Ray Bradbury

Movie Monday: Equilibrium

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Equilibrium tells the story of John Preston, A grammaton cleric.  These clerics are there to hunt down anyone who may have stopped taking their Prozium.  A drug that prevents people from feeling.  Anything that may cause someone to have an emotional reaction is illegal and destroyed immediately.  As is any of the citizens of this post dystopian world.  If any of the citizens are found to have stopped taking Prozium then they are incinerated.  After executing his partner (Sean Bean) Preston (Christian Bale) accidentally drops one of his vile’s of Prozium and begins to feel. So he kind of stops taking his Prozium.  During this time he arrests a women, Mary O’Brian (Emily Watson) and she brings out the emotion in him.  Through her he contacts the resistance and agrees to kill Father.  Father (Sean Pertwee) is the dictator who rules and although he is never seen in public video of him is played everywhere reminding people of what happens when banned items are found.

There are a lot of little twists throughout the film.  Things get turned on their head and back again, Preston goes through hell as he discovers emotions and what they mean.  Aside from a feel that this is influenced by Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and no doubt other works that I have not read or watched.

The action scenes are STUNNING! When I first saw it someone said to me it was like The Matrix, but better.  Now I don’t think that it is better than The Matrix, but I don’t think that The Matrix is better than Equilibrium either.  Both films have their own story and both films get that message out.  They are different films, but The Matrix had a much bigger budget and you can tell, but with Equilibrium it has a much more raw feel to it.  The actors give some really strong performances and I could feel Preston’s pain through Christian Bale’s performance.

It is a beautifully shot film with a strong plot and an impressive cast who impress in the film. Equilibrium is absolutely worth a watch.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

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Ray Bradbury is a name that I have known of for a while and he is one of the writers that I have been wanting to read for that time but me being me it’s taken a while for me to actually hunt one of his books down, but I am glad it was this one.  Bradbury built up the pressure on the main character Guy Montag slowly, carefully and precisely.  Basically the story is of a fireman, who in this time and place are people who burn books and houses that hide the books that are now banned.  People who are more free-spirited are not encouraged in this world.  Everyone seems to live a very empty superficial life.  Slowly it is revealed that Montag is reading the books that he is supposed to be burning and he is questioning all that his world has become.  We don’t really see much outside of Montag’s world.  There is mentions of a war that be on the horizon but we are never told why.

Although I found that I enjoyed this book I did not fall in love with it like I have done with other stories. It is one that I feel that I had to read to advance myself as a writer and to a certain extent a human being.  It has raised a lot of questions in my head that randomly pop up and demand attention.

I did notice a few references to this book in the film Equilibrium.  A film that I would truly recommend anyone grabbing a copy of and having a look at it.

Bradbury wrote this story many years ago and his words have pretty much been made true.  People today forget knowledge and have fake friendships with people that we see on our television screens.  We ignore so much and pretend that our lives are full of happiness but as in Bradbury’s world many of us are in a dream world.

This Week’s Targets

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Mainly this week I’m aiming to knock out as much of this story as I am able to do.  I’m not going for a daily or weekly word count at the moment I’m just going to write, okay that’s a little bit of a lie.  I’d like to at least write five hundred words a day.  Originally I thought I’d be adding about five thousand words to the last draft but I’m actually rewriting the majority of the text.  The core story is still the same but we’ve changed it from a comedic story to a serious one so a lot of build up work for jokes has had to be scrapped (I can hear Owen crying 17 miles away as I write that, he put a lot into those jokes)  With that change I’m not sure what the rough length will be.  There will be a whole new sequence in the middle of the story as well as an addition to the end of it too.  So there’s a lot of work to do in the next couple of weeks.

I got my copy of Scott Sigler’s The MVP today.  If you havent at least checked out Mr Sigler here’s a good time to do so @ http://scottsigler.com/

Now that I’ve got this book I really need to finish reading Fahrenheit 451 so I can dive into it.  J.J. Harkin’s Angels Of the Apocalypse will have to wait till I’ve read this one, Sorry J.J.

My friend Cinta Garcia has a new shiny website up and running so if you have a few minutes to have a little look around I know that she will be grateful @ http://www.cintagarciadelarosa.com/#!home/mainPage

While I’m here I’d just like to point people to my Facebook page where you can ‘Like’ me(Not many of my actual friends have liked me yet 😥 lol ) and there is also a link to my Twitter account.  Both are to the right of your screen >>>>>>>>>>>>

Just Look at that cover!

This Week’s Target

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This week I have a very simple goal of hitting a small target that I have set to be done by the end of the month.  I’m at the stage in Project Delphi where I’m doubting whether it’s going to be any good.  I’m a little worried that the story is not going to be strong enough or that the characters will not have any depth to them or that the reader just will not care about them.  I am pretty sure that this is just a stage in the process of putting the story together, especially as we have made a lot of big changes from the earlier drafts.

I’m still reading through Fahrenheit 451 but I’m getting there with it.

Last week I watched all of the Star Wars films and I’ve come to the conclusion that they really needed a Han Solo character.  This week it’s the first four Saw films 😀  And I have some gaming to do.  Recently I’ve had the urge to play some Xbox so I’d like to squeeze that in sometime too.

This Weeks Goals

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This one is quite simple, to start on the re-write of a story set in the Project Apollo universe.  Technically this is the third draft but I’m using the last two drafts as the out lining process.  Now though I have to read through and make my notes as I mentioned in previous posts.  That will take up most of my creative time and I’m aiming to have this draft done by October, so watch this space.

Aside from that there is not much more that I am looking at achieving.  I’m still in the process of putting my room back together after decorating but the worst of it is done now and I need to get back into Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.  I’m really enjoying the story but decorating got in the way and I stopped reading for a few days as the book was buried under bucket loads of other items so I’d like to have that wrapped up soon.

A Quick Update

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Just a few mid-week words to let you all know how I’m doing.  I’m a night behind on the decorating front but it’s not looking bad.  As for the 1000 words, that’s not looking quite as good but I’m almost halfway there. I’m in a position where I have to priorities the decorating because I need to get my room back to normal and not fill the upstairs corridor with my book cases so that’s why I’m ploughing into decorating after work.

What I’ve written tonight is the beginning of an idea that jumped into my head a couple of days ago which tickled my funny bone.  I’ve sent the first 400 words off to Owen to see what he thinks and to give him the option of making this a joint project as I think he’ll love to play with this idea but we shale see.

Reading wise I’m just about the halfway point of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and I’ve just got to a fascinating bit 🙂

My target for tomorrow is to write a little before I go to work and then maybe some more tomorrow night after a little more painting.  For now though I’m off to bed 🙂

This Weeks Goals

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This week I’m going for a simple 1000 word, word count target because I have a bit of decorating to do this week which I’ll be doing around the day job so I’ll only have a few hours each night to do this.  After the first night I’m already behind!  Aside from that I’d like to get to about three-quarters of the way through Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. 

One thing I’m looking forward to this week is going over to a friend’s house with my girlfriend to watch The Woman In Black with him and his partner. We have not had one of these movie nights for a while now so I’m really looking forward to chilling out with some good friends and watch what I’ve been told is a really good film.

Those are my simple goals for the week, even I should be able to achieve them! LOL  That said I am feeling pretty inspired from my trip to Oxford and talking to my friend Cinta.  Something that has kind of hit me recently is how I want one of my books to arc out and the message that I’m saying with it.  It’s not just a black and white story as I thought it may be.  I think I can put something stronger into it.

Something I am a little worried (Excited) about is a story that Owen is working in our Project Apollo universe, he ended an email about with simply this;  “I’m fueled on gin and coffee and this is full of plot holes”  Owen is a genius so when he ends an email like that I know that it’s going to be good 😀

Todays Update 19/7/12

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A little over 700 words of fiction tonight in about 90 minutes, Not too bad I think 😀 I set myself a target to hit by the end of the month a week into the start of this month.  To hit that target I need to get write 556 words a day.  So that’s my little target to hit by the end of the month.  I also want to have Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury read but that one seems to be a little more of a challenge as I write in the evening and read after about nine but where I havent slept much lately I’m finding that come ten o’clock sort of time I’m fighting to keep my eyes open let alone absorb great fiction so that may not happen but I’ll give it a bash.  With that in mind I am off to bed as I have a five-hour round journey to Oxford and back  on Saturday so night all 🙂

Today’s Update 17/07/12

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Still no fiction written but I had a couple little ideas today that I quickly scribbled down and I’m going to have a play with when I’m feeling better, it’s odd how a little dental issue really knocks me off my game.  Are you like that?  Anyway, I’m going to try some sort of brain storm exercise and see where it takes me.  The other idea, well I think I might have to have a little natter (chat) with Owen about that one.  I reckon he may like the idea 😉

I’ve been listening to a lot of the Dead Robots Society recently, yes the PC is still not repaired, and I’ve got to say after not be too sure I am now beginning to really love this podcast.  If you get a minute go and check the show out @ http://deadrobotssociety.com/

One thing that I really need to do is get back reading, that like everything else has fallen by the wayside the last few days.  I was just getting into Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury so I’d like to get rolling again, but right now I’m getting a tad tired so I’m off to bed 🙂

Today’s Update 10/7/12

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Due to getting in late after shopping with my brother I only managed to write a third of what I did yesterday but that I did in about fifteen minutes so that’s not to bad I guess.  I was going to start  a paper copy proof read of a story me and Owen are working during my lunch breaks at work but I do not have a completed hard copy of that story so I’ve decided to do a hard copy edit of what will be my NaNoWriMo project this year.  I think it’ll be bending the rules slightly to work on something that has had a few drafts written but I’m using what I have already written as a plan for the project and I’m not thinking of it as another draft because there is a lot of changes that will be taking place.  This will be my second year doing NaNo and I want to be much better prepared this time around so I’m going to be getting into prepping for it properly early September, and then go though all my notes in late October.  Aside from that there’s not much more to say.  I’m slowly getting into Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and I’ll have my opinion of Prometheus put up soon but that’s it for now 🙂