Great Ormand Street Hospital

Does anyone whenever they see the advert on television for the Great Ormond Street Hospital not feel that they should do something to help improve the lives of these children by donating at least a few pound once a month, or should send in a soft cuddly toy to cheer up a sick child and bring a smile to their face, this as we all know is not a lot to ask for, how much effort does it really take to pick up the phone or open a web page, or even to seal an envelope, that's right it doesn't take a lot does it? I know plenty of people who when they see these adverts they say out loud, "if I could do something I would" well what's stopping you? Donate something now; I will even dial for you.

When I see things like this I feel quite sad, because when I moan about something and say my life isn't great or why does it always happen to me, well I cannot imagine just how much pain and stress these young children must be going through, especially at such a young age, and I have so much respect for them because they have gone through so much in their young lives that most of us will never and say gladly experience in our lives as we would most likely not deal with it the way the children do.

I always knew about how the hospital worked around the clock to find cures and treatments for the cases that go through the buildings doors everyday, but didn't realize just how much we the public needed to do to help fund the organization and how we can help improve the lives of the patients within its walls. Like I have already said we can donate how much money we like to help fund for the equipment and help that goes on their, as well as sending in a toy or two, but we can even go a stretch further by possibly sponsoring a child and get in touch by sending a letter once a week or month just to make a friend, it is little things that we can do that would have a great impact for so little.

I do think that it is good when shows such as the X Factor donate part of their profits to a charity, this years charity for the show is the GOSH, and events such as Children In Need and Red Nose Day, but do we need only just a few days of the year to make us realize just how much we are needed to help save lives, how much that doctors and nurses shouldn't always have to be the ones to help the sick, we can do our part for them too. After all these children at GOSH suffer so much and we suffer so very little, can we not all just care a little more?

Forgetting Problems

Tomorrow our class are being assessed on our life drawing sketchbooks, so for this I am going to mention my views on life drawing. Well I find it to be quite enjoyable, NOT for the nudity involved in it but because I find just sitting down and drawing something is quite relaxing and to be honest can calm me down if I am in a mood or have been stressed, it creates an atmosphere that makes you concentrate and think about something else for a change, allowing me to forget anything that is currently on my mind, and because you are drawing a piece of art I feel personally that it is something that you are in control of where if anything is on your mind you cannot control properly what you are think and feeling, it is you and only you.

I am not just saying that this is just in life drawing but since I left college I have started to draw more often and have a personal sketchbook where I will easily sit and draw whatever I am in the mood of creating, and feel that my drawing skills have indeed improved since starting this as it keeps me in the reunite without being worried how it will turn out if I haven't drawn in some time. I do feel though that I am best suited to drawing in normal and coloured pencils rather than in coloured pastels or chalks as I enjoy doing the shadows of a person or object but never seem to get the face quite right and end up with a strange smudge towards the top of the image.

So all I have to say is that if you are feeling stressed from finishing off work for university, revision for exams, even doing a presentation or two then just pick up a piece of sketchbook and a pencil a let your mind ease into the paper.

Radio Talkers

Everyday I put on the radio on my way to university and everyday is the same old useless rubbish on almost every radio station, and they are all on about the same things as well. I only have a limited amount of stations to listen to, theses being Radio 1, Wave 102, Tay fm, Kingdom fm as well as a Gaelic station and a classical music station. I normally spend the whole journey from my house to where I parked trying to find a decent song as the journey normally takes me about 30 - 40 minutes and am very lucky if there is at least one good song played during this time, as all of the radio host just speak non stop, and they talk about pointless topics that just are not funny or interesting. The worst for this without a doubt is Chris Moyals who just will not shut up, he loves the sound of his own voice and thinks he is just absolutely brilliant at everything he does, just from listening to what he says you realize he is an arrogant, irritating man who thinks he knows best about everything.

SO when I am journeying to university I do nothing but skip the channels, as I find it very uncomfortable to drive in silence and as my CD player is broken ind that I have no choice but to listen to the radio, is a very strange thing to complain about this when I can keep the radio off but I love to complain about things so this helps with that, but I would prefer to hear some music when i am driving.

When the radio host is not speaking or letting us listen to boring adverts they play the same music as the other radio shows, and nearly every morning they play at least one song all at the same time, that is four music channels that i skip to that are playing the same song, and it is normally a very bad song that makes you turn off the radio in disgust but have to turn it on again because of the silence. It does get worse though and this is when somebody does play at least a half decent song but is timely ruined when on of them and the Radio 1 team are truly awful for this and it is when they start speaking through the rest of the song, normally about halfway through it, and even start singing to it but with their own words, what the hell is all that about, there is surely no need for it at all.

Now I would hopefully say that this ever going on discussion that these people have on their show goes on for the duration of my journey but is goes on for the whole day where the other big names on radio only ever talk instead of playing music, that is what music channels are for, to play music, they should move to another station if all they want to do is talk, and I and hopefully a lot of people would be fine if they were on a channel that was meant for discussion and not songs which are very rare on the radio.

What is just as bad though is that obviously there are many radio hosts throughout the day on the channel they all seem to play the same songs, so you will most likely hear the same 4 songs though the whole day over and over again, I know this because ewe used to have Radio 1 on all the time in college but this was mainly for background noise to pass the time. I think that they should cut back to the utter nonsense that these people go o about, if I could I would listen to Radio 2, 3 or 4 but sadly I can't because at least what they talk about is points of interest that do not drag on for about twenty minutes of the same old thing with them trying so hard to be funny in the middle.

Gone are the days when real music was played on the radio, gone are the days where we showed interest of the Radio DJ, sometimes I wish and excuse this lame attempt at a quirky comment but shame that "video didn't kill the radio star".

Dragon's Den Presentation

Right it is Sunday night right now and I am currently righting down a few key notes for a Dragon Den style presentation that I have to do tomorrow for presenting my Hells Angel quince seal packaging. Our class has to present our products to a panel who will access our product and our presentation as a whole in a lecture theatre in front of them and the whole class and I can easily say that I am in a polite way of putting it scared beyond belief, not of doing it in front of the class but of standing in front of strange people who have been in the business of graphic design for some time now so they will know exactly what they are on about and will most likely question my product till the point where I will doubt if it is good enough, or they will praise it and make me think I have created the most amazing thing in the world, it is going to go either way.

I do however realize that this is a requirement and will help everyone in the class build up their presentation techniques and confidence as this is something we will all have to do quite regularly if we are to succeed in the business after university.

Because I have already done a HNC and HND at college I should be used to this sort of thing by now but sadly I am not, usually at college we presented our work to the class sitting down as a casual talk to one another, or if it was the graded unit we did it on our own in front of our tutor and another member who did not know what the product and piece was about, this was a bit easier as it was to two people I was presenting to and can handle but as there will probably be four people I might find it a little nerve racking.

But it does have to be done, all I have to do is just get on with it and take all the criticism I am given and just not think about everyone else that is there, so will finish my noted just now and only hope it goes the way I want it to tomorrow.

The Hobbit

When I was writing the previous blog I mentioned The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, and this got me thinking about one of my favourite books of all time, The Hobbit or There and Back Again. This is the book I can never get tired of reading more than once, it never gets boring, even though I know all the characters and have read it over and over not for a few years admittedly but it never gets dull or repetitive, seems like a new story every time I read it, which is mostly the reason of why I probably read it over and over, the magic of the book never dies which is why to me it is such a special book me, it reminds me of when I was younger, it was the book that got me into reading as I used to hate it so much and never even picked up a book simply because I thought it was boring and would rather have watched the television instead, but when my mum got me this book as I had to read a book for class to draw a picture for it I had never been so captivated, I had never wanted to keep reading page after page before, it was and still to this day one of the best books I have ever read and I do not really care that it is a children's book.

Before I read this book I was aware of the story of Lord of the Rings as I had the original cartoon on video but never knew that there was a book before it and never knew that that itself was a trilogy of books, which after I read the Hobbit had to read The Fellowship of the Ring, which I got for my seventh birthday and was surprised just how different it was, at how more grown up it was, the language used and the whole style to me at the time had completely changed and I was reading a whole new set of books. I did however take me a few years to get through all three of them as I was a slow reader and at first couldn't understand them a lot of the time but still I kept at it and still managed to enjoy the story.

The Hobbit is a story of a little hobbit called Bilbo Baggins, who live in his house under the hill of Bagend in the town of hobbitton, and won day a tall wizard, Gandalf the Grey goes past Bagend and through some trickery persuades Bilbo to join him and a company of dwarfs on an adventure of a lifetime to the Lonely Mountains to work as an accomplice and given that task of the burglar of the group so that they can reclaim the treasure that the dragon Smaug has kept hidden by his side for so long. Along the way they encounter three trolls, Beorn ( a man who can turn into a bear) goblins, Elrond and the elves of Rivendale and Mirkwood, and even an encounter with the creature Gollum where Bilbo acquires a ring that can turn him invisible as set the course for the future all before the reach there final destination and the treasure that awaits.

What I really enjoy about the story is that it is so full of magic and adventure and just how you wish you were actually in the book traveling with all of these characters, I was extremely upset when I found out Balin had later been killed in The Fellowship of the Ring during a battle in the Mines of Moria, was devastated. there was just so much that went on in the book that you wanted to know more about it and all involved in it, that to me is the sign of a truly great and wonderful book.

When it was announced that the trilogy was about to be released into films I was ever so excited and jut could wait for them to come out. It was even better that these films were released just a few days after my birthday taking me back to when I got the first book on my seventh and again was sad that when The Return of the King was released and after I had walked out of the cinema, realized what I was I going to look forward to every year now. But now I am waiting for the Hobbit to be made into film, which is scheduled to be released for 2011, and am so glad it is being split into two films so now they can get in everything from the book along with added features that could explain where Gandalf went when he left the group for some time.

I assure you that I will be seeing this film when it comes out.

What The Hell? SuBo and JedWard

Is anyone else not getting fed up with the whole, how amazing are Susan Boyle and John and Edward, it has all gotten well out of hand now, normally I would say that it was the press which have had their hand in all this by nick naming these three very strange people more so to the twins as I cannot stand them, waste of space and have no talent what so ever. But it is also down to Simon Cowell and the producers of The X Factor who play the public into this whole con, which most of the time is only a one hit wonder. apart from the exception of Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke who are the Two only good singers to actually win the competition, the rest we have never heard from again.

As we all know, John and Edward cannot sing, and definitely cannot dance, so were does there talent lie? Well the answer to that question is very simple, they have none, they only got through the first audition simply because they were very cheeky to Simon Cowell and the other judges wanted to see more of that, then they only got through the next stage because as per usual Louis Walsh was acting like a big baby and insisted they go through because well they were a group and are Irish, so he Walsh as it has been proven from this show is pretty much a useless and just as annoying person, who now because of the face lift he has now had is left with only one very creepy expression as it looks exactly the same when he's annoyed and smiling.

So back to the twins, why is it that they kept getting voted through, clearly no one likes them, as people I know, in the paper, they all hate them, from what I saw the only people who actually did were little girls between the ages of 5 to 12, and then it has been said that they would be good as children's television presenters. Sorry but I find those to to look very strange looking, like they are on something, very pale and have strange eyes. If I had any children I would never let them watch them just because of how sadistic I think they look, also because of how annoying they were on the X Factor.

Now onto Susan Boyle, who yes I will admit has a really good singing voice, but when you watch her on the TV you can clearly see that she thinks in her head, I so deserve to be hear and has a look about her where she thinks she's perfect, that is my opinion and only what I think, but what really gets me about her is that everyone and also when she is being promoted is saying how amazing her story has been of how she has got to where she is today, people she only went on e television show, that is all she didn't do anything stressful or groundbreaking to get an album made, she only sang on Britain's Got talent, I have no idea just how stupid a lot of people can be to believe half the thing the papers make up and how the producers make them out to be a couple of saints. I have also noticed that Susan Boyle isn't exactly the smartest of people, as she never answers any of the questions given to her, she has to really think hard about what the presenter has said and comes away with something entirely different from what asked, such as on Sundays X factor where Dermot asked her how great was it to make the album and said how terrific she was, her response was, Aye I'm glad to be here, and she had no idea what he had just asked her, I only laughed at this while everyone else in the room hadn't even noticed.

But why is it that the press and the public have to nickname these people, SuBo, JedWard, Beniffer, Brangelina, is it so difficult to just let them have their own names nowadays, what is the obsession of it. Today in our present time musicians are no longer musicians, actors are no longer actors etc there are all only a celebrity, long gone has it been where people had a general talent, they are still about but are cast aside more so for the celebrity rather than for their talent, an example of this being in the Lord of the Rings films when I asked a few of my little brothers friends who they all like din them and they all said Orlando Bloom because he was the best actor out of the lot of them, I originally thought they were joking but they were serious, I then had to asked what they thought of Ian McKellen, to which they said, who? Again I was shocked and said Gandlaf, oh he was alright. I worry about where the future of talent is going and how it will be replaced by shear annoyance and talentless wannabes, John and Edward beating Lucy in the sing off where Simon let the public vote and Lucy go out, this yes was partly his fault but the public did vote and only barely voted for them in future weeks so they could say I'm not like everyone else so I won't vote for them this week.

Christmas

Well we are now a month away from that time of the year, that which I speak about is Christmas, December 25th, we all know the date, not a single person on the planet doesn't know when Christmas is, it is impossible not to notice it, it is everywhere, and to be honest it is getting more and more annoying how early it is starting every year. It is no longer a holiday that we cherish anymore, it has become a necessity.

I work in Sainsbury's and what really got on my nerves was that we started stacking shelves for Christmas in the beginning of October, at the same time as the Halloween stock came in and before the fireworks, it was unbelievable, it was sickening to be honest, it is supermarkets and stores just cashing in on this occasion only for the sole purpose to increase their profits, along with getting people to spend more and more cash and cheat people out of their money without them even realizing it.

For me I try not to think about Christmas as early as that, I tend to think about it closer to December, so right about now to be honest, this gives me time to think about what I am getting people and allow myself enough time to buy them, or Christmas for me is mostly beginning when I first see the Coca Cola advert, then the time for getting excited is really coming, that is when it all begins for me, non of this months and months before it.

A few little traditions I have on the day are obviously like everyone else opening presents, and you are a liar if you say you don't get excited about that so don't deny it, I also tend to watch ever since it came out on VHS, I know VHS, shocking, The Muppet Christmas Carol, the best Christmas film to ever be made without a question, along with Miracle on 34th Street (both of them) and It's a Wonderful Life, they are the classics that I cannot wait for year after year, I have to watch them, but only on Christmas as this makes the actual day seem a bit more special. Then there is my favourite part of the day, the meal. We normally have two starters, prawn cocktail followed by homemade soup (the best soup in my opinion), then we start on the actual main course, before we have a selection of 3 deserts, Trifle, Christmas pudding or ice cream, followed a yearly argument from the grandparents, ah special times indeed.

This year I am really looking forward to Christmas as this year I am going to the Dundee Rep to see this years Christmas Panto, this years one happens to be A Christmas Carol, so I have to watch it on both days. I have not been to a Panto since I started the cubs when I was about 9 years old, so I am really looking forward to reliving a part of my childhood. CANNOT WAIT, is going to be amazing this year. So Merry Christmas for this year as I will most likely forget to mention it closer to the time and because I am writing this so am Mentioning it now.

Are Comedians Really Worth The Money

On Friday I was watching Children In Need with my family, as there was nothing else to do, and was quite excited when Terry Wogan said Peter Kay would be on the show, and me being a really big Peter Kay fan had to stay downstairs and watch the rest of it, and was even more excited when he announced that he would be going on tour at some point next year, but sadly he is only doing a four day tour in Manchester, but still to me that didn't matter as it is easy enough to get a train or bus down there.

What really shocked me though was that Peter Kay said that he would be donating a pound to charity from every piece of merchandising sold at his tour, but is a pound really enough to give, considering that a t-shirt will cost about £20 and everything else twice as expensive, it is fair that he is giving to charity but when you think about the price of these things that will be sold, surely a bit more can be given to charity.

The thing that actually made me quite angry was when I looked to see how much a ticket was going to cost I discovered that a single ticket for one of his shows was going to cost £80, which is simply ridiculous, I have never seen anything cost so much like that, to go to one show at £80 just bows the mind, you can see a football game for less than that, and that is about as entertaining as watching Gordon Brown rapping away to Vanilla Ice, it is just simply stupid. I never thought Peter Kay would stoop to that level, no person is worth that price, no one.

This then got me thinking to a previous comedian I went to see in September 2008 at the Dundee Rep, Dylan Moran, and he was simply awful. It was a very uncomfortable performance to watch as it was like listening to a very annoying friend telling you really bad jokes all night, you just wanted to tell him to shut up, was very disappointing as I used to be a really big fan of his. Also he came on drunk, at first we all thought it was part of his act, which it normally is, and usually has a bottle of wine with him on stage, but noticed that he was mumbling his words so half the jokes he was telling we could barely even hear and kept tripping over the microphones wire.

This has shown me that a lot of comedians are not really worth the money and are charging people too much to see them, especially when you consider people are being a bit more cautious in the current state that the country is in. Peter Kay to me is still funny but I would never pay that sort of price to see him, the only thing I would pay that sort of money is for T in the Park or similar music festivals as when you think about how much money you pay, the amount of bands you can watch is well worth the price and over a period of three days rather than £80 for an hour an a half, two hours maximum, it isn't worth it. To them it is now all about the money they make rather than entertaining people.

Seven Heavenly Sins Continued

As promised here is the package I have made for my materials and food nutrients packaging. And with it is the pint of sale I had to make that I will be using during our Dragon's Den style presentation.

Alan Moore

Now I am going to write about one of my favourite comic book story tellers, Alan Moore. This is a man who has written some of the best comic plots such as Watchmen, V For Vendetta, From Hell and many more, and what is good about all of his stories is that the characters in them all have a meaningful story to tell, they have a secret and conflict within all of them, they all have a purpose for the plot of the story.

Alan Moore's most popular and best piece of work without a doubt is the graphic novel Watchmen, originally each chapter was released every few weeks in DC Comics in America and was a few years after the final chapter was printed that all of them were finally brought together to make the one big book, and thank god it was as it is a must have for all comic book fans, even Time magazine have it in their top 100 most influential books of all time, the only graphic novel to make it into the top 100.

At the beginning of his career after being expelled from school for dealing LSD, Moore started off as a cartoonist in the late 1970's, where he wrote and drew underground style strips for music magazines, including NME under the pseudonym, Curt Vile. He later began a weekly strip, Maxwell the Magic Cat, for the Northants Post until 1986. Moore realised that he could not make a living as an artist so decided that his area of expertise would be in story telling and so began his first steps into becoming one of the greatest comic writers of our time, not only in comics and graphic novels but a story teller in general.

Scripts he began writing for were for Marvel UK, 2000 AD and Warrior and then wrote short story strips for Doctor Who Magazine and Star Wars Weekly before a joint run on Captain Britain with artist Alan Davies. As I have said before that Watchmen is by far his greatest piece of work, a story of what if mask heroes did arrive in the late 1930's in an alternate version of Earth, but it has too be said that this is a very, and I mean very strange and peculiar man. When he was expelled for dealing drugs he called himself"one of the world's most inept LSD dealers. During his first marriage they both had a mutual lover, who his wife left him for taking their children with them, and believes himself to be an anarchist. A quote he had once said,

"I believe that all other political states are in fact variations or outgrowths of a basic state of anarchy; after all, when you mention the idea of anarchy to most people they will tell you what a bad idea it is because the biggest gang would just take over. Which is pretty much how I see contemporary society. We live in a badly developed anarchist situation in which the biggest gang has taken over and have declared that it is not an anarchist situation- that it is a capitalist or a communist situation. But I tend to think that anarchy is the most natural form of politics for a human being to actually practice."

He has clearly stated that when Hollywood has approached him into making his stories into films that he gives them permission to make them, but wishes to have no other dealings with the film, giving him no deal with the company, therefore no profit, as he believes that the original story told in his work would be taken away and replaced with the usual glossy over coating of the film industry. His name is not on any of the films adapted from his scripts, which is a bit strange in my opinion as he could have been making a lot of money as there have been four very successful films adapted from his work. But this is part of the reason of why Alan Moore is such a great writer a you need a little bit of a crazy mind to allow your imagination and beliefs to be told through the story you are telling, it is part of how a good story is told, without it i don't think his work would have been as successful as it has been.

Tweenagers

This morning I had a lecture on advertising at Christmas, and were shown a video from a documentary from 2004 and how branding affects the mind of children of 9 to 12 year of age. This documentary followed three different children with different styles an asked questions why they think branded products are a must have and would not settle for less.

The youngest out of the three, a nine year old girl, I repeat, a nine year old girl, only wore brand clothing just so she could feel and look older, this meant she wore clothes that were so revealing it is quite disturbing to even think about let alone look at, that a young girl who is not even in secondary school dresses in clothing that was originally designed for adults, I find this to be shocking to be honest that the girls mother would pay for her daughter to wear these items of clothing, not only because of the way they can look but also because the brand names are more expensive, but this is only because of the name, there are less known companies who make just as much good clothing than say Nike etc as in the video, and can even make better clothing but its is only because big brands are well known they do have a right to sell it for a higher price, but not always it is good quality. The thing that got me about this girl was that she said if her parents through out all her big brand clothes and bought her new not as well known brands that she would not leave her house and sit in her pajamas all of the time. I was also amazed that someone so young was wearing as much make up as she was, even her father stated that he hated it on young girls, and I felt so sorry for him as no matter what he did to say no he couldn't in the end.

The second child was a young boy who was into skateboarding and to be honest seemed to be a bit of a wannabe, he said he never followed the big brand names because he didn't want to be a sheep like everyone else, but when we saw him shopping, well that was exactly what he was, he was as bad as the rest of them. I also noticed that he seemed to be a bit of a snob and a bit full of himself when he saw what the presenter was wearing, thinking his clothing was much more fashionable than his.

The last child at 12 years of age seemed at first to be a bit more mature, a normal girl about to go into her teens, already buying clothes but the difference was she bought hers from charity shops and car boot sales for a bargain price, she seemed that she did not want to follow in buying the big brand names too, but in the end contradicted herself by buying a new Bratz toy doll, But I will say this for her that because you may not always have enough money and try so hard not to buy big brand names does not mean that from time too time you cannot treat yourself to something a little special.

I think that is the category I would fit into, I do not always buy the big brand names which are often over priced, and tend to only do a shop of clothes once every six months or once a year as I have always just gotten the use out of most of my clothes but if I do see something nice that I want then I will buy it, therefore I also fall into the ploy by the company's who sell clothing and products, everyone and I mean everyone is partial to a bargain, no one is the exception, no matter how hard they try not too be.

To conclude this blog I felt sorry for all the parents of these children as they can't do anything to prevent their kids from watching adverts on the television and being influenced by these things, and am shocked that companies are trying to make children older than what they are only to sell more of the products to a new upcoming audience who can be more easily swayed.

Some do Like it Hot

For the other big project we had to do we were to team up in pairs and were to take part in another lucky dip same as with the material and nutritional foods, to pick out the title of a classic film, the film I picked out was 'Some Like it Hot'.

This film for those of you who do not know was made in the year 1959 by director/producer Billy Wilder. The setting of this film is in the late 1930's during the time of the depression. Beginning in Chicago with two down on their luck musicians, one bass and one sax, witness a mob hit similar to that of the St. Valentines hit. So the two now on the run for their lives decide to take up a job to go to Florida as part of a band but the catch is that this band is an all women's group. Now the two friends are posing as female jazz players, where they now meet the never forgetful Marilyn Monroe.

So back to the project. first we had to team up in pairs, then as expected we had to watch the film while taking down notes on the themes, setting, key moments etc. of the film. Major themes of the film I thought were about friendship, how these two men's relationship grew stronger throughout the film, and admittedly through very funny coincidences, There was also the idea of how these two guy's who at the start see women as only a pleasurable object but then begin to understand what it is like to be a women, this is through them dressing up, and also for the actor Tony Curtis's character falling in love for the first time with the female lead (Monroe).

After we had our little discussion on the film we had to express themes and key moments in the form of a mood board, and this would also included the style of the film, such as it being set in an art deco period, the music, the film style etc. It was from this moment we had to then make a sketchbook on how we were going to tackle to actual model.

I will admit that making the model was a nightmare, well the process of it, no matter what we came up with, the idea was rejected and we would have to go back and rethink what the film was, this went on for sometime admittedly, but through some inspiration from a previous students model, of how they made a sort of cartoonist style piece, we came up with a sketch of what it would look like and thankfully we were given the go ahead. Both my partner and I had an equal part in the project, I designed the characters and he built them up for the model and we both took the photographs for it, but sadly he wasn't happy with graphics so he decided to leave for fine art, and good luck, but am so glad he built the model up as I would have really struggled with it.

I will admit that when taking the image into In Design I had a lot more freedom of what I was doing compared to the rest of the other groups as I got to do the rest of the poster the way I saw it, which does have its advantages and disadvantages such as I get to do it the way I want it to be, but I don't get any other views of what can make it better to other people.

The final poster I feel takes an element of lightheartedness from the film, even though the film is in black and white I decided to give it a bit of colour so the actual image stood out more and also decided that the font I have used was from the opening credits from the actual film, which I feel blends very well with the image itself. As a final part of this project we are to now create a three dimensional invitation for a fictional film exhibition at the film theatre in London, and is to take a certain element from our posters, and to see this final product you will need to go to the end of year exhibition for graphics.

7 Heavenly Sins

As promised here is the third part of my leather and quince project, and what was the purpose of researching this material and food, well we were to take these to and make a packaging product that had both items within the packaging and product. The thought process for it had to be relevant to them and we had to come up with a quirky and interesting product and come up with a unique form of packaging to hold it in.

So what did I come up with, well after I looked back at all the research on both items and noted what I thought were the most interesting and could help influence what the actual product would end up being. The main parts of my leather sketchbook that I looked at were the idea of bikers and the Hells Angels and how they are tough guys who wear leather, I began to wonder if I could make a product mainly aimed at them but what could I possibly do.

From this I went back and looked at my quince sketchbook and i will admit that I did struggle to come up with an idea for a product made out of quince as it is a fruit and there is not really a lot of fruit packaging about, so from here I began to think about other products that could have a quince taste to it, such as cheese, juice cleaning products for the smell, perfume, sweets, yogurts etc but could not find a way for there to be a reason to combine it with Hells Angels and worse could not find a purpose for using leather in the product.

It was after a quick discussion with my tutor and getting feedback on the idea of the biker which he preferred the most said I should take this idea forward but think out the box, so from this I had another glance at the sketchbook and saw that the Tudors used to make a sort of quince paste that they would seal with the royal emblem and thought this is an interesting idea and began to think of how I could make this a product for the Hells Angels and I thought about their reputation for being rebels and how they live free and have this reputation famous for good and bad reasons, and from this I realized that a quince is recently believed to have been the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden and not an apple and so got the idea that this was the origin deadly sin and this is how I have made my product appealing to the Angels.

The product I now have is a package made up of a leather jacket the is opened up by unzipping the jacket around the box and inside is a quince disc that is to be presented to a new Hells Angel that has just been initiated into the gang where they would eat the disc as part of their version of a church's holy communion, and under the quince in the box would be a badge with the Angels badge for the new member to attach to their jacket.

The package is not yet finished as I still need to finish the logo which is nearly done and add a band to the box then make a disc from plasticine before it is completed then I need to make an A3 page promoting the product with information about it. My product is a limited collectors item solely aimed at the Hells Angels group therefore only being bought by them. The product is called the 7 Heavenly Sins as it is to me the original sin and is ideal for a Hells Angel.

I will late add a few images of the final box and hope you will comment on it with your views of what I have finally done for this project.

My Top 5 Websites

This is part of assignment 3B I had to complete an online tutorial that would help us in searching for useful websites that are related to the design world, i found this very useful and below is a list of my top 5 websites that I find to be useful in keeping up to date in the world of design. I hope you find these just as useful.

• 1. http://www.creativereview.co.uk/

This is a website that helps keep designers in the know about the design world, it has a very successful magazine that has articles and helps promote design companies as well as individuals of their work and as well as what is the next big thing. I know a lot of people will be using this site on their blog but this is because it is a must have website in your top five if you are to keep up to date with what is hot. I have been a subscriber of the magazine for over a year and find it to be a great influence on my work.

• 2. http://altpick.com/

I have chosen this as this site allows artists from ll areas of design to promote their work to the public. What is good about it is that we can see just like the creative review who is currently at the top of their game at the moment, as well as letting individuals know any upcoming events such as competitions and exhibitions etc. This site also uses an annual where designers can pay to have their work published in it, as these are the best of the best and only the best can get a place in this.

• 3. http://www.designweek.co.uk/

I found out about this through the creative review when I received leaflet advertising this site and have gone on it ever since. This site allows us to see what jobs are on the go at the moment and what is the big area of design to get into as well.

• 4. http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/

This site allows designers to look at the latest facts and figures on design. I allows us to look at information from the expert authors on design techniques, methods etc as well as having articles and design resources to look at. I also discovered this through the creative review, a way of knowing other design companies etc.

• 5. http://www.dandad.org/

This is a organization that allows upcoming designers to enter their work in competitions and to promote their work to top design studios just to get noticed to show how good they can be. I find this site very useful as I can see past entries and see what is coming up next, also this is part of what I will have to do one day so will keep looking at this to see what the competition is like.

2012

This afternoon I went to see the new disaster film 2012, the next big budget end of the world film from director Roland Emmerich. Previous films this man had made are famously Stargate, Independence Day, and The Patriot which are three very good films, and the not so good, The Day After Tomorrow and 10,000 B.C. which in my honest opinion was one of the worst films I have ever seen, know idea what was going in the film makers head when he was writing the script for this film, must have been a lapse of judgement.

So back to 2012, well this is a film that the plot is based on the prediction by the ancient Mayan civilization from thousands of years ago that the world will end on the 21st December 2012, which is a legend that is commonly misinterpreted as this they say is a prediction on the Mayan calendar but in truth is is actually believed to be because when the civilization died out and they only reached up to the year 2012 on the calendar so they wouldn't of been able to add to it, so this is the reason why people can misinterpret it being the end of the world.

The story of the film takes place mostly around the family of John Cusack who is trying to save his two children and ex wife from joining the rest of the world in certain death. There are many other main characters who all in the end seem to of had at least some involvement with each other and their separate journeys into the path of survival or death.

The obvious aspect of the film is of course the CGI which is nearly in every part of the film, but honestly, a film like this really needs to be over powered with over the top computer affects as it could be done no other way. This was part of what made the film good for me, the effect were no doubt amazing, accept at one death towards the end, and just gave the film a great amount of atmosphere and awe which got you hooked on the film and never really gave it a dull or boring moment, which was a change from all the yawning scenes you normally get in disaster movies, you didn't want to look away because you didn't want to miss a single moment of the film in case you missed the next big bit with a capital city being destroyed in such an over the top way.

This film is made purposefully to not be about a story but to entertain and being cheesy and over the top, it is made for all ages who just want to go and see an all out disaster movie that delivers, and this does deliver, it does what is meant to do, what it says on the tin. It takes on a plot that is mind boggling and ridiculous that just seems to work to me, and think it will appeal to most, maybe not to the critics but I don't think that will really matter and the public will say whether it is good or not.

The issues the film does take on are family issues, what would a father do to save his family, to make you realize what strength you never knew you had, also the biggest and obvious one being the end of the world and what would our leaders do if they knew it was coming, would they tell us? would they rather we die surprised without fear and panic, what would we ourselves do in that kind of situation, would we cause anarchy, who knows, I suppose we will just have to find out. This is why I like the teaser trailer for the film where it said what would your government do if they knew the end of the world was coming........... nothing, which is basically what they do already by hiding things from us.

All in all I would heavily recommend this film to all my friends as I was heavily entertained all the way throughout the film, and was not bored at any moment, and was surprised that it went on for as long as it did as I thought I had only been in the cinema for 90 minutes.

I hope you found this blog very useful and hope you will go and see this film and comment on whether you liked it or not.

Bibliography

This is a blog of our next assignment on cross searching the university's site and library, I have only done journals as I found it difficult to find books in the main library so hope this is enough to do to pass this part.

Akid, M. (2001), 'Sexual health. Policy vacuum blamed for STI rise' Nursing Times (36), 9.

When looking at this journal I found it to be the least useful but did think it had a few good points that could have been taken further, so this is why I have decided to use this because of these examples. This does mention the causes of why the spread of sexually transmitted diseases are so high, because they are not very well advertised and not enough information is given out about them. It also mentions the policies of how these diseases can be treated and how it can be approached by the government and NHS.

Cooper, RG. (2007) 'Sexually transmitted disease/HIV health-care policy and service provision in Britain' INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF STD & AIDS 18 (10) 655-661.

The author of this journal discusses historical developments of sexually transmitted disease and sexual health policies in Britain, principally from the 19th to 21st century's. It mainly goes on about AIDS and how it affected the country in the last century and also how advertising and counseling needed to be more effective so that the public were more aware of the risks associated with unprotected sex. I found this not to be a very interesting and informative piece, I found I didn't learn anything I didn't already know about this topic before.

Freeman, E. (2009) 'Promoting chlamydia screening with posters and leaflets in general practice - a qualitative study, BMC Public Health. 9, 383.

This journal goes into detail of how chlamydia is advertised through patients in medical practices as well as a study of how nurses and doctors make aware this condition to the patients, this being by posters and leaflets. I found this journal quite interesting as the author had questioned nurses on how affective they thought these ways of advertising the disease worked and found out that they think it is ineffective as it makes a patient feel awkward and uncomfortable and don't take interest in the advertisement. This raised an issue of how affective how promoting awareness of chlamydia is actually tackled.

He, Qun (2006), 'Potential bridges for HIV infection to men who have sex with men in Guangzhou, China' AIDS Behave, 10 S17-23

This looks at sexually transmitted disease's outside Britain, this being in China, it looks into how male on male sex is a big cause in HIV spread and how not enough is done to prevent the spread of this, as well as what is being done in the information given out about HIV and protective sex, which is basically not enough as shown in the continuation of the disease. It also mentions the numbers of the number of people, single, married etc who contract the disease which goes on to talk about the most common contraction of HIV, which shows it is not jut through sex that HIV can be transmitted.

Klausner, JD. (2002) 'Are HIV drug advertisements contributing to increases in risk behavior among men in San Francisco, 2001? AIDS 16 (17) 2349-2350.

In 2001 the author quantified exposure to HIV medication direct to consumer advertising and its relationship to attitudes and behaviours among sexually transmitted disease clinic attendees. They found that homosexual men frequently saw HIV medication adverts. HIV Positive Homosexual men with more advertisement exposure believed HIV was a less serious disease, they believed these adverts influenced them into the decision to have unprotected sex.

Mellanby, A. (1992) 'Teenagers and risks of sexually-transmitted diseases - A need for the provision of balanced information' Genitourinary Medicine 68 (4) 241-244.

This is an evaluation of teenager's knowledge and understanding about sexually transmitted disease, conception and contraception. It goes on to explain how teenagers may underestimate their risk of contracting a STD after the promotion of information about HIV/Aids. it says that simple messages about them in mass media advertising programs may have unwanted results and need to be targeted and easy to understand for teenagers to take in the effect.

Vivancos, S. (2007) 'Internet treatment of sexually transmitted infections - a public health hazard? BMC Public Health. 7, 333.

In this journal that I have chosen it goes on about how those who wish to keep their sexually transmitted disease private search the Internet, but this can result in problems as the medicine sent out can be hazardous, the study for this was to investigate which sites and their medicinal products were the most effective and which were home made remedies. This showed me that the Internet is not always reliable and that treatment for a STD should be done through your doctor who is more reliable.

The reason I have chosen these journals is because the topic I decided to take from my chosen chapter that I took from the Tipping Point was the topic of sexually transmitted diseases and how advertising can affect the spread of them, some of these were more useful that others but believe the ones I have written about here have at least a little bit of useful information.

Life

Recently I have been watching the BBC program Life presented by David Attenbourgh on a Monday night. This is an extremely great show that I find incredibly interesting and enjoyable to watch. The show has been about 3-4 years in the making with camera teams trotting around the globe searching and filming interesting creatures that have a great amount of mystery to them and their activities, showing how each species has similarities amongst them and how all creatures live out their everyday lives through the circle of life.

There are obviously more interesting creatures than others such as how they managed to document the first komodo dragon hunt and attack a full sized buffalo which took place over a period of 4 days. It was recently discovered that these dragons contain a venom in their bites so they poised the buffalo and over the next few days slowly got sick and weak, then died making it a simple kill for the dragons to feast, showing how dedicated and patient these animals really are. What I really like about the show as well is towards the end the show tells the story from the camera mans point of view and what he think of the animal and situation. The men who filmed the buffalo and dragon got very emotional as they had to watch this beast slowly suffer to death, it most have a certain toll on them as they are not able to do anything to help the animal as it is a way of life for not only the dragon but all creatures to survive in general.

Each week features a different species, such as one week it will be reptiles, then it will be fish and this week it was birds. On this weeks episode about the birds it showed a side of pelicans off the coast of Africa that I never knew about and how they fed on other birds, such as they would prey on the young of smaller birds who's parents had gone away to gather food for the chick so therefore would not be able to defend its chick as its fate was to die being swallowed whole where it would suffocate to death and slowly be digested, something my girlfriend and her mother were nearly sick at.

The most interesting creature that I have seen on the program is a small reptile that lives on a little beach, where it was in the world I cannot remember, and this little thing would dig a U-shaped tunnel in the ground protected by an underground cavern of water and at the other side would be its eggs waiting to hatch, out of the way of predators and safe from any sort of damage, but because it was in a small hole blocked by water that meant the little space they were in meant the would run out of air so the male, which was left to protect them would breath in air from the entrance and swim to his young and release the air into the small pocket and would do this a certain amount of times per day to ensure they would live long enough. I even thought that the way they fought of others of the same species was extremely funny to watch as what they would do is raise the mouths and see who had the biggest while walking in a circle, they did this without any means of force and harming one another.

This program has shown me many things about the life that lives on our planet that I never knew existed and would have even thought existed. This is why I love programs like this as it shows me just how vast our world is and how much life is actually on it. These sort of things fascinate me, where they would bore others I find them to be an incite into ourselves and how much we have evolved and how we as a species live out our everyday lives.

I heavily recommend this program and hope that there will soon be more like it, as there are a lot of shows like this but not as interesting to watch and be bothered about.

Cartoons

Do you not just remember when you were little and you couldn't used to wait for the Saturday and Sunday morning cartoons, they were part of our everyday lives, we would watch them in the mornings of the weekdays before school and after school, on CBBC and CITV, then there were the special days of Saturdays and Sundays where the best toons of the week would come on, on such shows as Diggit the SMTVLive, these were the days where young people at the time could forget about everything, such as school, and life in general where they could just sit back, relax and just keep out of the way of the parents. This was quite possibly the only time where we would not get in trouble for anything while we were watching the TV.

I used to think it was great being little and waking up around 6 o'clock in the morning before your mum and dad and it was you who was in charge of the house, you could do whatever you wanted which so happened to be watching TV. This gave me a certain sense of freedom, and used to think it was amazing that I could watch as much television as I wanted. Oh to be young again.

The cartoons I remember I just used to love were mainly batman, Rugrats, Back to the Future, Mighty Max amongst many others.

As I began getting older the cartoons began to grow as well, being aimed at young children but also having humour for the older ones as well such as Dexter's Lab and Cow and Chicken, these could only be viewed on Cartoon Network, an all day cartoon channel for kids, but sadly this eventually began to get a bit boring, and the gags that were on the programs all became the same and began to get to repetitive, and sadly I wasn't interested anymore.

So without cartoons, what was there for me, well I began to get more interested in other programs like documentaries and comedy's like Fawlty Towers and Only Fools and Horses but then I noticed The Simpsons and family Guy, to of the most adult programs I had ever seen and this got me hooked yet again.

Now that I am older I can look back and think about how great cartoons used to be when I was little, it was a more simpler time in my opinion, and can now appreciate what they were about and the humour they had about them, it was something we could all understand.