Interview with Writer , Podcaster - Hugh Sterbakov

Hugh's the one in the middle by the way 

Today on my blog i have a interview with Hugh Sterbakov, Emmy-nominated and Annie Award-winning writer of Robot Chicken, the award-winning graphic novel Freshmen and TV scripts for Disney, Paramount, AMC, SyFy and Fox.

Ross :- Was writing something that you always thought you would do for a living in your younger days ?

Hugh :- It was obvious from when I was very young, but it took me a long time to realize it. I learned to read from comic books, and when I was very little I'd write and draw comic book sequels to my favorite movies. When we had creative writing assignments in school, the other kids would turn in three paragraphs and I'd write three pages.

When the GI Joe figures came along, my friends and I took them apart and customized them into new characters, so I imagined my own worlds. I got more serious about comics in junior high, and started an ongoing series that I'd xerox, put into sealed bags and sell to my friends and family. Well, I put a price tag on them and then gave them away.

I always knew I wanted to go to film school, but I wasn't until college that I realized I wanted to write. Once I made a film and realized how slow and technical the process was, I realized that my place was writing scripts.

Ross :- What was your first paid writing job and looking back on it now is it something you’re proud to have put your name to ?

Hugh :- I guess I'm lucky, because I don't think I've ever done a writing job I wasn't proud of. I think my first paid gig was a videogame review for a magazine called Flux. That was about six months out of college. Right around the same time, I got a development deal to develop a TV series for AMC, and that was my first paid creative writing job.

Ross :- how did you get into writing for video game magazines ?

Hugh :- I got my undergrad degree and moved to Los Angeles to break into screenwriting, but I needed to pay my bills. I'm a fast writer, so I figured if I could get a writing gig I'd have a lot of extra time for my screenwriting and the classes I'd planned to take.

I asked one of my college writing professors for advice, and she told me to reach out to another of her students, a guy named Dan Amrich. He was breaking into the magazine business and might have some leads.

I got in touch with Dan, and he asked me if I play guitars or videogames. I'd always been a videogame nut, so he tossed me a couple unpaid assignments for a little section he was running on AOL called Critics' Choice. My first attempt was ridiculous--it read like a puff promo piece, not a critical review. I don't know if I'd ever read a game review. This was 1995, so there weren't dozens of gaming websites. But Dan could tell that I had chops, so he rejected the piece and not me. He had me start over, and gave me some examples and a primer.

And that was it, from that moment I became his sad Chewbacca. I eventually took over the AOL site, and Dan got me gigs at just about every job he ever landed. A lot of them weren't paid, but my resume grew to the point where I was getting comp copies of almost every game for PS1, Saturn, Dreamcast and N64. I had a cheap apartment, a dog and a working girlfriend, so I was happy. Eventually he got me on staff at GamePro, and right as that came to an end I started making a living in Hollywood.

The Famous Gamepro Magazine

Ross :- When did you have the idea for Freshmen was it a long standing idea ?

Hugh :- I think it was in the fall of 2003, and Seth and I were playing ping pong in the garage of my old house. I sold a script in 2000 and lived in this great party house with a hot tub. The garage was full of posters of Charlie's Angels and Britney Spears. We'd mounted a toilet seat I'd broken on the wall.

Anyway, we'd put back a few already, and I started craving some bananas sitting on my kitchen counter, but they were still green. And I said I wish I had the mutant power to ripen bananas. We spent the rest of the night coming up with silly mutant powers.

I chose some of the more interesting abilities and crafted themes around them and developed characters. Seth had just worked with producer Donald De Line on Without a Paddle, so we brought it around Hollywood with him, describing it as "X-Men meets Revenge of the Nerds." The pitch was well-received, but we were advised to do it as a comic first. All passes. This was another in a long string of great things I'd worked hard on that everyone seemed to like but nobody bought, and I was really frustrated.

The next fall, Matt Hawkins from Top Cow comics called me out of the blue. A few people had taken meetings with him and dropped my name, and he wanted to see what the fuss was about. I sent him a couple things I'd developed, and he chose to do Freshmen. I don't think he even knew at that point that Seth had co-created it with me.

I'm very proud of that comic. It was my first opportunity to get my creative work out of the Hollywood development community and into the hands of regular readers. And the reaction was really heartwarming. Reviews for those books have been so positive that I sometimes feel like people are lying to me. And our fan base was small but incredibly devoted. We had about a dozen fans post on our message boards every day for two years. Some of them made custom costumes of The Seductress and The Beaver for Halloween. And they were relentless about getting the book into the hands of new readers. And I've heard stories about Freshmen being discussed in college classes in Seattle, San Diego and Ohio.

The reaction to Freshmen made me very eager to get my work out of the studio development cycle and into the hands of readers, which led me to write my novel.

Freshmen 

Ross :- You’re soon to release your debut novel how long has this project been going for ?

Hugh :- I came up with the basic concept, a massive outbreak of werewolves in Manhattan, in 2002. I have a white board in my office with a list of my favorite ideas, and that one sat at the top for two years while I let it sit in my head. It took me two years to break the story--to figure out the answer to the question "why." I was sitting in a movie theater with a friend and telling him all about the big action scenes I'd devised, and then it just came to me. You'll see what I discovered in the last 30 pages or so of the book.

So I wrote it as a screenplay, which went "out" in May of 2004. My agent and manager took a gamble on the success of Van Helsing, and released the script to producers and the studios right when it came out. Obviously, we lost that gamble. Not that Van Helsing was entirely to blame--this was a budget-busting hard-R movie that would be too frightening for kids even if their parents brought them. And although I have a great female lead, it'd be a tough sell to women.

Like everything I wrote, the script had a lot of fans. Tom De Santo, one of the producers of the X-Men films, sat down with me to try to pare down the budget. I was told that Bruckheimer's company liked it, but the budget was a problem. And it opened doors for more development with other great producers as well. Most importantly, it was one of my favorite things that I'd written.

After a couple more near-misses in Hollywood, I decided to take a swing at writing it as a novel. But mechanically, narrative writing has nothing in common with screenwriting, which is all about fragmented sentences and white space. The characters and the story unfolded beautifully with all of the extra room, and I learned a lot about myself in the process--but it was long and hard. I finally wound up hiring a book editor, which may have been the best decision I've ever made in my life. Once I did that, I could finally let go and prepare everything else--the cover, the website, promotion, etc.--and get back to creative writing.

I can't tell you how excited I am to get this thing out. It's slightly incredibly terrifying, of course, but I guess that means it's right.

The title of Hugh's upcoming novel

Ross :- with the release of city under the moon imminent how important is it that all the listeners to the One of swords podcast go out and pick up a copy. ?

Hugh :- Well, I'm willing to take strong odds that they'll survive without it, but I can't guarantee that it'll be a happy life.

Seriously, I appreciate the support, but I'm not looking for charity. If you're not into reading or this isn't your genre, don't throw me your hard-earned money. But if that's the case and you enjoy my work on the show and wanna support the kid, pass the word along to someone who *would* like to read it. Word of mouth is better than gold, because it can make gold.

I don't want to bust out any violins, but at the heart of this is a guy who is, to be honest, taking a major life gamble on himself. It's a tremendous personal investment and risk to self-publish, and I'd be lying if I said I know what to expect. If the book is a major hit, you might look back on this statement and laugh, but right now I'm understandably nervous. I've got two kids to feed, and they've made it perfectly clear that if I can't provide food they'll be happy to eat me instead.

Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely confident that I've got the goods here. And I'm giving away the first quarter of the novel as a sample, so you should feel that way too before you plunk down your dough. But the process of getting the word out is scary. Trying to market yourself in today's media is like standing up in a galaxy-sized stadium and attempting to start the wave.

Also, in this case, my self-deprecating humor works against me. It's just not in my nature to throw my shoulders back, lift my head and say, "Hey folks, I did something here, and I promise you it's awesome." That's on the opposite side of the universe from my comfort zone. So I guess the fans of the podcast will have an inside look as I try to shift my image in an unnatural manner.

The one of swords podcast from Activision

Ross :- do you plan on having any serious advertising campaign for your novel or will word of mouth and amazon etc reviews be good enough for you ?

Hugh :- I'm going to pull as many strings as I can, but I can't compromise folks' integrity. And I don't even know that I should.

Back when Freshmen was on the shelves, Mila Kunis did an interview for Stuff Magazine and hawked the book. They even ran the cover that featured her character, without us having to ask them. Seth Green co-created Freshmen, and went on Conan O'Brien to talk about it. Sarah Michelle Gellar gave us a cover quote--and so did Joss Whedon, George Lucas, and Stan Lee. Brad Meltzer--the great freaking Brad Meltzer--got in touch with me on MySpace and told me he liked the book, and offered up a quote. Best compliment of my life. Wizard did articles on us. Seth and I went to conventions. The reviews were better than I could have imagined. And we had a rabid core fan base, I mean they were relentless.

But look--it's no secret that Freshmen isn't coming out anymore.

The problem, I think, was this: In order for something to be a success, it needs to find its own audience. Not just any audience, but the particular audience that will embrace it. I don't think the Freshmen spark was ignited in the right place for it to really catch fire. If we'd put up posters of The Intoxicator in college towns, if we'd gotten the story of The Seductress into some high school counselors' offices, then I think we would've been a smash. But we used conventional means to market a comic that wasn't necessarily right for the conventional comic book consumer. I mean--I THINK this is the case. I could be totally wrong, and by no means am I taking anything off of my own shoulders as the writer. And I'm also not criticizing Top Cow, because they busted their asses and spared no expense to push Freshmen. But there is a lesson to be learned.

Long story long: I need fans of action novels, thriller novels, horror, mystery and just plain fun writing to discover this book, and the best way to do that is to get those communities talking about it. I hope they find it on Amazon, and I'm going to try to reach out to them as best I can, in a target manner.

And quite frankly, I can't afford major advertising. :)

Ross :- Speaking of the One of swords podcast how did you become involved with that project ?

Hugh :- Dan Amrich called me up and said he was starting a new podcast, and asked if I'd like to co-host. I'd never done it before, so I shrugged and did it. And every Wednesday since, I wake up, shrug and do it.

Ross :- How important to you is it to have a platform to just release what ever is going on in your head every week ?

Hugh :- It's great, and the show is a ton of fun. I used to have my blog for a release, but I shot myself in the foot too many times on there. I'm still trying to figure out how to distinguish my personality on the show--miserable, hopeless Hugh--from the real life guy who does have those instincts, but also has a wonderful family. That's why Twitter has worked out for me, because I've warned all of my friends and family not to follow me, and I... well, to a certain extent, I play my character.

Having a presence on the Internet is a mixed bag, because you have to limit your exposure as a writer. There's a shroud that's supposed to fall over an author--I think you're not supposed to know much about him or her. They should be like the puppeteer hidden in the rafters. I hope this isn't the case, but I think a lot of our listeners will be thinking about me when the read City Under the Moon--like, they'll see shades of the Superman II story, or my sarcasm, or whatever. My real fear, which I mentioned before, is that they won't feel like they're in capable hands because I'm so constantly self-deprecating. Or they'll know when I'm talking out of my ass, because they know I've never worked for the FBI, or flown helicopters, or been a werewolf.

And, of course, being public and available leaves me open to some whopping danger from the angry, evil, anonymous (with a lowercase "a") folks on the Internet who might decide to insult me or my writing. I didn't get much of that from Freshmen, but we'll see what happens here.

Hugh's Blog check it out Here

Ross :- here in the uk Robot Chicken isn't massively well known within the general public , could you give any of the readers go aren't familiar with it a brief synopsis of what the show is and what your role on it is ?

Hugh :- It's a sketch comedy show done in stop-motion animation, using actual toys. We might play on the established personalities of the toys, or create new ones, or just do original stuff with this aesthetic. Each episode is only 15 minutes long, but it moves lightning quick.

I buy all of the toys for the show, a job I dubbed "Toy Wrangler." It's a great gig, and it allows me to still write in my downtime. I've only been on the writing staff for a couple episodes, including the first and third Star Wars specials, both of which earned me Emmy nominations--which are the US version of the Oscars for TV. Lost both times, but it was pretty cool to get free dinners.

 

Ross :- how did your friendship / working relationship with Seth Green come about ? 

Hugh :- Seth and I met in kindergarten. We had all of the same interests, and became good friends. He moved out to LA in the middle of high school, and I went off to upstate New York for college. I moved to LA to become a screenwriter, and we kinda fell in love again. We've worked together because it's so much fun, but we've also both gone off and done our own things. We actually have very different tastes, so sometimes I'll see his stuff or he'll see my stuff and we'll just laugh and say, "That's awesome, and that's never how I would have done it."

Ross :- how is It living the hollywood lifestyle ? 

Hugh :- Well, you'd have to define that more specifically. And it's likely that if you did, I'd break down all of your illusions and make you depressed. So I'll lie and say this: It's incredibly, unstoppably awesome. Us Hollywood folk never get sick, we never have to pay bills, and when nobody's looking, we can fly.

Hugh & Seth

Ross :- are there any future projects already in the pipeline ? 

Hugh :- I've written the screenplay for a stop-motion movie that's in production right now, called Hell & Back. TJ Swardson and Rob Riggle are the leads, and we have some phenomenal casting news coming up that I can't quite talk about just yet [although it might be released by the time the interview runs, so check back with me, or check IMDB.] I don't know when that will be released, though.

My immediate goal is to write more novels. I'd be very happy doing this for a living, and letting someone else deal with the nightmarish rigamaroll of getting the movies made.


Now just a few quick random questions from people who were excited about this interview

Ross :- who is the most famous person in your contact list ?

Hugh :- That's hard, and I'm not being cagey. Is Macaulay Culkin more famous than Seth Green?

Ross :- who is the hottest actress In Hollywood ? 

Hugh :- For my taste, Kate Beckinsale. Jessica Alba is pretty darn hot too. I really like hair. This Mila Kunis chick isn't bad, either.

Hugh might be on to something here 

Ross :- do you have a man crush in anyone we should know about ? 

Hugh :- My man crushes begin and end with the McCounaghey. He is the ultimate incarnation of man.

Ross :- do you follow any sports and if so which teams within those sports 

Hugh :- Philadelphia Phillies and Philadelphia Eagles. So close... so far. I always enjoy watching tennis and poker, no matter who's playing.

 And finally what is your favourite video game of all time.

 Oh, so hard. I'll say Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Hugh's book City under the moon can be purchased in Kindle format Here. I would like to thank Hugh for taking the time out of his hectic schedule to take part in this interview with me and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did , Enjoy 

Mass Effect 3

Well I CANNOT WAIT for Friday , as this is Mass Effect 3 day one of the happiest days of this gaming year . Mass Effect 2 is for me the greatest gaming achievement on any console from any era the conversation wheel enables you to give such varied responses that any 2 play throughs are ever the same with so many different ways to go down your chosen route be that the Good guy (Paragon) or the evil dude (Renegade) . I do always try and play with the choices I would make in the real world thus making me always go down the Paragon path.

The interactions with the members of your crew are another marvel that no other game has come close to achieving , one wrong word and you will shut down a whole story arc with that particular character so you cant just skip through the dialogue with the supporting cast every response counts.

If ME3 can take these 2 particular parts of the previous games and expand on them i will be so happy i may actually explode from gaming goodness . If you haven't pre ordered it already go do it now its pretty much a standard price £37.99 across the board from all your favourite online retailers.

another step closer to 30

So yesterday was my 28th birthday I'm another year closer to 30 as my wife keeps reminding me but once again  I feel very lucky to have such great friends and family who made it a great day for me and especially to my wife who spoilt me once again with lots of nice clothes and to my parents & best friends Dave and Gael who contributed even more money to our savings they will between them own at least 2 thirds of what the money is going towards !

we went out for a nice meal at the Slug & Lettuce in Gunwharf (portsmouth) and followed that with a trip to the cinema to watch Chronicle.

Once again thanks to the following people , Jenny , Rob , Ally , Paddy , Jenny , Mark , Ashleigh , Danny , Jodie , Sean , Gael & Dave

Its been a while

Well it certainly has been a while since my last post , a little over 2 months in fact so I thought it was a bout time i got on with a bit of blogging . Part of the reason for my lack of posts is the absolute lack of anything interesting to write about but this previous week has been pretty busy for things I take a interest in.

Lets start with the Royal Rumble last Sunday night as a wwe ppv in the current era i thought it was a very good show the main event match the rumble it self was a step up from last years 40 man boring effort with a nice win for the great white (is that racist) Sheamus which should signal a big push for him this coming year.

It was also the closing of the transfer window on Tuesday evening and Leeds managed to do one deal for young Tottenham right back Adam Smith who came in on loan for the remainder of the season , not thrilling but a position we did need some new additions in .

But the big news coming out of Elland Road this week is the sacking of manager Simon Grayson who after 3 years of working under Ken Bates finally bit the bullet , for me i feel it was about the right time to make a change as long as we get the right man in to follow him but there have been some very disrespectful comment from chairman Ken Bates today regarding the situation and his former employee the following quotes have been taken straight from skysports.com 

Bates claimed 

 "At 30 players, we have one of the largest squads in the Championship and bigger than some in the Premier League.

"We spent over £12m on wages so why are people blaming me for the recent results?

"All the money we have received has gone back into the squad. The manager decides who he wants to buy, we as the board just pay for it. I only said no once."

The last statement is one that has got the ire of Leeds fans up when looking through our team if not squad they are a bunch of free transfer players with the rest made up from loans and very low cost transfers with Ross McCormack being our highest fee paid for a player in recent years at a believed 300k .

And finally i would like to direct you all over to my friends new Wrestling blog he has quite strong opinions about WWE so hit him up here proffits piledriver and be sure to leave a comment

Rest In Peace Speedy

League champion 92

When I first became aware of my love for Leeds United was in the 91/92 season this also happened to be the season we were crowned champions of England this may paint me as a glory fan but I was only 7/8 years old and my dad is a life long Leeds fan so I have more than enough reason there to support them . Anyway my point is that the Midfield 4some of Gordon Strachen , Gary McAllister, David Batty and Gary Speed  were as a group as good as any midfield in Leeds United history definitely up there with the great Don Revie midfield of the 60's , The most exciting of these midfielder s was the young Welshman Gary Speed his driving runs down the left wing were a sight to behold his crosses for supreme target man Lee Chapman were a thing of beauty and his far post headed and volleyed goals were a example for all young wide-men of how to get in to the box and score goals .

I was devastated when we sold Speed to Everton for at the time a good sum of £3.5 million to me he seemed to epitomise everything that is Leeds United the drive , desire to play for the shirt , the passion . we would struggle to replace him until a certain Australian left winger came through our academy in the late 90's .

Speed went on to play many many many more premier league games for clubs like Newcastle and Bolton on top of the many years at Leeds and Everton , he had recently become the manager of the Welsh national team a job we all thought he could do a good job in with exciting talent like Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey doing the business for the welsh on the pitch the future looked bright .

When i woke up on Sunday afternoon to a text message from my wife about his passing I suppose I went in to a state of shock I didn't want to believe it i was devastated and I'm not ashamed to say i shed a tear at the news Speedy has been a part of all our lives for a long time as Leeds fan I like to think we were extra proud of his success as he was one of us , What ever it was that led him to take his own life cant have been bad enough to lead to that end but he must of felt that it was the only way out .

My thoughts and go out to his wife and children at this time and where ever you are Speedy I hope your now at peace , you will always be a hero to me .

WWE issues

When CM Punk won the wwe title from
John Cena at the Money in the bank PPV held in his home town of Chicago in July they had on there hands a potential gold mine story line , with punks contract ending on the same night they should of in my opinion kept him off tv for at least 2 months to build the suspense for his return to the ring at either the night of champions ppv or even survivor series in November .

But as is the norm these days in wwe they have to rush everything and punk returned to wwe tv after only 1 week away returning to challenge the newly crowned wwe champion John Cena ( via Rey Mysterio ) to a champion vs champion
Match at summerslam , having beaten Cena in this match it seemed that the wwe had finally made a good decision to not go with old faithful Cena in the role of champion seemingly looking to push Punk all the way up there with the likes of Austin , the Rock & yes even Cena , but wait after the match out of nowhere Kevin Nash appears in the ring and jacknife powerbombed punk for Alberto Del Rio to come out and cash in his money in the bank briefcase he won the previous month he promptly beat Punk and became the new champion , ADR as champion I have no problem with he is a upcoming talent just lacking in one or two areas but it's still early days for him.




My main problem and the whole point of this blog entry is my bemusement with the whole involvement of Kevin Nash with wrestling in general in 2011 , this guy has been over the hill for about 6 years now his awful TNA run which highlighted how badly his knees have gone should of been enough of a warning to anyone in the higher echelons of wwe that Nash's time in the spotlight had gone , it should now be the time of young and upcoming stars such as Punk , ADR , The Miz , Bryan Danielson ( Daniel Bryan ) & Wade Barrett but the longer they keep going back to these old guys the more the future stars will regress and miss opportunities to make the top spot there own .

Now is the time to invest in the future stars of tomorrow for the financial health of the next 20 years do it now Vince


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Location:Burnett Rd,Gosport,United Kingdom

lets not be to down hearted

Simon Grayson contemplates the start to the season 

lets not be to down hearted about how the season has gone so far yes we have now lost 3 of out first 5 games and apart from the appalling display at St Mary's on the first day of the season we have gone down to teams after we have had men sent off  , 2 men off at elland road a few weeks back against Middlesbrough and again today Aidy White sent off away at Ipswich without these men being sent off I firmly believe we would have won both of those games . The first half of today's game we totally dominated Ipswich but as so often happens we fail to add more than 1 goal when we have these spells of dominance and in the end went down to a long range strike and a deflected loop of Lonergan.

We have a two week break now before our next league game against Crystal Palace we should use this time to work on squad discipline and try to cut out these needless red cards and lets finish games off while we are in control of them .

41 league games to go and a small matter of Scum rocking up at Elland Road before the end of Sept .

KEEP THE FAITH IN GRAYSON WE TRUST
MOT

New Team Member

We have a new team member here at Johnny kashmirs random blog and he goes by the name of David Green he will be the new movie reviewer with also occasional reviews of video games some of you may have read his previous work on the site before.

I look forward to reading is work on a regular basis

The Season so far

Great Support 

We are now almost one week into the season and what a week it has been , I was one of the very unfortunate Leeds fans in attendance at St Mary's last Saturday evening to witness a appalling display of overall football from every one in a Leeds United shirt apart from Adam Clayton , Clayton himself wasn't outstanding but he appered to be the only player in blue trying to get anything going for the away team along side him in central midfield were Captain Jonny Howson and new signing Michael Brown , I'll get to Howson in a moment but lets look at Brown for a second he was bought into the team to be the enforcer of our otherwise lightweight midfield he promptly was book after little more than 10 mins after a few nasty late tackles and at one point even trying to take out the ref with a tackle from behind , for his own sake he was sacrificed not long into the second half otherwise he would already be looking at a suspension . As for Howson he was hardly invovled in the game which seemed to mostly pass him by one problem we have seen a few times from Howson over the last few years is his lack of ability to stamp any authority on the game.

On the wings we had Max Gradel and Robert Snodgrass, who both have been transfer targets from other clubs this past off season both looked well off the pace from the start with Snodgrass almost seeming not to care some even saying his head may have been turned by the interest from his Premier League suitors , Gradel was later to score from the penalty spot for a very undeserved consolation goal for United.

Now on to the back 4 who between them looked like they had never seen a football before with Andy O'Brien being the main culprit of inept defending  he was repeatedly turned inside and out by the Saints strikers and failing to close down the ball for Saints 1st goal ever since we signed him on a long term contract he has looked like bambi on ice when forwards run at him. Patrick Kisnorbo we can give a little slack to he has been out with a very serious injury for the past 18 months so he is still getting back up to hopefully the level he was at before that night against Millwall where he suffered the horrendous injury in the first place but after Saturdays match it seems he's still along way from his previous level. Darren O'Dea only joined Leeds on a season long loan from Celtic the day before the game so we can let him off for now as he is still learning to play along side his new team mates .

In goal we have new recruit from Preston Andy Lonergan who signed after a protracted contract negotiation and so far he must be wondering why he left Preston having to play behind that back 4 , as someone mentioned on Twitter after the game on Saturday its no wonder we signed two GK's who can both be number 1 the mental damage of playing in goal for Leeds is more than one man can take for a whole season , Lonergan for me though has so far been fairly impressive he had no chance with any of the goals against Saints after being wildly exposed by the defence , he did pull off one great save towards the end of the game pushing a ferocious shot on to the post  to keep the score from getting even more embarrassing .

*** EDIT*** 

This piece was written just before the Middlesbrough game , when the team performed very admirably in the face of a awful ref who does seem to have a vendetta against us , we did very well to only lose 0-1 after losing Gradel and Howson to terrible decisions but they served there suspensions during our mid week game vs Hull in which we got our first 3 points of the season thanks to a fantastic 4-1 win thanks to goals from McCormack , Lees , Snoddy and Nunez only a own goal from Lees somewhat spoiled the game but he more than made up for it with a grat strike at the other end , Lees now has the same amount of goals for us as our FORWARD Billy Paynter , he looks a great prospect at the back and seems to have been a constant threat from corners and free kicks already . 


We head to West Ham this Sunday lunch time with both teams coming of the back of big wins in midweek  , this    is going to be our biggest test of the season so far with WHU being many peoples pick for the title this year , knowing Leeds this is the kind of game we will get a result from we normally play very well against the bigger teams in the division take the QPR results last year for the proof of that so here's hoping we can get some sort of positive result 


MOT 


I'm @RossBell1984 on twitter follow me there 

Disappointment (a year in games by Dave Green)

Disappointment


For me this year games have been really disappointing with no real motivation to play the xbox at all. LA Noire had no really chemistry for me to be inspired to play.
Where as everyone is fighting for Xmas no.1
Here is the list of games to which I am looking forward to:

Gears of War 3 (20 sept)
Skyrim (11 nov)
Batman Arkham City ( 20 oct)
Bioshock : infinite (31 dec)
Assassin Creed (31 dec)
Modern Warfare 3 (8 nov) 

To me modern warfare will be last as I have no investment in that franchise , but the other games are 6 – 60 hours worth of play so why has no one released there game and tried to get one of these out in summer and have a great hit instead of competing for the same audience.

I am truly glad that Mass Effect 3 was pushed back to march for that exact reason. Bioware look after there customers I do believe. And if the previous Mass Effect games are anything to go by its going to be a huge game.

What games are you looking forward to this coming holiday period , leave a comment and let us know

Mass Effect The Movie

So it was a fairly well known secret that a mass effect movie would be being made and it seems that  Legendary Pictures  has picked up the rights to make a movie on the Mass Effect franchise, with BioWare co-founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka serving as executive producers along with the game franchise's executive producer Casey Hudson. The film is still in the very early stages, and Mark Protosevich (Thor, I Am Legend) has been approached to write the movie.


With its myriad worlds and alien races, Mass Effect would be a challenge to bring to the silver screen, but the strong Commander Shepard would also be an easy character to center on , for me though here lies the problem , with Commander Shepard being fully customisable everyone who played the games would probably have had a different looking main character i went for the pretty basic bald space marine look that is fairly standard to the game but i messed around with face shape and beard types etc while my friend Dave went for a Wesley Snipes (simon from demolition man) look a like  as seen in the pic below.

Personally i think you couldnt go far wrong with Sam Worthington he of Avatar , Terminator salvation fame for the standard Sheppard look .

Let me know your thoughts in the poll on the side bar of the homepage

Bloody customers (RANT)

With morrisons now being open every day until 9pm we nightshifters now have the added pleasure of dealing with customers for a hour, this on it's own I have no problem with it slows us down a little but ultimately it probably a good thing . The thing that does piss me off however is when I am working down a aisle typically household or pet food I will have a cart full of stock to put out which when my aisle isn't busy will normally be in the middle of the aisle , now if you as a customer cane down the aisle I would of course move it out of the way and apologise for the inconvenience , at this point a regular human being would say "that's ok" or "thank you" infact most beings would say something but apparently if you are one of those people who choose to do your shipping at this time of night you were clearly dragged up and not taught any manners at all .

In the end though there's really nothing I can do about it so I suppose it's just gonna have to stay this way ! God some people . RANT OVER now back to work as my tea break is over


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Location:Cranbourne Rd,Gosport,United Kingdom

Preparation almost done

This Wednesday is my wife's 24th birthday,  we are having a big garden party hence all the work that I have been putting in to getting it all sorted .  This past week me and my chum Dave made all the tip runs we had to do to get rid of about 2 tons worth of rubbish and also stopped of at Asda and picked up a nice garden furniture set  this one infact



we also only have one bit left to do and that is make another flower bed opposite the one we already have and that will be that.

In other news yesterday was also my dads birthday along with my niece Megan so happy birthday to both of you , hope you both had a good day .

I'd to recommend that you all watch the TV series Lead Balloon staring Jack Dee as failing comedian Rick Spleen its a very well done show and you have to feel for him as everything he tries falls apart week after week , make sure you catch the last of the current series this Tuesday 10 pm BBC 2

What a Week

Well what a week I've had this week , I normally work set shifts that are Tues,Wed,Fri and Sat but this week we've had holidays , Sickness and people on courses so I've been all over the place I ended up working Tue,Wed,Thur and tonight (Sat) it feels very weird to be awake during a Saturday daytime without any football to look forward to at 3pm .

But the good news is the fixtures have been released for this coming season and even better news is that Leeds kick off away at Southampton which is great news as there is a good chance I can actually get to that game , we have a tricky first month with games vs Middlesbrough , Hull , West Ham and Ipswich if we can get 9 points from those 5 games ill be very happy with that return

Garden ! I Hate You

When we moved into our council flat the garden was in a absolute state , 4/5ft grass , weeds , a bramble bush that took over about half the actual garden space , in short it was a bloody nightmare to even contemplate getting out there .

After a few months I made the executive decision to give it ago with a lot of help from my mate Dave we started to make some in road in to it 

after the first day of clearing 

it kind of stayed in that state for about a year before i go round to clearing away the bramble bush , that was a whole day in it self .

Next we decided to tidy up the path to get to the actual garden , we turned over all the soil , laid weed control fabric and then put down a load of pea shingle.

the shingled pathway 

we then moved on to turning over all the soil in the actual garden , so with two weeks booked of work i set about it , with help from my wife , brother in law and again Dave we got it all turned and laid more weed control and tarpaulins to try and combat the weeds and grass returning .

Half way there 

almost all turned and covered now 

The next step was to get stones to cover it , we thought 2 Tons would be enough to do it all 

2 Tons down 

How wrong we were 2 tons only covered little over half of it so 2 more tons were ordered along with 20 paving slabs to make a patio area 

4 tons down 

the view from the kitchen window 

so now the main part of it is done and down I'm very pleased with my self for the what has been achieved , all that is left to do now is create another flower bed like the one at the bottom of the garden and finish off the patio .

once its all done i will of course update you all on how it looks

Back in the "swing" of things

So now the weather is supposedly better i thought it would be about time to get back to playing a bit of Golf , yesterday me and my good friend Sean went to Wickham park golf course which is about 20 mins from my home its not a very difficult course no real challenges in the way of water of bunkers its just long and flat , the weather wasn't amazing as this picture shows

the game cover for Tiger woods 2012

we managed to get the round done without really getting wet the rain stayed away for almost the entire time so it was overall a success , it feels good to just get back out on the course and do some sort of exercise.

LUNCH BREAK AT 2 AM !

As you may have gathered from the title of this post I'm currently on my lunch break(!) and it is 2:36 am yes AM ! can it really be called a lunch break at this time of the morning , when I get home from work I normally have something to eat and a cup of tea but is that breakfast when your life works in reverse to most people , but not in the cool Benjamin Button kinda way.

If your interested which let's face it your not , I had two BLT sandwiches a muller fruit corner yogurt and a packet of mini chedders washed down with a coffee and a Dr Pepper.



See there's the proof !

Anyway I've only got 19 mins of lunch(!) break left so back to my book



Sleep well everyone I know I will tomorrow day time

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Location:Gosport,United Kingdom

Keridels Techno Blog

My Friend Keridel has just set up his own blog he will be looking at and dealing with techno issues , So if your a massive geek get on over and have a look , I certainly will be Keridels Techno Blog

Leeds United - a look back and a glance forward

Last season was a success , no matter what all the moaning Leeds fans think we very comfortably stayed in the Championship which correct me if I am wrong was the aim at the start of last season .
Yes we flirted with the Play-offs for the majority of the season and it is a little disappointing to have finished 7th at the end of it all but realistically each and everyone of us knows that if we had by some miracle won the Play-offs and gone up to the supposed "Promised Land" our transfer strategy for the summer would in my opinion not been very different from what it is currently , that being mainly free transfers from clubs in the same division as us.

And there in lies the problem it would appear that Mr Chairman doesn't back Simon Grayson in the transfer market and to some degree i have to actually agree with Mr Chairman on this lets look at some of the players over the last few season we have signed for cash or given high wages to as free transfers

Leigh Bromby - 250k ; some including me would say this transfer was a successful one , but he has hardly been a  first team regular these past two seasons

Max Gradel - 250k ; A undeniable success story at Leeds who this season has become one of our most important players 

Gary McSheffrey - Loan ; although this was a loan deal we still somehow managed to end up paying him something along the lines of 10k a week to basically piss about on the left wing and try his hardest to not get involved

Neill Collins - Loan followed by a 500k Deal ; a unmitigated disaster , anyone who remembers the Gillingham game from the tail end of the 2009 - 2010 season will agree that Neil wasn't of the required quality to be a League One centre back , yet for some unknown reason Grayson decided to part with 500k of his transfer budget to bring in Neill !

Alex Bruce - 300k ; A solid if unspectacular centre back who played his best game in a Leeds shirt for me on his debut away at Doncaster Rovers then became a regular in the back four until a unfortunate mix up with a certain Neill Collins resulted in Cardiff taking advantage to score in a 4-0 thrashing at Elland Road , hardly used after that and likely to be shipped out this summer if internet rumours are anything to go by.

Ross McCormack - 300k to 1 million depending on reports ; Ross came in with very high expectaions on his shoulders as a season before he had netted a very respectable 23 goals in all comps for Cardiff , Yet in his fleeting appearances for us at the start of the season it appeared Grayson couldn't figure out what his best position was with Ross making appearances at Left wing , Right wing , In the hole and as a lone striker , he seems to finally found a way to play with McCormack in the team that gets the best out of him with 2 goals in his final 2 games of the season , all be it one down to a massive deflection against QPR.

Adam Clayton - Undisclosed ; we are yet to see Adam play more than 5 mins of a game for leeds to my knowledge so this one is still a wait and see i guess

George McCartney - Loan ; we have had trouble at left back since the days of Ian Harte and George came to us with a decent premiership record behind him and a 7 million pound transfer fee a few years back obviously had people at Sunderland thinking he was a quality left back , but for us he has consistently been the weak link in a very weak defence and we were paying a good portion of his reported 40k p/w wages .

Now don't get me wrong I fully back Simon Grayson as the manager of Leeds United , I just think he may need a little help in spotting potential transfer targets maybe from a director of football or a stronger scouting team, it is clear to us all that we need a hard bastard in the centre of our midfield and although he has tried to bring one in look at Amdy Faye / Michael Doyle for proof of that , for whatever reason they haven't worked out but its something that is our major issue this pre-season , along with a few more creative midfielders seeing as it now looks as though both Kilkenny and Johnson will be on there way out of the club we look very short on players for the middle of the park .

The players are out there Simon lets hope you can find them in time

Californication season 4

I don't know if you guys have ever watched a tv show called californication but it has just finished it's 4th season and it was a excellent season . David Duchovny stars as troubled writer Hank Moody and it follows he story of his life which while it has it's high points tends to be falling apart all around him.

The show also stars Natascha McElhone as Hanks on off love interest
Karen and Madeleine Martin as Hank & Karens daughter Becca.




I won't hit you with any spoilers but all I can say is watch this show , especially if you like T n A there's a hell of a lot of it !


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