Is that time of year again, the time for the Eurovision song contest. Tonight I'm preparing to sit at home, with a nice glass of something and watch the contest. For me Eurovision has also been more of a fun annual programme, rather then a serious singing contest, so I think this blog will be more of an informal look at the contestants, rather then a programme review. Shouldn't be too long now till it begins so I'm going to go get some food and drink quickly, as you do for t.v events like this, and then will write up the rest of this blog whilst watching the contest.
15 mins later.......
Eurovisions starting!
So I would just like to clarify again quickly that I am British, and so I will be biased towards our entry, and there will perhaps be a few stereotypical quotes, however this is all in fun, we're all friends here, have fun watching!
01. Finland - Thought this was actually really good, liked the folky way the song was sung, and even more liked the picture of the Earth in the background, think that swung it most for me, did you see it, awesome.
02. Bosnia - erm... whats with the random dancer, wandering aimlessly around the stage, oh hes now got a trumpet! There we have the first pyrotechnics from the singers. Not the best song really, will see later where I'd rank it though.
03. Denmark - Again I actually quite like this song, wow whats happening they've actually got some good people on this year. Keeping it simple, no hoards of dancers or weird props, alot of running from stage t stage though, are you getting quite tired?? Yeah liked that one best so far.
04. Lithuania - (First 10 seconds) No don't like it.......Next! Oh do I have to watch the rest of it. Okay, now I do admire the woman using sign language in some of it, but I do wonder how many deaf people looked at the t.v guide, saw eurovision SONG CONTEST, and thought yeah, I'll be alright watching this. Bit so musical a song for me sorry, don't really like it.
05. Hungary - Just been informed by Graham Norton (who is hilarioussss by the way) that we're now on to the pop songs. Its alright I think, could probably leave back-up dancers out of the background though, bit distracting. Brilliant light show.
06. Ireland - Jedward noooooo, not even on the song yet, and already know this will be terribly bad, Okay, I honestly will admit that if you close your eyes, it doesn't sound as bad as I thought it would, however open your eyes again and there they are, still looking very odd, good try though guys. Do love the irish!
07. Sweden - Warning flashing lights! You know that popular guy at school, who loads of people like, but you know he's actually as thick as a plank, well thats the only way I can think to sum this guy up. Haha he's singing about trying to be popular, what a coincidence. Was okay, not brilliant though.
08. Estonia - Cool, loving the backdrop, is part singing, part magic show! Yeah liked that as a whole, quite quirky, and colourful, good attempt at the song.
09. Greece - Oh the first rapper of the show. Now from experiance of us doing a rapping song a couple of years ago, europe arn't too keen on it. Think this song is going to the bottom of the pile, very slow confusing, not even really rapping, more just talking.
10. Russia - No dont like this one, bit too boy bandy, even though there was only one singer. Dont have much more so say about them, apart from, don't like.....Next.
11. France - Supposedly this singer is the youngest Tenor in the world. A bit different from the usually songs sung on here. Not really into the opera styles songs, however do think it sounds very good, also liked how it was very simple, no weird dancers, few pyrotechniques, but yeh was overall a very good songs, up there in my top 5 so far.
12. Italy - First jazzy style entry of the night, this is awesome, guys on trumpets, a drummer in the background, and a guy singing and playing the piano, what more do you need. Added to that he seems to have that jazz swagger, like how you see micheal buble when hes on stage.
13. Switzerland - Very good, took me by surprise a bit this song, not much else to say, great folky type song.
14. UK - Still undecided about this song, does sound quite catchy, and used to be a fan of blue when they first appeared, will keep watching. Do like the background and lighting, pyrotechniques okay, overall well done guys, good try.
15. Moldova - The gnomes have been let loose, if your not sure what I mean, you have to see this group. Theres a gnome fairy, riding a unicycle, whats going on here! Okay lets get back to the song, a bit weird, is like the european version of madness. Honestly, think it was quite good.
16. Germany - here we have last years champion, returning to try take first place again. Wow the backdrops have really stepped it up a gear this year. Getting quite into this song, actually sounds normal. Really liked that song, Germany's moved right up the list, definatly top 5.
17. Romania - Think this one is a bit to corny for me. Firstly theres the very colourful rainbow lighting, musical theatre type song, oh and theres the weird unnecessary dancers again, the signs of a very bad song.
18. Austria - Don't know what to say, not really feeling this song, don't think theres anything really wrong with it, just not standing out at all. Is okay, good song overall, but think I'll have to place that somewhere in the middle of my list.
19. Azerbaijan - Not sure whats happened, similar to the last song, this song sounds quite good, but its not really standing out. Better then the last one, did find this one slightly catchy, again however think will find itself in the middle of the list.
20. Slovenia - Whats happened! I know we're a fair way through the entries, but even this slightly rockish song is quite one tone and bland, they're not very quirky anymore. Think the song is still good, good dancers dancing with her but not much more to say then that.
21. Iceland - Please come iceland, your always usually a good country for song entries. Thankyou! This is what I mean. A great song, well sung, catchy, and love again how its slightly jazzy. Overall well done you lot, you've just shot up the list.
22. Spain - Oh no is very colourful again, not looking good. Its alright i think this song, not in anyway brilliant, but yeah will say its ok, could do without all the colours and the really smiley dancers.
23. Ukraine - Hmm...theres a sand artist on stage with the singer, weirdly I'm more intrigued by the picture the sand women is making, please can the singer move out of the way. Not that keen on the song, but will give it points for the use of the sand artist, lovely pictures in the background.
24. Serbia - Oh noo the hippy's have arrived, they even dance like they're in the 60's. I am still watching Eurovision arn't I, I didn't accidently flick over to Austin Powers. An ok song overall.
25. Georgia - Wow I didn't expect that, the female singer looked very nice and innocent, then started belting out this rock song. Proper light show going on now in this song, really getting into it. Good song.
Well thats all of the songs over for the night, some good, alot bad, and oddly some very good ones. Loved Graham Norton's commentary throughout the show, is always funny to hear him each year. Haha speaking of Graham, he's just said how some people from britain are trying to call in and vote for Blue, you can't do that, am sorry your not allowed to vote for your own country, good try though, thats the british spirit. Ohh we are either going to do really well, or......we'll start supporting Jedward and calling them english because we've done so bad.
Is now time for the results, hold your breath everyone. Who'd have thought it, we're actually getting points, what has happened, we never get points, thats what we were good at. Ireland are getting loads of points too. Please dont mess around when saying your results, there are 43 countries to get through, dont need the presenters singing out the scores or stuff like that. Oh and there we go slowly sliding down that scoreboard, still on the left hand side, but for how long, am sure it wont be long, until the inevitable happens.
After everything thats happened tonight we actually ended up on the left hand side of the scoreboard with 100 points, well done guys from Blue, you did really well, and also congradulations Azerbaijan on winning.
Would just like to say for the very small amount of people who every read this far down, I'm sorry for rambling on, and I hope you enjoyed this review/commentary on Eurovision. Back to normal blogging tommorrow I promise.
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Friday, 13 May 2011
Film Review - The City of Ember
Movie review time! I have literally just finished watching, what I think to be an amazing film 'The City of Ember'. I came across this film purely by luck when searching through a list of film on the internet, and thought it looked like a good film to watch, and I'm really glad I saw it.
A quick description of the film: For generations the people of the city of Ember have flourished in an amazing underground world of glittering lights. However when their once powerful generator begins to fail, the quest for Lina and Doon begins, to follow the clues their ancestors left behind, to discover a new home. I am so glad to see a film at last that doesnt fit any kind of mold. As of late all the films i've seen have been quite repeative, either sequals, remakes, or close copies, however with this film I dont think i've ever seen a story line like this. Part mystery, part quest, your never really sure what the final plan is till the characters discover it with you.
Honestly I will say, that when I first saw the image for this film, and the short description, i thought it would be just a nice film to watch and pass the time, with no great expectations, however I'm so glad it proved me wrong. Maybe it's just me, but having such a fresh storyline, and a cast that I haven't seen very much of apart from a few members, made watching this film more enjoyable. Also having the tresure hunt element to the film made it even better, especially for me as I love the films like National tresure, where the film slowly unravels, giving you segments at a time, to finally show the finished picture at the end.
The story for this film has been very cleverly written, definatly thinking more outside the box when it came to the location of the city, and the social workings within Ember. I also thought that the amount of information that the audience recieve was quite intriguing, the only way I can think to decribe it is like on a need to know basis. Your only told the minimum amount about Ember, how it came to be bulit and why the cities there, however I dont see this as a bad thing, because even after it's finished, there are still those few questions left unanwsered to keep you thinking about the film
The two main characters in this film were played by Saoirse Ronan and Harry Treadaway, two people who previously I wasn't quite familiar with, but will be following from now on, and also there were a few familiar faces involved, including Bill Murray and Tim Robbins. All in all brilliant performances I thought from everyone, especially Saoirse and Harry.
I cant recommend this film enough, a definate must see if your looking for something a bit different to the normal movies, or if you have some spare time and want to sit and watch an awesome film.
A quick description of the film: For generations the people of the city of Ember have flourished in an amazing underground world of glittering lights. However when their once powerful generator begins to fail, the quest for Lina and Doon begins, to follow the clues their ancestors left behind, to discover a new home. I am so glad to see a film at last that doesnt fit any kind of mold. As of late all the films i've seen have been quite repeative, either sequals, remakes, or close copies, however with this film I dont think i've ever seen a story line like this. Part mystery, part quest, your never really sure what the final plan is till the characters discover it with you.
Honestly I will say, that when I first saw the image for this film, and the short description, i thought it would be just a nice film to watch and pass the time, with no great expectations, however I'm so glad it proved me wrong. Maybe it's just me, but having such a fresh storyline, and a cast that I haven't seen very much of apart from a few members, made watching this film more enjoyable. Also having the tresure hunt element to the film made it even better, especially for me as I love the films like National tresure, where the film slowly unravels, giving you segments at a time, to finally show the finished picture at the end.
The story for this film has been very cleverly written, definatly thinking more outside the box when it came to the location of the city, and the social workings within Ember. I also thought that the amount of information that the audience recieve was quite intriguing, the only way I can think to decribe it is like on a need to know basis. Your only told the minimum amount about Ember, how it came to be bulit and why the cities there, however I dont see this as a bad thing, because even after it's finished, there are still those few questions left unanwsered to keep you thinking about the film
The two main characters in this film were played by Saoirse Ronan and Harry Treadaway, two people who previously I wasn't quite familiar with, but will be following from now on, and also there were a few familiar faces involved, including Bill Murray and Tim Robbins. All in all brilliant performances I thought from everyone, especially Saoirse and Harry.
I cant recommend this film enough, a definate must see if your looking for something a bit different to the normal movies, or if you have some spare time and want to sit and watch an awesome film.
Thursday, 12 May 2011
The Apprentice - Week 2
The next episode following Tuesdays 'The Apprentice', aired last night, and was all about creating new mobile phone applications, which then for 24 hours were put online and were free for anybody globally to download. Hearing the task in this episode I actually thought it would be quite simple, you come up with a decent idea for an app, it gets made, you go out pitch it to a few online review companies, then because of how good it is, you sit back and watch the download figures rocket through the roof, but in true Apprentice fashion, that wasn't to be.
Its only week two, and so far only one candidate has left, however the gloves now seem to coming off, especially within the girls team. For the girls this week, Edna put herself forward to be project manager without any complaints from the other girls, and as soon as she was choosen she immediately got to work on the task, sending half the group to the street to do market research, whilst she and te rest of the team began to come up with ideas for their app, this sadly is where things begin to go wrong though. When coming up with app ideas, Edna quite quickly found herself arguing with Susan, in choosing who should be at the expo talking to young people, edna chose herself, instead of Melody, whos previous job was to give talks to young people, and then Edna failed when giving a speech at the expo, to explain properly what the app was and importantly how to download it. Miracuously though, the girls team won this task, have approximately 7000 more downloads then the boys.
What can I say about the boys....as a team they seemed to work reasonably well, better I believe then the girls, they got featured by two out of the three websites and they gave a great speech at the expo, however their application was rubbish. The two main reasons being, firstly their app was slightly decriminatory, yes it done in fun and wasnt purposefully aimed at upsetting people, but theres a limit to the amount of people who will want to download it. Secondly it was mainly british regional accents included in the app, again limiting their audience, because there will be loads of people outside the UK who havent heard the accents, and so wont understand the point of the app, it'll just come across as english people speaking.
In my opinion the boys should have run away with this task, instead of falling the way they did. The girls team are now task winners two weeks running and some of them, namely Melody seem to be getting slightly cocky because of it. I did think in this task that there were some members of each team, who in a positive way did stick out for me, for the girls this was Felicity, due to her work in doing the market research and how from that she quickly, on the spot came up with the idea for there winning app she also seemed to actually do something for the rest of the task instead of sitting back. For the boys I really want to say Jim, because of how he swooped in after Vince froze in the pitch, but I actually think that Gavin stuck out most for me, although he hasnt been in the spotlight much yet, I think that he has been held back by the PM's and when hes able to will really shows us what hes made of.
Overall for this episode, a dissapointing result, not helped by the fact that they are all now starting to fight each other. I would have thought that normal talented adults, would get past any little insult and want to keep working in order to win the task, however as of yet this isnt the case, will have to see if this changes next week. I would also like to say, that even though i haven't talked about him, I do think Lord Sugar was right to fire Alex, for solely doing nothing of any great importance. Really looking forward to next weeks task, hopefully these episodes are just glitches, because they're still settling in, will have to wait and see.
Its only week two, and so far only one candidate has left, however the gloves now seem to coming off, especially within the girls team. For the girls this week, Edna put herself forward to be project manager without any complaints from the other girls, and as soon as she was choosen she immediately got to work on the task, sending half the group to the street to do market research, whilst she and te rest of the team began to come up with ideas for their app, this sadly is where things begin to go wrong though. When coming up with app ideas, Edna quite quickly found herself arguing with Susan, in choosing who should be at the expo talking to young people, edna chose herself, instead of Melody, whos previous job was to give talks to young people, and then Edna failed when giving a speech at the expo, to explain properly what the app was and importantly how to download it. Miracuously though, the girls team won this task, have approximately 7000 more downloads then the boys.
What can I say about the boys....as a team they seemed to work reasonably well, better I believe then the girls, they got featured by two out of the three websites and they gave a great speech at the expo, however their application was rubbish. The two main reasons being, firstly their app was slightly decriminatory, yes it done in fun and wasnt purposefully aimed at upsetting people, but theres a limit to the amount of people who will want to download it. Secondly it was mainly british regional accents included in the app, again limiting their audience, because there will be loads of people outside the UK who havent heard the accents, and so wont understand the point of the app, it'll just come across as english people speaking.
In my opinion the boys should have run away with this task, instead of falling the way they did. The girls team are now task winners two weeks running and some of them, namely Melody seem to be getting slightly cocky because of it. I did think in this task that there were some members of each team, who in a positive way did stick out for me, for the girls this was Felicity, due to her work in doing the market research and how from that she quickly, on the spot came up with the idea for there winning app she also seemed to actually do something for the rest of the task instead of sitting back. For the boys I really want to say Jim, because of how he swooped in after Vince froze in the pitch, but I actually think that Gavin stuck out most for me, although he hasnt been in the spotlight much yet, I think that he has been held back by the PM's and when hes able to will really shows us what hes made of.
Overall for this episode, a dissapointing result, not helped by the fact that they are all now starting to fight each other. I would have thought that normal talented adults, would get past any little insult and want to keep working in order to win the task, however as of yet this isnt the case, will have to see if this changes next week. I would also like to say, that even though i haven't talked about him, I do think Lord Sugar was right to fire Alex, for solely doing nothing of any great importance. Really looking forward to next weeks task, hopefully these episodes are just glitches, because they're still settling in, will have to wait and see.
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Orienteering and Friends
Finally its wednesday the 11th of May, meaning today is the first orienteering event of the EBOR Orienteering summer competition. For the last three/four years I've competed in this competition, going there with my teacher and other pupils from my school, and because we came as a school team, and due to our ages we had to enter the schools league of the competition, however this year I'll be running in the normal adult league with everyone else. In the schools league, because it was divided into year groups and by gender, to is fair to say there usually wasnt too many other competitors, however now being in the adult league it should only be divided by gender meaning I'm going to be going up against everyone, no matter what age, as long as they are male.
The best thing about orienteering whilst I did it at school, was that it was basiclly a great afternoon out with friends. We'd finish school at normal time, go get changed then drive out in the school minibus to where the event was being held. Due to it being an open competition to anyone, there were kids ranging from year 7 to sixth form going from our school, usually making about 16 pupils in total. I would like to add here quickly, that the person that got me into going originally, and the person who each year I battle to beat is my best mate Matty. Since the two of us started going, my other friends, Danielle, Roz and Chris also joined in, bringing a bit of healthy rivalry with them. As well as these friends, I also got to know some of the younger kids who came too, some who got on my bus and I kinda knew to begin with, others who went each year and I grew to know, so everyone who went got on well and made it an even better time out from school. This was increased by the fact that the teacher who took us was called Mr Bircumshaw, who everyone got on with, and was the kind of teacher you could chat with and have a laugh with. Even more brilliantly, (yes it gets better) was the fact that after every event we stopped off at McDonalds on the way back, as a kind of treat. Like I said, really looked forward to going each year, and was an awesome afternoon everytime.
Now as I mentioned, each year there usually wasnt that many competitors in our age group, and due to there being a few of us going from school, who were friends and also in the same year group, a small amount of rivalry occured each year, to see who could beat who. resulting in a few tricks, sometimes sending people the wrong way, however this just spurred us on and made it even more enjoyable. One of the other reasons I enjoyed orienteering is because its not as simple a sport as it may seem, and its not always about whos the fastest runner. Having to use the map at each event to find out where you are and where you should be heading added that extra level to the sport, it made it less of a running race, and more of a challenge, which I think made it fairer. Also the events being in loads of different places from open fields to dense forests, just added to the amount of fun we've had trying to take shortcuts and ending up in places like fields of bush's or nettle patches.
This year I am again off with Matty, however because neither of us are at our old school, we are making our own way to the event, hoping though to run into a few old friends, and our old teacher when we get there. Also this year because we now work, we might not both be able to make all of the events which is sad, but am still really looking forward to going to which ever ones I can. Will see how things go this afternoon then, and hopefully will find I'm not too out of shape, either way will be fun.
The best thing about orienteering whilst I did it at school, was that it was basiclly a great afternoon out with friends. We'd finish school at normal time, go get changed then drive out in the school minibus to where the event was being held. Due to it being an open competition to anyone, there were kids ranging from year 7 to sixth form going from our school, usually making about 16 pupils in total. I would like to add here quickly, that the person that got me into going originally, and the person who each year I battle to beat is my best mate Matty. Since the two of us started going, my other friends, Danielle, Roz and Chris also joined in, bringing a bit of healthy rivalry with them. As well as these friends, I also got to know some of the younger kids who came too, some who got on my bus and I kinda knew to begin with, others who went each year and I grew to know, so everyone who went got on well and made it an even better time out from school. This was increased by the fact that the teacher who took us was called Mr Bircumshaw, who everyone got on with, and was the kind of teacher you could chat with and have a laugh with. Even more brilliantly, (yes it gets better) was the fact that after every event we stopped off at McDonalds on the way back, as a kind of treat. Like I said, really looked forward to going each year, and was an awesome afternoon everytime.
Now as I mentioned, each year there usually wasnt that many competitors in our age group, and due to there being a few of us going from school, who were friends and also in the same year group, a small amount of rivalry occured each year, to see who could beat who. resulting in a few tricks, sometimes sending people the wrong way, however this just spurred us on and made it even more enjoyable. One of the other reasons I enjoyed orienteering is because its not as simple a sport as it may seem, and its not always about whos the fastest runner. Having to use the map at each event to find out where you are and where you should be heading added that extra level to the sport, it made it less of a running race, and more of a challenge, which I think made it fairer. Also the events being in loads of different places from open fields to dense forests, just added to the amount of fun we've had trying to take shortcuts and ending up in places like fields of bush's or nettle patches.
This year I am again off with Matty, however because neither of us are at our old school, we are making our own way to the event, hoping though to run into a few old friends, and our old teacher when we get there. Also this year because we now work, we might not both be able to make all of the events which is sad, but am still really looking forward to going to which ever ones I can. Will see how things go this afternoon then, and hopefully will find I'm not too out of shape, either way will be fun.
The Apprentice - Week 1
As I'm already reviewing the new Doctor Who episodes, I cant resist but now reviewing each episode in the new series of the Apprentice. The Apprentice is one of those shows for me, where half way through the show you'll find yourself shouting at the screen, hoping and praying they'll hear you so they wont muck things up. If you havent yet heard of the show, it features 16 candidates hand picked by Lord Alan Sugar, who every week get put through a series of business related challenges, where one person from the losing team in each challenge gets fired. The candidate left at the end then gets to become Lord Sugars Apprentice, earning a six figure salary.
From the very first series of this show I was hooked, there wasnt any other show like it at the time, and so I tuned in each week to see what tasks the candidates had been set and how they got on. However....over the last few years the candidates seem to have been getting worse and worse, to the point now that its funny to watch, because they are so bad. This is usually the main reason why I end up shouting at the screen.
Todays episode being the first in the new series showed you each of the candidates opening 'speeches' about what qualifications they have, where they worked, and why they are perfect for the job. As ever, after hearing these first few minutes of the show, you can quite accurately sum up what type of people they've choosen for the series. In this I don't mean how educated they are, but to put it bluntly, which one is the comedian of the group, which men and women are going to cause trouble and so on, and as I said its usually very accurate. For example one of the women finished her 'speech' saying, and i quote 'dont tell me the skies the limit, if there are foot prints on the moon', I immediately thought from this, who speaks like that, shes going to be trouble and in all fairness, she was.
After having seen all of the candidates, Lord Sugar met them in the board room, split them into the teams of boys vs girls, and gave them their first challenge, which was to take £250, buy as much fruit and veg as they can and sell it to make as much profit as they can. Sounds simple enough i thought, however from the word go, there were problems; the girls were arguing over team names, and the boys were having trouble deciding if people were wanting to put themselves forward for project manager, and who to vote for. Due to it being the first task, I thought i'd give them all the benefit of the doubt, on the little mistakes, which truthfully there werent very many, however throughout the entire show, one of the boys, constantly in my opinion kept messing up. Now again I would have given him the benefit of the doubt if he was one of the guys in the background not doing much, so didnt really affect them, however he was the project manager for the boys, the guy leading everyone else.
From what I saw of the girls, there didnt seem to be too many problems, the odd little squabble now and again, but for the first task, I actually thought they did really good, their fruit salad idea worked really well, they managed to get all their ingrediants quite cheaply, and they didnt spend too much time messing around when it came to preparing the food. The only major fault I would say, that also Lord Sugar pointed out, was that they still had alot of their spending money left, and having run out of fruit salads in the challenge, it would have been better to have bought more produce to begin with.
** Spoiler ** When it came to deciding who was going to be fired, for me it was very clear, as the boys lost the challenge, it would be one of them, and as only one boy really messed up, I was very glad to see that Edward the project manager was sent home. I was even more glad after I heard that his main arguement to be kept in was, and again I quote 'Not only am I the youngest, I'm the shortest', why he thought that was a good idea to say that, I have no idea.
Anyways, I thought it was a great first episode, the bars not been set too high just yet, although they've still got loads of time to get into the swing of things. The next episode is actually on tomorrow, and then the episodes are every wednesday from then on, so I'll be typing away again on tomorrows show. Cant wait to hear what anecdotes they come up with tomorrow!
From the very first series of this show I was hooked, there wasnt any other show like it at the time, and so I tuned in each week to see what tasks the candidates had been set and how they got on. However....over the last few years the candidates seem to have been getting worse and worse, to the point now that its funny to watch, because they are so bad. This is usually the main reason why I end up shouting at the screen.
Todays episode being the first in the new series showed you each of the candidates opening 'speeches' about what qualifications they have, where they worked, and why they are perfect for the job. As ever, after hearing these first few minutes of the show, you can quite accurately sum up what type of people they've choosen for the series. In this I don't mean how educated they are, but to put it bluntly, which one is the comedian of the group, which men and women are going to cause trouble and so on, and as I said its usually very accurate. For example one of the women finished her 'speech' saying, and i quote 'dont tell me the skies the limit, if there are foot prints on the moon', I immediately thought from this, who speaks like that, shes going to be trouble and in all fairness, she was.
After having seen all of the candidates, Lord Sugar met them in the board room, split them into the teams of boys vs girls, and gave them their first challenge, which was to take £250, buy as much fruit and veg as they can and sell it to make as much profit as they can. Sounds simple enough i thought, however from the word go, there were problems; the girls were arguing over team names, and the boys were having trouble deciding if people were wanting to put themselves forward for project manager, and who to vote for. Due to it being the first task, I thought i'd give them all the benefit of the doubt, on the little mistakes, which truthfully there werent very many, however throughout the entire show, one of the boys, constantly in my opinion kept messing up. Now again I would have given him the benefit of the doubt if he was one of the guys in the background not doing much, so didnt really affect them, however he was the project manager for the boys, the guy leading everyone else.
From what I saw of the girls, there didnt seem to be too many problems, the odd little squabble now and again, but for the first task, I actually thought they did really good, their fruit salad idea worked really well, they managed to get all their ingrediants quite cheaply, and they didnt spend too much time messing around when it came to preparing the food. The only major fault I would say, that also Lord Sugar pointed out, was that they still had alot of their spending money left, and having run out of fruit salads in the challenge, it would have been better to have bought more produce to begin with.
** Spoiler ** When it came to deciding who was going to be fired, for me it was very clear, as the boys lost the challenge, it would be one of them, and as only one boy really messed up, I was very glad to see that Edward the project manager was sent home. I was even more glad after I heard that his main arguement to be kept in was, and again I quote 'Not only am I the youngest, I'm the shortest', why he thought that was a good idea to say that, I have no idea.
Anyways, I thought it was a great first episode, the bars not been set too high just yet, although they've still got loads of time to get into the swing of things. The next episode is actually on tomorrow, and then the episodes are every wednesday from then on, so I'll be typing away again on tomorrows show. Cant wait to hear what anecdotes they come up with tomorrow!
Monday, 9 May 2011
The internet - should people be more careful about what they write on there???
On the news today, a story has come out that an anonymous person, has been tweeting private information about celebrities on Twitter. This hit the news, due to all of this 'information' being previously kept confidential by order of a judge when taken to court. Due to this gossip being released publicly on Twitter its caused a lot of controversy, over whether twitter should be made to close the account down to hide the information or whether people have the right to post what they want and so should be allowed to keep posting things.
Hearing this story, my immediate reaction was that it was really unfair on the celebrities, and that they should be allowed to protest against the information about them being released. However after thinking it through further and hearing the type of information that was tweeted, mainly info about people having affairs, I now kind of feel the opposite.
The internet is huge, its accessible to anyone, and I don't think that people should have to follow rules to use it. I do still think that celebrities should have their privacy, of course, the same as anybody else, but whether your a celebrity or not, things about peoples lives come out, from small insignificant things to big secrets of people cheating on other people.
Overall, this story has complicated my views on social networks, the news, sources of information in general. In the circumstances of t.v, radio, and newspapers, I definatly think that they should be careful about what they write and say, because they have audiences that follow them, who make their judgements and opinions on the info they give to them. However when it comes down to the internet, I feel that it shouldn't be watched or monitored, its too large for that, and people should be able to freely say what they want. At the end of the day it is the person reading that information that decides if it is just gossip, or if its 100% correct, and so the majority of people on the net should not be punished, for the actions of the few.
This is just my opinion though, following the people I do on sites like YouTube and having started using the net to blog myself, I would be very disappointed if it came about that normal people weren't allowed to express themselves, due to consent fear of upsetting someone or causing unrest.
What do others think though.
Should certain websites be monitored?
Should there be consequences for people such as the tweeter today?
Where should it stop?
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Spanish student staying! And feelings about getting older
Has been a few weeks since I've done a normal blog entry, so I thought theres no time like the present. Blog worthy things to talk about this week..... well we have a young spanish boy staying with us for a week whilst hes over here visiting England and going to the local language school. This is our first proper foreign student staying for a few years now, and I think it might take a few days to get back into the swing of things. A little bit about him, he's 15 years old and comes from a town outside of Barcelona, and seems like a really nice chatty guy, especially compared to other students we've had to stay, wont get into that though. I do like being around people from different countries, lifestyles, backgrounds etc... mainly because of how curious I am, not in a weird way, but in the way how you find out what other places are like, how people in different countries live, and what else there is out there that i havent had chance to discover yet.
Being able to work in a shop in such a popular tourist town like Scarborough, offers me the chance to meet lots of people from loads of different walks of life, even if the only chance I get to speak with them is to serve them. Working in the shop I do, there is often time to stare out of the front doors, to see and hear the people passing by, and in doing this notice the similarities and differences of everyone walking along. In addition to this, this week I was luckily able to get some time off work, so that in the summer my mum, my brother, my sister, and me can go see some of our old friends who live out in Munich. Haven't been away for a proper holiday in years now, so am really looking forward to it.
Moving slightly away from that topic, one thing I have noticed, since taking this year out between schools, is how much people around me have been away travelling, visiting other countries to take part in outreach programmes and going out to see the world, living their lives. Also noticably this year is the number of weddings that I've heard are happening. This year I'll be going to my first ever wedding, however a friend at work is off to four weddings within the next couple of months alone. Dont know whats happening?? Talking about this however reminds me of a vlog, someone I follow on YouTube called Rosianna uploaded not too long ago. Within this vlog Rosianna talks about how shes soon going to finish university, and how its now starting to hit her that her school days are almost behind her, a chapter of her life is about to end and and she wont get that time back. From thinking back over all these things, Rosianna said how in a way she can feel herself running out of time, and to quote her, that if she doesn't stop for a second shes going to miss it.
Thinking about what Rosianna said in her vlog and also thinking about what to write for this blog, I can definatly empathise with how Rosianna felt. Although I'm only 19, and yeah that is still quite young, I do feel that this year I've definatly stepped away from my life at school. Having had to think more about looking after others close to me and the responsibilities I now have, I feel I've jumped straight into this world of being an adult, and that kind of worries me. If instead I'd properly have choosen to have had this year out, rather then wanting to take it out due to family circumstances, and the events surrounding my a-level results and the short time at university, I think that I wouldnt be feeling this way, and probably wouldn't until entering those final terms at university, similar to Rosianna.
In a way I'm kind of glad that I feel the way I do now, hopefully it'll prepare me for things in the future, and makes me feel slightly wiser. I'm sure it's going to seem really weird though when i go back to university, entering back into the world of education and being a student again, especially after whats happened this year.
I'm sorry for rambling on a bit there and sounding a bit mad, but I'm sure everybody must go through points like this in there lives, so I wanted to talk about it.....to put it out there, to say 'don't worry your not alone'.
Being able to work in a shop in such a popular tourist town like Scarborough, offers me the chance to meet lots of people from loads of different walks of life, even if the only chance I get to speak with them is to serve them. Working in the shop I do, there is often time to stare out of the front doors, to see and hear the people passing by, and in doing this notice the similarities and differences of everyone walking along. In addition to this, this week I was luckily able to get some time off work, so that in the summer my mum, my brother, my sister, and me can go see some of our old friends who live out in Munich. Haven't been away for a proper holiday in years now, so am really looking forward to it.
Moving slightly away from that topic, one thing I have noticed, since taking this year out between schools, is how much people around me have been away travelling, visiting other countries to take part in outreach programmes and going out to see the world, living their lives. Also noticably this year is the number of weddings that I've heard are happening. This year I'll be going to my first ever wedding, however a friend at work is off to four weddings within the next couple of months alone. Dont know whats happening?? Talking about this however reminds me of a vlog, someone I follow on YouTube called Rosianna uploaded not too long ago. Within this vlog Rosianna talks about how shes soon going to finish university, and how its now starting to hit her that her school days are almost behind her, a chapter of her life is about to end and and she wont get that time back. From thinking back over all these things, Rosianna said how in a way she can feel herself running out of time, and to quote her, that if she doesn't stop for a second shes going to miss it.
Thinking about what Rosianna said in her vlog and also thinking about what to write for this blog, I can definatly empathise with how Rosianna felt. Although I'm only 19, and yeah that is still quite young, I do feel that this year I've definatly stepped away from my life at school. Having had to think more about looking after others close to me and the responsibilities I now have, I feel I've jumped straight into this world of being an adult, and that kind of worries me. If instead I'd properly have choosen to have had this year out, rather then wanting to take it out due to family circumstances, and the events surrounding my a-level results and the short time at university, I think that I wouldnt be feeling this way, and probably wouldn't until entering those final terms at university, similar to Rosianna.
In a way I'm kind of glad that I feel the way I do now, hopefully it'll prepare me for things in the future, and makes me feel slightly wiser. I'm sure it's going to seem really weird though when i go back to university, entering back into the world of education and being a student again, especially after whats happened this year.
I'm sorry for rambling on a bit there and sounding a bit mad, but I'm sure everybody must go through points like this in there lives, so I wanted to talk about it.....to put it out there, to say 'don't worry your not alone'.
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