(Originally this was going to be a top 10, but I couldn’t think of enough major stuff, so I had to drop it down to 5…)

5 – Going to Forbidden Planet for the first time. It’s a Megastore filled with wall upon wall, shelf upon shelf of comic books and graphic novels, books, DVDs, collectables, posters, and just in general amazing stuff. Need I say more? It truly is Geek Heaven.

4 – Spending the weekend at MCM. October 23rd-25th 2009. For those who don’t know, London MCM Expo is a convention held every May and October at the London ExCel Exhibition Centre. It’s similar to Comicon, and what-have-you, only it’s British. Anyway, this wasn’t the first time I’d been to MCM, rather it was my 3rd outing to the expo; the first being in 2006 or something with my brother, who didn’t even want to be there. I didn’t get to stay long that time, but it left me wanting more. In May 2009 I got a chance again, and I went up with friends, again for only one day. Although fun, it was let down slightly by the travel. Finally, this October we went up again, but this time for the entire weekend, and in doing  so it became better by several orders of magnitude. We had time to hang out, we got to really explore the expo and buy overpriced swag, and we got to have a walk around London; and then return to a fancy apartment in the evenings.  London also has a habit of closing the underground or DLR on the weekend of the expo, but that just turns the journey into part of the fun!  A few cosplayers wandering around London, trying to find their way. Soon those few cosplayers have turned into a living wave of excited geeks and nerds all heading, in a round about way, to the docklands. So yeah, MCM’s always fun, and I’m looking forward to the next one in May; especially since it’s the last before everyone goes off to university.

3 – Seeing Zebrahead live for the first time.  Thursday 16th October, 2008.  Doors opened 8PM. Headline act was Zebrahead. Now, I’d lived a pretty sheltered life, especially when it came to music, so I’d never actually been to a gig until that night.  The show was in Portsmouth, and I went by train with a few friends from school, they’d been to countless shows before, they knew what to expect, they had the shirts, I did not. When we got through the doors, we were greeted by a small, cramped, and dark venue. By the time the main act came on, we were squashed in like sardines, hot and sweaty, and blinded by the stage lights, and it was awesome; and it was a night that I’ll never forget. I’ve now been to 5 gigs, 3 of which had Zebrahead playing, 2 headlining. I also have a further 3 already booked for 2010, two of which with Zebrahead headlining within the space of 2 days, the 3rd being Green Day at Wembley, it’ll be my first arena gig!

2 – Rediscovering Ska. The start of this century was a dark time for me, musically. I wasn’t really listening to anything in particular, I had maybe a few odd wav and mp3 files on my pc and nothing more. The later half of this decade had me picking up more and more music, and as of right now I have over 40GB of music, or just under 10,000 tracks, and over 20,00 scrobbled plays since January 2009 on last.fm. The genres of music I have is increasingly diverse, but it’s built upon a solid foundation of wonderful, incredibly uplifting 3rd wave and ska-punk. And let me tell you, if having a music library that resembles the collective soundtrack of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.

1 – The seating plan change in GCSE French. “What?” I hear you say, “how is this seemingly unimportant, completely trivial thing the biggest thing for you this past decade?”, you add. I’ll tell you how. I’d say that had it not happened, nothing else on this list would have happened either, most likely. You see, such a simple thing meant I was sat next to someone who I would become friends with, and through our discussions, would have a large influence on me. They’ve introduced me to a lot of amazing music, they’ve always had something interesting to say, they never fail to make me smile, and they’ve changed me – for the better, I’d say/hope. So that’s why a simple moving of seats was so important, because it meant I got to know someone who even now is really important to me, and who I still enjoy talking with, and  spending time with, when I get the chance.

So yeah, it’s not the major events like 9/11, or world cups, or wars that have the biggest impact; it’s those seemingly little things in life, the things that make you happy. Even when things get bad, there’s always those little things to remind you of why you’re still there. I look forward to discovering what little things await me in 201x.

The first half of the month was uneventful and unexciting. Just college day after day, waiting for the more busy second half to come. So not much to say there.

First event that happened was Aberystwyth Open Day. This involved getting up at 4am in the morning, and being taken by my father all the way to Aber. I’d have to say that the journey there and back was most certainly the worst part of the day. As it is I try to avoid contact with my father, and this journey was a prime example of exactly why that is. Firstly, he pulled over every 30 minutes or so to smoke several cigarettes, adding quite some time to the journey. Secondly, he was using an outdated sat-nav that he never bothers to update; this meant that it kept losing signal, or not displaying roads, causing him to swear and rant and rage, as is his way. Now imagine having to put up with several hours of this… yeah. That being said, the open day itself was pretty good. I got to look around Aberystwyth’s main campus, which is rather steep. The facilities are pretty good, although the exteriors look quite grey and dull. I didn’t go into town itself, because I left in the early afternoon to stop my father complaining, which is a shame, as from what I’ve seen, it appears to be quite nice. The Open Day also offered a chance to briefly talk with friends I hadn’t seen in quite some time, which was pretty much the highlight of the day.

After that was my birthday. Originally I had planned to go up to London to see Ross Noble, but in the end I sold my tickets because I could only find one person who wanted to go. Instead of that, I had a meal at the pub with my family, excluding my father, before returning to watch Question Time; it was the one with Nick Griffin on the panel. Pretty boring day, no different to any other birthday.

But the following day, after I finished my lessons I hopped on the train to London, where I’d be spending the weekend for London MCM Expo. My journey up to London was far better than the one to Wales. On the train to Waterloo I was at a table seat with a jittery talkative fellow, whom I believe may have had some kind of condition. We had a chat about some stuff, like how one day he wishes to take an old phone with an O2 sim to the O2. Behind me were some old women talking about the previous night’s Question Time, and how Nick Griffin was a “nasty little shit”, which amused me. Once I got to Waterloo I managed a transfer to the Jubilee Line with a perfectly timed tube train, I always seem to manage this when travelling long distances. On this tube is where it began, for as you get closer to ExCel, the more cosplayers you find, and here I was standing next to two of them, although I didn’t recognise what their costumes were specifically. Once we transferred to the DLR another guy popped up wielding a foam scythe and a Charlie the Unicorn shirt. The 4 of us got on the DLR to find a few more cosplayers, in our carriage there was maybe 8 or so heading for the expo, or so I thought – when we got off, so did about 50 people in costume, I have no idea how they got there, they most certainly weren’t on the DLR, yet they came off at the station.  Madness.

Cosplayers Play Lego Rockband

The Expo itself was awesome, with games such as Left 4 Dead 2, Assassins Creed 2, Tekken 6, and an assortment of Rock Bands and DDR set ups;  celebrity guests like Tom Baker and Craig Charles, lots of overpriced goods, and a few small freebies, and the upbeat and energetic atmosphere emanating from all the freaks in costume, as well as those of us who are more reserved.

Despite the high cost of most of the stuff for sale, I ended up paying out for quite a few things: A large Zombieland (Which I pirated rather than seeing in the cinema, nobody seemed to want to go) poster, the Cowboy Bebop Remix boxset, which I was later disappointed to find is not the newest high quality remaster, and then some series from ADV which I’ve already seen  – Coyote Ragtime Show, and This Ugly Yet Beautiful World. All great shows.

This was my 3rd time at the expo, and 2nd this year. It was definitely the best so far, too. Next one is in May, which I plan to attend for the entire weekend once more, especially since it’s the last expo before we all head off to university and whatnot. Looking forward to it.

The final event of the month, for me at least, was a concert at the Bournemouth O2 Academy on Wednesday. Headline act was Bowling For Soup, supported by The Leftovers, MC Lars, and Zebrahead. Before this tour was announced, I’d never actually heard of Leftovers or MC Lars, but now they’re both already integrated into my ever music collection. The gig was great, and all the bands, unlike quite a few artists such as say, Studioforce, are brilliant live. It also gave me a good chance to test out the camera on my new phone in dark conditions and in busy, high-movement areas- the result? Mediocre, overly dark, blurry pictures.

Bowling For Soup

This gig was my 5th ever, and just over a year since my first gig on October 16th ’08, when I went to see Zebrahead. Even with so few under my belt, the cost of tickets and transport sure has been quite high, but it’s totally worth it for the awesome music and chance to spend some time with friends.

Following the gig, only a few minor things really happened. At midnight the Left 4 Dead 2 demo finally went live, so I played through that,and from what I’ve played, I’d say it’s shaping up to be far better than the original, although with the limited character interaction so far, I can’t really comment on the new cast. Then, on Friday I downloaded a copy of Borderlands, which I spent the entire weekend blitzing through with a friend, trying to ignore the major bugs and flaws in the game due to just how addictive and enjoyable it is. After 17 1/2 hours we hit the incredibly disappointingly easy final boss, and today I plan to start playthrough 2, perhaps there’ll be some actual difficulty in the game this time around, although it’ll probably be even easier since I’ve fixed some issues the game had so that it actually works properly.

So that’s it for October, and November’s already started. Only plans for this month are Kids Can’t Fly at Southampton Joiners on the 7th, and a US Politics Conference on the 10th. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t really do much this month anyway, since I have so little money following last month, but oh well.

Autumn In The New Forest

Tomorrow is the start of October, and with it comes a lot of events – clocks go back an hour, the trees drop their leaves, etc. But more importantly are the events specific to me.

On October 16th the next issue of Batman and Robin comes out; a very important event, I assume Streets of Gotham and Batgirl will also have new issues around this time. I’m really enjoying the reversed dynamic of Dick and Damian as opposed to Bruce and Dick. I’m looking forward to the big reveal of who the new Red Hood is, the most obvious person would Jason Todd, but that’d be too obvious, I think.

October 17th is Aberystwyth Open Day, which means travelling 5 hours up to the valleys to check out my top choice for university; it’ll be first time I’ve been to Wales, should be interesting.

Following that, on October 22nd, is my 18th birthday; I’m going up to London to see Ross Noble in the evening, although I still have no idea who’s coming and I need to sort that out rather soon. Normally I don’t really celebrate my birthday, but it’d be kinda pathetic, even by my standards, to do nothing for my 18th, hence why I’m going to see Ross Noble.

The following day, having returned from London in the dead of night, I will then be going back up at 10am on the horror that is the National Express, as a few of us are spending the weekend up there for London MCM Expo. I’ve been twice before, it’s pretty fun, although everything is really expensive, and there’s yaoi and fat chicks with ‘free hugs’ signs everywhere – a necessary evil, I suppose.

Then, on the 28th I’m off to Bournemouth for the Party In Your Pants gig with Bowling For Soup, Zebrahead, and The Leftovers; which will be totally awesome. It’ll be the 3rd time I’ve seen Zebrahead live, and my 5th concert; with Zebrahead being the first concert I attended.

On top of all that, I’m hoping to go to the cinema to see Zombieland, and also possibly go to Forbidden Planet with friends,  or at least hang out at some point.

Halloween is a non-event for me, don’t really care for it, despite my love of all things horror and zombies. At most, if I can be bothered, I might try and fail to do a pumpkin carving.

All in all, October is set to be a rather busy month for me, and will either turn out really good, or incredibly bad. I’m not going to get my hopes up.