Stop The Moaning and Start The Healing

The last 2 days I have heard things on LBC that have concerned me, wound me up, annoyed me and slightly peed me off. So I decided to vent.
Prepare for some venting.

Vent no. 1
Yesterday I heard people complaining about the amount of money the heads of banks are getting paid and the fact that the government are thinking of creating some legislation that will limit the amount they can get paid and of course people were agreeing with the governments idea. MORONS and I mean that in the most insulting way. Apologies if you are one of these people but hear me out (then call me a moron back if you like)
In this country we seem to eagerly hunt down and punish the successful. For starters these bosses are not the only ones to blame for the financial crisis, Ill come back to that later. They were only the ones that fired the starting pistol on the whole recession race. Just take a look at the state of the banks now, they are raking the money in. They have gone from being heavily in debt to being quite healthily in profit. Now who do you suppose has done this. Let me think now, do you suppose it could be the bosses who are now being paid well. Don't you think that anyone who can take a multinational business from near bankruptcy to swimming in profit should be rewarded well, regardless of what went on before. Yes there were mistakes by the banks and yes it cost the country deeply but these bosses, or fat cats if you prefer, have turned the banks around. I wish I were capable of doing that but unfortunately, just like most of us (including the moaners and complainers), I cannot. But these men can and did. So don't they deserve paying well? Lets not forget also that these businesses also employ thousands upon thousands of people, that's a lot of people to be responsible for and a lot of stress. The government is planning on capping their earnings at 1million, 'thats a lot' your probably saying and yes it is. These guys are currently getting paid up to 4 mill at the moment. Lets not forget though that the top rate of tax is %50, so if these guys earn 4 mill then that's nigh on 2 mill in tax, now isn't that better than 500000. Sure they will look at ways of paying less tax and that sure does pee the moaners and complainers off even more, but what they won't do is admit that given half the chance they would do the same. So we not only want to punish the success of these people but we also want to punish them for doing something that each and every one of us would do if we could.
All this is because of two things. One, people are jealous of the money they earn and 2, people want to punish the banks for the problems that we are going through right now. Both of these reasons carry no weight and hold no water, they are trivial and childish.
Now back to the other people responsible for the countries troubles, the ex-government. These were the people that encouraged, I repeat that, encouraged the banks to lend out more riskier loans in order to try to encourage growth and failed to regulate the banks properly for fear of capping that growth. They also spent years spending money the country didn't have to create public sector jobs. Great you might say, more jobs for the people, problem is these jobs don't make any money. They are non-profit making rolls, as are most within the public sector. So the money to pay for these jobs came out of the public purse with very little going back in till eventually, you guessed it, they ran out of money. So much so that Mr. Brown sold off nearly all of our gold reserves. I think my wife has more gold on her finger that the government currently has in its vaults. The government took us to the edge of the cliff, the banks merely gave the final push. Sure there needs to be regulation to prevent anything like this happening again, yes there needs to be safeguards to stop irresponsible banking but does that mean we should punish success. NO, if we start doing that it will drive the big business's out of the country to more understanding shores. And that would cripple the country far more than we could ever imagine.

Vent no. 2

Today I heard about a new high speed rail road from London to Birmingham and then slowly stretching beyond up to Edinburgh. Guess what people were saying about this. Yup you got it right, they moaned and complained once again.
People were saying that it wasn't worth it, it wouldn't speed up the journey by enough to make it worth the investment, we can't afford it, we don't need it. SHUT UP PEOPLE!!!!

They complain, they whinge, they moan, they sit around tables in pubs spouting nonsense about how it won't improve anything. What happened to the pioneering spirit that allowed us to rule half the world? What happened to the thirst for innovation that allowed us to take the lead in many areas of science and industry. It seems to me it has disappeared under the weight of a nation wide blanket of endless complaining. To say I'm disappointed in the way the people think is an understatement.

Now before you start bleating that I'm a Tory, right wing voter let me just tell you that I don't trust any of them. They are all corrupt and the expenses scandal proved it. I just stand for the truth of what is good for the country and for the people as a whole and that means I support the success and rewarding of success. I support innovation and the need to invest in the countries infer structure in order to keep us competitive as a small island in a big world.
Its all this complaining that fuels the recession, its the whinging that prevents the country from being what it is capable of being, that stops it from being great once again. Just like the complainers have stopped Heathrow from being the central hub of global travel for Europe they are in danger of making sure this sick old man of Europe keels over and dies.

So stop the complaining, stop the moaning and start embracing the changes that are needed to keep this country an active part of a global society. When the government wants to invest in new transport links and runways cheer for them. When big bosses are getting big money for making big profits congratulate them and welcome more of the global winners to this country, get them to bring their businesses here. And for gods sake stop frowning and start smiling. Yes times are hard but if we all head out this weekend and spend an extra £10 guess what. Some business's may even start making money. If we start behaving in a more rational way and stop believing everything the media sells us then we may be able to start putting things right. The longer we live in fear the longer we will be told to live in fear.

Venting over.

Now lets start putting things right and lets start living a little more. Like the Monty Python team said.......
"Always look on the bright side of life."

Till next time...

The voice has spoken.

Pic 1. 'Im Having An Old Friend Round For Dinner'

I found this Fella having his lunch above a jumper frame in the Battersea Park BT shed. A bit of light conversation and a glass of Bollinger 53 later I found out his name was Trevor and he's an out of work accountant. He moved into the BT shed a week ago. He considered it an ideal location for a spiritual retreat. He's trying to get in touch with his inner self, though I think he's more likely to end up getting in touch with the inners of his lunch a long time before any spiritual enlightenment should befall him.

So please join me as I raise a glass to Trevor, may he live a long and full life. Unlike his dinner.

Till next time...

The voice has spoken

The year ahead on the big screen

So here we are at the start of another 12 month, and what a 12 month it will be. The movie world is rife with big movies this year, personally speaking I think its going to be one of the best years in a long time.
There are so many promising projects in movie land at the moment so I thought at my duty as a self proclaimed film buff to write about it. So here goes.

Well I'm sure you are all aware of the big marvel boys that have graced our screens in the last few years. From The Hulk to old stars and stripes wearing Captain America they've all had their turn. But this year sees the biggest mash up in movie history. Not since Dracula met Frankenstein has the silver screen been ablaze with larger than life characters as it will be this year. I am talking of...

The Avengers.
I'm sure most of you will know who these guys are, no not the camp 60s TV show (though that does deserve a decent movie version. Forget the atrocity from a few years back) I'm talking of Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. This will be the mash up of the year, possibly the decade (except Avengers 2 ;o) ) And lets not forget Sam L. Jackson as Nick Fury, lets face it this guy could make hanging wall paper look cool.

Next up is the one super hero movie that could possibly over shadow the Avengers.

The Dark Knight Rises.
Christopher Nolan's final Batman film will complete his Dark Knight trilogy. This will see the return of Christian Bale as Batman, the legend that is Michael Caine as Alfred as well as Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman. The villains this time are the Big Brute that is Bane played by the great Tom Hardy (who will be seen soon as the new Mad Max) and Anne Hatheway as Catwoman. If this is any where near as good as the Dark Knight it will be EPIC. (must have gone to money supermarket.com)

Next up is another superhero, the one and only web slinger.

The Amazing Spiderman
This isn't a sequel to the Sam Raimi trilogy but a re-boot of the series.
Directed by Mark Webb (talk of irony) and starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Rhys Ifans this takes the story right back to the beginning. Will it be a good move by the studio? I guess we will find out in the summer.

Its just a pity the summer won't be finished off with Superman, Man of Steel but I suppose they had to save something for 2013.

Next up sees the return to SCI-FI of Ridley Scott. The last time he touched this genre was way back in the early 80s with Bladerunner and his earlier horror classic Alien. This next movie is rumoured to have loose connections to the Alien franchise.

Prometheus
The story, what is known of it, follows an expedition into the outer reaches of the universe on a quest to find a clue to the origins of man kind. Unfortunately they find more than they bargained for. Starring Noomi Rapace (the original Girl with Dragon Tattoo trilogy) Michael Fassbender (X-Men First Class) Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce this film is generating a great deal of buzz at the moment due to Scotts 2 previous Sci-Fi films being such classics. Lets hope he pulls it off a third time.

Then with the year coming to a close we have 2 major cinematic events.

The Hobbit

Gandalf returns in this first part of the Hobbit story with other members of the Rings trilogy coming along for the ride. Sure to be great but will it live up to the hype. Its got a large mountain to climb to make as big an impact as the previous trilogy did.

In October we will see the return of the worlds greatest secret agent. I am talking of the one, the only.... BOND

Yes he's back for the 23 time (3rd for Daniel Craig) This one goes by the name of Skyfall.
The story line sees him going up against an attack aimed directly at MI6 but in doing so he ends up finding out more than he should about his boss M. I think this is the one I'm looking forward to the most. As a life long Bond fan its good to see him return to the big screen and Daniel Craig is as close to Connery as its ever been.

Trailers for all the above films can be found on www.imdb.com be sure to check them out. Awesome.

So that's it for my brief run through of some of the biggest movies of this year. all that's left to say is. Dim the lights, roll back the curtains and cue music.

Till next time....

The voice has spoken.

A New Year, A New Mission

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!!!!!

OK now that's out of the way lets get on with business.

So its been a while since my last post, December was a very busy time for me and the family. As it is for most families this time of year. But now its time to get back on the blogger train.

I finished my photography course and have pledged to take at least one photo good enough to put on here on a weekly basis. The course finished well, I'm certainly glad I did it as it really has made a difference to my knowledge of photography, and it has made a big difference to the pictures I take.  The course also covered the basics of photoshop which was going really well for me until the last week before Christmas, then I hit a big wall as far as photo editing was concerned. Why is that you may ask, ask away, ask away and I shall answer.
You see the course used windows based PCs which worked well with my windows based laptop at home. Then my lovely wife took me out to buy an iMac, you see where I'm going with this, now I'm struggling with Photoshop. The program is the same you might say, well yes it is, to a certain point. But then I stumble across something that is just that little bit different and it all falls apart. I am sure though that with time, just like all things Apple, I will get used to it and find my way around.

Strange thing is since buying the iMac I have suddenly become interested in Tech like things. Just the other evening I downloaded PS3 Media Server so I could stream movies and pictures directly to my TV. Unfortunately Samsung don't seem to like installing their DLNA connection with all the necessary codecs for the files iTunes uses. this is no big problem but it would have been nice to exclude the PS3 from the equation. Another electronic device to power up. I know it doesn't seem like much but in these hard times all savings are good savings.

The iMac means we are now a fully equipped Apple household, we both have iPhones, we have several generations of iPods an iPad and now the iMac. Who would have thought it, certainly not me. Who knows what will happen later this year if Apple go ahead with their TV. I expect it will be called an iTV.

One last thing.....
Isn't their always.
No matter what your interest in, from music to motherhood. You can find a blog about it at loveallblogs.com
Here you can read about anything you like as well as my bi-weekly intro to the tech section.

Till next time

The voice has spoken

Photography, photography, photography

Well, what can I say about the last few lessons in my photography college course.
First off we were learning about landscapes, depth of field, aperture the best lenses to use etc.
Do I have any examples to show you.....urmmmm. No.
You see the problem is no matter how interested in photography I am and how much I want to take endless pictures to get better at it, life continually gets in the way. Last week I ventured out with Kara (2 and a half year old daughter) to Tooting Common with the full intention of letting her play in the play ground and then taking some shots. Unfortunately she insisted on using her scooter on the way so it took us over half an hour to make the 15 minute walk, then she wanted to be behind the camera every time it came out of the bag and eventually the sun was too low to get any decent shots. Then through the week as we all know here in blighty, at this time of year we go to work in the dark and leave work in the dark. So theres absolutely no chance to get any thing done through the week.

The last lesson I had we covered portrait photography. Once again we played with the basics like framing (never frame your subject at a joint. Knees, elbows as it looks weird) and focus (always focus on your subjects eyes no matter where in the frame they are) as well as some new stuff like exposure compensation and flash intensity. All adjustable from your dslr's menu.
It was a very interesting lesson from both a practical side and theory. Example, put your camera in portrait photography mode (not the, do all your thinking for you, setting on the top dial but using the picture type selection in the menu) this will disable the flash, causing shutter speed problems in dim light. But, adjusting the exposure compensation by knocking it down a notch or two and this will increase the shutter speed. Its these little tricks that I'm really interested in learning.
Once again I have no examples to show you but this time it isn't because of life getting in the way. I do have quite a lot of portraits that I shot in the class of all my class mates but, without their permission, I'm not about to splash their faces all over the interweb. I'm sure they wouldn't mind but its wrong to do it without asking them. I'm sure you understand.

Focus, Smile then Click

Its been a while since my last post but things have been a little hectic here in the Abyss. Holidays, family crisis', darts and college have kept me quite the busy bee these last couple of months.
The title of this episode refers to the college course I'm attending. Every Wednesday evening I drive over to Putney School of Arts armed with my DSLR ready to be versed in the finer points of photography and I am happy to say that slowly, but surely, the complex manual controls of the camera are becoming clear to me. So with Canon EOS450 DSLR in hand its off to college I go.

Weeks 1 & 2

During these lesson the possibilities of shutter speed were shown to me, so over the following weeks I experimented with the many different uses of shutter speed, combined with motion, low light and a few other factors to try and make it interesting.

This picture was taken in the Sample Room at Young's Brewery in Wandsworth. The brewery has been closed for a few years now but due to the long history of brewing on this site (500 hundred years and counting of continual brewing by one establishment or another) the owners and developers of the site have kept a micro brewery going in order to carry on the brewing legacy. The Sample Room is where this small amount of ale is made available for consumption to the chosen few. The picture was taken using f/3.5 1/8 second ISO400. It was my first attempt at indoors photography in low light with no flash.

Personally, I think it turned out quite well.

Weeks 3-6

The following few lessons explained the use of different ISO settings, aperture settings and a brief explanation of Servo AI.This picture was taken on the north bank of the Thames just East of Putney bridge. The picture was taken using f/11 10 second exposure and ISO200



Finally we were asked one week to take some shots of things that were a particular colour. My colour was black.

This picture is of (in case you hadn't guessed) a coat hanger hanging off a door. f/5 1/60sec exposure ISO1600



For this one I drew lines on a blank piece of paper to try and make the picture more interesting than just a pen on paper. I experimented with crazy scribbles, horizontal and finally vertical lines. I consider this to be one of the best ones, the lines guide your eye both to the pen, then the lid and beyond. f/4.5 1/60 sec exposure ISO800

Finally this picture was taken using f/5 1/80sec exposure ISO1600

Can you guess what it is.

If you have any questions regarding the pictures don't be afraid to ask and if any of you out there are avid photographers I'd love to hear any tips or advice you would care to offer.

Till next time......

The voice has spoken.

Conan - A strong contender or a damp squid?

Well last night I saw the new version of Conan The Barbarian.
Now many of you out there, like me, will remember the original 1982 version starring non other than the Governator himself Arnold Schwarzenegger with fond memories and will have been very weary of this new version from the off set. But lets get one thing straight, this is not a remake, its a new Conan film. A fresh origin story, entirely different from the 82 film. So don't expect to know the story, even though there are similarities.
Warning the following contains spoilers. So read at your own peril.....

The movie starts with a bloody battle in which Conan's mother and father are knee deep in violence and bloodshed. Unfortunately Conan's mother falls foul of a sword and his father (played by the excellent Ron Pearlman) has to perform an emergency C-Section (yeah you read that right) So he gazes into his wife's eyes, lifts his sword and plunges it into her belly. How the hell he didn't slice the babies head off I have no idea (with that luck he should have put the lottery on as well) What follows is a scene directly lifted from The Lion King, baby is held aloft for all to see. Remember theres a battle going on right now but what the hell lets let the enemy use a baby for target practice. Told you this guy was one hell of a lucky dude that day. What follows for the next 30 minutes or so is Conan growing into a teen, proving his worth as a warrior, learning the value of a well made sword and the destruction of his village. Once his father has been killed by the evil warrior, with a major god complex, Khalar Zym. He then runs off into the wilderness and the next time we See him hes transformed into Jason Mamoa.
Now Jason does make a worthy Conan and is certainly more suited for the role than Arnold was (cue the screams of protest from all the devotees) After all Arnold can never be accused of being a good actor, something that Jason is certainly more capable of.
So the adult Conan sets out take revenge on his fathers killer.
A quick word about the, afore mentioned, killer Khalar Zym. He is played, quite capably, by Stephen Lang (Crazy army dude from the terrible but money making Avatar) and makes for an interesting bad guy but, theres always a but, the 82 film had James Earl Jones as a bad guy. Come on people this is the voice of Darth Vader himself, just the voice alone makes for a good bad guy but add in the man as well and you've got some mighty hard size 11s that Stephen had to fill. Something he just doesn't manage to do (even though he had a far more acceptable hair style than the dodgy mop that J. E. Jones was forced to wear) Now at Khalars side is his faithful witch of a daughter, and I mean that literally, Marique (played excellently by Rose McGowan, girl with machine gun leg in Planet Terror) and she is the real menace of the film as is proven when she conjors up some soldiers made of sand in one of the many, and I mean many, action scenes. The amount of action scenes is one of the problems in a lot of Hollywood films these days and this one is no exception. With all the action that is going on there is barely enough time for a story to develop but we still manage to get from A to B. All be it rather sparingly on the detail and emotional content.
As the film moves on our friendly neighbourhood barbarian ends up baby sitting a woman that Khalar needs the blood of in order to power a mask that will allow him to bring back his wife from the dead, conquer the world and get all the bugs out of the latest version of windows. Or something like that. Now this woman was raised and educated in a monastery and even refers to herself as a monk. Problem is that no sooner has she had a change of clothes that she decides she wants to do the nasty with a dirty, sweaty barbarian. So much for a devout religious up bringing.
Of course this leads to Conan having to rescue his damsel in distress from Khalar at the end of the film. During the course of the rescue he calls in the help of the greatest thief / lock pick that there is to get him into Zyms lair. Unfortunately all this means is that this guy has a big bunch of keys? I mean why bring him along at all, just give Conan the keys and tell him to bring them back when hes finished. Surely dragging this poor dude along just makes it more difficult to get in without been seen.
Of course in the evil lair theres a sea monster in the dungeon, they must have run out of rancor's at Skywalker Ranch, then its on to rescue his woman before shes sacrificed and her blood used to empower the mask of all evil (its actually a mask made of kings bones or something) which once empowered clings to his face like a face hugger from alien. During the battle he must also battle Marique and her finger claws (ala Freddy Kruger, she even does the whole dragging of claws along a wall sparks flying) and several soldiers. The cavern where the final battle takes place must have been designed by the same guy who designed Medusa's lair in Clash Of The Titans. Its a totally impractical collection of platforms and sudden death ledges, I mean what was wrong with architects back then in days of legend, were they all high on LSD or something.
The film ends with Conan taking his, not so, fair lady home and then riding off into the sunset.
So after all this mocking and silliness what is my final judgement on the film.
Well it is certainly a better film than the original, and it is entertaining enough but would I recommend going to the cinema to see it.
No not really.
Wait for the Blu-Ray and enjoy it at home. After all the seats a comfier and the food is cheaper.

Till next time..

The voice has spoken.