poem a month 3rd poem

So this is my 3rd poem a month entry; enjoy:

Through the fire

Through the fire there is misery, through the fire there is pain. And through the fire there is a boy, who will never see his family again.

Through the fire there is devastation, through the fire there’s no hope. And through the fire there is a boy, who is finding it hard to cope.

Through the fire there is horror, through the fire there is loss. And through the fir there’s a gang, who wanted to show the world whose boss.

Before the fire there was a boy, who was quietly laying in bed. When suddenly the house was alight. And all of his family were dead.

Through the fire he saw the smoke, through the fire he saw the flame. And through the fire he knew; who exactly was to blame.

Through the fire there was an exit, through the fire there was a drain. And through the fire he climbed down it; in the pouring rain.

Through the fire he called the fire-brigade, through the fire he nervously waited. And through the fire he knew; what a war this fire had created.

Through the fire he wanted to kill them, through the fire that’s what he said. And through the fire there were so many thoughts; running through the small boys head.

Through the fire the boy sat crying, through the fire we knew what was wrong. As this heart broken boy sits on the pavement, he knows his parent, are already: gone!

Must be the music live final

Must be the music is another reality tv show in which acts audition and try and sing their way into the next round. If the act is good enough to get to the final, not only does it mean they are at the final stage; but the final stage will be taking place at wembley arena!

The show differs from other shows like x-factor in the way that not only do the bands commonly sing original songs, but they can perform as whole bands as well; with their full set of instruments.

The arena was packed out with roughly about 10,000 people; pretty immense eh? No-one really knew how the artist would perform; especially as for some of them, it was only the third time they had ever performed to an audience!

It's fair to say; that the show was a massive success. To start off with just the fact that it had 10,000 people meant that it certainly wasn't unpopular. And then the show over all. Well it was brilliant in my opinion. All of the acts reached up to their expectations; and the atmosphere was superb. But that's just the basics on what made the show so good.

To start off let's talk about the acts themselves. They were: Missing Andy, Emma's Imagination, Daithi, The pictures, Pepper and piano, and Hero.

To start off it was Missing Andy. And they certainly had my vote. They seemed like true entertainers commanding the stage and creating an absolutely massive atmosphere. The song was great and as well was highly catchy.

Then Pepper and piano. Now for a band that had only really been together for a matter of months, they were incredible. They sang quite a sweet and heart warming song and was also highly memorable.

Next up was Daithi. He plays the violin, but with a difference. he uses a loop machine to record beats right there and then, and then also loop them. He then uses his violin to play other beats and loops he has just created. Everyone seemed to wonder with him, how long can we hear it before it just becomes repetitive. Well; no matter what he still put on a great show. The beats were fast and very high tempo, and the sound worked brilliantly in the big arena.

Next was Emma's imagination. She was simply a girl and her guitar. I must say that for a girl and her guitar she still created an excellent atmosphere. Her song was a gentle, yet emotional song, and was sang beautifully.

Second last was The pictures. I had really liked their song in the previous round; yet this time I wasn't as impressed. It was a pretty typical sounding rock song, loud drum beat and guitar, but just not as catchy as I found the song by Missing Andy was.

Finally was Hero. Now there is no doubt that this young girl at only the age of 11, is a highly talented harpist and and singer. Yet it was apparent that at this young age she still had a lot of progression to do. This show would get her the support and the help she needed, for her to carry on as a musician, and only get better and better over the next few years.

My running order. I personally would have said:

1st- Missing Andy

2nd- Pepper and piano

joint 3rd- Daithi and Emma's imagination

4th- Hero

and finally The pictures.

The 3 acts that went through to the final stage were: Missing Andy, Emma's imagination, and The pictures.

Missing Andy were as good as ever, singing another great and highly catchy song.

Emma's imagination sang another soft and gentle song, and again was sang to perfection.

And The pictures sang the song they did in the previous round, which was better and more catchy, but over all I had to say Missing Andy just had the edge.

My favorite act may have been Missing Andy, but that was mainly because I liked there style of music and they are the sort of band that I would listen to and buy their album.

In the end it was Emma's imagination who grabbed the title of must be the music 2010 winner!

It's fair to say it was thoroughly deserved with 2 highly emotional songs both with great power and brilliance. It was amazing to think that this girl went from being just a busker on the street; to winning must be the music!

The judges. There were 3 superstar judges for the show, and they were: Jamie Cullum, Sharleen Spiteri from the band Texas, and also Dizzee Rascal. On the night not only did the 3 of them judge the acts, but also they performed as well.

Jamie was fantastic; not only is he a highly talented pianist, but also a great singer.

Sharleen sang a texas classic: "You make me feel", and it was a great choice. It worked so well with the big arena and the sound with top notch.

Finally Dizzee sang bonkers. And again the up beat fast tempo song worked well with a large arena, with the crowd going wild and a brilliant light show on display as well; as you would expect from Dizzee.

The obvious question for this sow is how: How does it compare to the x-factor? Well, to be honest I actually prefer it. Not only do the artist get to sing original songs; avoiding any cheap karaoke covers of songs. But also with the full band being allowed to play as well; you really get the complete feel of the bands sound and their style.

So over all I think must be the music is a excellent show; so x-factor: you better watch out!

Review: The umbrella academy- apocalypse suite

Apocalypse suite is a graphic novel I had been wanting for a while; mainly because of it's writer. The one and only Gerard Way from my chemical romance. I knew that he had studied art before he took up music but it wasn't till quite a bit later that I discovered he had written a graphic novel.

Let me just start off by saying that I loved it. Everything from the great one liners to the gripping story line. The story itself starts off quite simple. 7 kids are born all at the same time all from mothers who were not ever pregnant. Strange enough on it's own I know. And then we find out that these 7 children are all uniquely special; and by that I mean special abilities: super powers!

The term super powers in graphic novels and comics is obviously one that is seen to be far too over used. Where's the originality? Well the cleverly thought out plot is the original bit. A gang of villainous evil masterminds want to take over the world; but it's how they intend to do it that gains the plot it's brilliantness and originality.

The story starts off with these kids on a mission at first. But then leads on to when they are grown up. Tragic events have taken place and the 7 of them have lead separate pathways. The story then leads on at a nice and steady pace with how the 7 f them are forced back together; to fix the problems that are unfolding in the story line.

The book shows a great diversity of humor; to true; strong and powerful emotion. The action is nicely paced and spaced out and the art does well not to over crowd the scenes; especially with 7 heroes fighting off all of the enemies. The action also does well not to seem too forced. Like the makers have just added an unnecessary explosion or fight scene just to make the story interesting. Instead the action ties in nicely with the story line; and shows the exciting; gripping and explosive plot as it's reaching it's climax during the action scenes.

Finally is the term graphic novel. This is really shown at some point in the novel; as it sure is graphic. As someone's head explodes right out of the page: it sure shows the rue meaning of a GRAPHIC novel! However this again is done very nicely as a way of showing the characters true power; feeling; anger and emotions.

So The umbrella academy - apocalypse suite is really a great and highly enjoyable read. From it's humorous plot suddenly turning emotional and dramatic; to the action as it explodes off of the pages!

Firebox press event

The firebox press event was an event held by firebox (Duh) where they displayed all of their new released and soon to be released products for the press (Also duh)

Firebox held a competition to write a review of any of their products. The winners review not only gets posted on pocket lint (A gadget new and reviews website) but as you may have guessed from the title of the blog the winner also gets to go to the press event. I was home one weekend when I checked my twitter. I saw that firebox had posted the winners up. As I saw that the winners were Joel and 1 other person; that's when my hopes started to go up quite a bit.

I then quickly clicked on the link to see that this Joel they had mentioned in the tweet was indeed me. The winner of firebox writer of the year competition; I was speechless!

I never win anything. I mainly enter art competitions on a website called deviantart. And I'm always well aware that I am up against professional artists. But I enter them anyway so that I can say I've entered; and that I've used my time a bit more productively. But I had also entered a few writing competitions; I knew that my writing was a lot more developed than my art; but still I'm up against professional writers.

To be honest it was more the creativity that made the difference and the impact. Even though it was a review (something I'm practicing doing as often as I can) I decided to do my review as a poem. So that all of it rhymes, but describes all the products positives through rhyme.

It was a risk; I had no idea what the judges were looking for, and if pocket lint were going to submit a review like this on their website; as it was obviously COMPLETELY different from their style. So I hoped that they would like my different style of reviewing. Luckily for me they really did :)

So the press event itself. I went with my brother Jonathan and luckily the day was perfect, as we finished school at 12 o'clock due to their opening evening. This meant I had time to go up to london, shop a bit; and then get something to eat.

As I walked up to organizers; they said to me " Can I help you" sounding quite confused as if thinking " but you don't look very buisinessy!" I then told them that I was the competition winner and they showed me to one of firebox's organizers. She told us what it was and how we can simply go to whichever stool and product we want, and take a look.

I must say that it felt pretty good feeling quite important for once, among all these top journalists and gadgety people. We even found out that dragon Duncan ballantyne was there earlier showing off one of his new products.

The products there ranged from a remote control tron motorbike, to a giant nerf gun, all the way to a tiny desktop vacuum cleaner. We stayed for a couple of hours testing out the various new and soon to be released gadgets, and in some case trying to work out what an earth it is. Like a mini acupuncture bed, with plastic nails: is it meant to be relaxing-wow!

At the end of it after we had pretty much tried out everything; including really cool 3d cameras and the giant nerf gun (trying not to accidently hit the same person repeatedly) And we were both given a goody bag with various firebox products inside.

In the end it was a brilliant day; to roam around and have a bit of a play. But I Had thought earlier, that just winning was good enough; but it was still really cool; to see all their new stuff!

Short stories

As you already know I enjoy writing the odd story every now and then. So here is a short story for you to read and hopefully enjoy :) So here is the story of snow white retold; told from the perspective of the so called EVIL stepmother.

Snow White retold

As the mirror smashed to the ground, so did my hopes and my dreams. Everyone says I’m the evil stepmother; some even call me a witch! All my life all I have ever done was care for my beautiful step daughter, my precious Snow White... After her real mother died when she was just a baby, and her father abandoned her, I took her in and looked after her. She was everything to me, all I have ever done was protect her; from him: the evil servant. Let me start back at the beach 10 years ago. the beach was a place where my mother use to take me when i was a child. it had beautiful rocks, and the sea was as clear and as blue as the sky above us. the bright green palm trees standing there so tall like soldiers with their branches reaching out into the heavens. I had gone off to get us both an ice cream, when he first appeared in her life. He tried to make her go into the water, he tried to drown her! As I walked along the golden beach, with the sun blazing out at me; not everything was fine and dandy. I ran over and pulled her out of the water, he had left her to drown. she was only a child.

All throughout her life he had tried to separate us, yet I never saw his face clearly, except for once. He stared at me, I saw deep into his eyes. That pure look of insanity, his face practically spelled out the words evil. Face like a disease, scars you on the inside, yet shows no traces of damage on the outside. I think he loved me, I mean why else would you want to get rid of my dear Snow White? Snow White was a perfect step daughter, so kind, caring, and always really considerate towards other people. I had always wanted her to be a model when she was older. The mirror was my present to her for her 8th birthday. She was a precious rare gem, she was simply one of a kind...

We lived together in a nice little house. It had blue window frames, and dark orange roof tiles. The bricks were a dark red color and we had flowers of every kind, and color growing in our front garden.

I hired a servant “ Why do things yourself when you can have someone else do it for you? ” , is what i always use to say. I had seen his advert in a leaflet that was put through my front door. The servant was of a short stature, not tiny, but more on the short side. he wore very plain clothes and had a hunched back.

I said to him, the servant: “ Why don’t you take Snow White out just for a bit of fresh air; whilst I get on with my housework? ” He agreed to this, but I never did see that evil smile appear upon his face as he turned away from me!

As Snow White walked through the bright green woods, she could hear the birds calmly singing; with the smell of flowers and freshly cut grass gently filling her nostrils. As the warm breeze slowly brushed against her face: she never saw what was coming next; and neither did i! He lied, just like he had done every other time. He told her to run, and never return. He said as well that i had sent him to kill her! Guess he wasn’t a murderer after all, just didn’t have it in him.

He came back to the house, he walked over to me.

“ Finally we are alone my dear ”

“ But where is Snow White ” I asked?

Don’t worry; she is safe” he lied.

I am not usually an aggressive person, so this was completely out of character.

“ Get out ” I screamed!

In fear, he shot out of the house, not even thinking to look back. He ran past the old wishing well and raced down the smooth stone pathway. I must have seemed like the Devil myself; with the fires from Hell burning the ground beneath me! I sat alone and thought to myself how Snow White must be feeling right now. I felt so guilty for letting this stranger in to our home: what have I done? I had failed her, how could i have been so blind: was i really a bad mother?

After a few days I faced my demons and went to see her. I hoped that she would not have believed the servant that i had sent him to kill her. Whilst walking through the dark and gloomy woods, the trees hung over me like hands reaching out to grab me! A man suddenly approached me.

“ Where are you going young lady? ” he asked.

“ I am going to visit my daughter ” I replied and, “ And don’t i recognize you? ”

“ No, i don’t believe we have met before.” “ Here, why don’t you give this apple to your daughter?” he said to me.

He held out the apple. It’s bright green surface glistened in the sunlight.

“ I picked it freshly this morning from the finest tree in the forest ”.

“ Ok then, thank you ” I said to the kind man.

I carried on walking down a long, bumpy pathway. I reached a small peaceful cottage. I wondered if she was there; but as she softly sang to herself from inside the house, I knew it was her. Her voice like waves, gently hitting rocks. So soft, so calm and so relaxing. I walked up to the front door; it was small and red. I decided to put my hood up, I couldn’t risk her realizing it was me. Even though I had done nothing wrong, she would feel it was my fault that the servant had come out here to kill her. All I wanted to do was find her, make sure she was alright, then come back when I am ready and the time was right… I knocked on the wooden door, it felt all rough. Like it had spent all it’s time doing good, when in the end it only takes a beating for all the bad in the World. The door opened.

“Hello deary” I said. “ I am starting up a business around here delivering apples to your door ”. “I was wondering if you wanted to try a free sample? ”

She said yes and offered to pay. I insisted that she didn’t. I walked away knowing she was safe; yet still crying inside.

A few days later, I was sitting alone in my house. I heard a horn; I wondered what it could be? As I looked out of the window, a very well dressed man rode by on a horse. I wondered if he could be Royalty, maybe a Prince? I saw as well what appeared to be the Prince’s loyal companions and courtiers all dressed in extravagant red velvet. I quickly grabbed my coat and went to see what was going on. A big crowd had gathered. I stood at the back. I could see at the front seven small looking men: I wonder if they were dwarfs? And then there was a coffin. I couldn’t see who was inside. I peeped through a gap in the crowd; it was Snow White! My heart sank. I started to panic: how could this happen? What had happened? I managed to calm myself down. “ i prayed that somehow she was going to be alright ”, I told myself, please just be alright. The Prince got off of his horse. He was tall, handsome with a very good posture dressed in the finest satin in the land. He looked like a strong and fierce lion on the outside, but inside he was a soft, sweet and kind puppy. He walked towards Snow White. He bent over; he gave her a kiss. Everything went silent. Everyone anxiously waited to see what would happened, then suddenly; her hand twitched! Her eyes slowly opened. “Where am I ” she asked rather confused. “ You are safe now my dear, replied the Prince.” “ Come with me to my castle. ” he added. The two of them rode off into the sunset. As they set off into the distance, I stood there: sad, heartbroken and all alone.

The best of the rest- original xbox

This is the feature where I am going to be picking my favorite games for the different consoles. This time it's the original xbox. These by the way are in no particular order. So they are all equally as good. So here is my top 6. I tried to get it down to a top 5, but it was too difficult to eliminate any of the games. But comes on; it's not like there's a rule that you HAVE to have things as either top 3s, 5s and tens.

so Firstly is Oddworld strangers wrath. In the game you play as a bounty hunter ridding the place of bounties and villainous foes. You have 2 main weapons. Firstly is your rather tough fists. and secondly is a crossbow type gun. The difference is with this weapon is that the ammo you use is live bugs! Each bug has a different effect on your enemy. some will simply zap or stun your enemy, where as other are explosive or will latch onto your enemy biting vigorously at their flesh; nice! Each enemy you have to capture has a certain price depending on how dangerous they are. You will also earn more money by simply stunning your foe, and sucking him up using your special weapon. Stranger himself is an extremely enjoyable character to play as. He appears to be half beast, well; he's certainly got the pace and agility of a lion or a tiger. As you sprint through the game at full speed and leaping through the air, it truly is satisfying. The graphics are quite simple but show an effective view of the once peaceful towns. Stranger himself looks like a typically cool and sly bounty hunter; keeping his cool even when heavily outnumbered. the enemies also are made to look very much like goblin type characters; creating a nicely evil feel to them. The gameplay is done very well in the way that the enemies get harder, and your weapon variety gets increasingly bigger. With the increases of toughness in your enemies; it really can sometimes encourage a nice tactical strategic type gameplay of how you are going to pick off your enemies 1 by one. The only problem I found with the game is saving it. Unlike most games oddworld allows you to save the game every time you take even a single step forwards. This can sometimes encourage you to simply take out an enemy, and then save it each time you take out the next enemy. It makes the game a lot less challenging and doesn't always allow you to make the most of the tactical and strategic style of gameplay.

secondly is grabbed by the ghoulies. The story of the game is that you and your friend are walking along on a normal day, but then it starts raining. So you decide to take shelter in an old creepy and spooky mansion: big mistake. Your friend is quickly kidnapped from you, and you are left alone in the mansion to try and get her back! The game works in the way that the levels are pretty much each room of this enormous mansion. However there are individual chapters to this story. The gameplay works in what is seemed to be a very unique way. It seems like a simple fighting game as you fight the various enemies in the mansion; but the unique part is in the way you fight them. You have to fight them following certain rules and regulations. Like complete the room by not taking any damage, finding a hidden key; using weapons only, and many more. Sometimes you are made to also complete these tasks in a certain amount of time. If you either run out of time or brake the rules; then you will have to face the wrath of the grim reaper! One touch of his hand and you will instantly be brought to your doom. But you can use him to your advantage; as anything he touches dies. So by running behind enemies they will be killed by the grim reaper. If your mission is to eliminate all enemies in a certain amount of time; then by killing a few enemies for you, grim could actually complete the challenge for you; therefore opening the next door for you as well. The story. As I said the story has various different chapters, and in each of these come missions, extra challenges; and complications for your character. The story runs pretty smoothly and does not make you feel like the complications have only been added to extend the length of the game. Finally is the graphics. Now these are a particularly good feature of the game as the many ghoulish monsters and characters are animated very nicely in a cartoony way, adding comedy to the game as these skeletons throw a monster disco!

Thirdly is voodoo Vince. The story of this game starts with a shopkeeper getting kidnapped. In the process of this using some magic zombie dust, vince the voodoo doll is brought to life. The game then follows a pathway of vince going throughout the levels with each level getting closer to his master. The controls are quite simple. Simple punch button, one to do a spin attack ( like crash bandicoot) and another one lets you float in the air. The best part of Vince's attack comes from his special abilities. once your power up meter is full vince can release a special attack. Being a voodoo doll a small animation then comes on the screen involving Vince getting killed in some way. This then automatically kills the enemies a certain distance away from him. The good thing is the uniqueness of self-harming to harm others, and the wide range of death animations. The bad side is that all of the death animations have the same effect; instant death. None of the power ups are any more powerful than the last. So although you get a new animation; it still has the same old effect. The platforming elements of the game however are superb. it's brilliantly fun whilst riding around on a giant rat, shooting in a rocket ship, and slinging your way through a magical swamp world/level. The graphics at times can be seen as one of the weaker elements as they can at times be seen as quite dull and grainy. However the settings and locations in this fantasy game do make up for it nicely. The only other bad elements of the game is firstly how sometimes it's very unrealistic. Not the fact that it's a fantasy game, but how when gliding towards a ledge and he misses it ever so slightly; vince doesn't make the effort to even try to grab onto the ledge. So instead you just fall to your doom! The final bad point is how when you run out of lives the game automatically sends you back to the main menu, instead of just being able to reload from last checkpoint.

Next is crimson skies. You play as a pilot/ action dogfighter flying around in your cool old fashioned style fighter plane, having dogfights in the sky and shooting enemy planes out of the air. The basic concept of the game is simple, it's a shooting game with planes. But with a whole variety of missions, planes, and gun turrets; there's certainly enough to keep you entertained and busy. The enemies actually are varied quite nicely. Ranging from a simple fighter plane, to a Zeppelin; all the way to a giant robot. The graphics are nicely done, with great detail on each of the different planes that are available to you. Finally is the story line, and as friends go missing and giant robots suddenly appear in your way; just like the planes; the game also does some brilliant twists and turns along the way!

Second to last is Conkers bad fur day. This game is truly hilarious, the humor is brilliant and really well thought through; so much so that it even makes you want to watch the cut scenes. The gameplay again is of a very platform style. With battling monsters such as a giant poo and a talking pitchfork guy; you kind of get the idea that not only is this a platform style game; but it's not completely serious. You play as Conker, a squirrel, who has woken up after a hang over the night before, and has found himself in a strangely magical place. He starts with the brilliant phrase of " it's just going to be another one of those days." A brilliant phrase that I'm sure most people can relate to where you know from the morning that it's just not going to be a good day. The game then continues as he makes his way through this magical land. On the way you Have to solve puzzles and run through this platformer facing any living, or non living objects that get in your way. The graphics once again are done in a rather cartoony and jokey way and the animation for this magical world is very well done and I see it as a stereotypical fantasy/ fairytale like world that we all imagine when we try and think of them. Finally Is the story line. Now as I said this is Absolutely HILARIOUS throughout, as you come across various characters, face new foes; and watch the brilliantly made cut-scenes unfold. The final added bit to Conkers bad fur day is the online and the multiplayer co-op. This lets you play as Conker as a soldier, with various weapons and enemies; it will keep you and your friend entertained for hours. The thing that I found so ironic about this added part to the game; is simply the way this cute little squirrel; is now in a soldiers outfit shooting down his enemies!

Finally is a game called Kung fu chaos. You play as a character in a movie. And each level is the next scene from the movie. As you can probably tell from the title, there is obviously going to be quite a lot of fighting; kung fu style! But that's not all the game offers, as although some levels simply have you fighting your way through the level; whereas other levels have you in a rubber ring trying to knock the enemies off of the iceberg you are standing on. Other platform style levels include literally throwing your rescued damsel in distress straight at your enemies. Catching stuntmen as they fly out the window; all the way to escaping from zombies in a maze pacman style. The graphics of the game certainly suit the cartoony, comedy action super hero style. And finally the story line. Well this was probably always going to be a strong point with the game being done as a movie. So as you play through action packed levels, and then go to extremely ridiculous challenge scenes; the story line follows the pathway of the scenes being both very action packed, and extremely ridiculous, yet still very amusing!

So that concludes my review to the top 6 ( not 5 ) games for the original xbox; hope you enjoyed it.

miloism of the month 2nd entry

This is the 2nd Miloism of the month; and this time it's looney hour. Every day there is ALWAYS, AT LEAST 1 hour of the day where he just goes completely looney! He will dash around the garden at lightening speed like a headless chicken; he will bark and growl at the football; and then he sprints towards you and nips at your hand. Throw him a ball and boy will he chase it; but just don't expect him to give it back to you or hand it over! The strange thing about Milo is how he is on a completely different time zone to everyone. We sometimes take him out at night and somehow he still has SO MUCH ENERGY! And tug of war is the best with Milo, because he may be small; yet he acts as if he's got the strength of a lion. Yeah we obviously always win the tug of war; but that doesn't stop him putting up a fight! Now, this may not seem that cute to you ( A wild, growling, biting dog running at you at full speed) but the cute bit comes after his looney hour. As after looney hour he ALWAYS just crashes out. He's only a little pup; and he just used up all the energy he had in 1 hour. It's so cute to see how this wild and aggressive pup: is really just a cute little baby when he's curled up on the floor :)