Funky Monkey Man

The End of Funkymonkeyman Blog

2008-03-09T16:28:00.001Z

I would like to welcome you to the last blog of Funkymonkeyman-co-uk.

I started this blog for many different reasons and it was a wonderful help at the time but times change, I enjoy blogging but I think funkymonkeyman has run its course for me and its now time to move on to something new. I don't think its easy to end something that has been there for a long time in your life but there were a few things over the last few weeks that kind of helped me to get to this decision and one of them would be that I just hit my 200^th blog.

This is not the end of blogging for me and I have now moved to Booncunian, I decided to copy over my posts from funkymonkeyman as I'm not going to forget what I have been through in 200 posts but this blog is now dead.

I hope you enjoyed your time here and I hope to see you again in the wonderful blogging world.

See you later not good bye

2008-03-06T00:01:00.001Z

Today I say see you later to a good friend, he is off to teach English in Asia for 2 years or so. This would not be someone I know or have just worked with but a true friend, someone who I will really miss. I know it is see you later and not good bye but you know right now it feels like it could be a long time. I know he will have a good time as that is the type of person he is and I cant wait until I get to hear his tales of what he is going to get up to I just wished that the 2 years would just be over.

I was going to go out with him tonight as a farewell but my girl friend was not well, saying not well is an understatement. I have never seen her like this and I caused me great pain to see her this unwell and a lot of upset, it is noting serous but to see someone you love that upset and with very little you can do hurt me so much it was hard. Now she is in bed and fast asleep I'm feeling better, I glad the very little I could do helped and I'm sure she will be fine tomorrow.

love

2008-02-24T00:25:00.001Z

Just take this second in your life and think of the people you love, think of a world without these people. Would you be the person you have become today with out there love? Just remember love will set you free, love makes the world go round and love concurs all.

Von Bondies and London

2008-02-21T11:01:00.002Z

Hallo all in blogger land, I hope you are all well and enjoying whatever you happen to be doing.

Right I'm now this very minuet sat on a train going to London and the reason I have my laptop is to keep from going insane for the 3 hours I have to sit here. Now I'm off to the big city just for a meeting about audits or something of that nature (thinking I could have done with a little more research on this meeting). It’s nothing to big and I'm glad to get out of work for the day even if it is going to turn in to a long day. So you would think as I needed to get up at 6am this morning I would have been tucked up in bed at 10pm the previous night, well Ha you would be wrong. The von bondies were playing at the Night and Day and I had managed to get on the guest list even though the night had sold out and I'm glad I did as not seeing them live before I was very happy with the night, they are a great band and if they come around again and you spot they are playing it would be well worth £10 or so. So instead of being in bed nice and early I was in bed at a stupid hour and drunk but I still managed to get up on time and get to the train station with time to spare and then off we went. I'm going down with Echo11 and it is only for a few hours.

Back soon ......

Ok back o the train to Manchester and got another 3 hours to burn, got to the meeting just in time and it was ok, it is looking at a self audit for the department I work in but not just for us but for everyone throughout the country so you have to look at it from a company perspective and not just from the view of where you work. I had no problem with this but there were some who could not seem to see past this so we spent most of the day just trying to convince the small group in the meeting of this. So however much I think we had some sort of impact in this new aspect of the company it was a bit of a waste of time when we could have got so much more done in the time we had.

For some reason it has taken me 2 days to get this blog finished, I have just got up from a night of drinking playing board games, I was happy with my drinking ability after a long day but I did well and lost the game with style. Any way got to go to work, something about hours and projectors I think.

New films for 08

2008-02-07T22:50:00.001Z

Once a year we hold a big conference for the company and during this time we get to see some very new film clips and very new trailers, I say we but my self and the other super tech's run the event from the back so have to see the clips.

This year was a good one, well the good outweighed the bad.

First of the bat was a 5 min clip of Wanted, this is from the director or Night Watch and Day Watch and the upcoming Dusk watch. It has James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie and in a nut shell its about a group of assassins.

Imdb say's :

A young man finds out his long lost father is an assassin. And when his father is murdered, the son is recruited into his father's old organization and trained by a man named Sloan to follow in his dad's footsteps.

You can see the trailer online now and bit of the trailer were in the clip, the clip we watched was not finished and needed some CGI but god it looks good. If you have seen and of the Day/Night watch's (is that a word?) you should expect more of the same, its just action with a side of action and action for dessert.

Next Hell Boy 2,

We got to see a slightly longer trailer but not much different from what is online now, This film is going to ROCK as did the first one. I'm a big fan of this movie and it would appear that Guillermo del Toro has gone to a new level and still riding the success of Pan's Labyrinth he is doing well, if you see the trailer I feel like he has taken something from Pan's Lab when you see the monsters.

Wall-e

There are a few trailer for this film now out and the new Super Bowl add is wonderful with Woody and Buzz (from toy story). When the trailer first came out it look 'ok' and just 'ok', as the new trailer have some out I have started to warm to it and seeing the new trailer (which is not out yet as I spent an hour looking to show my girl friend) it looks fantastic and I bit of a change from Pixar. From what I hear there is no speech (well there may be R2D2 beeps ect) for the first 40 mins. Keep your eye out from the new trailer as it is well worth a watch.

Sex in the City

After all the bitching about who is going to get the most money between the cast HBO have finally got this film in the mix, got to see the trailer and my flat mate's girl friend wanted to know if it was any good, its just like an advert for Sex in the City, nothing more.

10,000 BC

Looks to be the new big epic film, with some amazing shots. Think of a world (about 10,000 BC) where there are sabre Tooth tigers and Mammoths run around like there are cars on the road! We got to see 2 x 5 min clips and it does look good, it just looks soo smooth and its nice to see what computers can do, looking at the clips you would think there is a company out there who rent out animal like this out there.

Kung Fu Panda

Ok to be honest I had been at work for some time and this was going to be the only time I got a small break as we had 45mins of footage to see so I did only get the last half of the clip, this clip was unfinished and only about 30% was good enough for the cinema, the rest was poor CG and even some was just still animation but I have to say the parts that I did see were very funny and full of action, ass kicking action. It did look like a Kung Foo film just animated. I think it will be a good film and they are thinking it will be a very big hit this year.

Mama Mia

A full 4 min clip, I think most people will know of the success of the theatre production so it was only time before this was made for the big screen, with Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth it is well on its way to the big screen. We got 4 mins and I will be honest its not the type of film that would really interest me but the clip was good and looks like it could turn in to a big film for 08.

As for the other films that will be popping up in 2008 in a big way, here is a list of films that you will be seeing a lot of.

Quantum of Solace

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Indiana Jones & The Crystal Skull

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Escape from Madagascar

The Dark Knight

Buda – birthday - pest

2008-02-03T17:10:00.001Z

So it has been a busy week and I week with lots happening, to start I think I will take you a week back and that would be last Saturday. I it was my birthday coming up along with my good friend brain splat we decided to go out as it was going to be a few weeks before we were both in the same country so we grabbed a few friends and out we went. We had a good few drinks down in the ouster bar and then went on to the northern quarter for a few more, I would like to point out the difference in price for a drink – Ouster bar £1.47 and Centreno - £3.20, that is a big difference!

So night came to an end and a few of us made our way back to our flat for a few more drinks and just like lads do we went in to piggy back mode and I have to say I was good at giving piggy backs, this cannot be said for Mr Moodie as half way through his legs just stopped and he hit the road with me on his back with a hell of a force, enough force to crack open his head, I came of better with just a good part of the skin missing from my knee and a few bumps. So after cleaning up his head we finished off a few drinks and called it a night. Getting up in the morning the realisation of the pain not just from the beer kicked in, ouch! But we didn't have time to cry about it as we had to pack as I was not going to turn 28 in the UK!

Budapest

Day 1

Monday to Thursday to Budapest, so off we went Monday and none of this early morning flights a nice midday flight, didn't even got off the ground before we had a problem, got asked to come to the frount of the plane before they closed the doors to find out case had opened, so after a bit of kicking and a strap the case was closed and in the plane, we got there for just after 6, we booked some where to stay with a back packers web site as it was cheaper, we did book something with a room to ours selves as we had enough to do so, so getting there we walked past the place a few time as it looked burned out! But a lot of the buildings did, so we get there and the blokes says ok you are not in this building, ok, so off we went to the nicest part of Budapest and we had an apartment, so we didn't even unpack and just went out, got some food and loads to drink and that was our first day.

Day 2

We decided to hit the first full day we had with a bit of force and get some of the sights done, so we walked over to Buda and headed up this huge hill to see the base where the Germans camped during WWII but now there is a peace monument, it looked like it was not far away and it was not in a horizontal sense it was just miles away in a vertical sense, but after stopping a few time and taking in some of the views we made it, then we headed down the other side and on to Margrot island which sits in the River Danube between Buda and Pest. This was a beautiful place and it was odd how quite it was, so after pottering round a little we made it in to Pest and got something to eat. So after I tried to pay about 17000 florint instead of 7000 (the 1000 and 10000 look the same) we had to get a few bits and then we made our way back down Pest to out apartment so we could get changed and then out for some nice food and today was my Birthday! Yes it had to come at some point and this time round I hit the Big 28, ok 28 is not a big one but hey, so we went out to a place called ... nope cant remember... and it was a fantastic meal (and cheap) and then we went on for a few more drinks. What a day, I was completely knackered but we got so much done and it was just a wonderful day and one I will remember.

Day 3

As we had got a lot of things done yesterday it was nice to take it easy and my legs were very grateful, we went to the statue park on the out skirts of Buda. This park as a lot of statues from the communist era of Hungary's past, they got all these statues in one place as there was a fear of them being destroyed as did the statue of Starlin and all that remains is his boots. This was the first day we had a go at the public transport system and you know it was good, you buy a ticket (well we got 10) and each tickets is valid for one trip, no matter where you are going or how far it is just one ticket! So it was a bit of a trip but well worth it, its not a massive park but its interesting to see all these statues. We headed back to Pest as we wanted to go to one of the thermal baths, these baths are heated from thermal vents and the baths are outside, so once you have got changed you get you towel and flip-flops and you head out side, it was about 3°C outside which is not very warm but that was fine as it was about 28-30°C in the baths, there we 2 so after some time we thought we would try the other one which was about 25 meters away, so we got out and buy the time I got to the other pool my shorts had started to freeze it was that cold outside. It was wonderful, being outside in the cold in really hot outside pool with the steam and mist just sitting above the water, that has to be a must for anyone going to Budapest. For the evening we went out to a restraint in Buda just next to chain bridge as recommended but Mr Moodie, after that we had a few drinks in a bar just round the corner but decided to head to a bar near our apartment. So we walked back and went to this wonderful bar, it had big bowls of monkey nuts everywhere and hey on the floor and a really good live band, they also had things stuck on the walls and posts and ceiling, when i say things I mean anything you can think of, train tickets from around the world, receipts, bus passes, cig packets, anything you can imagine. So I had to leave something so my City of Manchester card and my friends FatFreeMedia card now sits on the wall. It was a really nice place and was very happy we found it.

Day 4

And the day we fly out we wanted to get the last few things done we had up to now not had time to get done, so first was the Zoo and what a Zoo, it was like they had everything and more, it was a little scary as you would be walking thought and would walk was one of them display cases you would see at H Samuels and it would have some killer snake in, the elephant house at the Zoo looked like it was something from the 19^th century, it was beautiful. After the Zoo we walked down to the Terror Museum, this was interesting, this is when the German police had their base during the War and then where the Russian secrete police had their base. To give you an idea what this building was used for the walls are about 6 feet think so as people were walking by outside you could not hear the screams of people inside, it was a dark time after the war, if you were to have thought to have any contact with the German occupation during the war you would have been killed, if they thought you know something you were not saying all your family would be torched or killed until you confessed. There were cells where you could not stand up and one where there was just enough room to stand up and that's it. It was a eye opening place to visit and how ever disturbing the place is you should not miss it out.

All day I had not been feeling too well and at first I thought it was down to the beer from the night before but after sometime it would seem not, yes I had somehow come down with the flu!

Now to break up this 'Day 4' we need to talk about Converse. My first ever pair I got from my lovely girl friend last year, she got me some wonderful green boot converse and they lasted a full year but knowing I was going on holiday I needed some more, can you buy green converse now? NOPE, you can get them anywhere, it like they thought green was no longer for them. So I got some blue ones and they are really nice but as we are walking though the main part of Budapest what do I see!!!!!!! Yes !!!!! GREEN CONVERCSE !!!!!! so my wonderful girl friend got then for me, she is so nice.

Back to the day, we had a evening flight out and I thought it would be just as easy as the flight it but I started to feel very very ill and it turned the flight in to a long time and with the bad winds in the UK it was a very scary landing but karma smiled on me as our bags were the first off the plane and we were on our way back and I have been in bed since. Starting to feel a little better now and got a good night sleep last night.

Please have a look at my photos from my Budapest trip,

Ups and downs

2008-01-19T13:59:00.001Z

Its been an odd week, a busy week but it would seem a good week. To start I had my review this week along with the usual meetings and some training which had been planned for some time so there were a lot of early mornings, I don't mind some but it just got very hard to get up for the 4^th time that week at 7am which didn't make my mood any better that week.

As for my review looking back it went really well, I walked out of it and I didn't feel too good and it just seemed no matter how much hard work I put in or how many changes I had made it didn't make a difference (and I chipped my tooth on the same day) but looking back at it there were no bad points, at all. Normally with any review there would be something that you can improve on, no matter how small and this is the time it would be mentioned but nothing, I had glowing review on all areas of what I have to do. I did ask for more money as you should expect and didn't get it this time but with a view that in 6 months it would be looked at very seriously which is something to work for I suppose. Another part of my review which was interesting was the amount of things taken out, there must be 5 or 6 things that are no longer on their which was at the time a little strange but now welcome.

As for the rest of the week it was more work than life, think we all have some weeks like this. As you may have seen started to use the now word – blogger thing, its good but you cant post images which needs to be looked at, I'm sure I can just need to spend some time working it out and you can't put the labels at the bottom.

Even though it may have looked like a normal week for some reason I felt down, I don't think it is just one thing but lots of small things just building up to make my mood a down one, it was stupid as if I sat there and looked at what was making my feel down it was not worth worrying about. Stupid!

Word Blogger

2008-01-18T13:06:00.001Z

I have just found out that Office word can be set up for blogger! So thought I would try it out and see what happens.

Humm maybe an image

i should not be here

2008-01-10T21:44:00.001Z

Back at work and I should not be here, had to cover a shift that needed covering till 11pm. I did have a plan for tonight and it would have taken me out to watch a friends band play at the Night and Day, they were playing for some sort of contest and the prize was to get to play at a festival. It would have been nice as it has been some time since I had see this group of friends and I like there band. So anyway at work and here till 11pm, sure I mentioned that but it worth mentioning again, during the time I get free and this amounts to not a lot of time I pop out side for a bit of fresh air as being in one room for 12 hours it get a little stuffy, so after one of my trips outside I come back up just to find someone has been sick outside my door! Not nice and even now it has been cleaned away the smell give me that reminder. You know it’s not the fact its 12 hours in one booth or the fact its till 11pm but it’s just a little shit that it had to happen on a night I had something nice to do.

Anyway rant over let’s talk good things, I'm going to Budapest! Yep and I can’t wait, well I don’t have to wait as I go in the 28^th of this month. I'm only going for 3 nights but I'm sure I will have enough time to get everything done I would like to do, it a little birthday present off my wonderful girl friend.

Birthday! I will be 28 this time round but not feeling like 28, I think they are all just numbers and you are as old as you feel, my wonderful girl friend is only 22 so there is roughly 6 years difference but you would not even know, I don’t ever see it. So she is older than her age or I'm younger, well they do say girls are more mature than boys.

One thing I would like for my birthday is a new watch, being a projectionist time is very important and the right time is more important so knowing this I got a Kinetic watch never needing batteries ever and for the last 9 years it has done me well until about 2 months ago and the time would be wrong when I got out of bed, once the capacitor starts to go that's it as it no longer has enough charge to get through the night, but it has got worse, if I stop for more than 30 mins (even typing) it just stops until I start to move again. You never know I may get a new one someday, lets hope.

2008-01-10T20:52:00.001Z

So normal day to day, got up at 6am and got in for 7 as had a topshop conference, quite a simple event with nothing that was going to keep me entertained until I found out that the Richard and Judy show were doing some filming for their Film Club (I think) and as shit roles down hill and my boss didn’t want to get his face on camera I was up front and centre and got my little face on camera. Now before I quit my job and start the climb to fame this would not be the first time I would have been on camera. The ‘How it works’ TV show decide to cover projection and cinemas and I was the projectionist in that, there must have been hours of filming and doing the same thing over and over again just to watch it on TV and there was nothing of me! I'm thinking this filming may just go the same way.

I finished my Shane Meadows films with 247 last night, its a black and white film (I remember the mess to used to make of the projectors when I ran it) and like most of his films they are set around the north/midlands in poor areas. This one is set around a man trying to get a boxing club set up in a bid to reduce crime and to re kindle his love of the sport and what he had done at that age, so he invites the local Yobs and get this 2 groups of people who don’t like each other too much to work together. I have to say it is a good film and is what I have come to expect from Shane Meadows, but with this expect a film that will have its serous bits and you may not walk out after watching it feeling to happy but I would not expect anything else from this director.

Games

2008-01-05T16:54:00.000Z

I have always like computer games, from first getting doom on my dads 486 DX2 and spending days just trying to get the games to load by going through what was loading up and removing things you didn’t need. The first time a played another person was doom 2 but we had to sit next to each other as internet gaming was not around. But getting older and getting my own computer with dial up internet saw the first big online game and that would be and add on to half lift which was Counter Strike and seeing at was only on dial up it still worked quite well (avg ping was about 300/400!).

Now this was a fantastic game, for the first time you could play other people which was a nice change from the computer as no matter how hard it would try would come predictable. Playing on line you would have a small community and you would know the people you were playing with and you would connect to the same servers. Now for me the games continued from there like, battlefield (1, 1942, 2, 2142) Quake, Medal of honour, command and conquer just to name a few. There have been other just as good online games and even the American Army developed a game for free and it was a good one (think if you win big you had to enrol in the Army) but as you may see from the games I play it tends to be more shooting. Now the next big games would be the Call of Duty saga, we have seen 1 2 and 3 and now with the 4^th one out it was the last game I got and I have to say they have got better and better every time and the 4^th is amazing. The game (not on line) is not very big and after 6 hours of playing it was done but this is nothing to the amount of fun you can have online, I can play it for hours and really enjoy it, I know that Echo11 son plays it and so dose Brain Splat and many other no bloggers.

I'm sure I have been over this point before but the game industry is huge but I feel it is not seen this way. They make films out of games just like books, they make games out of films and the amount of money we will spend on games it huge. Now with broadband in every home and the gaming world coming closer due to the high speeds of the internet meaning you can play someone around the world (pings now down to 20/30) without problem.

For me the next big thing will be cross platform gaming, all pc users, xbox and ps3 will be able to play the same game with or against each other online. But with big and better games has to come big and better computers, to give you some example my first computer had a 800mhz processor, 128mb RAM and 40GB hard drive. No extra graphics card or sound card and all on a 14inch monitor. Now I have a 4600mhz Duel core (2 processors in 1) 3GB Ram (24x more) and 960GB hard drives and a 22inch LCD monitor and a 512 DDR3 Graphics card and this is what I would class as a normal home users computer. The good thing about technology always moving on is after a few months you can pick up good kit for half the price as the new stuff but you will never be cutting edge.

Music

2008-01-05T13:02:00.000Z

I am a lover of music, I always have been but a little like football its not something I fill my life with. I support Blackburn rovers but I could not tell you 5 players for the team and this is like music. My mind works in this way, if I like it a listen to it not matter who it is or what they have done in the past be it bad or good.

So 27 years of age and I'm only just getting in to Bands like Lead Zeppelin (much to Cinemec’s disgust) and I find it very interesting having Thom Yorke’s The Eraser album that he is in Radiohead. I know there are going to be some people out there who would not be happy with comments like this but I do think I have a good music collection, for example at the moment as well as Thom Yorke I have both Interpol albums on the go with the Physical graffiti (Lead Zeppelin) album. Also started on Piccadilly Records top 10 albums

1 - LCD Soundsystem : Sound Of Silver

2 - Panda Bear : Person Pitch

3 - Wilco : Sky Blue Sky

4 - Wooden Shjips : Wooden Shjips

5 - Speck Mountain : Summer Above

6 - The Shins : Wincing The Night Away

7 - Ryan Adams : Easy Tiger

8 - Kings Of Leon : Because Of The Times

9 - Super Furry Animals : Hey Venus

10 - !!! (Chk Chk Chk) : Myth Takes

And I would like to point out a little something I believe, you say you like music, you say you like a band. Have you been to see them? Its true anyone can sit there at home or on the way to work and say they are a fan of a band or artist but I would say you need to see them live! Not this can’t be done with some I admit, money, touring dates or even if they are still alive but there will be someone out there who you like and will be paying at a venue near you soon.

Dam tree's

2008-01-02T12:32:00.001Z

I did it, yes I got through all of Christmas without seeing one of those stupid upside down trees, that's was until I was walking home last night and just as I passed through the northern quarter I spotted one. Sorry still don’t get it, still think it looks stupid and still think the people who would buy something like this are trying too hard to be at the front of fashion or have something wrong with them. I am sorry if you have one and each to their own but come on, its just plain stupid.

short film

2008-01-01T19:44:00.000Z

Found this online the other day, Prey Alone. well worth a watch

Prey Alone

it was Christmas

2007-12-30T13:46:00.001Z

So after finishing work I set off down the motorway to get over to my dads which involved going over Snake pass which is not the nicest road in the uk, as I started to make my way up the start of snake pass I spotted a bloke hitch hiking. Now it was pitch black and teaming down with rain, not a nice evening to be out. So I pulled over and asked who he was and where he was going, I may never have picked up a hitch hiker before but I don’t care and we are doing it my way, so I was waiting for any answer that would have pointed out to me that he was some killer or something. But he was just a homeless bloke and was trying to get over to Sheffield, now think its Christmas eve at about 8:30, it dark and raining and it very cold, if you were in that position how much would you have been wanted to be picked up? So I did and we set off over snake pass, so after chatting I found out his name was Dan and he has been homeless for 8 years or so, he came from Manchester but has only been back there recently, he has been travailing around the uk. He has a family but has not contacted them for years and expected they had stopped looking. I have to say he was such a nice bloke, I real down to earth person. This also made me value what I had this Christmas. After dropping him of only a few miles from Sheffield I tried to give him a little money, nothing too much just the change I had on me but he dint want any which I respected. After dropping him ff I did thin about trying to find out where his family are and just letting them know I saw him and he is ok, I must admit I don’t think a phone call however short would have been that hard to do a Christmas eve.

So down to the exciting bit of Christmas and that would be what you get, lets be honest we all like to see friends and family but you cant say the gifts just don’t matter, I think I did very well this year, the big one which I'm really going to look forward to would be the track day down at Silverstone, I get to drive a F3 car round the track for the day, Cool. I also got a nice new bag for my laptop, which is perfect when in just going to and from work. I have a few more gifts which I love but we may be here for some time if I talk about all of them.

Well that's the xmas thing done for another year and sitting on the end of this festive time I feel like its been a wonderful time even if I thought it was going to be just a normal day, even with all the driving and having to run around at speed it was a very good Christmas.

it was the night before christmas and im at work

2007-12-24T19:43:00.000Z

So here I am working till 9 ish on Christmas eve, then I have got a bit of a drive before I get to relax and enjoy half a day before I'm back in the car for a few more hours. This is what I lave about Christmas, the things you will do just to make sure you get round and see your family and friends on this one day of the year without fail. It would have been a bit easier if I had some of the evening free tonight but its not like I'm driving to Scotland. Not Christmas day is a bit of a rush as I have 2 parents to get round and then a lovely girl friend and as anyone would expect they all don’t live on the same street and it will take more than an hour to get to each one so there will be a large part of Christmas day in the car but I have planned! Got an awesome playlist to go, going to keep warm, got my headset if I want to get in to radio competition, what else can you do if you’re on your own in the car?

But right now I have about an hour before i can get out of work and get back to the flat, get everything in the car and get on my merry way with my fingers crossed that the roads are clear, last year I should have turned back when I started to pass cars on their roofs but I managed to get through, just. So back to the flat and get gone. Even tho I'm looking forward to the next few days there is a small part of me which would be just as happy to get back to the flat, crack open a bottle of wine and enjoy what Christmas eve tv has to offer, may be its the chance to enjoy the time for myself but that's not an option and the road is.

I did get all my xmas shopping done in one day and the only gift I had planned and ordered from Amnesty international didn’t come! The only one planned and not just picked up as I walk around in town looking at everything. I could have done without that day but I did go ready for shopping so close to the weekend, so rap/rock angry music on the mp3 player and I ploughed through town only giving way to old people and prams. Don’t get me wrong I was not just hitting people I was walking around like I normal do but when you have a line of people coming at you with no gap for you to walk through I was quite happy to make my own. (I do come across as a rude person don’t I?)

Well 34 mins and another 10 on that and I'm out of work, until Friday but that's just half a day or so.

Well all I can hope is you all have the Christmas you want, if its driving to see everyone or you have that bottle of wine I was talking about I just hope its a good one.

Hey! Wasn’t that my idea?

2007-12-06T19:44:00.000Z

Hey! Wasn’t that my idea?

Hallo blogger from all over the world, how are you today? I hope well.

So one Christmas party, early start at work the day after, one big Short film festival later and I find myself very tired and ready to enjoy my 3 days off.

I like staff Christmas parties as I find it hard to get round and say hi to everyone at work as normally I have a lot to do so when the parties come along I like it, get to do some chatting and drinking and this party was no exception. There seemed to be a lot of throughing up going on around the place and I didn’t get any free drinks as I have another party to go to on the 11^th. The bad bit of it all was the fact I had to get up at 7am the following morning and that did not feel too good at all. The main reason I had to be in work at that time was we were doing a dry run for the short film festival we were holding at work, everyone who works for the company could make a short film and submit it with a chance of going to Hollywood! There were some set thing that had to in there and some things which were not allowed but. So today was the main event and what a hard day, it all went really well and looked fantastic and I know it was down to the hard work myself and my boss put in, I did get a massive bottle of Champaign for the work I put in today which made it worthwhile, not the booze but the token. But as I was just finishing off a few jobs got taking to one of the people I work with and he ask if I was pissed off, I was not too sure what he was on about until he reminded me of a conversation about a year ago, the company wanted more ideas of what we all could do for fun and my idea......what for it.........yes was a short film festival as most people who work in the industry I work in like films and that’s why they are there. The cheek!

i type them ,just need to post them

2007-12-06T19:42:00.000Z

Went to the Apollo last weekend to watch The Hives play, well it was not the thing that caught my eye as it was Dan Sartain who was supporting the Hives and he is very good. He played well but I think his guitar could have done with being turned up a little. The Hives were very good and the front man was fantastic. The only thing I did like about the night apart from one of the support acts keyboard player turning in to a spitter was the no re-admittance rule so once you were in that’s it for the night, not to good if you want a cig at any point, Smoker discrimination? I wish. Apart from that its been all work, topping out at 55 hours this week and it was a hard6 day week but things went well so tired but happy, will be more happy when I get to claim my hours back.
So me and my flat mate have a new bet, Kane and Lynch has just been released for most consoles and he has just got it for his nice new PS3, I'm going to get it for my PC and we are going to have a race to see who can finish it the fastest, now I think I have a good chance as not only do I have a few more years of gaming under my belt but I think the controls for such a game are easier on a PC the a controller. So all I need now is the game and time to play it, girl friends don’t like it when all you do is play computer games. This is something that I have started to notice about games and that’s how much people are starting to notice what big business they are, seeing the advert for Kane and Lynch it looks like a trailer for a film, the latest episode of Chuck from the USA shows the hype around Call of Duty 4. I think from a normal society the people who read books or more accepted than the people who play games for recreation.
Its Christmas part tonight, let’s see what work has to offer in the way of Xmas cheer this year as last year was a very good night in so many ways, I don’t think this night will be as big as last year but lets hope the less they spend on venue the more they spend on drinks. One down point is the fact I have to be back In a 8am the following morning, I would have been out last night if it was not for the fact I had to be in a 7am for an event. Rubbish!

i dont feel too good

2007-11-22T14:03:00.000Z

So my friend got back from a long trip the Asia yesterday so we had a night of drinks planned to catch up and what not. Now getting older you would think that you get wiser when it come to the old drink or two, you know like have something good to eat and don’t go out for a night of drinking when you have only had a sandwich for the entire day, I wish I had followed the rule. So only after a few hours drinking and may I point out a few hours of heavy drinking I was not the best and then started to feel not too good. So I gave the international recognised look to my girl friend that I wanted to go and up she was saying good bye and covering me by saying she had to at work the following day (which she did and is right now). So the walk back was only 10mins but my situation worsened and I didn’t feel well at all and I was quickly put in bed with pain killers, water and a bowl just in case.
I like to think I trust a lot of people but trust is not a simple as black and white, I feel there are so many types of trust for many different aspects of your life but when you have someone who you trust for every aspect of your life its a wonderful feeling, no matter how stupid you are or look or what secrets you have or the things you want to keep from some people you know as you want to have a good appearance its not very often in life someone comes along and you can open up your heart and soul and feel safe at the same time. I think we all want to feel safe in some way not matter how old you are.

2007-11-21T00:06:00.000Z

And my video's of the event,

Touch the Sky

Learn to Fly

The day I touch a cloud,

2007-11-20T20:43:00.000Z

So today I had the wonderful pleasure of touching a cloud. Think how often you have seen clouds in your life time, think how nice they look some days and think of how many interesting things they can resemble. Have you ever touched one? If you would like to touch a cloud all you have to do is get someone to take you up in a micro light and fly in to one which I did today. Now like most people I tend to think that the bigger planes are more safe and more of a smoother ride and I was expecting for my day in the sky to be a scary and bumpy one but this was not to be. Once getting to the air field (no thanks to GPS, I didn’t think a farm would also do flights) I was expecting a 20/30 min lessen in what not to do when up there but after getting out of my car it was 2/3 mins before I was kitted up and sat in the motor bike of the sky. After a few “don’t do this” lessens we say at the end of the air strip and waited for clearance to take off, now these little things are really like motor bikes of the sky. You ever seen a motor bike at the lights? As soon as the light goes green they are off with this is the same for micro lights, as soon as he got the ok we shot down this grassy runway like we were being powered by a rocket and within seconds we were up and up and up. I think most people have been on a plane and for me take off is one of the more interesting times, not good just interesting so I did expect the same type of feelings but nope. It was such a smooth flight as we went out to the cost of Liverpool. as we got there, there were some clouds which he was going to fly under as the last thing both of us wanted to see was a easy jet flight up close and personal but as we start to go under we flew straight through one which I did reach out and touch (with permission) we flew down the beach passing Formby (location of the lovely picnic last year) and then down until you could just make out the Liver building, then we heeded back in and passed over Magul before turning back for the air field. While up there I chatted to the man flying who was telling me how easy these micro lights are to fly at which point he took both hands off the controls, at this point I did close my eyes waiting for the noise of the quickly approaching ground but after a few seconds this was not the case and the micro light just flew its self, even with a bit of turbulence. So after about 20 mins we were back at the air field and starting our decent at a fast rate, with in mins we were quickly approaching the ground and in the blink of an eye we were down and moving back to the safe area.

I know it didn’t last for long but I can tell you that is an amazing thing to do, its not what you expect and is a smooth, worry free, beautiful flight in a wonderful place. I would recommend it to any one

Tim Burton to shoot 3-D Alice in Wonderland

2007-11-16T15:24:00.000Z

Director Tim Burton has signed a deal with Walt Disney Studios to produce two 3-D films, kicking off with a version of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

The film will, Variety explains, combine "performance-capture imagery" - currently wowing the crowd in Beowulf - and live-action footage. Linda Wolverton of The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast fame is penning the screenplay.

The second production will be Frankenweenie, based on Burton's 1984 short film about "a pet dog brought back to life by his loyal owner". It'll be a stop-motion animation production, shown in digital 3-D.

Alice in Wonderland is slated to go into production early next year, wrapping in May. Burton is currently putting the finishing touches to Sweeney Todd at Paramount and Dreamworks. ®

a new kind of tree

2007-11-16T15:12:00.001Z

I have a gripe, after hearing about this I had to see it before I would even believe the possibility of this being true. The reason for this is it just astonishes me how stupid things can get all due to the fact its Christmas.

It would appear that the new big thing this Christmas is to have your Christmas tree upside down, now I would hope as you read this you now have a slightly confused look on your face as I did when I first heard about this new idea. And I would hope like myself you still don’t quite believe what I'm saying, well here is a photo from the John Lewis catalogue.

Now if you do think about it hanging things from this tree would be better as they would have more room to swing or just hang as they are supposed to do but this not account for the pure stupidity of an upside down tree, I mean where is the fairy supposed to sit? Maybe this is the best idea for years and I'm just a little too old to accept the change but I will think you are odd if you get an upside down tree.

the start of 2 weeks off

2007-11-12T18:16:00.000Z

So I now have 2 weeks off, 2 weeks one after the other. I have never had this amount of time off in one go, ever. I'm now day 3 in and I'm enjoying it. You know I have not reall come up with any master plan for my time away from work but I have a few things I would like to do. I need to plan more.

So last week with work we went on what I thought was going to be a team building day, you know the one where you all work together outside of work which brings you together,.. well we went paint balling! And it was great.

I finally got my micro light thing booked for next week, its about time as I have had the thing now for the last year or so but now I'm going. You know you go up 1500 feet, I'm not too sure on how high that is but I have a funny feeling its high. But I'm sure I will be fine and I'm sure it will be fantastic.

Now Tuesdays is a big day as its my girlfriends birthday. Now I do wish I could do something wonderful like you hear of, you know someone taking someone away on holiday, or a hot air balloon ride, or a really nice expensive meal but I'm still on a semi tight budget and I cannot afford it. I could just afford to get her a SLR camera which she really likes, its not that I'm bothered about not having the cash but it does bother me that its not just me it affects. Now I know if my lovely girl friend was hear she would say that none of this matters and if it was the other way around it would not bother me in the slightest but I think we all know that you would want to buy the world for the person you love if you could

me!

2007-11-01T21:29:00.001Z

I have started to work on plans for Christmas presents and without going in to too much detail I ended up scanning some old photos of me, well I got someone to do it and it is not cheap if you want them doing to a good quality. But seeing as I have them I thought I would put a few up. Enjoy.

this week, that week, it all some sort of week.

2007-10-25T17:54:00.000+01:00

So this week has not been to good, im still battling the flu and some days I think im winning but some days this is not the case. as I said the last time I stopped by I had a meeting I had to go ot and I was not expecting much and I would have been mistaken. There were time during this meeting I was ashamed to work for Odeon, not the site I work at but to work in projection. I would say 60% of the people there were some of the most un-nice people I have meet in years and I would be more than happy if I never had to see them, talk to them or even know they exist. I know this may come across as strong but I cannot describe in words alone the attitudes of some of these people.

Having got a new laptop a few weeks ago I can now afford to eat seeing as payday has finally come along and non to soon as I was starting to think if it would be ok for me to eat the grass in piccadilly gardens (it does look nice), this payday would also include my beautiful and lovely girl friend birthday, I would tell you my plans but im not underestimating the lengths she would go to just to find out what im getting her, I think I have a good idea of what she would like and a few things she would not be expecting so we will see if that plan comes together.

Moving on I have a question, how many people walk to work and listen to some sort of Mp3 player? I bet there are quite a few out there in blogger land who do and I am one of these people, there is always a sound track to my walk everywhere I go, but for a change just try one day where you don’t! I know it may sound simple but I tried it the other day and the world seemed so quite, and that was Manchester city centre at rush hour. HA maybe listening to music day after day had make me slightly deaf, hummm that would not be good.

Harmonisation part 2

2007-10-15T22:31:00.000+01:00

So now Ex UCI and Ex Odeon have merged to become New Odeon the projection department has to become one in everything we do, this is from how we schedule staff to how the budget is managed. Over the last few months the power that we have started to roll out the changes to both side but from an EX UCI side there are not so many changes as UCI was a very profitable company and all things have been managed like you would expect a divers company to do but this is not the case of the stereotypical Ex Odeon. In the next few days I have to attend a meeting where they try to roll out some more of the changes they expect everyone to do. This would not be the 1^st meeting like this and the last meeting was very hard work. From what I could see the people tended to fall in to 2 groups, group one are people who are willing to change but just need to get their heads around how and what they need to do. The second group are militant people who are stuck in their ways and any idea which is not their own is not going to work and they won’t even give it a try. Being a person who has done everything they are proposing for many years there is nothing new out there which would cause a problem or a challenge but the main reason I’m there is to try and help make the process easier. But it is hard work as most of the people at this meeting are 10/20 years older than myself, I like to help out and I will do my best but there are still some tensions between the two old companies as you would expect from any 2 company who have been competing for years and years. All this is on top of the fact I have a horrible cold at the moment and seem to be grumpy. I think it will make for an interesting day.

Today I spent £3, all day

London!

2007-10-10T19:27:00.000+01:00

Weekend just gone had a trip down to London for a friend’s wedding but seeing as it’s a long way to go just for a wedding we decided to venture down there a day early and do the sights, so drove down Friday morning to come back Sunday. You I have to say that it’s a big drive so stopping at some point was always on the agenda but we stopped at what has to be the nicest services I have ever been to, it was a tranquil Mecca of happy people. I just this is what you get when you have to pay on the M6 Toll road. Anyway the drive was ok but a little busy once in to London and for some reason my GPS decided to take us past every sight London had to offer but driving through London is not the time to have a good look around as there are cars, bikes, people all coming at you from different angles all looking to get hit by a car. So once parked up at the hotel (glad I paid the congestion charge from the 5 feet of road I had to use just to get to the car park) off we went to get some sights is, 4 mins down the road and we were at tower bridge, then on to the tower of London, short trip on the tube to Trafalgar square, down past Downing street and on to parliament and Big Ben and Westminster abbey. Then we went off to Leicester square to meet up with some friends to have some food in China town. After that and a few drinks we went off to Camden Town to meet up with some more friends and have what would turn out to be too many drinks, it was nice at the time sitting in the street drinking wine but the morning after was not so good.

So the day of the wedding, it kind of went to plan, getting there nearly 2 hours early and then for the bride to turn up late meant I had about 3 hours in the church and I think that may be a new personal record or something, the groom looked a little nervous as the time started to tick by. That is where the normality of this wedding ended as my friends and his wife are both royalty to a cretin degree. He is a tribal prince and she is a princess from Nigeria (I think) and with that come the rituals of such a wedding and they were wonderful, apart from the kolanut which was not so good. This was the day after the night before where I vowed never to drink wine again but after a few beers wine sounded like a really good idea red/white what every was going. One of the nice things of the right was when you had to dance up to the bride and groom and put dollar bills on their heads and let them fall off, I know it may sound simple but when you have known this bloke for quite a few years it was a strange moment in our friendship.

So back to Manchester on Sunday with a little stop in Derby for my girlfriends nephews 2^nd birthday, that kid loves tractors, I wanted to live my youth through him and get him some Spiderman PJ’s but it was not to be, well I was not allowed! I decided when booking the time off for the wedding to get in a few extra days in as we come close to the end of the year so I got another 2 days off, good job seeing as the laptop I wanted came out and even after the trip to London I could just by the skin of my teeth afford it. I have never just bought a laptop out right and at these prices its no surprise but the last one I got lasted me for about 4 years so I think is a worth wile investment. And I would like to say that this keyboard is lovely to type on, it may even improve my spelling! One can wish.

How to tell when you have grown up?

2007-09-21T21:14:00.000+01:00

So knowing I was due some extra pay this month I have been checking out laptops for weeks and weeks finding the best laptop out there for me, everything from size and weight to the speed of the processor and front buss speed, size of the hard drive and making sure it would be able to handle video editing and odd game I want to play. Having owned the laptop I'm sat at right now for the last 4 years it’s something that will have to keep me going for some time. So I found it as stated in a earlier post, The Sony Vaio CR11Z/R and it’s the top of its range so my decision is set, all I needed next was the funds to get this wonderful piece of human engineering and that would have been today (even though the tax man took nearly £850 off me) so I potter down to the two shops in Manchester who have it in stock and I was going to play one off against the other until I got the deal I wanted as the cheaper deal would have taken too long to come. So off I went only to find out there is a updated model coming out in the next few weeks* with a larger hard drive and faster processor. * Now I say a few weeks but every where I look its due to come out ‘the beginning of October’ now for me that’s the 1^st but the sneaky people at Sony I believe don’t see it this way so I'm betting on mid October. Now to my point, think you have finally got the money to get that one thing you have wanted for some time, you have sat there just waiting to get your hands on the thing but now I could get more for my money, 10 years ago I would have got one today but I now find myself not and willing, if not too happy about it, to wait until I can get my hands on the better of the two.

I'm now grown up (to a certain extent)

Over the past few weeks I have had a lot of old friends coming out of the wood work so to speak, I went out with a bloke who I shared a house with 9/10 years ago, we also worked at the same cinema cleaning screen and the normal usher duties. It was really good to catch up with him for a few hours and chat about the good old days, I also had another friend from the same time in my life wanting to go out for a few, sat I'm going out with another old friend from Blackburn and I have a school friend who I have not seen for 12 years wanting to catch up. I'm not complaining and I'm looking forward to it but have I won the lottery or something? Maybe there is just something in the water.

Ok you may remember that I had some issues with my bank (That would be you NatWest) and there complete incompetence with home insurance and the loan I had with them, well I did get round to sending in a letter of complaint as the customer service I revived was below piss poor, please don’t just thin I wanted to vent me anger at them, I would in a very customer service orientated environment and I only expect the same service they would get coming to watch a film at my cinema. So one complaint was about the fact they were still trying to get money out of me for something that my name was not on and after informing them of this they then had wrote my name on the top (spelt wrong by the way) still wanting about £80 all down to the fact they could no longer find the person whose name was on the policy and all this was sent to my mums house and she was not happy, the next part of my complaint was about the fact I had tried to pay off a loan for 6 weeks and then they tried to charge me interest and fines for paying late and then put poor credit on my name all down to the complete failing of the loan department. So I hope you can see why I would not be a happy bunny.

So I got 2 letters back, 1^st would be the loan wanting more details back from me, they are MY bank, they have all my details and this is my reply, I also go along to point out that I would hope they would be able to check my details for a loan in my name and that I would hope there computer systems are to a point where they would save information.

The 2^nd letter back would be regarding the insurance, this one started off really good, they said they had sent a letter to my mum apologising for her distress and they would no longer be trying to get any money off me (ITS NOT IN MY NAME!) and that they have listened to my conversation (one on many) I had where I changed my address. Well not only did they get the address wrong but my mum received no such letter, the address they said I had changed to is 126 miles away from where I had moved to! Does this mean I had post going to Durham? In my reply I ask how can my bank who I entrust to look after my money not even get the small details correct like address and the spelling of my name?

To be honest I am not letting this go easy, I could just drop it but the amount of crap I got from NatWest during a very difficult financial time without any support has given me the right to give them a hard time during this time and im enjoying pushing the customer services as any one should come to expect from any service they get from any company.

I’ll keep you updated as im sure the next set of letter I get will be interesting.

Tech Blog Vista Vs Xp

2007-09-16T15:10:00.000+01:00

As you may have noticed I like my computer, there are people out there who don’t like computers or want anything to do with them well I'm at the other end of the scale. I like making web pages, editing videos, playing games, surfing the web, most things computer related. I thought I would give the new vista a go so installed it so I have Xp and vista in the same computer and just picked which one I would like to boot to at the start, I wanted to do this just in case I thought it was crap, things went well until 2 days in and somehow I lost the boot sector and my computer would no longer boot! Well for me that’s not a good thing, to be honest its not the extra work and problem solving its losing things like photos that is important to me, you can get back your music and you can go out and buy your photos. So I got a pucker copy of Vista and installed it and you know what I like it, before all you Mac users start to explode your right, they did sit there with a Mac and seal loads of ideas but what you going to do about it? There are some niggles like the ‘are you sure’ aspect, everything you would like to do you have 3 buttons to press to say it ok, I switched this off within minutes. The other problem was hardware, the only thing which is not compatible was my TV card so I had to get a new one for it to work. If you are getting a new computer soon I would recommend Vista as there would be no hardware issues and it a easy OS to use but if you are thinking of upgrading check out the Microsoft compatibility web site also the manufacture of you motherboard, graphics card, hard drives, TV card, sound card and any usb devices you may use as drivers still seem to be a problem.

So keeping on the Tech side of blogging I went out for some food last week with some friends, out of the 10 of us 3 had Mac’s (and 1 really wanted one) and 4 had PC’s (the other 2 didn’t want to going the Tech conversation. The topic of me buying a new laptop came up and we discussed what is the better of the two, PC or Mac? We all had good arguments but one thing that I did notice is how PC users tend to see why someone would want a Mac and why they are good but Mac users don’t have anything nice to say about PC, May be you have to be like this to own a Mac! Don’t think so but I did think it was strange.

Started to play Medal of Honour 82nd's First Airborne on the Pc and what a good game, we all have different interests and one of mine would be war, not just the killing but deeper than that, the friendships formed like no other and the things people have to do just to survive, I find it truly amazing. So I like war games, granted its not like the real thing and I don’t think it ever will be unless the game starves you, kills of some of your friends and puts your life in real danger but I still like to play them and 82nd's First Airborne is a good one, if you have seen Band of Brothers its like that just you get to run round. If that’s the type of game you like I would recommend it.

So as I said I'm thinking of getting a new laptop, the one I have now is good but it does not have the power I would like to edit videos so seeing as I may have a little extra money coming my way I thought it would be a good time to upgrade so I have been looking around, The one which caught my eye is the Sony Vaio CR11Z/R which RRP’s for £999 but after a little web digging I found it for just under £900. This may be a lot for some people to spend on such a thing as you can pick up a ok laptop for sub £500 now but this will keep me happy for some time (I hope) and I will sell the one I'm typing on now for £250+.

One thing I did spot (ok the Girl friend spotted) was how many bars now have free Wifi, one being the Trof! This is great news. Quite Sunday, Girl friend has a new book, I have some videos to edit and we both would not mind a drink, hey presto we are there strawberry beer in hand. L like this plan.

Ps i have no idea what is going on with my font, Blogspot is in German aswell!

2 weeks of work

2007-09-12T15:16:00.000+01:00

So my boss was on his hols the last few week so I got to do everything I normally do and everything he normally does and some more just for fun. You know it was hard work and it did take a lot of my energy but I did enjoy it, it was not just the amount of work which was hard but having that feeling that you are the one responsible for it all, if something goes wrong it may not have been your fault but you are the one who has to answer for it. In the space of two week we had the Superbad prem (see last post) the Imax bulb needed an unplanned change (£7400 pounds per change is a big deal) and a list of normal things that needed doing. One thing which I was happy to see was the support from the full team over these 2 weeks, it really good to see everyone working in the same direction.

So after spending the last few years going through a work harmonisation I spent most of the time not really thinking about it to the point it would make my angry/upset/pissed off ect as there was and is very little I really could do about it well it finally gone through, what does this mean for me? Well more money for starts and that would be for less hours (now salaried) that means I MUST do 39 hours a week or get them back somehow and trust me I intend to. Another good thing about going from hourly to salary is I get 2 wages this month, Yes 2! And some back pay! I'm sure I will be able to find something to spend it all on but it nice to get something back for once.

Superbad Premiere

2007-09-08T15:47:00.000+01:00

We had the premiere of the new film from Seth Rogen called Superbad, I got chance to watch it last week and I have to say I did enjoy it. We last saw him in Knocked up which was a good film but I think Superbad was better. Anyway we got to do the premier with a Q&A after the film with the 3 main actors from the film (Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and the night went well apart from some stupid question and a bit of a broken Mic.

Well after we did a good job we got some tickets for the after show party and after a long day it was a welcome idea to go get a drink so off we went. Once there we got 3 free drinks which was nice and what was even nicer was another 3 free drinks half way through the night, after 2 hours and 6 pints I was done especially as I had to be back to work in 8 hours and god did I feel rough the following day, rough but well worth it.

I think Cinemec had a good night with the Zoo Girls!

Happey is not the word

2007-08-22T22:59:00.000+01:00

Hi all. After my trip to the lowlands festival I have a lot to talk about and I'm in the process of getting it all down but one thing I didn’t want to miss is how I'm feeling. This was my first festival and with the threat of theft, getting ill and anything else you may through in there I was very uncertain what could happen. I was there for just 4 days but I have never had fun like that. I really, truly cannot describe how I feel, I will write all about it and to you they are just words but for me it will always and will forever be a time in my life which I will never forget. I think there are a few points in your life where something makes you happier that you can last remember and this would be one but another thing I didn’t expect was the feeling after. Remember without the downs in life there would be no ups! And the one and only down to the festival is that it had to end, and with that brings a little sadness. Also I like to think that after a good friend went travailing is part of it to but it hit me after being back for a day feeling sad that it’s been such a long time since a felt that way.

Having this blog for me means I can look back and see where I was and what I was up to and without meaning to sound beg headed its been a long trip to get here but I feel like one of the happiest people on this little planet, hey don’t get me wrong there are things I would change given the chance but it wouldn’t be life without things like that. It has been a while since I have written a blog like this one but me feeling stay the same. Love makes the world go round, without the lows in life we wouldn’t have the high’s, you have to be happy, and the list goes on.

Just to keep you updated got the good review, got the money, got the holidays, got the bank holidays, got less hours.

Night all

camping!

2007-08-12T15:58:00.000+01:00

Ok back to blogging after I may have forgotten about if for a small amount of time. Sorry!

Got to go try out my new tent in a pre festival camping trip up to the lakes last week, and what a nice trip. Jump in the car with all the things I thought I would need, spend 1 ½ hours on the motorway and then another 50mins in some of the smallest, winding but beautiful roads I have been on. I tell you any one could go without a GPS unit on the motorway but I thanked god for having it when I had got up there. There are so many small winding roads with no signs for miles and miles. Anyway once up there tried to camp next to Windermere (which we had just crossed on this cool little car ferry) but as you may expect in school holidays it was full so we heeded off another 8 miles to little Langdale (I think) which is sat in this beautiful valley. Having been in the city for some time now I was more than happy for people to look and point at the ‘City folk’ (hay I didn’t need a water proof coat just a brolly) and after putting the tent up in good time might I add we set off for the one thing I knew would be round the corner. The pub! After that things become hazier the more I think of them.

So after not the most comfy night sleep (dam the air bed) we set off to spend the day doing some sightseeing stuff, so back in the car, GPS on and away we go, headed up to Ambleside for some breakfast and then on to Grasmere for some traditional short bread and then on down to Windermere for a coffee or two. It was fantastic and a beautiful day to walk, talk and drive.

So had my review last week! How did it go? It went good, I think I did a good job and didn’t fall short in any areas. For every question they had I came back with all the info they needed, one of the bad point about doing well is they give you more to do and now do i. some things are easy and others are going to take a little more work. So after the last statement you could possible understand why things are not to good as after a good review, working hard for the last year I'm (at the moment) getting paid less that 80% of the team I manage, yep that would be right I have heard nothing about my job, a lot of chatter but no contract and no pay. For the last 8months I have made less money that the last bloke in this job and it look like I'm going to stay here, forever. It’s like the people who make these decision don’t mind its taking so long or that I'm now a little pissed off and earning less that the team I'm supposed to manage. I also have a feeling that the money they are going to offer is not worth it for the job, I know there will be some room for negation but I don’t know, I have a full feeling that it won’t be much more or less that if I was getting paid per hour. I don’t know, only time will tell.

So my week so far consists of doing loads of hours so I can have some time off to go to lowlands over in Amsterdam and I go Thursday and come back Monday and I'm soooooo looking forward to it.

photo's

2007-08-11T18:11:00.001+01:00

Get your hands off my beer!

Great bird life in NQ

Its a house, no bridge, hummmm bridge house

i like driving in my car............

The many faces of Darth Vader

2007-07-30T16:46:00.000+01:00

The many faces of Darth Vader

Hair cut and about time to.

2007-07-30T16:35:00.001+01:00

For a while now I have need a hair cut but I have not had hair this long ever so I had been reluctant but that time came as it was becoming too long. So while getting it cut thought I would get a photo or two so now you get to see before, during and after.

Maybe i'll shave soon!

Mondy Tuesday happy days, Wednesday Thursday Camping days.

2007-07-29T13:24:00.000+01:00

So after working hard in my new position at work its review time Tuesday, and it should be an interesting day. After the big take over what feels like 10 years ago we are finally getting to a point where things are starting to get sorted out for the department I work in much to everyone’s joy, now things are going well for them I think it is time I made a move on my job and what I can get out of it. I don’t mean to come across as selfish with all this talk of ‘what can I get’ but sometimes you need to spend some time looking at what’s on offer and just pushing and pushing, remember you can just ask, they cal always say no but you will never get if you don’t ask. I did think about the slogan ‘what do I want’ ‘money!’ ‘when do I want it?’ ‘Now!’ but with only myself singing I don’t think it would have the impact I'm looking for so I'm down to just plain old bartering. I think have done the work needed for me to walk in well informed and with all the points I think work in my favor so now it’s just waiting for the day.

As for this week I managed to get 2 days of which are Wednesday and Thursday so as a pre festive test I'm, with my lovely girl friend going camping! Thinking of Windermere lake but I would like to enjoy the sun at some point so it may be more of a weather based in to where we go. Thought it would be nice to get out of the big city for a few days and its perfect time to get that tent up other than my living room all ready for Lowlands! I can’t quite describe how much im looking forward to going in August and as a cherry on top they are showing Death Proof which was part of the Grindhouse movies, this is a Quentin Tarantino film and it was due to come to the Uk as a double bill with Planet terror (Robert Rodriguez) but the stupid Americans (no offence to you smart one’s) didn’t like it so now they will be coming out a separate releases in the UK but I get chance to see one of what I think will be two very good films.

Movie Watch

2007-07-28T13:15:00.001+01:00

So I have some movie reviews to catch up with as for the last few weeks I have seen some amazing films so let me share thease with you.

Harry Potter 3D

Manchester Imax is showing the latest installment of Harry potter on a screen 85 feet wide with 14,ooo wats of sound and I can say it is like no other screen you will see. Now I'm not the biggest harry potter fan and I would say the other 4 film have got better as time goes on, I don’t read the book and I'm not excited about what happening but I will watch the films. So now on to this film and what a film, the visual effects are fantastic and have come on a long way from what we saw in the first harry potter. The acting is well…still somewhat wooden from the younger members of the cast but again it’s a nice change from what I thought were card board cut outs in the first movie but now you start to see some life and emotion. For me this is the turning point in the film and they have now become something epic, a step up in the film world. The story is something which sucks you in and keeps you moving alog at some speed and just when you think you have an idea off it goes again. I think you get something different if you had read the book, I'm not sure of that will be a good different or bad different though. The 3D was good and better that i have seen in full leangh films but only the last 20mins, its still worth seeing it.

I'm 27 and have seen a lot of film and this was the first time I ever wanted to be a wizard.

Ok Next film

The Simpson

Well all know and love the Simpson, if you don’t there is something wrong with you as it been with us for what feels like birth and now it has made the big jump from small screen to the BIG screen and you know what, even though it’s the same length of 3 back to back episodes it’s a dam good film. I had reservations as for me it had to be something good and not what I watched on tv the night before, it looks different as its not in CGI but still holds 90% of what you would expect Simpsons to look like but it now has more of a shine to it, the story is good but not excitingly new, and its funny, even very funny but this is what I expected it to be. I cant see this film wining any awards and after a few weeks its will just disappear until you see it at Asda for £9.99 but I dare you not to enjoy it, just try not to.

Die hard 4.0

So he is back, vest and all. Its good, it is. I sat there and enjoyed all of it, its fast, explosive, funny and nothing new. I cant explain it but there was nothing there to get you really excited. Maybe that’s what they wanted. I could not sit here and pick any holes in the movie, good cast, strong acting, a true die hard story, enough explosions and gun fights to keep the most hard core fan happy, the sexy bad girl, the slightly unbelievable action scenes, car chases, John beaten to a pulp but still fighting. You see its all there and its all pretty predictable but good. I would not say this is a bad movie and if that’s what you fancy on that night go and see it and I bet you enjoy it just not as much as you would have hoped.

Transformers.

Well its been a Long time coming and this would be another of the films I have been looking forward to and after a shaky start to the summer movies no thanks to the fantastic 4 upsetting effort we see Transformers hits the Big and Digital screens.

If like me you remember watching the cartoons many many years ago you may have had your own Idea of what it would all look like as a live action film and from the first teaser trailers from about a year ago to the main big trailers I have been very excited to see this film and I did, not just any old 35mm copy but I got to check it on the digital projector which Odeon have in the Printworks, now there are films out there which look good on the DLP but some that look just like the 35mm counterpart but Transformers looks hart stopping, the so bright and color full even to the extent off when I was checking it in last night to a full screen when the digital kicked it there was a gasp from about 150 people, its that good!

Now on to the film, well I don’t think I have the words, for me it was a blockbuster, not a big summer movie a blockbuster like we used to get. Its been a very long time since I sat in a screen for 2 ½ hours and had so much fun and excitement. The graphics of the film are just awesome and at no point did I sit there and not feel any of it, the acting is surprisingly good seeing as they used some small actors from some major roles. Its wonderful getting you on the edge of your seat with anticipation and then pushing you back with explosive action scenes as you hold out hope that good can overcome evil. this was the most enjoyable film I have see this year and I would recommend this to anyone. Now I want to be a Transformer!

Lowlands 16-20 August

2007-07-25T14:54:00.000+01:00

030303
303 Allstars
Admiral Freebee
Abe Duque
After Forever
Air Traffic
Alamo Race Track
The Answer
Arcade Fire
Audion/Matthew Dear
Aux Raus
Basement Jaxx
Battles
Joost van Bellen
The Black Seeds
Blaxtar
Boemklatsch
Bonde Do Role
Brand New
Chatham County Line
Dave Clarke
C-Mon & Kypski
CocoRosie
Chris Cornell
CSS
Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip
Darko Esser
David Gilmour Girls
Devendra Banhart
Dinosaur Jr.
Dizzee Rascal
Eagles of Death Metal
Editors
Enter Shikari
Funeral for a Friend
Games in Concert
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
Goose
Groove Armada
Richie Hawtin
Hayseed Dixie
Heartthrob
Heideroosjes
James Holden
Interpol
Jack Peñate
Marike Jager
Jake The Rapper
Jamie T
Jimmy Eat World
Justice (live)
Just Jack
Kaiser Chiefs
DJ Karotte
Kasabian
The Killers
Kings of Leon
Klaxons
Lacuna Coil
La Kinky Beat
Laurent Garnier (Live)
LCD Soundsystem
Lily Allen
Little Cow
Loney, dear
Mad Caddies
Magda
Malkovich
MeloManics
M.I.A.
Mika
Moke
Motörhead
My Brightest Diamond
New Young Pony Club
Kate Nash
Nine Inch Nails
Noisia
Nosfell
Nour
Nymfo (live)
Oi Va Voi
Ojos de Brujo
Orishas
Pendulum (DJ-set)
Troy Pierce
The Pigeon Detectives
Polder
Pronghorn
The Rakes
Damien Rice
The Rifles
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Mark Ronson
Rotfront
Anthony Rother
Sandrien
Saybia
Shackleton
The Shins
Simian Mobile Disco (DJ-Set)
Sonic Youth
Tanya Stephens
Trentemøller (live in concert)
Tool
Turbonegro
Uffie & DJ Feadz
U.N.K.L.E.
The View
Patrick Watson
Andrew Weatherall
Welle:Erdball
The Whitest Boy Alive
Patrick Wolf

Movies:
300
Adam's Apples
Jesus Camp
Falkenberg Farewell
Air Guitar Nation
Glue
Red Road
Babel
Sunshine
Borat
Our Daily Bread
Die Fälscher
Night Of The Hunter
Knallhart
Unknown
Das Leben der Anderen
The Illusionist
Dixie Chicks - Shut Up & Sing
Interview
Rescue Dawn
Ex-Drummer
Q&A Ex-Drummer
Death Proof
Hot Fuzz

2007-07-21T12:50:00.001+01:00

Ok where to start.

I had last week off from work as I could have just done with some time away, noting sinister just thought it would be nice. Somehow I didn’t manage to get up to much, my micro light thing I didn’t get round to but with the rain the way it is who would blame me? I did fix my lamp! You may think small task but it was not, it nearly a new lamp after all the bits I replaced.

I decided to get a new phone, Vodafone were not good and didn’t seem to be getting better so I decided to go with orange, they had some good packages with a few extras to seal the deal. After they came up with their best deal I told them that there was nothing there to clench the deal and what else could they offer? Digital photo frame for free! Well that was it for me and I got it and it’s nice, very nice. The other thing which is nice is orange Wednesday, my work will no longer let me take my girl friend to and staff shows of the latest films (I think the next step it to take away my free films and even now I have to wait 2 weeks before I can go and see them anyway) so now I would mind paying for one ticket for the both of us, I know this may come across as cheap but when you have spent the last 10 years not paying for cinema tickets it’s hard to change. So anyway I went with the Sony Ericcson K810i and its nice so expect to see some more (better quality photos from me)

The other thing I did do last week was to book my flights and tickets for lowlands just outside of Amsterdam which I'm really really looking forward to, I think it will be a fantastic weekend, so now its all booked and I now have my passport (last trip to Amsterdam didn’t go to well, well it didn’t go!) it came time to but a tent and did a get a tent. One thing at a festival is 99% of all the tents are green so when staggering back from a day of music you spend hours looking for your tent so I got one with a little colour in it. I would love to show you a photo of it but I can’t find any and I didn’t take any when we put it up drunk in the living room when we got it which sound like a good idea at the time and went well, got to learn how to put up a tent drunk.

Big Boss Week

2007-06-30T19:29:00.000+01:00

Its been an interesting week so far, my boss is off so I get to take over for 7 days or so and make sure everything runs well, better that well even. It’s been hard work but in a nice way, I like the challenge and I have had a few to keep my happy but I think over all things have gone really well.

But after working the last 7 days and the last 2 of those days were 13hours I'm knackered, you know when you have to walk up some stairs and you mind says yes but your legs say no? Well that’s where I am but on the up side I have only got 2 more days to work this week before I get a week off! And what do I have planned for this week off? Have not got a clue but I can tell you I hope to be doing my micro light thing. Scary but think it will be fun.

So this is where this installment comes to an end as I can hardly see the screen through my sleepy eyes, only got 3 hours to go and I get to go home (even though I should be at a house warming to night)

S-Tones

2007-06-26T14:45:00.000+01:00

The S-tones are playing down at Academy 3 on the 9^th of July, I had chance to see this band play an acoustic set a few weeks ago at the Troff and they were fantastic and now there are playing something bigger.

Tickets are only £5 which is a barging in anyone book, get you ticket from their web site (paypal) You can also check out there myspace from the site.

Hope to see you there

Knowsley Featival

2007-06-24T15:17:00.000+01:00

So this weekend I managed to get hold of a few tickets for the Knowsley festival through work for free, I got to pick Sat or Sun but seeing as The Who were head lining on the Sat night there was no other day I could have wanted to go to. So the plan was to get the train to Liverpool and then the buss to the festival have a few drinks, enjoy the music, get the buss back to Liverpool and then back on the train (sound so simple in my head)

Myself, my girl friend and my roommate and his girl friend all set off and getting there was fine and was a nice trip over, thinking the event had only been on that day we hoped the fields would resemble as such with grass and everything and for the most part it was, we found a nice spot just down from the main stage and set up camp. Now trying to get a drink was just impossible, the web site said ‘ample bars’ but this was just not the case, people were waiting for a beer for what must have been 40mins so I opted for the next best thing Coffee! The weather was on and off, there was a good 10mins where I managed to get full use of my sun glasses but I hate to say I'm not one of these people who would keep them on once the sun has gone in.

We got there as The Thrills were playing and it sounded good, I’ll be honest I'm not up to date with their song but there were a few I sang along to, then we had The View and after that The Coral who were both fantastic. At this point it was starting to get cold so we had a walk and got ready for the final act. And at about 8:30 The Who came on and what a show, it was fantastic even though at this point the havens opened and our hops of a mud free exit disappeared (at this point I realized a piggy back was going to be in order and my girl friend was wearing jellies) but even with the rain it was awesome. Getting back to the bus stops was interesting as it must have been 6 inch deep mud and that’s where the piggy back came in as jellies don’t keep the mud out, so girl friend on my back, she had the brolly to keep us dry as I wade through the mud to the exit!

So the trip back we had 3 option.

Option 1 was to go back to Liverpool and get back the way we had come, but there was a replacement bus service which would have taken us 1:45 back from Liverpool.

Option 2 pay and get the buss back to Manchester but there were only 3 and we may not have got on seeing as we didn’t have tickets for that trip.

Option 3 get the bus to Warrington and get the train back to Manchester.

We left at 10:30 ish and got in line for Warrington just to stand there for ages as there was only a small road for all the busses to come down and most of the Warrington busses were at the back, while waiting one of the busses managed to get stuck on the side of the road in the mud which kept us entertained as it tried to get out which made it lean more and more to one side. At one point the easiest option to get it out of the way would have been to push it over in to the field. So finally our bus get to us and on we get after a speech from the driver on how its his bus and he want it clean just for him to try and get round the stuck bus, take the corner to wide and get stuck on the opposite side of the road next to the stuck buss. So now you have 2 busses both stuck next to each other blocking the only road for all the busses to get out. Now we have to get off and wait for someone to get both busses out of the mud. After 30 mins and most people thinking they could push a bus out of the mud a tractor came to our rescue and after 20 mins we were on our way with no chance of getting the last train. Bus stops, hand in air ‘TAXI!’, £40, back home! What a great time! Really! Fantastic day and would do it again

Bob Marley in Manchester

2007-06-22T14:51:00.000+01:00

To celebrate the 30^th anniversary of Bob Marley’s Exodus album Manchester Odeon is showing Bob Marley live at the rainbow on Tuesday 26^th at 8pm. Exodus was originally released on Friday 3rd June 1977. He recorded the 'Exodus' album in exile in the UK, having escaped an assassination attempt in Jamaica.

In the UK alone it stayed on the chart for 56 consecutive weeks and included 3 massive hit singles. Bob Marley was established as the Third World's first superstar, a legacy that survives thirty years after the album's release.

I want i want i want

2007-06-21T14:46:00.000+01:00

To go here, Lowlands

A year this summer

2007-06-21T00:29:00.000+01:00

I have an anniversary coming up in the next few days and it made me think back to about a year ago around this time, from what i can remember i was still tiring to sell my house and spending most days working, painting or drinking. It was a very difficult time in my life and i had to go through some things which i never thought possible. One thing which I did learn is how many people cared about me and what was happening, I like the saying ‘friends are like stars, you may not always see them but there always there’.

One thing which I do truly regret is my cats, I had 2 cats. I had a boy called Indi and a girl called Toffee and to this day I miss them. I do often think of what I gave up to have the Manchester life style but I tried to find somewhere where I could have cats but I don’t think it would be fare for them to be stuck inside or in a big city.

Around a year ago after spending all day painting I was relaxing in my garden (before I started work on that) when Indi came out of the house in a very playful mood. At the time I had made a few videos and it was something I was interested in getting it to as I enjoyed it so I took some footage on my phone to see what I could do with it. I did end up with something and I liked it, the quality is not up to much and it is something you have to stick with when you watch it but none the less I think it captured the type of cat Indi is.

The cats are the only thing I do miss and I am truly happy with me, my life and who surrounds me. I would like to thank all the people who helped me to this happy place. Thank you

Two days off

2007-06-16T16:51:00.001+01:00

Had a day off yesterday and at the last minute we decided instead of sitting in a dark screen for 3 hours watching Pirates of the Caribbean 3 we would go for a drive, where did we end up? Well in a place called Mostyn in Wales, to be honest it wasn’t a well thought out plan it was a just find the sea plan and we did, had a walk along the beach, had a brew, it was a very nice day and well worth the drive. Not quite sure why we just got in the car and went, maybe it down to my flat mate trying to get a car, seeing as I have one it would be a shame not to use it every now and then

On Thursday I went over to see my little sister who had just turned 16 that day! Wow 16! I know she is the one who is getting older that day but it sure does make me feel older. She had some of her school friends up who were a nice crowd but I did find myself trying not to embarrass her as I don’t think she would have lived it down. Due to her birthday most of my family came together, my sister came over from Spain, my brother from Manchester (Yes we do live next door to each other but you would be surprised to how little we do see of each other) and my gran. My sisters friends are all music loving and playing group, from rock to blues and they are very in to it much to my grans amusement, she could not stop laughing which made me very happy, seeing as she is 85 and there was a room of teenagers she did just potter in, sit down and start firing questions at them left right and center, normally you would expect the Old lady to feel intimidated but not this time! Go Gran! But I was the designated driver that night so drinking was off the books from me, now I didn’t mind until all the nice rum came out and everyone was having a merry time at which point I wish I had got the train, I would have helped if the weather coming over snake pass was better as well but it was not to be so a more than interesting drive home. But saying that it was still a very good night.

Movie Watch

2007-06-16T16:45:00.001+01:00

Fantastic 4 : Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Ok, this was the mind set I had before going in to watch this film. The first one had a lot to get in, build the characters, some sort of upset with their change to supper hero’s, trying to get the powers nailed down. And then all coming together to stop the evil person and it did have that in but just not in a good way.

So now I found myself forgetting how bad the 1^st one was and hoping they had seen what mistakes they had made and how they could make it up to us. Watching the trailers this film looked awesome, the silver surfer especially. But no matter how many people told me it was going to be a bad film I still stood strong and held out hope. How wrong was I!

It was like the same idea, each character had his or her own little problem which we got to see last time, there was allot his talk of them saving this and that but it never showed any of it. I didn’t think the acting was very good but I don’t think they had a lot to work with to make it good. My only good thing to say about the whole 1:45 was The Silver Surfer! He’s fantastic and probably the only reason I didn’t just go home half way through, his affects was flawless and I would have believed he was reel (if I was 8 years old). So all in all it was a bit of a let down, it could have been something much more and I don’t believe there is an argument for ‘they were trying to cover all ages’ as many films have don’t this in the past.

Action

2007-06-08T18:02:00.000+01:00

Wednesday I worked on a conference for D & DA, we did an event a few months ago for the same people and they had Dick Powell doing a talk on design, it was very good as they always are but this one had a talk from Hillman Curtis who has built web site for Yahoo and Adobe, he has started to move in to video now. He is good friends with Mark Romanek who has many titles to his name like One Hour Photo and a long list of music videos, he interviewed Mark and made a small video about it, Mark goes on about how he makes his videos and what he does to get the final version, he also goes on to say how there are many time when shot a and shot b go together very well without any planning. Hillman also talked about his video work and how he like to only have 60 mins of tape to use so he makes an effort to get the footage he needs.
After this event it did inspire me to make more of a concuss effort to get the footage I need instead of working around what I have, now I have done any major projects where I have had to plan all the shots out and come up with a good idea of what I wanted but after Wednesday I have had some ideas and I intend to get them in motion. I have a friend in a band called Islands lost at sea who would let me shot one of their videos which is a starting block but I may start a little smaller first and then work from there.

London Olympic logo

2007-06-06T23:53:00.001+01:00

This come's a little late after the event but i would like to bring your attention to the new London Olympics logo.

This cost £400,000. That is not a type O, i find it a little hard to believe that £400,000 gets you something that does not look very good, check out the alternate logos here (I like #6)

Manchester on fire, Hell fire!

2007-06-06T21:28:00.000+01:00

As promised here is a small video of the even on Sunday just gone down at Stevenson Square, hope you like it or just getting to the end would be nice.

As you will see i got some general footage of the day for all to see, there were some interesting people out there but the bloke at the end had to be my favourite.

Movie Watch

2007-06-04T19:11:00.001+01:00

Are we done yet

Ok lest start off at the bad end of the spectrum. Working in projection you have to watch films, good or bad and i can say quite happly this is shit, do not watch it, if you like to laught once in 2 hours go see it but if you have to watch paint dry, wash your hair, scrub floors or stand in a dark room with nothing to do this would be a more fun way to spent 2 hours than watching this film.

Imdb this film

A Room for romeo brass

This is another film from writer and director Shane Medows (This is England) and it one of the 2 film i watched back to back (2^nd to follow). Again this film is set in the late 80’s early 90’s around a very working class environment, it follows the friendship of 2 best friends and the introduction of a simple bloke who seems to be kind at hart. This is a good film, the leading cast is very good and has Andrew Shim how seams to follow Shane Medows in his films along with many more of the cast, Paddy Considne plays a awesome role as well. The supporting cast are floorless as well, they do make the film much more solid and help in the story. This is one of the best films i have seen this year and well well worth a watch

Imdb this film

Dead man’s shoes

Is again a Shane Medows film and follow Paddy Considne on a revengeful campaign to inflict the justice he believes is right, i don’t want to go to much in to the story of this film and i would even ask you don’t go digging round for info as i feel the story and twist of it were fantastic, this is one of my top 10 films, is gritty, funny, well written and just flows so well. I could not take my eyes of the tv. As for Paddy Considne he a very good actor from ‘A room for romeo brass’ and then this which shows what a change can do. I would ask you to go buy this film, now, stop reading grab some cash and just go get it, you will not regret it.

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I am the god of hell fire

2007-06-04T18:54:00.000+01:00

Went down to the god of hell fire thing in Stevenson square yesterday to have a good look around and what a good day, there were some many lovely people there and even though the queue of a drink was always 9 people deep it was nothing to put someone off. I managed to stick around for a few bands and got to see most of Peter and the Wolf who i liked, i would have loved to stay all night but i had a few drinks with friends planned. I did get some video footage of the event and i am in the process of putting something to getter as you read. One thing i didn’t like was they sprayed over the robot in the square, if you know the area you will know what I'm talking about and I'm not happy about it.

As for the drinks it lasted till 6am and you know when its getting ridicules when the sun is coming up and you still have a beer in your hand, cracking night but the trip to the lakes went out the window today as it was 3 before i even got out of bed. When i finally got out i wanted to take some more footage of the area affected by the fire which was fine until i got the entrance of the building work where i was told to stop filming! After i got my camera on him and told him i have every right to film and what it was for and that i wanted his name and his boss name he soon backed off with his tale between his legs, I'm a nice person (i hope) but don’t like to be pushed about and i will stand up for all of my rights.

I managed to watch 2 of the best films i have seen this year along with one of the worst so look out for them soon.

Movie Watch

2007-06-02T20:29:00.000+01:00

Hotel Rwanda

After watching shooting dogs I thought I would give this film a run as its based in the same conflict but got much more press. This is a bigger film with obviously more money and it has a slight American stamp on it compared to shooting dogs. It is a good film and is very gripping, it gets you caught up In the characters but also has a softer edge to it all. Out of the 2 films this one would be the one you would want to watch if you were looking for that slight glimmer of hope that good things do happen but if you can take it I think shooting dogs is the better of the 2 films. I thought it was a very strong cast and Don Cheadle was awesome and I couldn’t see anyone else in the role, Nick Nolte was good but he (for me) played the same character as Jack Cates from 48 hours and Another 48 hours.

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Movie Watch

2007-05-26T18:27:00.000+01:00

Shooting dogs

This film is from the conflict in 1994 when President of Rwanda plane crashes which start the slaughter of the Tutsi population buy the Hutu. Its set in a school where 2500 Tutsi look for protection buy the UN forces from there death. This is not a film you will come out of and feel good, good in yourself or the UN and there smeared look on what is right and wrong. After watching this film and with the ongoing conflict in Darfur you do start to think about what the UN should do and not sit there discussing problem while hundreds of thousands of people die for no justified cause at all. Having said you will not feel good after this film this is no excuse not to watch it, this will give you some insight in to the world and the dark side of humanity, not to mention the more people know about the atrocities in this world the more we can change it.

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28 weeks later

After the awesome 28 days later when I heard about this film I could not wait until I found out that it wasn’t a Boil film but a big American one. If I take away the bloke in front of me who had seen it and told his girl friend every bit which was about to happen and the bloke who answered more calls on his phone than I do in a week the film was ok, I think any film with fast moving, crazed zombies would be ok, I think it had all the makings of being a very, truly good film but just kept missing the mark. Instead of getting a really good story, good plot, well written they put some average actors, loads of cg and put it out there. If you like your zombies and have a free afternoon and there is nothing on tv its worth a go but only under them conditions.

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Movie Watch

2007-05-16T21:37:00.000+01:00

This is England

This film is set in the 80’s and being a from this time this film had some real felling for me. It looks at the shady topic of the BNP and how a young boy who has just lost his dad in the Faulklands get sucked in to this world without any real understanding of what this world is. Shane Meadows (director) doesn’t paint every skin head in the same light, it shows the spit in people when it comes to race and religion and brings some very difficult subjects for the time into light. It has a good cast with some familiar British faces and a story which feels very strong even if you don’t agree with it. The young boy (Thomas Turgoose) was strong and well suited for the role and I expect to see ore form him in the future. With a win for the best British independent film award to back it up it should be on for a little longer so get down to the picture house and see it.

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Movie Watch

2007-05-16T21:33:00.000+01:00

Lives of others

(Leben der Anderen, Das)

The film is set a few years and just up to the fall of the Berlin wall on the east side. It follows a writer and a agent of the secret police and how the life of this free thinking person influences the life of someone who has been put in place to stop this. It has some real dark undertones especially when it comes to the secret police and the awesome power they had just to make people disappear for some small thing or view. This is a wonderful film with a very gripping story, there are many many for filing moments and many moments which will get you raped up in the story. For me the film started off good and just got better and better, may be why it won the best foreign film Oscar. It was a very strong cast and a wonderful story which keeps you in your seat and a numb free bum.

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keyboard of the future?

2007-05-16T17:42:00.000+01:00

I have just found what could be the next big thing! I had herd rumours about this new keyboard but until i had a look i could not believe how good this thing could be.

It just like a standard keyboard with keys and everything but the one thing which makes the big difference is each key is made up of 48 x 48 pixel display, so you can have it looking like every other keyboard out there or you can have your very own layout. You could also set it up for any type of application from gaming to video editing.

photo's

2007-05-11T18:07:00.000+01:00

fighting at the printworks

2007-05-11T13:42:00.000+01:00

Found this on youtube (yes I'm taking credit) and it makes me never want to go down to the Printworks on a fri sat night.

photo's

2007-05-09T19:04:00.000+01:00

I like this one, it’s the bottom section which tickles me, don’t let your kids play here! Do parents really have their kids play in a construction site?

I want to eat here, just look at it, you know the breakfast will be hart stopping.

Movie Watch

2007-05-09T18:42:00.000+01:00

Science of Sleep

This is the latest film from Michel Gondry who has brought us such films as eternal sunshine of the spotless mind and the awesome chemical brothers video Daft Punk white stripes and many many more so I was expecting something that didn’t follow the main stream of normal films and looked fantastic and I'm glad to sat it ticked every box. The story is around Stéphane Miroux and how the normal world and his dream world don’t seem to have a defined line of difference, this is a wonderful film and where most of the main stream directors would have gone with CGI its so nice to see this was not the case here which makes the film look fantastic. The cast was very strong and the so was the story, one min a was happily laughing away the next I had a big feeling of sorry and sadness, there are some truly amazing bit in this film which should not be missed by anyone. I hope this film comes to a cinema near you (showing in Manchester soon) but if not it should be a sure buy for any occasion.

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Night in (out!).........In (Out!)

2007-05-05T16:40:00.000+01:00

How do you define when you are starting to get a little older and more responsible? It’s not easy just to point out one action I think, that was until last night when I had the chance to go out to what would have been a good night. But I didn’t! Why not? Well I had to be at work in the morning and if this had been a normal morning I would have still gone out but the opening weekend of Spiderman meant this would be a big weekend. So maybe I would feel good that I took the higher ground let’s say, you know deciding to be responsible would make me feel good about it, well not, I spent all night wishing I was out and even had a few beers to try and make me feel better but to no joy. So lessen is if you have the change to go out now and you don’t feel the ‘responsible’ thing just go out and enjoy it as it’s not going to last forever, trust me.

ps going to do a re install on my laptop, may be the last time we see each other, wish me luck.

Movie Watch

2007-05-05T16:39:00.000+01:00

Spiderman 3

So it is here and I got to watch it and well……. Its ok, for me it feels like they had all these good ideas and instead of putting the best in there they put everyone in there. The action is what you would expect from a film like this and even though the 1^st Spiderman films looked good this does look better, and it is action packed but the story and acting is where it loses points. At one point I thought I had gone in to the wrong screen as Tobey Maguire had become some emo kid who like to dance around a bit, but it did keep the action, funny, suspense and all round appeal you would want from a main stream, middle of the road film. I will be watching it again and getting the DVD when it comes out but I have this little voice in the back of my mind saying I would like it even if it was crap, its Spiderman!

Ps if you do decided to watch it go to the Odeon in Manchester and watch the digital show, there will be other digital shows around the world and I would have not watched it in any other format and even my girl friend commented on how good the image was.

Spiderman 3

2007-05-03T15:04:00.000+01:00

Working at the cinema has its advantages and one of these would be getting paid to watch films, I wish it was as clear cut as that but if there are any problems for example, scratches, sounds issues, miss prints, poor make up, all these things need to be fixed and you have to keep your eye out of the smallest of these problems that you would not expect the ‘joe’ public to pick up. Saying all that yes the bottom line is I get paid to watch the latest films, sometimes week and weeks early in a screen all to myself without the annoyance of anyone else. Trust me there is much much to the world of projection and film viewing is only a small part of that world.

But back on track and Spiderman 3 which I would say is the 1^st big block buster for the year, I can remember last summer finding some un-rendered footage on the internet of a trailer and then, right at that minute I could not wait to see this film and with all the recent advertising its something I'm looking forward to. So when do I get to watch it? Tonight, and not just any show but in Digital. Digital is a far better format and is capable of displaying a very high resolution but not just that the colors it can show are head and shoulders above normal 35mm (digital has a larger color gamut) which basically means there are move colors and they can be brighter. Digital covers the gap which in the TV world are classed as illegal colors which are colors which won’t be broadcasted in fear of damaging viewers tv sets. So after checking all the setting and making it ready for my screen at 6 today I wait in anticipation.

You can have a look at Digital Projectors and the technology behind it.

Movie Watch

2007-05-02T22:32:00.001+01:00

Sorry about the extra long post but i needed to get them moved over, lets hope it looks better in the end.

V for Vendetta

I quite enjoyed this film, I thought the plot was I bit all over the place at time but I thought the character of V was a good one and I did like it when it got darker. It was average with nothing that made me sit up and watch but in the same breth nothing that made me want to turn it off.

3Monkey

Tenacious D The movie

When the trailer came out for this I so wanted to watch it and even when it came out at the cinema it was something I wanted to see but alas never got the time to do so until now and I have to say it was a little bit of a let down, there was nothing I didn’t expect and even though I didn’t sit there looking at my watch I again didn’t sit there griped to my seat, bit of a shame but good music and some good bits seam to pick it up a little.

3Monkey

Talladega Nights

What a funny film, as I thought it would be and it lived up to my expectations. How does he get undressed so quick? And as for the knife in the leg I could not stop laughing. Thank you Will Ferrell.

4Monkey

Little Miss Sunshine

I heard some good things about this film and eventually got round to watching it, one thing that really stood out for me was how character driven this film is and they have done it will, somehow you get involved with everyone in it. Its good how they make you dislike and then like the same character in the space of 5 mins and how you start to understand each of their problems and come to sympathize with them. It also brings a wonderful séance of friends and family and no matter how you differ from the stereotypes of the world you will always be accepted by the people who call you family or friend. Nice change from the blockbuster run of films

5Monkey

Crank

Ok I do like and think there is a place for these action packed movies, there is not much to concentrate on and that’s the idea, just look at the pretty lights and people getting killed and fast car and so on, again I hear that crank is a good film and well worth a watch and I wont be mean but it was ok, nothing new, didn’t feel like a lost anything but didn’t feel like I got anything back. Shame.

3Monkey

300

Now showing in manchster very own imax and I think you should go watch it, this is a good film and its make even better with the massive screen size and the awesome sound system, the film is good and looks wonderful thanks to blue screen and this makes it, loads of blokes with 6packs and some sexy girls with a whole lot of blood, splatter here splatter there!

4Monkey

Pirates of the Caribbean 2

I think Captain Jack Sparrow is a brilliant character and away brings out smiles but with Pirates of the Caribbean 2 it felt like they had spent loads of money on special affects and costumes and getting the stars back but very little on plot or script and it could have easily been 30/40 mins shorter. The more I think about it the less it seems that bad but I do remember thinking someone had stolen 2 ½ hours of my life which I would not get back after it had finished, lets hope the 3rd one has more substance

2Monkey

El Aura (Auora)

Had a potter down to the corner house over the Spanish film festival, after my first choose was full I settle for this one and it was good, well odd but good. There would be big sections of the film with out any dialog, this for me was not the best but it had some wonderful shots and it was an enjoyable film and I would recommend it,

4Monkey

Black Book

Didn’t know anything about this film upto 2 hours before watching it, knew it had subtitles which tends to put me off films but what a film, set at the end of world war 2 it follows the life of one woman and how she had to cope with the life of war, I thought it was great and added a different aspet to world war 2 and there is some nakedness in it which makes the film really really good, its well worth a watch so go now!

6 Monkey

Hot Fuzz

I have been wating for hot fuzz to come out for weeks and weeks and to be give the opertunity towatch this film very early at work I jumped at the chance and im glad to say I wasn’t disappointed at all, it was very very funny and would quite happly watch it again and again. If you’re a fan of Spaced and Sean of the dead I think you will love this film,

6 Monkey

The Last King of Scotland

In thing Fostest Witcker is a very good actor and I have loved everything he has been in and to see him playing such a strong role was a joy even with the poor racking, soft focus and the people talking on the back row (who I warned) I still enjoyed the film with events which would normally spoil a movie for me, one of the impacting point of the movie for me was the very end where you get to see footage of the man this film was based on which brings the film to a very realistic level, shame the works were cut off the bottom of the screen so im not sure what it said!
Only getting 3 monkeys as the film was good but didn’t think is was as hard hitting as I expected.

3 Monkey

El Lobo

Got this film off a friend and its about ETA in Spain and how the secret service try to get someone undercover to bring this terrorist organization to an end, its based on real events and the man (wolf) is still in hiding now due to the impact it had on ETA, now I did enjoy this film even with the sound on my laptop getting quieter and quieter as the film ran, good job its subtitled. I thought it had a strong story and being based on real events it made me think about the conflict in the area and what these people were and are fighting for, another well worth a watch

4 Monkey

The Last Kiss

Watched this film after a really really long day, to start it was a good film, some funny bits with a good story. about 2/3 the way through i stared to get board with the story and i thought this could have been a good film but from out of no ware it was back on track. looking at the whole film now i thought it was peaty good, a good honest film about all the things we have to go through in life when it comes to love, life and relationships.

3 Monkey

Wizard of Oz

Watched this film at the corner house a few weeks ago, it’s the new re mastered version and to begin with you cant tell much difference until she walks through the door and it goes in to colour, it look really well and I sat there bobbing up and down to each and every song, it was funny when the kid in the back started to cry when she had to go home and say good bye to all her Oz friends. Awww

4 Monkey

Renaissance

1st heard of this film and to be honest didn’t think I would like the France subtitled film but how wrong could I be, it’s a stunning film which looks fantastic all the way through with a really good story, not the easiest film to keep up with but nothing a second watch wouldn’t cure

4 Monkey

Perfume

This is a good odd film, the main character I thought was good if not bizarre. It has some amazing shots in with a good but not to believable story, didn’t think it would have been as good as it turned out to be.

3 Monkey

Happy Feet

Ok I know this is a kids film but I thought it was good, the story wasn’t plot ridden but who want that with a kids film? The song were good and they didn’t settle for some modern boy band but some old classic motown which made the film better, there was even a few time there I jumped all down to the big, angry looking seal and killer whale.

4 Monkey

Bond

Bond is back and is he! What a film, thought it was a welcome change from the way bonds have been going over the last few, you almost see bond as a human making a few mistakes on the way not to mention the more believable touchier seines instead of some laser. Thought the new bond bloke did a very good job and I hope to see him in more of them if this one is anything to go off

5 Monkey

Pan's labyrinth

What a film, do you like subtitled film, own a beret? Then this film is for you, good story, looks amazing and has a welcome streak of violence which was unexpected, very very good

7 Monkey

Babel

My advice, watch the first half then go, when you sit there thinking any minute now it will get better that’s the time you should go, trust me, nothing happens after that

1 Monkey

Children of Men

When to watch Children of men at the lovely Printworks in Manchester sat night, I had heard good with some mixed bad reviews about this film but the trailer looked good so thought I would give it a go and I'm glad I did, its a good film and comes across a very realistic and gritty. I think because it had a lot of real world elements which we can all be familiar with it was more easy to get in to the story but being set in the not to distant future you could believe the story. It doesn’t shy away from the violent aspect of the story and even has a war element to it which I liked. I found it to be a moving story and even kept me on my toes with the twist and turns. It was good to see no matter how big the actor they were willing to kill anyone off at any time. Clive Owen who I don’t like redeemed him self in my eyes.
Well worth a watch!

4 Monkey

Stephen Kings IT

I remember watching this film as a kid and i also remember it scared the S**t out of me so i was a little apprehensive to watch it again, i did enjoy the movie even though the DVD is a flipper but it wasn’t as scary as i remember, probably a good thing.

2 Monkey

UltraViolet

What can i say, Ding Dong! now it was just to go off the film based on script, action, flow, characters, direction i would give it 4 monkeys, if i just go off Milla Jovovich at would get a 28 monkeys, !!!!!DING DONG!!!!!!

4 Monkey

Aeon Flux

O well, it looked good on the packing but i was very let down and it never even excited me at all, could have been something worth watching but not this time! Poo

1/2 Monkey

Old Boy

I didn’t get round to see Old Boy at the cinema but from what I had heard it was worth a watch. There are not many films which make me turn away but this one did! Twice! Thought it was fantastic even with subtitles. Some good twists.

4 Monkeys

The Wicker Man

I have not see the original Wicker Man and I get different reviews of the old film but I have to say I liked this one, maybe Nicolas Cage! Just don’t know. A little long and with an American stamp but still good.

3 Monkeys

Snakes on a Plane

Now i wasnt expecting some thing close to the real world and i got what i wanted, what a good film, got to stop jumping so much on the scarry bits

3 Monkeys

Mission Impossible 3

I finally got round to watch the 3rd instalment from Eathen Hunt and as I did enjoy the first 2 i was looking forward to this one, from the trailer i had seen it looked like it could have been something good. Now it is very much like the 2nd rather than the 1st with a more shiny look and massive explosions and amazing stunts but for me it wasn’t anything special and didn’t look as good as the second, I didn’t sit there waiting for it to end but neither did i want it to keep going!

2 1/2 Monkeys

Movie Watch

2007-05-02T22:21:00.000+01:00

Reno 911 Miami

I had to nip in to work today so while I was there I thought I would watch a film and this is something I wanted to see, now walking in to a film like this I wasn’t expecting much and for all its funny moments it didn’t break any molds. There are a few cameos like many films out at the moment but nothing which made me think ‘how did they get that person’. Being a fan of Super Troopers I thought this could have been a good funny all the way film but it didn’t produce the laughs I would have hoped for. The cast were great but the story lacked a little with not much direction but I didn’t think it’s the type of film which you should expect a strong story from. If you’re after some cheap and funny laughs give it a weal.

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Cronos

Cronos is from Guillermo del Toro who more recently has brought us Pan’s Labyrinth and Hell Boy, both very good films so spotting one of his box sets in HMV on market street it was a sure buy. So first of the mark is Cronos which is a wonderful, mystical film. It’s a dark film which made me keep asking ‘what’s going to happen’ to the distraction of my girl friend who had already seen a good portion, now I don’t like people who ask this so for me to become one of these people made me think Guillermo del Toro has a good way of making his films. This should be a must buy for anyone tiring to spend some money in HMV this summer.

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2007-05-01T01:27:00.000+01:00

You may have notice a slight blog layout change, well not layout but look. One thing which I think need to change is ‘my movies’, I like it but it’s starting to take up the page and really slows down the page loading time. Hum, i think its chop time but plz don’t worry you will still get a glimpse in to my movie world just it will be in blog format.

Night night all.

Manchester on fire

2007-04-30T20:15:00.000+01:00

So this morning as I get a little lie in the police in Manchester decided that this would not be the case and had there helicopter hovering over my flat form a early hour this morning, so on my way to work while I was thinking what would I do if I had a surface to air missile I noticed there were a few cops out, and they had shut a road off, and hang on that building is on fire. Yes today London was not burning but Manchester and what a fire, you can check out the BBC News web site and see some photos and videos Here

photo's

2007-04-28T15:16:00.000+01:00

My crime fighting day, dududududududud BATMAN

2007-04-25T17:55:00.000+01:00

Living in Manchester being a bigger city to expect to see more of everything, like more strange people or more bars you see what I mean, now with the good comes the bad (sounds like a film tag line to me) like crime. I live just the other side of Ancoats street and there has been some car crime in the area ever sine I moved, not that I'm saying ist me, so yesterday when I decided to get my mums birthday present I got in my car just to see through the grates of my underground car park some little shit smashing the back of a cars window and run off with a bag, Well I shot out of my car park and pulled up round the corner to find a bloke stud there with a shock look on his face, I asked him if he had see the little thief and he know exactly where he had gone. So I told him to get in and off we went on our crime fighting adventure. Now before we continue I would like to point out as I was the driver I would be the main super hero and he would have been my side kick. So were rocketed down the road and cut them off a few streets down as by this time they had got on to the foot path of the cannel. As soon as they saw us they changed direction and disappeared. All the way through this I was on the phone to the police giving descriptions and locations. So after we lost them we turned around and stated to head back just to spot 2 of the 3 kids walking towards us, I thought I would get a sneaky photo while asking if they had see these 2 lads (playing dumb) but just as I got my phone out the bloke with me screams ‘STOP THERE’ well as you can imagine they decided not to do that and off we were again, they shot down a side street while we cut them off back on the phone to the police and then there were gone in to the back of a house. After a few min two big fellas came out of one of the houses and that’s when I decided that’s enough crime fighting for one day, if I would have had my batman pajamas in my boot things may have been different but I decided retreat would be the best course of action.

As after all this I got my wonderful and very expensive chocolates and a awesome card for my mum which I know she will love, now normally with my lack of shopping skills I would not have spent the time to think and find something like this but after reading manchizzle’s blog her words made a big difference to me and made me put all the energy I could muster that day to make it happen, thank you manchizzle.

week so far

2007-04-19T20:42:00.000+01:00

Hi people in blogger land, so the week so far has been a good one.

Had to drive down to Birmingham on Tuesday for a digital conference, it’s all about how digital cinema works and how it is rolling in to the main stream cinemas to replace 35mm, now we have 2 main digital projectors capable of playing full movies in what would be said as being the equivalent of 35mm and personally I think they are great, trip was good but there were a few time I so nearly pulled over and told my boss to get out on the hard shoulder of the motorway, you know the type of passengers! The one who thinks he is driving, well listen up, you don’t like it get out and walk (and now I wait for the comments) or just check out Echo11 blog ->

So after getting up at 6am and doing 200 miles I still had the energy to go and watch a band called Shmoo at the new Troff in the northern quarter, now I had heard some of their songs before and I also had many many people telling me there are very worthwhile watching so I was glad to still have the get up and go to go watch them (you should all check out there myspace) and there are as good live as the recording I had got, well worth it.

So for the last year I have not had a haircut, now you may think scruffy bugger and you may be right but I have a reason. I have never had long hair and always got it cut short, every time I ever tried to grow my hair it got to a Certain length and I could not put up with it any more so I would just get it cut like I usually do but this time was different, so a year down the line and I have long hair but I started to become a bit TO long so time to get to cut. As after weeks and weeks of me not getting round to booking in and my hair getting longer and longer I finally got booked in last Saturday at Toni and Guys on deansgate in Manchester! Toni and guys! Me! Well at first I told the lady on the phone I just wanted a dry cut but now I know that places like that don’t do dry cuts, why would I pay someone to wash my hair when I can do it for free (hope it’s not just me thinking that) so after feeling like a plonker I got booked in and off I went. Now never having long hair I was slightly unsure how to get it cut so I decided that to keep the shape but have some off the back and sides to stop my head from looking like a mushroom but even getting such a simple cut still made me smile as I have never had my hair cut when it has been so long. Now for a little of the back and sides and a wash I still don’t think it should have been £30 but seeing as I had not paid for a year it wasn’t so bad, on my way out they wanted me to book in again, I explained that seeing as my hair had not even had chance to grow I would book in at a later date.

So this week at work it has become my week to train some of the managers and team leader in the fine art of projection, and can I say it is a fine art and you release this when you see 7 people all finger and thumbs trying to do the simple task of putting film in the projector, but bless them they did try! Well were trying!

The Hills have Eyes Vs Meet the Robinsons

2007-04-09T14:09:00.000+01:00

On my way in to work today there was something on Xfm about people going to watch a kids film in a Manchester cinema and ended up watching the beginning of the Hill Have eyes 2, now if you have seen this film you will know what a big deal that is and for you who have not let me enlighten you. There is a woman giving birth and you can see everything, but not in a hospital, she is strapped on the bed and doesn’t look like she has been able to move in months. Once she gives birth she is then killed. Now what should they have been watching? Well after searching through all the Manchester cinema web sites and me knowing it wasn’t the Odeon made me come to one conclusion, they should have been watching Meet the Robinsons at the Lowery. This appears to be the only cinema in the area which has The Hills have eyes in a screen with a kids film.

Ops!

my back holiday weekend in a nut shell

2007-04-09T12:32:00.000+01:00

Well hallo bogspot land and all the little bloggers who live here, everyone have a good weekend? Hope so.

For my weekend I made my way over to Liverpool to go out with some friends at a good night spot called Liquidation, its 5 mins from the docks and is a really good night out. To start the night had a few drinks in Magull and then got the train in to Liverpool and made our way to liquidation, now this is where the story takes a twist so look out for it. After having many many drinks and spending most of my time on the dance floor the night started to come to an end, people went off getting their coats and alike, one of my friends was dancing the few remaining minuets he had left to the onlookers of the bar staff and one of the door staff due to his wonderful and unique way of dancing. Nothing strange here you see, this was until the member of the door staff through some sort of piece of plastic at my friend which to me looked like he was trying to be big and clever in fount of the bar team, this piece of plastic flew through the air and hit my friend on the side of his head with enough force to make him lose balance. Now at this point I was not a happy camper and despite what you may think in my drunken state I was calm, relaxed, not abusive and not angry, so in my calm, relaxed, not abusive and not angry state of mind I make my way over to the group of staff and asked the door man for his name or badge number as I was going to follow this up, as you may have expected he declined in a abusive way, so I turned to ask the members of the bar team who were there and this is where I get hit in the side of the head by his radio and then pushed back! Yes hit in the head! What a fuck whit! Now at this point there was 2 bigger door staff behind me taking me to the exit, I would like to point out that at that time I was still calm and relaxed and didn’t put up any struggle as it would have been useless.

So once outside I had a chat with the head door man who was not very help full and again didn’t want to give any names or badge number.

Now this door staff must be such a idiot or lucky enough that’s everyone he has picked on has not been as keen to see social justice as me because I promise you now I plan to rain a shit storm so big he will think twice about being big and clever again, So to start is a letter to the manager of the venue with every last detail, next is to contact the people who license door staff and make a complaint, next is a complaint to the local council from licensing to the health and safety executive and last but not least a complaint to the Liverpool police, Now please don’t think I will exaggerate the event or my injuries which are not severer and I don’t expect the police to have enough to go on for caution or conviction nor do I think I will get the justice I believe I'm entitled to which by the way would be me hitting him with a radio in front of his friends but this is so if anyone else has the same problem this will have been logged and action may be possible next time round. I also think one letter about this incident will just get put in a pile of other people who are not happy after being kicked out but after my letter should be other letters and phone calls from the other parties I have complained to which brings a real sense of severity.

And to be honest this didn’t spoil the night, nor the idiot spraying people in the face once outside or my girl friend losing her phone or forgetting her keys meaning waking her mum up at 4am to get in, with all this it was a good night.

Bank Holiday Friday

2007-04-06T12:57:00.000+01:00

Good bank holiday afternoon to you all, well unlike lost people a bank holiday is like any other for the projectionist of this world and another day at work but with one added benefit, double time! And its very welcome seeing as I don’t feel what you would call a million dollars after going out last night! And where would I have been you ask? Well I took my girl friend out and got some good food down at the Printworks and then off round the northern quarter, quick stop in Odd bar for some strawberry beer which I would recommend and then on to Dry bar where we spent the remainder of the night, now even with my present hangover it was and still is a wonderful night and I fully enjoyed it and only having to walk 5 mins down the road before being at home was good.

Now back to today and having to walk to work in the wonderful sun was nice until I slowly realized I was working to work where the sun would stop for a few hours, not nice, O and my roommates hamster escaped so making sure I didn’t step on anything on the way out, bet the hamsters a sleep somewhere.

Right got to go work, have fun in the sun Holiday people.

back to Blackburn, Take 1

2007-04-01T23:13:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

Hope you have all been out enjoying the sun as i have been trying to do and did get to do today in Liverpool, i have started to realise that it is a very nice place with some fantastic bars and if all goes well i will be visiting next weekend. I know what you’re thinking ‘this bloke seams to get a lot of weekends off’ but the last few have not been planned but next week is, and I’m hoping it will be nice so I can enjoy getting boozed up.

I had a trip back to Blackburn to take my little sister out for her tea, she is not my real sister but she has known me for many many years and she sees me as her brother so i thought i would take her out and it was a nice day, i picked her up from school and took her out for the evening, some time on the play ground, stop at the shop for sweets and then on to Frankie and Benny’s for some good food. It was nice and i enjoyed it and didn’t come back to Manchester with any bad feelings, if anything it made me feel good as finally i feel like I'm where i wanted to be, living in Manchester, having a flat, nice car, a job i love and to boot a beautiful, sexy, brainy, funny, wonderful and amazing girl friend. All i need now is a house near the sea and I'm done for want in my life.

Things to do for the next few weeks –

1. 1.Go out more.

2. 2.Enjoy the sun at every avenue

Small list i know but still a list.

Night Night Peps

abut time

2007-03-21T03:44:00.000Z

After living outside of Manchester for many years I was one of the people sat in their cars in the longest traffic jam you have ever see most mornings and even with the extra time I could have had in bed I do like driving, living closer to Manchester, well in Manchester, I don’t drive as much but my lovely corsa had a list of problems and with 129,000 miles on the clock it had had its day, it didn’t look the nicest but after nearly 6 years it had been a good car for me and I was never late due to it not starting or breaking down on the way to work and with a car that looked like it did people didn’t really want to break in to it. But with all the problems and the amount of money I would have to spend on it to get it back on the road with the MOT getting closer and closer I decided to get an upgrade. Now having a look at what cars are out there and what I wanted it for and that I would want something nicer that what I already had I started looking at golf’s and the SE in particular and after a few weeks of looking I found one and it nice! I could have gone for a GTI or a GTTDI but with insurance groups around 14/15 it would have cost me a lot to insure but with the 1.6SE its group 6! I’ll be honest it doesn’t stand out and looks like any other car on the road but don’t forget im the one sat in the thing not watching it drive by so I don’t mind, it has all these little things that make driving easier which most car now have as standard but not in the 97 corsa days, all I have to do is get my mp3 player hooked up and im done!

Now this was one of the many many things I wanted to get sorted out after finding a flat so it so nice to get it sorted out and get rid of the car which had cause me a few problems if you have followed my posts and now its done! So on you wonders through Manchester if you spot a silver Golf driving down the street have a look to see who is driving, does it look like a animal? May be a monkey? Well hey that’s me!

old

New

Keeping on the topic of cars and the many times I had been sat under my car trying to fix something or even sat on the side of the road its good to see that its just the lower class cars that have such problems as you will see in my photo,

Now if you are sat there thinking there is nothing strange about this photo let me take a min to point out the bloke pushing his Aston Martin DB9 back in to his parking spot

Now I have make a great step in my wonderful relationship with my beautiful girl friend, it was something I thought I would never do and never even thought about doing but can without question recommend it to everyone out there, what could this magical thing be? Well for a friends art exhibition she need an imprint of how couples sleep so I got to paint a very very sexy girl friend with paint (naked!) so she could lie on the bed sheet and she got to paint me so I could do the same. Now I thought it would have been fun and it was but god dam not that much fun

300 hit Manchester

2007-03-14T15:01:00.000Z

300 starts Thursday 22nd at Manchester's very own Imax, this is an epic movie of an epic screen. This looks like a very good film and could be made better in a 85ft screen with a sound system which could make you ears bleed.
if you have not visited Manchester Imax i suggest you make time for this film and get down there.
PS dont forget to wave at you friendly projectionist.

Oh Boy!

2007-03-02T20:02:00.000Z

to quote Dr Sam Beckett

Oh Boy!

it was all nearly over!

2007-03-01T18:38:00.000Z

Today I thought it was all over, went to lace up a projector and then there was a noise, not a click a the breaker went off, But a boom which made me leave the booth in supper fast time. What was the cause well the lamps rectifier had blow and took 40 mins to change with the much need help of Mr C himself but Im alive and still her!

long day

2007-02-27T01:44:00.000Z

I did plan to watch Armrug (who’s myspcae you should check out) but after a long day at work and a total lack of food i decided to retire back to my pad and just enjoy the evening chilling (no homies just me)

The Producers

2007-02-26T00:38:00.000Z

Saturday came around and so did my Valentine’s day present of going to the theater, and to see what you say! Well to see ‘The Producers’ now showing at the Palace Theater in Manchester.

Ok first let’s have a look at a short synopsis (if you didn’t already know)

Mel Brooks' hilarious new musical THE PRODUCERS comes to Manchester with Britain's funniest comedian PETER KAY as Roger DeBris. Joining Peter, directly from the West End production are CORY ENGLISH as Max Bialystock and JOHN GORDON SINCLAIR as Leo Bloom.

When down-on-his-luck theatrical producer Max Bialystock and his hapless accountant Leo Bloom hatch the ultimate theatrical scam - to raise more money than they need to produce a sure-fire Broadway disaster - who do they turn to? The world's worst director, of course; Roger DeBris. Their guaranteed-to-fail fiasco? Springtime for Hitler - the musical!

With direction and choreography by Susan Stroman, THE PRODUCERS is a guaranteed evening of "SHEER, UTTER, UNADULTERATED JOY!"

So the plan was to get something nice to eat, maybe have a few drinks and then get on to the theater, Now trying to get something to eat in the time scale we had in Manchester on a Saturday night isn’t as easy as one may think, everywhere and I mean everywhere was extremely busy so a nice meal turned in to subway, now I don’t mind a good subway but it would have been nice to move on from everyday food and got something a little nicer. Now drinks would have been on the cards if I still wasn’t carrying round the hangover from the drinking antics which had accrued the night before (good night none the less) so the thought have having another drink for at least the next few days made my hangover worse so no drinks.

Right the Theater, now I like my nice building and being in cinemas for many years I like old cinema buildings and this transfers well to theater building as all your missing is a cinema screen, I remember this old cinema in Rochdale with big wooden hand rails and red carpets and how grand it looked when my dad would take me there and another cinema I used to work at had the same feel which can lack In the modern day cinemas we see popping up everywhere, now the palace is a nice building but the outside doesn’t do it justice to what you see when you go in, sat there I took a few minutes out to have a look around and take in the surrounding and having some very good seats thanks to the beautifully stunning girl friend it gave me a wonderful view of everything and my god its nice and well worth a look.

So as for the play I had a good idea what it was all about but to be honest I hadn’t seen anything about this on the cinema or otherwise, Now it was good, no awesome would be the word. Cory English and John Gordon Sinclair were fantastic and I really mean they were outstanding and made the play what it was in my eyes. They had a few slips but it didn’t for one minute spoil anything and even made it slightly better, as many people may know Peter Kay is also in the production and he did do well but when up on stage with 2 people who shined he was I dare to say a little in the shadows and didn’t look as comfortable up there but saying that he still made the part his own and did well, maybe not as well is you would have expected. The songs were wonderful and so was the costumes, well everything about it was wonderful or though a little extra leg room would have been welcome but that’s what you get for being over 6 foot.

enjoying the week

2007-02-21T14:05:00.000Z

Walking through the northern quarter and noticed this bus stop poster!

Yes people Heros has finally made it to the shores of the UK, now I have been keeping up with the show from the US of A and don’t have that many to go before it end for this season but I think you are in for a treat as it’s a fantastic show and well worth a watch.

I pottered down to the Academy last week to watch a girl called Regina Spektor who I have been listening to over the summer months, now she has an amazing voice but this was from only hearing the cd so I had a little bit of doubt to whether she could put it off live but I’m glad to say she did, not just her singing but her personality on stage was good and made for a wonderful night. I think she is back in Manchester in the next month or two so check out her myspace and get a ticket.

it just the template

2007-02-20T03:35:00.000Z

ok i have just noticed after spending some time editing this template that mine and cinemec's blog do look alike, sorry

changes

2007-02-20T01:04:00.001Z

you may notice some changes, its a working progress

2007-02-19T21:15:00.000Z

Got my pc up and running after some time so campers here it is

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600+

Zalman CNPS7700-CU Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler

Asus 22" TFT

A8N32-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 Nvidia NF4 ATX

Antec P180 Black SPCR Advanced Super Mid Tower

Hiper 580W Type-R Modular PSU SLI/CrossFire Certified

PowerColor ATI Radeon X1950 Pro Extreme SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

WinTV-NOVA-T PCI

2 x 1 GB Corsair paired ram

2 x 320GB sata
1 x 160GB IDE

And now with most of my software issues sorted out it runs like a dream, got a few demanding games loaded and it runs so nice, got the thing to show tv and record tv and it looks so nice on that Asus tft. The case is awesome, you can took all your cable away round the back and its got enough fans to cause a small pressure drop in my room, its also compartmentalized to keep things cooler, all the HD’s sit on rubber grommets to stop vibration and the door swings right round so I can rip this one off.

internet

2007-02-17T14:11:00.000Z

So I decided to make a few upgrades to my pc, a new graphics card for one and a new case, so having taken everything out and put the gubins back in a new case and putting a new graphics card in a boot up for it all to work fine which is a nice change from the usual first boot I normally end up with. Now windows boots fine but getting the driver loaded is another matter, I think due to some old drivers the new drivers would not install causing me a mountain of problems which all lead to one solution a clean reinstall, trust me If I think it was possible to just get the old install working I would have but it was not going to happen this time round. I did end up getting a nice case with a nice quite cooling system to keep the noise down, when it final got here there was a small piece broken off but it took that long to finally get here think I will just stick it back on instead of sending it back. So now with the 4600 due core and x91950 pro and 2GB of matched ram with a big power supply it should swim along quite happily and I hope so trying to get the graphics out of my 22” TFT and the broadband got installed to I come to you from my flat, with internet and everything!

The only thing left to do apart from putting all the software and updates back on the thing is to get it activated again seeing as this would be the 3^rd time with hardware changes windows through a little wobbly about it but that’s just a phone call and sorted.

So I spent some time hunting for someone who didn’t cap the internet connection coming in to my flat and trust me there is no one out there so I ended up going for someone who didn’t cap it as much and went with Eclipse, now there are a little unknown and I was unsure until today when they just won the best customer broadband supplier

">which you can check out here

2007-02-13T20:27:00.000Z

So now im all moved in, got all my stuff sat in a room and im slow making my way through it trying to make some sense of the madness. 1^st thing 1^st computer is set up and now with a 22” Ausu widescreen TFT and a now big fast cpu on its way, got media canter installed with a tv tuner in there so its all go on the computer front, on thing im missing at the moment would be a internet connection, you may have noticed this as I have many blogs all in one go due to the fact when im sat here typing I have no internet!

It’s a little strange being somewhere different and at the moment my girl friends feels more like home that my home but im sure this will change the more I get used to living there. The car park is cool, is under the flat building and to get in you wave this fob around and the door opens, is ace and I could and have spent all day driving in and out with a big smile on my face.

Over xmas I did a load of videos for a work party and I got a good response from people who had seen them, the other day I got call of one of the guys from the office saying they had got an email about it, now this is where I thought shit, if you have seen them there are a lot….hang on ….. Loads of film clips in there and I thought I was I deep shit but one of our cinemas in Liverpool really liked them and would like a copy for their own party! How cool! Well for me anyway. You never know the dvd may even get finished this year (cough cough Cinemc).

Anyone spotted there digging up the triangle again? What’s that all about, no sooner have they make it nice and put a big wheel there they take it down and dig the place up again, I know Manchester is well developed but can we enjoy the developed bits before they change it all around again? Or though I would like to thank Manche

ster city council for putting up the barriers that come out of the ground, I think there ace. All the law abiding drivers in Manchester don’t go down the bus lanes so don’t have anything to worry about but the stupid plonkers who don’t think the rules apply to them do and there the people who keep driving in to the things, one minute they not there and the next crunch………car stops…….head his window………car stops……..expensive short cut. Now I know you should pity the fool (hay Mr T) but there are Signs that say ‘DANGER BARRIERS’. Im sure you can get footage of the people driving in to the things but hay I have no internet connection so I can’t try and find the link for you all.

I need to pay off a small loan I have with NatWest and I have been trying to pay the thing off now for the last 4 weeks, every time I get on the phone they tell me how sorry they are and how everything will be sorted in a few days and not to worry, in the past 4 weeks I have spoke to the load department 22 time or so and not a 5 mins conversation a good 40 mins each time as I explain to them what is going on, now I come to check my balance again today and guess what, yes I have to much money in their which can mean only one thing NatWest have not removed th

eir heads from the asses and still can’t sort out the simplest task of taking money out of my account, I really really can’t believe how incompetent they can be and no matter how hard I try I can’t get them to take the money so tomorrow I take this up to a new level all together and I won’t speak to anyone apart from the highest person there and I will rain down a fiery hell like no loan manager has ever seen before and scream in to the debt free world of freedom with the roar of his soul, ok a little of base there and now back to the bed room and laptop staring back at me. But by no means to I think NatWest are bad and if you would like to open an account please email fuckmeover@natwest.com and im sure they will make you happy.

Right the girl friend is nearly finished her UNI work, that would be Sian to me and you, so I have to go. I hope to get this blog posted and have some tales to tell about the NatWest saga.

Have a good night campers.

__________________________________________________________________

Ps got the armrug EP from Fopp the other day and its well worth a listen, only £2 so worth it, go on next time your in town just go and get it, you could tell your friends you got this cd you heard about from a blog, hahahahaha that would be cool, also check out thier myspace

Today Hot Fuzz hits Manchester with the regional premier of the new film Hot Fuzz, if you follow my films you would know I had chance to see this film a few weeks ago and what a film. Now with the prem aspect to this it has started to turn this day in to a hard one, not only do they take away tha last reel of the film and bring it back the following day but you have so many checks to do on the projector and cleaning to make sure everything is working as it should, then we have the conference aspect to set up with all the wired and wireless mics to set up and lights with digitl projectors makes the day in to a busy one all while running 6 projectors and dealing with the day to day aspect.

So the big night starts with me out side having a cig just the see Simon Peg and Nick Frost walk by on their way to the event I was running, what would I do at this point? Finish my cig that’s what, after everyone had been seated (including my girl friend sneaking in at the back) they did a short intro then in to the film. Everyone seemed to really lik it and it got many many laughs. After the show there was about 50mins of Q&A and can I say how good it is to see people like Simon and Nick staying on for things like that, most of the time they are there for a short time and then off again but not thease two. I did feel sorry for them with the odd person who was a little two odd and the questions always started with ‘I make films and I wondered’ or ‘I do acting and wondered’ and even the people who would act out spaced scenes.

Did get to meet (properly) the Technical manager of Universal, you know the people who distribute the films and a man from Dolby who didn’t like our sony sound processor one little bit but he was a sound bloke. I should have been out for drinks tonight round at Odd bar in the northern quarter but im just shattered and don’t think I could have handled anything to drink and I have to get up early ish to get the keys form my flat and get stuff moved.

_____________________________________________________________________

So I hope you all had a good weekend as did I, ok had to work sat but did get to have a relaxed day sun. Booked some tickets to watch Regina spector at the Academy on Thursday 15^th, she had sold out but they moved it to Academy 1 to get more people in, if your unsure of her work have a look at the video below.

Put the deposit and 1^st months rent on my new flat today, not cheap but glad I got it done so should have the keys in the next few days. Will be so nice only living 3 mins walk from Piccadilly gardens or should I say 8 mins staggering distance back to my flat just in time for me to be sick on my door step. Speaking of being sick yep I was, only ment to be a sneaky pint but one was two, tow was three and so on.

And I forgot to tell you I had a fantastic birthday meal at ‘Room’ in Manchester, very very good.

I spent all day sat in the pub drinking coffee just so I could use the internet, its is free!!!!!!!!! (got to download the latest Heroes)

________________________________________________________________

This will be m first blog entry now in the year of 27 in age, yes I had my birthday yesterday and 27 is now that age that I am, ok now 27 doesn’t appear to be one of those ages where loads happens or you would expect anything exciting to happen but to all you young people out there where 27 it just a distant figure in the distance its not a dull as you would expect. I spent the first part of the day flat hunting and boy o boy did I find some nice flats, in all had a look around about 13 and I have 2 more today, its strange how there will only be a small thing that I didn’t like and that flat would be out the running but with one in mind and 2 more which may be better the flat hunting sage is slowly coming to a close and very very soon I will be in this Manchester flat with my feet up enjoying city living.

I have been enjoying a week off from work and during this time I did expect to be moving in to my new flat but as I have gathered nothing goes to plan when its moving home so instead I have been keeping busy, got my self a mp3 player last week and something I can keep everything on and not just the music im listening to at the time so 30gb should keep me happy from some time. Apart from that I haven’t really spent anything . Got to watch some films and when I get chance I will update my film viewing section as some were really good and well worth a watch.

And as for my birthday I did get some presents that did stand out, not only did I get the best birthday card I have ever got from anyone but a gift to boot, I got to micro lighting, that would be where you get in a shoe box with a wing attached to the thing and a motor on the back! Ok death may be a aspect of this present that I will ignore but I really really really can’t wait to get up there.

Also got to watch some band last week and Armrug (check out there myspace) were really good, had a good night and managed to keep it together on the bus even though I started to feel a little rough, Dam Bus’s!

I also started to the rent sorted on my new flat! And its nice, got a car park with a automatic door which is so cool and got some good sized room 4 mins from the center of town, cant wait to get moved, although its nice staying with the girl friend and I hope the amount of time we spent together wont change just the surroundings.

ps

2007-01-31T18:30:00.000Z

And I forgot to tell you I had a fantastic birthday meal at ‘Room’ in Manchester, very very good.

I spent all day sat in the pub drinking coffee just so I could use the internet, its is free!!!!!!!!! (got to download the latest Heroes)

27 baby

2007-01-31T14:43:00.000Z

Im i a home owner? NOPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-01-15T13:03:00.000Z

Good afternoon to one and all, Well people stop what you are doing and take a moment to sit in joy and happiness with me as I sit here in my house for the last time, thought it would be a point to write my last blog from this house.

All my bags are packed and im ready to go (ok ok stolen from a song) but I am, there is very little still In my house and im not taking that stuff, just made all the phone calls you have to make when moving and in a second im off to town the cancel all the direct debits and that’s that. Ok maybe not all as I have nowhere to live for the time being but hey I can live with that for now.

Moving yester day was fun, a lot of hard work but fun.

I wouldn’t mind being a van man, after spending some of the day behind the wheel of what I would consider a BIG van I started to like it, it’s like driving sat in your sofa. Don’t get me wrong there was one or two moments when the wind picked up I thought the thing was going to overturn but to my delight it didn’t.

But my van man expedition was not just for the fun but to get everything moved and I can say I did, I managed to get everything I now own in to the smallest room at my mum’s house! Quite a feat if you know me. One brilliant thing was it had a rear loader, that this is so much fun, down then up again then down again, I could have spent all day on that thing.

Ok that’s it, no more home owner!

late night laptop manic

2007-01-14T01:48:00.000Z

I come to you live from my bedroom, started to pack everything, not the internet that will be the last thing to go.

I like how one moment in time can have such a impact on now and the future, sometime I think they can pass you by but every now and then there is one that stands out, it feel like a few day before Christmas when I was a kid, them final few days where you have wanted the Christmas present for as long as you can remember and your so close its just excitement, well that’s exactly where I am, and no matter how much there is to do that I haven’t even thought about I will get there.

One thing I would like to pass on this evening is the ‘man in the moon’ he is on the mighty boosh and I think he’s fantastic.

2 days left

tick tock .........

2007-01-13T13:38:00.000Z

So I come to you today with plans in hand, if everything goes how it should by Monday the 15^th I will no longer own my house and I will be free, that’s right readers the day that I thought would never come is now here, so got me a van and got me some moving to do, at the moment I have nowhere to go so storing some things at my mum’s for the time being as it should only be a few week before I have a place in Manchester. So got Sunday Monday to get everything out that I want, got a home clearance coming round to get rid of the stuff I don’t want as that would be some extra cash in my tight pockets.

But I don’t care I have nowhere to go, I can live like that for weeks and weeks if that what it takes, so hopefully my next post will come after Monday and I will have done! DONE!

As for everything else got enough work from work to keep my bust until I die, trying to tech other people the finer points of the complex world of projection can be a difficult task but one I have been given! I could spend days trying to explain and train someone in the fine art of projection but I don’t have that sort of time.

I have started working on a new video project, the first time I'm shooting all the footage and using a mini dv cam as well which means a change in quality, a change for the good. Its coming on well but I only can shoot footage when I'm in there and if I get a little spare time, it’s not my ambition to star in my short films but I will have to do. Think I’ll keep the project under wraps for the time being until its done.

Started to look at a car upgrade, mine has done me well but after 5 years and thousands of miles it’s starting to show it age, I could do without a car as I'm looking at moving in to the middle of Manchester but I love the thing and still like the idea of keeping hold of it, so a new one is on the books but we will see what comes up.

this day would never come

2007-01-05T23:47:00.000Z

And now I bring the best news, its almost like a late Christmas present. I should …… wait for it …….. have sold my house buy this Friday or next! That’s dome and dusted, no more selling, money in my pocket, thanks bye!

How happy I'm i! extremely would be the word, so now I start to seriously box up most of belongings all ready to be loaded in to the back of a van (£120 for 3 days) and taken to Manchester, granted there will be a gray area there where I won’t live anywhere but I think I can survive somehow!

Got to go microwave just binged at me! Food!

the new year

2007-01-04T13:32:00.000Z

So I write this latest blog entry on the eve of a new year which got me thinking of the past year, you know what I would remember 2006 for, now this was odd. If you have been keeping up with my blog you will know what a different year 2006 has been for me and I still go in to 2007 carrying some baggage from 2006 but hopefully not for long. I managed to start the year of like any other year but come to the end of it and things have changed and all for the good, I love my new position at work and I feel like I'm going to be able to really sink my teeth in to it come 2007, my life has changed so much for the good and with in a few week I should have moved to Manchester and have my very own place to call home, I have so many ideas about my room, it may sound simple but I think its something to look forward to, not just that but not having the connection to my old house or the money issues I have at the moment.
So as 2007 slowly comes over the hill I find myself having a little think of what I could get up to in what I think will be a amazing year, well my job is something that keeps me busy but I feel there is so much I can do to make it better and that’s something in really going to go at, once the house is sorted I think it will become easier to concentrate on, I would like to do some travailing not quite sure where but it would be nice to take 2 maybe 3 weeks off and have a plan and just go, would have to save some money for a trip like that but I think I would really really like it. But 1st thing 1st I need to move and get a little settled. I want to spend more time on my little video projects and bring it up to a new level of editing and planning and see what I can come up with, I have few idea’s for some new projects which I'm going to start working on very soon. I have a few new years resolutions which I want to work on but I'm not going in to them.
But you know as for the rest of my life I would not even think about changing any of for all the tea in china, I'm happy with nearly everything!

As for Christmas I got a few things that I would love to share with the world,
1st would be my first ever pair of Converse trainers
2nd would be my very own triads
3rd would be this wicked robot, it walks and everything!

Check out my little video I did for it (sorry about the spelling mistakes and all)

I did and up buying myself a 2.5” usb external 120gb hard drive as my laptop seams to get very full very quickly and it should help with my video editing, also got a usb thingy (not sure what to call it) jogging wheel to help with the old editing stuff.

So as the sun goes down for the last time in 2006 I come to an end, I also need to get some booze before everything shuts so I must go, I hope you have had as much fun reading my blog over the last year as I have had writing it, happy new year and I’ll see you all soon.

Boxing day peps

2006-12-26T19:12:00.000Z

Well ho ho ho-my-god I'm kind of glad that’s over for another year, its was good and I did eventually get festive but with the worry of my forever dying car and the fact I couldn’t get everyone presents I would have like to due to the ever impending financial events of my life but after spending some time with most of my family it was a track over to Liverpool for me to spend the remainder of xmas day. And my car got me all the way! Thank you car!
Did santa give me what I wanted, well there were no keys to a apartment in Manchester with a car that works but think that’s one I will have to do on my own but I did get some wonderful presents and money which was a very welcome gift, I could only have the money if I spent it on myself and not on bills which again was nice so now I get to decided what would make my life easier or how to make myself look peaty’er. I have some ideas but we will see.
I think one of the reason xmas is not so big this year is work, working the close xmas eve and back in all day for boxing day dosnt add to the holiday period but it pays the bills don’t forget and I do get new year off which may make up for the work through xmas, I can imagine everyone would have like to have taken xmas off but this can’t happen in my industry!

I have been watching quite a few film over the last week like, renaissance, bond, pans labyrinth, perfume, happy feet, the wizard of ozz, London to Brighton and maybe a few more but just haven’t had tome to give them the monkey rating! I would give them all high scores anyway, maybe my film picking skills have now finally been sharpened or maybe I have an extra person picking some of them, thinks it’s a bit of both!
Well got to go as someone has to run the films when you come to watch them on boxing day, its boxing day people why would you want to go to the cinema, go to a park or the pub (something for all age groups)
cyall

Ho-Ho-Ho

2006-12-24T14:04:00.000Z

So its Christmas eve and I'm sat at work with 6 more hours to go before I attempt to get to my dads for the evening, I say attempt as my car is and will never be very well so I'm going to try and get the 40 or so miles over there and back to Liverpool tomorrow. Got all the possible Christmas shopping I could have done on the budget I have got which is not very big at all and I'm all set for the big day.
I did have the wonderful idea for as long as I could remember that I would not have my house by now! Come on Christmas I thought all of this would have been done and dusted, but its not to be well not yet anyway, I actually went home for a change yesterday, now this wasn’t really by chose as I'm more than happy in Manchester but I thought I should pop back, get some washing done, check to see if all is well at my house and it was with nothing exciting to report back at all!
So not to long then in the car for a while and then who knows, all I know is for Christmas eve I'm not feeling very Christmassy, I hope it will come to me.

Merry Christmas

Cast party all over

2006-12-15T17:27:00.000Z

Hi all,
So you may have noticed the lack of blogs over the last few weeks. this is all down to the amount of time i was spending working on the latest project to keep me busy, the staff party at work. As i work in a cinema i thought it would have been a good idea to have a MTV style awards ceremony instead of the quick one we usually have, now this took way more time than i have fist thought as i spent every spare minute i had editing video's of the even, i didn’t help having 19 categories. But after all the hard work with the video's, getting the clips, all the hardware set up i was really really happy with how the even went and from the feed back i get everyone else really enjoyed it to. I have started to put all the work i have done online but there were a few people there recording the event so a dvd can be put together of the entire evening.

So still no house sale! and i guess you must wonder what this could be now, maybe god has a problem or they need to check every brick or the grass is the wrong green well you would be wrong, after all this work it seams my solicitors are ready to go but the buyers solicitors are still waiting on some searches which they should have put in for along time ago, so it will be at lease after Christmas now and my mind says after new year. So this blows my plans for Christmas presents for everyone as now i will be back to haveing no money, and when i say no money i really mean no money, if my back had the choose i wouldn’t be eating. But hay life gose on.

Manager Award
Best High Five Action Sequence
Mrs I’ll Take Your Shift
Mr I’ll Take Your Shift
Projection Award
Best Comedic Act
Best Cashier
Clueless Award
Drunken Master Award
Best Couple
TL Award
Look A Like
The Hoff Award
Best Female
Best Male
The Heroes Award
Sammy J Award
Sexy Female
Sexy Male
Amelie Award
Credits and Winners

2006-12-04T21:02:00.000Z

Well lets catch up on the last few weeks, I managed to get drunk beyond belief the other night, went to watch a friend on his first stand up gig and he was very good by the way but after drinking a bit to much. So we got on the bus to get back but I only managed two stops before getting off due to ‘sickness’ (think we all know what I'm talking about!). so after starting to feel better I decided to get back on a bus the next stop down and managed all of 2 mins before having to get off again! So instead of a 4 mins bus ride it turned in to a 35min walk, what a plonker! I felt like a bit of an idiot but I didn’t feel to bad as the week before I had to do the same thing but this time I was the one who didn’t have enough, and that night it rained like you have never seen before, I didn’t mind as I was sure then that one day the roles would be changed and they soon where.

So I'm still in Blackburn but so so lose to moving and it would be a welcome change, to be honest I do spend quilt a lot of time in Manchester and I'm loving it, it could be nice not to have to travel 50 mile round trip to get some clean cloths and to have my stuff closer but I'm sure that will all change, I even think I'm in to single numbers in the times I have to go home.

I been spending loads and loads of time working on the clips for the upcoming cast party, as soon as there done they will be put online for everyone to see, I even hope I will get time to put the winners on the clips as at the moment it runs up to ‘the winner is’ and that’s when it get announced. They look good and I expect the night to be one to remember.

Got to go, being home means my time is full of cleaning and getting stuff for the week ect……….bye