Veni Vidi Blogavi

The Land of the Free (but more Importantly the Grilled Cheese)

2012-02-23T18:02:00.001Z

This post may be a bit late, since the Superbowl (the event that spurred me to write this post) happened weeks ago now, but frankly i don't care because at that moment i couldn't be bothered to write anything and now i can (especially with this delightful sunny weather that has not only made me very happy, but also reminded me of Californian weather). Yes, America is my topic for this post, a topic i've had in my head for a while now but haven't got quite round to ever writing it, until now of course.

Now despite the insistence of certain friends, i'm not actually American but English, because living in a country for just over a year doesn't mean i'm from there, even if i've brought back some of their culture within me. And in case you didn't know (even with the prior comments), i used to live in Concord California (which is near San Francisco) although i was only 7 at the time and even with my poor memory, i still hold memories of my time there. The one that is at the forefront of my mind at the moment is the glorious weather there (hence why today's great weather here in not-so-sunny Macclesfield prompted this post). It was never cold and rain only ever happened once a week for a half an hour downpour.

However i'm not here to talk about the weather (even though i'm English). I'm not even here to talk about my love of Southern jazz, Tex-Mex or the pickup truck (does mentioning that violate the first part of the sentence?) No, i'm here to talk about my recent discovery that will no doubt have a profound effect on my life, and could quite possibly be the most important (it's hard to see what could top it) of my life. I am of course talking about the epicly awesomeness that is the grilled cheese.

Before you start to wonder how on earth i've managed to make it thus far through life without the knowledge of the grilled cheese, let me explain that for years i've been making the toastie (or snackwich). Now i'm not sure whether i've made up some of these terms or whether they're actual terms and prehaps some people just don't understand the terminology at all, so let me explain what a toastie (or snackwich) is. Basically you get two slices of bread some filling, the classic being cheese and ham although i much preferred the cheese and baked beans, then making a sandwich out of them and putting them in a toastie maker, that seals the sandwich then continues to toast the bread and turn your fillings into a nice molten mouth-burning substance.

For years i was content with this method, even after several burnt mouths and a burnt throat (which is one of the worse injuries i've ever had), but recently i decided to try the American way of placing the bread in a frying pan, covering with whatever you filling is then placing the second slice on top and cooking on both sides. This not only resulted in a quicker sandwich but also one where the fillings were not near a plasma state, and had the ability to open up for final tweaks (e.g. sauce, and for those of you weird people, salad).

Ever since that revolutionary moment i've had many many grilled cheeses, with some general advice if you care to ever try making one. Firstly butter both slices of bread and these are the outside of the sandwich i.e. the side you fry. Secondly use whatever ingredients you think fit, i've had several different combinations all deliciously delectable (p.s. if you know any good ones, please comment below as i would love to know them.) Thirdly feel free to have one at breakfast and pour copious amounts of maple syrup onto it (might sound weird, but it really was nice, honesty).

So go forth into the kitchen armed with your frying pan, bread and cheese. Never again let you stomach remain empty or your tastebuds free from the cheesy grilledbready andwhateverelseyouputiny goodness. Oh and one last piece of advice, which i forgot before, don't be an idiot and put a whole chili in one sandwich, not that anyone would be stupid enough to do such a thing, especially not me...

Picture from http://www.closetcooking.com/ (an excellent place for grilled cheese recipes)

The Curious Case of the Carbon-Fibre Nose Cone

2012-02-06T21:17:00.000Z

I know that everyone will, of course, know that its only 40 days until the start of the new F1 season, and as such its the time of the much awaited car launches, don't deny you're excited. Now don't worry although this post currently seems sports-related, i promise you that it shouldn't be, just hang in there. Now back to F1, something very unusual has happened to F1 cars this year, well not the whole car, more just the nose cone to be honest. If you haven't seen the new cars, then really what have you been doing, there's definitely nothing better to have been done with your time, but in case that is the case then below is the picture of the new Ferrari.

As you may have noticed it seems something has decided to cut a section of it off, now my reason for this whole long winded introduction it that it has brought up the old debate; one of those big questions (well prehaps not that big to be honest, but nevertheless a question), which is more important form or function? Now i know most objects try to have both, but there will always be conflict between the 2 and which one should be prioritized in these cases, it's obvious that in the before mentioned case function has won over form, unless someone at Ferrari has gone completely bonkers (probably not for the first time though), but there has been cases where the opposite is true (i really only mentioned this for a bit of apple-bashing) for example the infamous iPhone 4 aerial, where apple decided the phone's looks were more important than, well the actually phone part of the phone.

Now to get a better view of the people's opinions i've done some in depth research and surveying (well i read through the comments section of the above picture, but that still counts). The view i got from this is that a lot of people are not happy, they all think that despite an F1 car's nose purpose is to be as aerodynamically efficient that it should still look good, i don't know maybe they think if it looks good other drivers will slow down to have a look, or maybe they're just haven't actually thought about it much, but instead decided to type some barely legible comment, thinking that Ferrari might listen to them and come back with a different design.

If any of you readers share the view that form is more important than function, i would apologize but since i'm not sorry about bashing your views, then i won't. I mean i value your opinion (albeit not very highly), but i still haven't had anyone explain to me a good reason for that view. Now most people who know me will put all this down to me not being a great fan of art, and the fact that i'm going to study engineering at university, but to be honest, and although i'm quite vocal against art, i do love design. I mean show me a Picasso and i won't be interested in the slightest; however show me a piece of quality architecture, or a new chair design and it's a whole different matter.

So really, although i definitely think that function is by far more important than form, things can still have form as long as it doesn't affect the function, and to be honest a lot of design has come about from the function, for example arches, which some people are completely obsessed about (having watched countless episodes of Grand Designs), but arches are at the base designed not for aesthetic purposes but because they're very good at supporting things whilst letting things through.

Having said all that, if you think that you can persuade me to think differently (or just fancy an argument... um i mean a debate) then feel free to comment, email, im, text or even use that outdated method of communicating, you know that one where you move your mouth and noise comes out, talking that's what it's called. And as for the Ferrari, i actually hope that they don't share the same view as me, and that's it's not functional at all, but merely some guy trying to start a new style of design. The reason for this is that i hope that McLaren's design, with their more pleasing to the eye nose cone, is better and that in 10 months time i will be revelling in another world championship for JB.

Lights... Camera... Action...

2012-01-25T16:04:00.002Z

Ever had one of those brilliant idea moments? You know the one where you sat around chatting with friends, and suddenly a utterly awesome idea to pops right into your head, whether it be starting a band, going on a road trip across America or, as it was today, making a film. Now before anyone doubts this idea, i should say i have made a film before (albeit for an economics homework and it being only 5 mins long), and definitely, unlike all the other great ideas I've had before this one, i will actually do this one. Well hopefully anyway.

But there are good reasons for my optimism (and when i say good reasons i probably mean just reasons, because they're probably not that good.) Firstly, what could be simpler than making a film, i mean all it is is coming up with a good story, filming some stuff on said story, then editing said stuff into a half decent piece of media. Simple right. Well unfortunately, from prior experience, the editing is not very simple and take a while to do, luckily it looks like most of my summer is unbooked with any kind of activities, meaning a lot of spare boring time, so what better than trying to extract quality from what will probably be not very good clips.

So problem solved right, well not quite. After coming up with the brilliant idea, we found the brick wall that was the story. I mean we could do something simple like horror, or murder-mystery, but that's all been done before, and if we're going to do this we might as well be overambitious and try to think of a totally new original idea for a story. And of course the story has to keep in mind our tight budget (namely nothing), meaning any effects are out the window unless it can be done in editing, but i like to keep to the motto, Keep It Simple Stupid, so no effects can be really used. So if anyone out there has a great plot for us to use, feel free to comment and i will make sure all credit for it may go to you.

Another great reason for such an endeavour, is the fact that as a group we are going away for a week in a rented house and so we will have a location and actors readily available. Well maybe actors is a bit incorrect in this context, however there will have people there, who will be willing to take part (and if they're not, i'm sure edible bribes can be used.)

So that's all the those details sorted, and i can honestly see this happening, maybe out of sheer boredom but nevertheless it can, and should, be done. Especially so it can make up for all the other failed ideas that never really got any further than the planning stage (i.e. as soon as actually work had to be done, they fell apart), and maybe buoyed with the success of seeing an idea through to the very end, i might one day return to those great ideas, or maybe new even better ideas. So hopefully in about 7 months time i will be able to show you all what will no doubt be a masterpiece of average homemade cinema. But first i should probably get some sort of video camera, because apparently you need one in order to shoot a film, who ever knew?

Question 1)

2012-01-12T15:43:00.000Z

If a ball of mass 2kg and velocity 3 m/s collides into a stationary ball of mass 3kg, with e=2/3, then the 2nd ball proceeds to hit a wall with e=2/5 then continues to collide again with the 1st ball, which then proceeds travel off the end of a 2m tall surface, at what point will i give up on revision and decide there are better things to do with a day off school?

Yes it's that time of year again (although each year there are two of these times, so it's one of those times of year again technically), Christmas has come and gone, the New Year has rolled in and *BANG* exam time. With barely enough time to get settled back into school mode, and remember all that stuff that has been inevitably been forgotten over the festive period, you're expected not only to recall it at will but fully understand exactly how it all works. However during any other time at school that would seem like a simple task to perform, however as soon as revision starts everything seems so much more complicated and basically the whole course has to be relearned over again.

So to answer the question posed at the start, about an hour the answer seems to come out as. So far all i've managed to handle is one past paper before the distractions kicked in, and as you may have guessed currently that distraction would be this post. However the other big distraction at the moment is the constant refreshing of the cipher challenge's webpage, as today is the day that they release the final results, which could potentially make me a bit richer by the end of the day. As well as that my James Bond boxset has been sat by the TV now for over two weeks and i've only managed to watch Dr.No, but luckily so far i've managed to escape that temptation, meaning if i keep it up for the rest of the day, i might get another past paper done.

This would mean that in total, having had a whole day off, i will have managed about 2 hours of revision, and the annoying fact is that this module is the one i find most fun (can i use the word "fun" in this situation? not sure), and so i can't begin to imagine how much i'll manage on the other 4 exams i have to do, which could end very badly as there the ones which are going to require more (and definitely more boring) revision. Which will perhaps explain why for June, instead of learning S3 with the class, instead i shall be self-teaching the much more logical (and thereby more exciting) M3.

Well i'll keep it short, as i'd better get that 2nd paper done, where hopefully it'll all make sense otherwise there could be some very frantic and last minute look over notes/textbook/google for help on understanding what on earth the question is on about, and realising that infact after relearning it all, i still haven't got a clue what's going on.

My Cubic Dream

2011-12-30T17:06:00.000Z

So it's new years eve, the last day of 2011, a weird and wonderful year that saw many incredible events occur and much to talk about. However i shall not be talking about any of that "important" stuff, instead i would prefer to talk about the events of the past week and when i say events i really mean two that were the accumulation of the week.

The first is my new (not so shiny because it has more of a dull finish) gadget which i received on Christmas morn, a Kindle! Now i must confess i'm not very big on the whole reading malarkey, i have a few favourite authors and i rarely differ from these. The unfortunate problem is that most these authors became my favourites when i was young and so have little interest for me now. However every year without fail i will inevitably be given waterstone gift vouchers, which has lead to me having a pile of several books all of which i've got part way through before my computer tempted me back.

So considering this inherent, not disliking but more of can'tbebotheredness, when it comes to reading, you might be wondering why on earth i was left a kindle under the Christmas tree. Well it turns out that this lack of reading does not stem from reading itself but from the medium of the book, as as soon as (3 'as's is correct, so don't come and tell me otherwise) the book is put onto a gadget with a screen and wifi, reading is so much more enjoyable.

I suppose that it might also be down to the fact that all the great classics are free in ebook format and other books are just as cheap with prices around £1, appealing to my frugal (yes frugal, not cheapskate) nature. Also let's face it the Kindle is just awesome, especially when you discover that you can send pdfs and documents to it via email and it plays music and has an internet browser and minesweeper and this weird game where you have to get 5 crosses in a row, i mean that is the definition of awesome. All this means that for most of next year i will be probably be immersed in my Kindle and probably my new found favourite "The Complete Collection of Sherlock Holmes" (which cost just 86p!), (well when i'm not watching The Complete James Bond Collection, which i got for just £22, and the reason i now love the boxing day sales)

The next event that occurred started when my cousins came to visit for Christmas. One of them is a massive minecraft fan and wanted to play it all the time, and so being a kind cousin (and because then i could continue reading Sherlock) i let him wallow away the hours playing minecraft on my computer. Now being the curious mind that i am i decided when he had left to see what all the fuss about minecraft was about. Needless to say a few hours later and i found myself building a fort on top of waterfall. Then a few hours later i was at the digging a mine in the search of gold and diamond. Then a few hours after that i was constructing a skyscraper that was taller than all the mountains.

As you might have guessed, i enjoyed playing minecraft, hence the title for this post, and as it suggests it has pretty much taken up most of my spare time in the past few days. However since i am fully aware that in a few weeks i will be sat in an exam hall staring at a piece of paper with some nasty looking equations on it, I've realised that my time might be better spent doing some of this thing called revision. This has led me to the conclusion that in the new year i shall not spend anytime playing minecraft, and any other game until at least the end of the January exams.

So that is how i shall be spending the first few weeks of 2012. Well hopefully anyway. And as it turns out it might be easier than i originally thought as the minecraft my cousin downloaded has stopped working and to download another i would have to buy the game, which i'm not going to do (remember frugal not cheapskate). So here's to a Happy New Year, let's hope it's just as eventful as 2011 and that this time next year i will be struggling to fit everything i want to write into a single post rather than blabbering on about some words on a screen and a game filled with cubes.

The Seaneid

2011-12-19T22:36:00.000Z

This is the tale of how one man went on the search for a new home for the next 4 years (and during term times only), and his other quest for search of Christmas presents. In case you have little classical literature knowledge and are wondering what on earth my title is talking about then go and read the whole Aeneid by Virgil, in the original Latin of course, none of this cheats English. Or you could just wiki it and prove to yourself that it exists and i haven't gone truly and utterly insane. Or maybe i have and just haven't realised yet, i may currently be sat in an asylum typing this on an imaginary computer in my little own imaginary world. I'm a bit worried now, is there a way to check if you're mad and have created an imaginary world to live in? Hang on why am i even asking because then you'd be imaginary too.

So anyway, leaving my slightly crazed ramblings aside, back to the Seaneid. In truth the tale began two years ago on a long and dangerous trek into the south. I know a dangerous place to go right, where the pies have vegetables in them and fish & chip shops aren't found on every street. So there i was journeying to Southampton (it even has south in its name) via Cambridge and tbh i can't actually remember what really happened but after two expeditions to the north this time (where i can confirm the pies are free from vegetables and the chippy is as common as the pub), i was only slightly clearer on where i would go.

All this jibber-jabber is essentially trying to explain why i found myself first going to Oxford, then Lincoln (actually this was nothing to do with Seaneid, but was occurred at the same time), then nearly going to Lancaster (although i thought better of it and didn't go in the end, just so i could partake in the epicness that was cipherfest '11, more on that some other time though) anyway today i traveled down to Loughborough and tomorrow i will be going to Manchester in the epic quest for Christmas presents (yes i know it's less than a week until Christmas, but i've only just started feeling Christmasy enough to buy them (plus a Taco Bell has opened in Manchester!)).

So as you can tell i'm glad i've nearly finished all this traveling, and soon my search for uni will come to an end, with pretty much all my uni's contacting me this week about offers :s, and with Christmas on Sunday the quest for the presents will be pointless (it might not be quite finished though i'm expecting late presents might be the case for some). So it's could be quite a momentous week with the next four years of my life being decided, although i have a feeling it still doesn't matter at all with my view of whateverhappens,happensandifyoujustgowithitandyoullenjoyyourself, and the awesomeness of my time in Oxford and the great people there (bit of a shout to my fellow St. John-iens (?) if you're reading this)

In case i don't write again before Christmas, Merry Christmas, and if i don't write before New Years, then shame on me because i won't be doing anything next week, apart from maybe contemplating my future...
and revising for January exams...
and finalizing my DofE...
and probably buying people late Christmas presents...
and something else which i've forgotten.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

2011-12-06T21:38:00.001Z

Yes it's that time of year: the carol sheets are out, the Christmas tree taking up half the lounge, and the weather is truly dreadful. Now i do like Christmas time but the shops think that it gets earlier each year or that people forget that Christmas happens every year leading to adverts and the Christmas specials to be stocked months beforehand. So when can one start to blast out the Christmas jingles? If you do it too early people think you're just a weirdo (well one of the reasons they probably think that) and too late and... um well i don't think there's any convincing argument i can write but for me i would like for there to be a specific date to work with.

This year i went for the 1st week of advent, that didn't go down well with some people who questioned why on earth i was playing 12 days of Christmas whilst giving them a lift, but surely that's the most accurate date to use, the only other real way is to start when December starts, or just to be a total Ebeneezer and just never start to celebrate Christmas but instead mock people who do.

This is of course the least of the worries when it comes to Christmas; probably the biggest is buying gifts for people (surely if people wanted something enough they would have already bought it for themselves) which leaves two options: an effort to find something that they don't know about but would enjoy, or just to find something hilarious to give them. Now i have tried to do the prior occasionally but all it has ever done is made me find myself wandering around Macc the week before Christmas, staring blankly into shop windows without a clue of what to buy. This conundrum is especially apparent with the dreaded secret santa, which if you try to find something thoughtful is going to take way too long, especially when someone like me will have your name, and will buy you something cheap and weird (like a potato in a terry's chocolate orange box).

Then i haven't mentioned the truly most annoying part of Christmas, which is the accolade easily won by the terrible winter weather. No, i don't mean snow, i frankly love snow (as long as i'm in a coat, scarf, gloves, boots and many other layers of clothing), i'm talking about that inbetween weather, which isn't quite snow, but is more of a mix of rain, hail, sleet and snow. It's cold and makes lots of sludge on the ground which is just frankly horrible.

So that's Christmas for me, well so far, i think, if i can remember correctly, that it does get better at some point and the Christmas cheer finally shows itself, and when it does i shall write a more positive Christmas-y post, which was my intention to start with but i realised that it was easier at the moment to do the opposite. So "Bah-Humbug" for now, and a future "Merry Christmas" for when it finally feels like Christmas.

It's a bit Chile outside. No wait, it's Switzerland.

2011-11-26T11:15:00.001Z

To describe Geneva using 3 words, i would have to say: cold, expensive, but beautiful. (And as a side note, if you don't understand the title, don't try to it's nothing more than a joke from the trip.) However with a little bit of student living it is very easy to get by on a small budget, as i found out having only such a budget. Nevertheless a pizza and a litre of iced tea for 10CHF tastes just as good as any restaurant meal, although worrying since it came from a shop inbetween a kebab store and a corner shop and the iced tea could not be found anywhere else.

So don't be put off about going to Geneva because bargains can be found (well bargains for Switzerland, normal price for the UK), and it truly is a beautiful place and having a wander round Geneva with no sense of direction but instead a "that looks interesting, let's walk down there" attitude worked out very well with something to be found round every corner, and it's quite hard to get lost since a simple walk downhill to the lake and you've found your bearings once again. And if you just stay by the lake then you'll still be in for some for great views especially around sunset, sitting at the end of the walkway in the middle of the lake.

Enough about Geneva though, since the whole purpose of the trip was to see CERN. For those of you who don't enjoy science then you probably won't understand how exciting it is for one of us science lovers to visit CERN, but believe me it was amazingly awesome. Although for me it wasn't the particle colliders that excited me most but Tim Berners-Lee's computer, which was the original world wide web server, and without i probably wouldn't be writing this now.

But i understand that most people would be more impressed with the actual purpose of CERN which is of course to collide particles in order to understand the fundamental physics of the universe, but it's nice to think that during this quest, one of the most important inventions of the last century occurred and because it was invented at CERN it was free for the public to use, perhaps making it what it is today. Now most people will know all about the LHC (large hadron collider) but infact there are 6 accelerators and a decelerator, luckily for me as the LHC and many of the other accelerators are currently out of bound, so we were only allowed to see 2 of them (the decelerator and a linear accelerator).

The great thing was that also whilst we were there they were actually accelerating lead ions, although unlike most people think we didn't actually see any particles colliding, just some graphs showing the energy levels of the ions (so not that exciting actually). Though they did get the particles up to about 99.9% of the speed of light, so of course i started to think about the question of how much would a lead ion at that speed hurt? I tried using some equations to find out the force of such particles but they got reasonably complicated and to be honest the only real way to find out is through experimentation, so i'll contact CERN to book a slot with the accelerators, now i just any volunteers so please respond if you want to take part.

All in all then the trip was amazing, and a must do for any fellow geeks. You never know you could be there when they discover the higgs boson, imagine how amazing that would be. Hopefully i'll be able to go back some day as well, maybe as a visit or perhaps to work (doubt it'll be to do with the previous mentioned experiment though).

It's Been a While...

2011-11-14T20:58:00.001Z

Sorry about not posting for so long, but for various reasons i have been busy over the past few weeks (amazing since i normally have nothing to do). So although this post is the restart after the temporal lapse, it won't be a traditional post and more of a collection of thoughts and things that have happened over the blog's downtime. I will hopefully be able to bring back the regular single-track posts later this week (hopefully), but definitively next week, as i will be in Switzerland this weekend for a trip to CERN! So if all the hype is correct i should have plenty to write about.

Where do we start then? Well i suppose with the most major event in the past few weeks (not the oxford entrance exam or UCAS submission, i'll get to them later), after the complete failure of my computer where not one but both my hard drives failed simultaneously leaving my computer totally befuddled as it tried and tried again to find windows, but alas it was in a dark windowless place. But as they say out with the old, in with the new and so i have brand new computer, shiny and all!

For those tech-nerds out there it's an acer with terabyte of hard disk space and a core i5 processor and soon i shall buy a suitable graphics card to replace the inbuilt one. For those who aren't tech-nerds, it's a shiny black computer with a curved front, and all that mumbo-jumbo i just talked about is the stuff inside, don't strain yourselves trying to figure out what it all means.

The only problem i had with this sudden change is that i was working my way through an extended essay and since for a few days i had no idea whether it would be able to be recovered and so it this state of limbo i took a well earned break, leading to a frantic few days of trying to complete the essay before the deadline. Luckily it was recovered as well as most my other data, which has unfortunately deprived me of the opportunity to have a nice slate-clean start from all the thousands and millions of useless bytes of junk that have accumulated over the years.

Now let me mention the other big event of the past weeks, that is of course the previously mentioned UCAS submission, and subsequent events that followed. To put it simply i'm very glad i've finally managed to rid myself of all this UCAS stuff, now it can be a joyful thing where i can see my university choices roll in (or not as the case has so far turned out to be). And the entrance test (which annoyingly was introduced for the 1st time this year) followed by mock interviews have taken up most of the other time i found.

Right now that 's all i can remember of the last few weeks, but i assure you there was definitively more which i simply just can't recall at the moment. And the next few weeks seem to promise to be just as busy, however again i'm not sure how busy, as i can't recall any of my future events i have planned either. Luckily, with time the way it is, i currently haven't found a problem with solely living in the present, oblivious to both past and future, and frankly it's more fun this way.

A Little Birdy Told Me

2011-10-26T19:31:00.000+01:00

Ever had that feeling where you're not sure whether a post is worth posting on facebook, because it's too short; completely inane; or something which people frankly just won't care about? If your answer is no, i don't believe you but i'll let you live in your imaginary world, but for me i'll happily admit that i've felt this. So why you may ask have i posed this question, surely i wouldn't ask something without wanting to write about it. And you know what, you'd be right and i of course already have a preprepared solution to this problem which you may have guessed from the title. No prizes for the answer then, because of course it's Twitter.

Yep, i have finally joined Twitter after several months of differing and dallying about whether people would care about everything i care to share (which in case you haven't seen my tweets, is pretty much anything). But you know what apparently some completely random strangers do, which i find very weird and quite an unusual phenomenon of the modern digitalised age. First of all why would anyone feel the need to share every little detail about their life? And secondly why would anyone want to read any of this info?

Well you would expect me to know the answer to theses question since that is the situation i find myself in, however thinking about it, i'm not sure how to answer this question. So if anyone would like to provide some input then feel free to comment below and then maybe i'll be able to do a sort of full length feature on it. But my first instinct is that all that has happened is the moving of inane conversation from face to face talking onto the internet. When i think about why i started this blog all i can think is that it was to fill in spare time and to share my random world views with others, where perhaps i wouldn't in everyday life.

And there it is i think, there is the reason, the internet's two effects. The first obviously being the the wide reach it has (in fact world wide reach, hence the world wide web name), and that can be seen in the stats for my blog where it's seemed to reached the USA, Germany and Russia. As a side note hello global blog followers whoever you are. The second of course being that it provides a sort of invisible barrier between you and the outside world, whilst i'm not anonymous (an idea i did ponder) i still feel that i can say things on here which i wouldn't ordinarily.

Anyway that's all for that psychological study, i may do some more research into it, but i highly doubt that i will. Currently i need to go back to my sick computer, and try to figure out what's wrong with it, and get round to fixing it, but it's already sounding like a good post idea. But if i don't have enough for a post at least i can now tweet all about it.

My Big Day Out

2011-10-22T11:42:00.001+01:00

Being home alone for a week definitely has it's advantages, you know, being able to do what you want, when you want, sounds like an exciting time. Except it never is that good, or anywhere near that, all it ever turns out to be is days of sitting around doing absolutely nothing. Now i like to think that my inability to actually do anything was down to having to look after 3 dogs at the same time, thereby, in my mind, incapacitating me. I think, however, that the actually reason that i found myself sitting staring blankly at a wall which the paint had long since dried, was just pure lack of motivation, but i don't think this is just applicable to me, i think that many people when told they can do anything will just stand there because it's the easiest thing to do.

However this time was different, as if finally found the motivation to actually do something, and just anything but go to Alton Towers. Well when i say i found, it was really the fact that my friend had some 2 for 1 vouchers, but nevertheless i was going to Alton Towers, something i haven't done for at least 2 years, despite being one of my favourite places.

Of course it wasn't ever going to be that simple, for starters we only had 5 people who wanted to go, and we needed six, then the night before one of my friends got back from holiday and said he would come, problem solved. But wait, then we discovered that only 2 out of our 3 vouchers were applicable and so now we didn't have enough vouchers, but (and rather weirdly) i found another voucher on my desk (how on earth it got there i have no idea, and as my desk goes i will probably never know).

So two problems found, two problems sorted, off to Alton Towers we go. of course i wanted to set off at 9 to get there for opening and i needed to get a bit of house cleaning done since my parents were back that day, but didn't see the need to set an alarm or anything, since the before mentioned 3 dogs had woken me up at 7 on all the previous days, despite my desperation for a proper lie-in (something that has eluded me for a while now). You can probably see where this going now, and if you can't then continue reading . Of course on this day when i wanted to be woken up at way too early hours of the morning, they didn't and at half eight i drowsily awoke from my slumbers, looked at my clock and bolted straight out of bed.

Anyway i did get to go to Alton Towers, albeit later than i wanted to, and the great thing was that it was relatively empty for Alton Towers, leading to a day packed full with every major attraction which can be found there (well apart from the one necessary broken down one). Which puts me in a very good position to be a critic (although i doubt a very good one, since my world views seem to be different from others), but anyway here it goes:

One thing i can positively say is that the new ride 13 is good, even with the twist known (which i won't tell you about), whether this was due to the negative reviews that i have read bringing down my expectations or it actually being good i won't know, however i do know that it's still not as good as corkscrew, the ride it replaced, which had previously been my favourite ride. As for the other rides, i had already been on them before and having taken in views from my friends they all have different positives, such as Air giving a unique and wonderful feeling, which i would definitely agree with. However my new the ride that takes over as my favourite has to be Sonic Spinball, just because like Corkscrew it just throws you about, which until now i didn't know that that was what i liked from a rollercoaster.

But after all this trouble and cost in going to Alton Towers, i have drawn one reasonably surprising conclusion, that despite all the money they spend on designing these rollercoasters and thrill rides, they don't actually scare me anymore since i trust the engineers and designers, thereby trusting that i won't come to any harm, which does take away from the experience. Unlike for example the situation i found myself in yesterday, stood on top of a 5m high fold-able tower, which for whatever reason (probably because i had put it up) wobbled when i moved.

Now that gave me the feeling that is missing from Alton Towers, and a feeling that Blackpool Pleasure Beach has got due to all their rides having a tendency to sway in the wind and wobble due to the coasters movement. So here's my advice for Alton Towers, don't bother with making the coasters stable, let them sway in the wind, and not only will people have a more thrilling experience, you'll also save a few quid at the same time.

View from the wobbly tower

One Thousand/ Tausend/ Mille/ 一千

2011-10-18T11:28:00.002+01:00

So i've finally reached it, the magical 1000 views (or 1 kiloview). So as i sit here drinking my celebratory can of red thunder, i thought i'd throw out some facts about 1000, so of course i've hit the internet and found some "interesting" facts (to be honest it's quite hard to find any facts by googling and frankly i'm not going any further than that, so this is your lot).

For starters if you don't know what 1000 is then here is wikipedia's (basically the oxford english dictionary) definition: "1000 or 1,000 (one thousand) is the natural number following 999 and preceding 1001." So that's that cleared up then, in case you want to know what 999, then feel free to click the link, but all it says it that it's the natural number that follows 998 and precedes 1000, and this keeps on going for a while so if you're really unsure what a number is don't ever use Wikipedia to find out what they are.

In other numerical forms it takes on many different forms, here are just a view: Roman - M ; Greek - ,α ; Tamil - ௲ ; Binary - 1111101000. Anyway i won't bore you with all the different forms for there is a lot, but as i've stated before there real isn't that many facts about 1000 which i can find, so this is all you're going to get. I mean the only other things wikipedia lists are as follows, just in case you're interested: a millenium is one thousand year; Moby has a song called "I feel it/Thousand"; A grand is slang for £1000, in the USA dimes are $1000 in gambling; and finally and prehaps the most interesting thing i've found is a art project by a swiss artist called one thousand paintings.

http://www.onethousandpaintings.com/blog/ is the website in case you're interesting in buying a piece, but essentially it's just a canvas with a number painted on it, but frankly that is art nowadays. I''m not complaining, just in case you're thinking that, i mean the guy is a genius and a rich one at that since he's selling each painting above $1000 on average, which in case you're not good at maths is over $1 million. That is truly a genius idea, and also proof that art is little more than marketing and has nothing to do with actual skill, but hey-ho i'm not going to start an argument on this celebratory post.

Anyway as you may know i care little for art and much prefer the medium of automobiles, and after a quick search on ebay, if i had a £1 for every view on my blog then i could be the proud owner of a Mercedes E430 Elegance or a BMW 520i SE or a Jaguar Sovereign. So maybe i should start charging, although i highly doubt any of you would view it then, and frankly there is a greater problem, that of the dreaded insurance which for the latter car would cost £5000 a year, which would mean i would have to get a lot more views.

So there you are, this is the end of my magical mystery tour of one thousand. I hope you've enjoyed yourself, if not then at least you've added an extra view to my count, and i'll see you all next time when i've reached my next target of 10000 views which going at this rate will be in approximately 18 months time, which should hopefully mean i can get some proper facts together for that one.

From Blog to Vlog (potentially for a limited period)

2011-10-16T22:20:00.000+01:00

I've finally realised that to write about something, something has to have happened to make it at all interesting. This wouldn't be a problem for someone with an exciting life or for someone who has the ability to review various different media, but as it turns out i posses neither of these. So whilst i may be able to blog on the occasional event or thought (which i deem sane enough to post), i cannot blog about absolutely nothing
(and believe me, I've tried and it doesn't really work), and since i find myself in the predicament of being on half term with lots of work not to do, i know that blogging will help me keep whatever is left of my sanity.

So as you can see this is my problem, even a paradox if you will, for the next 2 weeks i have precious little to keep myself occupied with so blogging would be a way to quell this boredom, but because I've got nothing to do, i have nothing to blog about. So i got thinking and i came up with a solution, why not do a bit of vlogging? Whilst it may be hard to write about nothing, it's not hard babbling on about nothing, a perfect solution. Apart from one problem i don't own any sort of video capturing device, so my laptop's webcam would have to be used, of which it's quality is unknown.

The second problem is that i'm not sure whether i'm the right kind of person to vlog, blogging is one thing but vlogging is something entirely different, and after doing some research (i.e. google) and finding the following page: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/HowTo:Make_a_Vlog , my suspicions were confirmed. Whilst it could be argued that some of the points made are true and therefore vlogging an appropriate activity, i still am not convinced.

So this is what propose (is it still propose, if you have no say in it?). Over the next few days i will attempt to do some vlogging, well just recording at this stage, and then from the collected footage i will assess whether it should go public or get relegated to the depths of the recycle bin. If the prior option is picked then i will collect the feedback, either directly from people or through the medium of the grapevine, then i will know how well it has gone (or not, as the case may be), which could potentially lead to future vlogging in bleak boring situations.

So watch this space because frankly even if i don't vlog i will still try to find some random stuff to blog about (or at the very least scour the internet for reasonable material). In the meantime, if you find yourself in a similar situation to mine, then here's another blog for you: http://sec-c.blogspot.com/ . And if you don't like that, then go out and get a life, or failing that start your own blog.

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

2011-10-10T18:21:00.000+01:00

There's plenty of songs that follow a similar pretense but still many skeptics (which are frankly numerous in number, or maybe just very outspoken in their negativity) will argue that this optimistic view does nothing for life and is simply wishful thinking. But you know what, i wouldn't have written a blog post about mere opinions, and this is defiantly true in this case, give this a read http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15214080 or simply just let me explain the general gist of the article.

Basically, if i have actually understood the article fully (which might not be the case since I've literally just read it, and haven't spent much time doing so, because frankly what's the point of reading it, i'm sure i can understand it from the title alone) it explains how a recent scientific experiment has shown how people who have a optimistic view on life, their brains reject negative thoughts.

I don't know if you realised what that means, to put it simply optimistic don't just try to find good in every situation they actually sub-consciously refuse to acknowledge certain negative information, making the already positive outlook even brighter. I don't know about you but i find this truly amazing, i always knew our brains were amazing things but now this is just mind-blowing (metaphorically that is, otherwise it wouldn't be that great).

Although there is one downside (but if you're optimistic, then feel free to ignore this, if you know that you're doing it) that is of course that optimistic people have skewed view on the risks of certain events occurring, whilst this can also be a positive event in certain cases since the way people view events can affect the outcome, it can also be very risky (see what i did there) business.

However i do actually a question for this researchers, what about pessimists? Do they reject certain positive events keeping their dreary bleak worldviews in there original greyscale condition? If so then they would also sub-consciously reject this experiment aswell, meaning there would be no need in their view to do my experiment, or maybe i'm just making stuff up in order to make this post seem ever longer, justifying the need for it in the first place.

I hope you feel enlightened and feel free to adjust your life views as needs be. As for me i will consider my views, that is after watching TV and playing civilization, which of curse are much more important things to do, than simple life changing philosophy. But you know what i would consider myself an optimist anyway, i mean i might as well enjoy my life since statistically it will be of little importance and about 78 years long.

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy (actually not that easy)

2011-10-05T20:08:00.003+01:00

As you may know i am one who likes cooking, and so again i will be posting another one of my recipes (although this is the first time I've cooked it, and we'll have to see how it turns out) Anyway if you're not into food, then i have a music suggestion instead and if you like both then feel free to take both. So over the last few days I've revisited the music of Bat for Lashes, i found their music a few years back whilst watching Jools Holland and haven't regretted that moment since. I don't know what more i can really say about it though apart from it is quite a uniqu-ish style so instead of me trying to explain, just give them a listen, you never know you could actually like it.

~~Lemon~~ Fried Chicken

Marinade chicken with soy sauce (either light or dark or even a mix of both)
Make the batter with an egg and roughly a tablespoon of flour, then add water until desired consistency (can't explain what this really is but hopefully you can decide for yourself) (optional chinese five spice can be added at this point)
Chuck all the chicken pieces into the batter and cover thoroughly, whilst warming some oil in a pan.
Once the oil is hot, chuck the battered chicken into the pan, and break up the pieces from each other
~~In another pan add chicken broth, lemon juice, lemon slices and sugar, simmer for some time~~
~~Serve the chicken with rice or noodles and pour the lemon sauce over.~~

Yeah, after making it the sauce really didn't turn out well. However fear not for the recipe still works as fried chicken, or infact any batter fried meat/vegetable/object you wish, and i will work on the lemon sauce to make it work or at least taste reasonable.

What's that noise?

2011-10-03T17:22:00.001+01:00

It's finally arrived! When i got home (a few days back, but i haven't managed to find time to listen and post about it until now) the new switchfoot album was lying in my post box, ready for eager ears to listen to. I won't bore you with details but it is brilliant, and i still haven't quite decided how good compared to their other albums, but it is easily in the top 2 for me. If you like a bit of rock then give it a listen, and if you prefer more slow/ quiet music then also give it a listen because there's a good mix of both.

I was going to try and make that stretch out a bit more, since for days it's the only thing i could think to write about, but then i decided (after some quite random, but normal, conversations with my friends) to just do a whole post about many different music (sounds? i'm not sure some can be counted as music) from around the web. Then i had the great idea of maybe doing my top 10 songs then other top 10s in my life, so watch this space as i might use that some time when i'm lacking ideas, so probably very soon knowing me.

The first thing that came up from this conversation that truly amazed me, was that one of my friends had never heard of nyan cat! To be honest though i'm not sure how surprising that might be to normal people who don't spend most there time surfing the web, but just in case you're one of "those" normal people who haven't heard of it : http://nyan.cat/ . Actually i probably should say if you want to keep your sanity, don't give it a listen, it's one of those that sticks with you, so that when you lying in bed trying to get to sleep, nyan nyan, and then it slowly gets louder, Nyan Nyan Nyan, then all of a sudden it's in full swing, NYAN NYAN NYAN NYAN, ARRRGGGHHH, and there goes hours of sleep.

I honestly think i could make a horror movie based around nyan cat, it'll probably go something like jaws, but with someone sat in a room, maybe on the phone, or watching TV. Then they'll hear a noise, just enough to prick their ears without stopping what they're doing. Then again the noise will sound, ny ny, enticing them enough to stop to listen intentively. Slowly and slowly it would get louder and louder until they go to investigate, but of course they find nothing until they return to the original room, and there is nyan cat, and the person drops to the fall and either becomes some kind of crazed person or dies, i haven't put much thought into it so i don't know yet (ideas are welcome, but don't expect any share in the profits).

However i'm sure that many people already know about nyan cat, and that brings me onto the next piece of "music", which again (as a internet person) i will be devasted if people haven't heard of,
but i won't talk about it, just let you revel in the masterclass of swedemason.

There's so many more songs i can think of now to share with you, but i'm sure you are perfectly capable of finding your own internet music masterpieces. Just one more thing though, and this is truly the most epic undertaking one can do, if you remember the Lord of the Rings mix "Taking the hobbits to Isengard", then this will seem very similar, and so it should because it basically is, but with one annoying twist. It's 10 hours long, yes 10 whole hours, thats as long as all 3 of the movies, i would stongly advise that you don't try to listen to it for 10 hours, because i'm sure then all you'll ever say for the rest of your life will be "we're taking the hobbits to Isengard".

And prehaps "Nyan Nyan".

Too Busy, Too Early

2011-10-01T12:09:00.001+01:00

As the clock ticks over into the afternoon, so far my morning has been relatively productive (despite me sitting here now writing this). You may have noticed that I've changed my blog layout to the new-fangled "dynamic view", please comment on this change since i'm still not entirely sure about it so far, this meant that I've had to find pictures for most of my previous posts in order that the flipcard view works well. This will mean that most my posts will have pictures in now, and hopefully (if i can be bothered) they will be my own pictures, but we'll see about that.

Well that's one thing i've done this morning, but the other much more important one had me up at 7 this morning. This was of course for the England v Scotland rugby match, since my church decided to combine the men's breakfast with the watching of the match, and i have to help set up since my dad organizes the event. However i'm glad that i gave up my lie-in and in the end a few fingernails to watch this match. Whilst not exactly magnificent, it was truly a pulsating match as both teams world cup fate relied on wins. Thankfully England came through but it was too nerve wrecking, but i suppose that's how England play in all sports.

However there is one thing that i found myself getting annoyed at, and to be honest i often find when watching sports with other people, and that is the pure pessimistic views of people. Now, yes it's fine to get annoyed but when people start just to give up hope that is truly annoying (especially when they get vocal about it). I possibly would say i'm an optimist, but that mainly comes from my belief that anything can happen until it's mathematically impossible.

I remember the 2008 F1 season, going into the last race with Hamilton needing a 5th place to win the championship. It was the final few laps and Hamilton pitted for wet tyres putting him back out in 7th, now my dad who is a Hamilton fan got up and left the room at this point, only for Hamilton to regain 5th place on the final corner. Now that's why you should never be pessimistic, because you never know what's going to happen, as the saying goes "It ain't over till it's over".

To be honest i carry this view through all of my life, not just sport and it seems to work. Whilst i won't tell you to have a similar view (because that could cause some sort of liability issue), give it a go and see what happens. But if you don't want to give it a go then next time you're watching sport in public don't be so annoying, please.

Pvcure Punyyratr

2011-09-29T19:23:00.003+01:00

Yes its that time of the year again. Cipher Challenge 2011 has begun (in case you want to test yourself have a go and solve the cipher in the title) and man i'm excited. Considering that i currently have nothing to do in the evenings apart from sit around and watch endless hours of american comedy (a.k.a. scrubs, the big bang theory and how i met your mother), which are all excellent programs worthwhile giving a watch. On a related note, if you're already a fan of either of the last 2 then both their new seasons are out! Just head over to your favourite streaming site to give them a watch, because knowing the English Tv scheduling they won't be out here until at least November at the earliest.

Anyway, as i was saying I've had little to do for the past few weeks, so cipher challenge is now not just an awesome thing to do but also helps me fill in some time. However saying that this weeks challenge was pretty easy, but that was expected being the first week and all, got to break the newbies in gently. If you're one of those newbies looking for hints, then tough luck you won't find any here because this year i'm determined to win, after last year's disappointing finish.

After submitting all our previous ciphers hours before the deadlines, we went into the final cipher quite pleased, however to put it simply it was impossible. No, i don't mean we found it impossible, it was actually impossible with the only way of solving it was with brute force and if you know what i'm talking about then you'll know that that means impossible. So this year i'm determined to do better, so on thursday nights don't expect any blogging , unless of course like today the cipher is easy then i'll be blogging still.

On a different note, i've finally finished my UCAS for good. After weeks if thinking i've finished and having it all held up because the careers adviser didn't know what to do, i've finally sent it off but paid the pricey sum of £22 for the pleasure. However i should be soon rejoicing in the delights of getting places, or just wallowing in self-pity as the rejections roll in. Either way it should be an interesting time, but until then i'll just sit here watching my american comedy and deciphering my ciphers. Oh what a wonderful life i have!

It's about time

2011-09-27T17:43:00.000+01:00

This is the thing with blogging, throughout today i was thinking about what to write and thought i know what how about my joint invention of the revo, which if you want to know is an ingenious new way of measuring angles, so ingenious in fact that it has already been thought of (ah well, never mind i'll be back with another idea soon). P.s. if you want to see some maths stuff then head on over to http://lolproofs.blogspot.com/ . So there went that post idea, so of course added over to the sanctuary of the internet to find some particularly interesting stories.

This didn't take too long and i soon found myself reading through this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15075014 , now it has long been my view that 3D films are just a gimmick, and apart from Mark Kermode i didn't know of anyone else who shared my view, but here is proof. All i can say is that it's taking a bit too long for people to finally realise that a product made for theme park rides, which has been adapted to make money in the film industry is actually not any good.

This might shock you but I've never watched avatar, i know "apparently" it was a great film but really think about, i mean really think what is so great about it? It has a ripped off story from countless movies and the many people i ask understand this and fall back on the argument that the graphics are mindblowing. Well frankly i don't care if a movie has mindblowing graphics, all i want is watchable special effects, what's the point of watching a film for its graphics. If that were true then you actively discounting any film before the 90s, now we all know that that is simply not true. If you had a choice would you watch the new blu ray altered star wars or the original films, if you pick the first one then please find the nearest door to you and use it.

Films are about how they make you feel and think, now i agree that a part of that is down to the cinematography but cinematography is not just special effects and all that mallarcy. Now i know that i'm not one to judge films, as i've never understood the depth of critics and how they delve into movies, but one thing i can say is that whilst this whole 3D thing has managed to grab the attentions of many easily excited people, it seems to finally have been figured out for what it is by said people and hopefully is in its decline. Because, although i have never given into the whole craze and the people who have been exploited by the
ruthless money grabbing film industry i don't really care about, it still will please me greatly to see the whole industry collapse and maybe go back to making good films instead of good graphics.

Don't Panic

2011-09-23T19:23:00.000+01:00

Ever since i decided to make the transition from daily blog into a more conventional blog, I've had many ideas for blog posts, i suppose that's life though. So here i am not just 2 days after saying i wouldn't post daily, and on a 3rd consecutive day of blogging, however i assure you that i will not be posting this weekend, for i seem to be quite busy turning 18 and all. However that's is not why i find myself sitting at my computer writing this, no there are far more important events in the world that have made me dedicate my time. If the events that i speak of have not been made aware to you then you're lucky you found my blog as one is potential world changing whilst the other could pose a serious health risk towards you.

The first event is of course the "fact" that scientists at CERN have found a particle that travels faster than light, i use the word "fact" loosely, as whilst it technically could be called a fact as the evidence is conclusive, for some strange reason the scientist want to make sure that it is or even find the reason why they are wrong. For the benefit of those of you who aren't keen on science and have no idea what this means i'll keep it short. Effectively one of the major scientific principles could potential prove to be totally wrong. Don't Panic, whilst it could have potentially world-changing effects it won't likely effect you, instead it could open the world up to time travel. Yes you heard me, time travel, exciting right (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15034414).

Whilst i would love to delve deeper into this great discovery and its potential, i have to hurry on to the second story, as i need to go and help at youth group soon (and most likely get hit in the face with a football again, only just recovered from that if you wanted to know). As i said before this could pose a serious risk to your well being, although unless you're sailing around the Pacific at the moment it probably won't. Of course i'm talking about the big chunk of metal currently hurtling down through our atmosphere know as the URAS satellite (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15034073). Whilst most of it will burn up, hopefully, on its way some quite large chunks could make it down to the surface (over 150kg) and even the smaller chunks could cause injury, or a very nice souvenir. Again, Don't Panic though because the chance of someone getting hit is only 1 in 3200, so sleep easy, unless again you're sleeping on a boat in the pacific because the chance there is higher (p.s. why are you there anyway?).

So that's it for this week of blogging, i'll be back again next week, unless i get hit by a piece of satellite. Or if faster than light travel is found to be true, in that case i might be back again last year.

Get Over It!

2011-09-22T18:46:00.000+01:00

If it's escaped your attention facebook has had a major update (which raises the question where have you been, and how have you found yourself here), and apparently some people don't seem to like it, you know if it's you. My question is what's wrong with it? Seriously, the biggest parts of the update are essentially just a small facelift, and the lists is genius (a google+ fueled genius idea nevertheless, but frankly i don't care). Most people i know who complain (a relatively large number), are complaining, seemingly, just for the sake of complaining.

One good thing about this new found hatred for facebook, is hopefully google+ will finally get inhabited, turning the wasteland of my google+ homepage into a thriving bustling metropolis. Although by the looks of things so far either all those people who have threatened to move to google+ haven't or they're using google's circles to stop anything getting through to me, and frankly that's just mean.

I know that before i was singing the praises of google and its plans for its worldwide empire, and yes, google+ is a brilliant piece of internet but please stop using facebook's update as an excuse for using it, please just sign up to it and use it for the sake of using it. Why not, i know this is pretty radical, use both facebook and google+ ? Because frankly, at the moment not much is happening on google+ and it'll probably be many many years before it gets as busy as facebook, and then you know what all the things you didn't like about facebook will be on google+, and you can move onto a new social network site or socialize in the real world.

Sorry about that rant but people sometimes (actually normally) get on my nerve, so back to the positives. If you have google chrome (which using bloggers nifty stats feature, i can safely assume that about 45% of you do, and on a similar note which 15% have been using internet explorer, please get a better browser) then you might realise that being awesome google give you the options of adding some pretty awesome extensions for facebook. Currently i only have the dislike button, and the online counter which rather impressively is currently at 2:27:42 and counting (so much for real life socializing).

Anyway time to wrap it up for today. So i'll again leave you with a quite famous quote this time actually: "Change for change sake is pointless" (or something along those lines ( i really can't be bothered finding the actually quote)), however you can't do anything about it, so just get over it.

Hmmmmm....

2011-09-21T17:05:00.000+01:00

Apparently some people have noticed that i haven't posted in a while, well a while being 2 days, and noticed being complaining. Yes i know i might have suggested that it would be a daily blog, but i never stated it, if you don't believe me then please do check. Whilst i managed to keep up the daily blogging for a while, well just under 2 weeks, i recently decided that it would be best to try and move away from the daily and more towards a normal when i can be bothered, which should hopefully be every couple of days though, and if you can't be bothered to check then i will be posting any new posts on my facebook feed (if i remember that is).

Anyway with that little situation explained, i shall continue this post in the normal style (whatever that is), and to be honest i'm still unsure what to write about, even as i'm writing this, so i could just keep on typing, and typing, to give me more time to think, or i could just stop and think for a while instead...

Sorry that took a little longer than expected, but i figured out something to write about. You might remember a while back i was complaining about UCAS, but I've finally finished the form, although it took many hours of boredom before i couldn't find anything else to do, but every so often there is a period of extreme boredom. Also if you know about UCAS then you'll know about the dreaded personal statement, where there is a true balancing act between pompousness and humility, and after you've successfully managed that, you give it to someone in order that they can tear holes in it (metaphorically obviously, unless they're a bit weird). If you're like me then after a few people have criticized it and you've rewrote it and rewrote it you get to a point where you just ignore any criticism, and just say "that'll do".

If you're "eagle eyed" (a.k.a. pedantic and annoying) you might notice I've already moaned about UCAS, and you know what, i don't care it is truly annoying. And of course you actually have to pick your university choices on top of it, and that is why i spent my saturday traipsing around a soaking Lancaster. Luckily, though, Lancaster's course includes a year abroad so hopefully North Carolina will have better weather, if not at least it's a year in North Carolina which i suspect is better than a year in Lancaster itself, i mean just looking at the population (thank you Wikipedia) Lancaster: 46,000 Raleigh: 400,000, which means it's actually a big city. I may be being a bit harsh though because Lancaster's campus is actually very nice (see i'm unbiased) and so if you hadn't already guessed that is one of my choices; although mainly because of the year abroad and £1000 scholarship for good grades.

So i think that's enough for now, i have to something to write next time and i promise i'll try to think of something before i start writing. Or i could just blabber on like an idiot (no sarcastic comments please), anyway until then (which should hopefully be tomorrow or friday) find something else to entertain you, but make sure it's not too entertaining so that you still read my blog.

Who is Deadliest?

2011-09-18T14:59:00.002+01:00

Sorry about not posting yesterday, i was spending my time getting rained on at Lancaster Uni. However i won't be talking about my time there, instead i will use this opportunity to talk about one the best modern pieces of TV, of course i'm talking about Deadliest Warrior. It was the wonderful Charlie Brooker who first introduced this magnificent show, and curious i gave it a watch. Wow. I mean it is such a simple idea, and it just seems to work.

If you don't know about it then, essentially what happens is 2 warriors who never fought each other in history are pitted against each other in a computer simulation. Of course for the simulation data has to be collected which involves pig carcasses, ballistic gel bodies and lots of blood. Each warrior is represented by a team of experts who use their weapons to slice, stab and blow up the various targets, and data is collected from this, although i think the main purpose is just for some awesome tv footage.

The best part though has to be the acted simulation to display the computer results, i urge you just to watch one of these if not the whole show. Although that only comes just above the great introduction line of "a team of scientists", now if they're scientists, i want to be a scientist. I mean having a job that just involves watching things get cut up/ shot and all you have to do is stand there and make random comments, that's one awesome job.

Now one of the highlights of the whole 3 series has to be the IRA vs Taliban, it might sound quite stupid but every time you watch you do support a team, and for this one the IRA was my team, but i won't ruin it by telling you who won, but please give it a watch at least because it's so inappropriate but so fun. However saying that series 3 has an even more inappropriate match up with Pol Pott taking on Sadam Hussein, i know crazy right!

But the most brilliant idea was the finale of series 3, which i found myself watching last night. Vampires, yes vampires, against Zombies. Whoever thought of that is a genius frankly, and in case you want to know how on earth they managed to to it, then i'm not going to tell you, you're going to have to watch it instead, but i guarantee it won't disappoint.

Ready, Steady, Cook (Like a Student)

2011-09-16T19:14:00.000+01:00

Amazingly i'm actually going out tonight. That combined with the fact that i have to cook dinner for the family tonight means that i actually have little time to waste, and so instead of a normal blog post this is just going to be a quick recipe for some top notch student cooking.

Flatbread Pizza

Mix together 110g self-raising flour with 55g butter, dash in some parsley/ any herbs you can find and bind together with water.
Roll out into a rough circle-ish shape.
Grab any vegetables you can get e.g. peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes (yes, i know there not vegetables but frankly it doesn't matter), and cut them up and fry with garlic and any tomato based sauce you can find (i managed to find some salsa) and of course oodles of cheese.
Remove veggie mix from pan and fry the bread for a few minutes each side (try not to break it when flipping)
Place veggie mix on top of bread, and there you go. And if you're one of those weird people who like to eat healthily, I've been told salad can go with it.

Grand Designs

2011-09-15T17:50:00.002+01:00

If you had managed to escape the magnificent news until now, here it is: Grand Designs is back! I know exciting right, for some time now the TV has been missing Kevin but he's finally back and here to stay (for as long as this season is on for). I'm guessing it comes to no surprise to you then that not only am i a huge grand designs fan, but also dedicated a hour last night to watching the first episode.

Ok, i'll admit that the house wasn't one of the best ever, but the show is still as good as ever. Whilst the house was slow to build, the show was as slick as ever; whilst the house was not finished, the show was perfectly finished. I could continue with these comparisons, but i think you get the idea, the show was awesome.

Anyway if you didn't have the pleasure of watching it, the house was a refurbished cottage with rebuilt mill building and a connecting steel and zinc link. If you're a fan of big commercial looking houses then this was one for you, but for me i'm not a fan. I prefer a more naturalistic approach, where the house is part of the landscape. And a house just like this was built on Australia's version (whilst not as good because of the absence of McCloud, it was still a great show), here it is if you feel like having a look: http://www.lifestyle.com.au/granddesigns/episode-1-bushfire-house.aspx

I hope one day that i'll have the opportunity to build my own unique version of a similar house to this, but until then i shall continue watching grand designs, and i would highly recommended you give it ago too (unless you don't like houses or Kevin McCloud, then it's probably not for you).

Rock On

2011-09-14T18:19:00.003+01:00

I'm not made for rock climbing. I quite possibly have one of the worst balances in the world, for example i once fell over whilst standing perfectly still on a level floor. And i mean it, one moment i was standing upright, next moment i felt myself falling back, but for some strange reason was totally incapable of stopping myself. I can't even close my eyes whilst standing, as i lose my balance. Not only that but i also have really bad circulation, and i mean really really bad. Every so often my hands look like the belong on a dead man, whilst this wouldn't seem a problem it truly is when half-way up a rock wall you lose all feelings in your hands rendering nearly useless.

So why, oh why did i find myself half-way up said rock wall. Yes, i know i decided to do it but reflecting back on it i don't think i truly thought about it. However saying that it is actually really fun, if you look past the possible injury and chilling wind, then the challenge of the climb is brilliant. And despite my lack of balance and cold numb hands i'm reasonably ok at it, being modest of course. I mean compared to this guy, i'm quite positively brilliant:

So whilst many might compare me to Sheldon, i am clearly better than him at rock climbing (if you don't agree, then feel free not to comment). So i would actually urge you to consider going rock climbing and if you're really mad go free climbing, but i think i'll steer well clear of that because that the wrong type of crazy for me.

Gotta Catch Em All

2011-09-13T17:43:00.002+01:00

Being a 90s child there was only one game i grew up with (if the title doesn't give it away then you have missed out on something), that game was of course Pokemon. I remember not ever actually owning a Pokemon game, i used to borrow the games from my friends, not sure why that was the case but eventually i got round to buying some games, although by this time i was already in my late teens but this is still an acceptable age to play Pokemon, in fact i think any age is acceptable. Now i not only have 2 Pokemon games on my GBA, but also roms on my notebook, so my life is now fully Pokemon filled and i couldn't be happier.

Anyway since this blog is meant to have posts inspired by my thoughts of the day, you may be wondering where this Pokemon nostalgia is coming from. Well here is the reason: http://www.thedrunkenmoogle.com/post/7829564863/squirtle-wartortle-blastoise-pokemon-shot-and
This is the excellent link i found today whilst browsing pokememes (any fan of pokemon or memes should definitively give this website a go). I know i posted a cocktail recipe this weekend, and so i must say that i am by no means an alcoholic, i'm simply love making cocktails.

Might i just add in case you're incapable of finding the other links on the bottom of that page, there are 2 more for the bulbasaur and charmeleon versions. But being a massive squirtle fan i decided to post this link. Now i know many people will disagree, but to put it simply squirtle IS the best starter pokemon, i mean he's a turtle that evolves into Blastoise whose also a turtle but has massive cannons on his back. I know there are arguments for the others, but i also know that if you care to argue about it then you will also realise that there's a link with your starter Pokemon, probably stronger than you have with some people (and if you don't understand this, then again you have missed out on something awesome).

I'll leave it there for now, as it's hard to explain Pokemon to someone who hasn't played and to anyone who has they don't need telling how awesome it is. And anyway i feel like going to battle the elite four with my magnificent Blastoise (because unlike Chuck Norris i can't do it with a magikarp (see below, again from pokememes, i mean this site it truly awesome)).

Well That's Annoying

2011-09-12T18:27:00.000+01:00

Little advice for you, if you're going to play in net in a game of football, use your hands to save the shot not your face. I learnt this the hard way, although i always seem to do it whenever i play. All the other times it hurt, but nothing more. However this time was different and since the incident I've had a blurry spot in my vision. Whilst not impairing it is really annoying, i mean really really annoying. However saying that it is not the most annoying injury I've ever had.

If you hadn't realised, i seem to be very injury prone, with a magnificent strike rate of approximately one every type of game i play. Amazingly though I've never had to go to hospital for anything, and with only 2 weeks till my 18th, i could make it my whole childhood without serious injury. Anyway as i was saying before, this is not the most annoying injury I've had, whilst it'll be hard to say which has been the most, a few do spring to mind.

One of the most annoying but least serious was a bruise on the heel of my foot. This of course meant every time i placed the foot on the ground, the most annoying pain shot from my foot. The other that springs to mind is one that keeps recurring, that is the locking of my knee. Imagine walking along normally then suddenly being unable to move your leg, that is truly annoying.

Anyway it turns out that I've just bruised my eye and it should return to normal in the next week. However i'm sure that i'll soon find another interesting way to injure myself and then i shall be back to write about it.

Remembrance

2011-09-11T07:30:00.000+01:00

Normally i try to make my posts funny and witty (you may argue that they simply aren’t, but then what are you doing reading this?), however today is going to a solemn post as if you haven’t noticed today is 10 years on from the 9/11 terrorist attacks.Whilst people may argue whether the gulf war that followed this attack was right or wrong, i will not be discussing any of these things in this post. This post will just be about that terrible day.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, i was living in California in 2001 and despite my poor memory, i remember this day quite quickly. I remember waking up, and walking into my living room to find the TV on with the news on. And of course on the news was the pictures of the twin towers with smoke bellowing out of the north tower, and then the plane hitting the south tower.

I didn’t go to school that day, i just sat at home watching the events unfold. Apart from what I've said i don’t remember much else from that day, i was just stunned by what i was seeing. However, i do remember an unusual feeling, i remember watching the selfless helping of the fire-fighters and others feeling proud of being ‘American’. I now realise that the feeling was not of pride of being ‘American’, but that of pride of being human. Many other events have happened since then to confirm this. Whilst these events are dark hours in our history, they bring out the best in human nature. Normally people view humanity as selfish and uncaring, as this is what is seen in day to day life.

But that is not all of human nature, human nature also encompasses compassion and selflessness for those in need, and this is what was seen 10 years ago. Everyone who could help did, and everyone who couldn’t joined together in support and remembrance. 2997 people died that day, of which many were rescuers. So i urge you to think back and remember not only the loss of that fateful day, but also the selflessness of those rescuers, and I'll leave you with a quote which sums up my feelings:

“Now, we have inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It’s a memory of tragedy and shock, of loss and mourning. But not only of loss and mourning. It’s also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice, and the love that lays down its life for a friend–even a friend whose name it never knew. “
- President George W. Bush, December 11, 2001

The Southport

2011-09-10T21:09:00.005+01:00

(From time to time i will just post some random short posts, which are things that just happened, which are important enough to post but not enough for a full post.)

This is a cocktail recipe which i have just made and is frankly awesome, feel free to make and share. It is called the southport and its name will become obvious with the recipe:

Double Shot Port
Shot SoCo
Mix with ice and strain
Top up with lemonade
Drink and enjoy (hopefully)

And Here’s Your Picture Round

2011-09-10T12:05:00.001+01:00

(A question from a recent university challenge: University of Manchester vs. Selwyn College Cambridge) Name these Formula 1 circuits:

Now i know not everyone is as big an F1 fan as i am, but the first one should be recognisable to most people (and on the program the picture had the harbour on as well), meaning that it is of course Monaco. Surely enough they got that one right. However the next 2 stumped them, in case you wondered they’re Yas Marina, Dubai and Hockenheim, Germany. It became obvious that they only knew 2 F1 circuits, as their only guess for the last 2 was “Is it Monza?”

This handily brings me to this weekend, and if you hadn’t guessed already it is the Italian GP at Monza, which means my whole weekend’s TV is sorted. But fear not, if you’re not interested in F1, as i will be filling this post with pictures. For starters here is the Monza GP Circuit for reference.

Whenever people realise I'm an F1 fan, they say: “But it’s so boring”. The answer to that is yes there can sometimes be very dull races or sections of a race, but surely that’s true for any sport, not every football match is pulsating exciting, some of them are plain boring 0-0 draws. And in the same way a football player can have a spark of inspiration that changes a whole match, in F1 a driver can make an extraordinary overtake that defies belief.

This a picture of Webber’s stunning overtake only last race, and in case you’re thinking it’s not impressive, then keep this in mind: this is at 170mph, with walls on either side, (when i tried it, i was only doing 130mph). This was only one of several amazing overtakes last GP, and that has seemingly been the case for this whole season.

Anyway I'll keep it short, and just leave you with 2 things. First here are my predictions for the race: 1) Button 2)Hamilton 3)Schumacher. Secondly if you’ve got nothing to do this weekend then perhaps give Monza a watch, it could very well be a classic.

P.S. I hope i haven’t bored you too much, and i promise I'll be back to my normal posts next week.

Great Scott!

2011-09-09T17:32:00.001+01:00

I’m only on my 5th blog post and I'm already beginning to struggle for things to write about. At the start of this blog i had many interesting points to make, and yet they have all vanished from my memory. So I've decided to jot down any ideas i have to prevent this occurrence, and I've already decided on topics for the weekend, however i still had the problem of today.

At first i thought maybe just don’t do one, but to be honest if i couldn’t make one week of daily posts i didn’t see this blog working well long-term. How about a filler post? You know some random video or pictures. “Yes that could work” i thought, so i set about thinking of some links. Still thinking whilst performing my daily Facebook browse, i came across this http://www.scpr.org/blogs/newmedia/2011/09/08/nike-unveiling-future-shoes-back-future-2/ .

Great Scott! Earlier i was just finalising my idea for an essay competition entry about the future of transport, and here was a story of similar importance and topic. Yes it’s not on flying cars or teleports, but the simple fact is that one little piece of the 1980’s ‘future’ is here, and to be fair they are probably more important than any of those things. Now i must profess that when it comes to shoes, I'm left bemused by all the hype, but these, these i get.

What’s even more exciting is the patent that Nike took out last year for self-lacing shoes, meaning that potentially these could change not just your life, but the whole world. So if the economic crisis and global warming has left you facing a bleak and miserable future, just think that whilst you may be jobless and knee deep in water, you can sleep peacefully in the knowledge you could be wearing your very own pair of Nike Air Mags, i know i will.

The New World Empire

2011-09-08T17:39:00.000+01:00

Over the past few days I've come to realise that content is not the only thing that makes a blog good. So i quickly decided to make my blog's design more snazzy, this took a good chunk of time with countless flicking between two fonts thinking "Which one works better?", because i know some people get quite annoyed at certain supposedly 'jovial' and 'fun' fonts (I must confess that i would be one of those people.) However i'm quite pleased with the end result, (and if anyone doesn't like it, feel free not to air your views), and so i felt quite happy with my work. This happiness was short lived as i finally realised that i could not find my blog on google. It turns out that apparently you've got to ask google to 'crawl' your website in order for it to display it in searches.

I don't see why i have to ask google, i'm sure it knows exactly what i do. Frankly i half expect google to have a full profile on me with my birthday, hometown and favourite chocolate bar (btw it's double decker if you want to buy me one). My theory is that over the past few decades google has been quietly stocking up all this information so that one day it can finally realise it's dream of taking over the whole world under a google empire.

You may be skeptical about my views, but seriously think about it, currently i'm writing this on blogger (owned by google) on google chrome, yesterday i posted a link from youtube (google owned), and right in my pocket is my android phone. And all that's just the tip of the iceberg, the fact is that google controls a lot of your online activities. Yes i know i'm also on facebook which isn't google owned, but google+ has already passed 10mil accounts during its "limited trial period".

May i come back to my phone, i know many people think that apple has the biggest market share in the smartphone market, however that is simply not true (as shown by the graph opposite). Not only that but google has created an alliance with HTC and Samsung, and is now working on bringing apple to its knees, through countless legal suits. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14238741 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14832762). I presume this is to bankrupt apple in an attempt to buy it out, so it can control the music market as well.

To be honest though i'm all up for this global takeover. I already live in a google filled world and it seems to work well and more importantly is free. So i say long live google and it's new world empire, but please can it hurry up and make my itunes work properly.

Boredom and its consequences

2011-09-07T20:30:00.000+01:00

I was reminded today (by XKCD) of the wonders that boredom can create, i mean how bored do you have to be to make two A.I. chat bots talk to each other? (Here's the video if you haven't seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnzlbyTZsQY) Whilst a brilliantly clever thing to do, it can have only come about from sheer utter boredom. Actually it could have been the product of a pint in the pub, where many other great ideas are formed. Anyway that's sort of irrelevant as my boredom hasn't given me any great inspirations, just insanity and this blog in fact.

Whilst initially this might not seem a major problem, it is probably is since i'm meant to be filling out my ucas form, but instead find myself watching the new deadliest warrior episode (which is a pretty awesome show, but i'll save that for another day). In case you haven't had the displeasure of filling out a ucas form, i envy you, unless of course you're just putting it off, then you're in the same boat as me and i would highly recommend deadliest warrior. But seriously isn't having to write a personal statement enough, why do i have to fill in everything that's happened to me in the past 7 years of my life. And of course on top of all that there's the actual picking your uni choices on top of that.

Today i decided to sit down and decide on my last two places from a shortlist of 3 universities, a short while later and that shortlist had increased to 7. So i did the only sensible thing and gave up and played angry birds. All that ucas stuff can wait, right now i'm satisfied firing little birds at some pigs, and whoever came up with angry birds must have been very bored, but that is a boredom i am very grateful for.

bill

2011-09-06T16:49:00.001+01:00

Whilst searching through the vast amount of music filling my computer one day, a few years back, i came across a gem of a song "sound scientist" by bill. Amazed by the awesomeness i set out on a not-so-epic quest to find more from bill. This was harder than i realised, since googling "bill" doesn't give the result you want, but instead various totally unrelated pages, youtube has a similar problem as well as myspace. However, finally after restarting my search, i found them! A quick amazon purchase later and the quest is over, to save you the effort here's their myspace link http://www.myspace.com/bill .

On a related note, i have new neighbours. Although i haven't met them yet so not much can be posted about them yet, however i can inform you that they own 2 rovers, and can't park very well. Well it could be good parking if they thought that their driveway was actually half the road / the entrance to my driveway, maybe i should helpfully label the driveway and road so they distinguish the two. More info to come, hopefully.

Finally, i don't profess myself to be an apple fan, more of the opposite in fact, but i can unbiasedly say that itunes is rubbish. I'm sorry for hurting your feelings apple fans, but it just it. This morning i understandably wanted to add bill to my ipod, so i connect up my ipod and it instantly decides that i don't know what i want, and what i really want is to empty my ipod and sync all my music onto it again. How can that ever be useful, i have never wanted that to happen, why would i? But it didn't stop there, no, after resorting to my old samsung mp3, which easily managed this simple task, i come back to find that itunes has decided that whilst i initially wanted all my music back on it, i now only want half on it. Just why itunes? Why?

Anyway that's all for now, i'm sure i had more to post but that information seems to have hidden somewhere deep in my mind, so it'll probably never be found again. So i'll just leave you with a quote: "itunes is rubbish - me"

Hello there internet people!

2011-09-06T15:33:00.001+01:00

This is a totally new thing for me, never blogged before but always thought it to be a good idea, and since i'm currently very bored, what better time than now to start. Just as a quick warning i'm not the most cohesive person, and i have a feeling that this may reflect on any blog posts, since they're just going to be ramblings from the period of time that occurs between posts.

For my 1st post, where better to start than the word "xyst" (as whenever i get the pleasure of using this utterly awesome word in any game of hangman, scrabble or chess, people always ask what it means), and if you're wondering what it means then you've come to the right place, although i suspect if you've naivgated yourself here then you'll probably be capable of googling it, however in case you're still curious it's either a covered portico or a garden walk planted with trees (from a roman villa), i've attached a pic of the 1st description, so please use it with your friends in confidence now that you know it.

Anyway i need some sleep so if you want more, then tough luck, but if you've already had enough, then lucky you, because this is all for now.

P.S. After reviewing last nights work i decided to change the blog's name, and so have amended this post to make more sense.