This blog has moved

Thoughts of a Trying Atheist can now be found at

http://toata.wordpress.com

Please remember to change your RSS feeds and any bookmarks to suit this change. Thank you!

#50; A personal retrospective of 2009

First off, a very merry Christmas to all reading and I hope that you’ve had a fantastic few days with all your loved ones in the festive celebrations. My apologies for not being so active in this past month with blog entries on here, it’s been a very hectic combination of being at work with the Christmas food rush and doing university work and the avalanche of assignments I had thrown at me. so with this break of worries and woes I do wish you all the best with your festivities and a happy new year!

2009 has been a remarkable year for myself, and a very special year at that. There have been events that have changed my life without a doubt, and there have been events that have inspired me, moved me and just made me feel much happier about who I am and what my course of action in life is to be. It’s quite odd looking back at the past 12 months and recollecting the memories in a blog format as I do worry that it seems slightly self obsessive to be bringing up a wonderful 12 months for myself, but for me I just wanted to share with you why I’m sad to see the end 2009 going out.

There are a few major events that have occurred this year that have definitely been a huge positive boost; as of writing I’ve found myself part of a relationship with my wonderful girlfriend going on 8 months on the 28th and it’s ridiculous how much it’s improved my self esteem and confidence about life in general. I’m quite a shy person and, in comparison to some friends, I much prefer to keep my personal life ‘personal’ as such the term suggests. At the same time, I could happily scream out the delight and happiness being with Lou this year has made me feel, and there’s a good possibility she’ll be reading this later (*waves*), so I can’t thank her enough for actually finding some sanity in putting up with me, the fact that she’s the most wonderful person to have found in my life and for making things work because it’s been incredible, really incredible. At least that makes me look forward to 2010!

Away from the more personal feelings of life, as a Formula 1 fan it has been an incredible year of emotions and unexpected twists and turns. Coming into 2009 the team I supported found themselves struggles on life support after the pullout of Honda. Yet, by the end of October, they found themselves having a world championship driver and a constructors championship to be proud of. To go from drowning in worry to the sheer elation of victory was quite a turnaround and it’s been more than an emotional rollercoaster, to say the least! As if it’s not obvious now, I do love my Formula 1 and I get into the sport quite dedicatedly. The battle between my two favourite drivers at my favourite team was just sheer madness in controlling all the various emotions as the season went on but it was just amazing to see Brawn doing so well after the past few years of horrid performances from the cars Button and Barrichello were driving. Furthermore, the past 12 months have seen the world of Sidepodcast and it’s wonderful community become a big part of my life and to know there are F1 fans out there as completely mad as myself about the sport and unbelievably funny people at the same time is really fantastic and, going back to Lou, if it wasn’t for her re-introducing me to the wonderful world of Sidepodcast it’s quite staggering how different my year could have been. I also had the fantastic experience of visiting the Goodwood Festival in early July and it absolutely blew me away, as you can see in the link. It was a wonderful few days and a must for all motorsport fans of course. Will I be there in 2010? Oh without a doubt!

In general, 2009 had been an odd year in some ways. There have been a lot of deaths reported in the mainstream media, whether they be in sport, in general showbiz or other areas that the media have brought up over the past 12 months. One of the saddest and biggest losses in 2009, for me at least, was the passing of Sir Bobby Robson. The man was a footballing legend and much loved personality of ‘the beautiful game’ and it would definitely be an agreed statement that part of British football died with the passing of this legend. Other people who have passed away in the last year include Henry Surtees, who was involved a freak accident that ultimately cost his life, Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger and many others, and of course the many brave soldiers and individuals fighting abroad in various countries for us. To everyone affected in 2009 by the deaths in whatever way, I can only offer my condolences.

To move onto a more positive note, there has been much change over the past year. The popularity of the social networking service Twitter has exploded into the big time, with now millions upon millions of users using the service, it has without a doubt become a big feature of people lives over 2009. It made controversial changes at times, it attracted big celebrities names, it became a source of real time news and instant updates when necessary. Every year we seem to have a big fad grow into major popularity and it can be hard to argue that Twitter was 2009’s ‘big thing’. Onto a more personal level, 2009 saw Muse release their fifth studio album in The Resistance, a grand journey of music that for me took Muse to a whole new level with some of the ideas produced on the album such as the Exogenesis Symphony. I’m still undecided if it’s my favourite Muse album; it is brilliant to me but it feels wrong to place it over the sheer genius that is Origin of Symmetry or Absolution! Nevertheless it was new material from the band and a huge year for them, building upon a big album that was much waited for and with such events as the Eurasia treasure hunt it made the build up even more exciting. I know I definitely wasn’t disappointed with the eventual outcome.

Oh, and of course, a pigeon stole my ideas in the summer. Worrying times.

So what else can I say? It’s a shame that 2009 has to end because I’ve had an absolute ball of a time. But I can only look forward to 2010 with much anticipation and hope that it will be as brilliant as the twelve months have been. Of course, 2009 saw the introduction of this very blog as well as the recent creation of my Formula 1 blog over at Gridwalk Talk so I hope you continue to visit over the next 12 months, hope that I can continue to entertain you if that’s the case and that you all have an absolutely wonderful 2010!

#49; Apple Know How to Make a Man ‘Appy

It’s been nearly 2 months now since I purchased my iPod Touch, a purchase that to this day I still find myself dazzled with bliss and happiness because it has provided many hours of, well, awesome! If you remember back to when I first got it, I blogged about it here on ToaTA as an after effect of the happiness at finally getting an iPod Touch. Of course, one of the biggest factors of buying this device was the Apps that Apple had released for this and the iPhone, so here’s my favourite apps and games I’ve bought and loved since my purchase… (although you soon may realise these will be balancing more towards my favourite games rather than apps, but still!)

Beneath A Steel Sky
Price: Currently on offer at 59p
Genre: Point and Click adventure game

If you love Broken Sword, Monkey Island or any of the old LucasArts adventure point and click games then this is an absolute must for you. I’ve loved the game way before it was on the iPod Touch and have played it many times on SCUMMVM but it’s a perfect companion for the Touch/iPhone. You get a distinct feel of 1984 and the whole dystopian vibe of a new world from the game, and the voice acting and addictiveness of it is second to none for me on the format. I think this was the first app I actually purchased and I certainly recommend it to all who enjoy these type of games. It works well, it looks fantastic with the Dave Gibbons cartoon cutscenes and the voice acting is absolutely spot on. If you want a game that makes you think in order to solve a problem, then you should give it a whirl too – just be patient and think smart. Such a great port of a great game.

Fling
Price: 59p
Genre: Puzzle game

Here’s one for the more casual gamer out there who wants a quick puzzle game to drive them mental but still be brilliantly addictive. Fling seems you, wait for it, flinging little furballs off the screen so you work it out that you only have 1 furball left. It sounds easy but it’s far more difficult that you imagine at times and will get you thinking! It’s a great little app, have several modes to keep you amused, all whilst being ridiculously adorable and fun at the same time. The impressive thing about it is that it stores thousands upon thousands of puzzles so that you’ll probably never get the same puzzle twice! It has stumped me plenty of times and it’s just a great little app. If it does drive you to the edge of desperation at times it does provides hints but handily pops up with the message ‘are you sure you want to cheat?’ – fantastic way to send me on a guilt trip and making sure I end up not cheating!

Canabalt
Price: £1.79
Genre: It’s a game… but… I dunno what genre?

Yeah, explaining the genre for this is a good start. Ignoring that though, Canabalt is brilliant. It is evil, and so frustrating, and it gets on your nerves, but it is fantastic. It’s basically an app port of a free browser based PC game and even though it’s not free it’s still well worth of the price. Your goal is to get the little guy who is running across falling buildings as far as possible, by tapping the screen to make him jump. The further he gets, the faster he runs, so from time to time you will need to slow him down by running into obstacles. It will drive you nuts as you start getting really far then mess it up by misjudging the timing of a jump but I love it nevertheless! also, recommended you play with headphones on as it has a wonderfully made soundtrack that gets you really into the game. Not sure what’s with the robots in the background though…

TheTrainLine
Price: Free
Genre: Train App

Look! an actual app! And it’s free!! Moving away from games on this format, the Trainline app is immensely useful if you find yourself on the move via trains at all. It’s able to check train times for you, save journeys, search journeys, search stations, tell you the nearest station based on your location, etc… basically, for a free app, it’s been an immensely useful tool to have in my pocket just to reassure me in strange, unknown stations. It’s probable more beneficial to iPhone users with a 3G connection rather than iPod Touch owners depending on wifi such as myself but I’ve still depended on it when I’ve had such wireless capabilities at certain stations. When you consider the official National Rail app comes at a hefty £4.99 I can’t see why you’d at least consider this if you need one for your journeys.

And finally, of course…

The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition
Price: £2.39 until Dec 1st
Genre: Point and Click adventure game

Oh you thought I was going to get through this without talking about what is probably my all-time favourite game on the iPod? No chance! What can I say about this genius few hours of gaming? It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s so well written and it deserves it’s status as being a legendary game to those that have played it. Sure, it has a bit of a hefty price (buy now whilst it’s on sale!!) but my word is it worth it. You control Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate™ in his battle to become the Caribbean's most famous pirate! I don’t think I can actually say anything bad about this game. It’s ridiculous, I know, but it even works well on the iPod/iPhone. Its only right I end this section by saying ‘You're no match for my brains, you poor fool.!’.

So this is my roundup of what I’ve really, really enjoyed or found useful on my iPod Touch so far. I’ve got quite a few more games and apps than this obviously, but these are definitely the stand out in what I’ve used the most over the past few weeks since purchasing the Touch. I’m surprised from a gaming point of view how well it works as I was definitely a critic of such a format being a gaming handheld but, look at how many games have gotten into this blog entry. I think that says enough to me.

And yes, that was the best I could think of for a blog title. I’m sorry. As my regards, please be nosy and look at what actually takes up the contents of my iPod Touch…

#48; Fail.

Whilst I’m struggling to fight through this C++ assignment I’m working on, I find myself easily distracted today by the Fail Blog. Now we all probably know what the site is about and the whole internet meme of ‘Fail’, but it still makes me laugh ridiculously at times in terms of what you can find on there.  just wanted to share some of my favourites.


Using Photoshop so much makes me appreciate the amount of fail in that even more so.

 

You heard the sign, men worldwide. Don’t get pregnant.

 

I’m sure the city of Denver is proud of its’ Brians.

I don’t even know where to begin with that.

22 years of life experience necessary too.

So that’s what they’re used for!!

Rubens would be proud.
And finally, an epic video that just screams fail but yet win at the same time…

A truly wild Space Odyssey. I like how by the time it gets to the end it’s just an array of high pitched noises.

You can find much more FAIL over at the Fail Blog if you’re as easily amused as I am, of course!

#47; Water Always Wins

Photograph – BBC

WARNING – POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE EPISODE AND CHRISTMAS PREVIEW

The beginning of the end. That’s what it was hailed as, the start of the trio of episodes that sees the exit of the great David Tennant from his role as ‘The Doctor’, and without an episode of Dr Who since Easter us Who-fans were just dying of anticipation for Waters of Mars. It had been massively hyped up by the BBC, Tennant has been flying about from show to show getting the word out and about 40 minutes before I write this up, it finished. 60 minutes of Dr Who. Was it worth the wait? To quote The Doctor himself… ‘ohh-ohhhhh yes!!’!

To put it simply, the episode was even better than I was expecting. It was written by Russell T. Davies, and his episodes for me tend to be over written in content and story at times so I had that on my mind. I will admit – towards the end I did wonder to myself how long it was going to be before RTD involved some over the top, unnecessary addition to the action unfolding in front of us. It kind of happened, but it stayed far less ridiculous than previous ‘RTD moments’ and it ruined nothing for me. Add that to the fact that there was no Dr Who for the majority of the year; this episode had a lot to live up to! As ever though it prevailed with flying colours and a sense of utter wanting from myself for the next episode to be screened at Christmas. I can’t wait just over another month!!!

So what made it such a great return to form after this unnecessary absence? The story, and characters involved, worked wonderfully well and they had their reason to be there. We were given their stories oh-so briefly through the Doctor and for the most part they all seemed vital to keeping the story and show watchable. Adelaide Brooke was a fine leader for her team, and almost companion, in the epsiode and the way her history was affected by what choices were made by the end of the episode – her own choices included as we saw. I found it quite smart how the whole history aspect of the story changed a few times depending on the Doctor and what he did, and of course, for the first time we saw a new side to Tennant’s Doctor. Plus, the return of the Ood that, previously a while ago, mentioned a song relating to the end of The Doctor… lots of little callbacks to references previously mentioned made it even better!

How weird was it to see Tennant turn his lovable cheeky-rascal character into a malicious, arrogant, power-mad creature? For me seeing the Doctor go from a down-trodden, defeated friend into an unlikeable fool was quite something. It was a side we’d never seen before – whereas the Doctor knew he had his power as a Timelord, the limits were always there and boundaries more than existed in his mind. By the end of the episode, these boundaries were more than gone, the power had gone to his head and it was bizarre to see his unlikeable quality of him that, for me at least, I did not expect to see. Despite that, it was pretty wonderful to see how easy it was for Tennant to flick the switch and decide to take everything into his own hands, and give a fresh angle for the Doctor before his time is up.

So that leaves us waiting with much exasperation for Christmas. The preview showed so much – the return of Donna Noble, the legend that Donna’s grandfather Wilf (cheers James!), scenes of mayhem and chaos, the Doctor continuing his new line of power and, of course, the return of The Master.  Yes, we knew it was happening, but my god was it good to see. The mention of the four knocks, the sinister laugh, and John Simm in tow to take this Doctor’s era out with a bang…

Christmas can’t come quick enough…

#46; Why The Office is better away from the UK

Ricky Gervais is a bit of a marmite type of guy for me. See, I love his stand-up shows and he is undoubtedly a very funny bloke whether you like him or not, whether his arrogant humour is your thing or not I mean. He of course grew into the world of super stardom via writing his huge, huge hit TV ‘mockumentary’ The Office. In case you’ve never seen it, it followed the every day lives of a series of paper company workers in Slough, England and just basically followed around the workers and most prominently boss David Brent, played by Gervais. It’s a good show, don’t get me wrong, but the cringe worthy nature of Brent (despite that being the entire point of him) makes it a tad unwatchable at times because he does drive me up the wall. A few years ago, a good time after The Office was super popular in the UK, it was announced that The Office was making it’s way over to the American side of the pond. Initially, I met this with utter discontent because the humour in the show is very, very British. However, it seems that 6 seasons into the show, it for me is the utter highlight of the two by a stupid distance.

                      
David Brent                                                     Michael Scott

For starters, I am a huge, huge fan of Steve Carell. Whether it be his legendary performance as Brick in Anchorman, Evan in Bruce/Evan Almighty or the depressed Frank in Little Miss Sunshine, he has starred in many films where he has made the film for me. Once again, he did the job with the transition from British humour to American humour with The Office. Much like Gervais, Carell finds himself in the role of boss Michael Scott, who simply put just wants to be a nice guy! The first season of the US Office sees it basically copying everything that had been done in the original, and it was good don’t get me wrong. Michael had his loyal (to a point) kiss-ass sidekick Dwight, his ever-admiring Jim being the witty output of his office and a whole host of characters that were included. The thing is, if you saw both the original and the US Office, you could tell it wasn’t working as well in an American context. That’s why, from Season 2, the show absolutely went into overdrive into how well written, well acted and well received it became. To put it bluntly, it became bloody brilliant.

The thing is with the US Office is that it has been on our screens a lot longer now than the original was. Gervais’ creation only lasted 2 series, and roughly 12 episodes as well as few Christmas specials along the way, whereas the US Office sees it currently running through it’s sixth season in the US and well passed the 100 barrier. The characters have grown and grown, they have left and they have come and the series has expanded way beyond what was seen in that first season of the US Office. Because it has been on longer, you do know the characters a lot, lot better. You gain a greater amount of understanding between the relationship of Pam and Jim, that Dwight has his innocent moments in a sea of utter Dwight moments (it’ll make sense if you see it), that the various smaller characters like the lovable Kevin and his habits, Angela and her stern attitude to absolutely everything (except cats). and so much more. Each character has their own personality, their own story to tell in the office, their own part of the show, and it works so beautifully well because as you keep on watching you really get to know everyone as part of the office. For me the original UK version had a few characters that were worth watching, whilst the majority of the office didn’t really add much to the show.

The humour too is much more suited to my tastes. The biggest difference to the two is the fact that the UK original includes a lot of swearing as is the case with normal British banter in modern conversation, whereas any acts of swearing come at very minor opportunities or are bleeped out from the US equivalent. Furthermore, the humour as I’ve previously stated is completely different in my opinion for reasons already stated – the writing in the UK original very much seems to be based on the antics of David Brent and his judging of his office, his employees and his decisions with a back story of Tim and Dawn and the general British banter humour mixed in with Brent constantly trying to prove his comedy value, whereas the US Office is much more orientated towards the stories of the office in general with all it’s characters running around the main characters of Jim, Pam, Dwight, and of course Michael in charge, not to mention how Steve Carell makes Michael Scott a much more likeable, lovable boss despite his many flaws including his greed at times and ignorance, yet comes across as more innocent, naive and just wanting to enjoy what he does with who he considers his friends. That, for me, makes the offices of Dunder Mifflin in Scranton (US) just so much more enjoyable and warmer to feel involved in than the colder environment that is the Slough offices of Wernham Hogg (UK).

So that’s why I prefer the American version to the original. They say a lot of times that remakes of a classic TV show/film should never be done, as they inevitably end up being an embarrassment to the original; even more so most of the time when it jumps over the Atlantic I find! This however proves that, every once in a while, it’s worth going for if the outcome is as good as it became here. The show is probably my favourite comedy TV sitcom considering – it’s without a doubt up there with Scrubs and Arrested Development in terms of how fantastically done it all is.

How do you feel if you have watched both the original UK and new US series’? Are you sticking to your guns with Gervais’ creation, or more than happy to embrace our American cousins into The Office?

#45; The 2009 Formula 1 TOATA Awards

Hello and welcome to the first ever Formula 1 Thoughts of a Trying Atheist Awards, a catchy named ceremony where the awards themselves are named just as self indulgently as whoever Oscar is and his awards he named, and more importantly, some alternative awards inspired by Jake Humphrey’s latest blog entry within the past year of Formula 1 and certain areas that deserve to be credited, shamed, and laughed at within the sport. It’s been quite a year for Formula 1, with moments such as Mr Fisichella unsure where to pit, Ferrari getting in a strop and being upset at just about everything, and allsorts of almost-wacky-racers inspired efforts from the sport. Nevertheless, let’s jump straight into the awards!

Biggest F1 Fail Moment of the Year 2009
Winner: Michael Schumacher realising that he ain’t the man he used to be
Runner up: Luca Badoer being even worse than that

Whilst we all felt for Felipe Massa’s horrifying incident at Hungary earlier this year, the news that soon occurred not long after with Schumi divided much opinion. Whilst many over at Sidepodcast were angry at upset that ‘he’ was returning, others felt joy at this 7 time world champion making his return to the sport. However, I will admit that after the euphoria from the media and sudden loving for the man seemed to appear when it was announced he was returning, I produced many a laugh when Ferrari admitted that… well, he ain’t returning. FAIL. Although I approve of him not returning. But still. FAIL for Ferrari. Whoopsy!

This leads me into my runner up for this award, which goes to Luca Badoer who seriously, seriously defined the term fail during his time as an f1 driver for Ferrari. I mean… wow. Almost impressive!

‘My Ears are Burning’ Award 2009
Winner: James Allen’s… thing after Malaysian GP
Runner up: Anything spoken by Jonathon Legard, throughout 2009

After putting up with the noise that is Legard over 2009 on BBC F1, I began thinking… maybe I do kind of miss that scallywag James Allen? However, I soon  remembered this utter masterpiece from Allen created after the Malaysian GP retelling the weekend’s events in a narrative only Alan Partridge would be proud of. It’s a bit of a shame because I kind of like James Allen, mostly because of Legard’s monotone… monotoneness. Nevertheless, enjoy the winner of the ‘My Ears are Burning’ Award 2009:

CLICK ME TO WATCH THE VIDEO IF YOU DARE.

Sorry about the lack of embedding. It just would not let me, and just didn’t work. I can only assume the video is so rubbish that even HTML hates it. Concerning the video though, I can’t begin to imagine which hand gestures speak volumes with that. Oh and the runner up? Well the title speaks for itself really.

Ridiculous Bernie Ecclestone Moment of the Year 2009
Winner: ‘Hitler would have got things done’
Runner up: His ongoing affair with secret lover Simon Gillett

We all know how outspoken Bernie Ecclestone is. His shortcoming in height are easily made up with his rather ridiculous solutions to sorting things out – I take you back to the F1 Olympics idea with the medals instead of points debacle. However, Mr Ecclestone really pulled it out of the bag this year with the simply outrageous comments he made to The Times:

“In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done.

“In the end he got lost, so he wasn’t a very good dictator because either he had all these things and knew what was going on and insisted, or he just went along with it . . . so either way he wasn’t a dictator.”

Yeah. Kudos to you Bernie, for making the most remarkably stupid, non related Formula 1 conversation when talking to The Times about Formula 1. I for one can’t wait to see you compare the British Grand Prix to the Falklands, or perhaps talk about Apartheid in south Africa being nothing when you lose money in Formula 1. He really did go the whole pitch to get a ridiculous outspoken comment out there and what a ridiculous comment it was.

The runner up for this award once again goes to Bernie, of course, for this stunning revelation of deadlines over the course of 2009. Donington and Simon Gillett were supposed to pay up for the British GP, yet all they created was a big hole in the middle of the track, the loss of an iconic landmark over the track and an embarrassing year for the future of the British GP. And yet, deadlines were being thrown out left right and centre regarding the payments! It was obvious that Gillett wasn’t going to get it done, and Bernie continued to play with his strings until it finally ended in November 2009. Sadly, not long after Donington lost the British GP, the man who rebuilt Tom Wheatcroft and owned it for so many years passed away just as the future of the track he loved went with his memory. Sad times.

F1 Building of the Year 2009
Winner: Abu Dhabi Hotel which apparently had a race track under it
Runner up: The Green Building of Valencia

Fair play to the organisers at Abu Dhabi. They promised a huge event to welcome F1 into Yas Marina and they certainly delivered with a day-night event with a huge, modern world of buildings set in an area which will be built up over time, with an accompanying Ferrari World and of course, this Abu Dhabi Hotel which was a massive highlight without a doubt. It was magnificent, it was multicoloured, it was exciting and it brought Formula 1 buildings to a whole new level. Also, it had a f1 race under it but that was forgettable. nevertheless, let’s take a moment to look at the well deserved winner of the F1 Building of the Year 2009:

            Moody Blue…                                                                Crazy Red….

 

 

 

 

The runner up for this unbelievably prestigious award is of course the Green Building of Valencia, which is quite simply the only really distinguishable feature of he track asides from the greay walls, grey bridges, grey grey, and docks. It stands out in a world of dull and even though I’m sure Valencia is a lovely place to visit, the Green Building of Valencia is a true highlight of the Formula 1 calendar as I’m sure everyone will agree. The following photo is courtesy of Lou:

A truly remarkable building. As I’m sure every single fan will agree, this award was a big one for Formula 1. So well done to the new giant colour hotel for doing such a great job, and I hope it does such a great job next year as well at being a hotel!

‘How can a comment make me laugh so much?’ of The Year 2009
Winner: Steven Roy on Sidepodcast explaining Star Wars

Now I know what you are thinking - ‘This has nothing to do with Formula 1’ – true enough, even though it was made over at Sidepodcast but there is no way I could make awards and not give credit to this genius comment. It was made on the fateful day of 10th April 2009, when Lou (who is probably going to hate me for this!) mentioned that she wasn’t sure who Yoda was and that she had never seen Star Wars but had seen Cool Runnings. This led to Steven Roy making this incredible comment:

It was just the same except Star Wars was in space and instead of going down a hill they had to go and take on Darth Vader and the bad guys in a massive space war.

It is just genius and everyone deserves to know about it. I can’t remember laughing so had at such a ridiculous comparison and yet somehow it kind of makes sense, so congratulations to Steven Roy for winning this non-F1 related award in an F1 awards ceremony!

Pit Stop of the Year Award 2009
Winner: Jaime Alguersauri’s ‘Pitstop’ in Abu Dhabi GP
Runner Up: Heikki and Kimi’s Fiery Duel, Brazilian GP

There is simply no way I was going to let Tim, also known as Jaime Alguersauri to those who have no idea what I mean by saying Tim, get away without having a bit of fun at that silly pitstop he made at the ‘race’ in Abu Dhabi. Basically, the man was having gearbox troubles in the race and needed to come in to pit. So, he came strolling down the pitlane as you do to stop… only to stop at Sebastien Vettel’s pitbox… who was in second place at the time and due to stop at any second. As Tim came to stop, he suddenly realised as did the crew who pulled out some marvellous reflexes such as the front jack man who launched himself out of the way motioning for Tim to get out of the way. Basically, he came in, strolled through Vettel’s Red Bull pit box ready to stop, and went straight back out again…

…only to have his gearbox die out on the track. All in all, a pretty successful few laps for Tim and a definite winner of this award. It’s been quite a year for him since the master class that was Sebastien Bourdais was (un)fortunately sacked only to be replaced with this young man who is obviously unsure, just as the rest of us, what the differences between the Toro Rosso and Red Bull liveries are!

The runner up here is a joint effort to two finnish drivers who deserve much credit for their hard work to cause utter mayhem during a first lap of the Brazilian GP that had more action than an Action Man Convention in the middle of shooting an action movie. The mayhemic start to the Brazilian GP saw both Kovaleinen and Raikonnen both come in for repairs and the like. The thing is, what with it being Massa’s first time back at a racetrack since his accident, Heikki thought it would be pretty damn sweet to impersonate his Benny Hill-esque get away from his pitstop by pulling off the fuel hose and dragging it down the pitlane with his car. Unfortunately, this time he had Raikonnen right behind him causing the fuel pouring out to ignite in a fireball of mayhem around Kimi’s car who simply drove through it and carried on, being the Iceman he is. Whilst of course completely serious, it was also completely insane and one hell of a start to arguably the the best grand prix of the season. So well done to Heikki I suppose for coming second, which is something that isn’t usually said unless the sentence involved Lewis Hamilton. Sorry Amy.

One quick final special mention to Giancarlo Fisichella who began his season in Australia  by driving straight past his mechanics for a pitstop and then driving into them when realising. Who’d have thunk that could have lead to a Ferrari drive!

And now, sadly onto our final award for 2009, the most prestigious award of the entire ceremony…

Best Formula 1 Scandal of The Year 2009
Winner: The Downfall of Lord Flavio and his Sidekick Pat
Runner Up: Breakaway Bonanza!!

So of course it would not be a Formula 1 year without a good ol’ scandal in the background to get on our nerves and make us hate the sport that we love. Luckily, in 2009, there must have been 6 or 7 of them so it’s been a treat for us to have all this politics thrown at us fans!! Yes we’ve had Lewis Hamilton having a bit of a laugh with the stewards, and of course we had that wonderful saga with the double diffusers being ‘the reason for Brawn GP’s success’. Brilliant!! However, it is  kind of my honour though to award this to Nelson Piquet Jr, Pat Symonds, and Flavio Briatore for their stupidity in thinking they could get away with this yet, at the same time, utter genius is ridding that horrible man Flavio from Formula 1.  Yes, they got away with it for a while but those crazy kooky Scooby Doo kids at the FIA sure did find out about it sooner or later once Nelson broke away from the grip of Flav. So many questions arose from this saga – why didn’t Nelson just say no and report them? How much did Fernando Alonso know about this? Who uploaded that picture of Flavio showering onto drop.io? It was truely a worrying time for Formula 1 and the safety aspect but we all fought together to get through it, Flav got banned for life, Pat got banned for 5 years and Nelson got shunned by the Formula 1 teams for being a bit of a cheat. So the award goes out to these three idiots creating this saga! Congratulations!

The runners up here are the entire FOTA organization having a bit of a hissy fit about the idea of a two tier championship, which admittedly was a shocking idea as ever from Max, and threatening to breakaway from Formula 1. Let’s be honest – it was NEVER going to happen was it? It was seriously overblown by the media and by FOTA and it was a bit amusing to see them get their knickers in a twist until the FIA gave up and sorted it out with them. Well it worked I suppose!

So that’s it folks! I hope you’ve enjoyed these awards and I hope to see you next year for the return of the Formula 1 Thoughts of a Trying Atheist Awards 2010! God help us if it was anything as mental as the past year was!

#44; Rubens’ final charge…?

Well, it finally happened. The dream team has been broken up! Today saw the long-time expected announcement of Rubens Barrichello’s move from Brawn GP to Frank Williams’ long running Williams F1 Racing team for 2010 Formula 1 Season. Now, I am a huge Rubens Barrichello fan as you times I refuse all probably know by now, and with these rumours over the past few months have seen many denials of truth behind them from myself but, with it finally confirmed  and out in the open, let me explain to you why for me I’m finally at rest with his move to Williams.

Being at Brawn was a perfect predicament for a fan like myself of Rubens. He had a hell of a team behind him that had suffered the hard times of Honda and grown stronger from their troubles, he had a wonderful friend as a teammate in Jenson Button, he had a boss in Ross Brawn who is a Formula 1 mastermind and, possibly most importantly for Rubens, he had a car that could win and perform like others on the grid couldn’t. Surely you can understand why moving away from Brawn to me would be a downgrade, and yes, I will admit I still do consider it a downgrade when I think of the Cosworth engine being used but I’m starting to look forward to new times at Williams.

This year has been a truly awesome year to be a fan of the man. He got his first win and pole in several years since his days at Ferrari, not to mention the fact he recovered a seat even I considered lost at times with Bruno Senna arrival into Formula 1 which eventually didn’t happen until the recent Campos announcement, and even though he’s had his critics at times with media comments or whatnot, Rubens can be immensely proud of everything he has achieved at both Honda and at Brawn over their 4 year career partnership. It is a shame that he’ll be moving away from Brackley next year.

From Brackley though he goes to Oxfordshire and to Sir Frank Williams’ world of Williams. I will admit that I have far less support for Williams in comparison to what I knew and loved about Brawn, but what I do know and respect is that Williams are a team with incredible history behind them and are run wonderfully well as an independent team. It makes me smile that Rubens will be moving from independent to independent team which is really nice, and Rubens will no doubt be considered the number one driver at the team with rookie Nico Hulkenburg getting the opportunity to look up to Rubens’ experience as an F1 driver. It’ll be strange supporting a Williams as I haven’t been behind them since the days of Damon Hill in that gorgeous Rothmans Williams to be honest… but as I’ve previously stated, now I am looking forward to it.

So bring on 2010 after this on season and another year of Formula 1. What is most important no matter what team is that Rubens will still be on the Formula 1 grid going into his 300th race next season, an achievement that no other driver has beaten, and that this could be his final swansong. It’s absolutely worth thanking everyone at Brawn GP and those who departed over the winter from the Honda fallout for all their efforts to be such an awesome team behind Rubens at Brackley during his time there, and especially for making 2009 such a special year for Rubens Barrichello. It’s been such a wild, wonderful and emotional year to be a fan and, despite missing out on the championship, I wouldn’t have wanted it to be anything less.

So… what will happen next in the long and winding road that is Rubens’ career? Only time will tell – let’s just hope the success continues!

#43; New look, new update!

If you’re a fond visitor of this blog, which I wholeheartedly hope that you are of course, then you’ll notice that I have searched from the cold-hearted depths of the blue world by going from my old dark blue template to quite a bright, bubbly new look! I noticed the design over at mashable.com and immediately fell in love with it. Although it does remind me of Twitter, if that’s a good thing or not? Nevertheless, I hope you readers are as happy with the result because it took a bit of work to get it working, but in the end, was definitely worth it!

Also, this morning I got notified by Microsoft that I had been accepted into the Xbox 360 Dashboard Update Preview Program. Catchy name. Nevertheless, the update was a big software update for the console whereas it added several social networking features to it’s service – Twitter, last.fm and Facebook to be precise – as well as a few numerous minor updates. If you know me, I annoy the bejesus out of plenty of people on Twitter because I do really enjoy using it. Fair enough I do update a lot but still! So to have Twitter on my most played console is either a) a dangerously stupid idea to lose followers or b) an interesting addition to an already rich-in-features console.

I’ve spent the day using the update and it’s definitely managed to get some opinions from me as the features have been dissected, analysed and caused a great deal of scientist-like-beard-stroking. First of all, the Facebook update is the biggest surprise for me. Over the past year or so, I’ve moved away from how much I use the website as it has become a social networking mess of rotten applications, status updates created with the typing ability of a horse, and just general mess of a website at times. (Thank god for Facebook Lite). However, the actual application for the 360 is mildly impressive. Photo exploring is fantastically done with the ability to view your own and others, status updates don’t drown your screen and there’s no site of the general annoyances that bug me so much on the website itself. It’s clean, it’s efficient, it works very well and it gets a thumbs up from me surprisingly.

Next of my checklist is last.fm. Now I’m a fan of last.fm anyways, even though it reveals just how secluded and sad my musical library seems to be with the aural range of a singular band at times. I blame Muse. They started it. Anyways, last.fm gets a thumbs up too. The only downside for me is that you get advertisement videos popping up when listening to the band radio stations within it’s database, much in the same way Spotify reminds you it is ready to take control of your mind every few songs, but that is easily ignored. The application on the 360 allows you to view a slideshow of photos concerning the band currently playing as well as browsing and searching bands and music from afar and beyond. No sign of any data-related inclusions such as viewing lists of most played and whatnot though, although it does scrobble your currently playing songs on there. A big improvement for me would be for it to be available during games but, seeing as it is an independent application you have to download rather than a piece of the dashboard, it’s understandable. This does lead me onto my final point though…

As if you haven’t guessed by now, my final area of review here is Twitter. Whilst many people have their own opinions of the service, I think it’s fantastic and over the year especially the boost in popularity has seem me use it a lot more myself as more people become accustomed to it. However, the Twitter inclusion into the Xbox 360 is a failure. A miserable failure at that. Let me explain; Twitter is all about real-time updates, about being able to give a short message giving your current status or a quick message to share, key word being quick. Now if you want to tweet from the Xbox 360 whilst playing a game, you will have to quit the game, find the Twitter tab on the dashboard, input your message, then leave the area, and load your game back up and go through the opening menus and load your save back up. The reason this annoys me so much is that Facebook and last.fm are standalone applications you have to download, whereas Twitter is not. It is integrated into the dashboard anyways, which makes me wonder, why on earth can’t you tweet from the popup Xbox Guide that is easily available to message, chat, view friends, etc? Surely an option to send a tweet would make far more sense in the middle of a game than leaving it and going through several unnecessary steps? It’s very disappointing. Whereas Twitter on the 360 will allow you to view trending topics, search for people, and view messages, @ messages, DM’s and the likes, I’m astounded that the obvious idea of allowing you to be given the opportunity to tweet on the Xbox Guide has been completely missed and left out hasn’t been utilised here.

Anyways that’s my view on the update program and the main updates it provided. The actual final dashboard update I believe is available on November 17th so if you have an Xbox 360, remember to check it out then and tell me what you think!

#42; Operating Problems

Tomorrow sees the release of Windows’ latest operating system, Windows 7. There’s been a fair amount of anticipation about Windows 7, as it seems set to correct everything that many people feel went so wrong with Windows Vista. From my own personal point of view and usage of Vista over the years, I am part of this group that feels Vista was a pretty poor piece of software from Windows. However, I do realise there will be readers thinking ‘Well I’ve never had a problem with Vista’ – fair enough. This isn’t any propaganda or persuasion to get people to upgrade, this is just me explaining why Vista will soon be a past memory and one I won’t be reminiscing in anytime soon.

The biggest problem with Vista was when it was first released. I managed to use the OS not long after it was made public in January 2007. When it was first released, to me at least, it was almost unusable. There were bugs left, right and centre, the operating system itself caused some serious conflicts with games and program being used, and the hardware itself that the system required was a bit annoying. Whilst most computers at the market at the time could run Vista with no problems, or so was thought, features such as Windows Aero seemed to be pushed in and rushed so quickly they just caused crashes and problems. It was very, very annoying. Furthermore, you had this ridiculous amount of programs with the Windows tagline greeting you on a fresh install. Shovelware forced upon you that I was never going to use. If you want to find a way to annoy me instantly Microsoft, that was a perfect start.

Going back to the mention of gaming, XP was a fantastic system in it’s support and compatibility of games amongst it’s system and various system requirements that all PC games have. Vista needed, and still needs, more powerful requirements although it’s obviously less important and obvious with no games including XP requirements anymore for obvious reasons. I’m a big fan of older games but once more with Vista, they just simply did not go hand in hand – the biggest example I can think of is Theme Hospital which is near impossible to work with Vista for reasons I have no ideas about, yet it worked fine on XP and even on the Windows 7 beta I had no issues. To be honest I wish I had a greater understand as to why these problems occurred with Vista when other operating systems have no problems! Annoying!

My final area of annoyance I’m gonna quickly discuss is the fact that I’ve lost god knows how much work over the past 2/3 years with Vista. I understand if there is scepticism that this is Vista’s fault but how is it I can use these programs (NetBeans, Borland, etc) on XP in our student suites at university on XP perfectly well and then, when it comes to home use and Vista, it be such a pain in the arse to achieve a positive outcome without problems? It’s been really frustrating and this is almost turning into a rant but I’m holding back for my own sanity I think! for myself, it’s been too frustrating.

Oh, and User Account Control. Quite simply the stupidest feature I have ever encountered.

No operating system is perfect. I’ll happily admit that Windows Vista in it’s current state (with two major Service Packs now available to help) is a lot more usable and stable, and it is nowhere near as bad as when it first came out, but for me it still doesn’t make up for it. Over the years the many crashes, moments of lost work unexpectedly, conflicting hardware and software, rushed inclusions and just general frustrations I’ve experienced with Vista want me yearning for Windows 7. Sure, you could argue that I should jump over to the Mac or try out Linux (something I actually have plans for very soon but enough on that for now) but for me, Vista is soon to be a recent memory I’ll hopefully not be revisiting. The funny thing is, for all I know I could come back on here in a few months and absolutely destroy Windows 7 and everything it’s supposedly promising to do for the user.  Should we have to pay for these major upgrades though? Not necessarily no. But that’s life.

Apologies if these seems an annoying few paragraphs to you, or seems a bit fickle to be so annoyed at Vista, but it’s my own personal views and I respect that everyone will have their own experiences with the way they used their computer. I just hope now that Windows 7 lives up to the promising feedback it seems to be getting!

Operating Systems. Serious Business.

#41; Tim Freakin’ Schafer

It’s OK. I understand if you don’t know who Tim Schafer is. Let me educate you into his world of greatness.

Tim Schafer. He created some of those wonderful games you may not have heard off above (and more including Day of the Tentacle and Manic Mansion!). The games he gets involved with end up being funny, fantastic, completely underrated (see Grim Fandango and Psychonauts especially) and he has a wonderful reputation in the gaming industry. He’s also a funny guy to boot and quite down to earth about not only his but games in general as well. Simply put… he is a legend in the world of gaming, and this week, he has his next epic Brutal Legend coming out for PS3 and X360, a game I’ve been anticipating with a huge amount of expectancy for a long, long time. It’s finally here!

I just wanted to write up a quick entry regarding the man because his games have gone under the radar too many times. Grim Fandango is my favourite PC game I’ve ever played, or at least tied with Monkey Island series (hey who co-wrote them I wonder?) but so very few people have even heard of the game which is an absolute shambles! If I could as all of you readers to do one thing this year, it would be to go out and find a copy of this game online for a few pennies or something and play it. It’s such a charmingly funny yet addictively brilliant adventure game set in the world of the afterlife that probably makes no sense yet once you get into it’s wonderfully dark yet witty and well-written story, you’ll realise just how sad it is that the game has been ignored for some long. It is truly magnificent!

Furthermore, Schafer’s last release (and yet first game with Double Fine Productions, whom he found and still owns) was the just-as-brilliant Psychonauts, an adventure game based in a world of psychic abilities filled with fantastic characters, varied settings from area to area and just a stupidly under bought game by the general gaming consumer. The genera reception is that even though it got such wildly excellent acclaim from inside the industry, gamers just did not buy it. Why?! I should really mention that Psychonauts is now available on the Xbox Originals service if you own an Xbox 360…

But yes, I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am for Brutal Legend. Having played the demo last week, and again after that, and again for a few more times, just that small snippet alone sent my excitement values into overdrive. It plays great, it looks superb, it oozes charisma and personality with it’s characters (Jack Black is perfect for the game, love him or hate him) and I really do hope it succeeds because if there’s something Mr Schafer deserves, it’s a big hit of a game. I’ll end this with the man himself explaining just what Brutal Legend is…

#40; Xbox Generation

If you know me, then by now I’m sure you’ll know how much I enjoy my video games. There is no denial from me that I am a big gamer; a geek; whatever term you feel suits possible for us who enjoy our games! At the moment I own the 3 major consoles – Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 being my own whilst the Wii is more my brother’s console that I rarely play in all honesty. This afternoon whilst doing, well, absolutely nothing it occurred to me just how little I play one console in comparison to the other. For example, take a look at my games collection at the moment:

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that I have way more Xbox 360 games than I do Playstation 3. This has always been the case – even when I have owned 5 or 6 games for the PS3, they sit alongside 15-20 Xbox 360 games! Yes, I do play the Xbox a lot more than I do Playstation and honestly, I prefer the Xbox 360 to the Playstation. But what is the cause of this? I certainly don’t dislike the Playstation… and there are games I own on the Xbox 360 that I could happily buy on the Playstation 3. It just got me thinking, what is it that I prefer about Microsoft’s console over a brand name that has been synonymous with video gaming for the past 15 years or so?

Well, let’s consider the facts. I got given the Xbox 360 as a Christmas present 3 years ago this coming Christmas, whereas the Playstation 3 I bought myself this time last year. Perhaps it’s more of the fact that the Xbox 360 feels more of a complete console to me – it does everything I need it do, it does it whilst looking magnificently pretty, it has a superb online setup working behind the scenes and whereas it’s about as reliable as a chocolate teapot at times, it is just a console I’ve vastly enjoyed playing over the years since getting it. To me though, this is just personal opinion and doesn’t explain why I prefer the Xbox…

Maybe if I change focus and take a look at the Playstation 3 as a console then perhaps I can solve it. It doesn’t die on you as much as the Xbox 360 does, which is a major bonus, and it does have a strong line-up of games behind it. again, these can easily be purchased on the Xbox 360 though so the exclusivity of titles on the console isn’t so strong for me. It has the classic Playstation controller that has been a stronghold in analog based joy pad designs since the original Playstation, and it has Sony who, with Nintendo, are arguably the fathers in modern video game consoles. Once again though… there is just something about the Playstation that doesn’t attract me in the same way that the Xbox 360 does.

Hmm.

It’s really very odd to analysis and work out why if I’m honest as I can’t seem to find solid reasons behind why I prefer the Xbox over the other. Sure, Xbox Live and always being able to socialise during games online is a huge benefactor to my bias without a doubt, the Playstation Network for me just doesn’t compare despite being free, and services like Xbox Live Arcade and the upcoming Twitter/Last.fm/Facebook update will be fantastic for a Twitter Addict for myself, but at the end of the day, I just prefer my gaming on my Xbox 360. Hopefully that will not cause any shouting at me in accusation of being a ‘360 fanboy’ but there’s certainly nothing wrong with the Playstation 3 – for me, Sony have just lost a bit of their mojo that saw many people my age grow up in the era known as the Playstation Generation.

I think I may investigate my ideas further with this eventually… there’s a lot that can be said about consoles these days…

#39; Inspector Gadget

 

Let’s face it – if you love your technology you LOVE it when you have a new gadget in your hands to mess about with and just explore. Today I had that awesome privilege after I gave in to quite a long term decision to buy myself an iPod Touch (it’s not iTouch!). I’ve been wanting to get my hands on one for such a long time and, well, I gave in. I sat down, thought about the pros and cons, got heavily persuaded by Sidepodcast, then decided that with my current iPod Nano starting to fill up then maybe it’s time to take that step up the ladder to a new world of iPod goodiness. And here it is!

I’ve spent a few hours fighting my way through this new world of applications, touchy-ness and general bouts of loud music, to the point where I have decided that the iPod Touch was totally worth giving in for. I absolutely love it! At first it’s been a bit of a pain getting used to the keyboard – my name has evolved into the likes of LLkeh and Lujeh plenty of times in this inexperienced newbie state of mine – but I’m settled in with it all now and well impressed by what it offers to me as not only an MP3 player, which is obviously gonna be it’s main use, but as a thing that does things in an awesome way kinda thing. I believe that’s the official term anyway.

One of the main attractions to me was the fact that the iPod Touch, much like it’s more social sister in the iPhone, supports applications in many forms. Whether this be for social networking, gaming, stupid boredom stuff or whatever, chances are you’ll find an app that will please you. There are plenty of games available for the Touch and, with my being an avid gamer, I can’t wait over time to try out a few. at the moment I have only two games that I’ve purchased – the Secret of Monkey Island, of course, and the fantastically underrated point and click adventure game Beneath a Steel Sky, which decided to inform the world earlier today on my twitter about it’s arrival into my world.

As I say though, so far I’m very impressed and I can’t wait to discover more awesome and useful things the Touch can be used for. In terms of an mp3 player, it more than fulfils my neediness for something that provides excellent quality playback and, with 32gb of space, I’m more than spoilt with the amount I can put on. As I say though, I’m still very new to this whole world of applications and awesome stuff, so please do recommend any applications you think I should check out (paid or free, I’m not too choosy!) as I’d love to know from the iPhone/iPod Touch owners what’s worth checking out.

Ooh I do love a new gadget! It’s like Christmas but without the whole Christmas bit!

#38; Back to life, Back to reality

First off, apologies for a lack of posting recently but it’ll soon makes sense I’m sure. As with most people in the joyful month of September, the world of educational learning has come crashing back into my life with quite a force. At the moment I’ve just started my final year of a BSc Computing course at the University of Wales Newport, with this year obviously being ridiculously important – as well as the normal modules and assignments comes the big 15,000 word final year project. Oh god!!

What I’m currently planning involves a project that studies the computing methodology and technologies of disabled teaching in a primary school environment, basically a study of computing within such ways of teaching. To be honest, I’m kinda looking forward to it in a really bizarre way, but it is gonna be a lot of work. It’s a very rewarding subject for me though as I’d love to go into the world of teaching after University and hopefully an extra year of PGCE training next year but we shall see. Concerning the dissertation though, let’s just hope I manage to get there with all 15,000 words!!

It probably seems very odd for a computing student to be doing his final year project based on teaching than a programming/hardware related computing subject but for me it’s something I’m far more comfortable with and something I know will benefit me for the future far more than creating a program I’ll no doubt hate or be unable to complete. For me being able to give something back to a younger generation through computing would be a fantastic career choice, and with this dissertation, technology has progressed so much over the past few decades that we can help those with disabilities in such magnificent ways the dissertation will probably be a very humbling experience for myself to witness and understand more.

So best of luck to everyone starting back up with their A-levels, degree courses, masters courses, or whatever education they’ve gone back to in this past month. I’ll still be posting entries with whatever’s on my mind but University comes first with writing at the moment! It’s been a lovely summer and I have lots of fantastic memories, but for now, it’s back to the grinding repetition of lectures and notes!

#37; Everyone’s a Winner

There’s just 4 more races to go in the Formula 1 championship and, unless you’ve been living under a rock or not following the sport, the current title contenders at the moment are the two Brawn GP drivers, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. If you know me, then you’ll know how for many years I’ve stuck by not only Rubens as an F1 driver but Honda/Brawn as a team, not to mention supporting Jenson Button of course. It still seems extremely surreal to myself that after a few years of absolute struggle and despair with a car performing worse than Luca Badoer circus act, that these two good friends have found their way to the top of the mountain in the sport and look set to finish 2009’s season with a fantastic battle for the championship. the question I’m posing here though is… should I be happy or sad at this? 

It seems a stupid question I know, but let me explain. If Barrichello goes on to become champion, it will probably be the most wonderful moment for me as a massive fan of his, the biggest moment for him in his career especially as it’s currently in it’s twilight years, and many fans can surely agree how wonderful it will be to see him champion after all the years of dedication he’s given to the sport not to mention how absolutely lovely the man is both as a treasure to Formula 1 and as a normal bloke who loves to race. The thing is, it would be an absolute shame to see Jenson not win the championship because I feel he absolutely deserves it, and I fear that this opportunity may not come to Jenson’s grasp again (I’m not saying it won’t at all, but as many people say, you take whatever opportunity you can) so seeing Jenson missing out on the championship would definitely be a gutting feeling alongside the sheer unmatched joy of simply knowing Rubens is a F1 world champion.

Of course, on the other side of this double edged sword, like I say seeing Jenson Button becoming champion would be absolutely wonderful and I hope it certainly happens just as much as Rubens getting there. No pun intended here but Jenson it absolutely in the drivers seat for the championship at the moment and I feel that  he can do it – the ridiculous statements from the press of losing his mind and cracking under the pressure for me are ludicrous and simply trying to make it worse for him when I feel that it is simply was a run of unlucky form; look at Rubens at the start of 2009 for example and yet he continued with the words of positivity knowing that his time would arrive with success and it certainly has right now. Once more I find with such positivity of wondering about Jenson being champion comes the negativity of being absolutely gutted about Rubens missing out on what should definitely be his last shot at being Champion. It’s surely undisputable that Jenson Button being world champion for Brawn would be more beneficial for the teams image, sponsors and future with Jenson’s youth being far more beneficial financially for the future of his career than Rubens upcoming retirement in the next few years (surely). However, Ross Brawn promises a fair fight for both drivers going into the end of the season, just as he has done all season despite absolutely stupid media comments and accusations, and I for one can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

Barrichello made an absolutely lovely comment this past weekend at Monza that I couldn’t agree with more - “I think it is a winning year whatever happens.”. At the end of the day, I’m a fan of Brawn GP as much as I am a fan of Jenson and Rubens. One driver will surely prevail out of the two with the championship, but even though it’ll be a shame for the opposite, the team will have won immensely this season no matter what outcomes. The fans who have stuck with Honda and moved onto Brawn will win no matter what. even if Jenson or Rubens manage not to win the championship, it still remains a winning year to me and one year that will stick in my mind as a F1 fan for many years to come. Considering the fact that in January, both drivers seemed set to be losing their future with much speculation and disappointment over the Honda pullout, and no resolution or team in sight for them, it’s an absolute miracle that 9 months later Jenson has snagged 6 wins, Rubens 2 wins, the team are miles ahead in the Constructors Championship having not dropped below 1st place all season, and even though the Red Bull cars can still cause a fight-back out of nowhere, it seems increasingly likely that this team of nothing it seemed are set to snag a double World Championship. again, pinch me please because it still seems massively unreal, and I try not to take it all for granted because I absolutely love this team and seeing them grabbing success in such a fantastic manner gives me much privilege and pleasure after following their trials and tribulations for years.

So bring on the championship fight I say! These two men who have constantly had to prove themselves throughout their respective careers at different times stand up above the rest of the grid with a team that I wouldn’t swap for the world. Both Rubens and Jenson have stuck with the team through thick and thin, and have had their horrible times of failures and disappointments, so let’s enjoy the success and unrivalled achievements of the Brawn GP success this year whilst it lasts. Long live Brawn GP!

#36; The Resistance – Love really is our Resistance

So, it’s finally arrived. The Resistance. Muse’s fifth studio album, something I have been hyping for months upon months on Twitter and in the build-up annoying a lot of people most likely in the sheer excitement of just simply listening to it. I’m gonna get straight to the chase and tell you how I hear the album song by song… here we go.

1. Uprising – 5:05
The album kicks us off into Muse’s resistance with a stomping bassline and a synthy section worth of Dr Who itself as many of you will now have heard by now. It’s the first single off The Resistance and it’s an absolutely fantastic opening track. Considering the album’s title, The Resistance, lyrics it fits in perfectly. ‘They will not force us, they will stop degrading us, they will not control us, we will be victorious!’ screams the chorus followed by a glam-rock guitar squeal of ‘COME ON!’; musically the song works so wonderfully well in my opinion. It builds up layer by layer – the first chorus seems quite empty and simple, then the guitar kicks in, and by the second chorus it feels like the Uprising has literally grown in size, a larger, more violent-sounding chorus following by a length but simple guitar solo that leads into the final grand chorus which, by now, sounds huge in comparison to it’s opening version. It’s a fantastic song and a fantastic opener as it creates the scene for the album and lays the foundation for what’s ahead which being musically listenable with influences of Goldfrapp, Gary Glitter (bare with me) and even Blondie evident and yet still sounding different enough to obviously be Muse. 85%

2. Resistance – 5:47
The end of Uprising leads us into a haunting intro for Resistance, a calming wave of sound leads into a tribal drumbeat and almost dance-esque piano tinkling that take us into the world of George Orwell and the romance that makes up his epic 1984 fiction involving Winston and Julia. The entire song is completely 1984 – the desire to get out of a controlled society, the desire to resist this and carry on their love, the desire to fight against everything that is trying to hold them apart. Resistance is an absolutely beautiful song and from the ground up totally based on the romance mentioned previously -  ‘If we live a life in fear, I'll wait a thousand years, Just to see you smile again;  Kill your prayers for love and peace, You'll wake the thought police, We can't hide the truth inside’ – combined with a double sided chorus that questions what could be wrong alongside the voice of reasoning telling the subjects why resistance is vital to pursuing theirs feeling. The drumbeat through the song is consistency excellent, driving the song alongside the cries of rebellion from Bellamy’s vocals and a startling bassline that goes hand in hand with the drumming from Dom Howard. It’s a shame the song comes to such an abrupt ending, ending on the synthy emptiness of haunting noises that opened the track but it works amazingly well. An absolute gem of a song and probably one of the best on the album. Love really is our Resistance. 94%

3. Undisclosed Desires – 3:56
Undisclosed Desires is probably one of the more surprising points of the album but it’s down to personal taste whether this is a good or bad surprise. It’s basically Matt Bellamy’s attempt at taking Muse into a new area with R&B foundations but looking towards the synth-pop that can be heard in Depeche Mode’s 80’s library and more modern artists/producers such as Timbaland. The song is incredibly basic for Muse – it has no guitar, but rather a processed beat of noises, a first-ever use of slap bass that strikes through the choruses in the song and even the drumbeat is barely evident. Yet it amazingly works for the band. The lyrics are absolutely fantastic personally – the song feels so light, and yet the lyrics come across as so dark and almost violent ‘I want to exorcise the demons from your past’ – yet it’s still a very strange song to analyse and review because it’s totally not Muse, yet they make it Muse. It’s not one of the stronger songs on the album but you can’t fault Bellamy for uncovering new areas for the band to work within genre-wise and still come out the other side sounding relatively comfortably in these new adventures of music. For me, the chorus is where the song really stands out with the soothing vocals speaking out sinister feelings of passion really making it a fantastic juxtaposition. It’s a great song but it’s something completely different. 79%

4. United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage) – 5:48
Another lengthy song and another vital addition to the album. Once again following the feelings and story of what can be seen in Winston and Julia’s story in 1984, a soothing combination of piano, strings and a simple tap of drums bring the song to a gentle start before crashing into an absolute wall of music Freddie Mercury would be more than proud to be part of. The song absolutely burst into life with a squealing guitar not too far off Bohemian Rhapsody and a scream of vocals that surprise the system, soon followed by a menacing bassline holding together an orchestra and piano section surely influenced from Lawrence of Arabia, not that this is a bad thing! But once USoE comes to life, it truly does start lighting up in fabulous ways. It’s completely over the top, but it’s completely Muse in a contrast to everything we heard in Undisclosed Desires. The lyrics, the strings, everything about USoE is grand, grand, grand. A growing trend starts occurring from here I notice – a mention of ‘they’, obviously directed at those in control, the reason behind this resistance. USoE absolutely goes out in style with more unbelievably over the top and grand surprises, the band screaming eura-SIA! SIA! SIA! (as Muse say themselves, you can’t help but chuckle at this like they did themselves!) leading towards a beautiful cover of a Chopin piece, here entitled Collateral Damage. This is all Matt – the strings, the idea, the piano, everything about Collateral Damage is sweet and simple and again a juxtaposition can be felt with the piano that speaks out so freely and sweetly reigning over the sounds of terror and children crying as a fighter jet rushes over to close the song. It’s epic. It’s over the top. But it’s brilliant, and it’s completely Muse. 90%

5. Guiding Light – 4:14
The fighter jet that sends out Collateral Damage leads up into a striking drumbeat that introduces Guiding Light, a song that can simply be described as The Resistance’s power ballad no questions asked. It’s very easy to simply compare this song to U2, who were an influence on the song as mentioned by Matt previously, but I do have quite mixed feelings on Guiding Light. It seems a very simple song, a bassline that stands out alongside the striking drums but the middle section provides a gorgeous little guitar solo that you feel just wants to go on further but doesn’t stand out long enough to be fully appreciated under Bellamy’s groans. It’s nothing hugely over the top as we saw with USoE, but the end of the song feels a little underwhelming in that it doesn’t seem to really go anywhere structure wise. That said, it’s still completely listenable and the lyrics once again fall back on a feel of romance and love, but it’s probably the weakest song on The Resistance. 71%

6. Unnatural Selection –6:55
Ah, Unnatural Selection. Every Muse album will see the older Muse fans ask for something that even resembles Muse’s older, louder, thrashier genre of music seen on the likes of Origin of Symmetry, songs that are based on heavier guitar. Unnatural Selection, for me, is such a nod towards their older stuff there’s absolutely no way this song can be ignored not only just for that but because it really stands out as a huge, heavy, angry bit of modern Muse that I definitely want to see more of. Opening with an organ to please all Megalomaniacs out there just to hear it back on a Muse record, Matt simply asks for the truth whilst the powers that be look down and laugh, before the song absolutely explodes in the most wonderfully angry riff. I can’t stress enough how much I LOVE the riff that makes up Unnatural Selection, but the entire song is nearly 7 minutes of anger, desperation frustration. And my god does it sound good! The pace is constantly electric, thrashing it’s way through with Matt’s distorted vocals going along with the journey until a sudden halt in pace completely brings Unnatural Selection to a shocking stop, a structure similar to that found in their classic Citizen Erased in which the song’s feel and context enters a different slow atmosphere building it’s way back up into this huge epic ball of rock, for lack of a better expression. The actual structure may confuse newer Muse fans as it’s quite different to the stuff they’ve done recently but if you’ve listened to the band for a long time, you should love how fantastically setup the song is in this way. That said, after the slow middle section, the song bows out in a huge thrashing metal riff that, again, I can’t explain enough how much I love it. The entire song is just perfect for the album and just what I was hoping to find on The Resistance! even better yet, it’s genuinely one of Muse’s best tracks in their entire library I have to say! 98%

7. MK Ultra - 4:06
Along with Unnatural Selection, here is another track I was absolutely looking forward to hearing in advance of the release of the album based on preview reactions from various media sources. Opening with a strong electronic backing and another massive bassline throttling away, MK Ultra seems entirely based on paranoid beliefs screaming against those ‘looking in and breaking through’.  The synth on the song is absolutely tremendous, it constantly lingers around in the background combined at times with voices whispering from the shadows alongside a marching drumbeat and bassline almost dripping out the paranoid suspicious that the lyrics insist on expressing but as a whole song, it works beautifully and the point of the song comes across perfectly clear with these different factors all making one kick ass piece of synth-based rock. Once again massive guitar riffs smash through these walls of worry and suspicion to huge effect, perhaps not to the same effect as Unnatural Selection due to their lack of length but they still appear in this fantastic piece. It almost feels quite spacey at times, in a wierd bizarre way, with the constant synth driving the song on, but I can’t fault MK Ultra. Once again, I absolutely adore it. Fast, pacey, paranoid, and goes out with an absolute kick in the stomach riff. Brilliant. 92%

8. I Belong To You/Mon Cœur S'ouvre à Ta Voix – 5:38
After being punched in the face with 2 massive modern rock tracks, Muse seem to jump into a completely new dimension with IBtY. As you can plainly see in the title, yes, it does feature a French part of the song. Coming into the album, I had a lot of fears going into this track as the 30 second preview we were issued with from the band a few weeks ago made the song sound like Maroon 5 had come over for a holiday for a week and given them some ideas. However, I shouldn’t be surprised that Muse completely overcome the challenge of attempting new genres with amazing ease and create a fantastic piano based romantic epic, to be quite honest. The song has a massively upbeat feel to it as it opens, Bellamy humming his way into the song whilst the piano jingles via a wonderfully jazzy beat. Lyrically, the entire song is directly romantic and even gets a shameful but pleasantly funny mention of Muse within the lyrics. Once again though, much is the case with United States of Eurasia, you just have to lighten up and love the song for it’s completely ridiculous yet utterly brilliant moments. I Belong to You comes with them in the bucketful – the song stopping halfway through completely to allow Bellamy on the piano to sing a French interlude (completely French!) alongside an orchestra and the remaining members of the band still gripping onto their sanity despite this ridiculous change in context for their music, the similarities to classic Disney soundtracks almost jumps straight in your face in the Mon Coeur interlude, the fact that it’s all nothing what you’d expect from Muse and yet once again they absolutely make it their music with such ease, the fact the we see a French clarinet solo out of nowhere!! – it should be ridiculous and almost pompous but it’s listenable, it all has a wonderfully beautiful structure, and it’s completely brilliant. I thought I was going to hate this song, to be brutally honest, and yet I sit here after many listens humming everything from it. How?! 90%

9. 10. 11. Exogenesis Symphony (Part I: Overture – 4:18), (Part II: Cross Pollination – 3:56), (Part III: Redemption – 4:37) – 12:51
As far as I’m concerned, the Exogenesis symphony is quite simply the main event of this album. A year or two ago, Matt Bellamy spoke of the work that he was doing in the background despite the various albums Muse have brought out in the past few years. He mentioned a ‘symphonic monster’, a 15 minute or so song that was based entire on a 40 piece orchestra that he wanted to make one day, progressing in charting his ideas to eventually get it out into the masses. Finally, it is here with the Exogenesis symphony and I absolutely could not wait to hear this. As the album progresses, it tells the story of anger, frustration, love and a desire to get away from a society that is controlled and watched over. This final 13 minute (when combined) symphony tells the tale of a despite to leave the earth, be rid of the society we have created for ourselves, break the atmosphere and start everything again. A little depressing, perhaps, but if anyone can do it it would be the ambitious Bellamy. As you can see, the song is broken into 3 individual tracks but for the sake of the review, and the structure of the symphony, it seems sensible to review it as a whole. Overture opens up the symphony as expected – a large scale orchestra backing up screaming violins before launching arpeggios similar to the type of thing you could see Philip Glass undertake in his music. A build up in drums erupts and, the symphony doesn't begin for me, but rather the journey begins. Bellamy, constantly stuck in the land of falsetto for his vocals here, screams of the wanting to be away from the earth and from everything that makes our society a worse place to be in. Almost indecipherable, his words are basic - “Aping my soul, You stole my overture, Trapped in God’s program, Oh I can’t escape…” before questioning his existence. The true highlight is the actual instrumental though, with distorted guitars in the background accompany these arpeggio orchestral creating a hugely doomed feel to this opening, an absolutely jaw dropping start I personally felt with all the various factors coming together to back up the fear in Bellamy’s words. Once the opening part has soothed into the distance, Cross Pollination crashes in with a damning piano section, the scale matching the sheer ambition of the entire project undertaken by Bellamy here. Soon enough, his piano is accompanied by the orchestra returning from the opening section and the two combined create an eerie, floating atmosphere where aurally to myself created my own impression of floating away into nowhere. Bellamy’s piano continues to smash its way up and down the scale whilst the orchestra stops to allow the lyrics to return - ‘Rise above the crowds, And wade through toxic clouds, Breach the outer sphere, The edge of all our fears’ – emphasising the appeal to get away. However, soon enough the symphony builds up with the entire band and orchestra all becoming involved. Violins and strings swirling away in the background, the bassline and drumming going hand in hand with Bellamy’s piano with the message to spread the need to be away from the dystopian environment being outspoken so much in the lyrics. Before closing the second part though, a beautifully crafted piano piece sends us out in peace, tranquillity and calm whilst the orchestra furthermore sends this wonderful journey onto it’s next step. Before you know it, the piano closes down and silence grips our hearing as we move into the final part, Redemption. Once more, we are greeted by piano but now much more soft and delicate in it’s tone. Resembling Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, the emotional almost begins to seep out of this piano as it gently introduces what will be the ending. Violins and strings soon grow in stature and help create this world of peace Bellamy seems so sure on creating in leaving his dystopia. Part 3 is simply gorgeous though, it truly is a fittingly beautiful way to end a stunning and ambitious set of symphonies. Whilst we began this part with peace and quiet, the song soon comes to life with a moderate pace whilst the vocals, almost being whispered in the tranquillity, wonder ‘why can’t we just start over again?’ and promising ‘This time we’ll get it right’, a desperate plea for a new chance and an emotionally grabbing insight into the wonder that Bellamy promised us. The vocals soon die down, and we resume the wondrous piano and orchestra that introduced Part 3. It slowly takes us out, fading into the distance and ending, for me, Muse’s most awe inspiring, beautifully crafted and simply staggering piece of music to date. It has no mega hard riffs to mosh to, or a chorus that sticks in your mind like chewing gum, or anything like that. Instead it brings a whole new Muse to the table, one that they have hinted at in the past with Butterflies and Hurricanes, with Hoodoo, with Megalomania – a Muse that are not afraid to dip into a classic past and create something that most modern bands wouldn’t dare attempt. My only complaint of the Exogenesis Symphony is that I would love it to be longer, but with that complaint I feel like I am spoiling myself. It’s the absolute highlight of the album, the entire symphony as one, and I hope Bellamy, Wolstenholme and Howard keep the sheer size of this project in mind for the future and take another look at making it even bigger for a future release. 100%

So after all these years, that was it. It featured wonderfully addictive riffs, it features moments of surprise, shock and sheer unimaginable bliss, and most of all for me, it featured everything I expected from The Resistance and so much more. I’m still undecided if this is Muse’s best album to date in terms of the content because of how much I love Absolution (obviously my favourite album) but I can tell you right now it is definitely up there rivalling it. As time goes on, the band will settle into playing the songs live, the songs will settle into my playlists and I’ll grow even more fond of the album probably but it is simply epic. I realise that the word ‘epic’ is vastly overused but I can’t sum up any other word to explain The Resistance. The album is a 53 minute journey that takes you from the initial thoughts of an uprising against society to the sheer depths of wanting to get away from it all completely. Muse fans around the world should rejoice in what has been created for The Resistance, but not only that, music fans should come and embrace what has been created with this staggering album. Only the stupid should resist The Resistance. 89% (Based on average of songs)