A question that may have dawned on your mind and provided much cat fighting in your own noggin and I thought it might aid you, and it will be therapeutic to myself to discuss some of the reasons why I have started this blog.

1. Interaction – I love meeting people who have similar interests to me and love talking to people and learning their opinions of different aspects of that field whether it will be technology or magic or anything and hopefully by doing this blog I will learn things from other people so if you do want to get in touch leave a comment. It couldn’t be more simple.
2. Keeps Me Up To Date – I am still in the stages of figuring out my content, writing style and posting habits ( so if you are reading this on the date of publish or soon after expect some changes pretty quick ) but something I hope to do is stay current issues and by doing this blog it will force me to keep up to date so I don’t fall behind into some cess pit of old knowledge, it doesn’t sound like a place anyone wants to be.
3. Makes Me A Better Writer – I love writing but it is one of the most difficult things to do on this planet in my eyes and I have a lot of respect for people who can write well. To keep someone interested and inform and be different all at the same time is an amazing feat and it’s something I’d like to achieve the ability to do and by writing more Things Can Only Get Better.
4. To Educate and Entertain – I want to help people learn. If through this blog I help one person be able to achieve something more efficient or to a better standard : I succeed. If I do this in an entertaining way, all the better and that’s what I want to do is just make people smile. It’s something I’ve wanted to dedicate my life to, and I hope I can achieve it.

These are a few of my reasons, admittedly there are some more but these are the main.

What I’m really interested in is why you may blog?
Why you want ME to blog or what about?

What are your favourite blogs?

Sound off in the comments or send me an e-mail using the contact form.

For some of us, we regret a lot from the year before and we want to make the year after a better one. For this we set ourselves these things that we so like to break called New Year Resolutions.

A lot of us make them and Richard Wiseman (one of the great men of this earth) has researched into this with his book 59 Seconds (one of the great books of this earth) and has come up with ways to help keep New Years Resolutions. One of these that has been scientifically proven to help is telling other people about what your resolutions are (more details here.) So here are my resolutions for 2010.

1. Blog More- This does not only apply to my intangible ramblings on this blog, but also on IMP The Internetional Mac Podcast (notice the ever so subtle plug). I love writing and I don’t do it enough so this is something I am going to hopefully do more of and hopefully you enjoy it.
2. Podcast More- It’s similar to the previous but it is something again that I love to do and I have ideas up my sleeve for things I want to do but for now I’m keeping this secret. Just for now…
3. Film a Short Film-This is what I want to do with my life. I want to be a director, admittedly I’m not there yet but this is what I want to do. I love cinema, I love films and above all I love getting immersed in a story and by the end of the year I aim to have written and directed, at least one, short film.

So now you know, and while I wish you a wonderful New Year and at the end of 2010 we will see how I have done. That is if the blog still exists, and if it doesn’t, then we can assume that my 2010 resolutions ended up being the same pissing shit as the ones from 2009. Happy New Year.

I wouldn’t want to be stuck in a lift. In fact it’s one of my greatest fears in life to be stuck in a lift. Especially a small one. There is though of course a chance I will be and if it comes to this scary fate I would like to choose (not that I could) who I could be in that lift with.

It would need to be a bigish lift to fit everyone in it but still my list in no particular order is:

1. Stephen Fry:
   Stephen Fry a national treasure and all-round gentleman. I love his early work and I think that it really would just be like hanging out with Google. Very personal and I think he would be more useful than me with his legions of twitter followers compared with my 800.
2. Michael McIntyre
   Hilarious easily one of my favourite comedians and always seems to be able to make the best of a bad situation. The floppy haired joke machine is also said to look like me so it would be fun to get some photos of us looking the same or something weird like that.
3. Derren Brown
   Amazing! He blows my mind every-time I see this guy. As you may know I am interested in magic and mentalism and Derren is one of THE best in the field if not THE best. I would love to talk to him about all things from his thinking to his performance. Amazing.
4. Rowan Atkinson
   The man with the rubber face is one of the greatest comic genius’ that has defined our age of comedy with Blackadder and also Mr. Bean is just genius. I would love to talk to him about comedy and comedy writing and acting as this is what I want to do with my life.
5. Steven Spielberg
   Awesome director and one of the biggest names in the field. It would be great to be in the same small confined-space as the great man and hopefully acquaint him as a contact to help me break into this industry.
6. Morgan Freeman
   Although I would never notice if it was him or Nelson Mandella in the lift as they are scarily similar looking. Every movie Morgan Freeman is in makes me drool. Phenomenal actor probably my favourite.
7. Jessica Alba
   Jessica Alba … It’s Jessica Alba. Really you need me to say more than JESSICA ALBA! I think it’s more than she’s attractive but that she has contacts and it would be nice to get the female perspective on things. She also seems really approachable and I want to show I can beat her at a staring contest
8. Will Ferrell
   This was a hard one as I know my final choice and it was close between Will and Zach Braff as they are both amazing but Will Ferrell was the guy who really made me first want to get into acting via Anchorman and other things such as this show. Brilliant actor and I owe him in some ways I feel.
9. Jack Bauer
   The loose cannon CTU agent from the action packed show 24 would be there to help us keep the terrorists at bay that are keeping us in this lift. He would be there to hold me when they come…I mean defend us…yeah…
10. Doctor Who
    To hell with being stuck in a lift he has a sonic screwdriver and a Tardis which would be awesome to have a go in after the ordeal was over to calm down our ‘Posee’ could go to all these different planets. Awesome.

This is my list. What about yours? Who would you have on your list? Reply in the comments or write a blog post for me to link to.

For my work experience I went to my local primary school for two main reasons:

1. I couldn’t get a placement at a Media company (radio etc.)
2. As it is in my village, I could get up at 5 to 9 and arrive still on time.

Work experience has been an interesting period of time but I think it was very very valuable. If anyone wants to know about the experiences I had please leave a comment but this post is to explain why I think that work experience is valuable.

1. You Learn About Yourself

One of the universally felt things about work experience is that you learn new things about yourself. How to adapt to work, How to work with new people, How you handle yourself under pressure (Um ba ba be).

For me I learnt about how I could adapt to teaching smaller children and how I could actually help these children learn more about themselves and help them in maths. I learnt I had a better ability to explain things than I thought.

2. You Learn New Things

More than just the spite and evil of teachers being thrust upon us I think one of the reasons we have work experience is because you learn something and it might be useful to you later on in life. Just a suspicion.

This is though true. You learn to develop relationships with other people in the workplace and how to interact when going into a room full of people who for all you know before you crack open the door could be drug dealing vampires (everyone’s greatest fear). You also learn to handle yourself in social situations when you find the office agreeing that the same CD that has been playing every 1 hour 5 minutes is not driving you insane and that you love Cher.

3. It Helps You Decide Your Life

I’ve been told this life thing is a big deal so I went and got one and then when you are young foolish you have to take yourself away from the Jackassing (can that be a verb?) and decide what your going to do with your life, unless your Johnny Knoxville and make a living doing that.

It can help you decide whether you want to what you go on your work placement to do? It can make you rethink your whole life plan. What if you get to the hospital and faint at the first sight of blood despite your dreams of being a doctor? Maybe this will make you look at the legal or management side of medicine. Equally it could make you think you will hate your work experience but when you arrive being the guy who puts the sizes on coat hangers is your true calling.

It helped me realise that I could go into teaching with no serious issues and in fact really enjoy it. I think I would do it later in life though after having gained experience elsewhere in life.

4. Time To Think

This is not necessarily specific to work experience week but having the week off school gives you time to think and with the work experience focus gives you motivation to think about life, exams your future and gives you time to focus and get down to this whole revision for these big huge exams.

On my work experience other than hours spent watching 24 and being aggravated by the flirtatious Lara Croft in her latest expedition I spent plenty of time thinking about what I wanted to do for a career whether this was suiting me or not. It was valuable in this sense as we all should have the chance to follow our dreams so this was a nice chance to think about that and of course trusty Plan B which if we are honest is our Plan A.

5. Unforgettable Experiences

On my work experience I defiantly had so many unforgettable memories. The ones that leave you with feelings you know that you will remember for your entire life.

One of those feelings came on the Tuesday doing maths when I had previously given a pupil some help on a maths technique he didn’t understand and then he understood it and he managed to work through it the next few days and he understood it because of me. It is an amazing feeling let me tell you. There is the polar opposite where you want to lie down in front of a combine harvester while its moving but they are all feelings that help us grow.

I really don’t think at any point I will be able to forget my work experience and if I did it would be a tragedy because it was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. I had some great times and anyone who thinks it is a waste of time should take it from em and everyone else who I spoke to and realise that it is a worthwhile experience and if you have someone who applies with real enthusiasm give them the chance.

Macworld has just began but the Philnote (could it catch on?) has just began so I thought I would say what won’t happen over the course of 2009 Macworld.

1. MacWorld Newbies Will Not Refrain From Making A Mess In Their Pants


Despite the fact that the almighty Steve Jobs is taking a sick day, the newbies to MacWorld will stall walk around looking starry-eyed as companies and people from across the macasphere appear to show their new inventions and innovations and as there are very few major companies their the tiny town will get its shine.

2. iJustine Will Kiss Steve Jobs’ Feet

Despite her love for the iGod, unless a surprise appearance happens, she will miss her chance to be able to finally meet her and we are all wishing she does, she even seems to have gone delusional as she seems to believe that a cardboard cut out of the man, is actually him. Let’s hope he does appear and one of our favourite geek gals can finally meet her maker .

3. There Will Be An Attack Of The Clones


Unlike Star Wars Episode II there will be no clones attacking from Psystar although it has been very much speculated. We know that those who want to spoil the mac by making it something that any old company can install on their beige box will not be attending Macworld and it will be the mac elite who turn up in their droves to support Phil on the stage. Phil Shall Not Know Anger. Nor Hatred. Only Love.

4. Silence


There will be no silence from some lady who doesn’t even believe that innovation and moving on should happen which I’m not even going to link to out of spite and immaturity. It is sad that Steve Jobs will not be attending MacWorld but still the fact that it will be the last keynote and that it is Phil that will be on stage means we should give him so much more support.

There are many more things that will be happening today at MacWorld and over the week and hopefully if you are there you will have an amazing time. For those unfortunate enough to be at home sitting refreshing Engadget at home upstairs.

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They say size doesn’t matter. This is true…. most of the time. This though can be a problem when it comes to your hard drive.

One of the things that is a problem with my MacBook recently has been running out of hard drive space. I don’t know why although I had an 80GB it wold always fluctuate really frequently. This became a problem and at the end of the day it became too bad and courtesy of @stuhelm (who on a side note is co-founder of the podcast I am sometimes a panellist on, the International Mac Podcast

So here is my tip, the way that storage is going these days is it is so cheap that you can afford something to back up your computer and more and this is my reminder just to buy some so that if your hard drive does fail you are really prepared for it. Check out Overclockers.co.uk to find some great deals.

This test over on Quizible tests your knowledge of the logos of some of the most popular,tech-web start ups. Now in the interests of good sportsmanship I won’t brag about my score and say that I got 100% *blows across finger as if it is a gun*. Mainly for the reason that I didn’t and got 22/34 which I don’t think is too bad.

How did you do? Let us know in the comments below.

Image from Adam Betts

If chaps like Pythagoras (yes that guy with the triangles that you learnt about in school who’s rule has frequently come into use during every day life) and other Greek philosophers didn’t have the original thought then would we still believe the earth was flat? What prompted Benjamin Franklin to do what he did for electricity?

In the world that we live in today, we are still bombarded with the shrapnel of the advertising industry playing to the same old tune. For instance every supermarket ad you see whether that be the Asda or the Tesco advert on TV today has about as much originality as the guy who starts his own personal blog thinking that people care about his opinion.The adverts we see these days are barely worth watching. Admittedly there are the odd exceptions (the Hovis advert is incredible in my eyes) but we still shop at the same old shops and these brands do tremendously well despite the fact that the medium of advertising in this way is getting tedious.

When then is the guy who doesn’t think inside the box and decides to reach outside it and take a stab in the dark going to get the credit and worth he deserves? I believe that is today.

Today with the mind-numbing opportunities of getting our voice out there and heard using blogging and the like we can’t all be lemmings following other bloggers off over the cliff into the abyss of melancholy. To be heard ; be original.

All you have to do is search for Apple Blog on Google to see that every man and his dog have their opinion. Admittedly a dog doing a blog would be an original idea but we have to do this effectively also.

What though if we go too far outside the box until the box is just an unrecognisable dot in the distance? There isn’t even a box anymore you can never go too far out the box. People now have their niche too break out too. There are other people out their for you to meet with and spread and connect with to learn tips from and generally get more into what you are interested in. For instance on the internet there’s a website about a man who has sex with cars and they have forums each to their own but what I’m saying is that their are niches and money to be made everywhere.

What I’m saying is just go for it if you want to start a blog. If you have a blog be more original. As long as you can be effective and original what have you got to loose?

With this post I will again finish with another quote:

“You’ve gotta be original, because if you’re like someone else, what do they need you for?” – Bernadette Peters

This whole blogger stereotype could not be truer today. As I sit wrapped up warm in a blanket in my PJs at 2 o’clock on a Thursday, I begin to write this blog post. Could I be thought of crazy for opening with a statement like that? Maybe, but let’s look past that and realise that I am a student and therefore (apparently) have permission to do whatever I want.

Ok so who am I?

I’m Chris a 16 year old blogger who lives in England and has an interest in all things technology. On this blog I will talk about that and a lot about my personal life as I begin to start up other websites with a technology theme. I also have an interest in Podcasts so expect to hear about that.

I also really want to get to know everyone who reads and please contact me or friend me up on twitter.

You can learn more about me on my about page and find other places to contact me across the intertubes there. Finally I really want to say a huge thank you to everyone who is checking this site out it really means a lot to me so thanks for spending your valuable time to check this out and I hope that you get a lot out of it as well as me. I aim to please. Let’s leave my hellos there for now as we look at life from the perspective of the late great Andy Rooney:

The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there’s a 90% probability you’ll get it wrong.