Hear Me Now

Well it’s certainly been a while hasn’t it?  I must admit that my site seem’s to be doing well and I have been getting considerable interest in the reviews I have done; particulary for Apocalypto and Avatar.

Whilst this blog isn’t meant to be just about reviews, be it on films, games or music it is my thoughts on things, and these thought’s can sometimes manifest themselves in the form of a review 😀

But enough about that at the moment, allow me to give you a brief update on what’s been going on…

I’ve just ordered a new phone so I will be able to blog on the move, for those of you interested I got the Samsung Galaxy Ace.  Granted it’s not the top end, highest spec phone there is but for me it does what I need, which is basically everything a top end phone does except for half the price.  For more information about ‘top end’ phones and various other tech, as always check out Gunbuck’s Gadgets.

I’ve been vloggin’.  You guy’s know what that is, (Video Blogging).  I have a YouTube channel, the link is in my info section and also here 🙂  The unfortunate thing is that, whilst I did get terribly into it.  And I say terribly because I jumped both feet first in being all over YouTube, however it takes some time to become the next ‘What The Buck!’  But anyway, so yeah I got really into it but then like everything in life when you haven’t won the lottery, you need to work.  And i’ve been working, alot; but I digress, really I just wanted to explain why I haven’t uploaded as frequent as I first hoped, but the subscribers I have on YouTube know that.  If you haven’t already, what are you waiting for? Go check it out Ell Himself’s Channel.

Where legends are born and dreams are made....

I’ve been playing a new computer game.  Yes that’s right I still play them.  Gears of War 3.  Believe me it is good, I wouldn’t say it’s the best game i’ve played but still it kill’s some time.  That’s the difference this time around for me and the Gears franchise.  I don’t feel like I ‘want’ to play or ‘have’ to I just play it when I have a spare hour or so.  It’s more of an after thought.  Sure the ability to have 4 player drop in – drop out co-op campaign is good and the multi-player has improved considerably with dedicated servers, but still i’m not pissed if I can’t play it.

Oh i’ve started this 12 week training program, hopefully this will see me shed a few pounds and generally become more defined.
I was toying with the idea of blogging it, you know with weekly updates or something; I doubt there will be pictures i’m a little too self-concious for that at the moment!  But yeah hit me up on email or comment if you wanna know things such as the diet plan I am following and the workout.  By the way this is supplement free 🙂

I’m gonna go now, if my phone comes tomorrow i’ll blog from it in the evening to test the ease of use compared to my last android phone.  In the meantime take it easy and stay classy!

Holla
Ell Himself 

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Gettin’ my Vlog on…

Hey Guy’s,
Yeah yeah I know it’s been a while but what you gonna do? So this blog I’m hoping will an kind of interactive.  Basically I’ve been spending alot of time on Youtube, and I mean ALOT! I’ve been checking out various Vlogs, from the like’s of Destorm, BFvsGF and Shaytards.

I’m not going to explain what a vlog is or vlogging is, it’s basically ‘video blogging’.  If you want more info just Google it 🙂

So back to what I was saying this is an interactive blog because I want to know what you guy’s think of vlogging and if you think I could benefit from it or if you would ‘like’ me to tear it up on the viral side of blogging.

So yeah hit me up in the comment section below.

Holla
Ell Himself

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Swing Life Away

While the fates permit, live happily; life speeds on with a hurried step, and with winged days the wheel of the headlong year is turned; we need to strive to be all that we can be.  Time is like a black hole slowly closing down and taking memories of the forgotten things we have done and left behind us.  The Past; this may be called by some; simply disregarded by most as distant and faint as a breezing wind slowly moving on, impacting our being and resulting in nothingness in the very same instant.  But i consider my Past to be what has made me, molded me almost guided me to be the person i am today.

Why is it then that we are all too often thought of by our recent actions.  We are a nation, society even civilisation of first impressions and all too few second chances.  While some of us may give (and) or take these second chances as a life line to build on possibly all too early burned bridges there is a portion of us that do not.  The human being, more so the brain or mind are indescribable things, sure we can describe how they are and have thoughts on how they work but we will never truly be able to understand them nor understand the great power they yield.  People say our sole is what makes us individual but I believe it to be more physical matter.

It is this part of us that decides what course of action we will take when deciding to acknowledge second chances.

Emotions.  These play a big part on all of our everyday decisions but more importantly also play a pivotal role in more important decision making; often referred to as ‘matters of the heart‘.

Sometimes we can opt to take shelter all too quickly as we do not want our heart to be hurt.  Those of you (us) fortunate enough to be confident enough to display our emotions are, what I consider, to be among a few.  It is a personal observation that far too many of us would rather ignore our true feelings in the hope that someone else will decipher the mixed and coded messages that we give off when not wanting to risk being shot down in what ever nature.

Risk.  Calculated or Dynamic.  You choose.

It is our ability to make and take risks that separates us, divides us; this choice that binds us.  As I mentioned before we have our own opinions, emotions and make our own decisions.  Because of this fact each one of us will take what may be the same risk, but no two outcomes will ever be the same; they are unique responses to a similar instance of opportunity.

I want you, the reader that has been curious enough to see this blog post through to its end; to take one risk today.  I’m not talking about crossing the road without looking both ways or eating that out of date sandwich that still looks ‘okay‘ (guilty!) but a risk of the heart.  If your single tell the person you think you have feelings for, that you think you have feelings for them regardless of what you ‘think you know’ about the way their feeling.

A risk that could go either way.

“Dream as if you’ll live forever and live as if you’ll die tomorrow” – James Dean

Holla
Ell Himself

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The Approaching Curve

Seem’s i’ve been getting a few hits over my recent film review of Apocalypto (check it out here) which also had a link to my Avatar review (here).

I write reviews for a gaming website called Gamespot, and granted I haven’t written too many but I have got a couple I enjoyed writing and got some good feedback for namely my Splinter Cell: Conviction and my Alan Wake reviews.  I did post my Alan Wake one here and figured I would add my Conviction one to my WordPress account and see what come’s from it, so stay tuned and my Splinter Cell: Conviction review will be here soon.

I don’t want this particular post to be mis-construed that this blog will become a review site for films etc i’ll leave that to others; The Thoughts and Ideals… is exactly what it says, my thoughts and ideals on certain subjects whether that be about my life thoughts on subjects or thoughts on films etc.

In the mean time don’t forget to have a browse through the other pages of this blog such as my Photography page and as always feel free to leave me a comment or two and i’ll keep a check on the stats to see what you guys are wanting from me (if anything!)

Holla
Ell Himself

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Apocalypto

Last night I watched a film called Apocalypto.  It wasn’t the best choice of bedtime film, you know the sort where you are wanting to unwind and relax and possibly even nod off whilst the tele is still on.  For those of you that haven’t seen the film let me give you a very brief synopsis.

Set in Yucatan, Mexico, during the declining period of the Maya civilization,  Apocalypto depicts the journey of a Mesoamerican tribesman who must escape human sacrifice and rescue his family after the capture and destruction of his village.
This tribesman is Jaguar Paw.  At the beginning of the film Paw comes across obnoxious and arrogant encouraging his fellow men to literally take the mick out of one of the friends due to the fact that he is unable to impregnate his wife; but as the film unfolds Jaguar is forced to grow into the warrior that his father knew him to be.

Cinematography is of a nature that is to be expected from the direction of actor turned director Mel Gibson if you have seen his ‘The Passion Of The Christ’.  The Mayan jungle provides lush greens that allow the eyes a break from the browns and greys of the village and the larger city that is seen during the film.  Although even these cities/villages are not that much of an eye sore as as the head dress and other ‘uniforms’ that the civilisation are wearing are colourful enough.

This film is all about the raw nature of a culture that has yet to be civilised and know’s no niceties but at the same time are ahead of their time with the skills and train of thought.  You only have to watch the first 15 minutes to understand what I mean here when a few tribesmen, including main protagonist Jaguar Paw are out hunting a Tapir.  In my opinion Gibson and his team have done a terrific job of capturing the basic/primal instinct of this Mayan culture, this is also helped by the film being shot completely in Mayan dialect and subtitled.

Unfortunately for me though, this was my first time watching this film and although I have been wanting to watch it for some time I was left with a feeling that I just wanted something, abit, well; more to be honest.  at 139 minutes, so over 2 hours run time I thought that yes as tense films go this is one of the best, but probably because your tension builds because you expect something although I felt Apocalypto didn’t deliver.  Action scenes are executed relatively well and show the brutality involved in a primitive race when fighting, though as I said it was as if the film was building up and building up and then, well nothing really.  The final fight between Jaguar Paw and his enemies show that Jaguar has been able to come to terms with what he must do and how he must be at one with the forest and show no fear.  This is shown as if Jaguar gets some sort of premonition and is suddenly okay with being fearless.

Not the best but certainly not the worst.

But! if you want to watch a film containing an indigenous species and tribal acts of sacrifice and tall people wearing barely a thong and a receding hairline then take my advice and watch Avatar as you will most certainly not regret it, that film is a one in a million (well until the sequel(s).  For my review on Avatar take a look here.

Holla
Ell Himself

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Heart Is Hard To Find

It’s that time of the year again when everyone is either trying to make that trip to the family member with the biggest house that has been naive enough to hold the festive events.  People are rushing into town at the last minute to grab that last minute bargain and tree’s are filling up that ‘extra’ space in your living room.

Or on the other hand you could be like me…I have my tree up, and yes i’m very proud of it.  It’s different to the usual theme we would have at my mothers house, albeit no theme or colour code.  I’ve always been one for wanting a big tree, whether it tall or have a big base.  This years one reaches from the floor to the ceiling 🙂

Bu, unfortunately, that’s as far as my Christmas cheer goes this year.  Don’t get me wrong I love christmas, and the snow we had last week certainly helped add to the feel, but my biggest draw back is I have not been able to think about what to gifts to get.  I’ve been stressing over what to get and what not to get so much that i’ve sapped the festive cheer out of myself.

I’ve got some gifts.  But haven’t got gifts for everyone I needed to and don’t feel like i’ve got much for anyone that I have got

Everyone always goes on about it being the thought that counts and not about recieving but about giving etc etc.  But I defy anyone to tell me that they honestly don’t care about presents.  In my opinion the whole process of present giving is for self gratification.  People want to see how happy they make the receiver when they open the present.  But what happens when you don’t know what to get? or the present you have got is not what the receiver actually wanted?  You run the risk of the whole thing backfiring.

It is a shame that regardless of who says it, or how many say it, it is never about the thought anymore, nor is it that this time of year be about love and family.

We’ve been led to become a society of techies and at the same time techno-phobes.  Every week new programs on the tele come out that make us believe we are not living our lives as well as we should be because they are not the same as the tele dipicts.

Man i’m sounding like a scrooge!!  And at the risk of my name completely changing to Ebenezer.  A mood change.

I am throwing a New Years Party this year, it should be fun, lots of fun.  A few good friends, music, lights and the odd shandy should make for a good way to welcome in 2011.  And end 2010.

Make sure you guys have a good Christmas and if I don’t post before a Happy New Year.

Holla
Ell Himself

 

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Spangle

So guys i’ve updated my site.  The Thoughts and Ideals had its previous guise for quite some time and I had been thinking about giving it a good overhaul for quite some time.  I guess with the holiday season right around the corner (and sorry, no, i’m not talking about Hallowe’en), subconsciously i’m hoping for snow…

I quite like the crisp, clean feel that you only get with ‘white’ really, so aside from the ‘widgets’ at the side of the page i’ve changed colour schemes and created an all new, original header picture which I quite like.

Let me know any of your thoughts on the new look, thanks.
Holla
Ell Himself

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The Authority Song

I havent posted for a while now, and that age old problem that i’ve posted about before: a lack of subject to write about.  For the purpose of this next post i’m just going to write what is in my head at the moment…

I have been royally screwed over.  If you remember some of my older posts about my place of work you will be fairly up to date with my position; I got promoted last year to Deputy Manager, before that however there were posts about oppurtunities i was apparently in the running for and how more and more things were becomming increasingly more apparent that there is a clear line of discrimination against certain staff members.  I think I wrote in one post that i wasnt one of the staff members that was ‘fortunate’ enough to be involved with the heirachy of the company i work for and therefore come under more scrutiny than most.  This has become more apparent in the last month.

Well the company and certain people in it have gotten exactly what they wanted and have managed me out of my previous position of Deputy Manager for reasons i wont completely disclose here, all i will say is it is a clear incident of discrimation and inequality.  I have served a good 5 1/2 years, all of which sickness free.  3 1/2 years have been in a position of responsibility in which i made two errors, one about a year ago and one recently.  My company policy states that any one person is entitled to make up to three errors in any one month due to human error, the consequence of which is for that staff member to retrain and a note is on their file for either 6months to a year.  In my first instance I was told that the suggestion made was for me to lose my job, i’d like to point out here that it was not a major mistake and was human error as instructions were not as clear as they should have been and since my incident instructions and communcation across site has changed.  Fortunately for me at the time i was working with a manager that completely believed in my abilities and therefore vouched for me and i was fine; funny thing is about 4 months later another staff member made exactly the same mistake I had made, pretty much down to the letter, this staff member I point out at this time had previously made 3 mistakes (serious mistakes) in the period of 2 months, the result of her making this mistake was for the other staff (myself included to retrain).  Now anyone who has half a brain will wonder why as a result of someone else’s mistakes should the other staff be reprimanded?  Needless to say the manager at the time had no experiance in the position he was in and therefore the matter was not dealt with appropriately;  by that i mean nothing happened, not even me and the other staff retraining…

My second mistake, a year after my first, was in me becoming complacent and actually believing i had beaten my demons in the staff across site and in the company and proved myself as a reliable, competent, confident and well liked member of this team.  Unfortunately there are always going to be people who are jealous of a persons ability to be better than them and even though they are a good deal older, are so imature as to not be able to act professionally and therefore look for every oppurtunity to make you look like crap.  Anyone who has ever been good at something will know what i’m talking about here.  Anyway so i made a mistake, that had no adverse effect on anyone.  I’m not joking either, it really did not impact on anyone or anything.  This staff member i was just talking about took it apon themselves to make a complete mountain out of a mole hill and took it to the manager (who as discussed before didnt/doesn’t understand their role completely yet) and so the incident was mis-managed and the result of the investigation was to completely strip me of responsibility, title and any ounce of self worth i had left and move my place of work.  This was the companies chance to do what they had wanted to for a long time, and get me into a position where either i quit, or they put me in a place where i can be constantly watched.
My answer to this? Screw you, no ones ever made me quit and its not going to start happening now, you wanna watch me? Fine watch me; and i’ll just prove to you again and again that actually, you guys screwed up and make you regret the completely over the top decision you have made.

Wanna know something else?  Since my depature (a month ago) one staff member in my previous place of work has made 2 mistakes, each of which adversely effect a persons health & wellbeing, and another staff member has also made a mistake which could adversly impact on a persons health; the thing that gets me about this is these two staff members are telling other staff across the company, as if they have gotten away with it.  As a matter of fact, they have.   Nothing has been done and probably wont.

But then i guess its far easier to cover up for someone that doesnt have any intergrity, self belief, knowledge of the position there in and in some cases cant even spell!!  It makes the people higher up feel better about themselves because when they get a call about something so trivial it makes them feel worthy because they can actually answer it, where as in my ‘position’ i knew what i needed to do and didnt need the help, imagine a Deputy that actually knows how to do his Managers job better than his Manager, so much so that when i was in the position of Deputy my manager was asking me how to do his job.  I guess this is my fault because i inadvertently taught him how not to need me.  If you know what i mean.

I’m trying to remain positive and keep my chin up but it really is hard, I know my previous posts have been of a nature where the outlook is postive, a pondering question on many of lifes questions.  But sometimes you have to vent.  It is so difficult trying to remain positive when everyone around you seems to have it so so easy (im not saying that is the case, im just saying thats how it appears), it annoys me when people think they have it hard.  At times i just feel like looking them dead in the eyes and saying “wake up!” You wouldnt know what hard up was if it bit you in the face!  But i guess people deal with different situations in different ways.  That i can appreciate, and understand, but it would be nice if people could be that accomodating of myself especially when i dont go on and on about everything im crapping myself about, but then i guess that is another fault of my own, because i dont make fuss people think theres nothing wrong.

Just look a little deeper…

Ell Himself

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Take ‘Em As They Come

So i’m having a little trouble staying regular with my posts.  I wouldn’t say it’s writers block or anything im not sure why it is.  At first i thought it was because i didnt have anything to write about but then i was thinking about this issue and going back to when i first opened this blog up; the reasons for it were as a place for me to jot down my thoughts or personal experiances or infact anything i wanted.  Initially this was the case but gradually as time went i found i was writing more personal experiances than anything else.  Now im not saying thats a bad thing, i mean if it was i wouldnt write or have this blog open in the first place, no im just stating something.

But to the present, I am having trouble with maintaining this blog and updating it with fresh entries, but then i think am i?  I mean who’s decision is it that ‘you are not updating enough’.  I get a fair few amount of hits/visits to this site, but ultimately i never created this blog with the intension of constantly having a lot of site traffic, i created it as a place for me to express feelings, or convey thoughts and if someone somewhere came across them then thats a bonus.  I guess thats the main reason why i havent turned into a reviewing site or whatever.

My friend GunBuck Chuck has a blog.  His is a blog that is updated almost like clockwork adding new information on animes like Naruto and Bleach and gives the oppurtunity for people to watch them on a weekly basis.  He has regular reviews on new music and games and of course reviews ‘apps’ for his beloved iPhone, he also posts things that are in the pipeline for various gadgets and other technology related information.

I picked him because our blogs couldn’t be more different, he opened his blog up alot later than mine, and no doubt has more posts now! But alas this is what I am talking about.  Blogs are meant to be a personal representation of what interests you etc and it shouldn’t matter about others, hence GunBuck’s being a reviewing and anime resource and mine being about my thoughts etc.

This is good for society and the way that civilisation is being forced to take a more electronic approach to almost anything.  If everybody was the same or created the same blogs, websites etc then where would the interest come from? What would make other people navigate from your page to mine?  It is these differences that can keep things fresh and can allow people to make up there minds by taking ideas and information from a variety of different resources.

I like the way that others set out their blogs and the content that they have which is probably why i have a look over on their pages as well as a few others from the WordPress hub and sometimes it makes me think about writing a review such as i did when i wrote my review on the Xbox 360 game ‘Alan Wake’.

I have other friends that have also created blogs: Mac 10 and Daniel Bourne.  Mac 10’s blog is similar to mine in the way he uses it to portray some of his feelings, however he is using his blog as a platform to showcase some of his short stories and ideas for his novel.  Daniel, well his is a mixture of everything, updates on his website business (designing and creating websites) and talk about various bits of technology he is using.

Each of us have contrasting views on lots of todays topics such as politics, music, life, technology, computing and love but you won’t find all of us writing about it.

Holla
Ell Himself

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Gotta Be Somebody’s Blues

So thats it, Englands hopes of becomming World Cup Champions are quashed yet again for at least another 4 years.
I watched all of Englands matches except the opener against the USA, from what i hear that game was pretty dire on Englands part.  But thats the general consensus i’ve being hearing and honestly what i’ve agreed with over the past 3 weeks.

Football was founded here, it’s ‘our’ game and because of this we should techniqually be the best at it.   Agree? Think about it, if you have a computer game and your friends get it later than you, then surely because you have been playing it longer you will have worked out the quibbles and glitches etc to either avoid them or make them work in your favour.  So how can a game that we (England) pretty much created suppass us and allow others to become far superior, especially when football (soccer) fans around the world agree that the Premier Ship is where its at in terms of footballing skill, obviously there is La Liga and a few others, but those guys train on sand in bare feet! So there allowed that.  We have an abundance of player skill that make up the ‘league’ and fantastic teams for them to play in; Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool etc, granted i’ve pretty much named the the top 5 for the past few years but thats besides the point.  The point is if you buy a football game, say Fifa 2010, or look at world rankings you’ll see that England have kindly been given 5 stars (5 being the highest in Fifa computer games) and that England ranks somewhere at like 7th-10th, still were in the top ten.  Again i ask myself how the hell did USA and Algeria tie with us??  Players in the Premiership get paid anywhere between £80,000 to £10,000 a week! and all they have to do is run about for 90 minutes and hit a ball with their foot.  You don’t need any ‘hand to eye’ coordination or be particulary fit (theres 10 other players you can pass to if your tired), we watch players like Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard and John Terry have amazing games for their clubs yet when it comes to international games their about as good as me (which isn’t very good i might add).  All you could hear as we were exiting the pub today were people saying “what good was Rooney? what did he actually do?”…I’ll tell you what he did; absolutely everything he shouldn’t have.  That bloke is completely obsessed with doing everybody elses job, when balls were being played up front, you could find Rooney on the wing or in midfield, allowing the opposition to easily close down any sort of attack we made.  Honestly if i didn’t know better i’d suggest getting him and probably a few other England players investigated for point shaving.

It’s one of the most annoying things.  England in a World Cup and it will always be the same, far too many cheifs and not enough indians.  Everybody on that team wants to be a saviour or better than his team mates.  If they played like a team and acknowledged that everyone on that squad has strengths and weaknesses we would of done much better, take a leaf out of Argentina’s book.  Every time somebody is subbed the whole team applaude their efforts and theres even an encouraging kiss on the cheek from the manager.  Brazil, well theres a team that absoultely ooze’s talent, yet the same thing; you dont see Ronaldhino hogging the ball because he knows he’s good, he also knows that his team is good and he has faith in them.  Rooney who scored 25 goals in 28 matches for his club (Manchester United) this season did not score one for his country, more so Rooney had 84 shots over 43 matches this season (on average just under 2 shots a game), yet only manages 3 shots over 4 matches for his country.  It’s ridculous and in my opinion cannot and should not continue, honestly if i was head of the FA or whatever i would cut the wages and make it an hourly rate and give them bonuses for every goal they score.  I guess theres the problem with sports in general, theres nothing really that sets me and Rooney apart, other than he can do quite a few more ‘keepy-uppy’s’ than me and i dont look like shrek, yet i have to work my arse off on a pretty much daily basis to have any chance of surviving todays crappy economic state, whilst he can swagger about in barbados because he’s had a hard 3 days kicking a ball around with his mates.  It takes the piss, and i know im not alone in these thoughts.

Well there are the ‘Euros’ in two years.  But what makes people think thats going to be any different its basically the World Cup except with less ‘not so good teams’ and not on such a grandoise stage, how will England perform any better than they have done in South Africa.  No doubt by then England will have a new manager, because god forbid the over payed and completely under worked players get blamed for playing like ‘shog-dite’ it must be the man that sits on the side lines the whole time and attemtps to get them to play tactics and formations with a view/hope to  increase their chances of success.

But seriously the whole ramping England as a country up into a frenzy whenever theres international football on, were just asking for riots and unnecessary fights and fans being banned from travelling abroad etc etc, so why dont we all just do ourselves a favour and leave ‘our game’ to the people that obviously care about it a little more, and play to win so they actually deserve the trophies, England are too concerned remembering that we invented the game and therefore expect the trophies to be ours; sorry lads got news for you, you dont deserve anything, so next time just dont bother showing up we all know whats going to happen anyway, it was the same last world cup and the one before that and the one before that and so on and so forth.  Which reminds me…

Theres only so long England can get away with using the excuse of ‘two world wars and one world cup’ because if it really didnt matter that much why would everyone get so worked up about it.

Holla
Ell Himself

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