Sunday, November 16, 2014

Airport camping 101

Ever spent a night in an airport? I have.
Ever wished there was a site full of tips and reviews on the subject? If so, you're in luck! I've recently stumbled upon a site that's actually called The Guide to Sleeping in Airports.

Is it actually any good? Well... yes and no. It will have some useful information, but there's no guarantee that the airport you're going to will have a decent recent review. There's also no guarantee that the person reviewing it will share your concerns and preferences. For example, my take on the Copenhagen airport was somewhat different from the one posted there. But if you're a frequent flyer like myself, I'm sure you'll have fun looking around that site anyway.

I briefly wished someone would start an airport map project. The map would have to show the best benches and all electric sockets available. A few minutes later I changed my mind - I spent quite some time wandering the halls at night before I found a super comfy spot in the Copenhagen airport, for example. It felt like a reward for my effort.

However, I'm happy to share a couple of tips:
* If you've got a very early flight and are forced to get to the airport the night before, see if you can take hand luggage only and arrive before the security desks close. Providing you've got your boarding pass ready, you can just make your way to the gate. The passenger-only zone is much more comfortable to sleep in than the arrival hall.

* If the tip above is tempting, but you don't know the security working hours, just go to the airport's website (which they usually have) and check when the last flight goes on that day. They'll be open at least an hour before the plane leaves. It's usually safe to say that they won't wrap up until 10pm, but check just in case.

* Take food. Liquids will be taken off you at security, but food is fine. My favorite snack to take is beef jerky.

* You will get thirsty. If you'd rather not fork out a fortune for airport water, you could just take an empty bottle and fill it up in the bathroom sink. If that sounds gross to you, try to find a good deal on water.

* If you don't like sleeping in public places, put some good films on your laptop.

* If movies aren't an option, download something to your mp3 player instead. You're likely to get bored of your playlist after a while, so I'd suggest audio books (reading may get challenging when you're drowsy). Other than that, you could download a few episodes of a good podcast (Bronyville's my particular favourite). If all that somehow fails, you probably get radio on your mp3 player or phone.

* Can your bag double as a pillow? And you could put a long coat on, which could serve as a blanket (providing weather allows and all).

Sleeping in airports isn't fantastic. But if you treat it as an adventure, it can actually be fun.

Twitter


I've had a Twitter account for a while and started using it recently. I feel like a twit already.
Considering my general lack of free time, "microblogging" is the way to go.

I'll still post here, but it won't be as often. Since, you know, writing a review or a reflection takes more time than typing up a sentence that randomly came to mind that day.

The page's at twitter.com/ThatCraftyFoxy
If you'd like to know what I'm up to and if I'm still alive, that's the place to be. I'll also tweet about any blog or gallery updates I do, so it'll be pretty easy to keep track of what I do online, considering that I tend to jump from site to site fairly often.


twitter by berkozturk
Twitter by berkozturk
That's kind of how I feel about Twitter at the moment. Let's see if that changes.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Thoughts on Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks

The short spoiler-free review:
Go watch it, it's fun.
A very definite improvement from the last movie. Feels like the evil marketologists have more or less left the show staff alone, allowing for some actual storytelling and character development to occur.

The drama's pretty believable. I loved that they haven't forgotten what happened in the first movie. The girls' unique personalities really shine through here, even through body language.
The animation is much smoother. There are some surprisingly fun nods to the main series. The antagonists actually have a neat backstory and the music isn't half as annoying as it could have been!

So, go check it out.

It's not as scary as this image suggests, I promise.


Additional spoilerific thoughts:
I wasn't expecting much, but this movie won me over from the very start.

* Let's face it, the Equestria Girls world is painfully dull compared to actual Equestria. I love when characters point it out.
Naturally, I was absolutely delighted to find out that it's used as a place of banishment. Presumably, more "serious" than Tartarus. So from that we can draw a very amusing conclusion - Canterlot High, and the bizarre little world it's in, is considered worse than hell.
I think there's a beautiful amount of honesty in this.

* Sunset Shimmer is great. She really stole the show. I had a nagging suspicion until the very end that they'll just use her as a plot device - the villains will corrupt her and the mane6 will show off their virtues by turning her back with yet another rainbow blast. But no. She maintained her integrity throughout and made Twilight and the gang realize they were being selfish jerks to a degree.
As it was said on Bronyville, Sunset's sudden change of character at the end of the last movie went like a "lame wrestling face-turn". Well, I'm happy to consider it redeemed.

* Other things I liked:
- New monsters. That's always cool.
- The girls have more personality. They're not the smartphone-dependant idiots from the first movie.
- Maud Pie. That was excellent.
- The "local" Twilight. I think she looked exactly the way she should have.

Were there any faults I could pick?
Sure, but I don't even want to go into it. It's a movie commissioned by Hasbro's evil toy sales department. It exists so MLP could rival Monster High somehow.

All that considered, the studio did a truly amazing job. They didn't break anything in the MLP universe. You can see that they care, both for the show and the fans, including us "non-target audience". And that's all that matters in the end.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Under Construction (No, really)

UPD: I'm not finished messing with the layout and the look of the blog, but... I figured I'd start posting anyway.
I don't think I'll make any drastic changes now, I'll just mess with the graphics a bit and will slowly re-submit old posts if I like them enough.

Despite how long this title's been up for, it's finally gained meaning.
So beware - links will break, layout will crash, some posts will end up in the bin.
I'm not quite sure what we'll end up with... So why not stay tuned and find out.

Oh, don't look so scared. Derpy is a trained professional!