Snap Election - What's wrong with Labour?

So Teresa May has called a snap election, for those of you reading in South Yorkshire, it's about who is going to run the country, not a decision of what to have for tea.

In past elections I have remained quiet about who I intend to vote for and kept pretty much out of conversations on social media as I felt (and still do sometimes) feel inept in understanding the parties and policies, but I have finally pulled on my big boy pants and decided to interpret things in my own way.

In that sense everything posted in this blog is my own personal feelings and I am not trying to dissuade anyone else's ideals.

Right, first thing first, let's address the elephant in the room, Teresa May, she looks like Margaret Thatcher Mk2, Darth Vader/Emperor Palpatine from the original Star Wars movies, stands up for the massive corporations and her rich mates as those of us lower classes who actually have to work damn hard for what we earn struggle to live. I also read that several Tory MP's were under investigation before she announced an election and should they have been sacked/disbanded/barred or whatever it is they do with disgraced MP's that she would have been forced to stand down as PM and hand the reigns to next largest elected party - the Labour Party. Because she has called the election, the investigation has been put on hold.

Now onto Jeremy Corbyn, let's forget for a minute that if Teresa May looks like Darth Vader or Emperor Palpatine then JC is obviously a dead ringer for Obi Wan Kenobi. The media say he is unelectable and that he is a lefty hippy, which is exactly what the Labour party need. It is also why there have been issues with his Labour peers since he was voted as leader.

The issues within the Labour party start with Tony Blair and his 'new Labour', it wasn't the left stanced party we'd known before, in actual fact it was more middle of the road, rather than being either left or right wing and in the 20 years since the rest of the party has followed suit, and along comes Corbyn to take the leadership, who is far left wing.

I agree with the majority of the policies he wants to fight for and love that he is the underdog (being a Barnsley fan I live my life being the underdog). I agree with the policy that he wants to save the nhs, fight for free university tuition, 4 new bank holidays, talk to the warmongers of the world and tax the massive corporations the tax that the Tory party has slowed them to get away with. He'll also make the super rich accountable for their tax avoidance. A main example of this is the Duke of Westminster who died last year and his children inherited around £9bn, but they avoided paying any inheritance tax because of a loophole (convientently made available by the conservative party) whereas the rest of us plebs would be liable for a 40% tax on anything we inherit.

Also it has recently come out that despite what is said in the media on average over the past 70 years Labour have borrowed less and paid back more than the conservatives ever have done.

On the subject of Trident, which Corbyn has said before that he wants to get rid of, being a nuclear power and saying that it is a deterrent is a stupid stand point. Using it a deterrent means that we would only use the weapons if another country used theirs against us, by which point we'd all be fucked anyway, and if we didn't have any and were fired upon then we are still part of the United Nations and they'd back us up.

What really annoys me is the people who are doing really well and condemn you for supporting Obi Wan rather than Darth May.

Anyway these are my thoughts on the subject and why I will be voting for the old unelectable man come June 8th.

Bear out.

Just a bit of fun.

Sooooo just seen that someone on facebook posted this as their status, the gist is basically to copy the text and alter the answers so they apply to yourself. Well I am gonna do it, but not post it to facebook, instead I am posting it on blogger. I am also not going to do as it says, I am going to tell how I did these things.

So here goes.

Bucket List - play along!!!! Put an X next to each thing you've done, then just copy and paste to your timeline and amend... I bet someone will learn something about you!!!
Fired a gun: several first time was an M16 automatic rifle and a glock 9mm at a Las Vegas gun club whilst hung over on a stag do. Also fired a few shotguns and a Lee Enfield rifle.
Gone on a blind date: Every first date I have been on was basically a blind date.
Skipped school: Never did it off my own back, stayed home when ill though.
Given birth: this one would be a bit difficult. (Maybe this was catered to women only).
Watched someone die: Nope, lost a few relatives, but never been present when they passed away.
Visited Canary Islands: Been to all of them several times.
Visited Caribbean: Not yet, but would love to go.
Visited Turkey: When I was 12 with the Family to Marmaris.
Visited Mexico: Watched my brother marry my sister in law in 2011, best holiday destination.
Visited Asia: Not yet, but Japan and China are on the to do list.
Visited Florida: 3 times.
Visited Australia: Another one on the to do list.
Been on a dream holiday: Any holiday I class as a dream holiday.
Flown in a helicopter: nope
Served on a jury: Why would this be on a bucket list???
Been to Washington: nope.
Been to New York City: landed there for refueling on the first trip to Florida, does that count?
Cried yourself to sleep: Yes whilst in pain, but if anyone asks then I am like Chuck Norris and will never cry.
Sang karaoke: got forced to play singstar once.
Paid for a meal with coins: Everyone will have at one time, usually after a night out whilst waiting for a pizza.
Made prank phone calls: Lice in my carpet and lice in my pubes comes to mind.
Laughed so much you cried: yes as a kid.
Caught a snowflake on your tongue: tried this, but don't think I did it right.
Had a pet: Digger the goldfish was indestructible for about 10 years.
Abseiled down a building/cliff: Nope and won't be happening any time soon.
Been skiing: yep to Italy with school.
Been water skiing: in Florida.
Been on a jet ski: also in Florida.
Been camping in a tent: Too many times.
Driven a motorcycle: Does a scooter count???
Driven in a speed boat: Nope but if I did it'd be like the opening credits to Miami Vice.
Jumped out of a plane: You'd have to push me!!!
Gone to a drive in movie: I wish!
Done something that could have killed you: I drive, use cutlery and operate heavy machinery, so yes.
Ridden a camel: Yeah, I didn't like it.
Swam with a shark: yes, but it was a baby at a Disney water park in Florida.
Been on TV: Does the crowd at a football match count?
Been in newspapers: Nein.
Been to a rave: Why would I? Rave music is shit!
Stolen any traffic signs: Never appealed to me, but seen plenty when I was at Uni.
Been in a car accident: Yeah the other driver pulled out on me with no space to stop.
Stayed in Hospital: Had a cyst removed in 2007.
Donated Blood: nope
Had to pay a fine in the past 12 mth: is insurance a fine? Seems like I never get anything in return for the hundreds I lay out every year.
Gotten a piercing: no
Gotten a tattoo: no
Driven a standard car: so that's a car then? Yes every day. (I think this is also catered to Americans).
Been Married: One day maybe.
Been divorced: kinda need the first one to happen first.
Fell in love I fall in love too easily.
Paid for a strangers meal: Why would I do this???
Driven over 100mph: Yes I know it's naughty but I have done.
Worked in a pub: ah the Staithes team loved me.
Been scuba diving-snorkeling: Snorkelled, chickened out of Scuba.
Seen a dead body: seen one ready at a funeral.
Lived on your own: There were 21 others in the house but I was at Uni and my room had it's own lock, I'm counting it.
Hold your finger down and select copy... Then go into status and hold down finger and select paste and put on your own status.

Well that wasted a good half an hour and seems that it was well and truly catered to Women and Americans.

New updates of modern classics

In recent years cinema has taken it upon itself to become shit scared of taking a risk, even when said risk could bring great rewards (I'm talking box office returns here) of course the risk could fail and wind up costing the studio.

But this fear culture has led to wave after wave of remakes of films that stand alone and do not need upgrading. A recent example of this is the ghostbusters remake starring several of Hollywood's more prominent comedienne 's such as Melissa Mccarthy, Kristen Wiig and a few other Saturday Night Life cast members. This in itself isn't a great issue, but when the original is a great example of cinema then a remake/reimaginig is not a welcome prospect.

Having waited for the first trailer in anticipation that it would stand alone and not ruin the memory of Dr. Peter Venkman, Dr. Ray Stanz,  Dr. Egon Spengler and Winston Zedmore, I was disappointed to see that they have gone for a more slapstick approach.

Admittedly this is only the first trailer and I hope that the end product lives up to its predecessor, however, I am not holding my breath.

Recently I watched another remake, this time it was 'point break' the film that helped propel Keanu Reeves from a time travelling stoner who always expresses shock, awe, appreciation and happiness in the same manerism ("Whoa") to being on the cusp of future action stardom, was remade as an update for the modern day extreme sports crowd, where only a small part of this film includes any surfing. the characters and even some of the story remains the same, so the lead is Johnny Utah, the big bad is Bodhi and even the shot in the original film where Utah chasing after Bodhi  hurts his knee and empties his gun into the sky makes an appearance, although in the remake it's just feels corny and unnecessary, like the director tried to make a love letter to the original and failed miserably.

And this is my main issue, as a child of the 80's these films will always resonate with me, but the remakes do not inspire the same wild eyed joy of the first time I watched them, nor do they inspire the wannabe film director in me to do the same thing.

Honestly as a film fan of all genres I am happy to watch any movie and some of them inspire me as something that I have never seen before. These are usually the films where a risk has been taken and for a change I am watching something original.

Many studios seem to copy one another and if an idea has worked then you end up with multiple franchises that are all in the same vein, an example of this is the future based dystopia The Hunger Games, which was a best selling book series that the spawned trilogies for other book series of a similar vein, namely The Divergent Series and The Maze Runner series also.

I wish the bodies at Hollywood would start taking notice of what their predecessors did in the 80's, movies like Indiana Jones worked and there is no reason that similar movies couldn't work today. A few years ago I heard that an adaptation of the game series uncharted was in development, however this has constantly stalled, and more recently another game series, the rejuvenated Tomb Raider series is also being muted as soon to be in development, along with Daisy Ridley reportedly cast as Lara Croft.

Anyway my original point is that remakes of great movies should be left well alone and not bled dry of any future revenue, but movies that weren't particularly great could be remade if done to a better standard than the original.

Signing off and climbing down off my high horse,

Ze Bear.

Welcome to 2015

Welcome to 2015!

I know we have just started April and are so far a quarter way through the year, and I apologise that this is my first post in a long time again.

Some day I'll manage to post a weekly blog.

Anyway apologies for having my head up my arsed but this year hasn't had the best of starts.

First thing that happened was on the 1st of January, I split up with my girlfriend of almost9 months, it might sound funny that it was a big thing to me, but I loved her and it tore me up that it came to an end, I guess in hindsight it was the wrong time for both of us and it takes 2 people to make a relationship work.

Next up was my, now known about, various health issues. Firstly about 2 weeks after the breakup I came down with an illness known as Bells Palsy, this is a nervous system issue that means you come down with temporary facial paralysis, in my case the right hand side of my face was useless. In my case I was lucky, I made a full recovery in 3 weeks, give or take a day or 2.

Next up was I was requested to have a blood test, this then needed repeating, and repeating again. Now as a direct result of these blood tests I have been diagnosed with slight type 2 diabetes (the doctors reckon that with diet and weight loss that I can beat it) this means that my body is producing insulin, but not enough, so I am on a drug called Metformin which will raise my cholesterol but provide my body with enough insulin. To bring my cholesterol down I am on Stetins.

Guess that's the bags of haribo and the chocolate bars out the window from now on.

I also still dream of being a film director, however the procrastination of writing a script is not helping the creative process.

Soo I guess that is us up to date, my body is knackered, my love life still sucks, but I promise I'll try not to leave it as long next time.

Chow for now.

Adam

Picture the Scene......

Picture the scene.....

It is the first full week back at work, and I am working with a shitty cold, granted the worst days are now behind me, but it doesnt change the fact that I am working with a snotty nose. I know don't all run at once ladies I know how attractive the excretion of mucus from the nasal cavity is!

In other news I have been developing an idea based on seeing the trailer for the new "Walter Mitty" movie staring Ben Stiller. It is basically about a guy who has worked hard for everything he has in life, but gave up on certain dreams to attain it, one of the things he has worked hard on, his marriage, suddenly has a break down, his wife dies suddenly of an aggressive cancer that she has neglected to reveal to her husband, as a parting gift she writes a series of letters that have a specific time of opening i.e. when you discover a place of true peace. She wants her husband to go after the dreams he gave up on to have the life they had, basically she knows how devoted to her, he is and concocts a way to keep his mind off grieving her death and instead focus on the adventures that she has sent him on. A final two letters are addressed "when you find love again" & "For the one who has earned your love".

Yeah I know its a soppy kind of tale, but sometime my mind works like that.

Se thi.

More than a year.....yet again!

More than a year has passed since my last blog!!!! WOW.

A quote I read once stated that life is what happens whilst you are busy making plans, well unfortunately I dont think I have been that busy making plans, I've done my fair share of gaming, complaining and gesticulating, but as such the only plans I've made are to attend a few weddings and a few gigs.

I have chased the wrong women, drank far too much alcohol and watched Barnsley FC to their current poor state of affairs.

This originally started as a kind of mission statement, this is what I am going to do and how I am going to do it. The issues arise when you realise that what you really want to do is hard! And I mean neuclear fission hard. I would have a better chance of watching Barnsley FC finish in the top 6 of the Championship than of getting into my preferred profession.

Yep I know that sounds hard and like an almost impossibility, but I am determined to keep plugging away.

Anyway to carry on with the catch up, in recent months I have managed to get pissed off with several friends, fail to escape the friend zone with disastrous effect, still keep my job in the factory and get a cold on New Years Day.

I realise that it has been a long time since my last blog and since a friend has recently committed to blogging herself, I have decided that a show of solidarity from myself would be to kick this all back up again, maybe this time I'll add in some juicy details like my constant failings with women!

Keep your eyes peeled!

Bear.

Idea's Man

So since this is my first blog in over a year I firstly will apologise for my absence. Sorry.

Right well in the past year I have come across several ideas that I would love to turn into a script that would hopefully one day soon wing its way into your local multiplex, unfortunately I seem to have ideas (that I think are great, you may think not) that start great but get so far and I feel like I am whittling on and not getting anywhere or I lose track of where the plot is going, or worse yet know where I want the plot to go, but cannot make it get there.

The most common of which is the latter. 3 stories I have concocted, all have a start, middle and an end which I just can't seem to join up without going round the houses, and needless to say it drives me mad!

So I have decided that what I am going to attempt to do is devise a few short stories, film and edit them and place them on YouTube for your future consideration.

Wish me luck.

Bear