Is He Meant To Be There?

First things first, managed to get the video uploaded to YouTube, it only took 88 minutes opposed to the crazy 11,800 it previously stated.. I would recommended using the little YouTube icon to watch it in a better size should you so choose.

So, today was remembrance day, and I assumed that it would be a pretty much widespread thing that everyone would observe the two minutes silence. I was quite shocked with the statistic on the news came on to say that 40% of people wouldn't according to a poll. I found that quite surprising but I guess we live in such a busy time that some people won't stop, not out of disrespect but because they can't or are told not to.

The parades on Sunday were wonderful, a great show of respect. It was interesting to see all the different regiments and parts of the army that you don't always hear about. Yet what did the media focus on, the fact that a political leader didn't put down the wreath correctly. And then that he stuck around at the end to watch the rest of the service. Who cares that he did, there were literally thousands of other people there - and the day was about remembering all those that were lost to get us to where we are today. Why wasn't the news focusing on the turn out, on the veterans? It just really leads you to believe that the media is corrupt because this would clearly look like publicity for for the dude. I know his name, but I don't want to associate it to my blog. Ha.

I feel like this picture of Gracey could quite easily become a meme. Like.. I found your browser history..

Pumpkin Juice

I'll just get this out of the way now - I didn't watch any Harry Potter but wanted to carry on with the theme hence the title.. I was very much preoccupied by a little something called Fallout 4.. I'll get to that later.

So I feel pretty comfortable saying that myself and Amy really quite enjoy Halloween, all the decorations what not. We didn't do pumpkins, in terms of carving, until a couple of years ago but now I can definitely see it being something we do for the foreseeable future, sitting around the table pulling out the innards of an innocent squash. Doesn't seem to normal when you put it that way eh? Usually we just got to the shops and pick out too normal looking pumpkins and go from there. This year, we did something a bit different with one of my work colleagues, the apparent phenomena that is PYOP.

Pick Your Own Pumpkins. Turns out there is a pumpkin farm in Sandling which I had no idea about, which is in Kent. I saw it was a phenomena because we got there and there were literally floods of people; a much larger crowd than you would expect for picking out a pumpkin, I would quite easily say at least 300 people with a constant stream of traffic coming in and out. We were not fortunate enough to get a wheelbarrow, and thought we wouldn't need one which lead to this ultimately..

Chocolate Frogs

Just writing some blog whilst watching the second Harry Potter film, as you do, as you do.

Today I wanted to go back to Amy's birthday, where we had a little trip to London. Amy had said to me that she wanted to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory so I thought - lets go then. I really enjoy musicals, and West end productions, this was no exception. The only thing I don't like, which I can only assume that a number of other people wouldn't either, is the pricing. I know you can see from all the seats other than the ones with the pillars, the prices are pretty steep. The stalls are over £100 each! We were sitting on the balcony, which is the top level. When we saw Wicked, we were on the Grand Circle which is one floor down.

Now, the balcony was pretty crazy. It had it's own entrances on the side of the theatre, and you go up six flights of stairs which really knackers your legs. The thing that threw us off was how steep the balcony was, to me it seemed like if you took a stumble, you would fly off of the edge. It made Amy a little uneasy at first but as soon as the play was on, no problems. They used the whole stage and a lot of the performance was actually off of the stage, above it so you can always see what was going on. The only bits we couldn't see where when they were right at the front of the stage, close to the seats where you are 90% likely to get spat on.

lovetheatre.com

World Of Questions

We're going to the Warner Brother studios this month, back to the Harry Potter tour, which is going to be amazing as from the 13th, it is a Christmas theme. The Hogwarts Express will be there and the model of Hogwarts will be all snowy increasing it's already high level of awesomeness. To celebrate this, we have started a 'marathon' of the films, and I say it with inverted commas as we have a good couple of weeks and I don't know if that will necessarily qualify as a marathon. It's going to be awesome, just wish everything in the gift shop wasn't so expensive.

I think the thing that makes the films and books so wonderful, is that it never leaves you with enough, which sounds like a bad thing at first. It isn't, not even in the slightest unless you hate being left with questions. The universe is so massive, that just watching this first film now, I can think of question after question to explain exactly what is going on.

Every magical item in the series would consequently have a back story and a history - in that universe. I wouldn't be surprised if that side of things was never thought about when creating the series, because why would you? It being successful leaves this sort of thing to thought for the fans to make stuff up, explanations. Whilst it would be enjoyable to create these ideas to theorise as to their existence, a part of me will always hate not knowing. I am just as surprised that Harry Potter is still going as strong as ever, especially with the most recent surge on merchandise and plans for films and stage plays.

Something which I am really interested in is the new illustrated books, which is the exact same story just with illustrations - pretty self explanatory to be fair. I tried to hunt this down a number of times in Waterstones but could never find it, I finally got my hands on one in Asda not too long ago. It is amazing, much larger than I thought it would be.

Waterstone.com

Inspiration

Inspiration in itself, I find quite hard to come by. The concept of it seems simple enough to just sit down and think of something to share - how hard can it be? I think you might be able to see by the hiatus I have inadvertently had from posting on her that I struggle. Real life blogs aren't something that is uncommon to the internet, but interesting ones aren't made up of people who necessarily work a 'regular office job' which limits your sharing capability. I am sure you would love to learn about me playing my Xbox, relaxing and playing with the cats - but for how long? I know I probably wouldn't be enticed to trawl through my old blog posts to read more about it.

To me that leaves, writing about my interests which makes sense, but sharing it in a way I want to isn't always easy. Whilst Blogger is a great free blogging tool, it is limited in its features to a single feed. The natural solution would to be to move to a paid service, and as with everything starting out new, is a risk. Investing money into something that may never make capital is a scary thought, imagine paying for the train every day knowing you might not be getting paid for the work you do.

So what lead me to where we are now, this moment, typing this post and reading it back in my head? I am honestly surprised to say music, which is something I don't usually bother with. I hate the hassle of untangling headphones and the detriments to your battery life and the constant worry that your music is just that little bit too loud so everyone can hear and be annoyed with you. I'm listening to the rock radio station on Spotify, after listening to Macklemore's album, The Heist. Personally, rock and metal do it for me, if I choose music, I like your mainstream chart music as well, but I find it doesn't tend to have real connection, a meaning that you can empathise with. Macklemore surprised me, taking my attention like a hook to the mouth. I generally don't like rap, but his music is honest and brings real life matters into the spotlight such as sexual equality and a world under the thumb of global corporations. A good beat is nice to listen to, but when the lyrics make you think about the world around you, I think that says a lot more about a song that millions of hits on YouTube ever could.

Amazon.com

Another thing I find worrying - the amount of people who haven't actually listened to Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns 'N' Roses - it is more than just that one sentence.

I want to start writing again, I have been dipping in and out of the story I want to write making some head way. I find it so hard to write for any long period of time, I constantly read back thinking it sounds strange or stupid. Is that just me being over critical, if it was written by someone else would it seem so alien - who knows? I guess that is what peer reviewing is for.

So where is the blog going? I don't really know, but I want to move it forward. I want to express my interests and talk, talk to like minded people and engage with an audience. I am probably the worst example of this, but I guess people don't necessarily like posting to random pages on the internet. I don't post to any, no YouTube comments, no Reddit threads. This is my expression, I just hope some like minded people find it and engage. I have never had a comment on my blog form someone who I don't personally know - not that I didn't appreciate their input. I feel like, if I want to progress this further, I need to catch some sort of media bug, actually utilise the different applications I have linked in the top right. Get emailing, I made an email for my blog as well - MattTalksLife@gmail.com - it can be anything, something you want me to right about. I like finding out stuff.

Right now, another game of The Binding Of Isaac which I have recently found my love for again. There is a new expansion but I can't bring myself to buy it -  still got so much to do and unlock with my current version! Blog you later.

Rustle And The Cat Will Come

Our old cat Speedy who left us last year hated plastic. Genuinely. Just the noise of it was enough to make him run the other way, and I thought this was a general rule of thumb for cats. I guess it makes sense because to them it is just a horrible noise with no real reason. Plus a plastic bag blowing in the wind might look like some sort of evil winged creature..

With the two cats we have now, it is very much the same with one. Gracey is not interested and would rather waddle off upstairs to lay on our bed as she usually does - as I am typing this she is laying on the end of the bed. She really does waddle, if only you could see it then you would understand.

Bella on the other hand seems to love it. We put plastic bags on the chairs in the kitchen so that they would not cover them in cat fluff - what has ended up happening is Bella sleeps on the plastic bags. She also stalks around under the tables on the chairs watching people, all atop the plastic bags. If we move them off onto the floor to use the table, she lays on the plastic bags once again and just watches us. I got on board with it, just a quirky cat thing - until today. My parents have been clearing some stuff out of cupboards which were all stored in plastic bags, and she was batting them as they were piled on the floor. And then this happened.

At the time, we were eating our tea and all of a sudden my Mum started calling us into the living room and there she was, quite happily sitting in a bag. We tried calling her out of it, offered fusses and she just wasn't interested even a little bit. I took a little recording of her, then this picture - and then picked her up in the bag. She didn't like that too much but she had a wiggle around and then hopped out when I put her down, but that is something I can say I have done that not a lot of other people will have. I assume. Who knows, maybe cats love that.

On the D&D front, I ordered some dice as I mentioned before and they came! I do like the pattern, the numbering is nice and my friend who I play with had made a dice bag which I now use. Everything is so purple, I am also happy to say that it appears non borrowed dice did seem to let me get some decent roles, passing some different checks and actually killing some stuff!

This week, our little team were tasked with finding the source of a camp causing problems in the north, possibly populated by bandits or goblins like we had already encountered the week before. We came across a little horde of goblins scouting the area who we had far too much trouble destroying.. Mainly due to me breaking in the dice still, poor roles were still a thing. After that we encountered or first dragon! It was a Green Dragon Wyrmling so it was only a baby which, due to good rolls, was beheaded in a single turn. Cheeky magic bolt, cheeky angry barbarian chopping. It is so much fun, and playing is just inspiring me more to make my own story to share. The only problem is, I want to do it all proper, so researching it and making random events tables, and making sure there is a range of difficulties and all that jazz. It might be a while.. But it will give me another heading to include along the top!

We have also just booked in to see the film We Are Your Friends on Thursday which is the release day, it was directed by Max, the silver dude from Catfish if you have seen that MTV show. Looks awesome. I shall let you know at some point our verdict - mine will likely be it was awesome because I like most films.. Yeah.

Thank you once again for reading, I am thankful for each and every view I receive as always. Blog you later!

A Little Taste Of America

This time last year, me and Amy were in America. I know a year is quite a long time but I can remember everything quite vividly as it was an amazing two week experience. Today, I have felt a lot closer to the memories, with all the different little things happening. For a start, the weather has been lovely, pretty hot but humid - which I know is no where near what we had in Florida but it was an admirable attempt by England.

I know it seems like a strange thing to bring you close to a memory, but what really did it for me was a visit to Costco. Yes, Costco. Myself and Amy aren't members but two good friends are and you can take in a guest with each card. The Costco itself was the one at Lakeside so we actually started off with a little wonder around IKEA so that part of the day was pretty Swedish.. But after that, over to Costco.

A Step In Which Direction?

It's been a while hasn't it? To be exact, 65 days which doesn't include today because I am technically writing on here now. No, I did not work that out, I Googled it because of the internet and it's many wonderful mysteries. Usually, I'll refer to it as 'before' when I was blogging more often, I would apologise for such a delay. Whilst I had no intention to take such a prolonged break from posting, it just sort of happened and felt right. I didn't feel like I was enjoying it nearly as much as I used to, and I personally attribute it to the daily pictures - which I think was a good idea, but labelling them and feeling compelled to find something to post each day, took the fun away. I was actively looking for something, anything to post even if it wasn't that interesting to look at. It was a picture which I could label and say I posted the picture for that day. You may have noticed running up to the break, there were more and more pictures being sourced online because I didn't feel like I had anything around to share. I'm writing this on here to everyone to read, but at the same time, I feel like I am trying to justify this to myself. Regular readers might understand, new people I have probably just freaked out - hi by the way. So what now? I am going to try and post again, find my rhythm because I want my online diary back.

The ironic thing is, I have basically had two months away in which I have done plenty of different things, and nothing erupts to my finger tips to talk about first. Oh the irony.

Let us start with a couple of adventures to London, as you may recall, me and Amy both have Merlin Annual passes so we can get into a number of places in London with fast track and stuff like that meaning we can do quite a lot of stuff in a single day. Which I quite like because a travel card is about £20 each so the more you cram in, the more you get for your money. We got an email closer to the start of the year from Merlin letting us know about their new attraction in London, which is now actually being advertised on the TV for Shrek Adventure. It is best described as the London Dungeons but for kids.

You've Got Time

The title is with reference to the intro music for Orange is the New Black because.. I feel like it is talking to me, because I do have time. To watch season three, which is what I will be accompanied by during this blog post. I currently have mixed reviews, that the season peaks towards the end and the build up is a bit.. Slow. I guess it is just setting the scene but it has already been confirmed for season four so it must be good.

I really need to finish Daredevil as well, I keep forgetting to watch it and I have no excuse because I can just watch it on my phone. It is literally at my finger tips. Then again, I know if I am prolonging it then the second season won't seem so far away.. I think this is the only problem with Netflix series, it being available causes serious cases of binge watching, and it is contagious. I know many people who have been affected by this epidemic.

So it has been five days since I last spoke to you all here, so let us get on shall we. I have plenty to talk about. I shall start with Friday, when I went to a Thing - it is literally a thing. It is called a thing, and it is basically a work do where we go play pool. The simple things in life are nice. We went to a sports bar called Riley's and it turns out there are loads of them everywhere which I did not know but they have pretty good deals so look them up if you want to play pool. For example, £10 for 2 hours, membership and a drink or £20 gets you four drinks. I have a pool/snooker cue somewhere but I couldn't find it so I used the 'stock' ones, they served us all well enough.

Day 709
The weekend was all good all around, Saturday we did the menial tasks of shopping for food and all that jazz, luckily it wasn't too busy for a weekend but.. People seem to switch off when they are driving cars and trollies and they just block aisles and swing around everywhere.. It is not so nice.

We had a little wonder around some shops as well in Maidstone and Week Street is still closed because of the fire.. Which I am still finding it hard to get my head around because it just seems like such a strange thing to happen to somewhere you were literally in not a week or so ago. It is on the news and people are constantly complaining about the shops being shut and what not but - at the same time they would be livid if it was opened too early and the building collapsed on them. Just saying. Maybe they just pick selfish people on the news to panda to their own agendas. Make it safe - then let people back. Simple! Sorry if you were one of those people - my opinion is what it is.

I also was lucky enough to play this little game here.

Rainbow Roses

Don't worry, you'll find out.

First - I feel a little bit of an outrage coming over me. The Simpsons, maybe one of the staples of TV, it has been around for ages, and now they decide to do this!
http://news.sky.com/story/1499626/anger-as-homer-and-marge-to-legally-separate
Even without clicking on the link to the page, you can see it in the title. Apparently they are planning to or have already split up Marge and Homer in The Simpsons! I personally don't like this because it is called The Simpsons, it is about them being a family unit, especially after 25 seasons! They are splitting up because of strain on the marriage because Homer has narcolepsy which is quite obvious in terms of what has happened in the previous episodes but to introduce it now as a reason to stop it.. Pfft, I just don't understand it. To me, I see it as a publicity stunt to attract attention to the show but the majority of responses I have seen have said - why not just end the show? It has had a good run, making a change like this now is more suited to like a soap opera.. I expect something like that from Eastenders. At the same time, I am not too bothered because I don't watch it because it is all on Sky now. Sort of makes my opinion obsolete but hey - it's the internet.

Day 706
So I mentioned that we went and saw Spy on Friday. We left really early for the showing because I was on a late shift so, we knew we were going to hit traffic - and my oh my we did, we were sitting on the same road for about 30 minutes just crawling up it.. Two cars had also broken down which didn't really help in the grand scheme of things. Due to this, we ate and then had a little wonder down by the river which is next to the river and of course, a selfie was incurred by Amy. And it goes like this - filter and all.

A Weekends Wonderings

Good evening internet, well it is at least when I am writing this. Good morning and afternoon depending on when you are reading it. Right now, I have just finished watching some Mystery Diners which follows a company called Mystery Diners who go all around America saving business's from problem employees - some of the stuff they do is actually crazy, and makes you really appreciate your own work ethic even if you have a down day. I am not making a start on a film, Evil Dead but the 2013 remake. Amy got me the triple boxset of the original trilogy which I still need to watch, I have seen the first and parts of the second and I really enjoyed it, shall have to fit them in sometime. I really appreciate the older horror films where special effects weren't as present in the film making process because whilst modern day films are awesome to watch - I feel like you can appreciate the process more when they had to make props and stuff.

I'm already seeing differences between this and the original film so.. Maybe they went a different way with it and that is why they didn't remake the trilogy, it'll stand on it's own as a single film with the same name as a classic.. Something I always find strange about my taste in films, I find the old films stories so cheesy but they work - whereas with the modern remakes, they piece it together much better but it just annoys me because the characters always seem to have a background knowledge and stuff.. I guess it is just where I am used to the original story.

Oh why did you read the book? It told you not to.. And the book is covered in blood. WHY!?

Day 704
We have discovered a new delight at the cinema, a lovely lemon slush drink made my Tango, they call it an ice blast and we love it.

They do a couple of different flavours which are clearly defined by the colours, there is blue, pink and yellow - which we have and is lemon flavour. It made me think of our holiday last year as one of the amusement parks in America had something which I refer to as yellow slush. It was so good, and this tastes just like it. I don't want to say one was better than the other because.. I have this feeling it was the American one and I don't know if and when I will get to try that again. You can even combo these with Cineworld's popcorn deals so it is pretty good value, especially with a premium card giving you a 25% discount which makes them more like normal prices - how exciting.

The only thing that is quite disconcerting.. Is that this is vividly yellow, and when we had it the first time I didn't think anything of it. On the way back, I asked Amy to look up how to make some as we have a blender which you can obviously use to slush-ify (scientific term) the ice. She found this recipe, you blend ice, sugar and lemon juice together and hey presto - lemon slush! The difference is, this does not come out yellow, like, not even a hint. It comes out as this clear tastiness - I highly recommend. I love anything lemon.

So that was part of Friday night so I know it technically doesn't count as the weekend but.. At the same time I know it does for a lot of people.. Let's just go with it.

We decided to get up early Saturday morning to go shopping and get it out the way with, plus it wouldn't be as busy - nice and easy. The alarms went off and we appear to have made the unanimous decision without communicating to just go back to sleep.. For a couple of hours.. Oops. It was so worth it though - lay ins are definitely one of little pleasures in life. So instead, we decided for a little jaunt into town for a Weatherspoons lunch where I had a mixed grill.

Now - I have not eaten much steak in my life, honestly the first one I had was last year. Other than a gammon steak, I have eaten that on many occasions. This had a rump steak and also a lamb steak. The rump was done medium rare - great. I can't really tell how the lamb was done because honestly some bits of still looked raw but there was no blood or anything.. It was actually so good, I really enjoyed it. That was my something new for the day.

We also indulged ourselves in two separate walks, we like to go along the rivers and what not to enjoy the scenery and wildlife we find - and by that I mean taking it in turns to run at pigeons. They don't trust us anyway.

Day 705
Today, we decided to head off to a boot fair, and I have mentioned before that my parents have always found some pretty interesting ties at boot fairs. Thanks to previous travels and the one today at the Hop Farm - I am not the proud owner of these lovelies!

How awesome are these? I know that one of them is clearly seasonal but I am sure I will have the opportunity to wear it later on in the year. We also have a Guiness tie which is covered in glasses of Guiness - I don't drink it myself. I have never tried it so I might like it but.. I hate trying new drinks, because if I buy it and don't like it - wasted money, I also have a couple of coloured patterns, Bugs Bunny, Mr Men, Wallace and Gromit and also Tom and Jerry. A great haul all in all. I always find the contrast of prices strange, the cheapest here only cost me 25p where as another cost £1. Some people ask for more - I guess it depends if it is a stall who does this as a business or someone who is just having a clear out. We also got two other little things which.. I am going to save, to share with you in my next post.

This film basically went down a gory route. It is pretty disturbing some of the imagery I am seeing.. It is quite interesting - to me at least - to see the stark contrast between what is 'acceptable' to show in a film. The original of course had some very disturbing images for the time it was made, but the special effects which which I can recognise today at the time would be like what I am watching now. The special effects make this seem much more real.. How the times have changed. You can also tell I am not used to the luxury of recording TV because I have been sitting here watching the adverts..

This is something I would quite like to explore, how video games have changed. I mentioned last time how I am really excited at the announcement of Fallout 4 and how it is going to amazing. I personally joined in the series on Fallout 3 on the 360, but there have been two other games which I never played and may not ever be able to. They are available on Steam but only for Windows, whilst I do have the Mac dual booted, I didn't partition it for heavy usage in terms of installing games.. Whilst I could probably increase this, I don't want to impact the performance of the device.. Anyway.

I am thinking I am going to search for some lets plays on YouTube of the first couple of Fallout's, I also want to watch someone play through Final Fantasy VIII as me and my brother played this one but never really got too far into it, we weren't too great at that type of game at the time. I would be interested to see the game develop and what not. Sounds like I have decided to give myself a lot of video to watch.

The book writing is also continuing, I am enjoying the process at the moment, like researching things and making decisions to put in place things which will make sense or assist the story. Choosing a name for the main character was hard enough. I guess I will try and give you updates where I can without giving anything away - the superstitious side of me will win this one. Well, thanks for reading and of course, a good night or day to you. Blog you later!

I'm Going to Write a Book

Pretty self explanatory. The title. I know I have mentioned it more than once on here before, that I want to see something with my name on in a book shop or Amazon - everything is from Amazon these days. I am sort of hoping I have the aptitude to persevere and finish something, because when I was younger I always started writing things and never saw them through, they ended up dotted around the house in random pads of paper. Then again, I am a lot more mature, actually have an idea which I am interested in and write ideas for - so I guess I shall just have to see what happens. I am most likely not going to share anything on here - I swear I have seen a film where someone shared their idea and then it got stolen and what not.. You get the idea. I know in this day and age I could probably easily prove it was my idea but the cynic in me says otherwise.

So what I thought I would do today, is share some series of books which I have really enjoyed reading over the years, which may or may not provide inspiration for me. I guess it completely depends on where I decide to go with it because at the moment, I have an idea which is just a seed I am planting - what it'll grow into is as much a mystery to as it is to you. In the interest of making this flow a bit better, the first three images are going to be in relation to this and will be pictures 699, 700 and 701, there'll be a fourth also but you'll see that down the bottom of course in the 'me' section. Where I talk about me. I don't think I needed to explain that..

So the first book series is by Anthony Horowitz and is the Alex Rider series.

Stumbling Along

Good evening, peoples and animals of the internet - because no one knows you are an animal on the internet..

So it has been a while, again. I am trying to spend my time looking into things that I find interesting and share them with you, so it is like a little snap shot of my brain projected onto the internet because why not? Of course, I will share the bits and bobs of my life, because I like to share that and have it to look back on. At the same time, we are fast forwarding through the majority of the Britain's Got Talent Final because we know who won but.. Want to watch some of the acts in the final.

So what I have today, is a collection of eight random websites all with a little bit of interest to me which I quite literally - Stumbled Upon. This website, once you have signed up, asks you to pick a load of different interests, and then you press Stumble. What you then get, is a randomly picked internet page for you to have a look at. I must say, so far 90% of the pages have been enjoyable for me to look at, and it gives a thumbs up and thumbs down option so it can further filter down the content it provides you, so it forever more becomes personalised to you. So - let me show what I found.

Day 694
So the first one, is a BBC page called your life on Earth:
www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141016-your-life-on-earth?ocid
Much to my surprise it appears this webpage has actually been around for a while and I just seemed to miss it for some reason.. Because when I mentioned it to Amy in all of my excited-ness - she had already seen it. You put in some information, and it then gives you a history of Earth which fits inside your lifetime.

A Mindful Post

I assume that a lot of people will not have heard of this concept, of being mindful or partaking in mindfulness. I must say I was unaware of it until very recently until it was suggested to me, as a tool to keep your mind calm or to help calm it down. In retrospect, looking at it from the outside, the concept and practice of it can seem pretty strange. It is defined as "a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique."

What I have mainly partaken in myself so far, is the meditation side of things. You ideally locate yourself in a quiet place, and then depending on what is comfortable for you, sit or lay with your eyes open or closed - once again whichever is more comfortable - and listen to a recording. Sometimes. These recordings act as a guide through the session to assist with clearing your mind and then recognising the sensations you are currently feeling at that point in time. This helps you to just calm down and forget what else you have going on. You can do this without a recording as well, just quietly identify these things yourself. I have also tried an active one, where you follow through some stretches and feel the different pulls and tweaks - this was much more comfortable to do as a group with your eyes closed.. It is very strange though.

Day 689
Here's a little picture which I think is nice..

I think this picture sums it up, because it is identifying the importance of living in the moment and highlights what the idea of mindfulness is about.

The first time I ever did this, I remember leaving the session feeling quite spaced out and I got outside and everything seemed brighter, louder and smelled ever so vibrant. Where you are sort of training yourself to switch off, when you walk outside I guess it is sort of like a sensory overload. Sort of like confining yourself

Cats and Weird Stuff..

Cats! They are here - re-homed and moved in. It is so awesome, and nice to have cats around again so as you will see, I am being a crazy cat man in this post. Part of me cares, because in terms of rich content - you could quite easily argue it's not and I wouldn't dispute it but at the same time - its cats. And this is the internet, a match made in heaven! At the end though, I have accumulated some news articles which are pretty awesome, Amy shared them with me so I thought it would be nice to share them with you as well.

So, just so it doesn't break up the stream of cat talk and cat images, the cat pictures will cover days 682 through to 686. Just so you know. I just don't fancy bolding it up.. There will be a couple more pictures down the bottom though. I don't know why I am telling you, you'll find them.

So first, I think some introductions are due. The two cats were put into care because the owners had two dogs who didn't get on with the cats and thought it would be better for them. My Mum picked out one cat, then upon visiting discovered the second cat who has now come home with them!

This cat is called Gracey and is about 11 and a half years old. She is all black, with what I like to think is a white bow tie and her eyes - are always that large. She is a spitting image of my old cat

Speedy who had to be put down last year. The difference is, when he made these eyes it usually meant you

The Story Behind: Dante's Inferno - Part 2

Welcome to part two of this journey into the realms of hell, we have nine circles still to discover! I am enjoying researching this all far too much. I guess that is the benefit of being able to pick your own subject matter.. On a random tangent, I always hated Art GCSE at school because they told you what to create; not what I thought it was all about to be fair.

If you are new to this little series, the first part can be found here:

http://matttalkslife.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-story-behind-dantes-inferno.html

But otherwise.. Let's get back to it!

So here is the next portion of the story, thanks to lovely wikipedia (again):

At the Gates, he encounters Virgil, who knows of Dante's past sins, yet agrees to guide him through the Nine Circles of Hell in exchange for Beatrice putting in a word for him in Heaven. Dante begins his descent at the shores of Hell where the newly damned souls are forced aboard the great ferry of Charon. Dante forces Charon to sail him across. After this, Charon is destroyed when Dante tears his head off using a beast-mount. After arriving at Limbo, Dante confronts the serpentine Judge of the Damned, King Minos. After Minos denies Dante passage deeper into Hell, Dante fights the Judge and kills him. Dante then enters the second circle, Lust, where he enters the Carnal Tower to find Beatrice, whose soul is slowly being corrupted into a succubus by Lucifer, who also reveals to her

The Animals

Hello, hello, hello. I am probably going to take far too long to write this post because I am super distracted by something - which I will talk about of course, right now. Like, now, right now.

Day 678
So the title of this post is part of the song lyrics to the Netflix series Orange Is The New Black, which is something Amy watched over the last month or so.. And raved about it. I wasn't too interested at first but Amy managed to talk me into watching it and it turns out that we have watched the entire first series - first time round for me, second for Amy - this week. Right now, we are watching the last episode of the first series because I couldn't wait until tomorrow.. Or the weekend to find out what happened! Plus it feels like a fresh slate to start the second series at some point.. I think I am going to have withdrawal symptoms when I have to wait for the third season..

I find it so interesting, because you have no idea if this is actually what it is like in a prison. I guess you always hear the stories or see the programmes that look at the lives of prisoners and it is scary. There is no other way to put it - and drama. Yes, the guards are in charge but at the same time, there are prison politics, like Red being 'in charge' of all the girls and looking after them and finding ways to get them the comforts the shop can't provide. I also find the character interactions interesting how

A Week In The Life Of

Me! Of course it'll be about me. Would be a bit weird if it was someone else don't you think? I will say sorry, I have been very busy this past week just with life and stuff - you know how it is. I have also been putting a lot of time into the research for the story behind Dante's Inferno - turns out I have bitten off a pretty big project over all but I will persevere; mainly because I like it but also I don't think this type of thing is on the internet. Well - we know that isn't true, chances are if it has been thought of, it has been done before. When you think of something that hasn't, you'll usually end up being a millionaire. I don't see them pounds rolling in at the moment hence my apprehension.

So if you can't tell, by the title, this is pretty much a catch up week so you are probably going to find this'll be pretty hefty over all.. The worst part is that I have only taken one picture and that was today when I realised I need to catch up with myself. I have three others that I can think of to add at the moment.. This is probably going to be in the most random order ever as well then.. Pfft, let's just see how it goes really. Also pictures 671 all the way to 677.. Hurrah!

Now if I think back far enough, the bank holiday.. We were cleaning. I know it isn't the most exciting use of your bank holiday but we like destroyed all aspects of dirt and old stuff that we don't need which was oddly satisfying. I quite like washing up - which people say is weird, especially as we have access to a dishwasher - but I get this odd sense of satisfaction from seeing something go from being dirty to shiny and clean. So I guess that is one good side of us doing this sort of Spring cleaning, I guess it is that time of year so maybe we partook in this tradition without even knowing it..

The Story Behind: Dante's Inferno

I remember being really excited for this game when I saw it advertised, it was released in 2010 so that was when I was at school in Sixth Form. I was clearly making very good use of my EMA money because I got the limited edition which they called the Death edition. It came with a holographic case and an extra disk with content, and my favourite bit was exclusive access to an online version of the origin text for the game. It was a poem by Dante Alighieri who was alive during the 13th and 14th century, called the Divine Comedy. I can't for the life of me find that website any more, I am not even sure if it is still available, but luckily - possibly due to this game - there are online versions available. I have found the full poem here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8800/8800-h/8800-h.htm
I wont pop it on here because I assume there are all kinds of legal things around sharing it, and it is actually really long, especially for a poem. It is pretty much a story in all fairness.

Some artwork for the game, all of which is amazing

What I will do this time round is take each paragraph at a time and look into it from there, because the story is much longer than the previous post I did for Okami. So what can you expect? Probably something like a.. Three or four part thing?

Your Five a Day

You know how I do love a good play on words, and this instance I am substituting your vegetables and fruit - with pictures which I am putting on here. Amazing eh? I don't feel like I needed to explain that to you but just in case, it never hurts to make certain. Words to live by.

So today, the first couple of pictures will be about the loot crate for April, the theme was fantasy which I wasn't really too sure about as in what would be the contents. It turns out it was traditional fantasy style, like dragons and stuff. So let's get to it! Seeing as there will be another three pictures, I will label them all up a goodun as I should do. Are you excited? I am.

Day 666 & 667
Good lord, an evil number. Apparently they literally avoid using this number in Christian schools, for example if there were lockers or room numbers.. They literally just avoid it. I don't think it is a bad number at all so look at it in all it's glory for it is a triple.

So, there wasn't so much stuff that needed a lot of separate images so there are only two for the loot crate itself. I think the first of the two is the best because it is staring yours truly.

Suicidal Cartons and Loot - Finally

So this loot crate I will be showing off today, is actually from March.. Hence the word finally being in the title. I mentioned the reason why I haven't got it in another post but just in case you didn't see that - basically - the post office lied to me. They said that someone at my house had signed for it despite someone being in all day and no one coming to the door. When we missed the delivery of the next crate, April's one, my sister was near the sorting office to collect it. She ended up with two parcels, one marked for being shipped back to the original address - tut tut. Lucky I got it it would seem.

So lets get into the loot crate, this will be Day 664 and 665 and even a cheeky bonus one because I am ever so kind to you! So the theme of this crate was spies and secret agent type things.

So this first picture, is of a shirt which came in the box. I am kind of happy and not happy about it at the same time because the shirt itself is pretty awesome, it is a sad James Bond. He is sad because his martini was stirred and not shaken - I don't know if this would actually make a difference to the taste. The reason I am not happy is because white shirts don't really suit me I have been told, so I probably won't wear it too often, or maybe it'll be a lazy shirt for days inside, sheltering from the pollution and stuff.

Adventure, Weekend, Loot

Hello there people of the internet. If feels like it has been a while - probably because it has. I know it seems silly, but I have to actually look back at my most recent post to see where I got up to because I honestly can't remember my life. That is one of the reasons I started the blog because I always found it hard to remember when I did things so having it all done in black and white with a nice picture to kick the memory back into gear - tis a wonderful thing. So where was I? Oh yes - Friday.

Day 661
So Friday I actually booked off work, me and Amy then had a little adventure to Chessington, World of Adventures. Despite this theme park being clearly aimed at a much younger audience, we really like it there. I like it because it has animals, and any where that has a mix of rides and animals will climb my list of things I like pretty quickly. The penguins had a new enclosure to swim around in, when we got there the display had literally just finished.  We got there around midday as we were thinking, being a week day, it wouldn't be too busy no matter what time we went and we were spot on! There were literally no queue times all day so you could just get on any ride you wanted, and when there was no queue, stay on.

I always remember this place being my favourite as it was one of the first I went to and love Vampire. Now I have gotten a bit older and enjoy the more thrilling rides, I must say Thorpe Park probably is my favourite.. I have a feeling Alton Towers would top it but being so far away, means I have only ever been there once. Would love to go again with queue times like Friday - that would be amazing.

A Little of This, A Little of That

Hello there internet, I feel rather out going today - two posts? Who'd of thunk it. It is nice to find myself inspired and thinking of different things to write, things I don't feel like I have seen elsewhere on the world wide web.

If you are reading this first, I will reference you to the other post which is found at the following link:
http://matttalkslife.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/the-story-behind-okami.html
It is the first, in what I hope to be a series of posts about the myths and legends behind the games we love and play today. I started with Okami as being from Japanese heritage, held a rich background story to dive into. Please let me know if there is a game that you would like me to look into, it doesn't even have to be one that has an obvious background - that is for me to find out and share with you.

So any way, it has been two days. Where have I been and what have I been up to?

I think this is as good a place as any to start..

Day 658
People who follow me on Twitter or on Instagram may have already seen this little delight which we had yesterday. It is a dessert from a restaurant called Creams - I say it is a dessert but literally all they sell is sweet things! Everything that you order is big and over the top and just amazing from what I can see, and there is also a great selection available with different toppings - some with these strange things called fruits? Pfft.

The Story Behind: Okami

So, as some of you may know, I have posted previously about some folklore which then went on to inspire a video game:
http://matttalkslife.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/year-walk-swedish-folklore.html

I really like this concept of being able to play myths and legends through video games, I will admit that usually the game will loosely fit the legend to create extra action elements to make it enjoyable but.. Today I wanted to look into the game Okami, not one that I have played personally but one I have watched and very much enjoy the art style of. The game itself is inspired by the Japanese Shinto religion.

Some art work from the game

So the, basic story of the game is as follows - thanks Wikipedia..

"The game is set in a Nippon (Japan) based on Japanese folklore, and begins with a flashback to events 100 years prior to the game's present; the narrator describes how Shiranui, a pure white wolf, and Nagi, a swordsman, together fought the eight-headed demon Orochi to save Kamiki Village and the maiden Nami, Nagi's beloved. Shiranui and Nagi are unable to defeat Orochi, so they seal the demon away.

Famous Paradox's and I'm on a Boat!

I love the concept of a paradox, a statement or idea that in itself, contradicts itself. The fact that it does this, then means you cannot for definite say whether or not the statement is true leaving it completely open for discussion. Such ideas have been further implemented into films, some of which I will discuss below. Little did I know, there are more than one type of paradox.. Prepare for a headache because they'll make you think - hard.

Something which I never knew was that the idea of a paradox can be applied to many things, I always just assumed this was a concept of time. I think there are probably the most common examples as they can be applied into things such as films or books without necessarily needing so much of an explanation, so this is where I shall start.

Time
I will start with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. At the time, when it first came out and I was a bit younger, I didn't really understand the whole idea of what was going on.. Especially the quote of Harry saying "I'd already done it!" Only until I learned what a paradox was, did I get it. This is an example of what is called a Bootstrap paradox, in which the information appears to have no logical beginning.

A Little Taste of Summer

Right now, we're watching Britain's Got Talent. I must say, I really do love having the ability to record TV, for me it is quite a new concept because I have never had Sky, Virgin or BT TV what we have at the moment. Whilst I never missed out on any programmes thanks to catch up TV, being able to fast forward through the adverts is much nicer.. Makes something that is an hour and a half long, only an hour. Gets your through more TV! Watching this, you can't help but laugh at some of the acts and when I think about it.. It makes me feel quite bad because some of them may genuinely think they were in with a chance, moral conflicts eh?

Little spoiler here.. The dance group that got the gold buzzer on the show today - were very good. I can't help but think that despite they get all the way through to the live shows, it is a bit of hinderance. You get to follow the other people through the rounds and then into the live shows, so they are in your mind. You don't necessarily remember them so to say, despite them being very good acts. Just a thought.

The world of the internet is a very strange place, as I am getting more involved with Blogging - and by that I mean more serious. When I started this I was very 'into it' and then honestly, my passion sort of dwindled. Since November last year, something rekindled it and ask you can see since then, my posts have more substance and feeling and I feel like it has paid off. My views peaked, my enjoyment peaked and still is. It is always a really nice feeling when you step away from it for a couple of days,

Not a Game of Thrones

Why oh why does Sky have to be the only way to see Game of Thrones? I hate knowing the new season has started and at the moment - I can't see it. I do find it odd yet honourable, that despite four episodes being leaked, HBO doesn't care as long as people are enjoying it. I think that is really big of them because I wouldn't be surprised if they lost a lot of money in add revenue because not as many people will be watching.. Which means the companies who paid to have adverts on during the show get less traffic.. Therefore they get angry and ask for money back.. Pfft, I don't know how advertising works - that was probably a load of tosh!

On the subject of games.. GTAV is available to the PC master race, I don't like calling them that but they call themselves that so.. On the band wagon I guess. I seem to surprise a lot of people when I say I have never enjoyed playing any GTA game.. I just don't like it, I don't see the real enjoyment in going around on random killing sprees and all of the story missions are to do with crime - none of which interests me. I do know that the game is about 60GB which is crazy! I don't know if that is the same size on the Xbox or PS4 because now you have to install them.. That is easily like 10% of a base model device on sale at the moment. I guess it is the only problem at the moment, whilst the games are getting bigger and better, so is the storage required and until we can figure out a way to make the information tiny - or storage cheap to commercialise, it's a bit of a trade off to say the least.

Mortal Kombat X is now out as well and it has been quoted as the goriest one yet - and from

One, Two, Three-Four-Five, Once I Caught A Blog Alive

I know, I know, I have been neglecting you. I guess I can lay it down to the fact I have been quite busy over the past five days which really does mean I have been quiet in my internet responsibilities.. But at the same time, it means this post is going to be hella huge! And for those of you that enjoy that, you're very welcome. I am going to try and split this down into the days, the only thing is.. I can't remember as far back as Thursday for some reason. Friday on wards is an oh so warm memory which I can tap into with ease - that on the other hand fell through the gaps. Due to this, Sunday will be sharing two pictures as I also have two pictures I would quite like to share!

Lets get to it!
And once you're done, why not scroll back up this page and have a look around my other social medias, all conveniently located on the right hand side of this page *crowd oohs and aahs* I know, I know.

Day 646
So, this one here starts with Friday. Now, I have mentioned before that we have had some beef with Cineworld in the sense of a lot of films we have wanted to watch recently have been released on limited screening. Due to this, our closest cinema doesn't actually show them, I don't how they decide which does if it is based on size etc. but the next closest showing the majority was about 20 miles away! As much as I love me a film, we couldn't condone that much petrol to go and see something.. Such as this!

A Mixed Bag

Day 643

I will start this with a little adventure we had on the Easter weekend. We decided to go for a walk through a park which we have been told was pretty close by, and we were quite happy with the overall outcome. It turns out, it joined straight onto a path which as far as I know spanned the entire river Medway. It was quite strange as at the same time, we didn't know half of the places we came across ever existed, because we've never really had a reason to venture to these places.. You can sort of tell it was for people with a love of boats of the money to afford one - as they were everywhere. As were the ducks, also a couple of swans. We even saw one nesting which was a very unique experience because I know they can be quite aggressive if you annoy them but this one clearly didn't care that we were there. It seemed to know people would want to look because it had popped itself right next to a clearing in the brush next to the path so you could give it a good stare. We took something which we called a 'swelfie' - just a selfie with a swan in it.

I have always been confused by houseboats. Do they have somewhere they have to park? I don't even think park is the right word for that but.. I think I got some answers along this river as we saw some, and it looks like people have bought little sections of the river edge which they have decked and fenced off, and they were very trusting leaving things like bikes and BBQ's.. The picture below was from one of these little areas and in the ever so slight breeze was lovely to see and hear all at once. This is also compliments of Amy's Instagram feed.

Happy Easter Weekend

Happy Easter Weekend people of the internet, I am very lucky to be included in that umbrella of people who have a nice extended weekend, so of course that means I am off of work tomorrow also! I like Easter, mainly because I really like eating the chocolate eggs, I know they are literally no different to any other time of year - just to me they taste so much better. The only way I can explain that is it's a psychological thing, not that I know what I am on about. A taste placebo if I may.

I am thinking about possibly changing the layout of the blog, because as much as I like the dynamic views I have set up at the moment, I would very much like to start using jump breaks. These basically add in a little "read more" option for each post, so I could break it up after a certain amount of lines for each post.. This would make a much more attractive front page and make it less intimidating than a wall of text and pictures.. It lets you take a little snapshot and decide if that is something you want to carry on reading. Unfortunately, this is not supported by dynamic views which is a little annoying because Blogger is basically limiting itself with what can be done. I will have to have a play around and see if I can find a layout I am happy with, I can always make a backup of the current one so I can revert but - who knows?

This post is going to be quite disjoined, I can feel it happening already, I just have random stuff I want to blurt out when I think about it but obviously these pictures will tie in as nice little breaks and hopefully tie together my thoughts.. Onto the first one for the day!

April Fools

I thought I would take a little break from doing the ol' Norse stuff and do what I did last year - have a look at what some organisations and people did for April Fools day. I always find it interesting when companies do this because if they do it right, they could probably get a lot of wanted attention. Then again, one that I have seen today.. They didn't really do that.

I will start with the one that didn't do it - Microsoft. The Australian branch Tweeted something new called a Surface Watch and what they ended up needing to do was take it down - because people actually thought it was real and with the recent publicity surrounding the Apple Watch - it would make perfect sense for Microsoft to release a competitor.

Now you may ask why I am saying it wasn't a good idea as an April Fools? Well, for one, not releasing a competitor may make them look like they have no idea or interest to compete. The main reason was the Tweet that came with it, which basically said, phones are outdated. Which wouldn't be weird if they hadn't just chucked millions of pounds into developing the new Nokia phones.. It was taken down pretty hastily from all the sources I have seen on the internet, I wonder who got a slap on the wrist for that..

Norse Mythology - Part 2

So yesterday I covered the creation story according to Norse Mythology, now I will explore some other areas.. Hopefully nowhere near as strenuous because as I mentioned yesterday, I was planning to do this all in one post. Vast under estimation on my part but I guess for those of you who are interested, content for the win! I will make this a bit of a mix though, just for the people who tune in for the usual stuff, the me stuff.

The Worlds

So I mentioned how Ymir’s body was taken apart to create the world, and this didn’t just narrow down to Midgard which is the realm of man. This is the main one that is focused on from what I can see because it is us – we live here. The World as specified by Norse Mythology is actually comprised of nine different sections. I am not too sure which bits were made from what part of Ymir but I can only assume that it was different organs etc. as they were very liberal with the descriptions such as the brain and skull being used. He would’ve been a great advocate for organ donation.

So I will start from the top and work my way down.. It goes like this..

1.       Asgard, home of the Aesir

2.       Vanaheim, home of the Vanir

3.       Alfheim, home of the Light Elves

Norse Mythology

So, Norse Mythology is to me – very interesting. As with my previous post about Swedish Folklore, this is mainly going to be sourced from the internet but.. I am going to pick out the sections I find the most interesting. Only problem with this; is there is so much, and it is all interesting – it might be a long one. Which is fine as I have saved this for a day where I would like to share three pictures, I am sure I will probably be able to fit in more.

Norse Mythology itself originates from the northern areas of Western Europe such as Iceland and Norway and was loved by the Vikings. In my opinion, they had pretty good ideas. I make no secret of me not being religious, and a lot of the things they believed in are very unbelievable in terms of science, but it’s pretty amazing. I don’t know if this area is recognised as a religion, as when 1,000 people put it down it is nationally recognised.. Hence Jedi being a legitimate option now.. And just to clarify, I am not against religion; it’s just not for me.

I feel like this type of mythology will have come into the public eye more recently with the creation of the movie series Thor and of course the Avengers which features Thor, who is one of the Gods. Looking through this information now, I am quite surprised as to how much is actually relevant; I guess they just applied pre-existing stories to the Marvel universe. Now the question for me is where to start?..

What Makes the News?

Hello there internet. A warning - the start of this is definitely going to be a bit of a rant, at the media. Not all media, just some but.. A warning incase you don't fancy reading it. You can just pass over it. Also, here is my email for you to ask me questions and the like - matttalkslife@gmail.com. Be the first to get your post shared on my blog!

So. I am sure by now many of you reading where ever you are in the world will have heard about the incident involving the plane and co pilot - and the sad part is I think more people have heard about a member of One Direction leaving. Newspapers headlined a member of a boy band leaving over this which at first appeared to be an accident, now it has been discovered to be a mass murder it is headline news. It is a shame that the news is more interested in a situation once it is a scandal, the media are now at the culprits house hounding them - which is just as bad. At the end of the day, they have lost someone who admittedly has done something terrible but they are mourning too. I know that the news is there to attract attention whilst being informative to try and keep people on that channel to watch what is on afterwards.. But the fact that the main channels each have their own news, I don't really feel like they should compete to attract attention. They will generally all cover the same news because there is only one world of affairs to report on - the fluff stories will be what sets them apart. Whilst I think it is nice for them to have a balance because the world isn't all doom and gloom - headlines should be held for the important things. A boy band is trivial in comparison.

Social?

Hey, internet. I have some pictures for your attention! I also have an email address for you, technically my attention once you send to it..

matttalkslife@gmail.com

I am going to do this a different way round today, pictures first and then some other bits, inspired by TV. I said inspired and TV in the same sentence - oh no.

Day 629

I have clue if I ever mentioned this but Amy's phone case came to the end of it's life.. And for a while she decided to be a rebel and had no phone case. This would've been fine if she hadn't started dropping it all the time! The phone must have nine lives as it survive them all without nothing more than a tiny scratch. None the less, we felt a phone case was in order - so she ordered this fro China for 99p with free delivery!

See I really like it, like far too much. Because it is Stitch, what's not to love? Amy says he is a little creepy. I think it might be the art style, who knows if is legit or just something that looks exactly like him? I have offered to swap but my space case is a little worse for ware and snapped in multiple places, the paper in it is now sort of holding it on..

Mocking Swan

Good weekend end to you, person. Fancy sending an email? I quite fancy receiving one at this address:

matttalkslife@gmail.com

I have been doing a lot of reading over the weekend, looking at Norse mythology as I have mentioned before, I like all that stuff personally so I thought I would share some stuff like I did with the Year Walk for the Swedish Folklore. Norse is quite well known anyway, being Thor and that area of things.. Just people thing Thor from the avengers is the same as this and I don't think it is at the moment, just the idea. We'll see. I was then thinking about exploring some lesser known mythology, I know there is a wealth of knowledge out there so why not tap into it? I'm sure there are some interesting ones around Africa as a continent and also Mexico. I can't spell the thing I am thinking of at the moment - chupacarbra? Pfft. We'll find out I'm sure.

Saturday night TV, currently feel it is better than Saturday night out in town - it's warmer, easier and drunk free. I was looking forward to Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway as they had tricked Steven Molherne (90% sure that spelling is wrong) in a live stage show. It was rather funny I must admit. We also gave You're Back In The Room a try, as it was featured on Gogglebox so we wanted to see what it was about. I really enjoyed it - quite a bit. For those of you who don't know, it is basically a game show where people are asked to do simple things for money - under hypnosis. I have

American Sweetness

So, at this moment in time, I am watching The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and this is the first Bluray that I have watched on the Xbox One and with the fancy TV. I have never personally seen any different with quality, on TV for example, Amy always watched the HD channels where available and I never really noticed.. Whereas, with this, as soon as it got to the title screen - dang you HD! It was like the first time I went to the cinema after they had upgraded the projectors.. I was surprised to notice any difference. Glad I did. Just a shame that Bluray hasn't become more of a commercial choice yet because this is what will make the prices go down! I think anyway.. I am guessing and stuff, don't mistake this babble for market based knowledge.

Gogglebox was really good today, they introduced another new family which at the moment.. Well.. Meh. I am not too bothered, they didn't get much screen time and when they did it was for intellectual sections, as they are older people who are artists in a little cottage. So I guess some of the more generic programmes wouldn't interest them - but hey, maybe they do. The thing I like a lot about the show, is that it really makes you have the complete range of emotions that the TV wants to extract from you, because you are watching it on other people as well.. It makes you empathise more. If you can see a lot of people experience the desired effect, you sort of can't help but do it anyway. Interesting social dynamics. Imagine my knowledge-fully scratching my beard whilst reading this, totes works.

Amy is strange - she likes being told what is going to happen in the film. She also thinks it is a nice train - she also has no idea I am writing this, wuhaha.

Day 625 & 626
So, I was fancying a snack. And I was rummaging through the cupboard and I thought I would delve into our American stock, as we haven't touched too much of it still. In the end, we have started two packets. One of which I was terribly unhappy to taste and am glad that I will never had the displeasure of eating again.. Which is this first picture here..

Peeps are basically these marshmallows with some sort of cream in them, peppered in sugar. These ones were strawberry flavoured and.. I popped one in my mouth.. And it just made me shudder with displeasure. I really can't describe it, sometimes you just don't like something but this I really hated, the face I pulled, I could feel it was some sort of distorted anguish. They are also shaped like birds - that is pretty cute. Although.. Where they were in the suit case.. They are all squashed in on themselves.

See now, I am pretty sure these aren't actually available for general sale in England, I assume you would be able to get them in the special shops that import American sweets and then charge an arm and a leg - of course I can't recommend them to you. Just the thought.. Oh dear.

Cheeky little Apple TV remote in the back.

Now these next lovelies, I really do enjoy these ones.

You may know what normal life savers are, they are basically fruity polos. These ones however, are gummy ones sort of like Haribo but with fruity flavours. It is really strange because, the gummy consistency is really different in comparison to anything available in England.. I can't describe it. I really can't. It is just different - but good different. They also smell amazing!

For now I am going to enjoy the rest of the film, and you are going to enjoy the rest of your night.

Email!
matttalkslife@gmail.com

Blog you later.

Wednesday

I thought I would go quite minimalist with the title today, simple and straight to the point - and also highly accurate at the time of me tapping my fingers on my phone. Also accurate once a week from now until whenever. 

How've you been? I've been okay, thanks for hypothetically asking that question in your mind! 

I am rather jealous of America because they get a lot of TV first and I would really quite like it the same time - if not before hand. Today they had a new episode of Catfish which is a show that Amy introduced me to. It's a show about people who meet and fall in love with the idea of the person on the other end. The show then looks into all the odd things and gets the pair to meet - which obviously has a real mix of outcomes, sometimes the person is not real. It's really interesting. We have to wait until Monday, my oh my!

I really need to catch up with The Walking Dead because they have new episodes coming out and I am still lagging behind to before the half season split! I have been unintentionally told of one death.. And also heard that there is possibly another, I really need to catch up. Falling behind sucks as everyone is talking about it but then again it gives the opportunity for a binge session! 

I have recently stopped watching YouTube videos which is a pretty bit deal for me. I used to watch YouTube all the time, maybe too much. I am now in a Twitch phase where I enjoy watching the live reactions and how they play to crowd.. It is really a different experience, even completely different to watching a stream uploaded to YouTube, something you can't simulate from that live capture.. Despite the 20 second delay..

Fancy some pictures?

Day 623

Asda are pretty Gnome crazy this spring it would appear.

Ive actually had this on my phone for a while. Asda have taken no time to get their spring stock into gear, with lots of different things for your gardens - I say your as I do not have one currently.. They have these large gnomes for £25 and then smaller ones in ranges of sizes.. I have never seen someone with one in their trolly but I am assuming they are being bought, I would personally go for a zombie gnome which you can Google and have a little nerd yelp about. 

Stop autocorrecting me phone! I always find my strange vocabulary choices get phased out by my phone.. Maybe it is trying to keep me to 'proper' English. Conspiracy! 

Day 624

I am pretty sure I mentioned the vouchers before.. Either way, hear they are fanned out like a pro card dealer.

It's really nice as you get a good range of different vouchers, two in all for each park. One gets a friend in for only £10 which is pretty decent drop from the usual admission price. There are als vouchers for money off of fast track which I can see being useful to us if we went possibly during school holidays. People give you such dirty looks when you get to fast track.. I never understand why because anyone can do that if they want to pay the extra money.

I remember when we went to Chessington when I was younger, I think it was for my brother birthday.. And we got fast track. They are supposed to tick you off to say you've used it up, but we went around again and the guy let us through even though he recognised us and still didn't tick us off! Queues are so annoying but we all complain in an orderly fashion, because we are British! 

That was something I noticed in America, unless there was a distinct queuing system, it was a free for all, just get in where you could. I did not enjoy that - I like be some queuing! 

Thanks for reading as always peoples, feel free to pop me an email! The opportunity for first published email is still available.. Of course..

matttalkslife@gmail.com

Also, check out this blog here, by someone I know!

www.anxietyversusme.blogspot.com 

Blog you later peoples.