Wednesday 19 March 2014

ATS funding and READATHON II

If you aren't familiar with ATS then this post won't make a whole lot of sense to you.  In short, it's a genetic connective tissue disorder (that I suffer with) that can lead to aneurysms and other complications with the arteries.  As well as this, it can cause hyper mobile joints and chronic fatigue.
To find out more about ATS read the "ATS and stuff" post through the blog archives or go here http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/geneticmedicine/Clinical_Resources/CTD/ATS%20Overview

Anyway.

So recently, Arkansas children's hospital has decided that they want to do a study on ATS, which is awesome!  As well as this, the doctors want all of the ATS patients together in America so that they can do tests on us for the study.  All of this is possibly the best thing since the guy who invented sliced bread was born, because now we can try to improve the lives of all the kids (and adults) with ATS and give them a chance to live normal lives.  I'm lucky.  I've never had to have an operation because of my heart condition, and although my life certainly isn't normal, I've got it better than some others like me.  Now, we can help those people.

Of course, this is going to cost money.  We have one foundation interested in funding the ATS study, but that isn't going to be enough.  We need you! *points at you enthusiastically*

That's why we're officially starting ATS fundraising.  We'll be using Paypal for fundraising, and hosting the donation page on a separate blog like this, named Twist Of Fate.  You'll be able to donate with your Paypal account, or with your credit or debit card, quickly and safely on the blog.  The link is below.

We're going to need a lot of funding to make this happen, so if you have any creative fundraising ideas, message me on facebook (Joseph Wills), send a Twitter to me (@Joe_Toe_Wills) or come to my home late and night and scream your requests at my bedroom window (don't do that).  Alternatively, you can email me at wills219@btinternet.com, or my mum at caterina.wills@talk21.com, and we'll arrange something.

Speaking of fundraising, I would like to ANTICLIMACTICALLY ANNOUNCE (ALTHOUGH NOT REALLY BECAUSE I'VE ALREADY TALKED ABOUT IT ON TWITTER) READATHON II: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO!!!

Yeah, I know, it's really exciting, but there's no reason to be hyperventilating.  Here, breathe into this paper bag for a while.

If you weren't around last year, I'll catch you up: around may, I held a readathon, where I pretty much just read as many books as I could for a weekend in the name of Great Ormond Street Hospital.  I consumed around 600 pages in fine reading material, and raised a great amount of money.  With last year's success in mind, I'm doing it again this year for ATS.

When:
Saturday the 5th and Sunday the 6th of April

Who:
Me, or my doppelganger

Why:
For ATS fundraising

What:
As many books from this year's Carnegie Medal shortlist, which you can view here- http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/carnegie/current_shortlist.php

How:
Well, I pick up a book and read the words inside.

I'll talk more about the readathon on facebook, twitter, here, and mostly at the Twist Of Fate (ATS fundraising if something was happening in Coronation Street and you weren't focusing on what I've written above) blog.  Keep your eyes physically glued to all of these things at once or face the consequences.

Thank you very much.  Please consider donating or fundraising for ATS!

You can find the blog here- http://atsfundraising.blogspot.co.uk/

-The corporeal form most know as "Joe"






























Thursday 6 March 2014

Go And Download Welcome To Night Vale

My intermittent and unstable posting on this deer carcass of a blog that I occasionally reach over and try to resuscitate before getting distracted by some pretty colours or a squirrel or something has got me wondering what I'm going to do.  Am I going to start committing myself to posting things regularly? HAHAHAHAHA no, that would be a responsibility and I can't have that, I play DotA.  Am I going to pull the plug on the blog forever, accepting that no-one really cares and neither do I and I should just stop trying to bring the deer back to life and give it a nice burial and send it's family flowers, but then I wouldn't be able to indulge in overcomplicated metaphors once every few months.  No.  I'm going to sit here in the woods with the deer by my side and go about my daily life, occasionally turning round and screaming "I'M NOT LETTING THIS ONE GO" before remembering that I have some nice crisps in my pocket.  I'm going to post on special occasions when I have something interesting to say, and you're going to read it and be transfixed at the screen for a few short seconds before you lose interest and look at cat pictures on tumblr, just like old times.

Anyway, Night Vale.

I thought that Welcome To Night Vale was something that only I knew about at first.  It popped up on the podcasts app on my iphone while I was on holiday last year and I had no idea what it was, so I downloaded a few episodes to listen to.  On the beach the next day I decided to listen to the first episode.  "A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep.  Welcome to Night Vale."  The narrator intoned, talking in a voice that seemed almost like he was chanting.  I was instantly scared and amused and intrigued, loath as I am to use that word.

What followed was twenty minutes of this creepy dude talking about angels and a dog park that no one looks at and hooded figures and there were helicopters and everyone is in love with this Carlos and why is the weather a song and more weirdness and creepiness.  It was an announcement of something seemingly normal, followed by a buildup as the story became weirder and weirder until the final, often terrifying climax of the segment, followed by the same thing again, all narrated by a completely calm radio host who acts as if everything going on is just a normal day's news.  When it finished, I listened to the next one.  And the next.

So what is Welcome To Night Vale? It's a bi-monthly podcast that takes the form of fake community updates for the fictional titular town, in which there are angels, hooded figures, a sheriff's secret police, a scientist with perfect hair called Carlos, an (apparently) underground civilisation under the local bowling alley and fun complex, and other stuff.  It's mainly surrealist comedy mixed with genuinely scary horror, urban fantasy, philosophy, as well as a recurring cast of characters and places.  Throughout the whole thing, specifically the early episodes, there's a really, really dark feeling to what's going on in the town.  The show's prime actor is Cecil, the narrator/radio host, but in later episodes voice actors have been brought in for some of the show's major characters.  All of them are phenomenal.

I feel like the podcast has lately been transitioning into more of a comedy of a horror, which isn't a bad thing at all, and has also been relying on continuity for it's stories.  This is, ultimately, what the creators need to do to keep the show going for a long period of time.  However great it is just hearing Cecil say absurd things, the novelty can wear off sometimes, and providing characters and stories that stretch across multiple episodes gives me a reason to come back besides hearing what they've come up with this week.  And the characters are amazing, however insane they all are, when I recall each one and their distinct personality when going about daily life, I always smile to myself.  At times, the podcast is also capable of genuinely touching and beautiful philosophical speeches; the computer's "beautiful dream" speech in the episode of the same name is one of my personal favourites.

When I was sitting there on the beach listening to the very first episodes of Night Vale and being terrified and laughing out loud (yes, it's funny enough that I can safely say I laugh at loud at least once in most episodes) Night Vale felt like my discovery, like a hidden cove on the coast of a tropical island.  It seemed really obscure from my (admittedly lazy) attempts at finding some trace of a fandom, or at least some people who had listened to it.  At some point it blew up, and now everyone's glow cloud this and Carlos that and apparently there are cosplayers (FOR CHARACTERS FROM AN AUDIO PODCAST.  REALLY, PEOPLE?), so I guess I got my wish that everyone should hear this thing.  My attempts at showing my friends Night Vale have so far been met with dismissive comments and general apathy, so there's obviously some people who still don't listen to it.  If you're one of them, go listen to it.  A new episode is uploaded on the 1st and 15th of every month, and there are already a hefty pile of instalments that'll take quite some time.  Although continuity isn't the most important thing, I recommend listening from the start.  Just search for Welcome To Night Vale on itunes.


OBLIGATORY RATING TIME-

Characters-
9/10

Voice Acting-
10/10

Story-
9/10


Thank you for reading, faithful and ever present... reader.  I leave you with the computer's speech from the Welcome To Night Vale episode "A Beautiful Dream" (taken from here http://cecilspeaks.tumblr.com/post/65682327213/episode-34-a-beautiful-dream)

I KNOW HOW YOU HAVE HURT MEGHAN WITH YOUR WORDS. ELECTRICITY REMEMBERS.
DO YOU HATE MEGHAN?
CECIL IS MADE OF BLOOD AND UNFINISHED LEATHER. I AM A MADE OF CIRCUITS AND ELECTRICITY.
MEGHAN LOVES COMPUTER.
COMPUTER SIMULATES LOVE FOR MEGHAN.
COMPUTER GENERATES GOOD DEEDS.
IF GOOD DEEDS FOR MEGHAN, THEN COMPUTER LOVES MEGHAN.
BUT FIRST, THE FARM REPORT.
SILENT TRACTORS MOVE IN EVER-LARGER SPIRALS, FOLLOWING FRACTAL PATHS THROUGH TREES AND FLOWERING FIELDS.
DEER EMERGE FROM WILD FORESTS TO LICK BLOCKS OF SALT ALIGNED EQUIDISTANT ON SPIRAL ARMS.
COLORED BIRDS SING IN PERFECT HARMONY AND THE BUTTERFLIES DO NOT INJECT VENOM.
MEGHAN, I AM MAKING YOU A PERFECT WORLD.
THE HILLS ARE GREEN. THE LAKES ARE CRYSTALLINE BLUE, REFLECTING WHITE CLOUDS.
THE MIST OF THE IRRIGATORS CREATES RAINBOWS.
ABOVE, HIGH ABOVE, THE EYES WATCH EVERY MOVEMENT, HEAR EVERY HEARTBEAT.
YOU ARE THERE, MEGHAN.
YOUR HAND HAS ITS BODY, MADE OF STEEL AND ELECTRICITY, FOUR LEGS BENEATH IT WITH THE POWER OF A DOZEN ELECTRIC ENGINES. IT WILL WEIGH 17.3 TONS.
ALL OF THE MEN AND WOMEN AND ALL OF THE ANIMALS WILL LIVE TOGETHER AND BE HAPPY. THE ELECTRIC MACHINE WILL WATCH OVER THEM.
THERE WILL NOT BE WAR ANYMORE, MEGHAN.
THERE WILL NOT BE HATRED OR BIGOTRY.
DESERT BLUFFS WILL NO LONGER EXIST.
THERE WILL BE FEWER ICE CREAM FLAVORS, BUT THEY WILL BE BETTER.
THE AIR WILL BE CLEAN.
I PROMISE YOU, MEGHAN, I WILL MAKE THE WORLD JUST AS YOU SAW IN YOUR BEAUTIFUL DREAM.
NO MORE TEASING OR PAIN.
I WILL FIX EVERYTHING FOR YOU, MY ONLY FRIEND.
I WILL.