So long... Partner.

Pixar’s latest masterpiece, Toy Story 3, came out on DVD last week and I really would recommend you grab yourself a copy of it. The last in the trilogy, this movie ties up the franchise neatly and fittingly in a tear jerking finale no one will want to miss.

The story centres around the lives of a group of toys who live with their owner, Andy (no relation). Now, ten years have passed since Toy Story 2; Andy has grown up and is now off to college. Naturally the toys have become seldom used and now take residence in Andy’s toy chest, never to see the light of day again.

Persistently, the toys attempt to get Andy to play with them, but they fail and are grouped together into a trash bag and hauled into the attic, with the exception of Woody who gets special treatment and is placed in the box headed to college. However, the toys don’t make it to the attic, Andy’s meddling mother mistakes them for trash and leaves them on the kerb for collection. I wish we still did that here, all these wheelie bins are doing my head in. But that is a rant for another day...

Anyway, the toys manage to escape the garbage truck of doom and make a break for the garage where they find a donation box to the nearby daycare centre: Sunnyside. The toys decide that being donated to a daycare centre is a lot more fun than being churned up by a garbage truck so they head off to Sunnyside much to the dismay of Woody who can’t get them to believe him that they were meant to be going into the attic.

Watch out, spoilers ahead...

So yes, they head to Sunnyside which appears to be a lovely place of fun and games. Once there they are met with the daycare toys and their leader, Lots-O Huggin’ Bear. Lots-O is an old pink bear toy who smells like strawberries. He was abandoned and replaced by his owner, which leaves him as bitter as a lemon wrapped in spinach served with black coffee. Lots-O seems to be a great host, but he tricks the toys into being ‘played with’ by the ruthless younger kids. Sheriff Woody who has already made an escape by this point is forced to return to rescue them in true Woody fashion.

The movie retains its charm from the previous two, and it does so mainly with the characters involved, both old and new. A lot of characters have been left out of this one, due to Andy getting rid of them at some point or another in the ten years it’s been since Jesse and Bullseye arrived in the bedroom . Wheezy is gone now, as is RC car and Bo Peep. All that remain are Woody, Buzz, Slinky, Rex, Hamm, Jesse, Bullseye, the three eyed aliens from Pizza Planet and Mr and Mrs Potato Head. Incidentally, how did Andy go a decade without getting rid of Mrs Potato Head? Well, whatever.

All of the characters have their original voice actors, with the exception of Slinky who has the experienced Blake Clark replacing the late Jim Varney who sadly died a year after the second movie was released. Tom Hanks is back to play Woody, Tim Allen plays Buzz, Joan Cusack is the rootin' tootin' Jesse and of course John Ratzenburger is Hamm aka Evil Dr Porkchop!

Of the new characters Lots-O is cast brilliantly with Ned Beatty bringing a deep south New Orleans accent to the character making him appear to be trustworthy to all, the audience knows he's a baddie but that voice is just so inviting! The great casting continues: Michael Keaton is in this movie! He plays Ken, who falls madly in love with, yes you guessed it, Barbie. Timothy Dalton plays Mr Pricklepants, Whoopi Goldberg lends her voice to Stretch the octopus, Jeff Garlin is Buttercup, and Kristen Schaal plays Trixie the triceratops. Even Totoro makes an appearance, obviously no voice acting needed there.

The writers at Pixar have a way of creating the best characters in not just animation, but in cinema. Even if these characters already exist (i.e. Ken, Etch-A-Sketch et al), they give them life in a way that only they can. I think their greatest strength though, is appealing to both the kids in the audience and their parents at the same time. And none of their movies have done this quite as much as Toy Story has done.

The movie is a lot darker than its predecessors ever were, a lot more grown up. But this is a good thing. Whereas the first movies were about being friends forever, Toy Story 3 is about saying goodbye. And I defy you not to feel sad about it! The final scene of the movie in which Andy drives away into the horizon leaving his best friends with a new owner wraps up the trilogy perfectly and will hit home to children and adults alike.

There aren’t any new songs in this picture either, none sang by the toys at least. Randy Newman’s ‘You got a friend in me’ is heard at the beginning but there are no new ones, so you might be disappointed if that’s what you came to see, or hear as the case may be. Instead they have been replaced by a lot darker forms of storytelling. Take the climatic escape scene where the gang end up in the trash-processing plant; they fall into the incinerator and pretty much accept their untimely demise, holding hands and waiting for death. Ahem. ‘You got a friend in me, de do do do do de dum’

But for all its differences this manages to stay true to the Toy Story formula, it’s genuinely funny, very well written and has some of the best animation of the modern age. The first scene in the whole movie where Woody, Buzz and Jesse are set on foiling Mr and Mrs Potato Head’s devious scheme on a railroad is just brilliant and deserves an Oscar! Also it has loads of puns…which I like!

I must admit when I saw that Lasseter didn’t direct this one I had my doubts about it. The first Toy Story was his gem and he needed to rescue the second instalment from straight to DVD hell. So when I saw that Lee Unkrich was directing it I was worried. But there was no need, having worked on the previous two and having Lasseter as executive producer, Unkrich ends up directing a fittingly different movie than the other two whilst still keeping it familiar enough not to alienate its audience.

All in all this movie is one of the best of 2010. I’m giving it 5 stars as I think it deserves it. I did enjoy the first two more than this one, but there is nothing about this instalment that I would change. Nothing at all. Okay, I'd bring Wheezy back, but that's all!

Shake 'n Bake.

Hand shake-gate has been back in the footballing news this week after Samir Nasri decided to blank his international team-mate William Gallas before the start of the North London derby at the weekend.

This is only the second time something like this has happened. The only other pre-match hand snub was back in February when Wayne Bridge refused to shake John Terry’s hand because he had an affair with his ex-girlfriend. Remember that?

I don’t really get why players do this. I mean, you’re just shaking hands with a fellow professional, promoting fair-play in the game ahead. It’s not like you have to like that fellow human being or anything, just shake the hand you idiots. Watching Nasri actually walk away from Gallas and hide behind Chamakh was just plain embarrassing. He looked like a weedy child trying to hide from the schoolyard bully. “Oh please William, don’t steal my lunch money.” Moron.

Gallas got the last laugh in the end after his side managed to come back from 2-0 down to win the game 3-2. Making the childish Nasri look a bit of a berk in the process. Speaking of childishness Arsene Wenger’s reaction to the winning goal was to throw his water bottle around like a toddler who didn’t get a tricycle for Christmas.

This is where Arsenal let themselves down. They’re such a great side, with an abundance of quality in their squad, plenty of youth and a great manager. But they ruin it all by acting like children when they lose, or when they head North. Arsene himself has taken part in all these non-handshaking shenanigans before, he refused to shake Mark Hughes hand when his side were dumped out of the Carling Cup by City last season. The rules are you only shake hands when you win, right? He just makes himself look like a sour grape. Shake hands and move on you pathetic idiot.

His side are very good, they have a heck of a lot of pace in there, but because of this he’s left with the by-product of being pretty weak physically. So whenever a side like Blackburn or Wolves rattle them with physical presence and stop them from playing their style of football, Wenger starts complaining again. Maybe it's this that’s gotten through to his players. Well, if it’s okay for him to do it, why can’t they? I’m not Gallas’s biggest fan, but at least he was the bigger man, he offered his hand, Nasri turned it down.

Elsewhere this week: Man City outclassed Fulham at Craven Cottage, which is no small feat. Their camp seemed a little disjointed before the match with Kolo Toure deciding to tell the media that some of his team-mates aren’t pulling their weight and that a lot of them should be paid less. Ironic, considering his brother Yaya takes home the thickest wage packet every week. Nevertheless, City left with three points and four goals.

Liverpool defeated the only team worse than Liverpool, West Ham. Wolves were left floating adrift with the Hammers by another defeat, this time dealt by the ever impressive Blackpool. Stoke continued to impress too with an away win at the Hawthorns, and Brazil defeated Newcastle at the Reebok. The toon desperately tried to take star-man Johan Elmander out of the game, but it was all in vein. Williamson cynically barged through the poor Swede, and subsequently got away with it; Coloccini wasn’t so lucky as a plucky linesman spotted his elbow to Elmander’s face and he was sent marching home. Elmander won the day, bagging his first and second home goals of the season in a 5-1 win.

Manchester United are still fumbling their way to the top, still undefeated, still playing like a broken record. Rooney received a very mixed reception upon entering the fray as a substitute against Wigan. Two headers from Evra and Hernandez finished off Wigan, who ended the match with only nice men. United currently sit in second on goal difference. They have Chelsea to thank for that.

Ray Wilkins revealed himself to be the cat from Hong Kong Phooey when upon leaving the club under mysterious circumstances, Chelsea could only muster a humiliating 3-0 defeat to Sunderland at Stamford Bridge followed by a demoralising defeat to a Lee Bowyer goal at St Andrew’s at the weekend. Chelsea’s mild-mannered janitor, Carlo Ancelotti, is now under pressure and there has been rumours he’ll be finding a P45 in the morning post sooner rather than later.

However, before the mid-week game against Zilina, Ancelotti quashed the rumours saying he’s adamant he is staying at the club at least until his contract expires in 2012, that his side’s poor form has nothing to do with Wilkins’s departure, and he still has full confidence in his team. Chelsea managed to scrape a victory against the Slovakians to break the curse of Ray. For now at least.

Wilkins’s departure is still a confusing one though. Nobody seems to know why it happened. It seems amicable at this point, although Wilkins is now seeking legal advise on what he sees as an unfair dismissal. It doesn’t seem to be a redundancy. Michael Emenalo has been promoted to assistant coach within the club so I’m still bemused as to why it happened.

In the past the Chelsea players have all held him in high esteem, now they’ve all gone a bit quiet. Though it’s unlikely any of them will side with him as they actually play for the club, so that’s hardly surprising. He speaks Italian fluently so I would have thought he would have been invaluable inside the dressing room. It seemed his relationship with Ancelotti was good, but maybe it went sour. Times change. It’s just strange that they’ve done it mid-season, rather than at the start or at the end of it.

They all just need to make friends again. Shake hands you two.

If Radio 2 wore slippers.

You know, I haven’t watched television for a bit. So I thought I’d have a browse on Friday night to see what was gleefully entertaining the nation. I stumbled upon Children in Need! That snuck up on us didn’t it?

I don’t know how I’d managed to forget it was on, but I did. So I was quite surprised when I saw it on the box. I just flicked to BBC One and there he was in all his glory, father to the nation, like an old slipper with a chequered inlay. Terry Wogan in high definition. Bless him.

It’s like the one day a year Britain sees him now, he’s like some sort of softly spoken Irish Santa Claus. He was presenting with Tess Daly who as I write this must be nursing a very painful jaw, she’s be smiling even more than usual on tele this weekend; Children in Need and Strictly. Plastered onto her face, she has the expression of a lonely check-in desk worker at the least busiest airport in the world if Brad Pitt came wandering up with his passport.

All in all it was a decent show, from what I saw of it anyway. Most of it is celebrities generously helping to raise money and then there are always those who are just flogging an album. Mastermind was pretty funny, and Strictly was a lot better with Wogan as a judge. I saw some sort of Eastenders and Coronation Street collaboration which wasn’t actually that good at all but it had a funny moment where Gail and some other woman tried to get one over on each other by saying what they’d been though. A clear mickey take of the writers, well executed. The rest was rubbish.

What else was there? I missed the newsreaders do their usual dance about. How did I manage that? I’ll YouTube it…

Yeah it was pretty average, looks like this year they went with a Lady Gaga theme. Nobody dressed up as meat, out of respect for Ross Noble (she really is a thief), instead they dressed as a satellite, a cleaner, a microphone and Storm from X-men. It was pretty average, I think the producers knew this as they literally dressed a random guy as a Direct Line red telephone and pushed him onto the stage! Seriously what’s that all about? It wasn’t that funny to be honest, I think the funniest thing about it is the audience’s obvious fatigue about half way through after clapping along to the music, by the end they were clapping as frequently as it rains in the Sahara.

I did manage to see Doctor Who invite a couple of kids into the Tardis for tea, which just sounds wrong but it was actually a really nice piece. After which they showed a sneak peek at the upcoming Christmas special which I wasn’t interested in until I saw who was in it! Michael Gambon! I love Gambon, he is quality, I don’t know how the producers got him but a congratulations is in order! Welcome to the Layer Cake indeed.

After the Doctor they went off to see what people had been up to in your area, which for me was London as I was watching on BBC HD and I’ll be darned if I’m putting in the effort to change to normal BBC One! There really were lots of people generously fundraising, B&Q giving lots of money, and Pudsey himself working in some sort of warehouse in a high-vis vest! Hang on. Why does he need that? Who’s going to miss him? That’s health and safety gone mad! I mean he’s big and yellow for crying out loud! They should make cyclists dress as Pudsey the bear! That’d help me out a bit as all they seem to wear round here is a helmet with a tiny blinking red light on it!

Whatever, it was all ruined anyway when I saw the loathsome annoyance that is… I can’t actually bring myself to write her name. I’ll give you a clue, she works on Radio 1, she did Top of the Pops and she did a Nintendo DS advert with her mate Holly Willoughby as well. Anyway, she appeared after that so it was time to change channel.

That’s why I missed the newsreaders!

Well it didn’t turn out to be the best idea I’ve ever had anyway as all you do is end up on ITV watching adverts. And yes I’m greeted with the usual DFS advert. Another sale? Wow, who’d have thought it! It’s not the same sodding sale you’ve had all year round is it?! This isn’t even the annoying part. The annoying part is it’s November 19th, 35 days away from December 25th and it‘s a Christmassy advert!

Every year it seems to get earlier and earlier. This year has to be a new record for me. On October 8th I heard a Christmassy advert on the radio. 78 days before the actual day! I’ve no idea what it was about now but yes jingle bells and all that, for crying out loud it’s ages away! It drives me insane! I know people who have their Christmas tree up already! What’s the bloody point? You might as well just leave it up from last year!

That’s all you get, once the calendar flips over from September to October. Christmas thrown in your gormless face like a soggy custard pie. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, it’s probably the best day ever, even if it isn’t as good as it was when you were a kid. It’s just that I only really start to feel Christmassy a little into December, because, well, that’s when Christmas is! All the promotion and constant barrage of the Pogues just ends up making it anti-climatic rather than the crescendo it’s supposed to be.

I just want to walk into a shop in November and not be treated to Noddy Holder shouting “It’s Chriiiiiiiistmassss!” at me. That’d be nice. And I’d love to turn on the TV without seeing Peter Kay dressing up with the M&S girls at a party with Jamie Redknapp on the decks. Yes, you haven’t read that wrong, it exists. It really does. Well it beats webuyanycar at least. God help us if they make a Christmas advert.

Oh well, it’s not like I have anything to do with deciding when Christmas starts. That’s Coca Cola’s job. This year they have decided upon November 12th to kick of the merriness with their ‘Holidays are coming’ advert. Holidays. What is that about? This isn’t America. We need our own version of it here in Britain where Terry Wogan drives it round wearing a cardigan, no pants and slippers smoking a pipe throwing Boots 3 for 2 deals at people as he drives by. Much more realistic. Oh well, such is life.

Happy Holidays one and all.

***

I'll post the Marks and Spencer advert below, see if you can spot Peter Kay's body double.

Vive les étudiants!

I turned on the news this week to find the French out in force again. Taking to the streets rioting, destroying buildings, injuring each other. They’re absolute maniacs, you can say what you like about them but at least they have some fight left in them!

But then on closer inspection, after reading BBC News’ ticker, I found that these weren’t images of the French at all, they were Brits! Actual Brits doing something about the gigantic cuts. These Brits were, of course, students. It was only a matter of time before someone got up and did something, rather than taking the beating lying down like everyone else seems to. In the 80s it was the miners, last Wednesday it was the students.

In a nutshell around 50,000 students and lecturers marched through Westminster peacefully until a small group burst forwards holding aloft an effigy which was obviously burned to a cinder much to the applause of the crowd. After that happened it all got a bit ugly. You know once you see someone in a balaclava that it isn’t going to end particularly well.

And it didn’t. Placards were burned resulting in masses of smoke covering the crowds, and the protestors somehow smashed their way into the Conservative Headquarters, where staff were evacuated. Some clowns even got on to the roof and decided to launch a fire-extinguisher from up high. It was ugly, well by British standards it was ugly.

The images were quite interesting to watch, mainly because there was such a diverse bunch of people involved. There were the extremists in their balaclavas and there were regular students responding to what they were witnessing, some with excitement, others with infinite fear. No one really knew how to respond. Those who did respond did so with violence, which pretty much ruined it for everyone.

Naturally people have condemned them for their actions, mostly the Daily Mail’s readership but others have too. The president of the NUS, Aaron Porter, came out and said none of these events were planned: “This action was by others who have come out and used this opportunity to hijack a peaceful protest.” It is true, you can’t just blame students for all of this, it was the work of a minority who may or may not have been students. Although some unions have come forward and refused to condemn their actions.

The newspapers were full of it, everyone was talking about it, radio phone ins became popular again. People seem split on the issue, some branding it a disgrace, others saying they were left with no choice. I personally think, though they were wrong to go as far as they did, it was okay for them to show some aggression. After all, we’ve had countless protests from students in the past. Try to name one. Difficult isn’t it? That’s because all that happens is a peaceful stroll through Westminster, followed by everyone going home, having tea and resuming their lives, changing absolutely nothing, solving absolutely nothing. It seems sometimes this violence is the only way to get noticed. If there was no aggression on Wednesday where would this story be? Page 36? It probably wouldn’t even have run on some news networks. Becoming aggressive forces the media to turn its ugly head and take notice.

And everyone noticed. Even mayor Boris was forced into action saying he was: “appalled that a small minority have today shamefully abused their right to protest” and that those involved would “face the full force of the law.” I’m sure they’re quaking in their boots Boris. This is a justice system that gives a paedophile 18 months behind bars for grooming and sexually assaulting a girl under the age of thirteen.

Nobody agrees with the fire-extinguisher incident. But who really cares if a bunch of students vandalised the Conservative HQ? It’s covered on insurance isn’t it? I do feel sorry for the 50,000 students who were there as most of them were peaceful in their protest but now, because of a small minority, they’re all labelled as scum. I have to say it was amusing seeing the police doing seemingly nothing about it, having to ask nicely for the students to get off the rooftop. They were so timid they make Mr Jingles look like freaking Danger Mouse!

Of course the police have been criticised for not having enough numbers, which I find ironic. All that does is subconsciously highlight the strain they’re going to feel soon enough when an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 jobs could disappear. Ouch.

If they allowed it to happen, who could blame them? They could be out of a job before Christmas, is it worth putting yourself in danger for that? Is it worth putting yourself in danger for anything? Take the military, they’re out there fighting for our country and dying for our country, and what do they get in return when they come home? A P45 of course! More ouch.

In the end, these events have brought forward the cause of the students in the country, exposing further the deep cuts that are being sliced through the education sector. It is probably the most dangerous budget to cut, because you are literally dicing with the future. Future doctors, teachers, nurses, scientists, police, civil servants, and all other professions are all being jeopardised by these cuts and rises in the university fees. The future needs funding or the UK will be in serious trouble in years to come.

In a decades time we could find ourselves in a country where skilled workers are a thing of the past and people will be being immigrated in to fit the requirements of jobs Britons are no longer able to satisfy. It’s easy to see why the students aren’t happy about it, they have every right to feel betrayed, especially by the Liberal Democrats who signed a pledge before the election promising they would not vote in favour of a rise in tuition fees. They’ve changed their tune.

The annoying thing for me is that most the people who sit in parliament making these decisions all received their education for free. So why should new students have to pay for it when they got it for diddly squat? I wonder if the MPs would be in favour of a new piece of legislation saying that all MPs who didn’t have to pay for their tuition will now have to fork out 10% of their wages between now and the end of time. 

Somehow, I don’t think that legislation would be approved.

Poppy Fascism? Poppycock.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of travelling this week. Around my local area, don’t get too excited. So because of this I bought myself a weekly bus pass, meaning I could use the bus an unlimited amount of time. Sounds great, only it isn’t.

I needed to head into the city on Tuesday and instead of getting the train like I would normally do, I decided to get some use out of the weekly bus ticket. I cannot stress this enough: it’s one of the worst decisions I have made this year. And this is a man who willingly watched the Manchester Derby last night. Yep, it was that bad.

Buses, it’s fair to say they’re my least favourite method of transport. The only thing lower would probably be mouse, but at least I could make reference to Uncle Buck. Heck, I’d rather paraglide from place to place. Do the weekly shop on a unicycle. As long as it’s not a bus I couldn’t care less.

I mean, come on, they’re slow, they’re no longer cheap, they have all the charm of an abattoir and the smell isn’t far off that either. So there I am, sat inside what can only be described as a McDonald’s bathroom on wheels, only with slightly worse hygiene, and obviously I instantly start regretting the decision.

Naturally I start to look around for something to pass the time. Adverts, fantastic! One very condescending piece from the nhs, another from what looks like the police, and one that says “Some people are gay. Get over it.” Good point advertisement, well made. Okay, that took 14 seconds, crap I am so screwed.

And then I saw it. The most glorious thing introduced to public transport since seats. It sat there, one seat from me. The Metro! As soon as I saw it I grabbed it, thank you Lord! Now, the Metro is hardly the best and mightiest journalism you’ll find this side of the equator; their stories are usually a couple of days old, and sometimes they don’t have the whole football result because it went into extra time, which I find hilarious, but when you’re sat on a bus or train and your ipod just won’t cut it anymore, it’s as good as the freaking New York Times.

So I’m flicking through the paper, and there’s nothing really to shout about in the news, a bloody great big advert from the Kinect (fed up of that yet?), a piece on some crap boy band called One Direction, and then I saw a headline that caught my eye.

“Don‘t wear a poppy, shop worker told.”

Great, as if I’m not depressed enough sat on this bus with a Oscar the Grouch, now I see a story like this. The best thing to do would be to just turn the page and not read on. But annoyingly I did.

The story is about a shop worker, Harriet Phipps who was told by her manager that she could not wear her poppy as “it’s not uniform or company policy.” Of course she ignored this rule and was warned again about the matter the next time she did it. Harriet said she was disgusted, and frankly, so am I. It really annoys me when companies do this to people. Like when British Airways told a check-in worker she couldn’t wear a cross showing her faith. I hate it when companies literally say: “we don’t want you as a person to work for us, we want a robot, we’ll then paint the robot as we see fit and programme it to do our bidding.”

These are real people, who are the lifeblood of these companies, and they get treated with absolute disrespect. The shop Harriet Phipps works for? Hollister. Owned by Abercrombie & Fitch. Yes, the same Abercrombie & Fitch who told a shop worker she had to work in the back because she didn’t fit ‘the look’ of their store. Why didn’t she fit ‘the look’? She had a prosthetic limb.

But the main issue that keeps on cropping up in recent years is the whole poppy debate and this isn’t the only story that’s cropped up this week. Jon Snow has been in the news again, he won’t wear one on air but does wear one privately. And everyone’s up in arms about it. But then again people have been complaining about Andrew Marr wearing one too early. We do love a good moan here in Britain. If everyone was given a £2000 tax-rebate we’d still moan that we had to walk to the Post Office to collect it.

Snow calls the backlash ’poppy fascism’, he doesn’t believe in wearing symbols on air. Whether it be a poppy or an AIDS ribbon, he wont wear one. I can understand where he’s coming from, but I just think the poppy is something different to all the other badges you can wear. It’s worn in remembrance, it's not a symbol of war or of anything for that matter. It honours those who have died protecting our nation.

I heard someone say the other day that they wont wear a poppy because they won’t fund ‘Blair’s war’. It reminds me of the Celtic match last week where a banner was propped up amongst the fans saying: “Your deeds would shame all the devils in hell. Ireland. Iraq. Afghanistan. No bloodstained poppy on our hoops.”

Some people are so blind. People refusing to wear them because they believe if they do they are promoting wars, whether they’re right or wrong. These people are idiots. You don’t wear a poppy to let everyone know you are pro-war, or that you believe Blair was right to follow Bush into battle. That‘s so ridiculous! It represents the soldiers who’ve been their! The money raised by purchasing a poppy goes straight into supporting these brave men and women (and their families) who live and die in a war zone just so we can live this supposedly hard-life here at home.

And that’s the main thing that annoys me; the short-sightedness of it all. As if we wear a poppy to honour those who are fighting or have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. The poppy represents more than just that. It represents everyone, everyone who has ever fought in a war, whether it be right now in Afghanistan, or back in the First and Second World Wars.

It doesn’t matter when or why we went to war. What matters are these honourable men and women served and still serve our nation and our allies’ for us to live a normal life. Some might not have believed in the war, and they fought regardless. Some were forced to fight, and they fought regardless. Some were even children, and they fought regardless.

Naturally after thinking about all this on a rammed bus in a traffic jam it puts it all in perspective. Yes, this bus idea was the worst decision of the year, but at least I can make these decisions. If it wasn’t for the heroes who’ve fought and died for us I don’t even think I would have that.

Connection Failed.

It’s been a tough old week. Studying and working away tirelessly until your eyes themselves start perspiring. Naturally when I went for some downtime with my faithful friend, the Xbox, I just wanted to kick back and play some games. But it was not to be.

The stupid thing starts prompting me to update it, and it won’t let me progress until I do so. So what do you do? You update it, and sit there waiting for it to download and install. A few boring minutes later and it’s done. Fantastic. Now what?

A new dashboard, cool. I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to new versions of stuff, every time I update my iTunes I’m jumping up and down gleefully waiting to see what new changes they’ve made to my lovely little neat media player. Of course when I load up iTunes afterwards, I find that nothing has changed and I’d just wasted five minutes of my life watching a status bar move from left to right. And it’s much the same with the Xbox.

It’s all kind of changed without really being different. All the menus are still there and the submenus are now white instead, making it look like Apple. I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. Oh, and for some unknown reason my avatar has grown about two feet and looks like a ganglier version of Robert Pattinson with blonde hair. Why is this? And then it dawned on me.