He still hasn't quite caught onto the idea of a chew

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And now back to #hurricanebawbag #LochNess

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Sex

Hello My Friends

(I appologise in advance for what you are about to read)

So earlier on, today... or rather yesterday, I posted on facebook asking for topics for my blog... I got a fair few... however, as happens to so many of my posts.... 44 comments later, we had digressed somewhat.

 

Still, here's the first of the requested Topics.

 

Sex

(as requested by Beth Leitch)

(And yes... that is a blatant double entendre)

 

It's a pretty open topic to be honest.

I'm not entirely sure where to begin... Maybe it should be the begining, yes that sounds like a good place to start.

 

In the begining, Sex was meerly for the purpose of procreation (making babies for those of you without a thesaurus). For most species, this is still the singular purpose, but for the lucky few, we also physicaly enjoy the act. It is still being studied as to which (if any) animals actually orgasm (yes there are scientists who hook monkeys up to ECG's as they masturbate... the monkeys... not the scientists). However it is known that some certainly enjoy the act, dolphins and some monkeys for example.

For humans, of course the original function was simple procreation but as the saying goes, "Prostitution is the Oldest Proffession". Historical evidence does back this up somewhat, so we know that sex has been for more than just continuation of the species for at least a few thousand years. The drive for this is Orgasm.

Prior to the mid 20th century, the Male orgasm was viewed as the most important thing when part of coitus, in fact it was widely believed that women couldn't orgasm and that they wouldn't enjoy sex, although I can't blame them for not enjoying it when your partner was a rather large man with poor hygene. However in the mid 20th Century, there was a sexual revolution, it's commonly known as the 1960's. During that time people started to care more about the womans needs ie, the so far elusive female orgasm. 

 

I feel like I've digressed somewhat... Although to digress you have to have a topic first... I never had a real topic so I'm just going to continue splurging... Really, this piece of text right here is just to break up the piece, so it's just laziness, I appologise for that, but it's late...

 

So now I'm going to talk about modern sexuality  (yes I'm sorry that I'm jumping around a bit)

Today, there are an almost unending number of sexual fetishes. I would like to ask the question, what defines a fetish? Pop culture seems to frown on 'fetishes' but when examined, a fetish is nearly anything that is not straight 'Vanilla' (ie, Heterosexual Missionary Position) sex. When people hear the word Fetish, they immediately think of BDSM (Bondage and Sadomasichism) or licking peoples toes, now these themselves (BDSM especially) have varying degrees of 'kinkieness' but just about everyone has a fetish. Whether it be Hitler's rumoured Corprophila (A person who likes to be pooed on) or a girl who likes to lay back and revel in sexual pleasure without taking direct action themselves (ie being Submissive) it's all the same thing when it comes down to it. People enjoy sex, and we all need different things to truely enjoy the act.

 

Many believe (and I share this belief) that a healthy sex life is needed for a healthy long term relationship. 

 

To be honest... I have no idea where I'm going with this... I have so many ideas... but it's late... 

I may actually revisit this topic when it's not 03:25... and possibly with two friends inputs, I know just the two who'd be interested.

 

So anywho... Yeah... sorry for the rambling... I'll be better next week :P

 

Much Love My Friends

 

Oliver V. Smith

 

 

P.S. Honestly... I sincerely appologise for this... we'll this tripe :P I'll revisit it with friends :)

@Havraha

@Havraha

Delays possible? Ya thinks!!!!!?? Lordy *sigh*

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@CrypticEQAH bug- Can't move those BOFF Tray Icons, they're stuck there.

Just heading into the hustings stuff #SYP These lovely people from Aire, have taken me in :-)

On my way to the #SYP June sitting day 2 :-)

A9 Closed after Pitlochery... Great... This day keeps getting better and better :-/ :-P

First police car we've seen so far... I guess most will be at the piss up that's called #RockNess :-P

#StarTrekReunion Leaks #2: Work on the First Episode, Motion Tracking and Editing

#StarTrekReunion Leaks #2: Work on the First Episode, Motion Tracking and Editing

Just opened a packet of mini cheddars... It kind of exploded

Passport photo... DONE :-P

And after.... It's ok... Looks very different on camera

It's haircut time Here's the before

@TheTribbles THAT WOULD BE AWESOME :-P and would look something like this perhaps?

@TerilynnS I would like to introduce you to Carry the Caitian… coming to a holosuite near you very soon….

@Canaffle .... the Horta/Sehlat/Elf breeding video will follow :-P

@Canaffle .... the Horta/Sehlat/Elf breeding video will follow :-P

@Canaffle too bright....

My set up for filming the event HDV camera piggybacked via FireWire to my 2TB external hardrive plugged into my MacBook

Things seem to be going well so far... Halftime... Most people are out

Right... I think I have everything for the #ShowstopperzJuniorz gig tonight... (minus the Hoovers)... now I need costume

Happy First Contact Day #STO #Party

Happy First Contact Day #STO #Party

Happy First Contact Day #STO #Party

Happy First Contact Day #STO #Party

Happy First Contact Day #STO #Party

My dad just bought me these to make up for eating all of my Christmas ones :-)

Am I the only one that thinks this looks like the Death Star #STO #Crossover

Splurge...?

Well Hi There Everyone

I was just told I haven't 'Splurged' for a while... now that's true...
I feel like I've been neglecting you all. I'm sorry.

So I should update you all on what's been going on...
Well Prelims and such really.
So far I've received all overall 1's.
Physics-1,1 (94% and 91%)
Maths- 1,1 (87% and 75%)
Geography- 1, 2 (79% and 74%)

I sat my Biology Prelim on Friday.. damn there are some really nasty questions in that... I might find out tomorrow... *fingers crossed*

I am also now an MSYP (Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament). I represent about 50,000 odd people and my constuency spans from the Black Isle and Dingwall, down and across to Skye and Locahaber and back around. I share this with another person in my area.
I want to congratulate Ainya Tailor for winning the Inverness and Nairn seat with a LANDSLIDE majority.
Education and Arts reforms... here we come :-)

It sucks being away from those that you love. But hopefully we'll be seeing eachother soon enough :-D

What else has been happening... oh I applied for more funding for the film project.
Closed Beta finally ended for the Foundry (User Generated Content) in Star Trek Online and it's now live. I took the decision not to go through the time consuming process of porting over my missions from Red Shirt (Closed Beta) and Tribble (Open Beta) to Holodeck (Live). But instead I've been working on a few new missions. The first in a Three Part Arc was released yesterday and I've received all 5 Star Reviews, some people even comparing it to better than some of the Cryptic (Game developers) missions. If you play STO you can find it under "Duty, Honour and Sacrifice Act I" or by searching for my @Handle "cerberusfilms".
If you don't play STO, you really should. There are very few, if any other MMO's that live up to it. If you do decide to give it a go, I can give you some special referral codes that give us both some quite brilliant advantages. I also have a 5 Day unlimited Play key for anyone who wants it.

Now I think that's everything (apart from my having caught a nasty bug/cold) to do with my happenings....


Now final thing is, I am performing in a show at the Strathpeffer Pavilion this Wednesday. It's called Golden Ticket. Please come along and see, it's going to be absolutely brilliant.
You can buy tickets on the night or from http://www.thebooth.co.uk/ .

Anywho... I'm off to try and sleep now.

Much love my friends

Oliver V. Smith

Technical and other difficulties...

Life is stupid some times. Or rather, the people in it are.
Other's are absolutely wonderful people.

It's all so mixed.

I used to be very naive... now most people who know me will be pissing themselves with laughter right now... because I'm one of the most un-naive people nowadays, but, if you talked to me 4 years ago, I was a completely different person...

I'm just gonna stop writing there, I can't be bothered going down that route, but I can't bring myself to delete it either, so it's just gonna stay there unwanted and unloved :-)

I've been working hard on my Prelims, the Seer Project and rehearsals for 'Golden Ticket', the next Showstopperz show.

Reno always makes lovely, simple yet eye catching posters.
I've got two solo's in the show, well... kinda. The first is more or less a solo, it's I've got a Golden Ticket from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I play Grandpa Joe in these scenes. So it's a solo bar 2 lines where Alistair joins in as Charlie... it's a rather amusing scene... I get a cane, a nightgown, long johns, a jacket and hopefully a hat... *Happy*
The second is the "If I Only Had The Nerve" song from The Wizard of Oz, I couldn't find a decent video with the correct lyrics so you'll just have to come and see it. I play the lion, in a very Shakespearean Trained/Brian Blessed sort of way...
So I'm busy with that, learning lines and perfecting songs. It's all a lot of work really, and at rehearsals I'm in just about every piece... so I very rarely get to sit down. The joys of being the only male who's voice has broken and is over the age of 12....

The film's coming along fine I suppose. A couple of little technical hitches but filming for the funding bid is continuing and you can see some sneak peeks over at the Cerberus Films Blog.
I'll tell you one thing, writing lyrics is a bitch... anyone out there willing to write lyrics for a feature film?

Prelims-
Well in my Physic Credit Prelim I got 91% and 94% which was apparently one of the highest in the year :-) and considering I didn't have any education for 5 months I'm pretty damn happy.
I did my Maths Prelim on Friday... It took 4 hours to complete the two credit papers, hence why I've been dead to the world for a couple of days... I think it went pretty well, there were however some horrible, evil questions in there that were all worth 4 marks... but hey, I answered everything so I should get some of the marks.
I've got a Prelim every week from now until my actual exams start in May. In fact I have 8 including NABS during the last week, all for French... fun times...
This Friday I have Geography. I'm a little nervous as over half the course I've had to do self study because I haven't had any kind of tutoring. BBC Bitesize is a lifesaver.

This whole mess of prelims could have been saved from happening if the school had got there finger out and actually done something constructive for once.

Edit- I just remembered one of the things I forgot to mention
Two very lovely and awesome people, Layla Monteith-Grace and Abi'Fail' Fraser, The former for lovely and encouraging words when I was feeling like crap and the latter for her generousity in giving me Mikado *Mikado+CFS Stupor=Slightly Better than CFS Stupor-Mikado*

I think that's about it. I'm sure I mean't to say something else but I've forgotten as per usual. I have a nasty bug and CFS isn't great right now either but hey...

Much Love My Friends
Oliver V. Smith

Mixing blood on location and lost the spoon in the blood

Mixing non-staining blood is a delicate art

Mixing non-staining blood is a delicate art

Mixing non-staining blood is a delicate art

Mmmh... Nom nom... Homemade Cherry Cake and Maths Past Paper.... Fun fun fun... #Balance

@ellzzishappy write it out like this... it helps so much...

@ellzzishappy write it out like this... it helps so much...

An Interesting Week

I tell a lie. It hasn't been that interesting a week to be honest.

The most interesting thing was probably my receiving my marks for the physics prelim I did last week. (for anyone outside of Scotland, a prelim is basically a mock exam)
I found out today that I got 91% in Knowledge and Understanding and 94% in Problem Solving, a 1 1 :-D Mr Forwood said that it was one of the highest in the Year. You can imagine my surprise having been out of school for 8 months and only having physics tuition for 2 months. I hope I can do the same in all my other exams.

My parents made me a deal in 3rd year that if I get all 1's and A's in my Standard Grades, I get my mums MG TF... They're a bit unsure of that deal now lol. My dad has also said that if I get into Oxbridge, he'll buy me an Audi TT... No pressure lol :-P To be honest if I got to Oxbridge I would be amazed, same goes for getting 1's and A's lol

On Saturday I was part of a performance at the Hilton Parish Church with Showstopperz and Showstopperz Juniorz.
We did two songs as a group, one was an arrangement of Scarbourgh Fair, the other a classical arrangement of Take That's The Flood, which I was the main Soloist for (basically I sang the entirety of the song whilst the rest of the group joined in in the chorus and various others harmonised at other points with me).
It all went well and I got some good footage and audio recordings for the next Showstopperz DVD. Unfortunately the turn out wasn't great with only 55 people or so but they all enjoyed it.

Oh the other day I met Bill Paterson without realising it at the Dewar Arts Awards film Showreel in Glasgow. I didn't recognise him but he made some really really good comments about my films.
I'm tempted to see if he will do some voice over stuff for this short trailer we're working on. You never know, he might agree :-)

Well the only other things are I uploaded a film to YouTube, check it out
Oh and I got an iPhone 4 :-D I'm gonna head into town tomorrow after French to get myself a mini-sim-card and transfer to an older number with a better tariff.

Well thats all for tonight

Much love my friends

Oliver V. Smith

An Interesting Week

I tell a lie. It hasn't been that interesting a week to be honest.

The most interesting thing was probably my receiving my marks for the physics prelim I did last week. (for anyone outside of Scotland, a prelim is basically a mock exam)
I found out today that I got 91% in Knowledge and Understanding and 94% in Problem Solving, a 1 1 :-D Mr Forwood said that it was one of the highest in the Year. You can imagine my surprise having been out of school for 8 months and only having physics tuition for 2 months. I hope I can do the same in all my other exams.

My parents made me a deal in 3rd year that if I get all 1's and A's in my Standard Grades, I get my mums MG TF... They're a bit unsure of that deal now lol. My dad has also said that if I get into Oxbridge, he'll buy me an Audi TT... No pressure lol :-P To be honest if I got to Oxbridge I would be amazed, same goes for getting 1's and A's lol

On Saturday I was part of a performance at the Hilton Parish Church with Showstopperz and Showstopperz Juniorz.
We did two songs as a group, one was an arrangement of Scarbourgh Fair, the other a classical arrangement of Take That's The Flood, which I was the main Soloist for (basically I sang the entirety of the song whilst the rest of the group joined in in the chorus and various others harmonised at other points with me).
It all went well and I got some good footage and audio recordings for the next Showstopperz DVD. Unfortunately the turn out wasn't great with only 55 people or so but they all enjoyed it.

Oh the other day I met Bill Paterson without realising it at the Dewar Arts Awards film Showreel in Glasgow. I didn't recognise him but he made some really really good comments about my films.
I'm tempted to see if he will do some voice over stuff for this short trailer we're working on. You never know, he might agree :-)

Well the only other things are I uploaded a film to YouTube, check it out
Oh and I got an iPhone 4 :-D I'm gonna head into town tomorrow after French to get myself a mini-sim-card and transfer to an older number with a better tariff.

Well thats all for tonight

Much love my friends

Oliver V. Smith

An interesting week

I tell a lie. It hasn't been that interesting a week to be honest.

The most interesting thing was probably my receiving my marks for the physics prelim I did last week. (for anyone outside of Scotland, a prelim is basically a mock exam)
I found out today that I got 91% in Knowledge and Understanding and 94% in Problem Solving, a 1 1 :-D
Mr Forwood said that it was one of the highest in the Year. You can imagine my surprise having been out of school for 8 months and only having physics tuition for 2 months.

I hope I can do the same in all my other exams. My parents made me a deal in 3rd year that if I get all 1's and A's in my Standard Grades, I get me mums MG TF... They're a bit unsure of that deal now lol. My dad has also said that if I get into Oxbridge, he'll buy me an Audi TT... No pressure lol :-P
To be honest if I got to Oxbridge I would be amazed, samegoes for getting 1's and A's lol

The Return of CFS...

Well, the title says it all really. My CFS has just returned almost full throttle and I have no idea why...

At approximately 22:30hrs on Tuesday 22nd February, after a gap of at least a month and a half, possibly a little over two months, my CFS symptoms returned to a level I haven't had for a few months. Moderate Joint and Muscle Pains, Leeching tiredness and general collapse-ification.... 

Fun times really...

Not all that interesting though.

 

In other news, today I completed my first French Prelim at Int 2 (Intermediate 2= Slightly higher than Standard Grade, the Int2 course was originally created for people to take as a bridging course from SG to Higher if they only achieved a General Grade). It went pretty well I think, or at least I hope. Although there was one question that I thought was very badly worded and I was confused a bit by it, but I completed the piece with 20 minutes + the entire 40% extra time to spare so I was quite happy :-)

In case any of you are wondering, I'm taking all of my prelims, NABs and other such things at home supervised either by my Tutors or someone from Learning Support.

 

On Thursday I'm supposed to be going down to another Film Event. I've been invited to go to Glasgow and see the Dewar Arts Awards Film Recipients Showreel, of which some of my older work will be displayed. It's going to be very embarrassing as anyone who's followed my work will know, the newer ones are a thousand times better than the older ones... but hey ho... It'll be a nice event and I might get to see some friends down there.

I also finished off my Manifesto and Profile for SYP sent that off on Sunday (2 days late but oh well)

 

Finally the most exciting news of the week is... *drum roll*... we had our first Production meeting for the codenamed "Seer" Project. Basically it consisted of five teenagers, sitting round a table in my half built kitchen, having lunch, drinking tea and randomly throwing ideas at each-other. It was actually very productive and within four weeks you will all see the first sneak preview of what is to come. Our Script-Writer Hannah Doughty has already been hard at work filling out my very rough ideas. Devon Barnett the amazingly talented composer who actually co-created the music for my latest short, is also now working on some general melodies and Josephine Sillars the equally talented Lyricist has tonight begun work on the first Solo/Duet and group piece. It's all starting to come together. Oh and I almost forgot, Andrew Berry decided to gatecrash for some free food but actually much to his surprise came up with some very good ideas.

Which reminds me... Andrew and I are starting (before the end of the month hopefully) a project for my YouTube channel where we put out weekly videos with VFX etc... So give us a subscribe in anticipation :-)

 

Please subscribe to this blog and the Cerberus Film's one, or my Twitter account @cerberusfilms as theses (most likely my twitter) will be the first places I announce any updates on the film. In fact I think I might go and do one right now since I can't sleep... damn CFS....

 

Much Love My Friends

 

Oliver V. Smith

Karma...

Hello my lovely lovely readers...

 

I only just realised that I've been pretty good with updating my blog recently, I've had some positive feedback from my readers and I'm generally proud of it :-) . (I must be doing something right when a picture of a coffee and cookie gets 78 views in 24 hours)

 

Good stuff and bad stuff has happened recently, and as a lot of you probably know, my religious beliefs are a bit complicated. For those of you who don't know, I do not believe in God, I do not believe in heaven or hell, I do believe that there is a more intelligent, more powerful race of beings out there in the galaxy but they are not gods... kinda sounds very odd when I write it like that but hey ho, I am odd. Anywho, I've come to start thinking that there really is such a thing as Karma.

For those of you who don't know what Karma is-

Karma (Sanskrit: कर्म IPA: [ˈkərmə]  ( listen);^[1] Pali: kamma) in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect (i.e., the cycle called saṃsāra) originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies.^[2]

Thank you Wikepedia. Basically it boils down to, good things and bad things balance out. Hindu's believe that if you are good in one life, you will be reborn in the next in a better situation, for instance if you are from a low level Caste in this life but live your life well and do good things, you will be born into a higher Caste in the next. The reverse is also true, with the worst being, turned into and animal and then a plant.

I digress though. I don't believe that interpretation, I think that all things live in a Balance, kinda like the Deferi in Star Trek Online, for instance, no matter how good you are, bad shit is gonna happen to you eventually. I've been told it's quite pessimistic, but I don't think it is.

 

For instance, take yesterday (or rather Tuesday which is no-longer yesterday), I was in Glasgow having a wonderful time with a couple of old friends, basically killing time waiting for 16:00 to go to a film event as part of the GYFF (Glasgow Young Film-makers Festival). I won the award for best individual film and therfor the amazing prize of an Alienware M15x Laptop :-D It's gorgeous and I love it just as much as my MacBook Pro. I've always wanted an Alienware computer and I really wasn't disappointed. I'll take some pictures of all the merchandise it came with at some point and post them here. Anywho, yeah, I was carrying back this massive box from The Arches all the way along Argyle and to the top of Buchanan Street to get to Queens Street Station, when a girl, probably about 16 or so spots me with my arms full of box and swerves towards me saying "alrigh' mate, how are ya", brushes past me and then disappears... I didn't think anything was wrong as I was just concerned about walking around Glasgow at 18:30 with a £900+ Laptop. It wasn't until I got to the station and tried to find my phone that I realised it had been stolen. I was not happy. After emptying the contents of my bag and pockets in the middle of the station, I decided to put the laptop in stoarge (£6) and run back down to the Arches on the off chance I had left it there.

No such luck. So I trudged my lazy, unfit arse backup to the station and resigned myself to the fact that my phone had been stolen.

I am I the only one seeing the balance thing here? I win a wonderful thing but lose my phone.

Other things like this have happened in the past aswell though, for instance the whole police thing happened at a time when I was finally starting to get back on my feet and almost ready to return to school, getting nominated and accepted for awards and then my dog getting diagnosed with Cancer. That sort of stuff.

It happens all the time, whenever something good is happening, something bad is inevitably around the corner. But it seems to balance out usually and so the Bad has the same or similar weight to the Good.

 

I think that's probably enough ranting from me for one day.

I had an amazing time in Glasgow Olivia and Emma-Jane. Thanks :-)

 

I should be back down that neck of the woods in the next week or so for another film event.

Oh and I'll also hopefully be visiting people in Blairgowrie and possibly even Dundee in the next couple of weeks :-) (all thanks to my new 16-25 rail-card, a 3rd off really makes a hell of a lot of difference you know)

 

Anywho,

Much love my friends

 

Oliver V. Smith

Essentials of life

Well its 11:32 am and I'm currently eating a Choc Chunk Cookie and drinking a delicious Caramel Macchiato in Starbucks after a very long morning travelling to Glasgow...

Valentines...

Well I thought I'd write a small blog to commemorate Valentines Singles Awareness Day.

 

I never liked the idea of Valentines day... It's too commercial, too phoney... why do people need a single day to be romantic?

If you love someone, or have someone special, then everyday should have some special-ness to it. Instead of being romantic once a year, why not try once a week....

The whole idea of people sending secret love letters to the person they adore is silly. At least in my view.

 

A lot of my lovely readers may be saying to the screen that I'm only saying this because I'm single... Well... No, I'm not.

I'm hopeless romantic really. I love the ideas of romance and falling in love but never Valentines. Whenever I'm in relationships, I make and effort to do something nice or romantic as often as possible for my significant other... Usually my plans backfire like the poor misunderstood Coyote from Loony Toons but I still try lol.

 

It's just another commercialised holiday.

 

Having said that though, I do some people who are hopelessly in love and yet still make Valentines extra special by spending the entire day with their significant other or taking them out to their favourite restaurant, or even travelling 400 miles to curl up next to their boyfriend and watch movies...

Most of this post hasn't made any sense but I don't care really

 

I'm in love with life and certain people in it.

 

I suppose the random moral, *gasp* I know I don't use them very often if at all, is When shit hit's the fan, make sure you're the monkey flinging it :-)

 

I love you all 

 

Much love my Friends

 

Oliver V. Smith

Avatars and Online Games

Well I've been debating about posting this but I don't see anything wrong with doing so.

What you're about to read is my Discursive essay for my Intermediate 2 English folio. I wouldn't recommend trying to copy it.

It talks about the subject of Avatars and what is the distinction between murder of a person and murder of an avatar.

Just do you know, I do not think that deleting an Avatar is murder, at least not yet, quite simply, the Avatar is not aware and therefor it is not alive and cannot be murdered.

(btw, it's not finished yet, still got to find a title, suggestions welcome, and I've also gotta write a bit more in places)

 

An Avatar is the computer representation of a real person in a Virtual World. In some of the more technologically advanced countries such as South Korea and Japan, it is against the law and punishable by prison sentences to delete another persons avatar. Some even call this 'Murder'. But is it really murder?

 

Murder in the real world is defined as the unlawful killing of a person. To be a person, it has to be flesh and blood, tangible and alive. Therefore if it's not alive it cannot, by conventional standards, be killed.

 

In a case from Japan, a woman permanently deleted both the avatar and account of her ex-husband. Many people may think at this point, “So what? What’s the big deal…just create a new avatar and get back to the game.” Such a cavalier attitude shows a lack of understanding for the psychology of virtual worlds and the people who inhabit them. Those that inhabit these spaces often do so for long periods of time. They put in hundreds of hours, over many years into these virtual world environments carefully moulding and crafting their character avatars. They have fought quests and battles and have earned vast amounts of loot and virtual goods– all of which in the mind of the servers are tied to the owner’s account.

If the user’s account goes away, so to does all of the personalization of the avatar as well as the associated virtual goods. Hundreds of hours of work gone in an instant, not to mention the devastating loss to the creator of said avatar, which in turn makes them the victim of the crime as the Avatar is not aware or sentient.

 

Anthropomorphizing of an avatar is nothing new. In fact the word avatar comes from ancient Hinduism and is meant to be a manifestation or incarnation of a god on earth. In modern times, avatars have come to mean representation of people on earth. To a human being who chooses to represent himself via an avatar, as tens of millions are doing all over the world, the line separating the two is often blurred. To some very avidly involved in virtual worlds in fact there is no difference at all.

 

Thus from a psychological perspective, one could certainly understand how the destruction of an avatar– a carefully crafted and highly evolved representation of the player– could feel like an attack… perhaps even the killing of a part of one’s 'soul'. However it could be argued that it is vastly different from the murder or unlawful killing of the human being the avatar was meant to represent.

 

How would most law enforcement agencies respond to this case? If it were a murder in the real world the investigators would seal off and be forensically examining the area for DNA and a murder weapon. In the Virtual world however you couldn't search for DNA but you could search for what is the equivalent to computer fingerprints. Every computer has it's own unique fingerprint, despite all attempts to cover ones tracks, there will always be a record that is traceable to the perpetrators computer, whether it be their IP address or just a few stray lines of hexadecimal code at the bottom of an email. The only way of destroying this evidence is to demagnetise the hard-drive and therefor completely erasing all traces, but only on that computer. If something is transmitted across the internet, it's out there, theoretically forever.

 

Of course when this case occurred, the link between human and avatar was still rather tenuous. As time progresses and technology improves, people and avatars will grow closer and closer. Eventually, they may even become indistinguishable from one another. Through electronic implants, an avatar could become fully integrated with the human being it represents. If so, what will be the future meaning of “avatar murder” as time marches on?

 

That said, it seems that the police in Japan made the right decision in this case not to charge the woman with murder but instead with unauthorized access to a computer system.

Normal service will resume in my next blog, I promise.

Much Love My Friends

Oliver V. Smith

Time and Opportunity

Ah it's good to be back here, sitting in bed at 1:40am, MacBook Pro on my lap, writing down my thoughts and musings... Then deleting them and rewriting them all over again :-)

I'm sorry to my faithful followers, who there are many now, I've had in excess of 5,000+ hits for my past 4 posts so I'm overjoyed, I've been spending far too much time on the podcast over on www.cerberusradio.posterous.com, which has also been racking up hits. Since the release of the podcast at 10:00am on tuesday, we've had at least 140 people listen to our 1hr 42minute podcast... so thanks to them. Apparently people enjoy our podcasts, I do them with two friends who I go way back with. One Mr Daniel Hird (or HirdyGirdy) and one Mr Andrew Berry (sometimes known as Panda or thelittlehobo). They're both extremely awesome people...

 

Anywho, enough of that. I assume you're here for my life I suppose, and what I've been up to. Well on Friday the 4th of February I won the Animation Category at the Kingussie Food on FIlm Awards which was great in itself, but the real highlight of the night was being told by two professionals (one of whom is a BAFTA winner) in front of everyone there that I was a Film-Maker. It was the second proudest moment of my life, the being Nominated for a BAFTA of course. The thing is that I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with my life. I want to be a film-maker but I can't ever quite see it working, except at moments like that. Also in attendance were two people who I am now working with on different projects but both for films. The first is Hannah Doughty, who has accepted the role of script-writer for my feature film to be filmed this summer, and is already well on her way to finishing the first draft. The second was Andrew Berry, as well as podcasting with him, we have decided to work together to produce regular YouTube videos.

So here it is, I am officially announcing that starting by the end of February, Andrew Berry and myself will be making a video every two weeks for YouTube, on the other week I will be putting out a tutorial usually relating to the last weeks video. So please encourage us in this daunting task and commitment by subscribing to Cerberus Films.

 

My time is becoming a very precious commodity these days with tutoring on every single day of the week, including weekends, as well as Showstopperz, podcasting and soon the YouTube commitments... I'm going to be a very busy boy.

I don't know whether I like that or not. I enjoy podcasting and working for showstopperz and on films but I also enjoy just relaxing and playing on the Xbox or STO, even just watching the TV. Unfortunately, all of these things are relegated to the very late evenings of a couple of days a week. At the moment I sleep just enough to not fall asleep until the next evening usually, but I don't ever get to enjoy a lie in really, because I know I'm only prolonging a massive list of things I should be doing that day.

 

Onto other news, my love life is officially confused... I wish social networking sites had an option for confused, not just it's complicated... but I won't bore you all with the intricacies of that.

We're pretty sure that one of our dogs has cancer... and a hell of a lot of it... he's covered in lumps but we've been putting off taking him to the vets as we really don't want our suspicions confirmed but my mum's going to take him this week. Oh you silly Bob dog... Well at least it isn't Pip again :-/  For those of you who don't know, we have three dogs, One is mine, Pip a golden lab retriever, 7-8 years old, my Mums dog is Ruby a Great Dane, 2-3 years old, and my Dads is a Red and White Irish Setter called Bob, 5-6 years old. We also have 6 horses (1 Stallion, 2 Geldings and 3 mares) and a Donkey called Flora. Oh and a Cat, very imaginatively called Blackie. 

 

Had a crazy few days recently, all the pipes around the Bathroom Burst so we had to fix it all before turning the water back on. My dad decided to come home from Abu Dhabi to fix it but the day after he goes back (ie Wednesday) the hot water pipe burst again and the drain dropped through the ceiling... so that's what my mum and I spent the morning fixing.

 

I have had an interesting idea about my future education though. Moray Firth School are hopefully starting a 'twilight' school (and no not of the vampire variety) for people in similar situations to me. It's a private education thing where they will use their tutors (most extremely well qualified teachers) to teach small classes (no more than 10 people per subject) various subjects at Higher. They're offering all of the Subjects I was to take, save for one, Physics, Maths, Biology, Chemistry and English. If I can take those with Moray in the evenings for 2hrs per subject per week and then take Higher Music with Technology at Fortrose, I think it will be the best option for all parties (mainly me :-P )

 

I'm sure I came on to write something else aswell but seeing as it's 02:24am I should probably try and get some sleep, especially as I have English Tuition (the subject that takes it out of me the most) and I have to send off a film before Noon.

 

Take a look at the pocast

 

Much Love my friends

 

Oliver V. Smith

Films, Beauty and Revision

I just watched a beautiful film this evening.

It's called Proof. I watched it on BBC iPlayer (something I quite simply couldn't live without nowadays). Here's the link http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/jpxrt/ pop over there and give it a watch, it's 90 minutes of pure film brilliance.

 

BBC 4 have been showing a lot of films like this for the past few months, however most of them are in French (as a side note, I have grown to love a lot of French cinema, they are far more creative in many ways than most in the UK and the US), if you have some spare time I would recommend you google 'Blame it on Fidel'. It's in French but it's very well subtitled and the story is very moving and easy to follow.

Anyway as usual I'm getting off topic... where was I... oh yes, Proof, It's about a young woman (Gwyneth Paltrow) whose father was an incredibly brilliant Mathematician but has a medical condition that has caused his memory and general brain function to deteriorate and so the woman decides to quite college and care for him instead. This is all revealed to us very slowly throughout the course of the film. She must contend with her quite formidable Sister after their father dies, as well as deal with her emotions for her fathers former Student (Jake Gyllenhaal) who she falls in love with all whilst she is concerned that she will follow in her father's footsteps and lose her mind as well.

I won't go into any more detail of the plot as it will ruin it for you. The film has been shot extremely well, one thing that a lot of films neglect to use is distinct lighting states for certain types of scene. Sure, Star Trek (2009) has a lot of lens flare for battles, and The Dark Knight has... well it's kinda gloomy all the way through... yes they are wonderful wonderful pieces of work (some of my favourite films actually) but they weren't the best shot. For instance, in Proof we have three distinct states, slightly washed out colours and generally darker were used for most of the sad or emotional sections, we had the classic sun through the window with light streaks across things with everything else generally in shadow for the realisation type scenes and finally the Happy or content scenes where they use a lot of mild yellows and real skin tones in the lighting.

Another thing which I've seen in a couple of films in the past few years, when the film jumps around chronologically, you need a point of reference for your audience to know where or when they are, in this case it seemed to be Paltrow's Hair style... which I must say was rather effective.

I'm sure I'm missing something from here, If I can think what it is I might do a better review type thing and post it to the Cerberus Film Blog.

 

Onto the rest of the blog now...

As per usual I'm thoroughly confused... those of you who know me well will probably know why, I won't go into it though, it would only bore you all. Some of you I'm sure will be happy to know that I'm feeling better than I have done for a long while, I've managed to put the Three Bitches and the School Incidents to one side for the moment and so it's all rather good.

I've started using a timetable type thing for my tutoring and work, I only do one subjects 'Homework' a day, even if I have multiple subjects of tutoring that day. It seems to be working quite well for me, I'm certainly getting a lot more done.

I've submitted my application to the SYP (Scottish Youth Parliament) for the elections later this year. I'm also finishing off my application for the SYT (Scottish Youth Theatre) Summer Festival, despite the likely hood that I won't be taking part due to film commitments but still, it's a fall back plan, oh and certain people would kill me if I didn't apply...

Finally I'm going to the premier of my latest film 'He's Not a Vegetarian' at the Kingussie Food on Film Festival on the 4th of February with a few friends and colleagues. Oh and very finally... I appear to have been Head Hunted by a very prestigious and important film organisation in the UK for some reason, I should be finding out more tomorrow... or should that be today :-S

 

I should really be getting to sleep now... I just realised what the time is... 

Goodnight all and thank you for reading another one of my blogs :-)

 

Much Love my friends

 

Oliver V. Smith

Decisions, Revisions and Admissions

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Well... The title says it all really...

 

Over the past two weeks, and the past day in particular, I have realised some very sobering things about myself, and made some very hard decisions.

 

This will either be a rather long or pretty short blog... so make your decision now... read it all or don't read it at all.

 

I love what I do with film, not the entire process but once I get into a project, I find it very hard to stop until it's finished. I get a drive to do it, a burning passion and desire. I can do it even when I'm ill, even when I can do nothing else. That thrill is what I was experiencing all of last week. I was committed to finishing the film which I should have made 6 months ago. I only really realised this now, that when I really focus, I can do it, I become absorbed in my task. 

I've been off school for a straight 6 months now and I won't be going back until after my exams in April... I've finally managed to put aside all of the things that, well, as several people have described it, "would have made lesser people fall apart" and apparently this shows that I'm "Very Resistant" and have a "Strong Character". Personally i've never thought of myself like that. I always thought of myself and being normal... well different, but as different as everyone else is. I still don't see that I'm strong charactered or resistant, because if I were, surely those things wouldn't hurt so much; and believe me they hurt a lot, I've just never liked showing my hurt to other people, ever... But people, respectable people, adults, teenagers, professionals, teachers, acquaintances... they all say the same thing.

The reason I'm not going back to school until after my exams is because in the last two weeks I've managed to completely put aside the hurt, anger and all the other feelings I have for the injustices done to me in the last 8 or 9 months, and for the first time in a year, I feel better, I'm actually able to concentrate on things now, I can work and live life, and I don't know how I would react to going back to school as now it's a trigger for two separate incredibly damaging things in my life. It could ruin my health completely and send me back to 2 years ago... not a good time... I haven't been able to completely block it all off, it's still all there, I just don't notice it or can't feel it most of the time now. Still, there are some small triggers, for instance seeing them talking to someone on Facebook as though they haven't just attempted to destroy my life (this may sound dramatic, but if you have been told what they have done, you'll know that it could really destroy the rest of my life completely), suddenly brings forth all the feelings for a few minutes.. but it goes eventually....

 

With this clarity I can see how terrible I have been with my work, my revision and my general learning for the past few years... It doesn't help that the school have barely helped me at all despite my continuous bouts of absenteeism for years, but even with the tutoring I've been having for the past 2-3 months, I haven't been using it properly. I've been coasting, which would be fine if I was in school. I'm smart and intelligent enough to be able to coast for most of standard grade and then study like hell a few weeks before the exam and still get a decent grade, but with self study and home tuition in general, I simply can't do that. I have to work harder and study harder than most people in school because I'm getting about 7-8 hrs of tutoring a week whilst most people get 5-6hrs a day in school. OK If I had been studying properly and doing work without my tutors like I should be (not just the homework they set) then it probably would be amazing and I'd be able to ace my exams, but I have never been of that mindset. Never. It's just never been the way I work, there's always been someone to pick up the slack or help me along and made sure I don't fail, but now there isn't. 

It has finally dawned on me,

that No-One will help me here.

I've always known this on some level, but never believed it. I have been kidding myself and tricking myself into believing that I'm doing fine, that I don't need to study etc... Through all the many, many arguments that I have had with my Parents over the years (I'm sure I've aged them at least 5 or 10 years in the past 2 with all the stress, worry and anguish I've caused them), I have been fooling myself that I'll change, that I'll do better; not on a conscious level, but still... 

The most annoying thing is that It's taken me this long to realise it. 

 

I wish I could just worry about what most people worry about, well, I do worry about those things aswell but it would be nice to just be concerned with them. For instance, I love two people, both of which it can't work with. I also like two other people but it can't work with them either for various reasons. In the end, after a frank discussing with a close friend, I've decided to not seek any relationships for a long while and just let what happens happen. But this is just a trivial part of my problems.

 

I have decided to work my arse off for my education. On a side note I believe that I will train as an Anaesthesiologist then go back to Film-Making.

 

Today I Vowed to Change. Today I Became a Better Person.

 

Much Love

 

Oliver V. Smith