The End of Funkymonkeyman Blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.