A Tribute...

First of all. I have 5 followers, one of which, I've never met before, which is cool. So, Hello! Thanks for following :)

On a more serious note, on Tuesday the 22nd of December, at 9pm in Fazakerley Hospital, My Grandad passed away.

It was something that had been coming for a long time, him having been diagnosed with Alzheimer's 4 years ago. So in a way, it softened the blow and made things a little bit easier for everybody, but obviously, it's never easy enough.

My whole family (especially my Mum, Grandma and Uncles) are at the stage where almost everything they've said in the last few days is about him, and the way he was. The kind of things he used to say have been passed down through the years and I doubt you'd go a day without saying something that could be traced back to him.

A lot of people will tell you that I have a really 'bad' sense of humour, based around Puns and strange little sayings, but I'm glad I do. It's almost exclusively a result of my Grandad.

I've been told that the Church is going to be absolutely packed for his Funeral, simply because of the amount of people he knew through the various things he did.

I don't think you'll find a single house in the Merseyside area that he hasn't done some kind of work on. Then, in his later life he became a Eucharistic Minister, which is something he was totally devoted to.

If anybody deserves a place in Heaven, it's him.

Here's to you Grandad Jim.

R.I.P. x

Ha'way I'm Gannin' doon to Durham like pet.

I went to Durham on Monday night. It's a stupidly nice place.

I felt kind of bad that I only really went to have a night out. I feel like it deserved more attention from me, like I should have stayed longer and seen more of it, Especially the Cathedral and Castle, they're mega impressive.

I reckon after Christmas I might actually just have a day trip there to see the sights, and not just get pissed.

Loveshack is boss though, If you're gonna get pissed, you should go there.

When I was in the editing room today at Uni, I started to play around 'Garage band' on the Macs. I'd seen it a few times, but had never actually given it a go, so I decided to have a play.

It's really cool. You can record loads of different tracks, and play a Midi Piano using the keyboard, so you can actually play in real time. It has ooooodles of different sounds as well, so you can create whole songs. Sweet as a Nut la.

So I started wondering if there's an alternative product for Windows that basically lets you do the same thing. Yeahhhh... There's not.

A lot of things claim to be exactly the same and stuff, but they're really, really not.

One programme that was recommended was something called Magix Music Maker. I'd already downloaded loads of free trials of other programmes, so I couldn't be arsed downloading another one.

I did a quick search for a tutorial video instead, and came across this absolute ballbag.

His name's Benjamin and he'll probably seduce your kids.

It's annoying that all these programmes basically work around pre made tracks... so you literally just put them in order and play them back... Where's the fun in that?

I like Macs, but they should get off their high horse and let Garageband work on Windows...Or for Windows to stop being rubbish and make a programme that is exactly the same. For creativity's sake.

Apparently they had one in the works, but for some reason, nothing ever came of it... Instead, Bill Gates, the King of the Nerds just wastes time hiring these absolute melvins to say that the new operating system 'Windows 7' was their idea.

No it wasn't you absolute jebends, you're actors... Not very good ones at that.

Nerdy people make me giggle. If they're not flying round a virtual world pretending to be a dragon or something, they're going to Presentations by Steve Jobs then cheering and laughing when he says words like "iPod" and "Phone."

Check out 2:30 onwards... That's when the audience really lose their minds and start to reach for their inhalers.

It makes me wonder if they would do the same if he was making a butty.

"Bread" *Woop*

"Butter" *Woop*

"Cheese!" *Woop*

He mentions that it's a revolutionary mobile phone, but honestly, I don't see how the Mobile can advance any further than it has done... They're mobile... and you can call your Mum on it.

What more can be done?

Tell ya what, Stevie boy. Stick a time machine and a toastie maker on it, and then I'll sit and watch your Presentation with the same level excitement as the fellas in the video.

For the iPhone, there's an advert that states that you can get an application that can help you learn the Alphabet. Now, I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that if you don't know the Alphabet, the chances of you being able to use an iPhone are slim to none. Am I Right?

The only people who are in the position to need to learn the Alphabet are little kids between the age of about 2 and 3... and if they actually own an iPhone... Well, that's just bad parenting on the part of... Well, their Parents... Believe it or not.

In other news, we finally finished our film for our Uni production... We had some serious problems, and needed to refilm, so guess who stepped up to the plate... Yup! Li'l ol' me.

I don't like acting... If you could call it that.

That is all.

If anyone...

Ever tells you that making a film is an easy process. Give 'em a good hard punch in the head and tell them Si sent you.

My dearest Mother shouted at me over the phone the other day because she's had a look at this blog, and apparently I'm "too negative." I can sort of see where she's coming from.

A lot of my blogging is done because something's annoyed me, and I find it therapeutic to have a little rant about it. It's rarely an actual, full on rant though, I like to think that I'm going about it a light hearted way, as shown by my use of bad jokes and various other 'comic' devices. I'm very rarely funny through writing... But at least I try... Right?

But yeah, The amount of rants that I actually have in this blog outweigh the posts where I'm generally just talking about my life and stuff... so I can see why my Mum might think I have a bleak outlook on life...

But I don't!

I love my life. I have no problems that actually make me unhappy. Sure, the whole situation with this film I'm making for one of my Modules is a bit of a ball ache, but it doesn't actually get me down, because I know that the chances of it working out just fine, and getting a product I'm actually proud of, are pretty high.

Everything else is freakin' dandy.

I honestly, really love my life.

I just like to have a bit of a rant from time to time so that I don't get all full of annoyances until I eventually lose my mind and start walking along motorway embankments, warning Hedgehogs that they'll come to a sticky end if they don't remember to use the Green Cross Code.

So yeah. I'm happy... I'd be even happier if I was a Youtube celebrity... But until that happens...I'm sorted.

Happy Mum? :)

Argh, My eyes...

I'm back in the David Goldman building having my senses raped by the sheer ridiculousness of the god forsaken place. There's also a guy sitting near me with a really annoying voice... kind of a mixture between Frank Spencer and any given member of any given London based hip hop group.

I wish I didn't have to keep coming here to kill some time between lectures, but since the actual Library got better computers, for some reason the number of them has gone down by about half, so your about as likely to get on one as Michael Owen is to be given a hero's welcome at Anfield.

I could just walk home and come back when it's actually time for my 5 o' clock Lecture, but it's just so tedious, and I'd only be bored when I got home...

Anyway... I'm rambling.

Don't you just hate those desks that have an inexpicable metal bar at about knee height?

I'm sitting at one as we speak... As I got here, I pushed my self under eagerly, because I was just so excited to write when both my knees connected with the bar at approximately 400mph.

I'm now I'm in pain.

Right then! Because the start of a brand new year is fast approaching, I decided that I should start some kind of project that'll hopefully turn me into to be a Youtube celebrity, and we all know how much I want to be one of them (see previous posts for details).

I know it's been done before, probably hundreds of times, but I'm going to take a picture of myself every day for a year and then compile them into a video slideshow at the end of the 365 days. It's completely pointless, and I gain literally nothing from it, but once again, it's just one of those things that helps to make life a little bit more fun, even if it is only for me.

I might even get prettier over the course of the year. If that happens, I'm going try and pin point the exact picture when I become an absolute God to women.

The good thing is, it'll take literally 10 seconds a day, so i'd have to be a proper lazy bastard to lose motivation. And I honestly think it's an interesting little experiment.

I'm also going to try and be more creative next year too. I used to be crazy into stop frame animation, and have still got some of my best work up on my Youtube page, but nowadays I can't really think of anything to animate, so I don't really do it anymore... Which is pretty devastating. All I do now a days is sit on my bed and refresh Facebook and Twitter and stuff... My life is boss.

I don't usually make New Years resolutions, mainly because I never make an effort to keep them, but I think 2010 should be different, I'm going to make a few and put loads of effort into keeping them. Hopefully they'll have a positive effect on my everyday life, which can never be a bad thing, can it?

So here goes, In no particular order:

1. Don't Die.
2. Take a picture of myself everyday for the duration of the year.
3. Stop taking the piss out of Sunderland, and have a more positive outlook on it.
4. Start, or join a band that actually plays gigs 'n stuff.
5. Get back into stop motion animation.
6. Stay healthy.
7. Moan less.

I'll probably add more as I think of them, But I'd say 7 is enough for now.

Anyway, that's all from me for now, I'll leave you with Sir Mark of Knopfler being a genius.

Auf Wiederschnitzel.

This one really is short.

I mean really short.

If you ever, ever call where you're from: 'Something-Vegas' I am going to hunt you down and shoot you in the eye with a cross bow.

That is all.

Holy...

2 posts in 2 days Batman!

This one's not going to be very long. But I felt the need to have a ponder about those foods that just aren't worth the effort.

The one that really gets my boxers in a bunch, is Spaghetti.

I don't know what Luigi or Gianfranco or any other stereotypical Italian name you can think of where thinking when they decided they'd create a type of pasta that actually makes you angry.

First of all, it comes in sticks about a mile long, so instead of just chucking it into the pan, you have to wait for it to go floppy and bend it gradually until it all fits... That's 3 or 4 minutes I'm never going to get back! I could have used that time to do something productive like watching about 10 episodes of 'Purple and Brown,' or clips of the Swedish Chef for God's sake!

(You'll notice, if you click on the Swedish Chef link... Spaghetti is involved... I'm not just a pretty face, I think you'll find.)

So yeah... when it's all cooked and whatnot, you have to drain it. That's fair enough, but because it's a stupid shape, and it's all thin and stuff, it manages to escape through the holes in the Colander... which is seriously annoying, because it gets stuck in the plug and goes all scatty and slimy.

Everyone knows what happens when you try to eat the stuff... It goes literally everywhere. It collects whatever you've decided to mix it with, and moves it onto your face, and makes you make this horrible slurpy noises that the world would be better off without.

When I was doing some 'research' for this little blogette... I came across this...

I don't care what anyone says... It is physically impossible to eat Spaghetti without looking stupid, or putting someone else off their food. My Grandad tried to teach me the way years and years ago, and I still come away looking like this guy:

What Luigi and Gianfranco need to realise is: 'If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it'

Stick to making Pasta Bow Ties, and make the world a much better place.

Ciao.