Arrow, Season Opener ‘The Calm’: Thoughts, Spoilers Ahoy!

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

Having just watched the new episode of Arrow, I am pretty happy with the way they have decided to kick off the season.

Let’s get the big news out of the way first, with Sarah having 3 arrows put in her, and falling numerous stories suffice to say, Arrow has killed off another one of its prominent characters.

Firstly, with Sarah just turning up out of the blue, I wasn’t sure what they were thinking, just running in unannounced and helping Arrow deal with the bad guys, having a quick chat to Oliver about his personal life, a quick meet up with her sister and then BOOM, put down.

Image courtesy of The CW

For now, R.I.P Sarah

I knew the show would of wanted to start off the new season with a bang, and through out the episode there were times that I had thought other members of the Arrow crew were in jeopardy, with Felicity in the restaurant, Diggle with his incoming child leaving him open to perishing to further the story and even Laurel walking through that darkened ally towards the end seemed vulnerable before seeing her sister plummet to the ground. I think it is an interesting choice of character and only time will tell if it will pay off, but knowing she is part of the League of Assassins and the girlfriend of Nyssa, stuff is bound to get a bit messy.

Image courtesy of The CW

“Who of my loved ones will be killed off next?”

The other parts of the show were also pretty interesting, I’m really not into this whole Oliver/Felicity thing and found myself cringing every time there was a romantic moment between the two. So hopefully they move away from this quick smart. With Ray Palmer entering the scene, there may be a new person for Felicity to latch her wagon to, especially with him offering her a new job.

I’m starting to get pretty over Vertigo being a ‘thing’, however with the introduction of the fear compound, maybe an opening for Scarecrow to be introduced (however for me, nothing will top Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow from the Nolan Universe).

The flashbacks from Hong Kong didn’t explain a hell of a lot, but I think I will enjoy Oliver being off the island for a little bit, a change of scenery never hurt anyone, and a possible Katana sighting.

Lastly, I’m glad to see Roy as a working part of the Arrow quartet now, as opposed to the Mirakuru jacked individual for the majority of last series. He seems to be pretty handy with a bow now, and has some class moves on the battlefield. Hopefully we see episodes in the future which involve Roy a lot more.

Image courtesy of The CW

Keep slapping water Roy, your time will come.

‘The Calm’ was a really nice foundation for hopefully what is an excellent season of Arrow to come. I am excited to see where they take this season and who the main antagonist will end up being.

A new beginning…

Finally after me threatening my computer with physical violence for the past 24 hours I have finally fixed up my site to the point I can post stuff again. I still have a couple of niggling things that aren’t working at the moment, but at least I can put some content up here.

I have made the monetary sacrifice and thrown down a crisp $20 so I can change my design up and as you can see it looks so much nicer, even having a link to my Instagram and Twitter on the side bar seems a far cry of what my little blog used to look like.

Also the URL change, which has been giving me nightmares is somewhat fixed, so my new URL is http://www.therainbowroad.com .

Ties in nicely with my addiction to video games, when I am 40 it might feel a bit lame, but at the moment I’m really into it.

So this is just a small post to get me started on my new home for this blog and hope that is a successful one.

Now in celebration let us dance…

I is for 5 tips when becoming ‘Independent’ from the parents. Moving into your own apartment.

Having hit the ripe old age of 26, I feel that I am able to impart some wisdom upon the youth of today, and one thing I notice is this, people are living at home longer and longer, I didn’t leave home till I was 22. So when young people make that big move out and on your own, it can be daunting having your own space and place to call your own. So here are 5 things tips that should make it easier for the typical person who is becoming independent and living out of home.

1. Learn how to cook:
This seems really obvious but needs to be said. You can’t live off instant noodles and Subway for your life, I have tried. You need to ask your parents for some lessons before you make that move. Get about 4 or 5 stock recipes under your belt like a Spaghetti Bolognese, a fried rice dish, some basic skills for cooking vegetables and you will be good and able to live off those quite easily. Once you have mastered those and are feeling more confident, you can move onto more technical recipes to change things up.

Cooking makes a house share so much easier.

2. Move in with people you know:
Now for some people this may be harder, or not for everyone, but when moving in with people it can be easier if you already have some form of relationship with. They don’t have to be your best friend but can be as simple as a friend of a friend or person you go to school with, it will ease that transition into independence. Living with strangers is fine, but it can be stressful when issues in the house come up. Once you are more used to the living out of home idea, living with strangers will become a lot easier, when you move again down the line.

Always good to live with great mates.

3. Live within your means:
You might have found the perfect place, has that rainfall shower you always wanted, or is down the road from the beach or your favourite pub, but, make sure you can afford it. Seems simple, but in that moment and that adrenaline is flowing, take a breath and go in knowing the maximum you can pay in rent and DO NOT go over that. You will find yourself approaching your parents or your friends for money every second month and they will get sick of bailing you out very quickly.

You probably can’t afford to live in a castle, choose a place you can afford!

4. Change your address details:
Especially important when you are moving interstate, last thing you want is that amazing comic book or video game that you ordered off eBay to get sent to the wrong place. Then you need to wait another couple of excruciating days for that new issue or game (or substitute whatever you are personally interested in). Being proactive and changing your address on everything possible just saves a lot of hassle down the road.

5. Check the parking situation (if you have a car):
You have just signed the rental agreement for this amazing place, you rock up…. And there is no spot to park your car. You end up having to park it 5 blocks away, and just think, that is annoying now but imagine doing it for the next 6 months! Make sure when you are checking places out, that there is a place to park your chariot if you are in the city, or if there is adequate street parking if you are buying more out of the city centre.

These are just a couple of things I have come across in my time moving from place to place. Hopefully if you are reading this and are making the big move out, you find this useful.

If you have any other tips, comment down below or let me know on Twitter.

Twitter: @keeganbest

H is for House Sitting in paradise

I realise that I might be extremely late to this phenomena, and it has been going on for a while, but recently I have picked up some house sitting gigs. Currently I am house sitting for a family friend on the Gold Coast, and I must say that so far it has been a great experience.

The family has gone away for a couple of weeks so I am here keeping the dogs company, watering the plants, and making sure the house in general is still standing when the owners return. As I have also been living with my parents since I returned to Australia, it also gives me some nice time away in my own Fortress of Solitude, and time to get my life organised before my girlfriend and I make the big move to Melbourne. There are benefits on both sides of the agreement.

The disgusting view from my current house sit.

(As I am writing this, one of the dogs has bought a palm frond inside.)

Speaking of Melbourne, while we are getting ourselves organised, Claire and I are house sitting for a mate I met in London. Isn’t it funny how life sometimes just works?

Claire and I will not have to worry about paying rent for our first 5 weeks in Melbourne as we try to sort out our lives, get jobs and find a place to live. In return we will be watching over a couple of cats and keeping together a house while the couple travels the US, again mutual benefits.

Now I have been lucky as I have organised my house sits through personal contacts, but there are a variety of websites that offer this service, that try to match places with people. Some sites require a subscription while others require a personal reference so the owners knows that you aren’t going to total their place. I’ll include a couple of links to AUSTRALIAN websites below.

I think it is something people should consider if they are new to an area, or looking to just get away for a couple of weeks, while doing someone a huge favour, and accruing some good karma in the process.

Here are some of the more popular sites to organise house sitting gigs in Australia:

Aussie House Sitters

Mind a Home

Twitter: @keeganbest

F is for Firsts

Well it has been months, a whole variety of things have been going on, and when I would sit down to write something up, I would come up with a blank. I would stare at a blank word document and nothing would come to mind. Well I have finally polished off University and can now finally get back into writing for my own pure pleasure which is what I am missing, I can put some time and thought into my posts and come up with some awesomely different posts for my Alphablogging series.

As you can see, F is for firsts. Regardless of who you are, or where you come from, we ALL have firsts. So down below I am going to list a couple of my different firsts and you can take a time to sit back and ponder your own firsts, and cringe.

 

First Country I visited that wasn’t Australia: I did the family holiday; we have all been there, 18 years old, and going on a trip with your family. Trying to look cool and distance yourself from your parents, but not too far because they had all the money, those were the days. BTW I visited America.

 

First Alcoholic Beverage: Well, it was at a year 11 party, (Yeah that’s right, didn’t have my first party till I was 16, coolest kid ever 😉 ), it was a cold Saturday night in June and my weapon of choice, the Raspberry Vodka Cruiser, tasted sweet, probably a little too sweet. Back 10 years ago they only cost $12 for a pack of 4. I reckon today, $12 would buy you one with the amount of taxes they have thrown at alcohol these days.

 

First Kiss: Well, this is one we all sit back and cringe at. I know I do, I was 14 and it was in the line for the Cyclone roller coaster at Dreamworld. I won’t mention names as there is a good chance the lady may see this. Gee, I know how to treat the ladies well.

 

First Video Game Played: This takes me back, all the way to the old school NES. Back when video gaming wasn’t all about kill streaks and mouthy 12 year olds dropping the C-bomb and talking about having intercourse with my mother the night before. I was 7 years old and my auntie had just bought the NES, and the only game she got for it, Super Mario Brothers 3. That game opened me up to the world of gaming which I now feel very well entrenched in. Back then, I breezed to World 8 and then the end of the game. Now I play the game back, World 1 starts to cause me problems.

Well there are a couple of my firsts! I probably have a whole myriad of others but thought that this would be a good start.

Hopefully now, I am going to get so much more free time to get a couple of these up a week, as I am loving writing these again, and I hope each and every one of you enjoy reading them just as much.

Twitter: @keeganbest

CANDIDATES PROMISE CHANGE AND GROWTH AT THE 2014 GAVEN ELECTION LAUNCH (VIDEO)

Why I haven’t been able to post so many wonderful posts recently.

Griffith University GC Political Review

By James Laidler & Thomas Mann

It was all systems go as candidates for Gaven’s 2014 election took to the stage in front of thousands of voters to convince them why they deserve their votes.

Both the major and minor parties promised change and growth for Gaven while highlighting their policies, with Health and Education being the major areas of interest.

The GC Political Review was there and has a party by party exclusive for Gaven’s GC Political Review readers.

Cleaver Limp, Palmer United Party (PUP)

Cleaver Limp is surging ahead in the opinion polls and was calm, cool and collected as he took the stage, Mr Limp proclaimed the message that his campaign has been spreading for weeks “Leveling the playing field for Gaven.”

He took aim at Labor’s “Superduck” transport plan labeling it as embarrassing, he also blamed the LNP for neglecting Queenslanders and assured voters that mandatory…

View original post 518 more words

E is for England

Yeah, I haven’t been as active as I would have liked to be recently, the university is a harsh taskmaster and thus time has been limited, but regardless we are up to E in our Alphablogging experience, and to be honest it is one of my favorite topics to talk about, England (just ask my friends).

England, why would I be qualified to speak about such a place? Well, living there for 2 years gives you that sort of insight.

English Street Beverage

I absolutely love the place for so many big and small reasons. I was based in London, which in itself is just a cultural stew, so many different people and things to do. There was never a dull moment in the place, from going out in Dalston, to scouring the comic book shops of Central London, to going to see a Premier League game, to playing AFL with my Aussie brethren over there, it was always vibrant and there was always something to do.

Emirates Stadium (An Arsenal win that day)

Of course though, England just doesn’t finish in London, there is a big, wide, country out there, and I did my best to get around to a variety of different places, Liverpool, Bath and Oxford just to name a few.

Of course the major benefits of the place in general is that it is a gateway to the rest of Europe, you are always about a 3 hour plane flight from a vastly different culture and climate. Spain, Poland, Iceland, Italy, all vastly different places and all able to be visited one Ryanair flight at a time.

Totally Owning the Seas

Last thing I would just like to briefly mention, if I could just personalize this blog right up for a second is the people. The people I met there were a great bunch of lads and ladies, ranging from Irish to Spanish to American and back to other Australians (sorry if your particular ethnicity was so crudely ignored), especially the current long distance English girlfriend, Claire, that is living a whole hemisphere away, she rocks my world from half a planet away.

Family away from home, London Swans AFL Football Club, great bunch of lads

If you haven’t ever been, I implore you, GO! If not to live, for a visit. It will be one of the most amazing place you will ever be and ever see.

D is for ‘The Doctor’

So, if anyone here is thinking I am referring to the medical specialist, you would be so very disappointed.

I am of course referring the Steven Moffat produced Sci-fi series, Doctor Who.

Matt Smith: The 11th Doctor, Image courtesy of Limelight Magazine

Now, hold on to your hats fans and first time people to the ‘Who’ universe as I try to explain the plot in a few sentences. The Doctor is a time lord, a time travelling humanoid alien. This is made possible by his time travelling device, the T.A.R.D.I.S (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space), which is desgised as a British police box. He also has a device called a Sonic Screwdriver, that seems to be the answer to everything in the universe, bar wood. Through his adventures in time and space, he is accompanied by a variety of ‘companions’ (most recently  it is usually very attractive British women, impeccable taste). One of The Doctor’s defining features, is after he comes to the end of his life, he ‘regenerates’ and generates a new look and personality.

The T.A.R.D.I.S, image courtesy of Wikipedia

I am a relatively new person to the Doctor Who universe, having really only got heavily into it in the past year, but I have enjoyed it immensely. I have currently gotten through the Matt Smith episodes as of a week or so ago. I am now going to go back and watch the David Tennant (The 10th Doctor) episodes as I have been told by a vast majority of my friends and the internet that he IS the best Doctor of the modern series, I have also seen the 1996 Doctor Who movie, which I was kinda ‘eh’ on. I have also seen some of the 80’s and 70’s episodes of Doctor Who on the Sci Fi channel, I don’t know if I can handle these, but I may make an effort one day.

Clara Oswald, a companion, image courtesy of tardis.wikia.com

One of my all time dreams, is to make the trip to San Diego and visit a Comic-Con one of these years, I have already planned my costume for this fateful day. I am going to be going as the 11th Doctor, I already own the suit for this (thank you charity shops). All I need to make it complete is the bow tie and the Sonic Screwdriver. I already have wrangled my lovely girlfriend to dress up as Amy Pond for me, luckiest guy ever.

I am, along with many other people are currently waiting for the new series to begin soon with an older Doctor, Peter Capaldi becoming the 12th incarnation of ‘The Doctor’. I highly recommend anyone reading this to go and watch a couple of episodes, especially if you are into your Sci-Fi. It is strangely addictive, and at times have found myself getting through four 45 minute long episodes in one sitting. One of the many things the UK has seemed to get so spot on perfect.

C is for Comic Books

So I must say off the top, I am not a hardcore reader of comic books. I am not frothing at the mouth at my local comic book establishment waiting for the next new release. I would describe myself as a ‘casual’ reader. I usually go for the graphic novel or compendium set ups to read a series, and find myself buying books once every month or so. That however is not to say, I do not enjoy the art that is the comic book. I also have been known to dabble in the mainstream manga series, such as Naruto and One Piece.

Comic books create vivid stories that only the link between text and pictures can give.

My first indulgence into this was the old school Phantom comic books back when I was about 9. Off the back of seeing The Phantom movie starting Billy Zane. They were easily accessible at my local news agency and Mum was all too willing to keep me entertained on the local shopping trip by giving me something to look at and engage with.

My next big moment with the comic book came from the back of another movie (I am starting to see a correlation here), the Scott Pilgrim series, this got me back into the scene during my adult years. Now it isn’t necessarily a ‘challenging’ read, but it is something simple and fun that resonated with me at the ripe age of 21, relating with Scott in the story (outside of the 7 deadly ex’s deal and cheating on girlfriends).

Scott Pilgrim, art by Bryan Lee O’Malley

Current time, at 25, I am currently going back and looking for recommendations from people who are more heavily involved readers. I have gone back and read older Batman installments like Year One and The Killing Joke, to more recent releases such as Superman: Earth One, The Walking Dead and Harley Quinn: Night and Day.

Batman, The Killing Joke, art by Brian Bolland

As far as a list for future reads goes I am continuously being suggested other series such as Y: The Last Man among others.

I am always looking to extend my reading, so if you have any suggestions, please leave a comment or tell me on twitter, @keeganbest.

EXTRA SANS: I was shown this article by Claire and I thought that if you are a reader interested into getting some books of your own, go check out http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/60-comics-everyone-should-read for some great suggestions.

B is for Burgers

This is by far and away the best burger joint I have ever been to, and who knew I would find it in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Claire and I were wandering around one bitterly cold Icelandic (kindly living up to its name) evening, when we stumbled across this burger joint.

Hamborgara Bullan, we went in, and the first thing I noticed was all the menus were in Icelandic. Thanks to the helpful bloke behind the counter I was able to order myself the double cheese burger, with fries and a milkshake.

Side note: Burgers should ALWAYS be served with milkshakes.

The shop had a very retro feel to it with the polished wood finish and variety of posters hung around the joint.

My order finally came, I looked at this thing, and it was like I had just laid eyes upon the Holy Grail, Excalibur and the Crown Jewels all at the same time, I was mesmerized, then I took a bite, and my head was swimming in some sort of beef patty psychedelic experience.

Easily the best burger I have ever had.

Click the picture to get forwarded through to the street view of the place.

http://www.bullan.is/index.php- Website (helps if you can read Icelandic 😉 )