Zazzle

I started a zazzle shop selling prints I created from some landscape photos I took in Paris. Check it out below and the full shop here: http://www.zazzle.co.uk/mpressions
Please browse my shop and if you like what you see spread the word

Jamster what are you playing at

Jamster is a company that made its name bringing ringtones to mobile phones everywhere. Since that simple initial premise Jamster has diversified into a range of noises or "fun sounds" and apps such as the x-ray scanner. However I think their best product has got to be the car style dashboard. 

As the commercial rightly states it gives you all the information you need the date, the time and the phone's battery level (in  the style of a fuel gauge for a car) and for the great value of £4.50 a week (I don't know if you get anything else or if the ongoing fee is for the privilege of having this usually unattainable information delivered to me) . 

Well I was sold, I'm sick of not knowing the time or date and having my phone cut out at unexpected times because I have no way of checking the battery level. This app has saved my life as I have always questioned why phone manufacturers would not include such crucial information in a phones display when you buy it 

wait...  

This Weeks Watch - "Resident Evil: Afterlife"

Before I talk about the film I watched this week I would just like to state something. Film critics have always been a small group of people who through landing writing jobs have been awarded the opinion that their view is more important than the view of anyone else. Although I understand why there was once a need for film critics I believe that in the modern age their role in society is quickly beginning to become obsolete as the masses begin to decide what they like on their own without being told. Proof of this I feel comes with the Resident Evil movie franchise. The first three movies in this season have served to demonstrate the difference between critic opinion and public opinion. Every movie in the Resi series has been universally panned by critics and yet this is a stark contrast to their phenomenal box office success. I have always been a fan of these films and it's not only because I feel they are a brilliant example of action horror (where the protagonist can fight back and are not just helpless victims) but because Resident Evil is the perfect example of people power and public opinion winning against the ever decreasing power of a small number of critics. 

Anyway onto the film, Resident Evil: After Life is the fourth installment of the action horror video game adaptation. Video game adaptation are normally horribly done cash ins to try and make money from already successful franchises however the Resi films have always been better than the standard fare so I had high hopes for this film.

For the uninitiated the back story to Resident Evil is basically that a man made virus known as the T-virus created by a multi nation corporation known as the Umbrella corporation spark a world wide Zombie apocalypse. The story focuses on the main character codename project ALICE (Mila Jovovich) as she and other survivors battle Zombies and the Umbrella corporation in equal parts in hopes of finding a safe place free of the infection. The film begins in an umbrella facility and feature one of the best action shooting sequences since the lobby scene in the matrix. From then on in the film is composed of a number immaculate zombie bashing action sequences all wrapped together in a basic tale of survival and hope, with an injoke thrown in for any fans of the Prison Break TV show.

The film is in 3D and it should definitely be viewed that way. This film displays the best 3D effects I have ever seen (and yes I have seen Avatar). The 3D at no point feels like an add on but is used perfectly to make the audience feel that the action is bursting out of the screen. You feel completely immersed in the action as debris, bullets, smoke and shrapnel explode from the screen.

My overall opinion of the film is that it did not disappoint, It felt like a beautifully done matrix homage combined with a zombie movie all realised in the best 3D experience to date. The story is a basic one and if you want something complex this won't deliver on that front but this more than made up for by the concept of 3D bullet time. The critics have panned it once again but that hasn't stopped it opening number one in the US box office. 

This film is an absolute brilliant 3D action film and an event that every one should experience once if not twice or even three times.  

9/10            

This Weeks Watch - "The Girl who played with Fire"

In the last twelve months there have been a great number top A-list films. from the block busting 3D experience Avatar to the wonderful dark comedy of "kick-ass" and the mind bending sci-fi experience that was "Inception". But this week I watched a fantastic film that was not another Hollywood heavyweight but a wonderfully crafted Swedish film adaptation of a book series that has become a world wide phenomenon.

The Girl who played with Fire is a film based on the second installment of the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson (a series that has sold over 32 million copies worldwide). The film is a sequel to the superb "The girl with dragon tattoo". For the uninitiated the film focuses Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of Millennium magazine as he prepares to print a story exposing a sex trafficking ring.  The main character of the film Lisbeth Salander (a bi-sexual computer hacker who is also the girl with dragon tattoo) who Blomkvist encountered in the previous film is drawn into the story when she is framed for a crime she did not commit and requires Blomkvist's help to clear her name.

The film is a roller coaster ride of dramatic intrigue, exhilarating fight scenes and dark revelations of Lisbeth's past.  Although not quite hitting the heights of the first, this film is thoroughly intriguing and enjoyable if a bit on the long side. The film also heavily relies on you having seen the first installment in the series with a great amount of detail carried over, but this no bad thing considering how good the first film is.

In conclusion the first film in this series was brilliant and if you have not seen it I cannot recommend it highly enough. If you've watch the first one and thoroughly enjoyed it as I did "The Girl who played with Fire" is a must watch.

8/10  

The great student funding crisis

This is my first blog post and that being said I thought I would talk about a subject quite close to my heart. Being a student currently in the UK University system I feel particularly receptive to the media's constant student and graduate bashing. Headlines which seem scrutinise students at every level of education is an all too often occurrence in this country.   The problem is that it seems that nothing students do seems to satisfy the general populace. As pass rates for GCSEs and A-levels rise these these exams are deemed too easy and results achieved insignificant yet the the media also bemoans the lack of university places in clearing (the place for students who don't achieve their required results in these so called "easy" exams). So students shouldn't be achieving the good grades they are currently getting yet more students should be able to get a place at university, these are the sort of contradictions such news stories are filled with.

But it was a couple of recent stories which I found really interesting. The first I would like to mention was found in the metro newspaper which states that the number of young people who get a degree in the UK has fallen to 35% putting this country 15th in the world now behind countries such as Poland and Ireland. The Response of University minister David Willets is that the government this year will fund an extra 10,000 places at university. Now this response brought my mind back to an earlier story, you see with this country now facing massive cuts in every area, talk of the funding of extra university places seems like just another contradiction pushed in to the student debate. The story I'm referring to is the idea of a graduate tax proposed by Vince Cable (the cabinet minister responsible for higher education) as one solution for filling the gap in university funding.

The graduate tax in principal would be a permanent tax on anyone who graduates university which would mean they start paying the government back earlier and continue paying them even after your debt has been cleared. This is proposed as an alternative to ideas such as simply raising tuition (to anything from £5000 - £7500 a year) or allowing universities to operate privately. The problem is that no matter which solution is chosen students will have to pay considerably more for education in the future.

Now there are those out there who believe that students having to pay more of a contribution towards their education is not really a problem, but the cost is quickly becoming a bigger and bigger barrier to entry for working class students looking to enter university. As I have already stated the number of young people gaining degrees is falling and asking students to pay more and start their working life's with more and more debt is only going to exacerbate the problem. University will soon become seen as an unattractive and altogether very elitist option and even if the number of students applying to university continues to increase is it fair to continually chip away at the advantage gaining a degree is suppose to afford students by saddling them with ever increasing levels of debt.

Now we are currently far from American style fees resulting levels of debt of around £40,000 before living costs but I do think we are starting to see the tip of that ice berg, when my parents went to university it was free, just the year before I started fees were £1,000 a year and now I fees currently stand at over £3,000 a year.    

I know that as the world recovers from a recession and universities continue to require greater funding the money has to come from somewhere but I think there is another option not being considered. If tuition fees are to increase they could also be means tested. Currently the size of the maintenance grants is based on the income of whoever is supporting the student applying yet fees are set at one level for everyone. I believe fees could be also be subsidised by the government base on how much each student (and those who support them) are able to pay.

I am hoping that one day we will see the return of free university education for all but if we do not want to take away the option of university from a large number of young people we should adopt the approach of those who can afford higher fees should pay more money and those who can't afford the fees pay less.

In conclusion as students face the toughest job market in about three decades I think those in charge should give them a break. 

Why should students have to pay for the great student funding crisis?