New Years Resolutions

I thought I would do a post about this today as I highly suspect I won't have time to do it tomorrow with it being New Years Eve n'all.

The actual word resolution means a firm decision to do or not do something, which fits perfectly with the idea of a New Years resolution because usually they are things to change in the coming year. Whether they actually happen or not is of course a different question all together.

I myself am a serial failer when it comes to resolutions, the first I actually succeeded with was last year to carry on with my blog for the entire year - and I did and it is still going! This year I will plan, to keep my blog going at a standard which I am happy with, like my last two months of posting. So it is more than a picture with a paragraph of text. Sometimes it is unavoidable but otherwise - I will do my best. Some of my other ones for example have been eating five a day, or getting fitter. Theoretically, perfectly obtainable things but when it comes to practice I never did.

Most resolutions will fail because people go 'too big' so in reality it is unachievable. My advise is, if you set yourself one and are steadfast about achieving it, start a bit smaller and make sure you have the tools to actually do it. So, me for example, I made sure I had the app on my phone for Blogger so I could do it when out and about if needed. I got myself set up on the Mac and worked out processes as to when I would blog and a layout of content. I stuck to this as best I could and now we are on day 547!

Another thing is don't set yourself too many goals, it is has been proven that trying to remember more things is stressful and hinders your ability to remember the important things of what you need to remember. So for me, last year I am pretty sure keeping up with this was the only one I set last year because I thought it was a biggie. I say this now, if I went back to last years blog I might be fibbing. Because it was a long time ago and stuff.. Maybe just give yourself one or two goals of varying size and work towards them. Other things that you may have been thinking to set as a resolution will then come naturally alongside it. It all works out eventually.

Remember, if you do have a set back, don't beat yourself up. Putting yourself in a negative mind frame when doing something sticks, more than you may first think. Every time you then went to do that resolution because of your negative reaction prior, you'll feel that again which can often lead to failure.

See what happens. I will try stick to mine if you stick to yours!

Day 547
Selfie?

So Amy totally bought a proclaimed selfie stick, actually called a monopod because it is a single legged pod for your camera phone. Technically. A great pose if I do say so myself. Even though I don't really like selfies, I can see the benefits of having this because you can get so much of your surroundings in to a picture and also more people if it is a large group. Then again, isn't the awkward stretch and pressing of the button part of the selfie experience? This is a nice fancy one, it has a bluetooth connector which means we press a button on the handle and the picture takes, clever stuff if you ask me.

I am already feeling myself doze of so I shall let you get on as well as I. Blog you later.

Feel the Burn

I am a bit of a plum. Well, definitely. No ifs or buts about it. I was testing some pasta to see if it was cooked and fished a bit out of the pan. I put it down, blew on it and gave it a flap. I assumed this would be enough, and picked it up and proceeded to dangle it over my mouth. The shape of the pasta included a tube which also held boiling water - which then ended up over my lip. Quite possibly one of the mos painful things I've experienced as I am terrible with touching anything hot. Needless to say that made a lowly appearance on my face which will be there for a while as a reminder to empty the tube first..

Totally linked my YouTube account to the Xbox, nice and simple, no faffing with usernames and passwords, just a link to follow on your chosen device and it logs you in straight away. It is much better than before as you have everything like subs and the history which I use a lot of at the moment to go back and watch the remainder of a video and then follow on to the next in the playlist. It's simple things like that which make it so much easier to use!

Day 546

A champagne bottle made out of ice cream, pretty darn awesome. Shame that the outer shell cracked probably where it was frozen but I still was very happy with the presentation!

Looking at it now, it looks like the top is all mouldy.. It wasn't, it was like glitter to make it look like it was dribbling out I'd assume. The corner missing from the label was my Dad testing if it was edible - yes it was. It was from Iceland and has been sitting waiting in the spare freezer and now we've cracked into it. It was surprisingly good in all honesty, happy times all round. We also proceeded to pull some Christmas crackers at the same time and I managed to guess what you would come out of mine, the classic tony padlock whose security is questionable. 

Thanks for reading, I've fallen a sleep multiple times writing this so I think I will go to sleep now. Better safe than sorry eh? Blog you later!

Another Weekend

Alas, as always, another weekend has come to pass and the work is ahead. I do have New Years day off though so it is not all bad. And as I am up for work in the morning, I shall head straight into the pictures and also coming off the back of another triple post, may will probably be a bit shorter.

Day 543
See really, I have been a bit of a plum and forgot to take any pictures and now I am in bed with the lights off so I guess Google will have to be my friend today. This day, technically speaking would have been boxing day. Right now, it seems odd to be that I can only faintly remember that day despite it only being a couple of days ago.. Honestly I think I spent most of the day on the Xbox between myself and my brother, he has been showing me some ins and outs of Destiny as I have not been playing it as much since having my Xbox One. I am now level 30 so I am happy, got the gear to get to 31, just need to upgrade it and the such. I did also then spend the evening watching this..

Which is The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2014. The line up I feel was not as good as usual, I like David Mitchell, Richard Ayoade and Jimmy Carr but the others aren't too high on my personal pecking order. Myself and Amy answered along and didn't come last or first.. I will leave it at that. I am looking forward to next weeks which is an anniversary version to celebrate 10 years of the quiz which has a much better line up which I am much more excited for. I am still glad I watched it because it is funny and is now an unofficial tradition I must say.

Day 544
And on this day, a Saturday, the first after Christmas, we decided to brave the Bluewater crowds for shopping. We have had better ideas, it was busy but we didn't take too long to find a space. I hate that as soon as parking is getting a bit thin, people start driving like idiots. We sauntered around looking for a space and then when we find one, waited and indicated but some idiot flew into the space as I started to turn in. I then honked and gave them a look, but of course knowing the were wrong wouldn't look back. The passenger, presumed to be a girlfriend did not look most pleased with the driver. Naughty people!

Anyway - we had a wonder. I wanted to go to Waterstones as I have a £10 voucher - which my Mum asked me to buy for 'a child relative' so I got one targeted at a young person, turns out it was for me. I am at the moment thinking about getting a graphic novel with it because I have been told they are all very good, it is just there are so many it is hard to pick, so much so that I didn't and will research first. The other problem is that if I start a series, I will want to get them all!

Amy bought this as she gets them every year, generally speaking.

I can honestly say I have never really sat down and looked through one of these.. But when we got it home, we sat and had a read through for a good hour and there are some really interesting things in there. Some of them I don't think should be in there because they are really random specific things to do which have no practical use.. Like chainsawing apples held in your mouth - legit.

We also went in Men Kind and bought some kitchen knives because they were awesome and 25% off. I will leave this link here for you of them with a review on a website called "thebestkitchenknives" because that is totally a thing:
http://thebestkitchenknives.co.uk/taylors-eye-witness-coloured-knife-set-review/
I think they are pretty cool and colourful. Plus the block moves around so you can have them arranged differently because that is also a thing. I just had a quick browse on there.. Some of the knives are worth £700. What are they cutting, gold?

We also had Nando's because Nando's. Pineapple on everything for me these days.

Day 545
And then there is today. I went to the cinema today with the famalam and we saw this!

I chose this poster because it is the classic stacking of characters on top of each other and it also has the dragon - he is my character for a game we play at work. He died. That sucked.

I really liked the film because it did a good job of tying in a lot of things to the Lord of the Rings films which would explain a lot of the story to people who haven't read the book. I have read The Hobbit but none of the others.. Maybe I should. I really liked all the battle scenes because they are always well done, it was nice to see some of the other wizards fighting using magic, because as much as I love Gandalf, he never uses any magic when he fights. And we know he can do it, so why doesn't he? Like pew pew and bang!

We also went out for dinner with some friends, we went to a Fayre and Square because of how cheap the menu is in comparison to other places. Saying that, the Taste Card will come back into life soon so everywhere will be cheaper again! Hurrah! I had a 16oz gammon steak, this came with: mushrooms, peas, chips, onion rings and pineapple rings. And it was only £8. Bargain if you ask me as hard as it was to finish, I did manage to invite people to try it successfully which helped. I probably only ate 14oz of it - not that that isn't a lot to shake a stick at.

I think I will leave it there. Longer than I thought it would be but luckily I managed to concentrate and get it all done quickly. G'night people of the internet. Blog you later!

Well This is Christmas

I hope you have all had a very merry Christmas, Eve and associated days of celebration. I have had a somewhat impromptu hiatus to my blog but I have been spending time with my family and the such.

So I haven't posted since the 22nd so that leaves three days including today. Obviously, all of my pictures will be of Christmas presents that I have received and greatly appreciate. I thought it would be nice to do a post on Christmas Day, I can't remember if I did one last year or not.. I could quite easily look back but.. Well.. Can't be bothered. I'm watching Goldeneye so I am totally preoccupied by that. I am also watching it thinking that I really can't remember a lot of what is going on - and I am pretty sure I have seen it before because Sean Bean dies. He dies in everything to be fair so I could be getting confused quite easily.

Something I will mention first is about Xbox Live and PSN being down at the moment.. Which sucks of course. Apparently it is  being targeted by a hacking group called Lizard? And another group called Anonymous is now combatting them to try and stop them from doing it. I know hackers like to show off what they can do, usually to expose things but this seems really pointless and petty. Of course, they probably did it today because so many new people would be setting up and trying to play for the first time and now can't obviously. You can't even log into your account in an offline state to play. The site states that all other apps are up an running - despite needing to be signed in to use.. *slow claps*

Day 540
I will start with this lovely thing I think.

It, if you cannot tell, is an outline of Stitch made up of a series of different words which were picked out by Amy. For example, our names, our anniversary and todays date. I really like it, it was something that I could never have guess. Amy showed me this wrapped up and thought it must be some sort of thin book or calendar but as you can see, I was no where near. We will be getting a frame for it so that we can pop it up somewhere. I of course got Stitchmas for Christmas but have had him for longer.

I thought I would have a look on the Disney store to see what stuff they have for Lilo and Stitch and now it is minimal. At this point in time it is one of their 'older' films so they obviously won't make as much stuff for it. One thing they do have is this mural type thing which was £70 which looked pretty cool. It had some other different characters on it as well and wasn't in the usual art style, sort of like a children's picture book. I think what I really want would be a tie with him on, I seem to be able to find a bow tie easily but otherwise, no luck!

Day 541
Which roles me over conveniently to this picture here, of ties. What type of gift receiving day would it be if I didn't at least get one tie?

Instead I got five. One of which, as you can see, is a piano tie which I have seen many in films or TV programmes but never thought I would end up owning one. It even comes with different tunes which you have enough keys to play on the back of the box but that is far too hard to translate when you have the tie on and facing a different way and it needs to be done with specific timing.. All that jazz is not meant for one man to handle. I can manage to play something which sounds faintly like Eastenders but I don't like Eastenders so how would I know?

This has taken my tie collection over the 50 tie mark I think it is safe to say. Worst part is I have now run out of room again on the racks that I have so I might need to get myself another. Or a draw, an entire draw where they can all be folder nicely and sit there waiting. I do quite fancy learning how to try different knots out such as a windsor, I have been putting of trying as I have been wearing my festive ties to work. These have pictures one which in the windsor knot would come out funny so I thought it wouldn't be worth it. I will learn. I will probably try and show you at some point depending on the success - if no pictures appear, assume all attempts have been epic failures.

Oh, the cheesy one lines or James Bond.

Day 542
I also now have a new winter jumper and matching hat for my previous cardigan, which I am not wearing to show the new jumper. It is very warm and comfy, it's from Next who I find seem to be one of the only shops where their sizes actually fit me! And that is James. HI JAMES.

I very 'subtly' mentioned to my Mum that I wanted a jumper that I could wear so I didn't have to where my suit jacket every day. I do very much appreciate the extra pockets but it doesn't keep me all that warm compared to other garments such as a jumper of cardigan. So that I try to add on an extra later and get too hot, there was no winning! Now, I have options. I like options. Plus I can wear this when I am driving and not feel restricted.

So Christmas dinner today was a little different - we ate with my Nan, which used to be the norm but she has not moved into a care home. They were offering to set up tables in their rooms and serving Christmas dinner so we thought we would surprise her - literally. She had no idea, we just turned up and there was a table in her room. It was pretty good, especially as they were doing it on mass, three courses and wine - not that I like wine. Had a prawn cocktail, turkey with carrots, parsnips, roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, stuffing and even a Yorkshire pudding, finishing off with mince pieces and Christmas pudding - which I don't like. All in all, good stuff.

Just because it is Christmas, here is an article about Santa:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7152054.stm
There are little bits and bobs all over the internet speculating about Coca Cola being the reason he is red and white, apparently he used to be green!

Thanks for reading. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Just Like Old Times

Good evening, good evening, good evening. I've just been playing some Destiny on the Xbox One and I didn't realise how much better it all looked so it's awesome. Haven't played it for a while so a little bit rusty but I'll get into the swing of things.

The reason I am saying it's like old times is because I am doing this from my phone! I know, right? Amy has the Max today so I am phone blogging. It is nice as I can just throw in the picture and not need to fiddle with it but I can never be sure of the formatting. I'll probably check it once I have done it at a later point. Be prepared for many auto correct fails, the problem is where I type quite fast it'll automatically 'correct' when I press the space key so.. I never notice it do it. Excuses, excuses.. 

Today, me and Amy went and saw Night at the Museum 3 as it was the last in the series and had recently watched the second, we quite fancied it. It was also the last film that Robin Williams acted in, not including voice acting. And it was really sad. Because the story of the film is that the magic that brings them to life was dying out so they would no longer live, and his character was talking about about dying and how much he enjoyed living. And then obviously he passed away and it was really sad when it came together as a bigger picture. They put a credit in for him dedicating the film to him and also another person, Phil Hoffman. I always think it is nice when they dedicate a film to people like that, keeps their memory alive.

We then popped over to Frankie and Benny's as we were at the Rochester complex with a little bit of everything. We haven't eaten there in a while, we used to love if before they changed their menu a lot and now they've put up the prices on some things.. Definitely the starters, averaging £6 now! We decided to have a sharing one which was the amazing potato skins with different toppers, that was £10 so more like it. I had me some prawns in the form of chicken and prawn Alfredo. It has chicken, prawns and mushrooms so I am a happy bunny. Amy had a pizza called the Boston 7 so it has 7 toppings, mainly meat and asked for a different base sauce. I like that they do that because then you know it isn't out of a freezer.

Day 539

Look at us looking like sirs.

We got little crackers at the meal we went to yesterday. Both me and Andy - the other guy without an amazing tie - got moustaches that clip onto your nose. At first the clip is far too tight to fit on a humans nose.. But we stretched it out a little then it for on nicely. And I must say I was surprised as it stayed on for a good long while. I was also very happy as it was one of the only Christmas hats I've had that has come close to fitting my overly sized head and hair. I have a lot of hair.

Well, thanks for reading. It has felt odd looking at my phone for this long.. To type stuf anyway. Videos don't count. Blog you later!

Winter Wonderland

All bar one of my images will be from Winter Wonderland today because I actually took a load of pictures for once! I don't usually do that but hey ho, why not? But of course, as with everyone weekend, it starts with a Friday.

Day 536
Wilson! So, it turns out, a lot of people I know haven't actually seen Cast Away with Tom Hanks. I obviously have and I assumed to be a staple part of the generic film diet, as are many Tom Hanks films.

So here is the story with how I came to have this balloon in my possession. It was lunch time, at work on Friday and I needed to go for a wonder to get some bits - my last Christmas presents. Barclay's were letting you have your picture taken with a football trophy, giving out free mince pies and also free helium balloons. Being the grown up 21 year old that I am, I obviously wanted a balloon. The guy looked at me funny but relinquished his hold on one anyway. I was a very happy man, I kept telling people I work with that I have a balloon.

I thought of Wilson, found a picture of him online and used the conveniently placed marker pen on my desk and got to work. Took all of 15 seconds. I then tied him to the side of my desk and went happily on my way with working. I took him home, I wedged him between the backseat and my seat so he wouldn't float around in the car while I was driving because that would have been a bit of a pain.. I then left him floating in my living room to go to bed - he deflated. Not completely, just enough to stop him from being able to float. I was looking forward to consuming his innards to have a funny voice shortly.

Day 537
Saturday was the day! Off to Winter Wonderland! I was rather excited because I had never been before, neither had Amy so it was a first for us both. Turns out getting group travel cards to London is really cheap in comparison. For three of us, it worked out to £35.40 which is cheaper than two individual ones which I don't really understand the math of..

Despite having the travel cards, we decided to walk as it was only about half a mile away, plus it was fun to look at bits of London that we had never seen before. We saw many a fancy car as well, including a Ferrari, some Aston Martins and the occasional large Bentley - such as the gold one that was inconspicuously parked outside the Park Tower Hotel/Casino. I guess that is a rich persons playground. It was nice though, because you could tell everyone was heading towards Winter Wonderland in their Christmas garbs and what not. I am surprised how packed it was, I knew it would be busy but it must have been the busiest place I've ever been.

This first picture was from the first bit that we walked around, it was basically a huge German inspired area with taverns and shops. At this point, we were super hungry as none of us had any breakfast before coming so we ended up having a giant sausage, easily a foot long. They had normal and red sausages for £5 and curry and steak for £6. Me and Amy both had red and they were really quite good I must say, slight hint of chilli but otherwise tasting like a saveloy. The ketchup/mustard dispensers were like cow udders hanging from the canopy, just squeeze it on. We were lucky enough to get a standing table, otherwise it was packed.

We then ended up in this giant canopy which was like a giant tavern, the beer in the picture was actually not ours because neither of us drink beer. We just had it for the purpose of the picture, it was £10 plus a £5 deposit for the glass even though it was made of plastic. It was basically a two pint jug. Where we were sitting, off the right in the picture was a stage with a rather odd choice of entertainment. It was like paid karaoke because they were both reading the lyrics off of a display but were clearly there to do that and only that - not like they were some randomers from the crowd. Fair enough to them for doing it but I don't really get it over all..

We then continued to have a wonder around the place - of course after returning the glass. We then did start taking the tubes around, we went to Leicester Square where there was some street performers and stuff. The reason we went there was for M&M's world.

Day 538
Which is where I took this!

It was also pretty busy in here as well. We went into an M&M world shop in America, which was pretty big. Well it was really long, not too wide and only one floor. This - as you can see, was spread out over many a floor, to be exact, four. I like looking around, but for the amount you have to pay for some of the stuff I seriously question if it is worth it. The most expensive thing in there was £2,300 which was a leather jacket with Swarovski crystals in it and stuff.. Craziness!

We had a nice sit in Costa to have a chat and stuff. Someone we were with tried their brownie hot chocolate which is basically.. A hot chocolate with cream and some brownie pieces on top. Genius as they can charge so much more for it! We then rode around on a load of tubes and trains to work out way to Bromley to go to a Weatherspoons for tea. I have never eaten at one before and for the price, I was really happy with it. I chose a mixed grill which came with a drink and was £9.90. That was crazy. We fed four people for under £35 which would be unheard of at a restaurant. Sometimes cheap and cheerful is the way to go!

Today, we did some general bits and bobs. Did some shopping. I bought Shadow of Mordor for £30 because I really wanted that when I saw it advertised and it was a lot cheaper than I thought it would be. I also bought some new sauce pans which I am pretty sure I got far too excited about. Each one - the lid - has a colander built into it. I know, its genius. You just lift it out a bit and then tip it and it keeps all the food in! I know my enthusiasm probably wont't translate through the text to you but it was excessive for what it was.

This evening, we enjoyed a nice Christmas meal out with everyone. Ended up being 12 of us in all so a nice even number. We went to a place called the Royal Oak which is a Beef Eater. They had a set menu for the festive period, three courses for £20 so I did that. I had a prawn cocktail, a festive steak burger which was pretty chunky and also profiteroles. I also had a winterberry Rekorderlig because they were actually selling it now, I was very happy. It is now my cider of choice.

Pretty wordy today and well past midnight. So I shall leave it there. Blog you later.

Cumulative Costing

I often wonder why my mind works the way it does. This title, is something that I made up as far as I know because of a Christmas card with the title "wife" on it.

So. A nice card, say from Clinton's or somewhere like that for Christmas can cost anywhere in the region of £1-5. Or even more, depending on what you fancy. The fact that it says wife however just set my mind into overdrive thinking - wait, how much is the overall cost of that card really? Now, you will probably be thinking what on Earth is he on about? Thinking it over in my head, my sensible side is not agreeing either. Well, we can assume the following things.

• You will have most likely dated this person for an ex number of years.
• You will have possibly moved in with this person paying rent, mortgage, bills etc.
• You will have paid for a wedding which from what I understand can cost any where in the region of £10,000-25000.
• You may have kids, the average cost of a children up until the age of 18 in the region of £200,000, based on the standard plutonic family, we would then be looking at double that.
• Random unforeseeable costs and general living to get to this point.

All of this together, theoretically makes a Christmas card worth upwards of £500,000 to get you to that point in your life to be buying a Christmas card with the word "wife" on it. I really don't know where any of this came from at all, not even a little bit. Some odd bod like me out there will probably have quite enjoyed this. High five to you sir/madam.

Day 535

Stocking!

Last year was my first stocking. I had never had one before that, me and Amy now try and do one for each other every year. We have only managed to find one stocking at this point in time so everything is just chucked into this one, it may stay that way if we can't find the other one.. We were there when we got each other stuff so we could point out stuff we wanted to try and needed. I like the idea of it, nice to get stuff you really do need for Christmas. Pain the bum to wrap it all up though, mainly because I just am no good at it rather than them being small fiddly shapes.

I was thinking of a wish list of things that I quite fancy, and by things - I mean games for the Xbox One.

I think the one that interests me the most would be Far Cry 4 at this point in time because I really got in to the third one, I should probably go back and complete that at some point.. I also wouldn't mind getting myself Shadow of Mordor because that just looks amazing. The gameplay I have seen incorporates what I can only describe as Assassin's Creed movement and fighting but with a universe much more brutal and graphic. That gets all my nerd buds racing. I do want to upgrade Destiny to the Xbox One version just because I get to keep my character progression etc. The Masterchief collection is enticing but as I have mentioned before, it is a lot for a game which you'll have already completed numerous times and played the hell out of. Lords of the Fallen I am on the fence about, guess at a later date when the price has dropped then I would be well up for giving it a bash.

And 100% this one.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-11-25-dark-souls-2-heading-to-ps4-and-xbox-one

I am so excited. I am also glad I haven't yet bought the DLC for Dark Souls 2 as it will be heading to Xbox One with everything included, expanded story, lore, new enemies, new NPC's, better graphics, higher player interactivity.. OH MY LORD.

Thanks. Give me that now. Blog you later.

A Guilty Pleasure

Totally didn't realise what the time was. Wehey.

I thought I would share a guilty pleasure with you today, mainly as I will be indulging it in tonight. A guilty pleasure is something which you enjoy which is generally not held in high regard. A film for example, would be Bunny and the Bull. I find most people have never even heard of it.

Day 534
An unmade bed.

I think this counts as a guilty pleasure. The bed sheets get changed everyone now and then, I really enjoy sleeping in an unmade bed. I like the feel of the duvet and everything looks white and clean. I think it is also nice because you get that lazy feeling knowing you should have made it. I don't think I've met anyone else who enjoys an unmade bed. Just me.

As you can see upon taking this picture the Mac was ready for me as was Stitchmas because he is so dang awesome. We have found excessive love of the larger Stitch through the medium of hugs has made his stuffing distribute unevenly so his arms are getting floppy, his head doesn't hold itself up and he falls over.. This one is primarily bean based. Sturdy. I also feel bad for the two smaller ones as they seem to watch from the sidelines more often than not. I want a Stitch tie. PLEASE!

As I have left it a tad late, I will leave it there. Blog you later people.

Where Will This Go?

Something I often get asked, by people I know, people I work with is what do I plan to do with this blog? As in, do I plan to one day do this full time if I make money from it and things like that? As people who have been with me for a while, I have always said that this is more for me. Something that I can say I have done for a long time, something I can look back on. Something that I've always been interested in is having an online presence so to say, for example, on YouTube. I always found that sort of thing really interesting and the more and more you see them in the public eye these days - it does make it more appealing. They get so many opportunities to do things others never will. Honestly though, that is a pretty far off dream, it is hard and a brutal way to try and make a living. If you are lucky to get noticed, do games loose their magic when it becomes your job? Questions, questions, questions.

One of the reasons I bring this up is because with the Xbox One and some updates which appear to be coming for Steam - streaming will be a lot easier. Twitch now offers a direct from console streaming service on the Xbox so I can stream that easily. Streaming on Steam is now in Beta stage for Windows, coming soon for Mac. I am actively learning how to use iMovie (up to date) to make videos. I would love to get into it properly, probably as a hobby. But who knows? Everything will end up, up in the air.

Random mind splurge.

Day 533
You had one job.

I, personally, quite enjoy little pictures like this. Silly things, where one thing has gone wrong or out of place. With a silly caption, like this. I enjoyed seeing this far too much and sharing it with someone I used to work with - who in all fairness probably enjoyed it as much as me. Someone else then stood there delicately shaking it trying to get it the right way around. Didn't happen. 5 minutes of a shift gone for them as well, I am a customer now so they were most definitely aiding me. I also very much enjoy fail videos. So, so many. I don't like ones where people get hurt though.. That is just cringe worthy.

As you may well know, I am quite the advocate of Dark Souls. Someone who I really enjoy watching on Twitch called Lobos Jr has been doing a slow, casual play through all the way up to the hardest difficulty which is NG+7 and he has uploaded it ALL to YouTube. That means 60 videos which are about 1-2 hours long each. I have a lot to watch. Happy times.

Bitter lemon.

Thanks for the reads peoples, Blog you later!

Consider it Pink

Have you ever heard of mod podge? No? Me either until recently. Amy saw some projects on the old internet that she fancied giving a try and the first of which is decorating wine glasses. And I know that may sound odd but they do look pretty effective.

We are still in the learning stage an are experimenting with some different ways to apply the stuff. Mod podge is just glue by the way, but it is fancy crafts glue for all surfaces and needs - such as glueing glitter to a wine glass. At the moment we have been masking off an area to protect the rest of the glass but.. What ends up happening is it just rips off any glue nearby so you loose a load of it.. I won't show one off as of yet, I shall show you a tried and tested finished product. Currently using pink glitter which is finding its way everywhere despite us doing it in a washing up bowl for containment.. I somehow found some on my chest when I had a shower. Fab eh?

Day 532
Oh right now? I am divulging in some nerd time. I am playing Assassin's Creed Black Flag and am very much enjoying the free roam element you get with having the ship.. It is like a massive open world and you can sail and listening to your men singing pieces of paper you parkour around cities to collect, as that is a thing.

The boat battles are pretty intense and then you can board and stuff and its so cool. It is a real mix as well in terms of play styles going from being in control of a ship, dropping straight back into the third person combat action you get from the game. It has a large amount of collectables - well on it. I love collecting stuff.

A friend also let me know that if you have Minecraft on the 360 and then upgrade to the One, until the end of this year you get it for under £4 - bargain! I did not know that. You can also recover your save over to the new console, I don't think I will just because the map you generate on this version is bigger and will also generate the new features. Something I like about the Xbox version is it generates maps like a Halo map and also festive ones - I assume this happens on other platforms but I can obviously only speak from experience.

Totally cleared another two chest runs on the Binding of Isaac today. Feel like my skills continue to grow stronger.

You should also expect to see some streaming from me at some point, most likely Black Flag or a blind through of Dead Rising 3 as I have set up the am to run through the Xbox. They really did think about the social aspects of this console when they were making it, there is so much interaction - I love it!

20,000 views today.. Just a mention.. Apparently I keep saying thank you far too much.. But hey, why not. THANKS!

Blog you later people.

Once, Twice, Three Times a Blogpost

Another weekend has come and past, as is the trend every seven days. Ha.

I shall do this via a daily thing, they probably won't be in order but it'll cover the weekend. Sounds alright.

Day 529
Let us start with Friday. Friday was my team meal at work, we went to a restaurant called The Pippin and it was okay? I think that is the best way to describe it? The portions were a bit oddly sized for everyone, they had a £5 minimum spend and no one could remember what they ordered so we kind of had the waiters running around like headless chickens. It was a good time though. The pudding was really good - I will give them that. It was chocolate and I like chocolate in its many beautiful forms so I am quite easily pleased. The thing that was also slightly worrying was how empty the carpark was.. We basically were taking up most of the spaces alongside staff. I know it was a Friday during the day but honestly would have expected to see some more people there! Although easy parking is always a plus.

Also.. A waiter that used to work at Pizza Express that we had an awkward encounter with now works there.. I can't help but think he may have recognised me. I just averted my gaze and pulled numerous Christmas crackers.

On a random side note - which explains this picture - which otherwise had nothing to do with anything.. We learnt you could do a lot of stuff with the smileys/emojis on Snapchat. This lead to me receiving a large number of pictures from Amy with things like and around this style. Needless to say.. Some of the pictures worked better than others, the majority make you feel uncomfortable because when blown up to fill the screen look like horror characters.

This one is not so bad.

Day 530
So Amy has been asking me to talk about popcorn. I know. An odd subject choice, the main reasoning behind this request is because we got some from Sainsbury's as you can see below.

This one was considered one of the festive flavours and I wasn't really too sure what to expect upon popping into my mouth for a first taste.. It doesn't have a lot of taste I won't lie. Most of the taste was in powder form which meant the more you ate and got closer to the bottom, the better the taste got. Which is quite evil as it makes them very moorish. The bacon flavour definitely outclassed the maple flavour, mainly because I don't eat a lot of maple stuff otherwise so I might have been tasting it but wouldn't be all that sure.

The most common source of popcorn is the cinema for us. I personally, prefer the sweet popcorn over the salted. Amy prefers the salted. I also like the mix as you get a bit of both which is always nice. I find if I am snacking then I crave sweet things, if I am having a meal then I prefer salty things. Cineworld do this really fancy popcorn that comes in an airtight bag and is branded and all that jazz and it is so expensive, but its coated in toffee. I see people eating it and think "was that really worth the £4 or however much you spent on it?" Maybe it is. I just can't ever bring myself round to that kind of thinking.

I am actually talking about popcorn. Wow.

Some that I tried at work as a colleague bought it in for everyones was M&S white chocolate and strawberry popcorn. Now. I don't like eating strawberry's but I like the taste as odd as that may seem. So I wasn't sure what to expect with these because they had little chunks of strawberry. I tell you what, it has got to be some of the best popcorn I have ever had! The white chocolate was very nice and melted something golden. I would recommend it and it comes in little individual bags to stop you pigging out on the whole thing but.. Probably quite pricey if it is from M&S. I daren't think about that.

So Saturday happened.

We went to Asda and then to Domino's as we wanted to give them another chance.. Mistake. We ordered a pizza and they allow you to swap one topping out for free which we asked to do.. Swap the tandoori chicken for red onions. It was printed on the label. On the pizza there was still tandoori chicken. We thought that they might be able to get it right when it was the middle of the day and dead. We were literally one of two orders in there and they nearly gave me someone else's wedges! Two orders is obviously a lot to handle in their line of work.. Sorry. Makes me angry. It is also quite embarrassing going to their Facebook page because it is literally full of complaints and no positive feedback. It is the same in most industries, the complaints will come in more because if you get good service, that is really what you expect to get for your money and don't then feel the need to say anything. Shame really.

We went round to a friends house on Saturday night to watch a film and have some drinks and a chat. We watched Pearl Harbour as it was on the TV - long film but very good. I had honestly never seen it before but I think I will need to sit and have a proper watch at some point in the future. The reason I say that is because we were quite distracted with Cards Against Humanity. We ended up playing, between five of us, for about 2-3 hours and went through the entire pack of cards. It was great. Amy won.. Which is good? I suppose? Ahem.

Day 531
Today has been a lot of gaming based stuff for me really. I bought Peggle 2 over the weekend as I know this is a game that me and Amy both like. Amy has this really strange knack at getting free balls out of no where or managing to juggle between pegs like it was planned.. It totally is of course.

I really enjoy it because there are challenges on every level and an entire section of trials which greatly improves the replay value. Also, Xbox One 'arcade games' now have 1000 GS which I think it great. The 200 that they used to have was good but didn't really give them a lot to play with in terms of diversity with achievements. They would just be beat this section of the game, complete this challenge and other menial stuff like that. This however gives achievements for completing sections, challenges, single shot bonuses and stuff like that. Much better!

I have also been watching a lot of someone called Lobos play games. He is a games developer who streams a lot, at the moment he is playing a lot of Dark Souls 2 doing a full completion from NG to NG+7 which is just far out of my reach.. I can just about manage +1! At the point he is at - everything is just a 1 hit kill basically. TOO MUCH PRESSURE!

I also watched him complete a speed run of Lords of the Fallen which he did in under 1 hour.. Blows my mind how people can learn to manipulate the game so easily.

Now. For tea. We had something very different. It was basically.. Taco lasagne? I think that is how it was described on the website. Amy found it thought it would be interesting to give it a go. You basically make a taco mix but then layer it up with lasagne sheets instead of putting it in tacos. Instead of white sauce you use soft cheese mixed with an egg to make it spread. In stead of a pasta sauce you use the taco seasoning and salsa. Lots of cheese, like horrendous amounts. It was really good. I would recommend trying it. I know at the moment it sounds like a Frankenstein meal but it was tasty. I approve!

I also got a comment on one of my posts today! I got an email and got really excited - turns out it was spam. On my Year Walk post, my best traffic generating page. It makes me wonder if they can somehow tell which pages get more traffic and then target spam at it because if they can then.. Fair play to them. I have marked them as spam so it won't show because I don't want that kind of stuff on here. I think it is rude in all honesty, I know they're trying to help themselves but.. Just discuss the page and then leave you page as like a signature. I am okay with that. The message literally had nothing to with anything I have ever spoken about! I do not want to go walk about in the Himalaya's!

Blog you later people.

600

So yesterdays post, was my 600th overall on this blog. I completely forgot to mention it until now because I only realised after I finished yesterdays.. And I didn't think it would make too much sense randomly chucking it in at the end as an update so here it is instance.

So first things first, I would like to make note of some random facts about the number 600 which I found on Wikipedia - classic.

600, is all of the following
   - A composite number
   - An abundant number
   - A pronic number
   - A Harshan number

And no. I have no clue what any of these things really mean but.. It is all on the internet if you are really interested. I will probably look because it'll bother me if I don't bother looking..

A credit rating of 600 in America is considered poor meaning higher interest rates for the user or thus limiting the credit limit. I don't even know how the credit rating works in England so that's not too helpful at this point in time.

600 miles is also advertised as the longest race in the Nascar circuit.

Who knew you could find out so many random things when you search a number in Google?

Me and Amy watched the Jungle Coming Out show which shows all the celebs exiting, eating and reacting to the news paper articles about themselves. It was quite interesting because.. It is basically a huge social experiment by removing them from civilisation - and then just chucking them back in. A lot of them took to the food really easily, obviously. There was also more drama due to the news paper articles as you'd expect as they're written to try and get a response.. But it was a nice rounding finish to the series. The first I have really watched properly.

Another thing which we caught today was a bit of the BBC Music Awards. All the live music was pretty good on there today. Live music in my opinion is one of the better tests of an artist because you can never tell if you are hearing them sing on the radio or a digitally enhanced version. The reason I am mentioning this awards show was for what Greg James did. You may remember a while ago him doing the Wrecking Ball parody. Well he did another one. This time her parodied multiple videos in one go, Taylor Swift, Meghan Trainor, Nicki Minaj and Ed Sheeran. I enjoyed it so so much. I don't think it is up on the internet anywhere at the moment, not that I could find any way but if and when it is - watch it. You'll hopefully enjoy it too much as well.

Day 528
I never noticed how large the difference between my post count and my day count is.. I guess it took a while to get round to this idea.

This photo is something really random. It is a necklace? A very uncomfortable one at least. They used to be part of some Christmas lights which stopped working. So my Dad decided to take them all off and pop them onto a piece of fishing wire and then you have this. It seems to find its way out of hiding during the Christmas period and I can never actually remember where it was before.. But now it really has no real use other than getting in the way really. Meh.

Thanks for the eye movements you've provided on this page. Blog you later.

Whats In The News Eh?

First things first. Still waiting for a refund for the pizza. I think I shall have to give them a call tomorrow to.. See whats going on. I say this because I checked my online banking and saw they took the payment out today - supposed to be going in the opposite direction I am afraid!

So - I thought I would have a look around some news sites today. Every time I go on Facebook on my phone now I am seeing some interesting articles shared so I thought I would further share them with you. Because, if you are like me, the news on the whole is not exactly an interesting thing. I don't mind the odd story if I think it is interesting. So, have some snippets of the day.

The first which people were actually talking about is this "weather bomb" that is due to hit the country causing some crazy conditions!
http://news.sky.com/story/1389020/weather-bomb-batters-northern-britain
Luckily us down south will be find as it hit up north. They recorded 52 foot waves which is pretty darn scary if you ask me. I can just about manage the sea at the best of times! The highest wind speed was reported at 144mph which has caused power outages and damage to housing and vehicles. It sounds so surreal but nature kicks but. Simple as.

When on Sky news, I always like to jump in and have a look at the strange news page because there is bound to be something there that will make me smile. For example, this one..
http://news.sky.com/story/1389179/youtube-spider-dog-tops-2014-trending-list
So anyone who spends a lot of time on the internet will most likely have seen this video, the top trending one of 2014. Basically, someone chucked a dog into a spider suit and let it run around scaring people. Marvellous, because it was all caught on camera. It was fun as well as they went all out and set up large spiders webs and stuff where they were filming to add to the drama. It is one of them strange situations where your mind will tell you that it can't be real - but what your seeing basically over rides all sensible thinking. Funny how the ol' mind works.

Another page I also like to check out is the science and environment page on the BBC news website. Here is the top article listed from there today..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30414519
It is about the probe which landed on the comet, it has lead scientists to believe that a comet would not have been the source of Earth's water. Now, this is interesting because it therefore leaves it open for water being generated on the Earth during creation. It also leaves open the possibility for asteroids being the source.. Both of which are crazy to think about because it leaves the universe wide open for having other planets like ours, in the Goldilocks zone with water. We are pretty clear evidence that water sustains life so if it is available else where, why can't there be life elsewhere? I am a believer in something being out there, partially because the idea of use being alone in this vast expanse is a bit scary. And how can't there be? Theres a LOT of stuff out there we may never ever see!

And this one is more of a heads up for pet owners..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1341137/Hundreds-dogs-cats-die-rock-salt-scattered-gritters-big-freeze.html
Turns out the deicer and salt grit spread on roads is very harmful to your animals. Well. That is quite obvious but it has made the news due to the accidental deaths of many pets. I don't really know if there is a way around this because animals eat stuff and we can't really stop them. Just FYI though.

I'm all news'd out. Picture time!

Day 527
So, I have already shared a picture of our lights around the window. This little thing caused us some issues already!

So, it is common with these lights to have a fuse bulb in case you didn't know. It is marked like this with a white tip to differentiate it from the other bulbs and if they stop working - generally you just replace this one and it is all fine. We've only have them up for a week or so and I have already had to replace this one! The lights keep flickering on and off for periods of time as well.. If this continues I think I will have to try and get a replacement because.. It kills the Christmas spirit. No one wants to do that now do they?

I have played some Worms today, tried the Worms Ops missions and they are dang hard. One of the achievements is to beat them all in under 8 minutes cumulative time.. I don't think that is going to happen any time soon. Maybe when I am pro?

Hope you've enjoyed this, blog you later as always!

Of The Year 2014

So many things happen towards the end of the year and I am not just talking about Christmas and New Years and stuff. I mean the important stuff like YouTube videos.

So for some years, YouTube has collaborated with the highest subscribed channels to make something called YouTube Rewind and it really awesome because using all of these YouTubers they make a video which reference a load of other ones. This years was pretty good keeping in with the trend of the others - also being good. They are all available on the YouTube Spotlight channel but just for ease here is the link to this years one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKx2B8WCQuw
I would just add it in here but you need to at least watch it in the default YouTube size which you can't do on here. Well you can but I don't know the HTML coding for that. It started of with Pewdiepie and then you have loads of other people. It must be a great opportunity because it will help to grow you channel even more.

All the music in the video was made by someone, also on YouTube, called DJ Earwom who also by chance makes a yearly mashup video of the years most popular songs. He uses the audio and videos to make a new song basically. These are always rather good also, there are also other ones like Summer mixes. I first heard his music in 2009 and I can still remember the song now when it comes on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjYWwZYLYEs

It is always odd to look back at things this time of year, especially with mashups or best of's. It really makes the year feel a lot smaller because a lot of the things you'll see you will remember and wonder where the time has gone. Then again, it is always nice to reminisce.

Day 526
I don't like ice outside of my cup.

I thought I would share a picture of the state of my car today. Because it was probably one of the worst coverings I have ever had. The doors, this time, were luckily not frozen shut. On the other hand, the ice on the windows was thicker than I would usually expect. I used deicer to try and get it off but it just took off a top layer and I had to further scrape the rest off anyway! The worst feeling is running a little late, getting out to the car to see you have deice which means even more lateness! This didn't happen to me today because I was informed by Amy as to the state of the cars.. And left early to accommodate.

Who has Worms? As in the game, don't look at your dog like that.

I downloaded the newest Worms game on the Xbox One as it was free and I just assumed it would be an arcade game as Worms haven't made their own stand alone for a while now.. Turns out I was wrong. This is a full game with voice acting, new features and physics and is generally quite awesome. It was one of the games of my childhood, I used to love playing it. I remember not being all that good at it and getting frustrated because the enemies would have perfect aim but - it is nice to see it make a comeback. Especially in such glorious fashion.

Thanks for reading people. I am quite tired. Sleep I think it is for me now. Blog you later!

Anaconda Don't Want None

Admittedly, I have just quoted a well known song. And the reference which I am actually talking about kind of contradicts this statement as well.. But we will get to that later.

I completely forgot to put my belt on today. That was a thing that happened. It was quite clearly something that you also needed to know because it made your day?

So, some people might have already seen or heard about what I have referenced with the title.. Other than Nicki Minaj.. A man who decided he wanted to be eaten alive by a snake. This mans name is Paul Rosolie and for whatever reason thought this would be a good idea because he wanted to see what it would be like? Some wishy washy reason like that? The overall goal of the program was to highlight the destruction of the rain forest.. And I can get behind that but this really doesn't make any sense to me. It's like trying to save something by doing something ridiculous and unrelated. Turns out he never got eaten by the snake because it was about to break his arm - I'll let him off. A lot of people got angry because they said it was hyped up so much and then he basically failed, I managed to find it on YouTube and it was pretty darn scary. Here's the Sky article about this:
http://news.sky.com/story/1388219/eaten-alive-star-admits-show-misleading

I am more interested in the preparation behind it because if you are aware of it, he is wearing this carbon fibre suit to protect himself from the constriction and digestive acids on the snakes innards. It was a pretty clever piece of engineer including an 'escape rope' - Pokemon style - to get him out. This also contained 3 hours worth of oxygen so that he could take his time getting eaten. It did seem to withstand the pressure of the snake but it looks like they never fully tested it otherwise his arm would never have been in any danger. It literally took loads of rather burly men to pull the snake off of him when he decided enough was enough. I just honestly don't see how this was a good idea. A lot of people petitioned against having it aired saying it was animal cruelty. Give the snake its 15 minutes for Pete's sake.

Was totally wearing odd socks today as well. Wah.

Day 525
Some of you who looked at yesterdays last picture of the lights around the window may or may not have seen this little thing hiding in the bottom right corner. It is a sprinkle of Christmas - see what I did there?

This is a decoration from Asda on that dark night where the Domino's horror occurred.. And I have absolutely no idea as to what involvement pink sparkly doughnuts have to do with Christmas. Honestly, it makes us think of The Simpsons which has had many a Christmas episode. A link possibly. It also glistens like fairly lights - another link. And.. Sugar? None the less, I quite like it for some reason and was previously where the Santa in the window was on the hook but got very hot in the weekend sun.. Protected form the cold by double glazing and stuff.

Now, I have mentioned Lords of the Fallen before on here and how I was quite interested in playing it.. That hype has now fallen off for me but I have started watching another play through and it is odd.. Because the first I watched and this new one both chose the same fighting style and armour and stuff..  But as this other guy has more experience in streaming, I am finding it a lot more entertaining as he does extra stuff with the video to make it more enjoyable. I just find it strange how getting a different perspective on pretty much the same gameplay can make something far more enjoyable. Funny how that works.

Totally beat Amy's score on Let It Go on Just Dance. Come at me bro.

On time today, wehey. Blog. You. Later.

Uncharacteristic Motivation?

Time for the weekend triple. I was thinking about it, I am sort of treating this blog like a job where I get Fridays and Saturdays off. I know I've said it before and I'll say it again - if you've ever though about doing it, go for it! It is really enjoyable and you can make note of so many memories and who knows? It could end up taking you somewhere you never expected. For me, it has taken me to 19,000 digital screens. Oh yeah, we hit 19,000 this weekend. On a footnote. Just here.

I will start.. With a horror story.. That's right. Shudder.

We wanted to go Asda to get some bits and bobs that we were running low on. As you do. We thought it wouldn't be too busy but by the time we got home it would be far too late to cook. In this instance we decided to order a Dominoes because the collection is right next to the Asda. So we ordered - officially - at 18:41. We did it on the app on the way to Asda. We actually started rushing around by the time it got to 19:15 because we were worried that we would be holding them up! Turns out - that was the least of our worries. We left the store at 20:30 with a load of cold food. It was really busy, don't get me wrong, but there were staff everywhere and the organisation of the pizza on their "system" looked chaotic. We stood in there listening to everyone complain about their orders not being ready. No one could appeared to be in charge or offer an explanation. We were told we were waiting for one thing at 19:50. No idea what went on. I won't mention the store because prior to this, we have had no problems and the pizza has been good. Hopefully, it was just a bad night for them. Some people left without paying and left them with an order to be binned most likely!

Apologies for any nightmares caused.

So. The title of this may throw you off as to what is actually on about.. I am a 21 year old male so what could I be talking about? Well, something that I personally am not very in tune with or enjoy doing is cleaning. And I'll be honest, my room was an absolute mess. The worst part for me was the bookshelf because it had just become a dumping ground for a little bit of everything really. So, I took it upon myself, with Amy's help, to sort the whole lot out. There is however, a reason as why this took place, which I will explain with the first picture for this weekend.

Day 522
So. It is now Christmas in my room.

Amy really wanted to get a little Christmas tree just for the room. We always do bits and bobs depending on the time of year, like you may have seen with Halloween. Here's the story of the Christmas tree..

We fancied going out for a jaunt around a supermarket on Saturday, the main goal was to buy The Hunger Games on Bluray as Amy has recently read the first book and wanted to watch the film. And now I have the Xbox One, we can actually watch Blurays! Not that the TV can handle 1080p.. But its the thought that counts. Tesco's didn't have it. So we accidentally ended up in Maidstone. We managed to get the Bluray, 1 and 2 boxset, in HMV for £15 which I was happy with. We always found this lovely tree, of course it had to be purple. They did have silver and green and blue but it's us so what do you expect? We got the little star on top as well from there. I also bought Dead Rising 3 which is one of the main reasons I wanted to go next gen because I enjoyed the second one so much!

The dilema now was where to put it? We have no room, the bedroom is a mess! Blitzed it. Amy's candle collection has moved from where the tree is to my desk. The stuff on the desk has been organised into draws or binned as appropriate. A quantity of books has been removed to be donated to schools or charity shops. I am must say I am very proud of what we managed to get done over the weekend. It did take us both days. And then I am also a little disappointed that we let it get to that point in the first place.. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. As is three bin bags less stuff cluttering the place up!

Day 523
This here is my favourite bit of the rooms makeover. The DVD shelf.

Admittedly, we do have a lot of DVD's. I am going to say that overall it is over the 100 mark. The ones you see here is the majority but there are also some over the other side of the room. I was honestly really happy because as you can see - the DVD's fit perfectly snug in-between the two boundaries of the shelves. I had that slight tingle of a pleasurable OCD experience that is oddly satisfying. I by no means have it - but things like that make me happy. The only other thing I could think of doing would be to have them in alphabetical order - but then that begs more questions as to whether or not films and TV series should be in the same collection. Organisation for another day - not this weekend. Much has already been done!

Day 524
Which moves us on nicely to another slice of our Christmas. We went in one of them Christmas shops which always pop up in the empty shops for a month or so. Needless to say - Amy likes her window jelly sticky picture things. Thats the scientific definition. Apologies as it is quit hard to see the bits.

We have Merry Christmas, we have a snowman with assorted snow flakes, we have a reindeer with a lovely big red nose, a tree with presents, and that thing hanging up is a Santa from a £1 shop. Because why not? The lights however are from somewhere else and I feel inclined to say Tesco because they were not some cheapy ones from a pop up shop.. Not that they were expensive but.. The stuff you get in them shops tend not to be main stream stock if you know what I mean. But it is nice. It gives the room a nice festive glow and after all of the tidying up - it is pretty darn awesome. A pat on the back to the both of us.

I am throwing this in randomly - this isn't going to be up by midnight. This is going to be a long post. It is. I like it.

So, so, so. Let us throw in some TV discussion right about now. We will start with something I didn't watch which was Strictly. The reason for this is because Pixie went out this week and when it was announced all I heard from downstairs was my mum shouting because she really doesn't like her for whatever reason. She'll love the fact that that made it onto the Blog.

Next, a well done of Foggy for being crowned King of the Jungle. I honestly at first had a feeling that it may have been Jake but I am not surprised that he won. He was hard as nails and a great character. All three in the final did well in their associated trials. I think it is good for Foggy, it is sort of like his last time on top of the podium, a fond farewell. It would have done Jake a load of good because it is the start of his career in the public eye and this would've helped a lot. All in all, it'll be shame to see the program go because it was very enjoyable and it is one of the only ones I have sat and watched entirely. Apart from Saturdays - I missed that one.

Gogglebox was caught up with today, I really liked this weeks episode. They had the fired person off of The Apprentice on the radio on Thursday discussing his time on the show. And I am glad to see that everyone agreed with what was said by this fired person - Alan Sugar was being a picky picky man! He didn't specify that he wanted a free standing, ready built anatomically correct skeleton, just that he wanted one. They bought him that, just in a different way. They spoke back and he clearly didn't like it so I do question his motive for firing this person. It might be for the drama but I have no clue. I don't watch it over all. Plus, it was great to see Leon doing some kung fu to June.

Lets talk about some games! I have mentioned above that I got Dead Rising 3 today. I got it preowned for £20, it has held its price well being a launch game which I am hoping will replicate through in to a good game. I can see why they waited for the next gen consoles to develop the next instalment because the character count on screen is crazy. I think they have safely managed to fit in thousands of zombies on screen for that authentic zombie survival feel as it is in a big city after all. I have played it for a small amount of time but already can see it is going to be good. They've really embraced the functions of the Kinect by allowing you to attract their attention using voice commands or dropping items. Also, loads of different modes depending on the gameplay you want to experience, I of course went for completionist because achievements are ma thing.

Completionist is not in the dictionary - fun fact.

Amy got Just Dance 2015 off of Amazon, also £20 but brand new due to a lovely offer. We have both busted a move, I will admit it. It is quite hard because you try to keep your head facing the screen to see whats going on but.. Some moves you need to spin and turn sideways and it just doesn't add up in a mans head due to the lack of a multitasking cortex. Enjoyable though, just about enough room next to the chimney as well to play.

Thanks for reading. I need to go to sleep. Go to work. Ya know, live and stuff. Blog you later.

Lets Light It Up

So what do you see appearing around this time of year? Maybe a bit later, the overly keen people half way through November? Christmas lights of course!

We used to be that household on the street that would put them up and then they wouldn't come down for the next three. In my opinion, it just makes sense. No hassle of going up and down and you can just unplug them and they aren't using any energy. And then you can turn them on for special occasions like birthdays.. Or for flagging down lost pizza delivery boys. If it gets the food to my door then I would totally do that. I've always wondered if all the pictures you see online of the "special requests" box on the ordering site are real.. I don't think they are. It would be terribly convenient for all pizza people to be good artists.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about this because I have noticed the first lost popping up in my village, the Christmas lights were also turned on this weekend so every is nice and glowing. You can see them here:
http://www.sevenoakschronicle.co.uk/pictures/GALLERY-Borough-Green-Christmas-Lights-switch/pictures-20252698-detail/pictures.html
It got me thinking about those other people you see on the news who go crazy for Christmas lights and have loads. Thought I would look some up and share them for some wintery cheer!

The first one I will mention will be the Tesco's lights because you will probably have seen this advert already by this point in time. I wasn't sure if it was a real lights show or if it was CGI, turns out they were totally real and done by a company called Immersive LTD. If you haven't seen the advert, it's all on YouTube. There is also a behind the scenes video about how it was all done and the time scale and the big turn on, here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVRTuUIbCzU

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Pretty amazing. I always remember when I was younger we would all get in the car and drive around to see the displays that people had done locally. There was always one house that went mental and had giant inflatable snowmen and Santa hanging off of the rough with the reindeers. It must cost a lot of money to do.. But Christmas does seem to butter up your bank card so it slips out of your wallet.

Turns out that a World Record was broken this year for Christmas lights by an Australian family, you can see the Guiness page here:
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2014/11/australian-dad-creates-record-breaking-lights-christmas-display-62027/
This page is great as it has all the details like how many lights were used, which I think was something crazy like 1.2 million! Most of the lights were donated by local businesses as the whole aim of this is to raise money for charity which is a great reason to do it. They have raised over $200,000 thanks to their displays. There is also a video of the place on the following BBC page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-30241521

Throwing in links left, right and centre today! Anyone would think I don't want you to come here..

Day 521
So. I actually planned a picture for this. I was thinking it would be appropriate to take a picture of the Christmas lights that I can see from my room but of course whoever owns them decided to not turn them on today. Being environmentally friendly. I have therefore improvised with something no where near as interesting but carries a mildly comical anecdote from yesterday.

So after the gym, I popped to Sainsburys as I fancied some sparkling water which I only ever seem to want once I have been exercising - a way to tell if I have been. And I had been doing exercises on my arms so they were a bit achey.. And I thought I would only get a couple of bottles. Got to the aisle and they were 60p each or 4 for £1.50. So for 30p more I could get twice as much. But that meant carrying twice as much with arms that didn't really want to function any more. Never rushed to the self checkout so fast in my life.

That really wasn't funny. I know. Blog you later peeps and peepettes.

Voices

Voices are pretty interesting. Whether they are your own, a friends, someone on the radio, a singer or that little one in your head that tells you to go and do bad things. Ignore that last one though.. Seriously.

We will all here our voices slightly differently to everyone else, as you speak it echoes around your head until your ear drums pick it up which makes your voice sound ever so slightly deeper. This is often why people cringe when they hear their voice on a recording because they aren't used to it, it is different. Your voice makes you, you. If people hear your voice, their brain will associate that to you and trigger whatever set of chemicals you are to them. If they don't like you, love you and have no binding.

The reason I talk about voices, is mainly because I have recently for no apparent reason been watching a lot of stuff on the Radio 1 YouTube channel. The majority of the time I will hear the radio on my way to work and generally driving around and I can honestly say, until watching these videos, I had no clue what 80% of them looked like. The more popular DJ's will end up on the TV doing other bits like Scott Mills on Strictly and Nick Grimshaw hosting the One Show a few weeks back. Not seeing their faces sort of let me make my own perceptions as to what they do look like, using the little dribs and drabs of info you get from the conversations like hair colour and what not. Upon seeing them, I know myself for one usually sort of say.. Oh, not even close. But I tried.

Voices can do amazing things. The one most present in my mind is singing. George Ezra for example is one of them cases where the voice much surpasses the individual in years. When I first heard, I honestly would have taken him for a middle aged man until I was told he was from Radio 1 Introducing and he was 18. 18? No, no George, stop. Classic voices which have been with us for many many years like David Attenborough gets you in the mood for nature. Morgan Freeman on the other hand - he can do whatever he wants with his voice because he's Morgan Freeman.

And just because I've mentioned them, here's David Attenborough saying boo to a sloth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndMKTnSRsKM
And Morgan Freeman on helium because thankfully, that happened:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRKVQcbIByo

Day 520
Picture!

So for now, this will be my conquest. Black Flag. Most likely straight into Unity - partially because they are the only two games I have that are played without Kinect.. And I'll be into the storyline and gameplay that I'll want to continue!

Thanks for reading guys. Knackered. Gym today. Had a bath as well. Blog you later.

And The Scores Are In

Scores, stats, they're the same thing at the end of the day aren't they? The ones I am particularly interested in are the totals for last month, I already mentioned half way through the month that they were the best I'd every had already so.. I wasn't expecting this end total to be fair. Little drum role to yourself.. The total was.. 3,089! I was very happy to be able to break the 3,000 mark. It was sort of an unofficial goal but I am very pleased. Thank you all so much, every view is worth a high five. I will have numb hands once I am done!

Its quite a spike that there. Yeah. Like it. Lets keep the ball rolling!

So, we actually played the Xbox today, finally. It managed to download everything and get it installed. Amy tried out the Dance Central game which was surprisingly responsive. This is comparison to the original Kinect so it is clearly a vast improvement. We can't do too much with it at the moment because the ideal range to stand is between the bed and a chimney so any movements are restricted especially with your arms on the right.. Even if you could punch through the chimney, the Kinect wouldn't see you. The visuals themselves on the game are really nice, I like how it tells you which body part you need to work on as it highlights the on screen character in red. Clever stuff that, very clever.

Something that confused me was getting an Achievement from watching YouTube videos, sort of. We linked the phone up to it via the pairing feature as you can search a lot quicker. I guess it works like airplay but just sends the Xbox to the right video. But it popped up with an achievement and it confused me. Doesn't give a value or anything but why not? Some I know I won't do like listen to 30 hours of music.. I listen in the car but that is it, not even whilst relaxing or exercising. Ear phones annoy me too much.

I also jumped into Assassins Creed Black Flag. So far I have only down the first memory section, I am enjoying the visuals so much. I didn't expect much from this one because they re-released it for the Xbox One but I am assuming that was to show off what it could do as a launch game and to bring the hype up for Unity - I am now hyped. The thing which I always enjoyed about it was the combat style, the combos and counters are enjoyable no matter how many times you see the animations. I just hope it isn't narrowed down to sword play because I was always one for pulling out a mace. Smash. I know there are a number of different projectile weapons such as pistols but from browsing the achievements I saw one for a blunderbuss so yes please, gimme now! Another thing I have always loved is the stealth element. I used to play the hell out of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory back in the day, always wanting to get the 100% rating for stealth. From playing Far Cry, it has made me want that type of gameplay style so I think - Far Cry 4 will probably be near the top of my list for next games to get. Halo 5 is the tippy top of course, I am unsure with the Masterchief collection because you are paying out £40+ for games you've played before. I feel blasphemous for saying that, I am sorry Halo 2!

Day 519
Lots of text. Picture!

Thought I would give you a look at the aforementioned calendars. I do quite like the Marvel one, the comics all fitted together like that look really good. I saw stuff like this in Tesco's the other day but it was just the super heroes covering notepads and pencil cases. There was also a phone case but my current is still holding out despite many a crack to the poor thing. I remember the ones that had foil across them, when you didn't quite pierce both layers so you sit there scratching at it until you make a little hole to get the chocolate out. I always close the doors on my calendars as well. No idea why, habit now.

So, Russell Brand.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11267732/Russell-Brands-rent-rant-as-he-is-asked-about-his-own-wealth-on-protest.html

I have very mixed views on this man, because you can clearly so from any piece of media he is involved in that his is a smart man. At the same time, very eccentric. Depending on how he applied himself, he could be a very dangerous figurehead or as he is here, an excellent campaigner. To give you a bit of background, they are campaigning regarding housing problems and assisting the homeless. He then got asked by the interviewer if he is part of the problem by being one of the rich people. I am on Russell's side here I must admit.

He and what I assume to be someone he has helped had a good rant at the interviewer saying that he is distracting the conversation from it's main focus. I find the media annoying because sometimes they appear to completely forget that they are publicising something important and throw in cheap questions which are generally quite offensive. Yes, he is a rich man who has money and lives in an expensive house but it doesn't take away from the fact that he is now trying to help. I don't know his motives if it is for public recognition but he is helping. Coming to a campaign and asking, quite honestly, rude and unnecessary questions is poor reporting to me. Just because this is a famous wealthy man does not give you the right to discuss his financial situation and broadcast it to the media, I'm sure he wouldn't have answered that sort of question either!

Oh my, got a bit political.

Blog you later folks!