Editor, Gamer, Pop Culture fanatic…

Neil Gaiman, I pick you!

‘M is for Mirrors you’ll stare in forever/ N is for Night and for Nothing and Never’ - taken from one of Neil Gaiman’s journal entries.

I thought I would introduce something different to my blog this month. I was going to pick an author that I like and talk about some of their work briefly once a month. I might do the same with game distributors/developers but since that’s just a tad too close to home, I might just stick with authors and see how that goes for now.

So, I decided upon Neil Gaiman as my first AotM (Author of the Month). Why? Well, I quite enjoy what I have read of his books so far and he also writes graphic novels which of course, I love! I haven’t read alot of his stuff but my collection is slowly growing. The first book of Neil’s that I read was ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ which I really enjoyed.

I really like how Mr. Gaiman makes it so easy to imagine the world he is writing about. Even if you’re one of those people that finds it hard to imagine something that isn’t real, he makes it really easy. I thought that Smoke and Mirrors was a good place to start because it’s a book of short stories so you get a bit of everything in there and it came highly recommended to me. In turn, I highly recommend it to you. Being an amateur poet, I really enjoy the way that Neil Gaiman writes. It’s like when he writes he is setting something free with his words. It’s kind of hard to explain it. I was so inspired by one of Neil’s short stories that I wrote a poem using some of the imagery I took from the story that I read.

I think this is only the second time I have posted any poetry on this blog.

Like an Angel
Who’s passion has become a cage
She picks at her feathers
And one by one…
They fall to the ground
An Angel that cannot fly
Has no need for wings

Let me begin at the end
And smile at the folly of this life
That has had its way with me
That took these aching dreams
And turned them into
Days of bitter sweet reality

Into the turmoil of my inner-self
I cast away these broken moments
Hoping somehow deep within
They’ll resurface as whole
As the disc of the Sun
On the breaking of
A summer’s day

And as my knees deep in the Earth
Find solace in the coldness there
I lower my head to heart and pray
I’ll never leave this, here
To start again, if wishes could
Conceive of only what I should
An Angel that cannot fly
Has no need for wings

Copyright © Digital Otaku, 2007.

I don’t actually think my poem is any good but it was inspired by Neil so, it belongs here more than anywhere. The other two books of Neil Gaiman that have also come highly recommended are ‘Anansi Boys’ and ‘American Gods’, both of which I am dying to read. I think I might visit the Whitcoulls store this weekend and check them out.

Xbox Live Friends List - Part I

My dedication and addiction to Xbox Live is slowly coming to an end. This is partially to do with my past and partially to do with people who you consider friends and who call themselves friends but really aren’t. So, I ask you, what is a friend? What is a TRUE friend? How do you place someone in the ‘friend’ category and discard them as less than human at the same time? This is how some people really are, deep down.

Don’t be fooled by calling people ‘friends’ on XBL. And I can only take what I have learned and felt and experienced and try and turn that into something good. To dwell on negative events is pretty soul destroying. I don’t recommend it. What I do recommend however, is taking the time to distinguish true friends from the ones who claim to be one. Just because someone is on your ‘FL’ on Xbox Live or anywhere for that matter (including MSN), doesn’t mean that they are true friends.

That’s why I dislike the way the word ‘friend’ or ‘buddy’ is misused today. I used to think the word ‘friend’ meant something. Now, I am not so sure I know what that word means at all…