Today Upcoming is shutting down. And I’m feeling nostalgic.

We all knew it was going to happen eventually; nobody has properly used Upcoming for ages. When I heard the news, I didn’t really feel sad; Upcoming had seen its best days, why continue on with a service no one is using? It must have been something like 2 years since I last used it, so why should I care?

But then I logged in.

Looked at my past events.

And realized just how many good memories had their origin in a simple click on an Upcoming page.

In 2007 I moved to London. It was a huge move: new country, new city, new customs, everything was different from what I was used to. I didn’t know anyone and I didn’t know how I’d find new friends and people I’d like. I wasn’t really connecting with any of the other students at university, but beyond that I didn’t know where else to go. And then I came across Upcoming.

Thanks to Upcoming, I discovered the Girl Geek Dinners, the Geek Dinners, BarCamps, Hackdays and more. I found out about screenings, lectures and other cool things. When I visited Berlin for a few days, I found out what interesting things were going on.

Browsing through my old events, I came across the first Werewolf night I went to. It links to two videos where Ian is explaining me the rules of Werewolf, with the help of Tom, Sheila and Glyn. All four of them are good friends now, and it’s weird seeing that video of when they barely knew me.

I came across the first BarCamp I attended and remember how stressed out I was about presenting there. I came across the first couple of Geek Dinners I helped organize (and cringe at the copy I most probably had a hand in). I came across the first hackday I ever attended where I ended up creating a Torchwood swede. I came across the Girl Geek Coffee I organized, the first event I properly did on my own. And I came across the first BarCampLondon I helped organized, which kicked off all the event organizing I’m doing today.

Attending and organizing all those events have turned me into the person I am today, and I have to thank Upcoming for playing a role in that.

And that Upcoming list of all my past events? It’s the only real detailed record of my first 3 years in London.

Goodbye, Upcoming.

Thank you for all the memories.

It’s such nice weather today! So sunny and warm… To be honest, I don’t really know if it’s nice weather: this post was written yesterday. It’s predicted to be nice and sunny though, so I’m being optimistic.

Whether it’s nice weather or not though, this dress looks great. And with a name like Be Outside Dress In Delft I couldn’t not write about it. It’s available for $74.99 on Modcloth.

I still haven’t seen Pitch Perfect, but I really want to. I somehow missed it when it was in the cinema, but it seems like my type of movie. This clip only makes me want to see it more:

It’s interesting to see how far technology has come in so little time. It’s slightly more than 10 years ago when I started university and I’m just amazed at the differences! I didn’t even have a laptop when I started out, while kids nowadays are spoilt with the choices they have. I’ve always wondering though what I would have done if I had to choose between a laptop and a tablet. Which of the two would have been handier for me during uni?

Answer: don’t choose.

I love the idea of the HP Envy x2: a notebook with a HD Touch display that can be used as a tablet as well. Sigh, this would have made my life so much easier back then!

Ooh, I had heard about Rush a while ago, but this is the first footage I’ve seen from it. It’s directed by Ron Howard and it’s about the rivalry between Formula One drivers Niki Lauda and James Hunt.

I sometimes get to do ridiculous awesome stuff through my blog. A few weeks back I got invited by O2 Business for an exclusive experience to promote the new Sony Xperia Z. Now one of the main selling points of this Xperia is that it’s waterproof… Unlike some of the other companies who showed off the waterproofness by dunking it in glasses of water (cause you know that’s really a situation I get into all the time), O2 decided to feature the phone in a different way: a speedboat trip down the Thames.

So on a cold Monday morning I made my way to Embankment. First we got two short presentations by Sony and O2 Business, and we were handed each a Sony Xperia Z to use during the trip, which we could keep afterwards as well! After that we headed to the pier to prepare for epic boat ride. I initially thought it wasn’t that cold and I thought the layers of clothes and hats we needed to put on were a bit overkill:

Once we were actually on the water though I was so glad for those extra layers: it was freeeeeezing AND it had just started snowing! It was so much fun though. Up to Tower Bridge, the boat needs to stick to certain speed limits; after Tower Bridge: wow. By then it had started snowing more and it was just exhilarating going so fast and feeling the snow on your face. Plus the boat didn’t stick to just speeding in a straight line; it was doing all kinds of dodges and spins which I’m sure have much more proper technical sounding terms then dodges and spins. It was awesome.

The entire thing was also recorded. There were multiple GoPros aimed at us and a second speedboat with camera crew recording it all. Here’s the video:

Don’t I look wonderful? I think we spent an hour having fun on the water until we had to head back. As I said before, I hadn’t thought it was that cold, but once back on land I couldn’t stop shivering. Luckily we got some warn food and hot chocolate to warm us all back up.

So that was my awesome speed boat adventure, but I haven’t actually reviewed the Xperia Z yet. Now up till this phone, I haven’t been much of a fan of Android. I think most of the previous handsets have felt too clunky with too many buttons, ports and other stuff that just look tacked on, the OS has been too slow and overall I just have never had a nice experience with them. With the Sony Xperia Z though that’s changed; I’m really enjoying this phone.

I’ll start with the “main” feature: the waterproofness. It’s a bit of gimmick, but it does actually work. I don’t think it’s something I desperately want or need in a phone, but now that I have it I am sort of using it. Like whenever it’s snowing or raining outside or whenever I’m taking a bath or shower. It’s not the key attractiveness for me, but it’s a fun extra feature.

A direct consequence of the waterproofness though is the design of the handset and I am absolutely loving that. Every single port/slot is hidden away nicely behind watertight covers, turning the entire phone into a nice sleek gadget. There’s only one single button which I have to admit seems a bit out of place, but the rest just feels nice in your hands.

Compared to an iPhone 5 the Xperia Z is a bit on the large side, but it doesn’t feel too big. I do feel a bit weird taking phone calls with it, but for me that’s not what I do the majority of the time anyway. It’s got a great screen for watching videos and the camera in it is awesome. I love the sharpness of some of the photos I’ve taken with it; it’s my favourite phone camera so far.

I wasn’t expecting to like the Sony Xperia Z that much, but now that I’ve gotten my hands on it for the past few weeks I have to say it’s a great phone. It hasn’t replaced my iPhone yet, but that’s mainly cause of certain apps I’m using (like Messages, Mailbox, Reminders). I am taking it everywhere with me nowadays and I do notice I’m mainly grabbing for the Xperia whenever I want to take photos.

Thanks again to O2 Business for the awesome speedboat experience and for the awesome phone!

The past few weeks have been so busy! I didn’t even notice last month that I didn’t do a Coming Soon post for March. It’s a couple days late, but I definitely wanted to do one for April!

A Late Quartet

This one isn’t really my cup of tea, but I’m including it cause I know my dad will be reading this post and I think it will be something for him (*waves* Hi Dad!). It’s about a classical string quartet approaching their 25th anniversary, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener and Imogen Poots.

Release Date: Friday 5th April

Oblivion

I loved the one trailer I saw for Oblivion. Tom Cruise, an interesting possibly twisty story and gorgeous scifi visuals. It looked like the type of movie that could be spoiled though by seeing the wrong type of trailer, so after that first one I’ve stayed away from any videos/clips/etc. Fingers crossed all my effort was for something.

Release Date: Friday 12th April

The Place Beyond The Pines

Before writing this post, I hadn’t actually looked up what this movie was about. All I knew was it starred both Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, meaning I of course have to go see it. It’s about a motorcycle-stunt-rider-turned-bank-robber (Gosling) as a way to provide for his lover (Eva Mendes) and their newborn child. It puts him on a collision course with an ambitious rookie cop (Cooper) navigating a department ruled by a corrupt detective (Ray Liotta).

Release Date: Friday 12th April

Olympus Has Fallen

This looks so over-the-top-ridiculous, but I so want to see it! It stars Gerard Butler as the ex secret service member who’s the only one not captured when the White House is attacked. Aaron Echkart plays the President, while Morgan Freeman plays the Speaker of the House.

Release Date: Wednesday 17th April

Iron Man 3

Suit up!

Release Date: Friday 26 April

Others:

• Dark Skies – Wednesday 3rd April
• The Odd Life of Timothy Green – Friday 5th April
• Spring Breakers – Friday 5th April
• The Expatriate – Friday 5th April
• Scary Movie 5 – Friday 12th April
• Evil Dead – Thursday 18th April
• Promised Land – Friday 19th April
• The Look of Love – Friday 26th April

There’s a new episode of Doctor Who tonight! I’m so looking forward to it; I loved the dynamic between the Doctor and Clara in the Christmas episode and I really want to see how they handle it further. Plus there’s the whole “what is Clara/Oswin exactly?”, why does she have multiple lives?

So to celebrate the return of the Doctor to our screens I thought I’d share with you guys some cool Doctor Who stuff I found online:

Tardis Ring – $12.50

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey – $19.95

Bigger On The Inside Scarf – $26.00

Gallifrey Cuff Bracelet – $28.00

Doctor Who Teapots – £42

Doctor Who Cookie Cutters – $6.50 (each)

Awesome:

Via 9to5Mac

If you’ve read some of my posts the past few weeks, you’ll know I’ve been hoping to get my hands on the new Tomb Raider game. Well, now thanks to Ladbrokes I got the chance to play the game. Besides that as part of their promotion of their own Tomb Raider Slot Game they’ve given me a copy to giveaway to one of my lovely readers!

What do you need to do to enter? Simply fill in the following form:

You’ll also get an extra entry if you mention the giveaway on Twitter with the hashtag #missgeeky, and another extra entry if you like this post on Facebook. The competition is only open to residents in the UK. The winner will be drawn randomly and I will contact them on Tuesday April 3rd.

So what did I think of the game? Short version: fun yet brutal game that somehow doesn’t feel like “my” Tomb Raider.

I used to be a huge Tomb Raider fan. It had a strong kickass female protagonist, featured lots of spooky ancient places and the main gameplay was focused on solving puzzles. I wasn’t very good at it, but it was fun and the part of me that loved ancient history enjoyed seeing the myths and tombs come to life. I could walk around the ruins of an ancient Indian temple or explore the catacombs of a Egyptian temple and it filled me with awe and wonder. I loved how you could pull a random lever, hear a click and not know what the effect was, leaving you wandering around trying to find what had changed. I loved how you had to battle dinosaurs, mutants, gods, and other weird things that inhabited those ancient tombs.

Jump forward 16 years (!!! wow, now I feel old) and we get the rebooted version featuring a younger more innocent Lara Croft. This new story is all about putting this unexperienced Lara into a deadly dangerous environment and seeing her “grow” into the Lara Croft we know. She’s thrown into this terrible situation and does everything she can to make sure she and her friends survive.

As I expected there’s a lot about this game that feels like Uncharted: ancient ruins, phases of corridors of enemies just shooting at you and the standard jumping and climbing traversals. Once you unlock your special rope arrow ability (also: who the hell went through all the effort of tying ropes around all those bits of trees, doors and pillars?? Someone on that island must have been bored) the game traversal gets a bit more interesting and the use of fire provides some fun puzzle solving.

The problem I had with those “puzzles” though is that they never felt too complex; every single time it was pretty straightforward on how to solve it, I never had the feeling the game was challenging me. I can understand that the main storyline should remain easy and solvable for all, but why couldn’t some of the optional tombs be a bit more trickier? Why couldn’t they bring back the levers, hiding some of the challenges behind secret doors?

Next to that I was missing that awe and wonder I had with the older games. The graphics are way better now, so I was expecting to be blown away by awesome and awe-inspiring ancient ruins. Instead the creators went down the shock and horror route. The game is full of impaled corpses, bloody altars, chunks of unidentifiable slabs of meat hanging off hooks, and piles of skulls and bones. The environment feels bland and brutal, and I felt uneasy the entire time playing.

What it comes down to is that to me the game didn’t feel like the Tomb Raider I grew up with and loved. I wanted a game that makes me feel like I’m a kickass archaeologist, solving tricky puzzles, exploring gorgeous abandoned tombs and discovering awesome artefacts. Instead this Tomb Raider is all about surviving: surviving the harsh environment, surviving the brutal island inhabitants, surviving everything that is thrown at you. I get that that’s what they were going for, I just wish that besides all that surviving Lara had also learnt a sense of wonder and excitement for discovery.

By the end of the game, I don’t think Lara has turned into the Lara Croft of the previous games; instead they’ve rewritten her history so much, that she’s turned into this other unrecognizable Lara with a different personality and motivation, a Lara that I’m not sure I want to see more of. As much as I enjoyed playing the game, I miss “my” Lara and I miss the Tomb Raider of old.