Electric Teapots Week 4

So this week was all about drawing. Fun!

So that's that, you may recognise Wolf Attack from this blog, but if you haven't then it's video form now so congratulations.

Pete out.

Pete's Childhood Adventures Episode 4: Pancake Making

It's true, I've never made pancakes before.

Anyway, today I went to Birmingham to see the beautiful Lauren Albrecht for her birthday, and it has been such a fun day.

So as all stories do, let's begin at the start. I got up with the full intention of going to my 1100 lab, but then I accidentally slept in, and once I'd had my shower and eaten it was ten past eleven, so I gave that a miss. I then bounced to the train station, hopped on the train, had a nap, and then I arrived in Birmingham. A little tiny bit later Lauren and Harpreet arrived and we wandered around the Bullring for a little while, stopping for Crispy Creme Doughnuts. I was then informed that I had to get my picture with the bull that sits somewhere in the Bullring, and so this happened:

So yeah, Harpreet and I picked the nose of a bull. Lovely.

In any case, I thought Highcross in Leicester was big, but the Bullring is fucking huge! I mean, it's nothing compared to the Berlin Mediamarkt, but still. It's pretty big. But then it was time for my tour of Birmingham University, which is big and grand and looks better than DMU (aside from their Student's Guild of course; mine's better), and this struck me as odd because not too many people go to Birmingham (I think) and yet DMU has the third largest number of students in the country. Where do they all go then? Either, it's very nice.

But we haven't got to the main event yet. We taxied over to Lauren's accommodation, and I showed her the card I made her, and she loved it, so that was good. My hard work and lack of money paid off. And then we went down and had a bit of something to eat, and then we made pancakes!

Yay! Whoo! *party pop*

Lauren was well excited:

Because I'd never made pancakes before, Lauren showed me the ropes and soon I was tossing like a pro:

Yes, I'm also aware that I just said "I was tossing". Get over it.

In any case, I wasn't very good at this. My first try was amazing and it worked really well, but on my second try:

Oh dear.

Lauren got so cocky with hers though that she started using magic!

It's not fair. If I had magic powers then I could toss as well as she can.

Again, it's not a euphemism. Stop being so childish.

My third try I didn't fuck up so badly though, but Lauren still had to fix it:

Either way though, I'm so glad that Lauren taught me how to make pancakes, because apparently everyone knows how to do it. They were delicious, by the way.

Soon later it was time to go, and I was sad. After giving the two of them a farewell hug and wishing Lauren a happy birthday, I got on the train and decided that nothing was going to top the entirety of that day, so I took a nap on the train. Or I would've done if the fucking ticket guy didn't keep asking people for tickets. I was startled more than necessary amounts of time!

Anyway, today was the best day I've had in ages (have I already said that?) and it was brilliant to see Lauren and Harpreet again, I just wish I could see them more often :(

Anyway, I would add a little bit on the end to say how much a wonderful person Lauren is, and how I love her to bits, and how she's the best person in the world, but I already put that in her card, and I'm running out of new things to say that she won't hear from me when it's actually her birthday (tomorrow).

So yeah, I hope you have a wonderfully fantastic birthday tomorrow and hopefully I'll see you very soon :)

Pete out.

The Unnamed Project

So I was on the radio again, but this time I didn't lose any golden chunks of goodness by videoing the entire thing!

I probably won't video every time I go on the radio, because it might turn into a lot of times, and it'll largely be the same stuff. Besides, this is more promotion for Demon FM. If you want to listen to me, then I will most likely be on air on Sundays from 10pm until midnight. Check it out! www.demonfm.co.uk or 107.5FM.

A proper blog post will be coming your way soon, I promise. I'm hoping to get another cartoon in the works because I've missed doing them, but I don't have much time to do them either so... yeah. We'll just have to see.

Enjoy my voice.

Pete out.

Electric Teapots Week 3

DOUBLE FUCK! AKA, Happy 2nd Birthday, Blog

Okay, so I missed my blog's second birthday. Funnily enough, last year I missed it as well. In any case, I'm not going to do the whole knocking out Doctor Who and stealing the TARDIS thing again, I'm just going to get on with it.

Two years ago this month, I was in a rut. I won't share with you what I was going through because to be honest I want to delete it from memory, but in any case, at some point I decided that it was insanely good idea to start writing about the things that bothered me. In fact, I had a journal before I discovered weblogging, and I suppose it was just the transition from writing things in a book to writing them on the internet.

In any case, my first couple of months of blogging were just a bit... shit. I'm reading back on them and I'm seeing things like signing off with the word "Bye" and they were also really short. I didn't really get my point across ever and stories just didn't flow... If I'm perfectly honest with you, it's just nonsense.

And before you say anything else, this is so not nonsense. Just don't take today's vlog into account when you form your judgement. Or in fact, just go with what I'm saying. What I'm saying is good. Okay? You don't need your own opinions, despite the fact that you are entitled to them, because your opinion is wrong. But of course, there must be someone with a correct opinion. The sort of someone who has two thumbs.

Okay, yeah, even I saw that one coming. I'm sorry.

In any case, there must have been a point where my pointless blogging became awesome blogging. Let's divulge, shall we?

Okay, I can't pin point an exact date, but I can say that I've been awesome for quite a while now. I mean, I went from a shitty lowlife in Feb 2010 to an internet god in Aug 2010 which I can prove with this post. Of course, soon later I started making those cartoons, and they were awesome weren't they? I really can't find my first, but that's probably because I'm not looking very hard. In any case, my best one has got to be Wolf Attack closely followed by Welcome to the Internet, Ethiopia.

It has been an interesting two years. I have grown up a hell of a lot since the early days of the blog. In fact, since then I've had a childhood, which has never happened before. It's a bit of a rushed childhood, but I had one nonetheless.

In any case, it would have all been absolutely pointless if I didn't have you guys. My Real Family. You guys helped me know what it is to be a child, and what it means to have fun, and what it means to be happy. My Kids helped me become more mature and assertive, which helps me with my current position as Head of Production for Demon TV. And of course my uni mates help me to act my age, which I suppose is occasionally needed.

It has been a bumpy road, but I see no road in this world that is better.

Pete out.

Forever Alone Day

Cliché Life Stuff: Happy Fracking Valentine's Day: So, as I understand it, Valentine's day is a day where men get to spend a lot of money on their chosen woman and give...

I'm also aware that I've completely missed my blog's second birthday, but have no fear, I have an awesome post coming up to celebrate it.

Pete out.

Electric Teapots Week 2

So that's that.

Pete out.

Everything I Do

There's a very, very good reason as to why I'm always so busy. People complain at me all like, "Why haven't you called?" and "are you near your computer right now? Why not?" and I'm just like, "I'M BUSY." Seriously, for the past ... while I've been getting up in the morning and leaving my flat, and then I return again in the late evening. I might even then go out again. This is, essentially, my massive list of excuses for why I'm never available for home people to talk to me unless it's like midnight.

Granite Moths
This is actually a non-uni-related thing, and I need to be in my flat to do it, but it still takes up quite a bit of time. Whenever I go home I film loads of footage and then I edit the shit out of it. Fortunately production has slowed because we can't go home as often to film, but now I've been entrusted with editing all of the Directors' Cuts. Oh yeah, we've started doing Directors' Cuts. They're being released on the RichChief channel (www.youtube.com/user/richchiefprods).

Cliché Life Stuff
This is Cliché Life Stuff, and as you can tell I spend less time in this now purely because I'm rarely at home to post things, and as of late the posts haven't been very exciting, but trust me, as soon as I get some time to myself to think, I'm going to make such good posts that you'll be like, "SLOOOW DOOOWN" and I'll be like, "FUCK YOU" and throw words at your face with my ENERGY BROWSER. Uhh... yeah, in any case, with the accompanying videos now, I can spend hours in a day just making one post, so you know you're getting top-notch stuff when you visit me.

Cliché University Stuff
This is my uni blog where I post all of the stuff relating to my course. There isn't very much on there right now, but that's because this is like at the back of my list of things to do. I don't actually have a list of things to do, but I probably should have one so that I can keep on top of things. In any case, soon I hope to start posting some really interesting stuff because I've learned how important it is for my final grade. It's time to get-a-posting.

First Flight Foot-y
Yup, Dukey has drafted me in to talk about French football. It's not at all exciting, and my posts are often late, but I do make lots and lots of puns, so it's definitely worth checking out.

Electric Teapots
So in accompaniment to my YouTube channel, there is my second YouTube channel on which I post once a week in response to the stuff my channel-mates upload. Yeah, it's a collaboration channel so there's stuff that I'm not in charge of on there. Pretty cool, right? I don't like not being in charge.

Animation
This term I've been tasked with creating an animated movie trailer, so me and my team-mate decided to do one about the urban myth that there are alligators in the New York sewers. Expect it to be a disaster movie that will be much, much better than Piranha 3D. Except mine won't be in 3D. Oh, and it'll be a shitty animation.

Music Video
Another project I have this term is to make a music video. They said that if we don't use original music then we can't put the video in our portfolios, so I had a word with the Head of the Music Society (he eternally owes me) and he gave me one of his songs. I plan to incorporate vlogging in some way, so it'll have people singing into webcams and such. It'll be an actual opportunity to do some good video editing.

Creative Video
I have no idea what I'm doing yet. I've been floating around the idea of making a trailer based on street-fencing, which is like real fencing but with no body armour and is on the street and has no rules and would be insanely awesome if it happened. But I don't know... I'll have to have a massive think and do some brainstorming, but if you guys have got any ideas that'd be amazing. Oh, and I don't particularly want to do anything that requires heavy acting (e.g. love interests and such) because I don't really have access to actors.

Demon TV
This takes up a lot of my time. See, as Head of Production I'm almost required to be on set for everything, especially since I'm the best cameraman in the university. I'm not really lying about that, from what I've seen of the third years' stuff, I'm actually amazing. Like, more amazing than Michael Bay. I know he's not very good at shot composition, and the only thing he can do is special effects, but I didn't want my brag to sound unrealistic. At the moment we're working on a music show called DMUsic, a sketch show called And Now Here's a Thing, Ben did a documentary where he lived off £5 for a week and our up-and-coming project called the University Detective Squad. To check out the shit we've done so far, visit www.youtube.com/user/demontv2.

I'm almost certain that I'm not done yet. Oh yeah!

Demon FM
I'm going to make myself a regular on there because I'm awesome. Even so, if I do this then my Sunday evenings suddenly vanish. But still I love it. It's just a bit of fun and I don't have to do anything extra because it's all live. I waltz in, turn on some mics and go, "Hello and welcome to the Unnamed Project!" and then it's done.

Socialising
I think I'd die if I didn't do this. I think putting aside time for this is important though, because otherwise no one would like you. However, I see my peeps here whenever I do work outside my flat, so that's easy. However, my peeps from home need time dedicated to them because A: They're the best people in the world and B: I miss them. So if I'm giving up some of my time here to have a chat with you or come and see you, then you know that you're in an exclusive club of people that I actually like.

So I think that's that. I know something else will pop and I'll be like, "Oh fuck, I do that as well!" and then there'll be a massive kerfuffel as I smash through a crowd of people, sending them through windows and cars and walls just so I can charge through the gates of Liberty and update this blog post. And then I'll get back to doing that thing. Oh wait, I've just thought of something.

Being a Top-Notch Guy
I'm pretty fucking top-notch. Not any guy will help you film something, act in something, help you with your life problems and campaign to see you for your birthday. But this kind of guy will, the kind of guy with two thumbs.

This guy.

So that's that. That's why I occasionally can't give you the time of day. Also because my watch is broken.

Pete out.

I've Been So Fucking Busy

So, on Sunday, it snowed and I vlogged. We also managed to meet this guy:

That's Russell Fucking Howard. I asked him, and he actually confirmed that his middle name is Fucking so I guess that tells you about as much as you need to know outside of his life of comedy.

So yeah, I talked about all of that in my Vlog.

Also in my vlog you get to see snippets of my first ever time on Demon FM, which is a radio station. And that's one resolution officially crossed off! Whoo! *party pop* It was really cool actually. I thought I'd enjoy it, and I wasn't wrong. It wasn't scripted or anything, so it was just all natural. I thought I should add a little spark to it with my witty anecdotes, and I don't think I disappointed. We've actually planned for 6 of us to go on the Unnamed Project in a couple of weeks to make it the best one ever! That's going to be so cool.

In any case, I also released my Electric Teapots video which you can see in the post beneath. I was so the best of the week. Uhh, this week we haven't yet decided what we're going to talk about, but I'm sure I'll be better than everyone else. That's why I'm on Sunday. Best 'til last and all that.

So, Monday. What happened Monday. I must have done loads of stuff, because I was well busy. Let's see... Demon TV meeting at 1, fine, lecture at 2, fine, watched Priest at 3 because I had some time to myself. Priest is the sort of film where the concept is good, and the way they did it is amazing, and the gore and the fight scenes were obviously epic, but I wasn't keen on the acting or the story that they were following. It was very predictable, and I saw everything coming. It was cool, and I liked how they showed what the world would look like if religion was the overruling body and the government and all that, and it's communist. Kind of dictatorshippy as well. What was it they kept saying? "To go against the Church is to go against God." That's why I don't like anyone who puts themselves under any sort of banner, because they're bound by what someone higher up says, and of course they say they're doing the work of God, but they're not really. They just think they are.

Anyway, at 6ish I went to the Marketing meeting and that was alright, then ... oh yeah, Stan the Man invited me over for dinner for some reason. We were talking about elections and all that, and then he was like, "do you want to continue discussing this at mine and have some Chinese?" and I agreed, and obviously nothing more was said of the matter. He is a massive fan of Metal Gear Solid though, so I decided to give that a go, but I hated it and don't want to get it because it's shit.

Tuesday morning though I was woken up at shit-early o'clock in the morning (which roughly translates as 0900) to go to the police station.

Just gonna let you mull that over for a minute. Just let that thought sit in your head.

"What on Earth could sweet old Pete be doing in a police station? He's a model citizen!"

So I went into the police station with some cameras and some equipment and then me and my crew got some police officers to bundle us in their cars and find a nearby park so we could film someone being drunk and disorderly. See? It was a filming opportunity. I wasn't in trouble for anything. There wasn't even a drunk person there, just one of the police officers was acting like that so we could film a police training video.

Wait. Am I allowed to say that? Hang on... I had to sign a form saying that I couldn't repeat anything that I saw or heard in the police station. Inside Voice did it! What? I'm not taking the blame for this! I'm keeping the information to myself! I'm not even planning on revealing what the PCSO did last Friday night with one of the officers. Hang on, what's that noise?

Ah no! Shit! I'm out of here! I didn't say anything, Officer, honest! Don't listen to it, Officer, Inside Voice is a mad...man? Is my Inside Voice a man? I have expressed my want to be called Linda in the past. Well I'm not doing that so shut up. Anyway, Officer, you can take my Inside Voice away. I would've gotten away with it too if it weren't for you- I'm just going to stop you right there.

Anyway, to get back to the point. For Ben's dissertation he's doing a police training video, so we got to stop some police officers from working to help us film for a while. That was actually the first time, and I can proudly say this, that I have ever been in a police station, and it was for filming! They even gave us tea afterwards, despite the fact that I hate tea. I stomached it because I didn't want to be rude. Damn tea. I can still taste it. It's exactly like hot water with mud and sugar in it. I know almost every culture on Earth throughout history has at some point invented tea and it's internationally liked, but I don't get it. It's horrible.

Anyway, so that was fun. Ben then gave me some tuna-mayo pasta because he owes me big time for helping him out with literally everything he does. I know I'm the Head of Production, but ... well actually I can quote Ben on this. "You wouldn't believe he's a first year purely because he can use the cameras better than most of the third years." Damn straight.

So yeah, then I had a lab where our task was to capture our footage. Guess fucking what. We were only timetabled in the only lab in the Queens building that doesn't have firewire ports so you can't capture anything. I made the executive decision to go down to the Avid labs and use the tape deck, and the tutor was all like, "Hmm?" and I was all like, "Can't be bothered with this anymore. Using the tape deck in Avid" and she was all like, "Oh okay *waffle waffle waffle bullshit waffle*." About ten minutes later the rest of the group joined me. Go figure. I don't like to be smug, and I don't want to sound arrogant, but there are definite perks to being better than everyone else. It makes everyone murmur quietly amongst themselves when I have arguments with the tutors about the best way to do things.

After that was the lecture, in which we got to watch some literal music videos which are hilarious. I can't be bothered talking about this subject any longer. Then there was the Pre-Production meeting in which we talked about... I don't know, upcoming stuff. The latest sketch we've just pre-produced is actually looking really good and should be incredibly funny.

We then went to go and see Chronicle which is amazing. It's the first and only film that got telekinesis correct, and just... ahhhh! I loved it. At first I was kind of like, "aww... another handycam film... That's annoying," but the way they did it when it started to build up was amazing. My Christ it was good. Just the story progression, the concept, the way they did it, and the way they left things out... it was all just so cool. You have to go and see it. I honestly think it's one of the best films I've seen in ages. I really want to see The Grey as well, because Rooster Teeth gave it an amazing rating, so it must be good.

So yeah, that brings us up to the present and I'm waiting for my vlog to export so I can paste it into this video. Kind of hoped that after 40+ minutes it'd be done, but you know how these things go. It's still got 7 minutes left.

Might do a poo.

Pete out.

Electric Teapots Week 1

The first round of Electric Teapots videos. Enjoy!

Well, that's that. Mine was clearly the best and I win. 

Pete out.

Location Scouting

Sorry, still no proper writing for you. I seriously have a lack of massive ideas right now, so you'll have to wait for a couple more days.

In any case, in this video I went location scouting for Granite Moths, and I found the only wooded portion of Leicester. I wanted to get down to the railway line, but of course that was in a ditch and inaccessible. And who puts massive radio towers in nature parks? That's what this place was supposed to be, but I saw absolutely no nature. It was ridiculous.

Something needs to be done about this. I don't think I can cope without a heavily wooded area to frolic in. A comfortable portion of Kettering has woods in it. A good 2 square miles on one side, and a further half square mile on the other side, oh and then there's all the stuff in between the villages. But here, in Leicester, there's nothing. And it's disgusting. I mean, I probably haven't really scratched the surface of Leicester yet, but Google Maps doesn't show any woods in my immediate vicinity either, so I'm kind of stuck.

*sigh*

What kind of a world is it when a man can't just amble into some woods and just come across more woods three steps in instead of a flipping radio mast or a road or whatever else. I'm glad I'm going home next weekend. I'm going to frolic the shit out of those woods.

Pete out.

Hutch Wars: The Zip Trials

So, the zip has broken on my favourite bag. And so how do I fix it? I've tried everything!

There should be a countermeasure in place to avoid this sort of thing happening.

Anyway, this is hopefully all explained in the vlog so I don't really need to write anything.

I also apologise for the lack of posts recently. I can't think of anything to write about right now, and that's why this ridiculous topic for a vlog post has come up.

Pete out.