Resident evil 4 review

Review of the wii version of Resident Evil 4 , only a million years behind the internet and bad quality 

I'm on your train.. Stealing your internetz

Im on my way home (Via london), I booted my mac up and it popped up with a little message "Do you want to connect to wireless network 'Nattrain wireless' accept?" well of course i do, so now im on a train, on the internet, which is pretty awesome if you ask me, its not terribly quick ( lag of 2000 on wow) but it does the job and its novel begin on a train and the internet. With the proliferation of wi-fi the internet and therfore infomation is becoming more and more moblie, but there is a certain satifcation to be had in the english countryside hurtling pass me at 100 miles an hour as i check my email or kill trolls. Anyway i thought while i was on the train i would review it. 

Train ( National Express.. i think)

  

I will review the train in the following aspects , put forward by the ICITR (International Council of Internet Train Reviewers) 1) Comfort 2) Speed 3) Scenery 4) L337 H4XX0RZ SKILZ.

1) Comfort. Well the train seems a little old, but i think the seats are new, because there really wuite comfortable, there sort of slightly bucketed so whilst they dont hug the contours of my body the gentley hold it, like im sitting in the palm of a giant. Leg rooms not great thou, and im traveling backward which i dont enjoy, so it will have to be marked down. 7/10

2) Speed. 2 1/2 hours to london i think, which isnt bad , i think im on the east coast main line and there arnt many stops (4) so pretty good, in fact now i take the time to look out the window we are going pretty quick and there hasn't been any delay yet. On the other hand the french have trains that can go 400 mph so this isn't really much. 8/10

3) Sencery, well its flat, its boring , its fields, its England. England does seem incredibly dull, endless green followed by the same style housing development. Maybe its just the midlands, but it does inspire me at all. 2/10

4)L337 H4XX0rZ SKILZz. Well it has the internet, thats pretty awesome. 9/10

Final Score : 6.5, good but Unremarkable Train

Controller Review

Controller review:

(Sorry the picture quality was bad the camera's poor and i did it t midnight)

Uni has started again...

University has started up again, well sort of ive had a intro lecture but actually teaching doesn't start for a bit. This post was first started on Bastard Chris's laptop ( or should i say Failtop)  however first  it froze halfway through the 2nd sentence and then when i finally got it going again, i wrote 2 words before i got the blue screen of death. Heap of junk Dell. Lots to do today , including getting chris a new pc, cleaning my room, cleaning the kitchen, shopping for food, helping out at the Give it a go, doing my clothes washing. Not to mention playing through MGS2 and watching/reviewing various anime. oh by the way if you read this on a semi regular basis i suggest getting a rss reader ( the online one i use is google reader) its really easy to use just click the rss icon on this page and copy it into reader and it will tell you when I've updated ( i suppose you already know that but what the hell)  why view 10 pages when you can view. Well thats it for now, maybe a post on the political party conference's or maybe a review on anime soon who knows..... thank fuck i am not using that shitty Dell

Opposition is an easy job

I think Minge feels a little bit starved of the political limelight, with Flash (thats my new nickname for GB) hogging most of it with meetings with Thatcher (boo his) and David Cameron hogging the rest of it with the various Tory cock ups. So in grand (and foolish) bit of political grandstanding the Lib Dem's have announce that they thing Britain should have a referendum on british membership the European union, get the details here ( you would think i work for the fucking bbc). Which i imaging strikes a cord with certain parts of the public, the problem i personally have this is that its the sort of thing that only the Lib Dem's can get away with because there not in any sort of position to gain proper power so they can claim anything they want about referenum and policy without ever having to think about the repercussions . But i credit the public with enough common sense to see through such plans. Having said that your always going to get this with a multi party system, and Britain's politics is a little better for it. i suppose i could pour over the pro's and con's of the European union, and the multi party system aswell, but instead i will just say to the idea of a referenum on the memebership.........

                                            (this image is to beautiful not to use)

Flash ....aaaaaahhhhhhhhh

Is it me or is this in fact the best political slogan of all time. One of the reasons i like it is that it is a clever attack on the grandstand politics of David Cameron, and also a clear break from the headline grabbing nature of the Blair years. But the real reason i like it is that its a beautiful pop culture reference to Savior of the universe, Flash Gordon. There will be those who say it says little about Labour politics, but who cares its vaguely humorous. 

Just a little update. More will follow

Kitten and me... Rational me

Hey a small video about the workings of my inner mind. Not particular interesting just something for me to do. Kitten steals the show. If you want something actually interesting go here It’s Charlie Brokers site:

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/charlie_brooker/index.html

The article titled all in the mind is the one I am on about, was in today’s G2 worth a read

My youth

This should have been up a week ago,... but im lazy so there. This is all about my youth and how i spent it, and how i miss it and how im living in the past ......

Plato's the republic

2/2 yeah watch the post below first , ummmm plato... yeah , sorry about the quality its optimized for web so quality isnt great.

Hey, update in video form, the only reason ive done this is because its quicker than typing every thought in my head down into a broken mess, This is part 1 of 2 , was oridginally one post , but to bug for youtube

Wii saber.... usless but cool

Bored this afternoon, played around with my mac and wii mote, got it to work as a mouse and stuff, vaugely usful... then i found mac saber , thats damn cool, anyway here is the vid, and i might do my next update in video form to

Things that are great today.

"Under your leadership the Conservative Party appears to me to have ceased collectively to believe in anything, or to stand for anything" 

Tory MP Quentin Davies has defected to Labour, i would be smug..... hell im smug, not really because its a one more labour mp ( but that is great) but mainly because the reason he has given is the very reason i dislike David Cameron, because he stands for nothing , to use his words the problem with the conservative party is "It has no bedrock. It exists on shifting sands. A sense of mission has been replaced by a PR agenda." Some of your may be thinking well its just proves the Labour has become right wing,  i think i proves that the labour party is the only party left with any soul left. i can seem to blog at the moment without sounding like a party political boardcast, is this because i am i actaully belive this or have i been brianwashed by the party.  

The Son of a preacher man!

NOTE: EDIT THIS ITS FUCKING AWFUL

Just a short post about the man who will on Thursday become the Prime minister of this

 country. Gordon Brown has been an integral part of the labour government the last ten years, part of all the success's  and all the failures. The best way to judge a politistion is on there record,  not on what they say or how they act, the poeple we elected are the to do a job and that job is to serve the population. To my eyes his record is the best of any modern politision, the amazing record of the longest sustainable period of economic growth in british history since records have been kept ( which is a while to say the least), people will look at that sentance and fail to realize its significance.  With him at  the head the UK economy has gone from the laughing stock of europe to one of the best dynamic economics in the world. How has he done this, i hear you cry, is he the best chancellor ever or was he lucky to inherit a growing economy and favorable conditions. Well , ill give you a quick run down of my opinon, Firstly the discision to give the bank of england inderpendence, i wont bother going into the in's and out's of why this was great, ( i only got a b in my economics a level) but put simply he took the power away from politisions who are genralist's and put it into the hands of experts who know what there doing. This disscision aswell as others made means britain has the philospher's stone of non-infationary growth.  No 15% interest rates , no boom and bust just steady growth for the entire time. Also this growth coupled the investment in public sector has lead to the lowest unempolyment rates for a long time (early 70's).  Yes the economy has was in a decent state when he inherited it but it was realtivly unstable, and yes the tax system is no more complex, but so are our lives. Thats all well and good the papers will cry but what is he like as a person..... i couldnt give a fuck if im honset. because its not about how nice someone is or what the hair is like , its about how good they are at there job, and so far hes been pretty darn good.

Just a lyrical lie.

An old man gave me a tip he said
"Don't waste your time with politics" he said
"Just chase skirts instead"
"Life is too short, and you're almost dead" he said

So Parents away for a week, house all to myself and time to think. Sitting listening to some music its quiet and i can do what i want, and up until the this point i have been throwing myself into Plato's "republic" which very high brow of me, and i understand very little of it, but i hope it gives me another take on politics. Working in the cafe tomorrow, i worked 6 days  and today has been my only day off which i spent the majority of traveling, but i cant complain because the job is easy and i need to earn money if i want to be in uni. Finding it increasingly hard to swicth of form life's troubles, i could attempt to meditate or turn all the lights low and stick some candles out in an attempt to calm down, but i think that probably wont do any good, so i will just sit here with my beer and enjoy some good music.

Anyway Content..... its all about the content. Brown has become the new leader of the labour party, and Harriet Harman has become the new deputy leader, she didn't get my vote, well she didnt get either one of my votes, they both went to hilary benn. she seemed a bit to much of a cope out for my liking but i suppose the proof is in the pudding. Brown will take over as leader on wednesday  and i am currently writing a bit about him for that day, along with the fake news blog, and the web comic. coming soon to a screen near you.

You're moving but not aware
You're drowsy without a care
Except keeping your whites behind your lids
And your lids are your best canvas
I can only imagine what you're painting, what you're painting
And your body on my mattress is proof
And your makeup on my pillow is proof
But do you think I am telling you the truth

(Lyrical lies: by "Cute is what we aim for")

Look kidneys

Hey just a quick content-less update, to inform all you wonderful readers out there, well to inform ah mainly, that im still alive and plan on updating proper over the next two days. One post will definitely be a review, of what im not entirely sure, am tempted toward some anime, but that would be far to sensible so i will probably end up doing something suitably stupid, maybe my feet. By the way my spelling should be better now, i have turned on the in built spell checker with my browser and it puts annoying little red lines underneath words so i have to correct them. In other news i am also planning on running a very short hopefully funny web comic type thing , as soon as photoshop downloads. and i also plan to do a fake news post which should be good fun. well yes, many ideas lets get on with one

Meanwhile.....


Yes those are my dads kidneys

My Coffee shop inspiration

On monday when i was in La cuncina my uncles coffee shop the idea of the post on the Guardian, my cats and the g8 came to me. The G8 post has been scraped , mainly because i don't know enough, it would be like the articles in the red tops that seem insightful but all the have done is googled "G8". Anyway today again i was in a coffee shop, star-bucks this time ( not bad coffee for once as-well) and again i got idea's for posts. This time a post on cyber-stalkers and on why i blame the media for societies problems. i might not do the second one, but i will do my post on cyber-stalkers.

Apparently a group of bloggers have managed to get a man arrested because he was stalking them first over the internet then i real life, this news completely pass me by ( shocking i know) but anyway now it was highlighted in the always amusing perma-blog section of G2 i thought i would see how easy it would be to stalk me , with a starting place of this blog. So im going to do this in real time whislt typing this blog ( love tabbed browsing ).

Ok , first to the comments section, lets find out who my friends are and get info from them about me. Ok ash has left lots of comments which make him look like he knows me personally, so lets look at his blogger profile then his blog, Also my name "Taylor" is metioned more than once in comments. Right ash refers to Taylor in top post , in reference to " the soceity" Further down it is refered to Animesoc, and also references to leeds on my blog point toward a possible link. also reference to the real and cyber lounge. a google search of anime society leeds comes up with anime website. look into the commitee section leeds us to the name Taylor now, that must be there blogger know as djb, the stalker now knows my favorate anime of the moment is code geass, a quick glace through the forum intro section shows that im anybodyforcake. and also that we meet in the lounge and when the showings are so now the stalker not only knows my opinions , likes, dislikes and fav anime he also knows where i am on thrusday nights 7-10 , doesnt take much for him to come alone, then find out who i am and kill me......



Ok yes i knew what i was looking for, however think how much easier that would have been if i had facebook. But this whislt i have proved its possible to kill me via blogger ( even more possible i have done this post) its just as possible for someone to see me in the street follow me home and kill me. Yes you should be somewhat worried about giving personal info out on the internet but when people start to get overly worried its bad for everyone, in the same way that parents should let there kids out to play and not worry about peodfiles, people should be free to express there opinoion , share there hobbies and biuld friendships over the internet without begin scared that people who take an interest will eat them.

Cat-parision

The comes a time in any young mans life where he has to compare his cats, and that time is now. I have three cats and i am seeking to find the best, and only the best to devote my love and attension to, who will win... you decide.... i mean i decide.

Cat-testant number 1: Bubblegum

Name: Bubblegum
Age: about 11
Colour: Tabby
Specail ability: Sleeping

Pros: Bubblegum is the first of my cats and therefore has been with us the longest, he shows amazing affectionto anyone, so much so that if someone enters the house he imeddidatly sits on there laps and falls asleeep, he is also practically indestrutable, with a metal jaw after been beatten up with a baseball bat, and has had two leg operations after begin run over and shot with a pelet gun
Cons: Hes is growing old and tired, andis heavy and a little needy

Cat-testant number 2: Socrates

Name:Socrates
Age: Just over 2
Colour :Black and white
Specail ability: Insanity

Pros: Shes a kitten even thou shes like 2 now shes stil tiny, and shes mine becuase i got her myself and brought her home and conviced my mum to keep her, she only ansrews to me and sleeps at the end of my bed everynight, shes also evil , very good at getting mice, runnig up trees , chasing imaginary enimies , beating up other cats , etc etc etc Shes Great , plus she has a awsome name

Cons: She can be a bit bitey and isnt the sitting on your lap type, also the constant supply of mice and rats annoys my mum

Cat-testant number 3- Chewit

Name: Chewit
Age : 7 ish
Colour: Tortosie shell
specail ability : Begin Horrible

Pros: umm errr..... well shes a cat and cats are great , ummm she had kittens once which where awsome

Cons: shes evil , will bite you if you touch her and is a wuss....... i dont like this cat




So the winner of the super awsome best of my cats trophy is SOCRATES!!!! * crowd goes wild*
more from me later

The Monday Graudian, My Cats and the G8

Thats right 3 post in one day, Maybe if i get through them all. Firstly quick personal update, got my hair cut today, looks kinda pants, on the upside it will get my mum off my back and nobody in leeds can ridicule it becuase it will have grown out by the time i get there. Sat in my uncle's coffee shop today on the misguided infomation of my mother that if i hang about he might offer me a part time job, its safe to say that this was never going to happen. But somthing good did come of this trip, i had some quite beatiful coffee ( somthing that has eluded me in leeds) and i read quite alot of the monday Graudain. Now for some reason i always seem to read quite a few pages of the Monday edition, maybe becuase im looking for proper news after the poor show of the sunday papers. maybe i like to start the week well informed or more likely there are several articles by funny and good journalist that i read every week. I usaully start with the sport section ( Yes im a jock... i cant help it ... cause im from the ghetto) where on the back page there is the lies damn lies section, which is a seris of stats which are made up but great... i suppose you only find them funny if you like sport... so ill move on. Then there is media which isnt great , but conpared to the rest of the weeks suppilments ( like soceity) is quite enjoyable.. with articles like " Media Giants , as not what facebook can do for you..." parioding JFK's famous state of the union address. but the best of all is Charlie brookers article in G2, which is always and i mean always worth a read , which is hard to say of any print journalist ( polly tonybee is the only other person i would put in the bracket) he does a very amusing take on stuff on tv , much like his tv seris " Charlie brookers screenwipe" on bbc4 look it up on google its great i promise. well yes , i think thats enough Guardian Loving.... more posts later

Back Home and bored allready

Well i have returned to Wonderful Swansea... and allready i dont want to be here. More on that Later. First the good news, im home with my dad and its the first time ive seen him since just after the operation, he looks great almost as well as before the illness, yeah hes thinner and look a little tireder but my god is it an improvment on just a couple of months, those of you who are close to me will know already that my fathers illness was a huge concern to me and its just fantastic to see him looking better. However now im home although its good to see my dad, and im sure i will enjoy spending time with my friends here i feel my life is in leeds now and that i am going to feel stupid just hanging round here. and i dont particallarly wanna get a job because i dont want to be tied to this place. But on a lighter no .... first in like a year.... REVIEW TIME:

Review: My Wrist Splint

The splint for my injured wrist as recieved on 8/06/07.
Colour: Flesh kind
Support:Velcro
Size: Medium
USB: None


Style: This is a fuctional but stylish piece, whislt its no Kate Moss top shop range it provides a sexy and driffrent change for a watch.... or indeed a working wrist. Its Flesh covered outside blends with the skin whislt showing of its Pimping Velco straps
Score: 9/10

Support: It holds my wrist in postion to stop it hurting... but it still hurts.... Score 3/10

Customise-ablity: becuase of the realtive minamalist style it is fully customisable you ca paint, write and add flames.... thats right flames ( painted not real) which will make this bit of arm candy a hit with the ladies Score 8/10

Conplatiblity with Mac osx: None 0/10

Overall score : 6/10

Should set up a live journal account for this kind of jazz

he everybody, and when i say everybody, i mean ash and charlie. and probably not charlie these days. so hey ash. i was figuring i would just set up a live journal for things such as this.. ive been drinking. we had a anime society showing and then the old bar.... and then the fab cafe. twas good. Semi sorted our stuff with my landlord todayl, meeting him tommorrow at 3 for form signing and other stuff. and then i will offiaclly be tennets with ben, phil and charlie. which should be great... naruto martaton here we come. i should stop typeing quite drunmk

Brown next prime minister ... all but confirmed

Gordon Brown has secured 308 nominations for MP's to succed Tony Blair as leader of the party and the country. He required 45 so this number shows the party is untied behind Brown. His only Candidate Mcdonlad needs 16 more to reach 45 and therefore have it go to ordinary members like me, however with Brown so popular there arnt enough MP's Left to get. Pretty conclusive, well just a little update. The Big Brown update is coming soon, wher i will look at what the Country under Brown will have in store...... i can feel the tension rise..... sorry anybody who is reading this and finds politcal stuff boring... just wanna become a jouranlist and thought this would be a good start

Why a blog isn't the same as a diary

You see with a blog your restricted in what you can say and how you say it. Because people read it , mostly people you know. See because you cant write about things you may want to because they are secerts or the truth might hurt people. i suppose thats the problem with keeping things from people, in a blog you cannot express what you truley mean or feel if that thing you feel or mean is the thing you want to express the most the problem thats eating you up. having a way to express or someone to talk to is important , possibly to important to me.

This was written in the early hours of the morning so be kind

Blair's Legacy.

Its very easy to reduce the last ten year's of labour government under blair to a serirs of Sucess's and Failures. Among the success's are the minimum wage, bank of england independence, reductions in child and pensioner poverty, flexible work hours for mothers, maturity leave double in value and triple in time off, hospital's and schools no longer in rack and ruin after 18 years of conservative failures, 70% more teaching applicats ,increased nursing numbers , children able to read at 11 from 59% to 79% in just ten years , also in 1997 283,866 people waited more than 6 months for an operation now there are only 199, Tax credits for the unemployed, families, pensioners. Civil partnerships, the human rights act, devolution in wales and scotland and peace in northern Ireland. All of which fundamentally change the way we live today and would not have happened under an other government. But the problem with progressive politics is that people always want more and better. they elected you because they want change , and so they should thats why im a member of the labour party because i believe that people's life's can always be improved and if you stand still in politics you get left behind. Despite all this there have been mistakes , domestically tuition fee's have been unpopular , personally i feel ID cards and the attempt to have 90 day detention of terror suspects where invasions of our civil liberties. Iraq cannot be ignored and for the near future it is how Blair will be remembered. He will be remembered as the man who took the country to war on evidence which was wrong and led iraq onto the brink of civil war. Whislt i marched against the war and believe it was a grave error, this is not an error i put entriely at Blairs feet. When all is said and done he acted on the advice of the sucuirty services who got things wrong, personally i feel the claims that tony blair willfully mislead the country and knew that iraq posed no threat have as much validity as the various 9/11 conspircy theroies ... in short, poppy cock of the worst kind. I do not belive he knowily lied, however the decision should not have been taken and the williness to follow the American administration in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks was misplaced and has cost many lives.

However possible the most important part of Blair's Legacy is the modern day conservative party. They voted against the mininum wage , extra spending on helath and eductaion, gay rights, the human rights act, devolution, Climate change policy. all things they now claim they support and are intrgral the mordern britain. the blair has changed the face of british politics to the point that the conservative party are being forced to be progressive because thats what the public want , no longer will people accept hospitals that are falling down and pay thats is next to nothing. A conservative party which talked about supporting civil partnerships and in favour of the mininum wage is a unheared of 10 or 5 years ago. If you want to gauge how sucessful the goverment has been just look at how much the conservative now accept, and this is not because they are right wing policies ( just look at the spending in public services) its becuase they are sucessfull and progressive. But just a word of warning, when Tony blair took over the leadership of the party in 1994 he changed it because he believe it needed to change to meet the new challenges, yes he wanted to win elections but the change was made with firm policy and ideology, david cameron is going back on everything he has ever said or believed in because he wants to gain power.

Whislt this may be hard for many to take, i am not a blairite however i do feel that britian is a far better place now than 10 years ago and alot of that has to do with the leadership of Tony Blair.


This was a totally un-bais party political broadcast by Dan Taylor ( well ok maybe a little Bias) next time Gordon Brown and what the new prime minister means for britain

Good news

My father had his operation today, all went as planed and he is recovering well and will remain in the ICU a little while. heading down to see him tommorrow, i feel more relived than ive ever felt.

Election reaction ( see i keep my promises)
Figured that no one who reads this cares what i think about the elections but hell ill give i a go . oh and tomorrow i will do my reaction on Tony Blair and his legacy.

British Elections

sperated into three sections, english concils, welsh assembly and scotish parliment. Firstly i will deal with the english concils, Conservatives Gained a considerable ammount of seats, labour and lib dem lost seats. Whilst if you look at the raw figures for the elections with the tories on 40% of the vote this looks like a massive swing to the right and the tories will win the general election by a huge margin, however there are a couple of things to consider . Fristly the Conservatives have always been seen as party of local goverment and therefore have always done well with the concil elections, Secoundly the labour has now been in power for 3 consective terms, however well things are going a goverment is allways likly to be unpopular because people are eger for change. and Thridly the Labour had a very simillar result in the last set of local elections but still went on to win the general election convincingly. So the broader picture is a bad night for the labour party , but no where near as bad as expected and a good night for the Tories but far away from the break through which the wanted. The lib dems are a seperate issue again, coming of the back of a decent ( if not spectacular) general election and with growing unpopularity of the Iraq war you would expect gains , however a serious lack of leadership , aswell as credablity at the moment so them lose seats overall. i imaging several of those within the party are thinking of a leadership change less that a year into Sir Minge Campell's rain ( not how you spell that word but you get the message).

Wales again was a similar story with some 3 seats lost by labour and 3 won by nationalist plaid cymru, no real change with labour the largest part with 26 memeber ( out of a 60 seat chamber) but they will have to share power with the lib dem's this time round.

Scotland was the biggest story, with the SNP winning by one seat. However no majority meant that they had to form a collelistion , however nobody seems to like them, the Lib Dems ( the only likely bed fellows) refused because the SNP insit on having a 2010 referendum on inderpendence. So instead the SNP are going to do somthing unheard of in british politics , for a minority administion. this means that they willbe the ruling party , however as the do not have an outright marjoirty of the parliment passing legislation will be tricky in particallar regrading things like inderpendence. Whislt in the context of british politics this is revolutionary it is the norm in much of western europe. So again bad night for labour however the expected swing was labour to lose by 20 odd seats so , again not as bad as it might have been.

So to recap... Tories- Close but no Cigar... maybe you should have some policy... just an idea.
Labour- Bad ... but i dont have to make a deal with god not to let the tories in ....yet
Lib Dem- Dear god sack Minge... and how come we only get power when theres a collelition


The french elections- The right wing Sarkozy won..... ( somthing like 53% to 47%) which was as predicted , i think he will be a very devisive charector in politics in the coming years as he tries to reform frances failing economy ( think male thacther) As for the socalists i think the main problem was the Royal wasnt the right woman for the job, she was gaff prone and came across as fake. and thats all the thought provoking discussion you are gonna get on france


Tomorrow ( if i have time ) Tony. It's 4 in the morning and my spelling and grammer are awful. but i will check back and edit this..... maybe

Ummm Maybe proper updates on the way

yes, i will by the end of the night have written a dual ellection specail. After an important week in both british and french politics i will update a long-ish but hopefully not boring ( although most will swicth off entirely) look at the weeks events. In other news to combat me inablity to sleep and my boredem i am contemplating branching out into other media. at first i thought i could do an auido blo/ political pod cast . but i figured that would probably suck, so instead i am thinking of maybe an idiots guide to politics on youtube. it would give me an accuse to sharpen my video editing skills before having to do the movie. ( yet another pet prodject of mine) who knows... maybe if i can be bothered

The old bar blog

Horrah , there wireless in the old bar. Im here doing research of my curent essay on the WTO. Endless PDF's of the internet. but i thought i would get a quick pint in and watch the chelsea game on the big screen while im here. but i am doing work.... i promise. Went to the geogre last night with mono, ben, chris, and DC. twas night some of the loads came back and we plays some wii spots and watched some anime, dindt get to sleep till four not a ideal preparation of a day of essaying. I promise in depth anaylisis of both the french elections and the british ones as soon as i get some spare time.... keep you eye peeled..... pr your mouses or whatever

you cant fake it hard enough to please, everyone , or anyone at all

lying on my floor at the moment, its full of stuff. i can hardly find room in beteween empty beer cans and copies of the graudian. In fact very tired and fed up, however for what ever reason i cant seem to sleep. This seems as good as anytime to sum up my time in uni. Well i figure moving away form your family at anytime is a pretty big step, my family is pretty close we all rely on each other for help and guidence and however much we all agrue at the end of the day we all look out for each other like a fmaily should. After moving to uni my grand father who had been ill for some time with a more degenarative form of parkinsons desease began to detrirate, unfournatly after a long illness my grandfather ( on my mothers side) passed away aged 76 on the 4th of novemeber, for any family to deal with death is upseting and harrowing however my grandmother ( on my fathers side) had passed away suddenly only months earlier. At this point i was finding univesrity very difficult with pessure of first year university life (finding friends , doing well, staying sober) coupled with the death of my grand father i felt like i was sinking, and to be honset that feeling has never gone away. i have found it particallar hard being so far away form my family in the time when i need them and they need me the most. A Couple of weeks after my grand fathers funeral my father was daignoses with cancer, a chest scan uncovered a large cancerous tumor above my fathers heart, somthing around the size of a grapefriut if not bigger. i was called home and told the news, i was... and still am scared, all the worrying before uni about how i will fit in and what modules to take had all been blown away and all that is left i worry for my dad. My dad is probably the person i look up to most in the world, he is my role model my friend and most of all the best dad a son could hope for. He was treated at frist in hospital where they set out a cousre of Chemo- Therapy. Dad lost his hair like they do in the Tv soaps and documentaries spending christmas at home was wonderful, dad was like he always had been despite it all he could still laugh and joke. the chemo worked, the cancer stoped growning and even shrunk a bit. however it was very dense and it was unrealisitic to think that it would be removed compelty. Thats pretty much wher we are now, to remove the tumor my dad has to go to london and have a operation on the 11th of this month, its very serious and like i have been for the last 6 month im scared. The operation is a big one and a important one so my the cancer doesnt come back. Through all this i have been in leeds trying to get on with my life as best i can, removed and isolated from my family. Scared everytime the phone rang just in case it was bad news, i dont feel i have coped to well, i am a shell of who i was when i joined uni, but thats not what i care about. at the moment all i care about it my dad and that hes ok.


sorry for the spelling mistakes, just let it all spill out . ill edit it .
thx for reading this

Looking rough

couple of weeks ago my grilfriend said i looked rough, which at the time i thought was harsh, however i did.Last night / this morning ( another night out last night so dont remember) a close friend of mine said a simillar thing. Ive always been a relativly scruffy man and i havent slept well for a long time so i always look a bit like i have crawled out of bed. I think recently its got alot worse, i could blame everything thats gone on in my life but thats not an accuse to be visaully offensive. i think poeple see me as unclean and rough, which isnt great. So today i am going to get my hair cut , maybe buy some new colthes just so i look alot cleaner and healther. Thats another thing , my drinking/sleeping habits are begininng to scare me, its making me irritable and restless. Apparently there was an earthquake in kent this morning, a tiny one. one that felt like the lorry driving past the house.....( for veiwes who called into news 24... this is not a life threating event) it was interesting for a little bit thou, with the police investingating an expolsion which could have shook the houses , but it was all a flase alarm, now a explosiosn which would be large enough to shake the houses in the next county , that would have been news. Bad news , but news. More later when you get to meet , less hung over/ more clean/ shorter haired/ bettter Dan


Oh by the way, the articles on the right had side of the page, in the box titled "stuff im reading" there are news artcilces im reading i have read and those articles that are relivant to my blog at the moment. for those of you who want a higher standard of journalisum

Update time

i promise a deep philoshoical post about the result of the french elections, however the french vote twice , the first time with all candiates and the secound time with the top two candiates from first round ( unless a canididate get an overall majority in first round) so i will do two longer and more in depth peices either side of the secound round of voting. In the first round the socailist Royal and the right wing Sarkozy got the most vote ( about 25% and 30% repectivly) with Sarkozy favored to win overall. the other stand out fact is that almost 85% of poeple voted , a huge figure compared to most european nations, inculding the UK.Who said politics was dead

Polls about to close and its crunch time for french politics

The polls are due to close in the french presidential elections in about 20 mins ( thats if i have got it right with my times) with early exit polls due at about 6-ish. With opinion polls showing almost 30% of those planing to vote undecided in the run up to the election. There are two main candidates and two possible upsets. the two main candidates are the centre-right Nicolas Sarkozy (known for being tough on immigration .... and a bit of a knob) and socialist Segolene Royal who bids to be frances first female president (wants to make "france fairer" ). The two other candidates are Francois Bayrou a centrist who is expected to get some votes as Royal and Sarkozy are both really divisive figures, and the far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen who is the like of the french BNP , and therefore is a massive cu*t. Anyway there will be a more in depth annaylise later when results begin to flood in.


Not that anybody cares.... its only the french

More Virgina shooting thoughts and cricket

In the common room of my halls as we speak. again no internet connection so this is in textedit again.I'm here because the cricket is on. its england against the west Indies, a meaningless match but it better than doing nothing in the flat. Still having trouble sleeping for various reasons. so those who i know who read this , if i get cranky then ignore me. Just a few more thoughts on Virginia shootings, and the media obsession with the killer Cho. I understand why the media is focusing on the personality of the guy in question, it raises ratings and gets more readers. I also can see why people want to know more about him, in attempt to understand what drives a person to commit such an act. My concern thou is the constant fixation on everything form the plays he wrote to the films he watches, his life and problems are now rite large across the Tv news banners and headlines of the world. I worry it is this that will truly inspire the next psychologically damaged teenage to pick up his gun, so he can be understood and his problems voiced. Just a thought but maybe its time to learn the lessons of this event, and how he created his media package to be sent to NBC news and maybe this should have been handed over to the correct authority and maybe she should have been denied his moment in the media spotlight because maybe we should know more about his victims and less about him


However the other side of the coin if we try to understand why he did what he did then it would be easier to spot similar issues with others

The Names change, but the story stays the same

The shootings in Virginia Tech university were the worst single massacre of its kind in US history, however its this fact alone the distinguishes it from the countless others that have occurred in the land of the free. Each time an event like this happens the debate about gun control is voiced, and you get the same idiotic statements "If the students in the university also had guns they could have defended themselves" and the classic NRA slogan "Guns Don’t kill people, People kill people". This kind of logic baffles me, yes I understand that there is always people out there (especially in a nation of 300 million) who are willing to commit this kind of act and yes he could have still killed people if he had a knife maybe not as many. Its the physical simplicity of using a gun, its the act of pulling the trigger which allows the killer to feel disconnected for the killed. The state of Virginia did recently introduce gun controls, limiting people to one ... a week. I feel this is a sector of American culture that the rest of the world simply doesn’t understand. Yes America has amazing differences between rich and poor, and yes its has a particular attachment to faith however all of these things are understandable, its obsession with the Gun, in spite of the countless deaths a year is not so easily comprehended. However despite the lost of 32 life’s many of which where young, the debate in America will follow the same lines as before. The security should have been better, the alert should have been quicker, the police acted to slowly , politicians and the media will blame everything but not the second amendment. "The right to bare arms" the problem is there, Americans believe it is a fundamental right to own a weapon designed to kill. For me it is not a right, it is a privilege. America is fixated with freedom, so much so that they will tolerate the events in Virginia, nothing will change, only the numbers and names of the dead. Where is there freedom, we should ask there parents (and the countless other victims) do they want to protect the supremacy of American constitution or do they want there son's and Daughters Back.


sorry this post is kinda lame, i edited it about a thousand times and just decided to go with what i wrote in the first place. also from the other side of the coin Canada has a higher number of guns ( per person) than America but does have the same problem , so maybe its to do with the American psyche and the importance place upon success

Backdated Blog

I am blogging to you form the lounge , alas the lounge has not got internet access i am just writing in TEXTEDIT ( the mac version of notepad) and will update when i return home. Today seems a better day, managed to complete one of the three assignments i have due in. When i say complete i actually mean Bluff my way through a presentation on Urbanization, but its not assessed so at the moment i could really care. its not even 11 yet and I'm bored of the day, I'm sure it will pick up. i will update a piece about the shooting in america , and my view on Gun control.

I can now blog in hindi

Not that a particallar want to, but its nice to have the option. Just Put three loads of washing in the machine ( on Superwash) so i have 45 mins to spare, so i thought i would do somthing constructive... then i decided to update my blog. Room is horrible horrible mess, i had to throw out 2 mugs earlier because they had grown alot of mould, i should tidy up and do some work but its really hard to find the effort today. lots of things playing on my mind, including uni work. Just having on of those days when i can be bothered, as soon as i woke up i knew that i may aswell just good to sleep until the next day. however i did do somthing contructive today, i got myself a fancy external hard drive. 400 GB , i can see me filling that in a hurry , but i needed to back up my work and my music. I am almost certain that not a single person reads this, it would be nice if someone did, but on the other hand its a good thing, i can say how i feel. Have a bad feeling about the anime soc socail sec job, i was really excited about it to begin with ( and still am really) but i stressed that im not gonna be very good, might arrange the anime soc BBQ in order to restore my faith in my own ablity. Uni work isnt going great, i love the subject but my own lack of organistaion is still letting me down, its depressing that the same thing that held me back in primary school is still my problem, maybe people dont change. Its strange being away form my family at the moment with everything thats happening seems like when i am home i know i am not helping but when i am away i feel really distant and helpless. This is a remarkbly frank blog for me , usually im all about politics or stupid stuff. who knows maybe i have found an outlet for expression. i would say "its ok thou , it will be fine in the end" but i dont believe that deep down , stuff might not be. If it is , of if its not i suppose the point is that at least im living my life.

Powered by google

Hi, just a quick update because i promised myself that i would update all the time. i have changed my email address to a email account to a Gmail one, for two reasons a) my hotmail account is full of junk b) google do a couple of good little apps for mac's which take advangae of gmail. speaking of which ive done alot of stuff to my mac in the last couple of days, i would explain but the majoirty would be bored.

The way i see it the marority of posts (including my own) can be separated into two types. Content/Comment and Journal. Ive updated a couple of times recently but theres no content, but either later .... or tommorrow then there will be somthing probabley somthing about anime or politics

Blogs For the win

so blogger has a new interface, the new templates allow you to move things about and also add new things, you might have nocticed ive added a politics news reel on the sidebar (usless but still interesting). This would be a good thing however i have found it extremly hard to use and the marjority of increased fuctionality is there to make blogger more like myspace ( lists of your fav things/ you tube video's) which is not a good thing in my eyes. well thats enough rant. Ive spent the day playing around with the apple editing software Final Cut Pro. i knew how its basicallly worked before but today ive tried to learn how to properly edit stuff ( and in particallar audio tracks) by basically creating a video where i dance to the metal gear solid theme music.... i know, hardcore. i might even stick it on youtube. The reason i have such insanly compliacted ( and expensive) software is because i plan to shoot my own zombie film, but i will post about that another time.

Shock News .... a post!?!?

I haven't updated in since mid February and even then it wasnt posting on a regular basis so this is a bit of a event. I am constantly complaining that im bored ( or as one of my friends would put it "Im Baarrrd") so i decided to try this again. speaking of bard, doctor who was on tonight and it was all about shakesphere, it was ok but to many bad puns and references to harry potter for me, but then again it isnt suppose to be hard hitting drama. Everytime i try to post i never have anything to say, and now is no driffrent , but if i try to post once every couple of day then eventally i will say something.... anything.

yesterday

Textedit post again. watching scrubs in the living room. Just thought i would update now because i have been really busy last couple of days and its gonna stay that way between now and the end of exams. have to write two essays and and revise for the exams i have between now and the 11th which is only really 10 days. Not to mention paying off my 54 pound debt to the library sorting out all the funding stuff for tomorrows anime soc committee and possibly the most annoying task of all , explaining to the Polis department about why i might not be able to attend certain exams because i am visiting my dad in hospital in london on the 12th. With all thats going on at the moment finding in a little hard to cope. but Im Ok, broadly speaking. more updates soon

Its Valentines day and Ray Mears is a lier

Its Valentines day so i am preparing a wonderful feast for my girlfriend... to start posh welsh raebit ( for those of you who dont know what that is, it chesse on toast with other stuff but i put it on fancy bread) , main cousre im cooking sirlion steak on a bed of rocket with meditrainon veg. and to finish creamy pancakes with camrealised banana. along with the meal if picked out so decent tracks to listen to and ive covered the flat in candles.... only after covering the flat in candles did i realise that i didnt have a lighter... i had a go at setting fire to my newspaper on the hob but its electric so it just burn it and made the room fill with smoke... then i remembered somthing from the televison . a program abuo suvirving in the wild and how to make a fire. all you needed was a battery and some wire wool. because i own a wii and about 4 hunderd other remotes i have a constant stash of batteries, and my flat mate had bought wire wool to clean the hob. Ray mears had saved my valentines day life. The idea is that you make the wool touch both ends of the battery and it should light up ... and then i could light a candle on it , only one problem it does work, at all i tired for 25 mins before i legged it to the nearest newspaper stand and bought a lighter , damn you ray mears dam you to hell

Flickr, photo sharing. MySpace Life sharing

Recently set up a Flickr account, which for those who don't know is a online photo sharing website. Imaging bloging .... But with pictures instead. If you would like to visit it, click on this blue underlined word Here. Hopefully there will be far more pictures soon. Some of you may be thinking, well you can post picture here, and you be right and form time to time if it is relevant I will. Even more of you might be thinking well you can blog, post images and music on Myspace... And you would be right but the whole concept of websites like myspace and facebook doesn't sit right with me. Not to criticize those would use the websites but I have two key issues with them. Firstly I have never been a big fan of multi-tasking anything, its a similar reason why I have my phone to make calls and my camera to take pictures, as a general rule when something is dedicated to a specific task then it is usually better than something that tries to be all thing to all men. Secondly I am not entirely comfortably with the having your whole life on one web page ( or space), everything from your music taste to your friends. And yes I have a blog, but that's not for my entire life its just for my views on something . Having said that it is a good outlet for new bands