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.