The end is near.......

It has been a long year, and to say the least it has been an experience. Only 4 weeks left of the course and its pretty intense at the moment due to realisation of how much work we need to complete in order to pass.

The first half of the year was slow moving as we were covering things like databases and spreadsheets...not for me.

However the second half of the year has actually been quite interesting. This is because we are doing Digital media, covering things such as creating animations and editing photos. At the end of the year we are looking to have created a health & Safety presentation including links to webpages with our digital media elements contained in it. So far i'd say i was on track with things and am hoping to get it completed.

Not too sure what i want to do next year, probably depends on the outcome of this course, i.e if I pass then I might go on to do an HNC in Web development, or i might decide to try and get a full time job in IT somewhere.

Wiley

Wiley- the godfather of grime. If you are unfamiliar with what grime is, its basically the main genre from UK underground hip hop. Grime is otherwise known as eski-beat which was a term invented by Wiley because of the way he felt his music sounded. (eskimo dance, for the mixing tunes)
Wiley (a.k.a Eskiboy),Richard Kylea Cowie was born on 19 January 1979 in Bow East London. Since he was 15 he began touring and rapping in local clubs and was very quickly recognised and appreciated as an important grime artist.

So aswell as basically create the genre of grime today, he was also one of the founding members of the Roll Deep Crew which contains other grime artists such as Dizzee Rascal, JME & Skepta are a very renound rap group and they have released a few albums which have been succesful. However to promote himself as a major grime character, he often played on East London pirate radio stations where he gained many fans. In his career he released three albums, Treddin' On Thin Ice, Da 2nd Phaze, Playtime Is Over, Tunnel Vision Volumes 1-7, many other grime compilation and all of the Roll Deep Crew songs.

However despite all of this, when Wiley was at the peak of his career and was seen as the most important figure in Grime, on the 22nd January 2007 he announced that he was retiring from rapping. Although it was a huge upset to the UK hip hop scene, but it was well respected because he basically felt that he was 28, he didnt see things going too much further, and he felt he had much bigger responsibilities than grime because it is a hard industry to be in, constant feuds and 'beefs' with other rappers, he always felt that he would get stabbed or shot when in clubs." Wiley had lyrical rivalry with Dizzee Rascal, Durrty Goodz, Bashy, Lethal Bizzle, More Fire Crew, Ghetto, Scorcher, Jimmy Neutron, The Movement, Sharkey Major, Sniper E, Devlin, Crazy Titch, Aza T & Wretch 32)He decided to leave all this, because he wants to be with his family more and look after his baby daughter.

However he is continuing to be one of the main producers in the grime industry and is still mixing tracks, he just feels that his 'Mic' days are over. He also announced that he is releasing some music dvd's and will hopefully have occasional tours.

His retirement was quite gutting for me because I have been listening to his music a lot and he has became one of my favourite artists, I particularly like His new album 'Playtime Is Over'- especially the tracks: 50/50, Bow E3 & Getalong Gang.

If interested visit the website- http://www.2step-garage.co.uk/mc_profile/wiley.htm

Finally!!!!

I have been applying and waiting for ages to get a part time job, but I had no success for quite a long time. However just yesterday Somerfield phoned back concerning my interview, and they decided that they were keen to employ me to work for the company.

So no more weekends being broke!!! Also it will be good to structure my week a bit more, and have more responsibilities which in time will hopefully greater my independance.

Nick

New Cats

For all my life cats have been around me, so I am very fond of them and enjoy having them as pets.

I have two cats at my dads, kelly and frankie, they are about 3 years old now, so I have seen them grow up and change personlities. They are quite funny to have around the house because they are very friendly but they often fight each other which is pretty comedy to watch.

However at my mums house, two days ago my mum got two new kittens, brothers. One of them is very friendly but the younger one is well nervous, was quite funny, I walked into my vestebule to get my shoes and the cat started hissing at me and getting well panicy, but I'm sure he'll return to normal.

I will get some photos and a video up so you can see what they are like.

Nick

The Outlaw Josey Wales

Yesterday night I was out at my mums house out in the country, and as per usual there wasnt very much on tv.

However at about ten o clock my step dad changed the channel and a country western film came on. I was curious as to which one it would be because I use to watch them a lot with my grandad. Of course it was Clint Eastwood, but I hadnt seen this particular one, The Outlaw Josey Wales(Clint Eastwood).

Basically the story goes like this (take into account its about the Civil War)........ In the opening scene, the Union (otherwise known as Redlegs) torch down Josey Wales's house, killing his son and his wife. In retaliation Josey joins a group of pro-Confederate Missouri guerillas to try and get revenge on the Union. However all the Confederates get captured by the Union and are savagely gunned down, Except from Josey who trys to save his Confederate partners, however has to flee due to being largely outnumbered.

Throughtout the story he is on the run from the Union and gets joined by various people, an old Indian man and young women, an old lady and granddaughter from Kansas. They get into all kinds of problems with Union members, Mexican bandits, Indian tribes, obviously as the story progresses they get closer to the final battle at the end

.....................However I fell asleep twenty minutes from the end and woke up at the credits..................gutted!!!!! So if you are interested in western films, especially revisionist westerns and Clint Eastwood, you should check this film out.

Tomb Raider:Legend

Been a bit short of cash recently but always keen for a new 360 games. The new release Assasins Creed got me pretty excited but its too expensive, so instead I decided to go for a cheaper adventure game..Tomb Raider.

I used to be a fan of the games when they were released on playstation, but I hadnt played a Tomb Raider in about 9 years. I was fairly impressed, I've only played it for about an hour, but completed the first mission, which is basically Lara Croft (main character in game, featured on the right) searching through an ancient tomb in Bolivia, which turned out to be where her mother had been killed. I though the way you could interact with the enviroment was pretty clever and over the game is pretty well made. If you have any advice or tips on the game (achievements etc), feel free to leave me a comment..

Hello there Mr Doyle, you must be fairly excited after the release of your first published novel 'A Study In Scarlet', can u tell me a little bit about it?

Well to tell you the truth i'm slightly anxious about the matter, hopefully the novel will be a success. Basically 'A Study In Scarlet' is a detective murder mystery where a corpse is found in Brixton, London with 'RACHE' written on the walls in blood, the detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr John. H Watson try to unveil the mystery of this murder.

Sounds like a very interesting story, have you any background of writing novels?

I have had some experience of writing, yes, I published several short stories in magazines such as London Society, but writing the novel was a slightly new experience to me as it was a lot more time consuming overall.

Obviously you are hoping that the novel will be a big success, but how do you think 'A Study In Scarlet' will compare to other newly released novels?

To be honest I think that the book will be successful if the readers have an interest in the murder mystery stories, but only time will tell and I can only hope for the best.

A very modest response, do you have any plans of writing more novels?

Of course, I have been writing for a long time now and I'm hoping that with time, I'll be able to write some great stories, whether it be a novel or a series of short stories, there will be more to come.

Thats very promising news, thankyou very much for your time and I hope to see more of your books in store soon.

With a bit of luck!