White Rain

Any snow for you today? I personally didn't see any but there must have been some as the windscreen of my car had some on it. Had to whip the wipers up to cut through it and get it off so I could see where I was going. Now I walk a lot more around town, I really notice the cold a lot more, like my hands get that slightly painful numb feeling which makes things like texting hard because you can't really feel when your fingers hit the screen. Makes it a little harder. I have seen some pictures of places which have had a bit of a layer not too far from where we are, about 10-15 miles away. The cloud just chose to ignore us when it appears.

I like snow myself, people do interesting things with. Worst I've done with snow was to make a giant snowball as you do if there is any and rolled onto someone's drive way and left it behind their car. At the time me and my friends thought this to be hilarious especially as we were so impressed with the size for three 11 year olds. Turns out the guy just pushed it out of the way without too much effort at all. Anti climax or what?

I'm sure I've mentioned before that I've been to Iceland the country not the store.. The snow there was up around our waistes which I found really exciting but for them it was standard, everyone went to work and there were no snow days or anything like that. I distinctly remember the coach driver driving on an icey road with one hand reading a book - didn't even care. It was a straight line and he must have known the road so sell.. I'd still prefer him to have been looking!

Day 577

Cookies.. I like it when Amy makes cookies.

I literally remembered that Amy made them, ran to the biscuit tub and ripped the lid and tinfoil open to take a picture. Just for you. Feel special, tinfoil is strong so it took a lot of effort. These cookies were made with a normal cookie mix and hot chocolate powder with chunks of dairy milk chocolate lumped in with it. My favourite thing about them is that they are like.. Half baked I guess is a good term for them. So you get a lovely mix of cookie doughness and crunchy cookie bits with lumps of chocolate.. Magical. I feel bad as I have kept referring to 'them'.. I totally ate one straight after this picture so there's only one left. Oopsie!

Thanks chaps, blog you later. 

That Awkward Moment

No one likes awkward moments. In that little bit of time you have no idea what to do, what to say, whether you are offending anyone and all that random jazz. Yet, if you ever get the opportunity to make someone else feel awkward you snap at it because you like to watch them feel awkward. Brains make no sense. So today, I will be talking about some seemingly awkward experiences I have had and some that I think are because.. Why not?

I think this first one is something that everyone can relate to and will possibly have done during their school years. Simple one - calling the teacher mum or dad. Or mummy or daddy depending on your preference. I remember doing it in primary school, I think I must have only been in year one or year two reading, and I just absently said it when the teacher walked past. I've never had a very loud voice so luckily only a couple of people next to me heard it so at first I was like okay, I can just pretend this never happened. The teacher then continued to let the hole class know I said it.. Which looking back on it.. Was actually a little bit mean of them. Pretty much everyone in the class laughed at me but lots of people have done it. I know that. I hope that.

Another school based one - is getting someone else into trouble. And people know it was you. Being that person to mention that homework was due or asking a question during a mock test or when you're supposed to be silent - they answer and get in trouble. You just sort of sit there and people laugh and the teacher is none the wiser. I didn't do this too much because I was a team player, think of the class and not get anyone in trouble. I am guilty of the odd whisper.

Last one based at school, I promise. I have this strange problem where if I sit down cross legged - properly - I seem to loose all sensation to my feet. Like, completely. We were in an assembly and this happened, I usually managed to save on foot so I could hobble out but on this occasion they both were completely asleep, half the hall had already emptied but I tried to get up and walk out but.. That didn't happen. Where I had no sensation in them, I ended up walking on the outside of my feet and just feel back down. It hurt so bad, especially when the feeling came back. I did get a slow sarcastic applause from someone as I was literally dragged back to my feet and out as I still couldn't walk. Fun times.

Day 575
Lets pop a little picture in here from yesterday because I totally fell asleep again.. This sleeping malarky is catchy when you get the hang of it.

So you get a snap shot of when you die on Crossy Road such as this one here that Amy sent me. I haven't unlocked the baby duck yet. I don't like that you can unlock the same character twice because it feels like such a waste of coins.. I used to play Frogger a lot with my brother. We always used a cheat to unlock all the levels because we knew we would never see the end ones ever. I guess that is the main difference between these two games other than being an era apart - Frogger had an end, where as this is just keeping playing to fill up the odd five minutes you have. Amy also found another game referenced in this called Disco Zoo which is pretty cool, by the people who made Tiny Tower and stuff.

An awkward moment which I have noticed more recently in my time going out for dinner, when you are paying on card. Depending where you are they bring the machine over to you to pay. Then they usually offer it to you on the screen asking if you want to leave a gratuity - just say tip. Now, I don't like to give tips especially when paying on card because it never goes to the one person who you are really tipping. So I select no, and then enter my pin. They take the machine back and watch the little receipt print out in front of their face which says how much you have paid - you can always see that little expectation brewing of the amount to be different to how much the food costs so they know they got a tip. Doesn't happen too often, they then loose the happy expression they've been giving you for the last half hour and walk away as soon as possible. In America it was much easier to tip because it was just expected but then awkward when you don't have any smaller bills to tip with.. Empty the change out.

Buying train tickets on the train. Sometimes it is unavoidable, its the weekend and the office is closed and the machine is out of order. The train literally pulls up so you have to run on. I always buy a ticket but on the odd occasion when I have had to buy it on the train I've always found it awkward. The ticket man always gives you that look judging whether or not your telling the truth and if he fancies giving you a fine. I have never been fined, I've never seen someone get fined either because they are generally nice about it and don't want to take your money unless you give them grief.

A final one. Mentioning things that someone isn't supposed to here or know and then you blurt it out and ah.. I won't go into detail with these things because usually once they've found out there is some sort of fallout or it is still treated as private. Plus I have another picture.

Day 576
EGGBERT!

I don't really know why he came to be but he does fit nicely on top of our kitchen towel holder thing. He was carefully designed by Amy with a sharpie because they totally do write on anything - I redrew the flame size bar on my parents oven a while ago with one. It is still there even after rigerous cleaning or grease and stuff.. But they weren't too accurate so the real value of them is questionable. Anytime you want some paper you have to move him but he makes a nice addition so I guess he will stay there until he becomes.. Noticeable out of date?

I like cats. Look at this:
http://news.sky.com/story/1416247/dead-cat-escapes-grave-after-being-buried-alive
So this cat got hit by a car and was presumed dead - if you look at the poor thing it doesn't exactly look like it should be alive.. And was then buried by the family. It dug itself out  after five days and is now on the mend. Just what? How? It is crazy.

We were also watching a cat program before we came to bed, the secret life of cats and there are some pretty cool cat facts to had out of that. Especially for aspiring crazy cat ladies, you need to be able to throw these at the postman when you collar him when he delivers your box of assorted cat bells.

Thanks for reading people of the interwebs, blog you later.

Blank Space

I have posted about writers block before, and I feel like I have got this at the moment. When I start a new post, I literally get a blank space. A big white box which is eagerly awaiting my input. Literally. Thinking about it, it is quite strange because at the end of the day is just some pixels in a shape which we have been taught to mean something. Crazy stuff.

Today has been a simple day, I got up and went to work as many would. I enjoyed my walk which was in the opposite direction of all the school kids who generally did get out of my way. Usually there is always that one person that doesn't want to move and bump shoulders.. Which I am fine with because I am a bit bigger than the average school child. I always think to myself how rude it is when people just assume as they aren't going to move that you will - right after I have passed them. I always think I shouldn't need to.

There is a rather large helicopter outside right now, I can only presume an army one. We used to get them all the time when I lived with my parents, never really knew why.. Still don't know. All I know is they be noisy and stuff.

So, here is a news story:
http://news.sky.com/story/1415418/cumberbatch-sorry-for-coloured-actors-remark
It is about a Mr Benedict Cumberbatch who was being interviews on TV and he was pretty much forced to apologise for a statement he made using what was deemed an out of date reference. It was described as having the potential to offend. I find stuff like this a little annoying because he clearly meant no offence by it but because it was deemed 'possible' he had to refuse. Whilst being famous will have its perks, it looks like you have to start standing on egg shells in case you offend someone and with over 7 billion people living on this planet, I am sure everything will somehow offend someone. He gets bad publicity for not really doing anything wrong.. Just my opinion of course.

Shall we have a picture here?

Day 574
So what we did see today was an official trailer for The Interview to be released in the UK.

It is being released on the 6th of February and it is safe to say me and Amy would like to watch it, we don't even now if it is going to be any good.. But with all the controversy that has been surrounding it sort of have to. It is safe to say it is a pretty strange idea to make a film about assassinating someone who is still alive but then the reaction of saying it is an act of war is just as outlandish. I think if America wanted to do something like that, they wouldn't use a film. Just saying.

We are going to watch Big Hero Number 6 soon and also 50 Shades of Grey. I like it when we actually have films to watch because it gives us a change to use the Cineworld cards, we are closer now as well so that is always nice. Less driving, more movies.

Thinking about Cinema's they are really strange because you like to go as a group - just so you can sit in the dark in silence with each other. On paper it sounds like more a solo thing to do but hey, it works. Like me a good film. Even a bad one on occasion.

I would also like to take this opportunity to share around a friends business, it is for technology repairs and other related services. The links below are for their website and also their Facebook page and is currently all 5 star responses. They are based in Ashford so if you need stuff done, why not give them a bell because it is much more reasonable in terms of pricing than many places I know.
http://www.irepairkent.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/irepairkent/timeline

Thanks for reading people. I am not going to think of random hashtags to Tweet this with - the life of sharing. Blog you later.

A Speedy Weekend

Hello there internet, I completely forgot to do a on Thursday and by forgotten I mean I fell asleep. Totes an accident. Nothing to do with me being horrendously comfortable in my bed.. But it happens. So what I will do today is get right in to the pictures, as otherwise I might go on one too many tangents.

I even remembered to get four pictures together because that is what I owe you. Craziness!

Day 570
Well isn't this a cute little number?

Obviously, we have a number of cuddly things between us. Most of them are currently boxed awaiting a proper home whilst we get everything moved around.. It is surprisingly hard to decide where to put things. Before, everything sort of already had its place so you just grouped it all together.. Now we have so much more space we can't decide half the time.

These three have managed to make their home on one of the sofas in the main room which to be fair, is a great choice because that is where the TV is. I think they probably have worked the control out so they can watch some cartoons whilst neither of us are in. Pluto is acting as the main man and keeping them warm and safe because it is pretty cold in here.. I think I am getting used to the heating though. Plus the old dressing gown trick it is all good.

I have told a couple of people about that trick.. And I have been getting mixed responses. Mostly people saying that it is weird and laughing - which it is in all fairness. I am a weird guy so I can swing it.

Day 571
Who is that? What are they doing? Good lord, that is me ironing?

Of course, I work in an office environment where the dress is smart so I have to where shirts. And usually, I would pass the washing on. Of course, this is not the case anymore as I am totally self sufficient alongside and Amy who knows more than I do.

Now, I know my Mum will see this eventually and I can see there is a horrific crease in the back but I can assure you that it is not there any more.. I have not done any ironing prior to this so I was actually quite pleased with the end result. I asked to learn once and accidentally knocked the iron on to the carpet.. We managed to retrieve it before any mark was left which is the plus side but still.. Kind of put me off a little bit that klutzy moment.

Although my Nan won't read this.. I would like to say thank you to here as she bought us the iron and board as a gift when we moved out. I would also like to extend the thanks to anyone who has contributed to helping us because it is all greatly appreciated. My Dad for ferrying stuff too and fro, my Mum for washing the shirts before we got the iron.. Wehey.

As I am typing this it sounds like someone is trying to contact me morse code from the kitchen but no one is there.. I have not spent many late nights in here to be honest though, of course being asleep. So I guess the noises of the flat are still a mystery to me, I used to be able to walk through my parents house in the dark missing any floorboards that might disturb any one in the house - not on my way to get a midnight snack of course. Never do such a thing.. Often.. Anyway.

And also, watch Restaurant Steak Out if you can - pretty good show. American.

Day 572
So, something for the nerd in me and some of the nerds out there. The reason I say nerds is because from general perception of people I have spoken to - it is seen as a nerdy hobby. Warhammer.

When I was in primary school, I got into this with a couple of friends. I was always, and still am, very interested in the painting side of it more than anything. The building and customising was always something I liked looking at but never really felt much connection to.. I am not very good at making things. The playing side as well, I think I would like to do if I ever amassed enough of a collection that I was happy with aesthetically. I know on the whole it really doesn't matter but I take pride in my art and blog as it is something that I have done, it came from my finger tips. I found these whilst clearing out my room and it soft of sparked my interest again and have been researching into things that have changed since I was last interested and also watching painting guides and projects. It is pretty interesting in all honesty.

The ones I found here aren't in production anymore so I have no idea if they are worth anything.. The black boxed pack, I have found on Amazon for £30 when I am pretty sure I bought it for no more than £10.. The other I can't even find a trace of. Like it doesn't exist any more! I can't even find it referenced in any books that I have looked at. Strange. Then again, the production date on the back is from 2002 so I could possibly understand why.. Stuff does change in 13 years.

So who knows, I might sometime in the future be able to show of some terrible paint jobs. Currently I have the theory behind it but in terms of actually doing something and applying it.. Who knows if that'll work. I would like to say it will but I have never been great at painting. You have to be very patient with it and attentive to detail. I can do that with a pencil but a brush is a bit bigger..

Day 573
This last one isn't so interesting as much as the picture.. But the story is pretty interesting if I do say so myself.

It was a Mr Tate's birthday and birthday event today for which he planned indoor go karting. Now, I was scared in all honesty because I have never done in or out door karting before, especially ones that can go up to 40mph.

The above screenshot is the outcome of the second session that we did as you get two 15 minute section with the package we paid for. As you can see, there were some variations. The two people at the top where not with us but were pretty dang good.. I can imagine it being annoying for them having a load of new people on the track slowing them down but at the same time.. It kind of made it annoying for us because they would constantly cut in small gaps forcing you to break because they want a better lap time where as we wanted to not spin out of control and hit any one.

There were a couple of bumps and knocks every now and then but 10 people on a small track it is bound to happen. It was really cool how they had set it all up though, it had ramps going up and down levels which were scary when you got to them the first time but after that it was not too bad at all. Once you actually got used to how the kart handled, you could really give it some welly and slide it in to the corners even though it wasn't great for you timing.. All in all a good experience that I might be inclined to go for again in the future because it was much more enjoyable than I thought. Apparently there are ones that go up to 60 which would just be mind blowing.. I'll stick with them I think.

I said no tangents but of course there were still some.

Thanks for reading, I am off to bed for now as I have work in the morning of course! Blog you later.

Praise be to Wifi

It has arrived, in all its shiny high speed glory. We finally have an active fibre line connected, we will also have a YouView box once that is set up and a working phone line when we get around to buying house phones.. Those be rather expensive for what they are to be honest but that is just the way things are.

I am on the Mac at the moment, which I haven't done in a while.. I don't know why because I will have been able to play Steam games offline and stuff and it would have just updated but.. I have ended up watching really random TV programmes, lots of ones about tattoos, one we like watching it called Tattoo Nightmares and it just covering up horrendous tattoos with awesome ones. Like. Crazy. I have never had the function to record TV either so I will be looking forward to that.. Should mean I won't miss many things, especially as the stuff I want to watch is on them random channels that don't have a catchup service.

I have been driving too and fro Orpington this week for a training course, it was really good. The driving side of it was tedious, about a 50 mile round trip a day, pretty much used up 3/4 a tank of petrol. Traffic in the morning sucks, traffic in the evening sucks. Especially as they were doing that operation stack thing between junction 8-9 of the M20. Luckily I got to miss that bit and most of the other major problems.. Got a good use out of the SatNav as well which keeps complaining because it hasn't been updated in 8 months. Meh.

I also played football with my work colleagues today, which has a history of injuring people.. I did fall over and now have a bump on my elbow and tender knee but that is why they are there, to protect my lovely head. As much as it hurts. I wouldn't remember it if I hit my head.. There was a boy racer in a van skidding around in the gravel of the car park which looked 'impressive' is the word I think he was going for. It ended up more towards.. Plonker, Rodney.

The TV is now living up to its full potential with Netflix and YouTube - I like YouTube on there. We watched a best of pranks thing from this dude whose name currently eludes me.. It is pretty good quality as well, I noticed when say streaming from the Apple TV, it usually did quite bump it up to at least standard definition straight away like watching it phone sized stretched to the TV size. This - pow! Done. Loaded. HD. I have actually started to notice the different between standard and HD now.. I am going to become a HD junky, I know it. Especially now I have seen the Xbox One in its fully glory.

PICTURES!

Day 568
So this first one is a little bit of a gloat.. Amy sent me a screenshot of a speed test that she did, it was pretty good.

I just did another one, got an even better result so the nerd in me is super happy right now. I have been told though of many problems with the Home Hub 5 so I am just hoping that it is a coincidence that everyone else has had a problem.. We shall see.

Day 569
Oo and another picture. This one here be a present my brother gave to Amy.

It is pretty big, it does seem to be doing something because since it has been up Amy has twitched in her sleep a lot. She of course doesn't notice because she is asleep. It might just be a coincidence but hey ho, they happened at the same time.

Have a look at this news story, it is pretty crazy.
http://news.sky.com/story/1412266/boy-entrepreneur-invents-lego-braille-printer
A 13 year old made a Braille machine out of Lego - you can do anything with Lego. It is pretty amazing. I think it is really good as well, I had no idea that a Braille printer was so expensive. That is how you start a business though, find something that needs making better and make it better. He is on it, probably going to be pretty rich in years to come..

I now sleep on my dressing gown. Hear me out - it is cold in the morning. I could do something with the central heating settings but it is just me up in the morning so I can just deal with it. If I sleep on the dressing gown, it is warm all night and then I just pop my arms in it in the morning. I am very much enjoying it and it has made getting out of bed much easier.. Does this count as a life hack? I like life hacks.

That's all for today, it is pretty disorganised.. I think it is the general adrenaline caused by wifi and being able to type properly! Blog you later.

The Quad is Real

Day 564

Hello there internet, it has been a while hasn't it? Well, like four days. Feels like a long time, I miss having wifi to make this a lot easier. I shall persist. Anyway. A picture for your eyes as per the norm.

A very dramatic picture of some cookies that Amy made. Of course Amy made them because I do not have a bakers bone in me. They were from a just add water packet thingy - the best way to describe it, even the chocolate chips were in there. They were pretty fluffy as well. I only got two, we gave some to family members and stuff.. I want cookies.

Day 565

Don't I look cute?

Obviously I didn't take this picture - I am over the side of the sofa and we were sharing a blanket. It is huge, like, it's supposed to be a throw for a double bed so it covers the entire sofa and us comfortably. Especially as it is the three seater. I was just getting ready to eat an egg thing with the little spoon? I think they're literally called egg 'n' spoon.. You should know what I mean. There was an even more embarrassing picture of me whilst eating the egg but.. I really don't think the internet needs to see that now. Ever. Possibly. Yay.

Day 566

I popped to my parents this weekend, picking up the last remnants of my room and also for ironing because at that point in time.. We didn't actually have one.. Makes ironing awkward to say the least. We did come across some of these old things - might still be going, I don't actually know - Yu-Gi-Oh cards.

I put them into little piles and had a look online, turns out some of them are worth a few bob now. I find it strange that they are collectables, I guess it's because they're no longer printed so the value goes up. Might look at passing some of them onto a better home rather than a foxes glacier mint tin!

Day 567

I liked that this was 567 as that's all in a row on the keyboard. Yeah.

We had a couple around yesterday to show them the flat and have some food and watch a movie. We chose to watch the above as no one had seen it, got it for a fiver in Asda. It was a good film, it's one of them ones that it never really feels like it has a point, not that many films do. It was a classic self discovery story with an overall different directin of getting there - for example robbing a chicken restaurant to bail out your nan from prison. Classic weekend eh?

Another thing we did watch was In To The Woods at the cinema. It's by Disney so we expected it to be good, from what we could get from the trailer - there was singing - and also a mashup of a load of other fairy tails like Rapunzel and Cinderella. It was pretty good, it does feel like it drags on a lot.. Like so much longer than you'd expect. I won't give too much away as it is still in the cinema for your viewing pleasure - if you like that stuff.

We also watched a new show called Catastrophe today, I don't know if it is a short series or if it is going to be a long lasting thing.. Either way it is funny. We were actually laughing which for a TV show isn't all that easy. Very much enjoyable! The idea is that they meet, it's a fling as he lives in America, she becomes with a child, he like.. Sort of moves? Not quite sure on that point yet. I would say watch it. Funny.

I must be up and off in the morning so for tonight, I bid you farewell. Blog you later.

A Magic Number

Day 561

And so another day still without internet. I have grabbed some pictures off of Google for things that we have done over the last couple of days because I am not good at remembering pictures.. Kind of a downside. I do wonder why my memory just fails me sometimes but I can remember random useless stuff. Tangent.

I have no idea how big this image will actually be. On the Mac I can usually edit it and I would know, it's a uniform size choice. It looked pretty big in all honesty so.. Sorry if it is! I remember doing an update for the app once that said new image editing.. Pretty sure that never happened unless I am missng something blatantly obvious..

We saw this on Wednesday, quite a few of us, 7 in all. I haven't actually seen the second one so there were a couloir of blank spots.. I think they focused on the storyline of this one compared to the all out rampage of the first one. Also, it was toned down a lot as the first was an 18.. Not that it should have been.. But this was a 12A. I would say it's not really a must see but as it is the last in the series I see no reason to not watch it. My opinion anyway, Cineworld cards means technically not paying for it. 

It was heading over there as now it is faster to go a different route, I just don't think I'll ever really remember it. Mainly because, we usually go to the cinema during the night so I'll eventually know it in the dark, day time however I'd probably get lost easy. Strange how different the road looks I must say between the two.

Day 562

Totally watched Maisie Williams in Cyberbully today. 

I was quite interested as I had seen her in Game of Thrones and thought she would be good in this - she was. If anything, it shows off how good an actress she is because in terms of on screen cast there were only about 4 people? 80% of the time it was just her on her own making the story what it was. The thing I like about channel 4 is they'll out stuff like this on which is interesting and important due to being based on real life.. But they'll follow it up with a documentary about escorts who are nans. What a line up?

Day 563

Last but not least, a random old picture for you.

Its a plane. The one we took to America. We talk about it every now and then about how it feels weird to know we were over there and now we aren't. If a simple concept really but it does feel strange. It feels like such a long tme ago but I can remember it really clearly. Definitely amazing.

Thanks peeps. The wait for internet continues. Blog you later.

A Move

So. Sorry. I guess is the best way to start because as you can possibly tell I have not been posting on here at all over the weekend - usually I do at least one but I have been putting it off. As I have news.

I have moved! Out. There's no real way to make this sound or look more exciting - it is words on a screen after all. But we are, and it's awesome and strange all at the same time. The only thing is at the moment we have no internet! Insert dramatic music and what not - so it is all on my 4G at the moment so unfortunately it will most likely mean things are a little bit smaller in terms of posts because.. For whatever reason.. I have never been able to log into my O2 account. So I can't view my usage and whatever. We'll see.

Today means four pictures. Oh my.

Day 557

So let's start with this one here, of me being a man. And stuff. Sort of?

We went to IKEA for furniture because you can get a lot for a reasonable price which is from what I can tell - reliable. In this picture I was putting together a chair for the dining table set that we bought. It is fun in IKEA, but I tell you what, we wrote down all the Swedish words for the furniture and then completely forgot what they were when in the stock room bit. We got it all though. So yeah. As you can see there we have some Juliet doors which open up to.. Let in a breeze?

Day 558

As you can possibly assume we weren't staying the flat for a lot of the week, and Amy was sorting her bits out and found some antlers!

And we must say, they fit like a glove. He can even sit up with them sitting on his bonce and I think he looks very happy as well. He looks happy all the time to be fair, but even more so now. We spend our time doing wonderful things.

I can already feel the autocorrects coming on.

Day 559

So one thing we wanted to get was a nice TV to sit in the front room area and we went to many PC worlds. Looking at what was on offer, as there are lots of different ones of course. Through much exploration we chose one. We bought it. Then upon setting it up.. Look at what we got..

I'm not too sure if you'll be able to make it out properly but in the top left of the screen - you can see a crack. Which I very much hoped would be lightning reflected in it but.. It wasn't raining.. Or storming.. It was just cracked. From the top left corner, to the bottom left and the top right like something had been dropped on it. It was very disappointing and I ended up taking it back for when the shop opened. They were very nice about it and replaced it for us so we weren't left without one. Especially as we paid for it. Ahhh!

Day 560

Slippers

Because we have laminate flooring everywhere! So in the interest of not loosing our feet to frostbite we have got some slippers. It is surprisingly cold when it is but then nice and warm otherwise. Mine are some that I found whilst cleaning my room, Amy's are from good ol' Primarni. 

Thanks. Shall see how the posting goes, it may be every other day to keep the text content on par with the photos because I don't want to fall back into the old trend of barely saying a thing! Thanks for reading. Blog you later.

Elastic Hearts

I am pretty sure that I have before mentioned that music is not really my thing, I do however enjoy music videos. I won't go out of my way to watch one but if they are good then I can quite enjoy them. Some of them can get quite weird such as the new one by Sia for her song Elastic Hearts found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWZGAExj-es
The song itself is pretty good, I often find that when I watch a music video I am paying more attention to what is going on and miss the song.. A little bit of background, the gent, Shia LaBeouf - whom I think is a very good actor - is 28 and the girl is a reality TV star who is 12. And they dance in this cage like animals for the music video which has generated claims which you can imagine. Sia did what any artist would do and apologise, but also stand up for her video as she should, here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/sia-responds-to-criticism-for-elastic-heart-video-that-sees-shia-labeouf-wrestle-with-a-12yearold-9964392.html
Whilst I agree that the age gap and the nature of the dancing may appear inappropriate, it was in a controlled environment and they were acting out a short film basically to try and portray a story. I don't get the story in all honesty but they both clearly knew what was going on and just find these accusations a bit strange. It's like you post something to the internet and it is near impossible to offend someone. It is music and acting, that is all.

But hey, I'm just a go sitting in an office chair.

Random interlude - I had a pizza at Pizza Express today, they asked how I wanted the egg done on my pizza and I said soft, it was the hardest egg I have ever had. Just wanted to add that in. Yes, there is a fried egg on one of their pizzas.

It is quite an odd thing, to be planning something, thinking about how it all works and fits together, then planning side of it. When it comes to actually doing it, personally, I never expect it to go how it was planned because there are always them rogue elements that you can never plan for. Recently I have found the exact opposite where what I have planned has either worked exactly as expected or worked out even better. Also a random interlude as I am not telling you what the thing is still. Ha.

Day 556
So it turns out, I was supposed to use this picture yesterday so here it is today instead, tada!

This is what I meant by watching someone dress a sofa. Putting on the cushion covers and stuff - which I must say were made so well they fit like some tailored trousers, and also look like jeans. It was hard, and they were very puffy and required a lot of shoving to get in.. As you saw yesterday, they totally worked so it is all good now.

Thanks. As always. Blog you later.

The Ant-Man

So there is now a trailer for Ant-Man out which is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xInh3VhAWs8
If you haven't seen it already. I remember seeing something which was described as a schedule for the planned releases of Marvel in the coming years and I always thought this this was an odd choice for the next movie. Ant-Man is probably not as big a hero known to the universe who's main power appears to clearly be shrinking to the size of an ant. The helmet he wears - which I will admit is pretty awesome - allows him to control ants hence the overall name.

I just had a quick look into the background of Ant-Man here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant-Man
Because of course we can trust wikipedia. I am wondering where about in the storyline of the Ant-Man this will fall into. Is this a new entry, or playing out one of the stories of the characters listed? Who knows? I had no idea it would be Paul Rudd playing the part and I think it will most likely be a good choice as I have never seen a film with him staring that I haven't liked. It will fit the comical side which Marvel likes to play into the films but I don't think I've necessarily seen him in a serious role which this may be. I think it'll be good. Marvel always kills it with films.

Day 555
Have you ever seen a person dress a sofa? I have, but I can't remember if I was supposed to use that picture so I will use this one instead of myself - looking very smug - and my Dad - looking somewhat smug.

We are smug as we made the sofa. It must be getting pretty obvious what I have been discretely hinting for a while but I shall continue the facade for now. I can see an outline of where my wallet usually sits in my pocket there because it so full of.. Receipts.

Still enjoying Shadow of Mordor, on about 80%+ completion now so I shall be done with the storyline soon. I am unsure if there is a free roam afterwards for cleaning up achievements as I am pretty sure I shall not be getting them all this time through but oh well. More time to enjoy the combat!

Thanks for the read, the attention. Blog you later!

Vroom

Are you a vroom or broom person? I have always been a vroom myself, people always used to argue it was broom - but I am not sweeping.

I have always found cars quite a bit of effort, more than they should be for the hype and near necessity of them in todays lifestyles. I personally don't like driving, never have and probably never will. I like to have some music on because it can get a bit annoying just hearing the car noise revving in the background. I do much prefer hearing the rain on the windows because I find that relaxing and apparently that is a pretty common thing.. I wonder why that is. Probably Google that once I am done here.

As you can possibly tell by this little statement above, I therefore do not know a lot about cars in terms of what makes them good, better or worse than others, how they work but I do obviously know how to drive one. We were in Sevenoaks and used the Tastecard for the firs time this year at Pizza Express - great choice, we know. The only downside was the place was pretty empty so you could tell the waiters were positioning people so they were clustered around into their waited on groups - if that makes sense. The table we were next to was a table of four women from what I could gather from London, who were being very loud and boisterous until we sat next to them - then they were silent and I caught them giving us a look every now and then even though we got told to sit there.. Ya know.. They also then took about 10 minutes to work out everyones share of the bill.

ANYWAY.

Why does this matter? It's because I had to park my car in a carpark of course, and I saw a car which I actually like. And I don't like many, for me I am far more interested in the practicality of having a car, if it does 60mpg but can't get to 60 in 7 seconds, that is fine by me. A car I do quite like is the Honda Civic but I have been told they are very expensive to run, so unless I am a millionaire, I am not interested in them. Another, which of course has no chance of ever coming into my ownership is the Ford Mustung, I do like the big ones as well. They were trying to get me to rent one when we went to America and as much as I wanted to - that was an extra £1000 basically. This is because I am under 25 and not from the USA.. Although they can learn at 16.. I don't get it. Anyway. Look at it!

Day 554
Mother may I?

I have had to stop Amy to let me take a picture, which she understood as she knows this is one of the only cars I am actually interested in. It shall never become a reality but they may be good because I can imagine that is an expensive monster to run.

Thanks. Peeps. Blog you later.

Back to the Future

A great film series for those of you who have seen it, I know they managed to get three films out of it but they were pretty good. I remember watching them when I was younger. Of course, in one of the films they went forward in time to the year 2015 - the second film I do believe. I remember them having some pretty far out technology depicted in this film so I wonder if we have actually managed any of it.

The first that popped into my mind was the self tying shoe laces because they would be pretty awesome, probably do a lot of good for your back and knees over the years of bending down to tie your laces. Commercially, they are not available of course otherwise we would no doubt see people running around with them on right now. Some were made by Nike I think it was to commemorate the film and there is now a dedicated company making something called Powerlace which fits to your foot on its own using simple release mechanisms. They are currently on Kickstarter looking for $650,000 and haven't quite made it to $100,000 yet but if that is something you would want.. Well here you go:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1748376549/powerlace-advanced-auto-lacing-shoe-technology
http://www.powerlace.com/

Another thing of course is hover boards, they are pretty awesome in the film and it is very good how they did it in comparison to when the film was made. They also had other vehicles which could do the same and it might interest some people to know, they have made a hover board that works!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/142464853/hendo-hoverboards-worlds-first-real-hoverboard
http://hendohover.com/
From what I can see the Kickstarter is already finished and it is fully funded and they expect to be unveiling the finished article later this year. To get your hands on one of the first 10, you had to pledge $10,000! Of which, 11 people did so either they are making an extra or one person will be missing out and not be a happy bunny.. Then again if they have that much money to donate, they can probably afford to buy one anyway. The board floats using Magnetic Field Architecture which just sounds awesome on its own. They think that once the tech is developed enough, it could be applied to buildings and other things to prevent them from being damaged by earthquakes and other disasters. Genius!

Now, the most obvious item in the film is the machine which actually allows them to travel in time. Has this been done or been considered? I think it is safe to just say no on this front. Hypothetically they believe you can travel forwards in time quicker by getting close to the speed of light which is not possible with any of todays tech. In terms of going back in time, there's pretty much no chance. You can travel ahead of the light of the planet and look back - possibly - but physically moving yourself to a previous time period is pretty much out of the question. It has already come and gone and will stay that way!

So why did I talk about this today? Partially because I saw one of them on TV the other day.. But also I keep seeing things on Facebook about cartoons predicting things about the future like celeb meltdowns and political problems. It got me thinking about what other films assume about the future. Turns out the cartoons are pretty much better at it.

Day 553
I can once again admit that either through preocupation and mainly not having anything too interesting to snap a picture off, find some of my favourite artwork for the Shadow of Mordor.

One of my favourite things about games is that they do come with artwork which will turn up online at some point or in the limited edition. I got the limited edition of Dark Souls, the first one, and the artwork book which came with that is amazing. If I could ever draw something remotely close to these things I see, I would be head over heels and probably in the wrong profession!

Thanks for the eye movement. Blog you later.

Would I Lie to You?

I won't lie - it feels like a really long time since I have posted on here even though I know I last did it on Thursday. I guess that is what happens when you have a pretty hectic weekend full of driving, walking and picking. I know this probably makes no sense to you at all because it isn't really something that I have discussed on here as of yet.. I probably won't fully divulge but you'll get a pretty decent idea as to what I am going on about when you have a look at the pictures down below. Well. Picture. Just the one. Another is just tasty, and at this point in time the third is actually undecided. Oo, the mystery!

Right now? I am playing Shadow of Mordor, it is really something that for a gamer like me, does not get boring because of the wonderful gameplay. The graphics are really good paired with the nice variety of finishers means that the fighting will stay entertaining. It has got a lot of bad press from reviewers because from what I can tell it is quite a short game - this is of course if you only do the story rather than all the other bits in-between. Myself, I like do something 100% if and where I can so I think there shall be many hours in this for me. Plus the voice acting is pretty good, many familiar faces on the IMDB page from old sci-fi programmes. I guess this is the type of thing they move into, because at the moment that genre has dried up a bit in terms of the variety of content. I used to watch loads when I was younger! Here are some reviews of the game to give you an idea if you're on the fence - mine is that it is definitely worth it especially as the price has come down a lot since its release!
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/09/26/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-review
http://www.gamespot.com/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor/reviews/
http://www.joystiq.com/2015/01/03/joystiq-top-10-of-2014-middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-yo/

Friday night, the Anniversary Big Fat Quiz was so so so much better than the 2014 one. The people they had on as guests, returning players, were all very good. The only other person I would have liked was ol' Richard with the crazy hair because I just really like him a lot. It all started with the IT Crowd with me. We also joined in on this one and tied with the first place score which I didn't really understand because.. This was stuff from over 10 years yet it was there in my brain ready whereas things from the same year, fluttered off over yonder.

Shall we get into some pictures? I think so. I didn't realise I had left the blog this late and am also constantly getting distracted by the armies of Sauron - how rude?

Day 550
See now, I am pretty sure I have shared these before.

If you do not recognise them, you may not have seen that post or I am mistaken and have not shared them before. The reason I thought I would share them again is mainly because they taste awesome but because Amy made the little lovelies on Saturday. They are basically mini pizzas but they are made on wraps rather than a pizza dough base, cut out using a tin to get just the right size for a muffin tray. We then added tomato puree, chorizo, cheese and also chives as we had some laying around. Just pop them in the oven on gas mark 4 for 10-15 minutes and you have a cheeky little lunch. We made six each but I got excited and ate one before I took the picture.. We used tomato wraps this time to give an extra bit of flavour and they worked pretty well. It is nice as the wraps go crisp when you pop them in the oven so you have something nice and sturdy to hold on to.

Look at me talking about the dynamics of eating muffin tray pizza's. What?

Day 551

These, are the smallest mice I have ever seen.

Now, I am pretty sure off the top of my head they are called fancy mice, I don't really get the name but that is what they were labelled as being. They are so small and bundled up, I quite enjoyed looking at them. I was in Maidstone with my Dad and were walking around some of the shops, this one happened to be a pet shop and these little things were next to the rabbits - one of which was so fluffy. Little creatures like this always like to bundle up underneath things like that, maybe to be warm but most likely to hide from all the giants which seem very interested in them. 

There was a hamster in a glass tank above that had dug out all of the bedding in the corner of the tank and was still digging for dear life. Obviously, we knew it wasn't going to get anywhere and I didn't want to be the one to tell it. The thing I always find strange about animals is that they just know things - like we have to learn to do a lot of stuff but like migratory birds just have that instinct of knowing where to fly. That hamster clearly knew it wanted to dig down because it was in some sort of unnatural place of habitation.

Then again - so cute.

Missed the midnight Sunday deadline. So for reference, this is where I got to at midnight.. Yeah, sharing.

Day 552

This one here - this is the mystery picture I mentioned.

 All you can see here is my leaning on two rather hefty boxes with another two in front - manned by Amy who at this point was taking a picture. Don't I look really excited. We were at Lakeside, somewhere which I will not name. Adding the allure of the mystery. It looks like, like we are queuing but for what I wonder? This is the fruits of two days labour, a late one on Saturday night which meant we didn't even get charged for the crossing and also today, walking and stuff. Some of you who have been here will probably snap it right up or I haven't been as vague as I thought.. And it is dead obvious. Either way - wuha. Stuff.

I tell you another thing we have now tried, on Friday I am pretty sure because we went over to a Tesco's near a McDonalds. We tried the McRib which from what I can tell is a boneless rack of ribs in a burger. COVERED in sauce, and I mean covered. I usually don't need a single napkin when I go there but this time I went though at least three. It was pretty tasty don't get me wrong but if it was on the regular menu I don't think it would be the pride of place for me, you can't quite beat a big mac or a quarter pounder. Simple, terrible yet tasty.

As I have missed my deadline, I shall leave it here. I will continue to slay the minions of Morder - and stuff? Blog you later.

Oh, 2015?

I hope you had a good New Year. It has confused me a bit because today felt like Saturday as I had the day off work but now I know I have work tomorrow.. It has confused me a bit to say the least. Oh well, it'll all be back to normal before we know it! And now for a month of writing the wrong year..

So for New Years, we had some people round just to have a couple of drinks and snacks and play some games. I don't really like going out too much on a Friday/Saturday let alone possibly the biggest party night of the year! We made a quiz with some facts from 2014 in which I came joint first with a fellow competitor on 12/25 so.. Either it was hard or none of us really paid a lot of attention throughout this past year. We then proceeded to play a couples game where you answer questions about each other, it was quite hard because some of the questions have multiple answers but you only get points if you both put matching ones.. There are even disclaimers on the box with regards to it affecting your relationship and causing arguments. I think it is safe to say they put that on there because of problems during the testing phase of development. We finished off with a lovely game of Cards Against Humanity. The word lovely was sarcastic - just incase. A lot of people seem to be getting it, its great. We also got an expansion so we had some extra cards we knew no one will have seen.

We had the TV on  mute in the background, it was showing the firework displays from other parts of the world that were ahead of us who were already celebrating. It was pretty cool, it just feels like that everyone is trying to out do everyone else by having the biggest display. London, of course, used the Eye to hold a load of the fireworks and set them off, it was as always a great display. My friend mentioned that if you are actually there - as he was a couple of years back - it is horrible because you get a huge cloud of smoke float your way and you can't really do anything about it but choke a tad. It must be a real honour if you are a musician and your song gets picked to be played for the display. Finally, everyone joins up for Auld Lang Syne which is nice because its a load of strangers being happy.

We took down the decorations today, I never noticed how much of a difference they made. The room feels so bare but after some time, it'll be normal again. Didn't take too long to take them all done, box or bag them up and pop them into the loft. It also means we have a lot of free room on the side and also a lot less obstruction to the blind.

Day 548
Star bread!

When we host, we like to get some bits and bobs in so there are nibbles. New Years we went a little further and made some stuff, one of which being this. It is really simple but looks pretty impressive once it is all baked. It is Coop pizza base mix and chocolate spread - nothing else. You role it out, add a layer of chocolate spread, add dough, chocolate, dough.. You get it. Then you do some cutting, some twisting, some egg washing and in the even it goes. 15 minutes later you have a nice little centre piece which tastes kind of like a chocolate brioche. We also made some potato things which had bacon, cheese, spring onion and chives on which just came as one huge cheesy yet lovely mess. Phwoar.

Day 549
Another snack attack!

We never actually got around to opening and trying this so it is still a mystery. We ended up eating most of the party food we had in the freezer so these got left behind. I also think it may be because no one really knows how this will turn out.. We've tried some of the odd flavours that Tesco have made before and they really didn't work all that well so.. I am also apprehensive but will most definitely give it a go! We have had a lot of salted caramel stuff lately.. The Oddka and also some popcorn - that was good.

And by the way - English music kicked but this year!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30641372
The top 10 albums of 2014 were all by British artists so I think that was pretty darn awesome. I am glad Ed Sheeran was on top because he is pretty awesome. I am also glad it wasn't One Direction because I want to slap them in the face - personal beef. Their newer music doesn't get on my nerves as much as it seems they are picking better songs with more interesting lyrics or however it is working.. Yeah.

Thanks for reading. I am going to sleep for work. Night. Blog you later.