INSTAGRAM: Beatles cross stitch

A cross stitch a found at the museum of Liverpool. Was one of many cross stitches there.  it was amazing. I will be posting more Instagram pics on here. I love that app!

Unveilling My New Blog Header

What do you think? Pretty snazzy ay? Thought it was about time I spruced up the ole blog with an amazing header.

Created it with entirely with Photoshop, which I'm not really a master of, but know how to do basic designing. I’m not good with tutorials, but if you want any tips or want to ask how I did certain bits of it. Just ask.

Took me a few hours of design work (and neglecting my girlfriend) to complete. This was my first idea on how I wanted it to look, but somewhere along the way I deviated and wanted a kind of Out of Bounds lion lying out of a picture look…. A few minutes into that idea, I opted to go for a similar but effective approach, which looks quite snazzy.

The pics are from left to right. (1) a great pic I found online of a lion and cub. Thought it would be great to have (me being the lion and Kallam, my son being the cub) (2) A pic of me and Louise (my girlfriend, and fellow blogger – if you are wanting some nail tips visit her blog here) and (3) a great pic of me at Edinburgh Museum posing with some fellow lions :¬)

I think the header gives my blog a professional but fun look and I’m proud of it :¬)

My Week in Insta-Vision

Heres another installment of My Week in Insta-vision. :¬)

I enjoy these blog posts. Very fun :)

(from top > bottom - left > right)

1. Super Lamb Banana

These are a pic of four Superlambbananas that were outside of the Museum of Liverpool. They were really colourful and fun to look at. We went to Liverpool on the Saturday for a day out. Perfect for an artsy-photoshoot :¬) Kallam was a bit scared of them, and if I were a four year old looking up at them, I'd be a bit scared too :)

2. Water fun in the garden

Went to my sisters on the Sunday to laze around in the garden. Unfortunately, Kallam found a water gun and played havoc getting everyone wet :¬)

3. My sister and Jack

A great pic I took of my sister Mandy and her son Jack, while we were out having some sunday dinner.

4. Louise and Kallam

A great picture of Louise and Kallam on the Ferry crossing over the river mersey. Has to be one of my fave pics of them together. I love them both.

5. Kallam and Jack

A great pic of Kallam and his couisn Jack havin fun in the sun when we were out on Sunday having some dinner.

6. Ferry cross the Mersey

A pic of the ferry we took that crossed the Mersey. First time I had been on one too. It was a great journey. Kallam was a bit scared at first but calmed down after a bit. :)

7. The Journey Home

A good pic of Louise and Kallam chilling out on our way home from Liverpool by train.  Kallams showing off one of his toys we took with us to keep him entertained.  Got a bit wet after he spilt some drink on me lol

8. Our Casper

A good close up of our Casper. Its hard to get a good pic of him as he always moves when a camera is pointed at him. any other time he is motionless as a statue. lol

9. Enjoying an ice cream in Liverpool

One of my fave pics of the weekend. We stopped for ice creams before going on the ferry and saw an opportunity to snap Kallam away getting messy with a cold treat :¬)

Will do this again next week, hopefully it will be a weekly thing now.

see ya laters

MW3 troubles

I thought it was just me, having returned to first person shooting games, namely MW3, I found I was getting killed more then had had been on previous games (Black Ops, MW2).

Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks this. Many people around the web are stating that they have been affected with the same difficulties. These are:

1.    Matchmaking:

Whenever entering a new match, no matter what game type, it is unfair the way it matches you with high ranked players.  I’m only 71 no prestige, but it ranks me with triple prestige players.

Instead, I have come to find out it matches gamers by ping. Not sure what that means (can anyone clarify). Surely they should match with level rank first.

Being pitted against the die hard veterans of CoD means I don’t get the valuable practice I need to improve.

2.    Maps are too open

Many maps, are too open with not that many places to take cover. This may explain why I’m always getting clipped running from cover to cover.

3.    Maybe I’m just rusty from having not played it for a bit?

It comes to mind that maybe I’ve lost my not-so-sharp reflexes, my not-so-keen eye for the enemy or lost my appetite for the win? Then after seeing so much uproar online about the matchmaking problems and so on, I don’t think this is the case…. My pride doesn’t think this is the case :¬P

These issues have been around since the game was launched. The developers should have been on the case and fixed these, if not both, then surely the ranking issue. Its frustrating to have to be pitted against high ranked gamers every time and end up with high deaths / low kills.

Hopefully they will fix this asap. Fingers crossed.

My week in insta-matic-vision

Thought I would make a blog centered around pics I've taken during the week and tweeked with the amazing app Instagram. Here it goes:

1. thumbs up

Took Kallam for his lunch as per usual to his fave cafe, where he is always welcomed with a smile. the waitresses love him as he always has something funny to say and is well behaved :)

2. Cool kiddie

Loves his shades. This pic was taken at the Town Park in Runcorn. We both went there recently, making the most of the sun... while it lasts

3. The road to ruin

Its a quiet place. a lot less hustle and bustle then there used to be, but its greenery is great. loads of trees and fields, as opposed to that of my home town Widnes, where it is all built up save for the occasional park. This pic in particular is of the High Street.

4. Peaceful canal

Runcorn has many canals. Me and Lou went for a walk this weekend along the canal when the sun was out, on way to go get ourselves some Sunday dinner. was a great walk :)

5. Beauty and the Bridge

Pic of Lou with Runcorn Bridge behind her. I love taking pics of it, even though its outdated and always being fixed.  Love her so much, best thing that's happened to me in a long while. We have so much fun, because we have the same personality. Life without her would be dull and boring. :)

6. Spoilt history

The muriel shows a fountain that once was outside of the town hall, moved or demolished probably because youths dirtied it up or was victim to soap powder like the Widnes one, which was also removed.  The graffiti shows how many chavs, destroy things that would be best left untouched.

7. Calm Casper 

He loves lazing around. Oh, what a life a cat has. That's all he does. Maybe I'm jealous. I'd love to just laze around. :¬)

I'll do another one of these next week now I've found out how to do a picture grid. Took me a while. Blogger just didn't want to arrange them in any kind of order. Found a great App for Android that helped me out called Photoshake. Check it out.a

DREAM: The Ghost Railway City

From time to time I will be chronicling  the dreams i have. Some are pretty interesting

At first the dream was set in Widnes, a neighbouring town. I had been looking at some great old pictures that same day. I was talking to some locals, in old style clothing how to get up to the top of a church to take some pictures, and they showed me, using some acrobatic skills, which i could only dream of.

The scene switched to me and Louise entering a deserted city in the style of Gotham City, home of the Batman. It had golden statues holding up overhead railway lines and adorning the sides of buildings.

We came across a house, an old looking shack amongst skyscrapers surrounding it.  An eccentric old couple lived there and we were welcomed in for tea. My sister and her son Jack were at the house already and having a good talk with the old man.

We left the house quickly, for reasons unknown to me as the dream got strange quite quick, flickering from one scene to the next. One second running through a deserted fair and the next running up some steep stone stairs of a building.

Just before i woke up, i realised it was my sister i was running from with Louise and we were trying our best not to be found. She was looking for us and for whatever reason we were scared out of our wits. That's when i woke up, the dream feeling very vivid and real.

Think I will share my dreams in future blogs as sometimes they amaze me and could be good reading. Maybe writing them will let me analyse them and figure out whats on my mind. who knows.

Movie Idea Time

I am always coming up with strange but cool film ideas which I always forget about. So thought I would get my latest one down on blogger before I forget, and maybe one day I can beef it up to be something amazing.

Zom-be Home Soon

Synopsis:

"A modern love story/comedy which sees a couple separated by a zombie apocalypse and their struggle to be reunited after realising how much they couldn’t live without each other. Using modern technology and his zombie gaming experience, Keith tries to guide Susan to a place he knows for sure will be the best place to wait out the apocaype and survive."

I'm embellishing the idea at the moment. With little or nothing by way of litteracy skills, its going to be a challenge, but maybe the novice look of it may endear people to read it :¬P

I know its been done before, the whole zombie comedy, with Shaun of the Dead and others, but my idea is to add an even newer spin on the whole genre. I hope my idea pays off :)

I'll post more as and when I advance the plot.

Avengers Assemble..... Soon

This is one film I absolutely can't wait for.


It has a collection of good actors/actresses and great characters. Iron Man is my fave by far. The two Iron Man films are my in my fave movie list of all time :)


Its going to be so good :¬) So the countdown begins. Check out the trailer after the jump.  

Impressive isn't it. Hulk saving Iron Man from falling and the humorous "I'm bringing the fight to you" line from Iron Man lol 
The countdown begins....

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6 Tips and tricks for Skyrim – from personal experience….

So you've ventured into the world of Skyrim (purchased the game). It's a daunting world when you discover its size, and the amount of things you can do. Most people will just venture off into the unknown and try to overcome any situation the game throws at them. This is all good if that's how you play, but I say this "forewarned is forearmed".

I did just that myself after researching the perfect character for me. A Wood Elf which had great stats to begin with: 50% resistance to poison, 50% resistance to disease, the Command Animals spell and plenty of skill bonuses Alchemy: +5, Archery: +10, Light Armour: +5, Lockpicking: +5, Pickpocket: +5 and Sneak: +5. After adjusting the finer details, name: Malrock, hair: a long rocking style that looked badass, and a nice goatee I was all set to go.

After quite a bit of game play and now at level 21 I wish I had stopped, actually planned what I was going to do and maybe set out with some kind of game plan (which in itself is probably impossible taking into account the amount of variables). I've made this blog entry to forewarn you of some pitfalls you may encounter in the game and some tips that may be helpful, and in doing so you may not fall victim to the same situations I have….

1. Choose the vital skills to level up and stick with them

Before venturing off into the unknown, take a good look at your stats and what skill bonuses you already have. Mine had a bonus to light armour, lockpicking, etc. This is probably what I should be ranking up as I already had a head start in that skill, instead I ranked up everything across the board. Because there isn't a way to get them all maxed out, I now only have a little in each…. But I could have had some really good abilities had I concentrated on a few select skills.

2.  Seek out Followers to help you

Followers are NPCs you will encounter on your journeys, which will follow you into danger, carry some of your loot and save you from some sticky situations. The first one you will encounter is Lydia after completing a quest not too far into the game. She on many occasions ventured out with me into many hostile dungeons and hostile territory and held her own. She did however have one fault, a major fault in my opinion…. Her annoying sarcastic reply every time I wanted to swap or equip her with armour or weapons "I am sworn to carry your burdens"…… She had to go. Now I have Benor, a nice guy I met in Hjaalmarch, in Morthal. He reckoned he could knock my lights out…. I proved otherwise and now he follows me as my bitch wherever I go. Lol He's a burly guy and an expert in two handed weapons and heavy armour. Not the best follower around but he will do until I find someone better.

Don't befriend these followers. Whilst they do help you and probably save your life, there's probably another one out there that could do it better. There are many out there with different skill sets. Not quite sure which would go well with mine, probably something along the lines of Benor, but with a more versatile skill set I guess. It would be good if you could train your followers to become better, but alas, this isn't so.

TIP: try to not run off on your followers as you could find yourself running into trouble and fighting off multiple hard opponents without someone to help. (followers cannot climb as good as you and can be known to stop dead behind a rocky surface or float off downstream of a river. Take care of them.

3. Save a lot, and often

There's been many a time when I've gone into a quest thinking it was a walk in the park, getting a majority of the way through a dungeon or stronghold and being killed by a rogue arrow or magic spell, which resulted in me shouting to the heavens "why didn't I save more often!!!". This is the key to good game play. If before entering a cave or fort or anywhere you know there will be enemies save the game, when going from one area to another with enemies…. Save, when starting to venture into an ominous passage….. save. That is all. "in save do we trust". You'll notice the benefits of this, if you die at the hands of a surprise attack of zombies or mages, you can then start off where you saved last now knowing what's to come around the corner and preparing weapons and spells accordingly.

4. Try to judge if a quest is aiming higher then your skill level

There are many many quests out there in Skyrim. There are the main ones, some are from groups and factions you join and some are grouped under the title miscellaneous.

I find the best way to go about the game is to collect quests, as you go from place to place. I've joined a few factions in Skyrim, the Thieves Guild, the Dark Brotherhood, the Companions and The College of Winterhold to name a few. As you follow each of these group missions they will get harder as you progress and you will need to figure out the line you cross where the quests become too hard for your current skill level. There is also the option to lower the difficulty setting, but I'm of the mind, "If I started at this level, then I will keep it at that level". Saying that though, I may have to lower it if I just cannot do a level

5. Be a bookworm

There are millions of books scattered around Skyrim (this place must not be bloggers). Most are just there to read but some upgrade your skills, so my advice would be to become a bookworm and search for good books around areas. There are some called Spell Tomes, which give you much needed spells to add to your arsenal of spells, which could help you against some tricky customers.

6.  Dragons and Giants and Bears…oh my

These are dotted around Skyrim, so beware. The dragons are a pain in the ass. Sometimes you can see them miles away, but sometimes they are literally on top of you. It is worth taking them out because you are the Dragonborn and can absorb their souls and then you can use the dragon soul to unlock the word of power and its associated dragon shout. You will learn more about dragon shouts as you progress through the game.

TIP: If a dragon strikes and for some reason you are on your own and unable to take it down effectively, look on the map to see if a settlement or hold is nearby with people there. Run as fast as you can to that place, so that the people there can help you. Yes, you will be subjecting many to a gruesome dragon death, but I found this to be a really good way at distracting the dragon from you thus allowing you to shoot at it with arrows from a safe place.

Giants are usually found walking around in the open, usually with 2 – 3 mammoth like creatures. They are mostly friendly as long as you don't disturb them or anger them. If they come lumbering at you, try not to stand your ground as one hit from their clubs can kill you instantly.

Bears, jaguars and trolls are some of the other creatures you will find on your travels most can be taken out quite easily but can damage you quite a lot. Trolls regenerate their health if left to do so.

I hope that these tips have come in handy. Please leave a comment.

Return of the Blogger?

Since my last blog some two years ago, I’ve had a void….. a void that’s needed to be filled….(now now, stop with the dirty thoughts) I’ve needed an outlet for my thoughts, experiences etc. Basically, I’ve missed blogging. 

I suffer from Losing-attention-and-trying-other-stuff syndrome, which I should try and not let it affect me really, its annoying. It’s the main reason I’ve slowly and gradually gotten better at playing guitar, but not as fast as I could have learnt how to play.

Suffice to say, I intend of giving blogging a fair try this time as well as my movie review site, which I’ve neglected also.

Watch this space for future blogs :¬)