with Tukskrygspel being a front to gain access to a free venue), this has been one of my more favourite cons.  Probably because it was my first dip into the Geek.  UPCon hosts several tournaments, including YuGiOh, Magic the Gathering, Warhammer, and Heroclix (All of which I have played at some point or other).  There is usually also boardgame demos in one of the halls. 

On the Anime side of things, there is the famous Cos-play competition, the anime screening, and AMV competition.  Past UPCons have also seen console gaming, fan-art, and a drawing wall.

Shopping is always great, with not too many of the same stores.  Stores include Sin-Bin, Outer Limits, Blox Universe, Plushie Haven and a few others.  The Kitchen is usually fast with service and the food great.  If you don't feel like having kitchen food, you could take a walk to Hatfield where there are a vareity of restaraunts.  The Piazza on campus is also usually open.

Whilst the Con has always been fun, I've gotten the feeling it is slowly dying.  The dissappearance of AWX at this years con was a notable mistake.  Some of the competitions have disappeared and the screening shows episodes that are rarely watched anymore.  Lastly some of the areas are way too small (warhammer, heroclix, boardgaming) and make a person feel as though they are being shunned.

KinCon

Kin-Con is a new con run by Morgue-chan.  I must say, she went through all the right steps to launch the con successfully.  This Con is mainly Anime orientated, with Cosplay being its main pulling factor.  As a Con marketed as a con for geeks, I was surprised by what I found.  Most stalls were cos-play orientated or art-orientated.  The only mainstream stores that I could spot were AWX and Blox Universe.  No stores selling boardgames, comics or geek paraphernalia.

The Heroclix was bunched into a corner, the boardgames hidden away somewhere, a few card games going on here and there. 

I enjoyed the fact that the parking was not too far from the entrance, there was enough space to walk and browse in the hall and a kitchen that wasn't overly busy.   This could become a great con if more anime stores and events were brought in and it marketed as an Anime Con.  That or they would need to be a little more inclusive of other geeky hobbies.

ICon

Another Con I thoroughly enjoy each year.  Usually all the stores one would need at a con, and very inclusive.  I struggle to decide what to do on a day, with role-playing, boardgaming, magic, Heroclix, anime, and shopping all vying for my attention.

The only down side is the small venue.  Browsing the stores is always a nightmare, with no space to move or struggling to get past those standing at stores.  The kitchen service are is way too small causing long queues.  This year's con also saw AWX being missing and an too many gaming stores bunched up.

Geekfest

Another new con hosted by Dark Carnival. Despite my original doubts about the convention it turned out amazing.  A massive attendance, with enough space to walk and chill. The stores were varied (with only the anime side being neglected), a nice beer garden was set up, and enough events to keep you occupied all day.

But as with all events there are down sides. Being an outdoor convention, weather will always affect turnout. The venue has a lack of shade (which my pink face will atest to), and the beer garden ran out of beer at one stage.

Now you know a little more about our local cons, hope to see you at the next one :)

Comic to film conversion

Its been a while, I know.  But I'm back!

This time I will be ranting about how this new comic book movie craze is both a blessing.... and a curse.  How I am happy to be able to finally satiate my inner nerd with comic book movies (that aren't animated).  Sadly though, my inner nerd often RAGES at what they've done to the character.


The worst offenders are the X-Men movies.  The pure amount of inconsistencies between these movies is just plain ridiculous.  Although, if you remove X-Men origins: wolverine, then it gets slightly better. How the newly planned "days of future past" will fit in, has yet to be seen.   I must admit, I was rather surprised by several of the easter eggs in these movie, the chief of which was the reference in X-Men 3 to the original X-Men (this is actually not referring to the line-up in X-Men 1).

Next you have those films that absolutely destroy the origin of the character. Such as Hulk.  It was a FREAKING BOMB! not some medical research where he decides to test on himself.  The fact that they changed the actor each movie didn't help.  Also, look at the 'Amazing' Spiderman (the new one).  There they tried to avoid stepping on anyones toes by changing the events before his uncle's death.

But lets not forget those movies that changed a character to suit them.  I mean where was Spiderman's sense of humor (I refer to the first trilogy this time)?  Why was Bucky Barnes not a young teen?  And what the heck was with Parallax being a cloud?!

Luckily for us though, not all movies are bad.  The latest Batman trilogy was amazing (bar its ending), Thor was full of lovely easter eggs, they nailed Iron Man.  The Avengers was well worth watching several times and has made me believe in superhero movies again.

So let me end off with a list of Comic books that have had movies made of them over the years.

Superman (on its 2nd reboot)
Batman (1 reboot)
Iron Man
Avengers
Hulk (1 reboot/sequel)
Green lantern
Captain America
Flash
Wonder Woman
The Watchmen
Green Hornet
X-Men (1 reboot/sequel)
Fantastic four
Dare-devil
Wolverine
Man-Thing
Tank girl
Kick-ass
Flash Gordon
GI Joe
Ghost rider
Red Sonja
Conan
Blade
Punisher
Priest
The Shadow
Hell Boy
He-Man
Catwoman
V for Vendetta
Spawn
Jonah Hex
John Carter
Jonah Hex
Judge Dredd

Some comic character profiles

I’ve decided to do a bit of a character summary for a few characters.  The first few were suggested by friends on Facebook.  Although I can’t admit to knowing everything about everyone, I did do a moderate amount of research on each of them.

Spawn

Origin:

Born Albert Francis Simmonds (Al Simmonds), he worked in the Marine corp, the secret service and the CIA.  On one of his CIA missions he was betrayed by the then director Jason Wynne.  Due to his career as an assassin he ended up going downstairs (Hell), where he struck a bargain with Malebogia in order to see his wife one last time.

Al is then resurrected as one of the hellspawn, with various powers (see later).  Five years have passed since his death, but he has finally returned.  However the world he is in, no longer has a place for him.  His wife married his best friend and had a child with him.  He is thus left with the choice of whether to fulfil his side of the bargain or not.

Powers:

Spawn’s powers are derived from the necroplasm that makes up his body.  This gives him various abilities such as super strength, teleportation, and regeneration.  He needs to ‘feed’ his necroplasm with evil energy given off by people and certain animals.  Furthermore he wears a sentient symbiotic suit that has shape-shifting powers.

Spawn can be killed by a holy weapon forged in Heaven. He is also rendered powerless in places that are immune to the influence of Hell.

Deadpool

Alter ego:                            Wade Winston Wilson

Aliases:                                 The Merc with a Mouth
First appearance:             New mutants #98

Origin:

Classified.  Okay not really...  Born somewhere in Canada (see why he’s a little funny in the head), Wade lost his mother to cancer at an early age, and his father was killed by a friend when he dared interrupt their night out.  Wade joined the army for a while, before becoming a mercenary assassin.

Wade later contracted cancer and joined Department K as a test subject in the weapon X program.  In the program he was imbued with Wolverine’s healing factor, which stopped his cancer... for a time.  The cancer returned and, supercharged by the healing factor, spread right across his body, leaving him horribly scarred.  Deadpool left the program and started doing mercenary work once more.

Powers:

Deadpool can reattach any part of his body, has advance healing capabilities (he can survive a bullet to the brain), is immune to psychic attacks due to his brain cells that rejuvenate (this is possibly the cause of his mental instability), and at one time had super strength.  His healing powers are mentally driven (if he forgets he can heal he won’t).  He is highly resistant to drugs and alchohol (definitely not a cheap date), and immune to most toxins.  He can speak German, Spanish and Japanese in addition to English, is an expert swordsman and marksman.

Suggested reads:

Deadpool Corps

Dr Fate

List of Doctors:

Kent Nelson
Eric & Linda Strauss
Inza Cramer Nelson
Jared Stevens
Hector Hall
Kent V. Nelson
Khalid Ben-Hassin

Origin:

In 1920, twelve year-old Kent Nelson accompanies his father Sven on an archeological dig in the Valley of Ur.  When Kent opens the tomb of the ancient Egyptian wizard Nabu, he accidently releases a poisonous gas which kills his father. Nabu takes pity on Kent and teaches him wizarding skills before giving him a mystical helmet, amulet and cloak. Nabu merges his spirit with the helmet, which allows him to possess Kent. In 1940, Kent arrives in the United States, and begins a career fighting crime and supernatural evil as Doctor Fate. He later goes on to co-found the Justice Society of America. 

Powers:

The helmet of Nabu grants the wearer various mystical powers including flight, super strength, intangibility, energy and matter manipulation, invisibility, and telekinesis.

The Sentry

Alias:                     Robert Reynolds

Origin:

Only The Sentry knows his true origin, however due to his mental illness he cannot say for certain.  The Sentry was a leader and paternal figure to several superheroes until a mass murder by his greatest nemesis, the Void, caused him to end his career. He later realized that the Void was, in fact, an aspect of his own personality. Since the Void represents the death of all living beings, it was deemed too dangerous to keep unchecked, however short of killing Robert there was no way to do this. With a combination of Reed Richards technology, Doctor Strange magic, and the Sentry's own immeasurable mental abilities, the entire human race was hypnotized to forget the very existence of the Void and the Sentry (this includes Robert himself).

Later Robert’s schizophrenia re-emerged, and caused him to believe that he killed his wife.  He went on to seek help and found Reed Richards.  Robert’s powers started manifesting themselves once more and with it... the Void.

Powers:

The Sentry can fly, produce energy blasts and is practically impervious.  He has been known to teleport, can reconstitute himself when blown up, and has the power of a million exploding suns.  The Sentry has survived a trip to the sun, has fought the hulk to a standstill (when he practically took apart the Marvel universe).  He doesn’t need to shower, eat or sleep.

Hawkeye

Aliases:                 Clint Barton

                                Ronin

                                Goliath

Origin:

Clint Barton was born in Waverly, Iowa and lost both his parents to a car crash at a young age. After six years in an orphanage, Clint and his brother Barney ran away to join the Carson Carnival of Travelling Wonders. He soon caught the eye of the Swordsman, who took the young boy on as his assistant and trained him to become a master archer
Clint adapted his archery skills to become a star carnival attraction, a master archer called “Hawkeye”. After seeing Iron-Man in action, Clint decided to become a costumed crimefighter. However Hawkeye is accused of theft during his first outing and is believed to be a villian. Whilst on the run, he meets the Black Widow, a spy for the Soviet Union, and promptly falls in love. The duo then attempt to steal steal technology developed by Tony Stark, leading to a battle with Iron Man wherein the Black Widow is seriously injured. Hawkeye rescues her and flees the battle, but before Hawkeye can take her to a hospital, the Black Widow disappears. Hawkeye decides to go straight from there on.  Hawkeye later clears his name and is allowed to join the Avengers.  Clint later falls in love with the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff).
Later he gives up his Hawkeye identity to become the second Goliath for a short time, before resuming the identity of Hawkeye.  He also goes on to quit the Avengers after a rift forms with the Vision over the love of Wanda.
He later falls in love with a former S.H.I.E.L.D agent, known as Mockingbird, and marries her.  This marriage does not last. Hawkeye also goes on to need the use of a hearing aid (there is actually quite a cute story behind this involving a real boy who did not want to use his hearing aid).
In the aftermath of Civil War, Clint gets offered the position of Captain America... which he almost accepts.

Powers:

Hawkeye has no superpowers, but is a an excellent fencer and a grandmaster marksman.  Hawkeye uses a 250 pound force bow with a variety of arrows

Boardgames or Bored-games?

Now I know most people think of boardgames as boring. Never thinking further than monopoly, trivial pursuit, or risk.  But have I got news for you... There are many more boardgames that any one can enjoy!  So here I will discuss a few options (some boardgames, some just table-top games) for you, your friends, and your family.

Thunderstone

One of the first "out-of-the-ordinary" games I played.  This is a deck-building table-top game, that draws inspiration from your usual fantasy rpg computer games.  You buy heroes, spells, and equipment that help you to fight the evil monsters that reside in the dungeon.  Quick to learn, yet hard to become great at, this game is definitely loads of fun.  Each game is customizable with the variety of cards you get in the base set.  The card artwork is amazing, and flavour text interesting. There are also several expansion sets available to increase the randomness of each game.

Steve Jackson games

To make things easier for myself, I'm going to throw all steve jackson games under one heading.  His games are always zany fun spoof games.  Games such as Munchkins (a game where you may cheat, as long as you don't get caught) with all its expansions, and Chez Geek make for a night full of laughs.  Although most of his games are card based he does have a few boardgames to offer as well.

City builders

There are several city builder themed games out there that are almost guarenteed to end friendships.  Games such as citidels (card based), carcasonne and settlers of catan are always fun to play against each other.  Combining luck with strategy and sheet bastardliness can be very amusing some times.  These games are different each time you play them and also have various expansions to make them even more interesting.


So in total, if you really want to play, there will always be a game for you that will be fun and entertaining (and in some cases even scary). So go out and play!

Elementary my dear watson

After watching a newish anime, Brave 10, I came to think:  What is our obsession with the elements?

In brave 10 they use 8 different elements, such as ice, water (technically the same thing), earth, lighting, etc. which are represented by different characters.  I then came to realise that several other anime use the elements in their stories.  Anime such as Naruto, the Last Airbender, and Fairy Tale are all good examples.

But this isn't just limited to Anime.  You find them in comic characters such as Geoforce, Thunder, Captain Cold and Storm.  Movies such as the Fifth Element, series such as against the elements, games and even literature all make use of the elements as parts of story-lines.

My hypothesis regarding our fascination with the elements dates back to the start of civilisation.  At first we held reverence for the elements, fire was dangerous; water was life giving.  As time went on we realised we can manipulate these elements.  We could start our own fires, use earth to build things.  Now we make our own lightning (electricity), divert rivers as needed, and even bend the earth into mega structures.

Our reverence for these elements pushed us to try master them, to prove we were more powerful than they were.  Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don't.  And sometimes... it's the elements that humble us, and remind us of how truly powerless we are against these forces of nature.

Jeffery Deaver, suspense or yawn-dice?

Before I start off on this post, let me first let you know a little about my taste in books.  Generally I'm a massive fantasy fan (not mainstream fantasy though), although I do dabble in Sci-Fi, comedy, biographies. horrors and fantasy from time to time.  I find love stories to be repetitive and action books are best left for the screen.

Knowing this, I have found one Suspense writer I do enjoy reading. Jeffery Deaver. For those of you that have no idea who I'm talking about, he wrote the bone collector and the newest 007 book (Carte Blanche).  If one had to see his picture, one would think he was a creation of Stephan King.



His books are typically crime investigation, with most of his books centring on Lincoln Rhyme, an ex forensic investigator disabled from the neck down.  He has now expanded his repertoire to include Kathryn Dance, who uses body language to solve crimes.  Deaver is a former attorney with degrees in journalism and law, who's books are generally well researched and accurate.  One can relate to his characters and their plights, in fact, I have often gotten lost in his stories.  The combines logic and science with unpredictable human nature easily and fluidly.  After all this, is it any wonder he has won accolades such as:

• the steel dagger (British crime writers' association)
• book of the year for the Cold Moon (Japanese mystery writer's association)
• the British Thumping Good Read award
• Novel of the year for the Bodies Left Behind (International Thriller writers' association)

However despite all these accolades, he does have his own pitfalls.  Firstly, suspense is not every ones cup of tea.  Many of his books seem to follow a formula, with one accurately guessing what will happen next.  He tends to jump into the situation very fast, only skimming over his main characters.  He often reveals too much about the killer, letting some of the suspense fall away.  Lastly he tends to get too technical about some of the forensic items used to solve cases, which then flies over the head of the reader.

For me he is an enjoyable read, as long as I alternate between his Rhyme books and his other more stand alone novels.  This stops the predictability and allows me to forget about any character faults he might have written. However I would suggest you read one of the following and decide for yourself.

Suggested reads:
The Cold Moon
Bodies Left Behind
The Devil's teardrop

A brief history of comics... the second installment

So after a brief breather, I shall continue with a shortened introduction to the history of comics:

The Bronze age (1970-1985)

There is no definate start to this age, no defining moment of creation (like the creation of superman in the golden era).  This was a steady shift in the mindset of the studios.  This age was the beginning of a more human-centred approach to comics.  Where you find out exactly how human each of these characters really are.  Notable examples are Spiderman with the death of Gwen Stacy, and Speedy from Green Arrow with a drug addiction. 

Another notable movement in this era was the relaxation of some regulations with regard to the supernatural.  This meant characters such as Ghost Rider and Swamp thing could be created.  The era also saw the introduction of several comic series which would later be turned into movies, Conan, Red Sonja, Kull, John Carter and Dark Shadows, to name a few (more on the impact of these comics on movies in a future blog entry).


Notable titles worth reading:
Death of Gwen Stacy
Demon in a Bottle (Iron Man)
Secret Wars (Large Marvel crossover)
Crisis on Infinate Earths (Large DC crossover)


Footnote: The DC implosion happened during this age, with the cancellation of many of its titles

the Death of Gwen Stacy

The Modern Age (1985-2011)

Yet another reinvention of the comic book world struck with The Watchmen.  This escalated the trend set in the bronze age, bringing to the fore the darker side of the super world.  Heros turned to villians, those you thought unkillable died, heroes were put through psychological torture and many were brought back to life.

Although this age saw, according to my opinion, some of the best story arcs to date; it also had some of the worst.  The most notable thing in this age is all the contingency errors, the back story rewrites and the often impossible ways they went about 'fixing' things (reality punch anyone?).  Another trend was the increased occurence of major events, reaching the point where there was an event every few months.

Although most experts have called this age an open ended one, I disagree.  Now that both Marvel and DC have decided to relaunch their titles, I think we might be in for a new age...

What should you expect from this new age? Read my predictions in one of my future entries.

Notable titles worth a read:
Death of Superman (Superman)
Identity crisis (cross over)
Death in the family (Batman)
Marvel vs DC (cross over)
Civil war (cross over)
Knightfall (Batman)
Kraven's last hunt (Spiderman)
House of M (X-Men)
Planet hulk (Hulk)
Amalgam titles (Marvel vs DC cross over)
Avengers vs X-Men (cross over)
Hush (Batman)

A brief history of comics... Part 1

As anyone that knows me will be able to tell you, I'm a massive fan of the comic world.  I will confess, I am not the biggest source of knowledge when it comes to comics. In fact; my memory often leaves me when I most need it.  But despite all this I will still try give you a run down of what I know.

I was lucky to be brought into this marvelous world by my father, who was an avid collector (at least until the stories started getting out of hand).  Thanks to him I can give you an idea of what happened in all the different ages (This is what the different era/generations of comics are called).  I will also give you a better idea of where everything came from, what I believe their plans are, and where we will most likely land up.

The origins

The start of it all, the years of the mystery men.  The times of what if I could actually...
Admitedly I don't know much about these comics other than they were the prelude to greater revolution.  However wikipedia has kindly offered (okay not offered, but I have cited them tyvm) their knowledge to me.  According to wiki one of the more mainstream british comics started in this era, although now it has sunk to a shadow of its former glory... the beano and the dandy.  These are the more family friendly comics that one day spawned the likes of Dennis the menace (not the one you know) and his pal gnasher.

The Golden Age (1938-1950)

This is where most fans believe comics really began.  The start of the skyrocketing popularity of comics, which saw the advent of heroes such as Superman, Batman, and Green lantern for DC, and Namor and Captain America for Marvel.

These comics are usually very rare and extremely expensive. Most people wonder how a comic can be worth that much (Action Comics #1 sold for over $2,1 million in 2011).  The answer is actually quite silly.  During the golden age something incredible had happened, that would only happened once before and has not since been repeated... The world went to war.  Of course not only did this kick-start the comic industry, as everyone sought a bit of escapism, but it also resulted in the biggest attrocity to happen to comics.  Recycling.  Kids were marched by their parents to do their civil duty, to hand in all recyclable paper (ie their comics) in order to create war posters.

But the war ended, the allies won leaving comic manufacturers to spin massive tales of victory.

Footnote: Walt disney comics out sold all others during this time.

 


The Silver age (1950-1970)

These are probably the years my father looks fondly back on, as this is the age he started collecting in. Most comics in this era were still the one story kind, with very few major events.  Each title had its dedicated team, and no thought was given to contingency within the different universes.  With many of the golden age readers growing older and losing interest, the market geared itself up for major renovations.  This age saw in the introduction of the team aspect.  With teams such as the JLA and Fantastic four coming in.  However the individual heroes did not die out.  Spiderman and the Flash were amongst those being introduced.

This age was not without its fair share of controversy though.  Characters were reinvented.  Many people were against this (as many people always are when confronted with change).  When writers were faced with the challenge of how to change characters, without scaring away loyal fans of older titles, they came up with an interesting idea (not quite new to sci-fi lovers): Create an alternate universe.  This was an awful idea, with repurcussions would only be felt in years to come.

Footnote: Harvey comics first made their appearance at this time (the makers of casper, little lotta, huey, etc)

TO BE CONTINUED...

The Mythos of bartending

I thought it apt that the first of my posts be something that was part of my life for 5 years.  Its often glamourised by media, and sounds like the coolest proffession to some people.  Yup, I was a barman.

Contrary to popular belief, bartending is not the same as being a barman.  Let me break down the words for you so that you can better understand the difference:

• Bar - tending: The process of tending to the bar and its customers
• Bar - man: The occupation or manning of a bar

Basically; Bartending is the care of all your customer, trying your utmost to make them feel at home and comfortable.  Listening to the custome is as much a part of the job as what pouring drinks are.  Barmaning on the other hand, is about servicing (not helping, as that includes some of the above aspects) as many customer as possible.

Some may wonder why I chose to be a barman and not a bartender (as it is a choice, and I've known a few bartenders, as rare as they are).  To be frank, I didn't know there was a differnce in the beginning.  It took a manga called Bartender to make me see the difference (not that it changed anything).  As a student, one of your main concerns will always be money.  This meant I needed to help as many people as fast as possible in order to make maximum tips.  Naturally  service suffers when you do speed. 

Another reason would be the location.  It's alot easier to be a bartender when you have few customers, when the place is higher class, and people actually want a bartender and not a barman.  Hatfield.  Many exciting and laughable stories started with "and we went to hatfield". People in hatfield are there for one reason only: to drink as much as possible in as short a time as possible.

So ask yourself; would you be able to be a bartender when everyone around you is drunk, when they think you are only there to give them drinks as fast as possible, when people think that because you are in the service industry they can do what they want and speak to you how they want?  Or would you; like me, be a barman.

Introduction to an extra ordinary life.

So yeah, I thought I'd try out this blogging thing. I, like +M.C Milton, was concvinced by a friend to start a blog.

So lets start off by telling you more about me, what I expect to write (and writhe) about.  Expect a few rants, a few raves, and more than your fair share of yawns. 

I think I've aptly titled my blog: Making the ordinary... extra ordinary.  Note, not extraordinary.  I'll be using my time on the blog to post how seemingly ordinary things (and sometimes little known facts of the extraordinary nature) can seem ordinary and boring to those that know anything about everything.

I hope to bring my pessimistic optimism to all my blog posts.  A warning to all reading my blog, my humour is somewhat dry at times, and I have a tendency to question irrelevant things.

Now for the content:  The content will hopefully consist mostly of such geekly things such as comics, boardgames, anime, etc.  However you can expect my insight too on my new working life, politics and general human behaviour.  So feel free to skip the parts you hate (or yawn at them), read what you love, and feel free to share, flame or comment.  I'm thick skinned after all.