Chart Chasers #13

Hello and welcome to the 13th edition of Chart Chasers. Unlucky for some, especially those who love hearing new music. Unfortunately there is only one new entry in the top 40 this week but not to worry as there’s still plenty of songs for me to talk about. Due to various adverts and talent shows unlikely songs have randomly come back into the top 40. So let’s dive in shall we?

Our first track today is Maroon 5’s Move Like Jagger. It’s a pretty good pop song so let’s have a listen:

If you don’t know this song by now, where the hell have you been? This unlikely homage to Mick Jagger is a great pop song which puts you in a great mood. 4/5.

Next up is the incredibly popular We Found Love by Rihanna, with a major credit going to Calvin Harris. Here’s the video which had an Irish farmer complaining when it was filmed (yes, really):

I’ve never been a big fan of this song. Or of Rihanna come to that. I guess it’s ok but it doesn’t really mean anything to me. Boring. 3/5.

Now we’ve got an older track, but a frankly brilliant one. It’s the song for emotional montages on reality TV shows. Yep, it’s Use Somebody by Kings of Leon. I’ve always wondered if the band are actually monarchs of a country called Leon, though I suspect not. Anyway, here’s the song.

I really don’t like the rough sound of the singer’s voice. Due to that fact I’ve never really liked Kings of Leon, even when they were really popular a few years back. However, this song is so brilliant I can hear past the raspy voice and I love it. It’s so emotional and everyone’s had a point in their life when this song would have been really relevant. 5/5.

So you think that brought back memories? Well the next song takes us even further back through the mists of time. This song is often used in trailers for hospital dramas and the like. It’s How to Save a Life by The Fray…

Some people hate this song. Many love it. I fall into the latter camp. Lots of emotion here that means a lot to some people. It’s wonderful though and it’s lovely to be hearing it again. 5/5.

Next up is another song from the same year, 2005! Ah, what a year that was! Actually I can’t remember much about the year 2005 other than going on holiday to Scotland. But that was a good holiday so it must have been a good year. Anyhow, the song is Dakota by Stereophonics.

I always think the lyrics go “You make me feel like a worm” (they don’t actually say that by the way). This is a wonderful song for driving too and is a bit more cheery than it’s predecessor. It’s a fantastic track once again. 4/5.

To check out some more songs you might need to click the read more link…

End of Month Extravaganza #9

With April drawing to a close, it’s time to look back on the past month!

Everyone’s Talking About…Religion!

The post that’s got people talking this month was the one I wrote giving my reasons for not being religious. Many people wrote some very long and detailed comments so I shall just summarise what they said.

John Teal said that though he is religious he largely agreed with the points I made. He said “Because it answers all those questions you pose”. I don’t think it does though. The part of his comment that interested me the most was this bit: “…science can answer nearly every question on the lines of HOW. I am not sure it answers the question WHY?”. I agree that science does not answer the question of why, but does it need to. I don’t think there has to be a proper answer to that. The universe is just how it is, there isn’t any reason for it.

My friend Lewis mostly agreed with the points too. He said: “Science uses falsifiable evidence to justify it's claims whereas religion by definition is faith based. This is my main reason why I am an atheist because I think faith based reason has no quality control. That's not to say I always think it's bad but simply "non-rational". My argument in response to @john is why does a "Why" need to be supplied by a religious organisation?”. I 100% on that quote.

Saint Maj did the complete opposite of me and instead of politely making her point linked me to this image:

Firstly there is a way of going about debating religion and if you resort to just being rude then it in no way helps your argument. But the main point here is atheism means nothing more than not being religious. Some atheists may believe in nothing, some in the Big Bang and some have entirely other theories. And using the word “magically” is a bit silly. There are perfectly reasonable scientific answers to all the magical bits in that sentence and I could quite equally respond by saying “So God magically made the Earth did he?”. But I won’t do that.

And finally, perhaps my fave comment on that post comes from Kooz: “Great post. 1-4: Yes.” Simple but effective! Feel free to continue to politely throw your opinions on this back at me.

Comments…Best of the Rest

A bit of appreciation on me running the uni’s rambling society:

Penny Lane: wait so you just take walks??? Where do I sign up?

New York Cliche: Walking is not boring, in my book at least! A scenic walk is one of my favourite things, I think it's super awesome you started a rambling group.

And lots of other random things:

Aaron: I am such a big Doctor Who Fan! I could not stop myself from laughing when I heard the Daleks relaxation tape!

Lots of people like my blog for my obsession with Doctor Who. It’s a shame really that we are in the longest period of not having new Doctor Who since pre-2005. When the series does finally return in the Autumn I shall be writing a post on each new episode so there’ll be lots of great Who fun to be had here.

Jay: what kind of psychopath would see a plant and go "I should name this rapeseed!"? I have never heard of that plant. Maybe it's just a European thing.

Rapeseed, or oilseed rape, is actually an awesome plant. As well as being pretty you can make biofuels from it and it’s the plant which is the third largest source of vegetable oil in the world. Shame about the name though.

Althea: I like how you refer to Justin Beiber as a 'she'!x

You will notice that this will happen anytime Beiber makes an appearance on Chart Chasers.

Keira: Great work man, I am really glad to be 1 of several visitants on this awful site : D

I'm not sure whether that was supposed to come across as sarcastic or mean. I'll be optimistic and say thank you. Thank you.

Minion of the Month: No one has hugely stood out this month, I’ve had relatively few comments recently. However, Lexi is going to be my Minion of the Month because she’s written a couple of really nice comments that put a smile on my face. So thank you Lexi.

The One Post You Should Go Back and Read: I am going to suggest you read the “Get To Know Me” post. In it I share lots of stuff about myself and I think it provides a pretty good overview of what I’m like as a person. A fair few people seemed to like it so if you haven’t read it yet I suggest you do!

Blog of the Month: This is an incredibly hard decision because I have discovered loads of really enjoyable blogs recently. I am going to award this to the fabulous and wonderfully geeky blog that is “Gurl on Girl-Gaming”. Every post is hugely enjoyable and pretty funny, even when the topic is something I’m not really that interested in. Go and check it out, you’ll love it!

So, April is nearly over. Thank goodness. April 2012 has been the dullest month in my entire life. For one thing I’ve not been at uni at all for it and for various reasons had very little to do during that time. But also because it has been raining here for pretty much the entire month, no word of a lie. I can put up with having nothing to do if the weather is ok and I can go out and do fun things. But because it’s been so wet I’ve spend most of the month indoors watching the rain run down the window and hoping for some sunshine. At least I can say that nothing bad happened this month. In fact nothing happened at all!

Geekgasm 2.0: Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Hello and welcome to Geekgasm 2.0. In this new version of Geekgasm I will be talking extensively about one topic every week. There will most probably be a wide range of things so I think after a few editions there will have been something for everyone. So let’s get into today’s post!

Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Microsoft have recently shown off their new operating system, Windows 8, and have allowed users to download of a preview of it. I have had the new system for a couple of weeks now and have been playing around with it. This operating system is possibly the most different to its predecessor that Microsoft have produced in a long time. And as it’s only a preview who knows how it could change even more?

The biggest difference is the Start Menu. There is no Start button on the Desktop this time round. Instead there’s a funky page which you can pin your favourtie programs too. Observe:

I actually much prefer this system, though it takes some getting used to once you first use it. I’ve found that it means I’ve been actually using the Windows button on my keyboard now as it’s the easiest way to get to the Start menu (though you can click the place where the start button used to be on the desktop to access it).

To get to the rest of your programs you have to right click and click “All Apps”. That’s right, Microsoft have opted to call programs apps now, largely because want to link the new operating system to it’s phone equivalent.  Clicking all apps takes you to a page which is pretty much the same as if you clicked “all programs” on the old Start button menu. Expect it’s spread out on a page rather than crammed into a little box, which is much better.

Apps

Coming with the operating system are some new brand new apps. You can download some for free from the store but here’s an overview of each of the apps that come as standard.

Calendar: It’s a calendar. It looks pretty awesome though and handily puts any appointments onto the app box on the start menu.

Camera: A very simple version of a Web camera program that lets you take photos and record videos. Very simple but that could be what you want when using your webcam.

Finance: I don’t know what this does as it just loads a white screen. I guess it would either show stocks or somehow show personal finances, though I’m not quite sure how that would work.

Mail: It’s Windows 8 version of Outlook. And it’s very frustrating as I’ve tried putting on a second account and that doesn’t work very well. Plus moving back to the accounts page involves right clicking and clicking accounts, which is really annoying and way more long-winded than Outlook or Windows Live Mail or something similar. Still, it looks good and if it would work better might be a decent standard e-mail program. Sorry, “app”.

Maps: This is simply Bing Maps outside of an internet browser. I would always use Google Maps ahead of this though so it’s made a bit redundant. Does the job though.

Messaging: It’s Windows 8 version of Live Messenger. It’s just a messenger in exactly the same style as the Mail app. I’m not sure this will ever be widely used what with Facebook Chat, Skype and things like BBM on smartphones all being better alternatives.

Weather: This is a great looking app which displays the information from Bing weather in a stylish and detailed way. It’s not quite perfect but is a much better way to check the weather online than any website I’ve ever come across. Plus it puts an overview on the start menu, as do most of these apps.

There’s a few others too, such as People which has all the information of your hotmail contacts on, the Store to download more apps from and Xbox Live Companion. You can download some Xbox online games to your computer, those that are compatible. I haven’t tried this out apart from the preloaded ones. The first of these is Solitaire, which is nothing new and in fact isn’t as easy to use as the previous version (no handy keyboard shortcuts for hints or putting all the cards away). However, much more enjoyable is a nod back to the pinball that came on Windows XP. It’s a huge pinball game with loads of different tables which is great fun.

I’m sure when the operating system is properly released lots of new apps will come onto the market and the store will become much like the iTunes App Store or the Android Store. The possibilities of having an App store for PCs though are huge so it’ll be interesting to see which developers can release apps onto it and what they come up with. Will we see things like iTunes on there for example, or how about Photoshop? We’ll just have to wait and see I guess.

Windows Live Account Integration

The new system encourages you to sign in with your Windows Live Account. If you set this up then you log on using your Live account rather than just an account for your PC. This means your settings can remain the same across any Windows 8 PC you log onto, which is pretty cool. It also means all your apps are logged in straight away which saves some bother setting them up. So the Mail app has you Live e-mails on it, the Calendar has your Live appointments on it and the Xbox bit is connected to your Xbox Live account. It means everything is much more integrated, though that does leave some security issues.

One last thing that I found to be quite different was the way you exit your computer. Instead of simply going to Start and then Shut Down, you have to either Sign Out or Lock your account from the Start menu and then from the startup screen Shut Down or Hibernate of whatever. It’s a bit weird but I guess it makes more sense than pressing Start to turn your computer off.

Overall Windows 8 is a breath of fresh air for operating systems. It looks better, it’s certainly pretty quick, and the new App store has huge potential. Of course there may be some significant changes yet but from what I’ve seen it's pretty damn good. All PCs should have Windows 8 on, now! If you too want to take the plunge and download the consumer preview you can do so here. Beware though, it takes a long time to download and install!

Guest Post: How Internet Dating is Changing the World

It’s time for another guest post! This week Kate Croston suggests how internet dating is changing the world. It raises some interesting points!

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Match.com, eHarmony, OKCupid… all of these websites have one thing in common: they are geared exclusively towards matching singles with one another in an attempt to form relationships and connections that likely would not have occurred otherwise. Internet dating, which started over two decades ago, has flooded the dating world. Sure, people are still meeting in the more traditional ways – through friends, at bars, during social events – but it’s becoming more and more common for a love story to start with how they met each other online. Internet dating is changing the way we view dating and thus is changing the world.

1. Allows people all over the world to connect–Before internet dating came about you were pretty limited in the people that you dated. For the most part you only met and dated people who were in close proximity to you, unless you happened to meet at a social event that took you out of your home state or through mutual friends. Now you can meet anyone anywhere and connect. Geographical regions are no longer as big of a restriction with dating.

2. Provides a safe environment – For the people that either don’t get out much socially or are too shy to actually strike up a conversation with someone in person, internet dating has provided a type of safe haven. It allows people to come out of their shells and put themselves out there more because they can effectively hide behind the computer screen until they feel more comfortable with interacting one on one. This means that more and more people have the ability to form meaningful relationships when they otherwise might not have done so.

3. Freeing up more time to focus on other things – Instead of worrying about getting out of the house and staging different events in hopes of meeting people we are able to rely on the internet to conjure up dates for us, all the while allowing us to focus more on other things, like work or our hobbies, and less on being present at the next happy hour or asking friends for blind dates. It provides the perfect alternative when getting out and finding love isn’t your main focus.

4. Gives people more confidence – You can be whoever you want to be on the internet. In a few clicks you’re suddenly exactly the person you’ve dreamed of being instead of being held back by preconceived notions or descriptions from friends. If you’re looking to makeover yourself and find someone that is completely outside of the people you already know, then internet dating offers a viable solution.

5. Breeds more reliance on technology – We are becoming increasingly dependent on technology, and allowing it to handle our dating lives only furthers that dependence. Instead of getting out and away from our computers and smartphones we’re spending more time than ever on them. Instead of getting out and involved we’re holing up and sending emails and chatting online.

Internet dating has made a significant impact on how we go about our lives. The impact of it is neither inherently bad or good – just different. However as technology continues to grow it’s safe to say that internet dating will flourish as well.

Author Bio:

Kate Croston is a freelance writer, holds a bachelors degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She writes guest posts for different sites and loves contributing internet service related topics. Questions or comments can be sent to:  katecroston.croston09@gmail.com .

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Thanks Kate! If anyone is reading this and fancies writing a guest post themselves, check out the Guest Post page for details.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Hello there. I would very much like to be sharing with you all the awesome things that have happened in my lately but unfortunately someone forgot to tell the awesome things that they were supposed to happen. Since I returned to my home town after my brief visit to uni, I’ve not had a lot to do. Probably the most frustrating thing is that April has been a very wet month in the UK. Look at the weather forecast and you see Monday: Rain, Tuesday: Showers, Wednesday: Showers, Thursday: Heavy Showers, Friday: Rain. I love spending time outdoors walking around aimlessly and taking photos of things. Not being able to do so because it’s raining is so frustrating. And it’s even more frustrating because March has really good weather but I was on placement and had no time at all to enjoy it. But now I’ve got all the time in the world it flipping rains constantly. Grrrr.

The only things I’ve really done have been with my best mate Chris. On Thursday we headed to our old haunting ground which is Bournemouth. I promised myself it was going to be a cheap afternoon and under no circumstances would I buy anything. Of course I ended up buying a load of Blu-Rays and DVDs when I went into the 2nd hand electronics store. I purchased: Psycho, Alien Anthology, Four Lions, 28 Days Later and The Incredible Hulk (2008). Plus I’ve got all sorts of bidding going on on ebay as I try to buy Blu-Rays for £3 or less. I won The Dark Knight earlier for just under £4 which is quite pleasing. The trouble is myself and Chris, and a few of our other friends, have been going to Bournemouth as something to do for many years now. There isn’t really much to do there beyond shop and seeing as though we are both male students it’s not really within our interest or indeed our budget to do that. But it is literally the only place that is easy to get to round here. We need a new plan for the Summer.

It’s become something of a routine to go to the local pub on a Sunday night when we are both in the town. This involves us arriving and choosing a table away from everyone else in the pub where possible. This is mainly because people from our year at school are often hanging around the bar. It’s never the sort of people we want to see. Not the sort of people that we’d happily sit and have a drink with and in fact not the people we’d even want to just say hi to. Fortunately my beard is a decent disguise and most people don’t recognise me. We usually get through a few pints of ciders and our conversation turns from what we’ve been up to lately and stuff we’ve seen on TV to how shit our lives are. Because we’re lame and don’t drink very often it doesn’t take much before we’re a little tipsy. We now never ever go the quick and sensible way home and end up staggering round a muddy and wet track beside the local fishing lake using a phone as a torch. Somehow we also manage to make it home safely and relatively mud free, which is a miracle really. It’s a good job we’re only a little drunk when we do that our we’d never survive.

The other day it occurred to me that I have now been single for two years. I looked up the date a couple of weeks ago because all I could remember was the big breakup was in April and despite the fact I now knew the date it passed me by without me even realising. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this, er, landmark. A bit rubbish I suppose. Some people might say “better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all”. Probably true but it doesn’t make me feel any different. I’ve fairly recently come to the conclusion that if I ever do find a special someone it will be a long way off and there is a fair chance of being one of those people who never find someone. I’m not being purposefully pessimistic when I say that, it’s what I think. I’m just not desirable. Still, I do live with a hope that one day things might turn out brilliantly and don’t really worry about it.

The future is looking a lot more exciting than the present. On the 30th April I am going to see the wonderful rapper/singer that is Example which I’m pretty excited about. But that’s nothing compared to the excitement of what's happening in August. Myself and Chris are flying up to the Scottish capital for the Edinburgh Festival! For those of you who don’t know, the Festival is the festival for comedy in the UK. Almost all of the biggest comedians will be there, as well as all sorts of street performers and live theatre things. It’s all booked and I am so excited. And yes, I will be blogging from there if all goes to plan. Quite frankly it is going to be the best week in years.

And I’m going to end with a few things about this blog. I like to keep things fresh and change things which don’t work. So I have three pieces of news for you.

1) I am going to start a new feature called “Ask Dan”. I will answers a whole loads of questions that you lot ask me. Which means I need questions. So write a comment, or even better go to the new Ask Dan page. It can be anything you like: personal, silly, funny, about a TV show/film/song, something about blogging or anything else you might think of. This will only work though if I get some questions from you so please, please if you read this ask me a questions. So ask something, anything!

Was that enough begging?

2) Geekgasm is evolving. Instead of being a hodge-podge of geeky things each week it will be an extended article about one thing. Slightly more journalistic than my usual stuff but hopefully equally enjoyable. I am quite excited about this new direction. Geekgasm 2.0 launches on Friday!

3) May is Movie Month! The big challenge is for me to watch one movie a day, every day in May. Well something might go wrong so it might be no movies one day and two another day but basically I will be watching 31 movies during the month of May. I don’t really watch many movies so I’m hoping this will encourage me to watch more. Maybe you’d like to ask me if I’ve seen a certain movie or suggest a movie to me as part of Ask Dan. Movie Month will be epic!

And that’s it for today. Somehow my blog schedule is brimmed with lots of cool stuff over the next week and a bit so keep coming back for more things. And please ask me something for Ask Dan!

Chart Chasers #12

Hello and welcome once again to Chart Chasers, where I rate the newest tracks in the UK chart every Monday. Today I’ve got NINE tracks to take have a listen to so why not come along for the ride?

Today’s first track has been around a little while and is Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) by Kelly Clarkson. It’s quite a good song too:

This is a typical Clarkson song which shows off her incredibly powerful voice. Plus there’s a good message for life in the lyrics, which is always an added bonus. 4/5.

Next up is Drake, with a little help from Rihanna, telling us to Take Care. It sounds like this one could have a good message to. But then it’s Drake so that seems unlikely.

There doesn’t appear to be an official video yet, despite the fact the track has been around for yonks. It samples another song which some people aren’t happy about. I didn’t care, I was just thinking about how bored I was. This was just a generic rapper’s song with a female vocalist doing the chorus. All well done yes, but just REALLY BORING. 2/5.

Birdy is next with her well known track Skinny Love. I’m not sure why this song has suddenly climbed back into the top 40 but it has so that’s why it’s here. Can someone please try and explain to me what “Skinny Love” actually means? Anyway, here’s the beautiful song.

This is such a beautiful song and perhaps the best song I’ve had the pleasure of featuring here. I can’t say a single bad thing about it. Except that people singing it at karaoke makes for an ear-splitting sound on most occasions. Anyway, 5/5.

A BRAND NEW song now, the cheerfully titled Burn it Down by Linkin Park, perhaps my favourite park of them all. I despite Mr. Park’s early work which is just a lot of racket but some of the more recent stuff has been pretty good. Let’s have a listen then!

Excellent, I quite liked that. A slightly different direction for Mr. Park, making it a bit electronic sounding. And this might well become a new theme tune for pyromaniacs. 4/5.

Once again our old friend David Guetta is appearing here though for this song he’s teamed up with our old enemy Nicki Minaj. Surely even the legend that is Guetta cannot make Nicki Minaj sound good? Here is Turn it On.

Nice work Guetta! He’s managed to get Minaj singing, which is much better than having her rapping. Her singing is not the best though and another artist may have made this sound better. Having said that it is way better then I thought it could be and is certainly the best thing Minaj has done (which isn’t saying much really). 3/5.

To continue reading you might need to click on “read more” below. Lots more fun to come, I promise!

Friday Review #16

Once again it’s time for me to review another load of things I’ve watched or read recently. I’ve been zooming through the books lately so there’s quite a few of them today as well as a few other things. As always, let me know your opinions on any of the things here in the comments.

TV

The Walking Dead (Season Two)

In my review of part one I complained that not a lot had really happened. Fortunately things did liven up in the second half with a death in most of the episodes and all sorts of crazy things happening. I’m still not sure I like the way that the series has drifted quite considerably from the comics. The odd extra bit, like the CDC, adds something but killing off characters that survive much longer in the comics is weird. I like how it keeps us guessing but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the comics and so the storyline should be kept pretty much to the source material. Whilst this was at times a thrilling series and really developed the characters, it was quite dull in places. Apart from the first episode, the majority of the series was set on the farm. I think they dragged this out far too much and anymore than six episodes would have been enough. The farm is not a very exciting location and for the most part not a lot happens there. I have hope that next season will be better with the survivors finding the prison and fighting the governor as well as having the awesome character that is Michonne join the group. Not a bad series but could have been better. ★★★☆☆

Movies

Zombieland

Yep, more zombies. I’m going through a bit of a zombie faze at the moment. We join the action here as our shy student hero (basically me without the hero bit) has survived a zombie apocalypse, using thirty rules such as “beware of bathrooms”. He gradually joins up with a gun-toting tough guy who craves Twinkies (whatever they actually are) and two sisters. Inevitably our hero falls for the elder sister and eventually saves her from the zombies. It’s actually a comedy and there are some hilarious moments, though I wouldn’t say it’s a patch on Shaun of the Dead. My favourite part involves a brilliant cameo from Bill Murray who just makes the whole film. The trouble was is that there never seemed to be much real danger, even towards the finale when we knew it would all end ok. Plus it’s not that funny, the laughs are great but there’s just not that many of them. Still, it’s a light-hearted take on a zombie apocalypse which leaves you with a warm feeling inside afterwards. ★★★★☆

Wall.e

This was on TV so I decided to watch it, having fallen asleep half-way through the last time I saw it. The humans have left Earth and left it covered in rubbish. Wall.e is the last cleaning robot left and continues to clean up as best he can. That is until another robot, Eve, arrives, looking to see if there is any greenery on the planet. Wall.e ends up on the humans space-ship, as they sit in hovering chairs, never exercising and getting fatter and fatter. The captain decides they should return to Earth but the computer refuses. It’s up to Wall.e and Eve to get the ship back to Earth. It’s a wonderful warning about what humanity could become though much of the enjoyment comes from Wall.e himself. Considering he’s a robot with very few words, Pixar really managed to show the emotions on him, which is brilliant. However, whilst children might hapily sit through a film with next to no dialogue, I found it a bit harder to concentrate on. A bit more talking and I’d love this movie. ★★★★☆

Books

The Island Of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells

After a terrible shipwreck a man called Pendrick arrives on the island of Dr. Moreau where some odd experiments are going on. Saying anymore than that will spoil the story, which is really very good. Considering the time it was written, the events of this book still seem possible today. It raises all sorts of questions about what makes us human and really makes you think.

Much to my surprise it's quite easy to read. Wells' was a fantastic writer and also quite humorous. Amongst the dark story are some very witty lines. Though containing some elements of sci-fi, I would say this is more of an adventure novel. It's thrilling and at times scary and doesn't over-complicate things. A gem of a book that has made me thirsty for more of Wells' work.

★★★★☆

 

 

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Jointly written by two authors I love, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, this book was bound to be enjoyable. And angel and a demon discover that the antichrist is going to start Armageddon soon and they are not very happy about it. It features the four horsemen of the apocalypse riding motorcycle, witch-finders and a group of youths discussing all sorts of random things. It manages to be a light take on a dark subject whilst still raising all sorts of philosophical questions. It's absolutely hilarious too!

My one quibble is that the humour and enjoyment sort of died out in the middle. I think too long is spent dwindling on the group of youths led by the antichrist when by that point we want the apocalypse to get going. Crowley and Azirapahle are fantastic central characters who bounce of each other brilliantly. Everyone of their scenes is fantastic.

All in all, it's pretty damn good. Fans of either author would no doubt enjoy it and it has something of a The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy about it too. Well worth reading. ★★★★☆

 

Hollow Earth by John and Carole E. Barrowman

John Barrowman is good at pretty much everything and I doubted he could write a decent children's novel, even with his sister's help. Apparently he can. The story is about twins Em and Matt who are “animare” and have the power to animate things they draw in real life. They're not the only ones though and there's lots of secret plots and you're not really sure who's good and who's bad.

It's a great universe they've created and the characters are hugely likeable. Occasionally the language is a little awkward and the kids say things that very few kids would ever say. But they are minor quibbles in a book which is otherwise very well written and very gripping. Pleasantly surprised by this one and can easily see a sequel coming at some point in the future. ★★★★☆

 

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Firstly I have to say it was a very odd read. Coraline is virtually ignored by her family and the other adults around her. Then she goes through the a door and into a world which at first glance seems nearly perfect. In it is her Other Mother, who has buttons for eyes. It doesn't take long before Coraline feels uneasy there and realises all is not as it first appears.

It really was a very disturbing book in places, largely because of the way it captures the innocence of childhood incredibly well. Reading it you feel like you are Coraline, going through all the terrible things she does. Despite how dark it is, there is still moments of Gaimon's usual wit and humour tucked in there, many courtesy of the sarcastic cat.

I could imagine doing a long study looking at this book in depth and what it all represents. Maybe it doesn't represent anything at all and is just quite weird. I don't know really. Still, I enjoyed it although I still feel a little creeped out by the whole thing. ★★★★☆

 

Thank you for reading and don’t forget to share your thoughts!

Guest Post: A Female View on Technology

Today we have a great guest post from Freya, who writes about overcoming the stereotype. It’s a great post and I’m really lucky that Freya wrote this. Enjoy!

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Overcoming the stereotype: a female view on technology

Ok, so I’m not one to make sweeping generalisations, but it’s clear from the blogging community that the majority of technology bloggers are male. I suppose my blog fits this stereotype perfectly: I blog about fashion and girly things, things that would probably make most teen boys run a mile. I think it’s about time someone gave a female input into the value technology has on our society and with that I’m going to talk about how the (again not generalising) female mind could advance this technology even further.

Before I go any further, I’ll just define what I mean by ‘the female mind’. Whether or not you’re severely against gender stereotyping or are sitting on the fence, it’s true that in society there’s this idea that men are the logical technology enthusiasts, us women are the creative artists. Now I know many extremely logical girls and artistically talented boys, but if we’re going to debate a social issue, we need to look through the eyes of people with common opinion. So for the sake of this post, please leave behind any apprehensions and stereotype with society.

A quote from my friend today: you’re like electricity and water, you and technology do not mix. Yes, it’s true that I do crash/break/freeze an average of four school computers a week, but that doesn’t mean I’m not aware of the extraordinary cyber metropolis technology has brought us. I guess technology is not just confined to computers that can do crazy things; it’s a whole massive world of creative sparks that have become massive. I’d like to think the female population have made their substantial contribution.

Take Apple for example. I seriously doubt there’s anyone who thought of a sweet, crisp innocent fruit when they read that word, instead of the global phenomenon which brought us the iPod/pad etc. The truth is, behind the intense technique of perfecting those unbelievably brilliant screens that are so responsive they feel like ice (I believe my first exclamation upon using one, after the initial moment of dumbstruck disbelief was, “It’s so touch responsive!!!!”), there is this massive surge of creativity that began the whole thing. Creativity. That’s a word with so much potential. Being creative means thinking outside the box (suitably in this case the small, sleek box of the iProduct) and realising that there’s a massive side of modern technology where no one has ever been before. That’s where we come in.

As bloggers, both male and female, that’s what we do every day. It doesn’t matter whether we blog about how to build a computer or high street bargains, whether you know it or not we’re extremely creative, turning virtual sheets of paper into words that people want to read. Much like creating brand new ideas, there are no boundaries.

What I’m trying to say is, despite the fact that us girls, who are often seemingly detached from the physical development of technology, still have these creative minds that could be used, and are used regularly. So anyone who thinks that technology is just for people with an aptitude for computing brilliantly technical minds (in other words, what society believes are male characteristics), maybe it’s time for you to open yours.

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Freya’s quite girly but still brilliant blog is called “Freya’s World” and can be found here. Go and check it out for more great stuff from Freya.

The Bad Omen

Hello! My spring holiday has suddenly become much more exciting and generally enjoyable. Thank goodness for that or I may have lost mind! Read on to discover what’s been happening.

Saturday was the biggest horse-race of the year (in the UK anyway), the Grand National. As usual I read through the newspaper and chose a horse to make a bet on. After some deliberation (well several seconds anyway) I decided on which horse to back. West End Rocker at odd of 14/1. It seemed to have a decent chance yet wasn’t one of the favourites. My fingers were crossed that this horse would earn me some money.

Hours later after the build-up which goes on for ever, the race began. And several seconds in and my horse was out of the race. West End Rocker fell at the second fence. Clearly my horse-choosing skills are not very good. It was an exciting race though and the closest Grand National ever. It was a photo finish and the grey horse Neptune Collognes won it by a whisker.  It’s very unusual for a grey horse to win, especially this one who wasn’t predicted to do that well really.

^{That’s what you call close!}

I write about the National every year and every year someone comes along and starts going on about how cruel it is and pretty much tells me I’m a terrible person for considering it entertainment. It’s a completely invalid point. Yes, two horses did die this year. The news always incorrectly says that they died going over the fences. This is simply not true. The horses fell at the fences and broke legs and had to be out down. I don’t know the exact reason why but breaking a leg is much more serious in a horse and because of it’s biology means it would suffer much more if it remained alive. The course was made safer this year and it was just pure bad luck that resulted in this tragedy. No-one wants the horses to die, least of all the people involved. And there’s often criticism of the use of the whip. Let’s remind ourselves that too much whipping results in all sorts of trouble for the jockey. And whipping a horse is not like whipping a person, they are much less sensitive and won’t feel it as much. If I look at the horses racing I see happy horses who are doing what they love doing. The fact they carry on jumping the fences and running the race even when the jockey has fallen off. Horse racing is not cruel in any way and everything possible is done to make it as safe as possible for both the jockeys and the horses.

Well that’s enough on that subject. Monday saw me head back to Winchester for 24 hours, mainly to do get together with my maths assignment group and do some work. This happened and we did a bit of work. All fine. After a visit to McDonald’s for lunch, I attempted to head back to the house. I found that nearly every way I went was blocked off by police cordons. I thought perhaps there had been an accident but there did seem to be an excessive amount of police officers around if that was the case. Once I finally found a route to the house, a much longer one than normal, I looked up what was going on in my phone. It turns out it was a bomb scare. Someone had rung up the police saying there was a bomb at the County Courts. I was quite surprised by this. Winchester is not very big and not really that important. The only way it is important is because it has both the county council offices and the county courtrooms in it. Still, I never suspected that anyone would ever threaten to blow either of these up. Winchester is not the sort of place you’d think bomb scares happen. I was very impressed with how the emergency services dealt with the unlikely situation though. Police were ensuring no-one got into the area and evacuated one end of the high street. Ambulances were stationed on stand-by right near my house. It was impressive stuff. In the end, as was always going to be the case, nothing was found and things returned to normal. It was all very exciting though.

After an evening of spicy chicken, bowling and drinking more alcohol than I’d planned, this morning I headed home, stopping off for a bit of shopping in Southampton on the way. I left Southampton train station to discover the city appeared to be up in smoke. There was a massive fire at the docks which was the cause and fire-fighters have said it will take a few days before it will go out completely.

^{This shows all the smoke. (Picture courtesy BBC News)}

I couldn’t believe that after being in Winchester the day there was a bomb scare, I was in Southampton the day it was on fire. I recommend that all towns refuse me entry in case something else happens. I have not exactly been a good omen over the last few days. I wandered round Southampton city centre for quite a while. Me shopping on my own is always a disaster. I feel really uncomfortable and always end up buying more than I can carry and generally make a mess of things. My first purchase was two pairs of trousers, which I somehow managed to get charged half the price for. I have a knack for doing this. I then went into Forbidden Planet, and spent quite a long time in there. It’s full of various geeky things such as action figures and has a whole floor dedicated to comics and graphic novels. I ended up buying three graphic novels, two of which were the next two volumes of The Walking Dead comic. Once I’ve read those I’ll be up to volume 12. After wandering around various shops looking at Blu-rays and not finding any I wanted, I purchased a new pair of shoes and a new T-shirt. Both of which are awesome and in what I like to think as my unique style. Which is generally stuff which is either really brightly coloured, geeky or some combination of the too. I quite often think I the clothes I wear actually look pretty cool. My face let’s the look down though, it’s just not a cool face. I also bought a new lamp for my room so I can read at night in bed and don’t have to stagger across the room half-asleep to turn the light off.

Eventually I ended up back at home with my parents. It was a crazy few days. This second week of my spring holiday has already been better than the first and I’ve got lots of fun things planned so it should be pretty awesome. I just hope my presence is other town doesn’t cause any other crazy things to happen!

I’d like to end today by saying thanks to everyone who reads this blog regularly. Whether you’ve done it for ages or have only just discovered it, I’m glad you like it and really appreciate you coming here. Make sure you leave a comment with your thoughts on things. My blog appears to be particularly popular with escorts in India. I’m not sure why but I regularly receive comments from profiles with names like “Mumbai Escorts” telling me how good my blog is. I think they might just be spamming though. I hope so because I’d find it weird if escorts really were reading this. That’s all for today but there will be more stuff very soon so watch this space!

Chart Chasers #11

Hello and welcome to my look at the new songs in singles chart. This week there’s a staggering eight new entries and so I’ve decided to extend this feature so that there are ten songs every week rather than five. This is to help complete the exciting new chart page. 

 

We begin today with a new entry by Alex Clare entitled Too Close at number 37. I’ve no idea what to expect from this and whether it’s a boy Alex or a girl Alex. Let’s find out:

This song made the chart because of an advert for Internet Explorer. The video contains some exciting martial arts (kendo I think?) but it’s not the most exciting song I’ve ever heard. It is likeable enough though. 3/5.

Next up is a song from 1998 which has charted at number 35. It’s Drops of Jupiter by Train. I can’t say I’ve really heard much about Train (apart from the mode of transport named after them) so once again it’s a bit of a mystery to me.

Once again I wasn’t particularly stunned but I didn’t hate it. It’s another 3/5.

I’m on more familiar territory with this next song. It charts at number 27 because of an astounding performance of the track on The Voice UK. It made Jessie J and will.i.am, who wrote it, cry. The song is Ordinary People and it’s sung in this case by John Legend.

It’s a stunning track about relationships breaking up. I don’t like that they made the arguments loud in the video though. Lovely track and you should check out Jaz Ellington’s version too (the guy off The Voice). 4/5.

Speaking of The Voice UK, the next track comes courtesy of one of it’s judges, Jessie J with some assistance from David Guetta. It’s called Laserlight. I like most of Jessie’s other stuff so I hope this one is as good.

Well Guetta’s influence is all over this! That makes it very different from Jessie’s other music but I still quite like it. It is a bit too similar to Guetta’s other recent stuff though. 4/5.

For out next track we’re climbing up the chart to number 21 for Blackout by Breathe Carolina. It’s another brand new artist for my ears!

Oh God. That was electronic crap. The jumpy effect is probably meant to sound cool but it sounds like a radio signal cutting off and is really annoying. Suffice to say I am not a fan. 2/5.

 

Get To Know Me

Hello. The other day I filled out a “get to know me” thing on Tumblr and decided it would make a pretty good blog post here. I’ve added some new bits and hopefully this will serve as an introduction to me for new people and contain some new things about me that might not have been said here before. Here we go then!

Name: Dan

Gender: Male

Birth date: 15th March 1992

Star Sign: Pisces

Place of birth: Salisbury, England.

Current place of residence: Winchester, England during term time and Ringwood, England the rest of the time

Ethnicity: White British

Siblings: 1 Brother, younger

Parents: Two

Religious/Spiritual affiliation: Atheist. I wrote a post about why recently.

Pets: Cats x 2. Called Sherbet and Minstrel.

Height: 5’ 8” (1.72m)

Relationship status: Forever alone. In a couple of days time I will have been single for an entire two years. In that time I have had to prospect of romance whatsoever. I have got to the point in my life where I begrudgingly accept the fact that I am not in any way attractive and may well never find someone.  

Sexual orientation: Straight

What are you doing with your life?: I am at university in Winchester studying to be a primary school teacher. I’m now nearly half way through a four year course and assuming all goes to plan it’s a long career teaching after that.

Smoke?: Never ever, I find smoking disgusting and I wouldn’t want to suffer all the health consequences.

Drugs?: Again never ever. Whilst I can sort of appreciate the reasons for doing them, the buzz or the relaxation depending on the drug, there is a reason they are illegal. Doing drugs will not do good things to your body.

Drink?: Yes, but not too regularly. Getting drunk is fun occasionally but doing it regularly is horrible. It’s not worth it most of the time for the trouble is causes and the feeling the next day.

Tattoos/piercings?: Never ever. I despise them both. I don’t mind ear piercings but anything else is horrible. And I’ve never “got” tattoos, I just don’t like them.
Glasses?: They suit me but my eyesight is too good to need them.

PC or Mac: PC

Mobile phone: Blackberry Curve

Favourite book: I don’t think I could ever narrow it down to just one. 1984, Harry Potter and Shade’s Children are some of my faves.

Favourite film: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. The recent Muppets film and The Muppet’s Christmas Carol tie in at a close second.

Favourite TV show: Doctor Who. It’s become an obsession. Life would be such much better if the Time Lord could pick me up and show me the universe. I’d happily play Rory if they ever remade the current era. Partly because I’m a little like him in some ways but mostly because he’s married to Amy Pond (Karen Gillan).

Do you believe in ghosts? Nice idea, but no.

Do you believe in UFOs? It seems likely that there is other life in the universe but it is unlikely any of it has ever visited Earth. (Though I could go on to list Doctor Who aliens of course but I have to remind myself it’s only a TV show and not reality.)

Abortion?: Avoid wherever possible but there are times when it might be for the best.

Death penalty?: No, killing never makes things right. Killing someone makes you at least as bad as they are.

Gay marriage?: Yes, everyone should be able to get married to whoever they want.

Where have you travelled?: UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Majorca, Poland, Finland.

Where else can you be found on the internet?: Twitter: @zotwot, Tumblr: zotwot and all the various pages for this blog can be found in the sidebar.

 

And there you have it. I hope that was in some way entertaining. Feel free to take the format for your own blog if you want to. Share your post in the comments if you do!

Guest Post: Hookeymonster

Hello! It’s been a while since I last had a guest post here but this is the start of a run of new ones. Today hookeymonster talks about not being as internet savvy as she first thought. Enjoy!

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Hello Into Geek readers! I am hookeymonster from over at Swimming Blindly however here I am potentially tainting the quality of Dan’s blog today with my lack of quality.

Thank you Dan for the opportunity!

I broke the family computer when I was 10 and blamed it on my sister. Still to this day my family still think my sister broke the computer by typing on the keyboard when it was turned off and we were playing “Secretary”. In actual fact I was playing on the keyboard after I had turned it on and whilst Windows was loading.

That should explain to you the technological intelligence of my family. And also prove to you I really didn’t need lessons in acting because I already knew how to live the lie.

I think I have redeemed myself over the years because, up until recently, I thought I was pretty switched on with all this computer business. I love the internet. Like those I (heart) NY t-shirts? I need an I (heart) Internet t-shirt because without the internet I suffer severe withdrawals. It’s great right? You can learn stuff here, and read stuff and laugh at stuff and be inspired and educated and all the magical things can happen on that screen in front of you (except human contact and nature blah blah blah – they really should bring out a computer that offers a 4D-esque type of experience already) so with all the time I spend on the internet and all the advice I offer to people in my offline life I thought I was pretty savvy.

Until I started blogging with Wordpress after having had a Blogger blog for years.

Why, you may ask, did I decide to go from Blogger to Wordpress?

Great question! Hotmail was changing something and kept flashing up at me about these darn Wordpress blogs, I was dissatisfied with my Blogger blog so thought I would give it go being more “professional looking” with my blog.

Oh. Em. Gee. what a joke.

Does Dan swear here? Because, well, firetruck me. “Professional” is hard work. Blogger was so effortlessly easy and Wordpress was so complicated with all its codes and CSS and HTML and what does it all mean?!

And then I took on the task of “creating a button”. Heaps of people have buttons. They have all these cute buttons which always make me envious and I think “I wonder how they make those?! Ohh it can’t be that hard, I am totally sure I can make a button!”

Here’s a fun fact! I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG!

I started to doubt myself. I started to doubt whether or not I had any internet savvy about me at all or if I was just a big giant fake like the time I blamed the broken computer on my sister.

It took 3 people to figure out the damn button. One of them was me, and I was useless. One of them was a Blogger who isn’t used to such complicated malarkey as Wordpress offers. One of them was a lovely genius.

I probably had the coding right to begin with. I know my Blogger friend had the coding right. And I can definitely assure you that the lovely genius had it right. But it just wouldn’t work. I kept trying and trying, like The Little Engine That Could, but it just wouldn’t work.

And do you know why it wouldn’t work? Because I, the internet genius fraud that I am, was trying to upload it into an “image” widget. If you know anything about what I’m talking about here you will automatically know how wrong I was. One week and two different time zones working on it all when finally the light bulb switched on and I thought to myself “oh, it’s all text. Maybe I should put it into a text widget?”

Yes, Dan’s friends, that is what I did. And it worked.

I redeemed myself the other night by figuring out how to centre the picture when I insert it into a post using the coding. I was so pleased with myself that I thought I should get a t-shirt made saying “I added the centre bit into the codey thingy!”

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Well that was good fun. Now I’m confused whether I do swear here or not. I am genuinely not sure. I will now use “firetruck” as a swear word wherever possible. If you fancy a go at submitting a guest post here, check out the details here. And if you enjoyed the post be sure to check out hookeymonster’s blog Swimming Blindly.

The Mischievous Mouse

Hello. Me again. I don’t know who else you’d expect to find here really. So I’m now nearly half way through the first week of my enormous spring break and I’m quite bored with it. Mainly because the weather has been dreadful and this town is the dullest in the entire world. Probably. This is not so great seeing as though I have another three and a half weeks to fill, and a month later an entire SIX MONTHS. I realise that most people would be overjoyed at having such huge amounts of holiday but I hate not having anything to do. I do try to find entertainment wherever possible though…

Last night I was sat casually surfing the web when a mouse wandered past. This was pretty much the last thing I expected to happen. One of our cats is a very proficient hunter. She’s the feline equivalent of Jack the Ripper. I imagine mice and birds have wanted posters with her face stuck on it. Or at least an e-fit of her face. In most cases it is a bloody massacre and you might find a leg or some internal organ or other just lying in the living room. That is not pleasant. Sometimes though a victim will strike it lucky and survive. How this mouse found it’s way into my room is beyond me as the cats aren’t allowed upstairs and there is not time she could have snuck up. The mouse found it’s way here though. If the mouse had any common sense and had listened to the press conference from the mouse police telling victims to stay alert and trust the humans if they come in contact with them, it would have wandered into our little mouse-catching box and we would have been able to release it back into the wild. Unfortunately this mouse decided to hurtle around my room at great speed every time we nearly caught it. At 11PM my room was tipped upside down to capture the lively little rodent and half an hour later we finally did manage to catch it and then only because it hopped into a bag and got itself stuck in there. You’ll be pleased to know the mouse has been returned safely into the wild and is in negotiations with several mouse newspapers to sell it’s story.

Today’s effort to alleviate the boredom was to go on a huge walk across the New Forest, which is fortunately just up the road from me. Within ten minutes I had managed to get caked in mud. I had attempted to jump over a puddle and had instead slipped on a patch of mud and jumped straight into the puddle. As you can imagine, this caused quite a mess. Still, it didn’t matter too much and I continued by trek. I must have looked quite a sight to passers-by. I was wearing my cool new sunglasses, my very vibrant Marvel comic heroes T-shirt and great tracksuit bottoms which were covered in mud. What a look that was.

The New Forest is incredibly beautiful and it’s wonderful that I can see amazing views only minutes from my house. Naturally I took some photos of these amazing views:

I was also lucky enough to see a herd of deer. There were lots of them all crowded around and they were a little way away so I got to stand and watch them for ages without them getting scared. There were even a few stags there which is something you see very rarely. I took a few photos but the zoom on my camera is rubbish so they’re not great.

I imagine that stag in the middle to be the leader as he is a different colour to the others. He’s quite close to being a white stag actually. I would love to see a white stag one day, it would be magnificent.

I walked back through an area of the town I haven't had any need to go in for some time. It was an area which brought back loads of memories. The infant and the junior school I went to as a child, and I went to the junior school to get some teaching experience before I started my uni course. The road where my old house is, which we moved out of when I was 7. The place my ex girlfriend used to work and I used to regularly meet her. The road I had to walk down to get to secondary school. It’s kind of weird that I’ve pretty much moved away from the town now. There’s nothing here for me now apart from my parents and the memories. My parents are planning to move away at some point in the future so there’ll come a point where I never have to come here. And as much as I hate the town for being so dull and having no facilities or anything to do, I’ll miss it. For no reason I can really explain. It’s just always been my home, the place I can come back to, and there’s comfort in that.

And now to end with a plea. I really want things to do so I’d like you minions to suggest some. I’m currently working on my novel now that I’ve re-worked it’s big flaw and am learning to juggle, courtesy of Jay’s suggestion. I am not very good at juggling yet but I made some progress today and it takes a couple of second longer for the balls to go flying everywhere. Except I don’t have any balls to hand and have been using rolled up socks, but I think it makes little difference. So please find the comments box below and write a few suggestions of things I can do. They should be possible and preferably cheap but apart from that anything goes. I’ll try and do as many of them as possible and them blog about them over a few posts. This is your chance to get me to do something crazy. Maybe. So please entertain me!

Chart Chasers #10

It’s Monday and therefore time for me to put myself through the challenge of listening to five news songs which have hit the UK charts and are therefore popular amongst the British public. This week there’s only three new-entries so I’ll be checking out a couple of re-entries to make up the numbers. And that way I can say I’ve written about every single song in the top 40.

 

Just creeping into the top 40 at number 39 is Beyoncé with a track named after the Doctor Who story where David Tennant regenerated, End of Time. I didn’t realise she was a fan.

No official video yet by the looks of it so this one had to do. It’s a pretty dreadful track too. It’s like she was given lyrics and then tried to make them fit to the backing music. Sometimes they feel like they fit but often they don’t. Beyoncé at least usually manages to make songs pretty catchy but she appears to have failed on that front too. It’s dreadful. 1/5.

For some reason Ed Sheeran’s Lego House has climbed back into the charts at number 36. I rather like this one and it’s got a great video starring Ron Weasley himself.

I think I may have written about this one before but I can’t be bothered to go and check. It’s a great track although not my fave Sheeran track. 4/5.

Another re-entry at number 18. It’s The Script with The Man Who Can’t Be Moved. I imagine it’s charted again because lead singer Danny is one of the coaches on The Voice UK. He’s pretty popular with the ladies I understand. I love this track anyway so here it is for you all to enjoy:

I really do love this, it’s catchy and emotional. It means a lot to me as it was mine and my ex’s song. That one song that is supposed to represent the whole relationship. Note how the girl doesn’t turn up at the end of the video. How appropriate. Anyway, great song, 5/5.

New at number 15 is Alex Day with a song called Lady Godiva. Alex is mostly popular because of vlogs on Youtube and not because he has musical talent. It could be dreadful.

It’s a catchy enough song I guess but Alex cannot sing. Give this to someone with a decent voice and I think I’d quite like it. But I don’t like it how it is. 2/5.

And our final track today went straight into the top spot. It’s someone called Carly Rae Jepson with a track entitled Call Me Maybe. I have no idea what to expect with this one!

Hmm, seems it’s a pretty decent pop song. If she gave me her number I would be a little confused though. I would very much like to call her because she is gorgeous. But she only said “Call Me Maybe”, not “Definitely Call me” or “Please, please Call me”. I would be confused as to how much she actually want me to call her. I might text her to get around that. Anyway, I quite like this so it’s getting 4/5.

 

Well that’s it for today and we had two dreadful tracks and three really good ones so a bit of a mixed bag really. There’ll be more next week as always and I’m going to be making a page which will list the top 40 and link to the relevant Chart Chasers post where each track is talked about. Come back soon to check that out!