Christmas time

When it comes to this time of year, i'm not exactly the biggest most festive person within my family. I do really enjoy that the weather has gotten colder, that it could potentially snow again, and that people actually, even if just for a short time, get some time off.

When it comes to Christmas 'jolliness' however I usually fall a bit short. Being the kind of person I am, i often find this time of year kind of chaotic. I always try keep track of money and so find present buying stressful, plus not knowing what to get people adds to that chaos. I always find Christmas day goes quite quickly, and people put a lot of emphasise on the one main day itself, etc...

I wouldn't go as far as to call myself a Grinch, its just that I rather enjoy the build up to Christmas, the month before the big day. The month where the nights are really short, there sightings of snow, where your starting to make Christmas lists and look forward to having to proper relaxing time off.

I guess i'm not entirely Christmas festive rather then winter festive. I prefer this season and what it brings rather than the significant day within it, hopefully that makes sense.

I did have quite a nice Christmas day this year, it being our first Christmas day in our new house. We had some relatives down for Christmas day itself and a few coming today to stay around for new years. Its a shame that its almost over again for another year, but I guess if it was everyday it wouldn't be so special.

I do intend to get at least another one of my favourite lists out, perhaps next week, once I get some time. I'm finding that they are actually quite a nice tradition. Along with this and because its new years soon, I am hoping that I will get my act together some what and either start a new blog soon, or add a new section on to this, as I've been planning to do for a while. I haven't worked everything out yet so that's all I'll say for now.

Hopefully everyone has had a great Christmas so far and will have a happy new year. For anyone who is already back at work, i'm sorry, fingers crossed for a few snow days soon to come.

Favourite Books: 2013

Today, as the title suggests, I'm continuing with my series of blogs delving into my favourite things of the year. As I've said before I'm doing this partly to try and discover what my favourite things are and also to keep a record, so that I can compare at a later date what and how things have changed.

This week I'm looking at my favourite books of all time. Books are something I've had a lifelong interest in. There's nothing quite like discovering a great book, wanting to take any spare moment to continue reading, and then slowing down as you get towards the end because you want the experience to last a little longer.

This interest in reading, is similar to some of my other interests, in that there were periods where I didn't read that much. I had quite a longer period of this up until about a few years ago, and since then have been going back reading older books that I somehow passed early on, and trying to keep up with new and relevant books.

Books I find are quite different from things like movies and songs, although there are loads of really good books, favourites are hard to come by and so the list hasn't changed that much. I feel this because when you think about your favourite books, it isn't just about the story, it brings back memories about where you were when you read it, things going on in your life around that time and other surrounding feelings. Hopefully this makes sense.

This years list again will consist of my top ten books, and to stop myself from writing down multiple books from one series, I'm only allowing myself to write down my favourite of that series even if there are more.

In order of most favourite to still favourite, here is my favourite books of all time as it stands at the end of 2013:

1) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling
2) The Fault In Our Stars - John Green
3) Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
4) The City Of Ember - Jeanne DuPrau
5) The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
6) Looking For Alaska - John Green
7) Alice In Wonderland - Lewis Caroll
8) The Cuckoos Calling - J.K. Rowling
9) Rivers Of London - Ben Aaronovitch
10) The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Some new ones in their that I discovered this year but for the most part they couldn't be displaced. Unfortunately the majority of books I read this year were for university or assigned by my lecturers. Hopefully next year I'll have more chance to read more on my personal to read list. There's so many books and so little time.

If you want to get back into reading or are just looking for your next good book, pick up any of these and give them a try.

Favourite Video Games: 2013

For the second installment of this years favourite blogs I'm once again looking at video games. This year has been a massive year for the whole video game industry, with the release for the next gen consoles, new technology continually being worked on and developed, such as the Oculus Rift, and a whole bunch of anticipated games having been released.

This year has also been a big year in games with regards to how involved I have gotten within this past time. As I've said in previous blogs, when I was a lot younger I used to play games on the computer quite a lot, and then for some reason that kind of stopped. This year in a way symbolised the return to this age however. Its also been nice to have another excuse to use computers also, more then just surfing the web, watching videos on YouTube or being on Tumblr. Having done ICT from primary school, all the way up until A-levels, being at university and not studying ICT has meant that I don't use them as much as I have in the past, which felt a bit like going cold turkey.

Even with having bought myself a desktop computer earlier on this year, and having gotten a newer version of the Xbox 360 as well, there were some games that I unfortunately were unable to play because I didn't have that console, or the required components to be able to run the game properly. Due to this I rarely ever looked into games for handheld devices, or for consoles such as the Wii U. saying this however there are some games that even though I did not physically get to play, I have seen play throughs for, or looked into them enough that I could compare them against other games out there.

This year I have decided again to create two lists one with my favourites released, or discovered this year, and the other of my favourites of all time. Each list will contain my top ten and will be ordered from one to ten, best to least best. I'll begin with the best games of this year:

1) Battlefield 4 (Xbox 360)
2) The last of Us (PS3)
3) Bioshock Infinite (PC)
4) The Wolf Among Us (PC)
5) DOTA 2 (PC)
6) Batman Origins (PC)
7) Grand Theft Auto 5 (Xbox 360)
8) Tomb Raider (PC)
9) Garry's Mod: Trouble in Terrorist Town (PC)
10) Burnout Paradise (PC)

As there is still a couple weeks left before it is no longer 2013, there is still time for games to be released, more specifically Season two of Telltales The Walking Dead. This game is meant to come out sometime next week, however as its not a hundred per cent, and will take a bit before I'm able to play/watch through it, and I'm writing this today, I won't be able to include it on this list. It will have some kind of honourary position however, as I'm sure if its anything like the first season, it would have easily made the cut.

This second list was quite difficult to write up, mainly because my two minds about how to define favourite, either through the games playability or, through its story and greatness as a game. Obviously many of these games just edge out others, I've probably forgotten some, and on a different day depending on my mood the list could look completely different. At the moment though, this is how my list of favourite games look;

1) Battlefield 3
2) The Last of Us
3) Bioshock 2
4) Portal 2
5) Minecraft
6) DayZ
7) Left 4 Dead 2
8) Star Wars Battlefront 2
9) Ratchet and Clank 2
10) Mario Kart on DS

These list offer an assortment of games with amazing story lines, fantastic likeable characters, hours worth of play ability, and chances to do things you never though you'd find yourself doing in a video game. Whether your a hardcore fps player, or just starting out looking to find a game that will ease you into things, I'm sure you'll find something of interest. Really looking forward to whats going to be released next year, just have to start saving up so I can buy them when they are.

Favourite Music: 2013

For the past few years now towards the end of the year, I have been writing up these favourites lists, encompassing either my favourite things in that category over the past year or summing up my favourites of all time along with any that might have made the list from this year.

I've decided to do these again this year, not only because they have become part of a Christmas type annual thing that I've done for several years now, but because they are something of a record, kept here on the internet documenting any changes in interests and about myself. It also doesn't hurt to do them so that if anyone ever asks you what your favourite book of song is, you can have it at hand quite easily.

As the title to this blog states this list will be of my favourite songs of all time. In the past this has been one of the harder lists to create, mainly due to the fact that I have quite a few amazing songs and so have to somehow cut them down to just fifteen. Its also quite difficult as some seem to beat out others depending on the kind of mood your in. With that in mind, these fifteen songs  have been chosen with their longevity in mind. Meaning that in five, ten or even twenty years I should be able to come back to them and feel the same way about them as I do now.

A slight variation on last years list, this year I have been strict with myself and listed them in order of most favourite to not quite the most favourite, one being most. Out of all of my songs these have made the cut so it goes with out saying even number fifteen is still a brilliant song.

Favourite music during 2013:
1) Alexi Murdoch - All my days,
2) Rolling Stones - You can't always get what you want,
3) The Jack Frost Band - Have a little faith,
4) One Republic - Secrets,
5) Owl City - Fireflies,
6) Cinematic Orchestra - To build a home,
7) Robert Post - Got none,
8) Owl City - Alligator Sky,
9) Goo Goo Dolls - I'm still here,
10) One Republic - Counting Stars,
11) HOGNI - Bow Down (to no man),
12) HOGNI - Right Attitude,
13) Skrillex - Bangarang,
14) James Vincent - Sparrow and the Wolf,
15) Counting Crows - Accidentally in love.

As always I may have missed one or two off, there were loads of tracks to go through, and I may have accidentally overlooked one. Saying this however even if I have, I'm happy with the list as it is.

If anyone would like to expand my music knowledge or tell me of any gleaming gaps in this list then you can always drop a comment down below. More favourite blogs to come soon.

Black Friday in the UK, and Cyber Monday

Its that time of the year again when you start to see all of the big chain stores putting on their Christmas sales. For the last couple of years I've seen more and more stores get earlier and earlier with their sales, and also more stores actively doing more to promote their sales and entice more people into their shops.

One such thing that many UK stores have begun to adopt is the American tradition of 'black Friday'. For anyone that doesn't know what this day is, its I think typically held on the Friday closest to the beginning December, and on this day shops all across the US slash their prices, having huge sales to get people out earlier in massive droves to get spending and buying gifts.
Black Friday in America has however begun to gain some negative publicity over the last couple of years as people have literally been beaten up and trampled over so that others could get their hands on deals first.

Over here in the UK our Black Friday doesn't really stand up that well compared to how it is in the US. Firstly although business's really do want you spending money in their stores, they aren't really prepared to slash their prices as much as the US stores. Secondly and probably most importantly because these sales aren't as discounted there aren't people sat queuing days before waiting for them or trampling over others to get them and so compared to the US our day is a lot safer. Lastly, in the UK this day hasn't been publicised that much and so there are still many people that aren't that sure what Black Friday is, and so don't go out to these sales because they don't know they are on.

As I said our day is pretty much a watered down version of the original and there are rarely any massive deals worth running out to get in fear that they'll go out of stock quickly. They do provide an incentive go into shops and have a good look around but at this point they are more an added bonus to stuff that you were already thinking of buying.

With the popularity of online shopping having sky rocketed significantly over the past however many years, a new sales day has recently been introduced specifically for online deals known as 'Cyber Monday'. This is always the Monday following Black Friday, and for those of us in the UK is where you'll find the more wallet opening deals.
The only drawback to Cyber Monday, or positive depending on how you look at it, is that you have to be literate enough to use the internet, and to find the very best deals have to be quite tech savvy. With there being thousands of websites to browse through, the best place to often find all of these deals together are on certain forums or deal dedicated website where people post any vouchers, codes or deals they've found.

Its been kind of strange to see the borrowing of Black Friday, being brought over and used within the UK, when it has no roots here, that I know of. Whether its company's just trying to use any tactic they can to get more money out of their customers or another melding of UK and American cultures, it looks as though Black Friday will be here to stay. Hopefully if this is the case, they'll at least take a page out of the Americans book and gives us some decent but safe sales.

Learning History...

Since arriving at this new university I've come to remember something about why it is I love history so much and why I choose to continue doing it all these years.

Towards the end of college and whilst at Sheffield Hallam learning history tended to consist of learning page after page of facts, figures, dates and locations. You'd go through and learn about periods of history as though you were reading off a timeline of events; very linear, and jam packed full of info and data. Learning history in this way, honestly sucks the fun out of discovering all of these amazing and interesting periods of time.
The easiest way of describing how I mean when talking about history in this sense, is with what happens most often when you tell someone your doing History. There response most often then not is that they immediately assume if they throw a date at you you'll know everything that happened that day, and can reel off ten random facts about it just off the top of your head.

Studying at UEL however has brought back what I originally felt for this subject. History shouldn't just be about learning basic information on particular people, places or periods, but instead about discovering those lesser known facts, about putting yourself into the position of the people you are studying, to see the worlds not just through your eyes but through theirs.

What originally got me interested in history were the ancient civilisations, the ancient Egyptians and the Greeks. I don't know quite what it was but they held this grip over me, they were such interesting people, and everything I learnt about them made me want to learn even more. There was a time I could name 50 more ancient gods and what they were the gods of, I could tell you how labourers lived what Lind of food they ate, what kind of weapons the soldiers used and how fought. All of these things and much more, and not because they were reeled of in a classroom to me but because I went out of my way outside of the classroom to go and learn these things for myself.

Ironically whilst studying history at university you only have a handful of hours actually inside of university sat in lecturers, with the bulk of you time set aside for independent study where you are meant to go read up on the subject and learn all of the surrounding knowledge yourself.

Unfortunately having been taught this classroom style of history for so long, I never seem to get that interested in what i'm learning anymore, its just another piece of work that will get done, be examined and then we'll move on to the next topic. History should be like that, and luckily for me i'm starting to regain that interest and passion for the subject once again. Actually being taught as though we are aspiring historians and not just another lot of students doing history, shows firstly that the lecturers actually like what they have learnt and want to pass on their knowledge, and secondly reinforces the fact that although we are here to learn and study, we choose to come and learn and moreover we choose this particular subject because of the interest it holds for each of us.

Its nice to feel these feelings again for this subject, it has definitely been a while and should hopefully serve very useful throughout the year to come.

Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary special

Warning: Geekiness and potential spoilers ahead.
Continuing on from last weeks blog, tonight was the night the 50th anniversary Doctor Who special finally aired. I also believe that it was aired live in about 74 countries simultaneously, so that Whovians all over the globe could experience the episode at the same time.

I'm slightly unsure whether to call it an episode, film, or special. It definitely felt quite filmish, and was about twice as long as a normal episode, but it still felt as though it fit in perfectly with all of the other episodes.

I really don't know what to say about it, I guess i'm still in a state of shock and awe from having seen it. What is there really to say, it was absolutely amazing! I won't go into the whole, special effects/CGI/music were good type description, I just think without a doubt that they episode as a whole, from start to finish was fantastic. The only thing I would have changed about this evening would have been that i'd have loved to have seen how it looked in 3D, hopefully there will be chance for that at a later date.

Although my knowledge of Doctor Who, has primarily come from the reboot seasons, I have seen several episode from the 'original' lot and as well as having watched a number of the old Doctor Who films. I have also read a number of Doctor Who books, of which one or two were books once again from the 'original' Doctors.

Even without any knowledge of the older Doctors, it was brilliant to see little clips, nuggets of information, or phrases drawn from those individual Doctors. It was also awesome to see this completely new Doctor and finally receive answers to questions that Whovians have been asking for years. With regards to this, one of the best moments of the entire episode had to be the moment Matt Smith stepped out of the Tardis and took his place in the line up of all of the Doctors.
I can imagine that in however many years time that moment will still be an iconic image of how amazing this show is, not just as an example of great story telling, or production, but in the messages it get across and how relatable, connecting and inspiring it is.

Although some people may say its just a geeky television show, why do people get all dressed up and make such a fuss over it, as I said earlier on, it was aired in over 70 countries, there are that many people out there who wanted to see this special episode and to enjoy it at the same time as everyone else. That means that there were people having to stay up into the early hours of the night, or waking up really early, or taking time out in the middle of the day, to be able to watch it.

Kind of shows you just how good it is and how much it means to people.

It was well worth the wait to see tonight's episode, again there's not much I can say but it was amazing, the best episode to date. Christmas day, and the next episode can't come quick enough.

Observations

There have been a few things that I've noticed this week that I thought I'd just put out there and talk about because they're common things but I don't think people notice they do it that much.

The first of these observations came earlier today whilst driving back from my relatives. If your a fan of Michael McIntyre you may have heard him talk about this before. We were driving along a very long straight road in a queue of about six cars, stuck behind this slow lorry. In order to get out of this situation people were obviously having to wait for the other side of the road to be empty and then over take. On this particular stretch of road however car number five in this queue got really impatient, and in the first opening of free road attempted to over take not only the lorry but the other four cars in front of him too. Up until the point that he realised that the car coming the other way would hit him before he could fully overtake and so would have to pull back into the queue.

Now this for many is probably a thing that happens quite regularly, the observation that I made was how I felt about this situation, more specifically the impatient driver. In that instance I was hoping the drivers up ahead would not allow him back in, in a 'you've made your bed now lay on it' kind of moment. Realising I was thinking this I immediately reassured myself that I didn't wish any ha to come to anyone, but I was still hoping that this person would get some kind of comeuppance for this bold move.

The other observation I made this weekend was in relation to TV programmes, more specifically Strictly come dancing and X-factor, and how opinionated we as a people are even if we don't really have an understanding about what we are voicing our opinions on. I'll add quickly that i'm all for free speech and stuff like that, but there's a difference between voicing your opinion for the sake of it and actually adding something to an argument.

There are members of my family that do seem to know what they're are talking about when it comes to the techniques of dancing/singing, etc....but there are also others who just judge the performances on how they look, rather than on that persons talent.

I don't have a real reason for wanted to bring these two observations up, they just show off some unusual and sometimes unnoticed traits that people have, and because I know these are pretty come traits throughout the country. The second one I know first hand happens in most homes on a Saturday evening, and for a comedian such as Michael McIntyre to make a joke about the first observation it has to be pretty relatable.

Just a quick view here into how my mind works and the kind of things I think about.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary

Only one more week until the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who! As this is going to be a special one off episode and because its the only Doctor Who we're going to have for a while, I made the active choice to try and not see or read anything about this episode and just watch it with a clean view next week.

With all special episodes such as this, there always tends to be a lot of rumours running around about who will be appearing and what their role will be, as well as there often being some leaked information about the plot or said guest roles. Although I usually don't actively seek out this information about new TV programmes or movies or such, if I see it I do like to have a read and hear about what's going on. When it comes to this episode however, as I've said its a particularly special one and the only episode for a while, I didn't want to potentials spoil anything for myself or uncover to much.

All of this work has been undone somewhat over the last couple of days however, due to a short prequel that I saw online and a small clip shown on last nights Children in Need. Having known almost nothing about the actual plot of the episode, these two clips have left me very confused about what is going to happen, and although what I saw looked great, it probably would have been better to have averted my eyes when they were playing. I've mainly just been left asking myself who certain characters were and why I was being shown those events.
Luckily the show is only a week away and so don't have to wait too long to find out the answers, would have been horrible if I had been watching these several months ago and had to wait ages for it to come out.

I've already started to make plans for next weeks airing, where I'll probably be sat watching the episode legally online, several minutes after it is aired as to not need a TV licence, with some dinner that I've treated myself too, with no worries about coursework or such, able to happily sit back and enjoy the episode.

Is it Christmas time again?!

Is it really that time of the year again?! I know that for a few weeks now shops have slowly been sneaking in all of the christmas type food and gifts products, but I've so far been putting that down to them being very organised, whilst at the same time just keeping myself in a state of denial so that I can keep in my productive, got to get university coursework done state of mind.

Even if whilst walking round Tesco's the aisles of christmas stuff is staring me in the face, shops are usually the first places where you notice christmas stuff anyway so you know its still some way off. This week however I've been noticing other christmasy characteristics popping up, namely christmas lights being put up in the high street, the switching on of these lights in the usual light switching on ceremony kind of way, and the infamous christmas tv adverts. Oddly the first christmasy advert I saw was actually for Disneyland Paris and their christmas parade, in which they make the point that they know people like celebrating christmas earlier each year and so they have started their christmas festivities earlier this year to satisfy these peoples needs.

This week I have also had several family members ringing up or texting, asking for me to supply them with a long list of things that I would like for christmas. Again this could be a sign that people are just trying to be extra organised instead of that christmas is really close, but its still another christmas related thing that has popped up. As i have almost finished another piece of coursework, and it is Sunday tomorrow, I will probably take the day off and actually spend it surfing the internet looking for things to add to this christmas wish list. The only problem this raises however, and this happens almost every year, is that if I'm on ebay or Amazon or somewhere and i see something I would really like, I may end up just buying it there and then. I know that I shouldn't and I should just add it to my list, but I'm now so used to being independent in that way, buying my own things when and if I see them and being able to shift around and 'find' money so I can get the things I need, that its sometimes hard to leave it up to someone else, and also have to have forever before you get it.
That's one big thing thats bad about christmas starting earlier each year, you have to look up all of these present ideas and then wait even longer then the year before, before you receive them.
Thankfully I have not yet heard any shops, radio stations or other people playing christmas songs, that would be very early to do.

Hopefully people don't get the wrong idea from this blog post, that I'm ranting about christmas like some kind of Grinch, I do love christmas, its just that the lead up to christmas for most people is a very busy time, longer busier hours at work, coursework/ revision to do at school/university, things to buy, plans to sort out, etc... And by starting all of these christmas things really early, you have to make yourself ignore them as to allow yourself to keep productive, to keep concentrated on work. The result of this being that when christmas does really roll around, all your work is done, the chaos is sorted out, nothing is over due and you can sit back and have a nice holiday. Hopefully that makes sense and people feel that same way.

Even after having gone through all of these christmasy characteristics that symbolise christmas, personally for me, there is only really one thing that marks that christmas is just around the corner and that is the iconic Coke Cola advert. Again hopefully people understand why I feel this way towards an advert over all of the other things. Until I see that advert, which might be a while as I haven't been watching that much tv, its just another day, where its a little bit colder and gets darker a little bit sooner.

Whats happened to whistling?

Earlier on i was stood in the kitchen doing the washing up, and like most times I'm at home doing chores and such I had some music playing in the background.

After a few minutes a really good song came on that i like, and so as i always do, i started whistling along. Some people in these instances like to sing along to music, some like to hum, some dance, some do nothing, and I whistle. It was at this point though that I got thinking, do people not whistle anymore?

I have been racking my brain for hours now and apart from hearing people whistling at concerts or occasionally in a t.v programme, I cannot remember the last time I heard someone whistle in real life.

Your probably thinking, 'yes OK this is a good observation, but what's it got to do with anything?' Well when I was younger I learnt about this thing that people could do, that you had to learn to be able to do, something that not everyone out there can do, and I set out to learn how to do it, and I did. That thing just to remind you being whistling. It was something I felt very proud about having learnt to do, its one of the oldest skills I can remember ever having. Even today I rank it highly amongst the 'things I can do/skills I have learnt' along with several others like juggling.

Even though in my mind this is an amazing fun skill to have, I do remember the many occasions I was told to stop doing it as it was either; to loud, to annoying, or gave people headache's. So I do realise that for others this can actually be seen as a waste of time to learn how to do. It is due to this and partially due to just how the world is now and how it has developed that it feels as though this could be one of those things that is just slowly and quietly forgotten.

I do hope it isn't as I still believe its a nice thing to have, and to be able to do, its just one of those nice little pleasures in life. If it does unfortunately go the way of the dodo however, then at least I can say that I have learnt that skill and have used it almost everyday since.

MCM Comic Con

I want to preface today's blog with saying Owww...my feet are killing me. If you've read some of my other blogs you'll know that I have been trying to go to more events and conventions, having recently gone to a few since starting university this year. Saying this however, I was not prepared for what occurred today when I went to MCM Comic Con at the excel centre in east London.

From my previous experiences and what i know of other conventions, I'd created a kind of image of what to expect when I turned up this morning at the convention hall, however this image soon changed quickly. Hear there were a significantly more people, meaning everywhere was more crowded and louder, and there were several rooms spread across the centre instead of just the one big hall, meaning loads more to see and easier to get lost.

I was more sensible this time around and turned up early as I had anticipated a large queue for tickets. Now even though this was the sensible thing to do, it became quite a wasted act as I waited outside for ages with loads of others whilst the early ticket people went in, unaware that we could also go inside into another room and begin queuing inside. This meant that between me initially turning up and entering the first hall an hour and a half had passed by. Thank good we English don't mind queueing.

This brings me to one of the best things I've come to discover about these conventions though, and that is how nice people are at them. That might sound a bit silly but in fact it true. People come from all over Britain to attend this event, they are all hear to participate in the day and the goings on, and for a whole host of other reasons, and the people seem to get that. And so because of this everyone is kinder to each other, and take everything more with a pince of salt. This was put to the test numerous times especially when queuing when people were getting a bit cramped and claustrophobic, and getting pushed around when the queue starts moving.

Another great thing about comic con were the cos-players. I don't think a minute went by when I didn't see someone dressed as a character I knew, or walk passed in a costume that looked awesome and must have taken ages to put together. It was also fun and nice to see families going along who were dressed in costumes to match each other I.e the avengers, an away team from star trek.... This in fact reminds me of an amazing sight I saw today and that was a group of young adults sat around a table having food, dressed as the avengers, just like the 'real' Avengers at the end the Avengers film...Only at Comic Con.

All in all today was a really good day, merch as far as the eye could see, although I ended up holding onto my money this time as the things I really wanted were just a bit out of my student budget. Plus i also got to see Alexis Cruz who played Skaara in the film and t.v versions of Stargate, which is one of my top favourite sci-fi programmes. If anyone's out there wonder if they should ever go i'd say yes, if you like games, films, TV, comics, having fun, or just want a great day out them this is the place to go
I know I'll definitely be going again next year.

Looking forward to coursework??

This week is another first for university related stuff, specifically with regards to doing essays and coursework.

Earlier on in the week we began to receive our first warnings of impending coursework deadlines. Due to this I felt that it was about time I dig into my pile of papers and start the prep work for my first big piece of coursework.

Now you'll probably be able to tell from my previous blogs that whilst I was studying at Sheffield Hallam I was never that enthusiastic when it came to getting my coursework done. Here at UEL though we're doing completely different and very interesting module topics, to the point that they've actually brought back that spark for learning and make me want to do work, and sometimes even do additional work so I have a wider more rounded knowledge on the subject.

This weeks big piece of work is on Oral History, a topic that I've never really touched on before and has thrown out so many myths  on things I thought to be previously true about history sources. It has also given me my first chance to listen to history interviews and use audio tracks as sources.

Hopefully as this is my first piece of coursework at this new university everything will go well and I'll be on track for a good last year of education. These next few weeks are going to be very busy, work wise, so I've set my set a few targets to help me get through it. I'll make sure to put some special time aside though, just for these blogs, to keep these updates coming. Wish me luck.

Exclusive Ender's Game Q&A

Earlier on this week I had the unexpected chance to be able to go along to the exclusive Ender's Game Q&A at the Odeon in Leicester Square. This Q&A lasted for about an hour and showcased previously unseen footage of the soon to be released film, as well as the Q&A talk with the director and producer and members of the cast including; Asa Butterfield, Harris Ford, Sir Ben Kingsley and Hailee Steinfeld.

This was the first movie panel that I have ever been to, and it was in London, in Leicester Square. I was fortunate enough to receive a ticket to this event after entering a draw on the MCM Comic Con website, due to this I assumed that the tickets were something that you couldn't buy and also that there wouldn't be many people attending. Upon arrival, 20 minutes before the doors were meant to open, this assumption on how many people were attending was drastically disputed, due to the massive queue curving around the street out of view of the cinema entrance. It was at this point that I was sure I wouldn't get in and should probably fore go the waiting around in a queue to be sent away, however I stuck with it and was soon making my way inside to the panel.

If I'm being honest I wasn't really sure what to expect from a Q&A panel, my only knowledge of them is from several videos I've seen on the internet and of peoples experiences at conventions and such. They seemed however to go all out with the event, in the lobby to the theater were people dressed up as soldiers from the movie, there were costumes on show to take pictures with and the place had been decorated in the theme of the film. As an added little touch when we arrived at our seats everyone got a free drink and some crisp things, probably because they knew that with all of the queuing and waiting around some of us had worked up a little appetite.

Enough with the background info of the event, not long after we had got settled in our seats we were greeted by our host for the evening who I'm guessing had done this plenty of times before, getting the crowd all hyped up for what was to come. Before the cast and crew members were to appear, we were shown as I've said, several several minute long clips of exclusive footage of the film. As I'd only seen one or two short trailers of the film up until this point these clips really enticed me into wanting to see the film, they also showed just how impressive the film looks and the scope and scale of the project.

Still prior to the actual Q&A portion of the event, the host was regularly telling us to take any photos we wanted, and to make sure we tweeted them out, put them on facebook and used certain hastags, etc... Later we'd find that many of the questions were ones that were being pulled from people asking on facebook and twitter. 

When the cast and crew finally did emerge onto the stage it did take quite a while for people to settle down after all of cheering, and taking photos, which is good because it showed how much people wanted to be there to see them and hear about the film. I was lucky in another regard to this event, as I now had my new phone which meant that i could take pictures without the people looking like pixels. I still wasn't able to get amazing pictures as my camera doesn't zoom in all that well and there were often peoples heads in front of me, luckily though there was a big screen behind them which was recording them so the people at the back could see and so I was able to get decent photos from that, I'll add some at the bottom of this blog. 
As i said I did have certain expectations going into this event, however the Q&A far exceeded what I had anticipated, it wasn't just a here's a question and here's an answer type of panel, they were answering the questions but often going off topic telling little anecdotes or stories from being on set and things like that, allowing us to hear more behind the scenes stuff and just more about the people behind the film. Basically it was more informal then I had anticipated and that made it so much better.

After everything that I experienced at this event though, it being my first of his kind, it is definitely awesome that I now get to say that I saw/kind of met Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley, an opportunity that I don't think I'll be getting again anytime soon.

I've been converted, how good are android phones!?

I mentioned in last weeks blog the events that occurred which lead to me now having a new phone, and now that its a week later and I've had time to look it over and get used to it, I thought i'd note down my thoughts about it.

Having looked at the title I'm sure you can already guess where I'm going with this little review, honestly what can I say though, I've seen videos and photos of what this phone could do, I've heard about all of the features, but being able to get my hands on it and play around with it, it's a hundred yes better than I expected.

Part of this I will be truthful and put down to the fact that I have been running around with outdated mobile tech for a while now and so any improvement is a big positive.
Another reason similar to this why this phone is so amazing is because I now have access to and use apps. For me the main downfall of my Blackberry, although great in many other ways, was that there were very few decent apps in their store, and so as a result got used to not using any. Having this phone opened up my eyes with regards to this, there aren't just decent apps for the normal everyday things, its the fact that there literally is an app for everything.

Its very strange reading this back as I know in my head that I knew all of this was possible, I've known for ages that there were all of these apps and widgets and wallpapers and stuff out there available to people, its another thing entirely though when they become available to you and you can use them yourself, I feel very lucky in this respect.

Compared to other phones this one in particular seems to suite me very well, firstly because of the size, its bigger then my blackberry bit not massive like other ones available at the moment. Secondly its very Google specific, and being a person who loves anything Google related its perfect, furthermore I've heard that their phones often get the android updates a little bit earlier then other android users.

The only downside to this phone at the moment seems to be the battery life and that I do need to charge it up a lot more often then my old phone. I have this evening however changed a number of my settings which so far has greatly improved my battery life. I also this evening came across another reason as to why it may not be charging as well and that's because I may not have the wrong phone adapter as its not outputting as many amps as its specifies the correct one should.

Summing everything up that I know and have learnt about this phone, I feel that i have definitely made a great choice and will be happy to have this phone for the next however many years until I am forced once again to seek out a new one.

Eurogamer 2013, and my new phone

After all of the worry and hassle that I was having last week due to the start of uni and other things, I can easily say that this week has been a hundred times better. Not only has all of that hassle and first week chaos now mostly subsided but it was also the week of the Eurogamer expo at Earl's Court.

If you've been reading these blogs for a while you'll know that I discovered Eurogamer last year and went to last years expo, that expo being my first ever gaming convention ever, and I thought it was awesome! A year on, I'm a bit more up to date with gaming news, massive new games and consoles have been announced ready to be released soon, and ever so eager for Eurogamer to come back around, it finally arrives. Just like last year I again went on the first day of the expo, the Thursday as this was the quietest day of the four last year however this year things had changed. Upon arrival I was met with an hour or so long queue which I had to wait in before even stepping foot in the expo hall. With this new knowledge that more people were turning up this year, I made it my priority to head straight to the new battlefield 4 booth where I luckily only had to wait for an hour and a half before it was my chance to try out the game. Cutting this part of the story short BF4 was amazing, and although I only got to play about 20 minutes of it, I can't wait for the beta to come out on the first.

Spending the rest of the day either standing watching talks or queueing up for other games, or wandering around all of the merchandise booths resisting the urge to blow all of my student loan on the awesome t-shirts, memorabilia, prints, etc, I can once again say that Eurogamer was a success and has been one of the best day I've spent this year. The only problem now is that there is still another day left of the expo and so its not even a year yet till the next one, its like a year and a few days. Will be ready to book my tickets though as soon as the come out.

Another quite unexpected event that has made this an even better week, is the purchase of my new phone earlier on today. After surfing the internet for a while last night I came upon an advert on Gumtree of someone selling a brand new Google nexus 4. The very phone I've been wanting to buy for a while now but haven't been able to as Google have been out of stock. All it would take though for me to get my hands on it was a reasonable sum of money but quite cheap when talking about phones and a little trip to the other side of London to Watford.

This trip this morning added greatly to this week not only because it got this brilliant new phone that I'm currently writing this blog on, but it also spawned into a really nice day of riding the tube's, visiting new places I'd never been before such as Canary wharf, buying several new books, and getting my free £10 gift card at Waterstone's because i' d finally spent enough to get the ten stamps required.

Quickly reading this back, I know it may seem a little bit sad getting quite joyful over all of these small things, but who cares, being big or small these things brightened up my day. It was sir Arthur Conan Doyle that wrote "It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important", a little out of context yes but still makes my point.

Oh and for a last sentence to round off this great week, at Eurogamer I also got to meet Kim and Hannah from the Yogscast, internet people whose videos I follow online and really enjoy and was great to meet and speak to in real life.

The end of the beginning

Okay, so my last blog was a little over the top, I see that now, and with hindsight this week wasn't as bad as I'd thought that very first night. As I stated last week however I want this blog to be 'pure' in a way, don't know if that's the best way to describe it. I want to be able to write what I want, how I feel, and even if I feel weird about it afterwards, have the courage to keep it up and not feel embarrassed that its there.

There were a few problems this week namely that I'm still not registered on my course, and so my money hasn't yet come through from student finance, so I can't by anymore food, but that's really the worst thing. Moving on from the negatives though, one of the best finds this week was that I discovered an e-sports pub not too far from kings cross, which I urgently want to go and make a visit too. I don't care if I sound geeky there, its cool, don't knock it.

Talking about geeky things, I talked about this last year, and that is the Eurogamer Expo. Hopefully if my timetable pans out come thursday at 11 I'll be in Earls Court enjoying all of the upcoming games, surrounded by other geeks and gamers, what better way to spend a thursday.

On a more interesting note, I'm currently standing in Romford Greyhound Stadium, having made 7 bets so far, each betting a pound and every time I've lost, mostly by one or two places. If I've learnt anything tonight, its that there is no system, or methods to this, your either cheating, have insider knowledge, or your lucky. How do people do this seriously, or even god forbid, for a living, I'd be completely poor if I did this every week. Wish me luck on these next few races, if I can just win one or two I'd leave happy.
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Moving to the new uni

I feel that I should be quite honest with today's blog, and say that today hasn't gone exactly as I was expecting. Due to problems I had at my old university I did kind of put all my eggs in one basket with this new uni, and so far it hasn't seemed to have paid off.

One of the main reasons I think that day hasn't gone that well is because my anxiety has been kicking in quite a bit and its taking quite a lot for me to speak to people in this completely foreign place to me.

The other reason that today hasn't gone as well is because I had kind of assumed that per my request I'd be put into a flat with other third years, who a few perhaps would have knowledge of the area and of the university. As I write this half of my flatmates are actually here in the flat with the other two still to arrive either tomorrow or next week. The two that I have met so far I found are actually a bit older then me and have come to do there masters degrees, they are also of a foreign nationality. Although this is in no way a bad thing, I don't mind when any of the students are from, we've already seemed to have some difficulty when conversing. Again their nationalities and ages aren't really problems, I just had this image all built up and that's not how things played out.

I know I'm being really silly in writing all of this, and that for the most part its because I'm just very anxious, however I did think that I should be honest and write things down the way I see them.

It is just the first day, and as I've said half my room mates are yet to arrive, and I should begin my course in about a week so I should meet some more people then. Please don't think I'm nuts as you read this, its just the first day nerves the anxiety and the unknown of being somewhere I don't know a thing about. Wish me luck for the week to come. I hope all other students moving in this week have a great freshers.
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What I hope to accomplish in my third year at university

I know it sounds very cliché whenever you talk about time and how quick its passed, but I've once again had one of those moments when I realised that time again is running out, so to speak.

I'm about to embark on my third year of university, which means that two are down and there's just one left to go. Now I know that in reality not everyone's time at university is this thrill ride of going out all the time meeting tonnes of new people, and going to amazing new places. Saying this however you still want to make the most of this time, and opportunity. That being said, there are a few things I'd like to try and accomplish this year that will hopefully make it a bit more memorable then the previous. Some might sound a bit odd but oh well go with them.

Some of these include; learning to use the underground like the back of my hand, lines, station positions, to find a cool local pub/hang out, to get involved in some of the new groups/clubs available, to go to a premiere in the city, and to go to either a music or comedy gig. These are some of them, along with a few more, guess we'll just have to see this time next year how it turns out.

To think this time next week I'll be back at university again, having hopefully unpacked most of my stuff again, and ready to get back to lessons. Wish me luck for next week, something tells me that I'll need it.
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Why do so many tv shows get cancelled?

Throughout the summer I've had the opportunity to go back and catch up on tv programmes that I somehow lost touch with, as well as start watching a few series that I over looked when they first came out.
Due to these programmes having been out for a while now, I was lucky to find that there were plenty of episodes already out, allowing me to have a few tv programme marathons.

Whilst going these marathons, it was at this time that I noticed how many of these tv series and other programmes I liked in the past, either got cancelled and cut short, a few of these being; Stargate Universe, Lie to Me and The Dresden Files.
The Dresden Files came out about ten years ago or so, and I watched it on day one, waited every week for the new episode to come out, and then the season ended and that was it. The season that aired consisted of about 11 episodes, however I always thought that there were still more episode left but they just wanted to pull the plug early on it and so cut it short.

The programme Lie to Me, is one that I just recently discovered and was hooked on to after watching just one episode. What's quite sad though is that I looked to see if it was still on tv and on what season. What I discovered however is that it got to its third season and then wasn't renewed for a following season. Why this is quite sad is because with every episode I watch now I'll now that I'm one episode closer to it ending and there being no new ones left.

Some programmes are lucky in the fact that the no somewhat ahead of time that they won't get renewed and so can tie up story lines and reveal the plot lines in full before it ends, however with some programmes, such as Stargate Universe, seemed to have less time to react, and had to make the best ending out of what was available, however this meant that not everything was answered, and things were left unfinished.

Sometimes I just wish that all of these networks cancelling shows would forget about the money side of things, and would just continue to make the shows because they have fans and an audience out there who want to watch them. Hopefully there'll be another long lasting tv show soon to get involved in, and we won't have to worry about it disappearing after the first season.
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Update: Blogging, The Cuckoo's Calling and University

I've been feeling a little bit guilty over the last few weeks because I feel like I've been...I don't know if neglecting is the right word, but not been putting as much effort into this blogs as I used to. This could be because very little has been happening lately and so not had much to talk about.
Whatever the reason I would quite like to get back to doing the odd weekday blog again, rather then just leaving it til saturday and perhaps start writing up more of those reviews that I used to do.

With reviews in mind, I thought that I'd write up here that I've recently finished reading The Cuckoo's Calling, written as we now know by JK Rowling. Up until now I've never really been one for crime novels, I thought they were all actiony, odd shot outs, cliché policemen, but this book didn't have any of that. It constantly holds your attention, makes you think over all of the little clues your given again and again to figure out what's happened, and even the most unimportant of all of the characters are still made to feel like an integral piece of the puzzle.
If your not sure from that little quick summary, it was an amazing book, which has thankfully broken my string of not so brilliant books that I've had lately.

As I'm just doing a quick update type blog today, it wouldn't be complete without me mentioning university once again. This time however its more interesting exciting university news, and that is that this week I finally got all of my student finance sorted, as well as having worked out all of my weekly allowance calculations, I got through my university welcome pack and started to enrol, and I got allocated a room in the uni halls, although I'm yet to find out specifically which type of room/flat.
I also found out my start date and discovered that I only now have about three weeks of holiday left until I'm 'back to school'. Wow this summer has gone by pretty quickly, can't wait to get started on year three through.
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Returning to Scarborough

The title to this blog this week for me has several meanings, not only have I returned back to the town, but I've also returned back to how I feel about this place now that it's no longer my home.
I know that I have addressed this subject in previous blogs but as I've just said my thoughts and feelings have recently changed and I thought that warranted another blog to address these changes.

Having spent several hours earlier on today wandering around the high street, in and out of shops, dodging crowds of tourists, and soaking in all of the changes that have occurred since my last visit, I found myself thinking about how much I remember and now know about this town. The result of this being that I don't now know as much as I used to, not just about current news and goings on, but with regards to things like shop locations and street names and people who live here.

For some reason my mind has seen it fit to slowly start erasing this information, whether it be because I have been away for such a long period of time or because its not in use anymore and can be freed up for new information gathered from where I now live.

This I thought warranted a new blog because up until now I kind of assumed that your brain in some manner always remembers all of these things, and that you don't really forget, it's still in there you just need some time to bring it make to the surface. This doesn't seem to be the case here however, there are some things that after half an hour, after an hour, after two hours, I could not for the life of me remember.

This blog is more for my piece of mind, about writing down this new discovery of mine, but it would also be a nice means of discovery whether this is natural among others as well or whether I just have a really poor memory. If there are others out there wondering whether our brains are built like this, to permanently erase 'superficial' information, to free up space, hopefully this little record will shine some light on the subject.
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The National Archive

I'd just like to preface this blog by saying, have you ever just had one of those days where your unusually tired, a bit wound up and just want to stay in and spend the day on the sofa? Well today for me is one of those days, thankfully I didn't have anything on today and everyone else around here has been either out for the day or chilling out as well.

Talking about this, earlier on in the week I decided to have a day doing the complete opposite where I got back into doing more research work for my dissertation. In order to do that I got on the train and headed down to the National Archives near Kew Gardens.

As always, it was really nice being back in the big city, watching all of the hustle and bustle, and riding round on the tube.

This was the first time that I'd ever been to this specific archive, and the second archive that I've been to ever. Due to this I'm still not that clued up on how everything works and the order everything's meant to be done in, however by the end of the day I did have a rough idea. I think I'll need to go back a few more times before feeling comfortable about making my way around the buildings and ordering and handling the old books.

Although it was a really useful experience, seeing where the archives were and how things work, there didn't seem to be as much information on my subject as I'd hoped there would be. Furthermore the information I did find was within several very large books that I had to sift through in order to find the few short sections that were relevant to my subject.

Having discovered that they don't often hold individual letters and records but in fact they are merged together with other records into large collections, means that I will have to take a few days out at the start of term to go back to the archive and sift through another few select books and collections to gather more info. I'm looking forward to it though, more time in London and back into another 'school' type project.
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When does school begin? And creating websites

Ever since we begin our lives of education way back down in primary school, we have this annual routine of summer, christmas and half term holidays drilled into us. Furthermore we can often feel like we've had too much time off if we go beyond these designated holiday time periods.

With all of this in mind, the usual summer holiday usually lasts about 6/7 weeks, however it has now been just over two months since I finished university, and I'm actually starting to miss it and wishing it would start up again. This isn't the first year I've felt this way either, over the last couple of years during the summer I've found myself reaching a point where you just start to get a bit tired of chilling out and being on holiday, and you just want to get back to school.

What's even stranger about this feeling is that it seem specifically school/education type work related, like how it used to be back in GCSE's and A-level's when I had numerous on-going projects, folders full of papers, and spending hours each day doing work that I thoroughly enjoy.

Lately I have been able to counteract this feeling through the help of my mum starting up her old business. Because of this she's needed a new website being created, social media accounts being set-up and logos and headers being made. With my mum asking for my help in completing this tasks I've been able to put my I.T skills back in to use and have something to sink my teeth back into.

What's worry about this is, depending on what kind of work I get into after I finish university, I won't have school anymore after next year. Hopefully whatever line of work I do get into will be able to replace this feeling later on. Is this feeling just unique to me or something that lots of other people out there have? Not that long now till university.
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Trouble in paradise

Spoiler: this blog will be slightly ranty. As I mentioned in my previous blog this weekend my family and I have gone on a camping holiday. Now although everything with regards to the holiday has been going really good so far, it was sod's law that the night before we left on this holiday I managed to get food poisoning from some dodgy salsa.

Due to being poisoned by morrisons this mean that I spent most of the day yesterday asleep either in the car or in the tent trying to sleep it out and gain back some energy. Luckily upon waking up this morning it did feel as though some of it had passed however it seems determined to keep me under the weather and interfere with the holiday.

Having contractided this illness made me realise A) just how long its been since I was actually last sick and B) all of the little tips and tricks you pick up to deal with being sick, such as eating certain types of food, staying away from strong smells, drinking light non-gassy drinks etc...

Out of everything that this illness is impairing me from doing, I have to say the worst is that I've not been able to read as much of J.K Rowling new crime book 'The Cuckoo's Calling' as I'd have liked.

I think I'm going to have to cut this blog a bit short today as we're currently in the car going down some quite bumpy back roads and my stomach seems to be acting up again, so I best concentrate on that. I'll hopefully get another blog up before our holiday ends depending on battery life and signal strength.
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Lazy summer week

If you've read many of my blogs before, specifically the ones from about this time last year and the summer before that, then you'll probably have discovered my dislike for very warm weather.

Whereas the majority of british people look forward to summer time, a time when they can hopefully enjoy a few weeks of mediterranean weather, have bbq's and get tans, I much prefer the winter time. The main reasons I think this is, are A) because in the cold you can put more clothes on but in the heat there's only so many clothes you can take off and B) because when its very warm it seems to drain your energy to the point where you don't really want to do much leaving you very unproductive.

With all of this being said because of the number of extremely hot days we've had, I've been fairly lazy this week.
I remember this happening last year where due to the heat and not much going on, I seemed to get bored and sitting around the house more then usual. I am still reading books, playing games, getting the odd important thing done here and there, but I've started to reach that point where ironically I'm not doing much because I'm drained of energy from sitting round for ages. I know that sounds a bit backwards but you do seem to get quite tired and drained when your bored and doing very little.

Luckily having gone through this little phase last year, I know that things will soon pick up again and I'll get back into the swing of things in no time. Having seen that the weathers chilled out somewhat and that it could rain at any point today, things are already feeling more like your typical old british summertime.

Really cannot wait for it to be wintertime again.
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Going camping

I can't remember if I mentioned this in last weeks blog or not, but as we haven't been on holiday in a bit and because we don't have loads of money to spend out on booking hotels and such, my mum and sister last week decided that we as a family would go camping for a long weekend in a couple of weeks time.

Having spent about two and a half/three years working in Millets when we lived back up in Scarborough, everyone saw to turn to me for advice on what we needed to take and what they should buy for the trip.

Although we did used to go camping quite often, many, many years ago, my younger sister was very young around this time and so has very little knowledge of these trips. It was because of this that we decided to go back to our holiday roots and decided to go on this camping holiday. Furthermore, my older sisters boyfriend is also coming with us and he too has never been camping, so this will also give him the opportunity to experience camping.

Due to having worked in a camping equipment shop for several years and having done several of the Duke of Edinburgh awards whilst at secondary school and sixth form, I'm really looking forward to doing all of the camping involved activities again, and being able to put in action some of the skills and tricks that I learnt.

Hopefully this upcoming family holiday will live up to those old school vacations as well as the hardcore D of E expeditions that I've done throughout the years. Whatever its like, something tells me out of all of us I'll be the one most likely to survive if our tent gets stolen or shredded by a bear or some such thing.
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Getting back into shape

There are two times of the year when people feel the added pressure to get back down to the gym, get the weights out of the loft, get those rarely used trainers out of the cupboard, and to buy in the more healthier food in order to get back into shape. Those times are obviously New Years with people making their new years resolutions and during the lead up to summer, to look and feel better during the few sunny months of the year.

Although my reasons are slightly different to the people doing it to get fit in order to get their 'beach bodies' or for just looking good out in the sun, I've decided to get back in the habit of going jogging, doing more exercise and generally eating healthier foods.

The problem I usually have with committing myself to this healthier fitness lifestyle change, is one that a lot of other people seem to share. That problem being that your all for going jogging for the first few days or the first week or two, but then there comes a day when its storming outside so you decide to skip that days run. Several days later another thing pops up and you skip another days jog, and then you miss another one a few days later and eventually you kind of lose interest.
When you look at the number of people who make New Years resolutions to get fit compared to how many are still doing it come february, this problem becomes quite clear.

Oddly enough for me the eating more healthier part of this process actually feels easier then keeping up the exercise routine this time around. This is partly due to the discovery of a yoghurt type granola breakfast thing called Raspberry Rumblers, which I would recommend to anyone to try. Plus also if you work at Rumblers and are reading this, I'd be happy to voice this recommendation more loudly and frequently, if you wanted to send over a couple dozen 'free testers'.
Hopefully this time I'll stick with it and work it into a daily routine so that it feels more normal rather than something your scheduling in each day making yourself do.
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Job hunting

This week things in Letchworth seemed to have slowed down a bit, and that initial sense of 'holiday time' has dissipated somewhat. The main reason I feel this has happened is because of the turn towards looking for work and getting a summer job.

I feel that I'm quite fortunate to have enough money for when I start university next year, through having been a bit scrupulous and saving up over this last year. Because of this any money that I make over the summer will in a way become 'excess' money, money that I can use to do things during the summer, put towards less essential university things next year, or add to my small amount of savings, without fearing that I don't have money to pay the rent next year.

With all of this in mind, when looking for a summer job, I felt I could be a bit choosy, to try to find something that'll add something different to my c.v, or that will provide useful work experience for when I apply for jobs in the future.

After numerous hours surfing job sites, looking in shop windows and temp agency boards, not just this week but increasingly since finishing university, I've discovered that there aren't as many part-time, or holiday time jobs, as you'd think. Obviously because of the way things are at the moment, jobs are even more important to keep and to hold on to and so there aren't as many vacancies appearing as there used to be. Although this is a bit of a hiccup I'm going to try and persevere, and continue to send off applications and hand-in c.v's, hopefully ending in me getting something quite soon.

There is one big problem that I've encountered recently however, and that is my brother. As we are both out of university for the summer and both looking for jobs, we're constantly seeing the same vacancies and applying for them and so are competing over the few available roles.

Although there doesn't seem to be that many jobs appearing at the moment, it is still June, and loads of schools still have three weeks/a month before they break up for summer. Hopefully something will pop up in the next few weeks.
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E3: Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox One breakdown

I want to quickly preface this blog with the phrase, 'in my opinion'. As this blog is going on to the internet the realm of free speech, trolls and people with overly strong opinions, I know that people could possibly disagree with some of the things that I am going to say, and that's absolutely fine but I would like to have my say also.

All throughout last week out in the sunny city of Los Angeles the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 was underway. This expo for those who have not heard of it before is 'the world's premier trade show for computer and video games and related products', playing host to company's such as Sony, Microsoft, Razor, Alienware, and Machinima, just to name a few. This expo is the one event that any gamer looks forward to each year, it is most often the place where new consoles are unveiled and new games are announced and displayed.

Having watched many of the conferences held early last week, and having seen what news has been coming out of the expo all week, it is clear that this years E3 was the most anticipated and delivered the most out of any E3 in recent years. This was largely down to the unveiling of numerous next generation game titles, and the further unveiling of Microsoft's, and Sony's next gen consoles, the Xbox One and the PS4. This is where I'd like to stress again the point about what I'm saying is just my opinion. Since the unveiling of the next gen consoles there has been a war raging online, primarily between Sony and Microsoft fan boys about which console has out done the other. You can imagine the kind of comments and arguments being made online, at points it wasn't very pretty. Looking past these fan boy feuds however there are actually a large number of smart people, who sensibly debating about which one they see as benefiting gamers more and which they think they will end up buying.
For anyone that doesn't really play console games this is probably starting to sound quite odd and maybe even a little bit petty, spending time fighting over a console. Gaming is something that a large number of peple enjoy doing though and with the price tags of these console being quite high it can actually seem quite smart to way up the pros and cons of each of them so that you know what your buying and which one suits you best.

For me personally I don't see myself as a fanboy, I look to think I'm one of the more sensible debaters. With that in mind I wanted to put forward my views about these consoles and which if I had the money I'd want to buy.
We'll start with Sony's PS4. On face I think that the PS4 come out on top by the end of E3, it has a cheaper price tag at £349, with which you get the PS4 console with a built in 8gb hard drive, one of the new dual shock controllers and a Sony headset. The reasons that the PS4 seemed to end forward during E3 is because Sony as a company are still allowing people the sell their used games and you are able to share the game with friends just by giving them the disk. There was very little that I actually disagreed with that they mentioned during their presentation at E3, software wise and when it came to their exclusive game titles.

There were a few problems however that I had, firstly it doesn't look that nice, mainly because it's slanted. None of this is a major problem, but you are paying alot of money for it so you do want it to like good. Another problem I have is the controller, personally I found that the Xbox controller is better laid out and fits better in my hand, again not a major thing butafter a few hours of gaming you don't want your hand hurting or cramping up because the controllers uncomfortable. My last con with the PS4 is the fact that you know need to pay to play online. Although you have to do the same the xbox, the reason this is a con for me is because they seemed to breeze through this during the presentation, and for years have made this a main point over their competition, that they don't make their customers pay to play for friends online.
Overall there isn't that many problems I can see with the PS4 it'll have a higher graphics card then the Xbox providing slightly better graphics in-game, it's cheaper, you are able to sell your games once your done with them.... It just has those few cons that I listed.

Now moving on the Microsoft's new Xbox one. I have quite mixed feelings about the Xbox one, I currently have an Xbox 360 and instinctively thought that I was just make the jump up to the new Xbox when I had the money. The main problems that have be voiced in conjunction with the Xbox one are its price, the fact that you have to connect to the internet atleast once every 24 hours that you play, the fact that you may not be able to trade in used games and most importantly the new kinect. For me personally I don't really mind the price tag of £429, as with the Xbox you get the new console, one of the new controllers, along with the new kinect, so that kind of off sets the price. Furthermore the problem that people think Microsoft with use the Kinect to spy on you as you have to leave it on so that you can give it commands is a bit silly and paranoid I think, however if you don't think that'll happen you can either unplug it when your not playing or change the privacy settings in the consoles settings menu, problem solved.

The problems that I do think will have a large effect are that you will every 24 hours have to connect to the internet and the inability to resell games. For most people having to connect up to the internet won't actually be a problem, but I do know that for people in countries where occasionally their government bans access to Microsoft's up-link it'll be a big problem. Another way in which this will be a problem is for people who don't have access to the internet, on Reddit the other day a soldier fighting in Iraq commented that he in his down time liked to play the Xbox but obviously can't get internet access where he is stationed.
The other problem of selling used games i believe will have a large effect, partly on me as I tend not to buy too many games brand new and instead wait some time till they are cheaper or buy them used. This problem has however not yet been fully explained by Microsoft and so there is potential that come release day towards the end of the year, you will be able to sell off your games as before. Hopefully they will  change this, as it is this problem that is currently deterring me from getting the next gen Xbox.

It isn't all doom and gloom when it comes to the Xbox One however, they have a huge array of exclusive games coming out on their platform, the features built in to the new kinect look amazing doing things such as being able to read your heart rate just by looking at you, it will be able to recognise individual people and sign you in just by recognising your face, along with a few other nerdy technical things. The main reason I still believe that i will buy the Xbox is because of the more bigger picture issues. With the Xbox one you will be able to stream your game play off of your console straight to Twitch TV, helping content creators get their videos online easier. The Xbox in general also seems to be heading the growth of e-sports, along with the PC, something which I would love to see expand further and continue to grow as it does. Most importantly however as Microsoft is one of the big PC company's out there, I'm really looking forward to the fact that you will be able to integrate your gaming console with your home entertainment systems, watching TV and films, along with connecting it to other devices such as your tablet or phone, and possibly further connecting up to your home PC/laptop, essentially integrating all of your home devices to work with each other.

When looking into which of these I would want to buy, I automatically looked at them through 'the bigger picture' seeing which one I would get the most from not only just by playing games. As we know its taken about 7/8 years for these new consoles to be created, and so it could potentially be another 8 years again before the next ones, thinking about it in that way I believe the Xbox, allowing me not only to play games but to create an integrated network of devices within my home, is the device that I would choose to by when both of these consoles come out at the end of the year.

Saying all of this both of these consoles cost several hundred pounds each, and will come out shortly before christmas, the one time of year that people don't really have much money to spare, and so even having concluded that I would buy the new Xbox, I likely won't have the money to anyway. That being said both of these consoles were anxiously anticipated and even through their faults both company's have been able to deliver two innovative and unique consoles that will give people loads of enjoyment throughout the years to come. The update in console technology will also allow for computer technology to increase further and allow for even more immersive, innovative and graphically better games.

Hugh Laurie and the Copper Bottom Band live

After a quick mad dash back to the train station, I'm now currently heading back home, after an amazing evening watching Hugh Laurie and the Copper Bottom band play live at the Hammersmith Apollo.

It may be a bit unusual these day due to the amount of artists touring, and fans who have money and access to go see their favourite singers, but tonight was my first time ever seeing an artist sing live. I have previously seen comedies perform in theatres, but never got round to seeing someone sing live on stage. I'm not really sure why it's taken so long.
Because of this I never really accepted that whole thing of 'they're always better live' I just put it down to the hype and actually being there as they sing, but after tonight I fully understand now why people always say that.

Going with this theme of 'not the usual', now a days I know that a lot of younger people who go to see live concerts generally go to big pop type concerts, or to see their favourite chart topping bands and singers. Hugh laurie is quite different when compared to these experiences however. Firstly its primarily a blues concert, a type of music I don't really here that many younger/young adults playing much. Secondly it wasn't really a concert, it was more like a gig in a theatre, which made the evening loads better as the crowd was smaller, it was more crowd interactive, kind of more personal if that's the right word and we had closer seats due to the place being smaller then we thought.

Recently I've been wanting to a host full of shows/gigs/concerts e.g. George Watsky, Train, Lindsey Stirling, Imagine Dragons...... As I now have more money then I used to and so can afford the tickets, plus being closer to London, any of the American artists I like that come over, tend to stop off there whilst going around europe.

Tonight's performance was definitely something that could not be missed being a massive fan of Hugh Laurie, both as an actor and musician. As with all things awesome it's quite hard to put into words how good to was, but being my first live performance, this one's going to be hard to beat.
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British Summer Time

This blog might sound very small-ish but its another thing that every year I notice and its recently happened again. What I'm talking about is how British people act during those first few warm sunny days that signal summer time is arriving.

These first few days of summertime for me happened last weekend until early this week. Although there have been a few summery warm days over the last couple of months, it's now July, its lighter longer into the night now, people have started going on holiday, and so these nice days feel more like actual summer time.

What I've noticed about how British people see these days is that we tend to be quite fearful that they won't last and that they'll just disappear and so we jump at the opportunity to do loads of summertime things quickly like having a BBQ, laying outside reading a book, etc... By getting in there quickly and doing all of these things during these few days of nice weather, kind of gives us this piece of mind that we didn't miss out, and that we took the opportunity whilst we could.

I've never known another group of people who are so thankful for good weather and are at the same time so fearful that it'll get taken away from them.
Although I do like the typical scene of a warm day with a breeze, spending time with family having a BBQ, I rather more enjoy the cold and snow over the boiling summer days. The consequence of this being that I don't really suffer from this summer fear. Has anyone else noticed this, and is it good that we get out there straight away enjoying the weather?
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Moving back home

It has been a very long and tiring week this week. To begin with there was the intense periods of revision, preparing for my last exam of the year, ending in moving out of my university house back to the family home down in Letchworth.

As I've said before talking about revision and exams is probably quite boring so I won't go on about it to much. I did just want to say though that this week I actually felt quite fearful about my last exam, more then just because it determined one of a number of grades, but because this exam could single handedly determine whether or not I am able to transfer university next year, or whether I'll have to go back to Sheffield Hallam. As of this point it is out of my hands, so I guess there's no point worrying, I do think I did alright though, we'll just have to see.

The biggest thing other that happened this week, other then that dreadful exam was packing up all of my stuff in my house at university. I say this every time, but it always shocks me how much stuff I own, which at the moment is mainly books and dvd's, and about how much room all that's stuff takes up in a car to move around.

The moving day was even more hectic this time around as it wasn't just my stuff that was being moved, as we stopped off to pick up my brother and all of his things along the way too. Luckily as we'd both been packing things up for a few days before actually moving all we had to do on the day was pack it into the car which wasn't to bad.

Having packed everything up however, it that once we reached the other end and unloaded everything, the time came to unpack everything and find the room to store and hang stuff up. With me and my brother going back to sharing a room again, like we did when we were kids, there isn't as much room as we're both used to making finding spare room kind of difficult. There is also twice as much stuff piled up in the room then we had imagined, meaning its taken even longer to unpack then we'd predicted. As I said earlier though it's been a long and tiring week, and I think we're just about settled in and ready to start enjoying our time off.

For all of those people still at school, or going through their own exams, hopefully everything is going well, good luck, and just remember summers not that long off.
For all of the students just finishing education, I wish you even more luck on whatever now endeavours your undertaking, now your fully out in the world.
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Buying things online and Computer problems

This week is going to be another quick short blog, as revision and exams continue to take up my time and stress me out as they always do. What I want to talk about though actually kind of ties into the whole issue of stress and procrastination, and that is buying things online.

Over the last few weeks one of the main ways that I have been procrastinating from doing revision or finishing up assessments is to go online, on amazon, eBay, the book depository, etc.... And to search through these sites for things that I'd like to buy and then add them to my checkout baskets. Now most of the time this is harmless because I'm not actually buying them I'm just adding them to the baskets so that in the future if I have enough money i can come back and get them. Saying this however, I have been noticing an increase in how much I am actually buying online, but most importantly the amount of things that i have been buying that I don't actually need, so more spur of the moment/luxury type buys.

These things aren't massive or expensive things, just small items like books, posters, games....stuff like that. The reason I've been noticing these purchases more are A) because my bank balance has been going down alot, and B) because I notice now when I don't get post during the week. Having noticed this new 'hobby' of mine to buy things online, I tried to think about why I've been doing it, and all I can think of is because I've been bored. Is it bad that to pass the time I'm spending money and getting things that I don't necessarily need but will use or read if I had them?

If it's not then I guess I have nothing to worry about, if it is then maybe I could say these purchases are 'rewards' for doing all of this work and revision.

A small side note, a short while before writing this blog, my computer battery began to act up, meaning that I might possibly have to buy another one in order to get my laptop to work. Why do we never really notice how dependent on technology we are until things stop working and breakdown? I really hope that the battery is able to fix itself, or atleast just hold on for another week.

Is it okay to be single?

Whilst thinking about the subject of this blog I ultimately thought about the kind of people that might read it and how people would perceive it. After some time I came to the conclusion that there will be two potential groups of readers; the single people and the people in relationships, and there will be two ways of perceiving what I'm going to write. The first will be in agreement with me understanding far too well the things that I am going to say and the second will be somewhat unaware of what I am saying and won't really agree. Now of course there will also be other people with other views but for the most part this is how I see the majority viewing this subject.

In my life i have both been in a relationship and out of them, of which I am in the latter at the moment. In my experience when you are in the state of being single you seem to go through several stages; newly single where all you tend to notice are other couples, seeking relationships, where you do things like go out a bit more, try online dating and generally make yourself more aware of wanting to find someone new, and last but not least, happy single, where you are not in a relationship, but where you socialise and do things as normal and your fine with the state your in.

What I want to talk about within this blog is this last state. Through my few years at university I have come to find out stuff about myself, as you do when your a young adult leaving home and beginning to become more independent, etc... One of these things that I have found out is about how okay I am with my own company. Now I'm not saying that I'm going to become a total recluse and never go out of the house, but that if I have a week to myself alone in my house, I'm able to keep busy, get stuff done and not go a bit nuts because theres no one around.
Whats this got to do with being single you say, well let me put it like this, I have now been without housemates in my house for about two weeks now and although I'm absolutely fine, not bored or anything like that, I can guarantee you that nine out of ten times when I call my mum she will say 'I'm worried about you being on your own in that house', meaning it not in a safety way that someone might break in but that there isn't someone around with whom to regularly interact with.

This feeling of being alone has somehow become a bad thing within society, and that translates over to your relationship status. People, although I don't think notice they do it, tend to judge you on whether you are single or not, and make an impression of you from that information when in actual fact, its not that important. When going on a night out, the people in a relationship instinctively think that the single people will want to find someone to hook up with, to ratify this singleness, when actually your not, and your just there to have fun and hang out.

The reason I've been thinking about this subject, is because earlier on this week a girl my age who I went to secondary school and sixth form with, got engaged. This made me think 'shes my age, shes way further along that relationship scale then me, am I meant to be further along then I am, etc...

What I think I'm trying to get across through all of this rabble is that, singleness shouldn't be a factor with which you see people. Personally I don't think finding someone to date should have so much effort put into it, usually the relationships that work out best are the ones where things are easy, where the people met at work or school or in a shop where they weren't searching for it. Also you can't measure relationships, you can't say once your together for this many years you should get married, everyone is different, so are their reationships

All of this just makes me want to say, yes I am single as are so many others, but I am fine with that, no I'm not out every night in a club searching for someone because that's not me, but if someone came along, stood in front of me in a coffee shop, bumped into me in the library, was introduced to me as a friend of someone I know....then I'd always be up for moving forward and seeing where things go.
There is a middle ground to these things, being single doesn't mean that you have to be out there searching but it also doesn't mean you totally want to be alone, you can be part of both, happy with your company but still open to new things. Why does society have to make things so much harder then they have to be.

I should never re-read these blogs, I know in my head what I wanted to say, hopefully some of that got across through all of the confusion and babbling. To answer the question I set within the title, Yes it is, but its also okay to be in a relationship, its okay to do whatever you want to do, just do what you think is best for you.