Alton Towers - 2012

Alton Towers - 2012

Jake, Ben and Finn waiting for Air

 

Alton Towers, the place of many white knuckle, thrill and children rides. Me and a group of friends from the IT class all went to Alton Towers for the day at the expense of college. As we arrived after a hot cramped bus ride we all rushed straight to the gates and to our amazement there was a massive squirrel from Ice Age standing there having photos taken. We all gathered round pulling strange faces making those that walk by chuckle to themselves. 

We had a group talk about where to go first around the map board, then set haste towards our first destination which was... NEMESIS!!! The oldest, most exciting and fun ride Alton Towers has to offer. We rushed straight down the queue track into the cargo bay where you get onto the ride and waited. I'm like a kid in sweet shop when I go to Alton Towers, I was just standing there jumping and getting psyched up just for a Roller coaster ride? I know, how sad am I! We got onto the ride we were all waiting for and we were off. Cranking up we started to pull faces so our photos looked hilarious, but we ended up looking like we wanted to kill someone! Turn after turn and round the loop our faces stretched back into our headrests the ride was finally over. Being pumped after our first ride we reacted like ants when you pour hot water onto their nest. We wanted to go again. 

It was nearing 11 o'clock, but Air didn't open till 11, so we all headed for Ripsaw. Ripsaw is a ride that most people stand and observe just to watch the general public get drenched by water that contains a considerable amount of eye itching chlorine. We all slammed our bags into the nearest locker and made our way to the water soaked seats from the previous people. The bars come down not forgetting the crown jewels being crushed beyond belief. The odd yelp being heard the ride started. Whilst we span round and round the feeling of sick becoming a normal feeling for some of us the important LOCK HAPPENED! The lock is when the ride locks the motion of the spin and makes you go head first into the water jets which equals a complete soak from head to waist which the public love to watch. The ride finished then we all stepped off to collect our bags walking like we had soiled ourselves. 

In the queue for Air... Fag breaks... Gaming talk... Photo taking chances. We had to queue for 15 minutes which flew by, the sun was out so all was good at the time. We got straight onto Air which was quite lucky seeing as it's normally packed full of eager 12 year olds new to the experience. Air the ride that you're able to sing the Super Man theme tune on whilst pulling the Super Man pose without looking like a complete idiot.      Whilst you twist and turn flying around without a care in the world you just feel free till the ride finishes. Unfortunately for one of us Ben happened to get stuck in the ride whilst trying to get off bless him.

Ben stuck in Air ( Getting lucky )

Most of us were hungry after the first zone so we went and grabbed some food. As we approached a Burger King I happened to see the prices of the food and nearly died, but still paid seeing as I wasn't walking just to find a cheaper alternative. Finding the nearest table we all gathered and sat down to eat, till a duck decided to gate crash our meal and demanded feeding. Jake fed the duck whilst I videoed and snapped some photos of it. After the encounter with the feathered rebel we made out way to the X-Sector which contains the first vertical drop coaster, Oblivion and a few thrill rides such as the Enterprise and Submission which only a few of us went on. Seeing as the queuing time for Oblivion was 0 minutes all day we couldn't turn the opportunity down to go on it 4 times. The staff must of thought we were crazy to keep going on it again and again. We darted straight to the bay and locked ourselves into the ride eager to get up there and dropped straight into the dark abyss. We got to the edge, people resembled the size of ants and people were gripping onto dear life. I stuck my arms straight up into the air and my feet out ready to accept the g-force. The G-force made the blood rush straight to my head causing the feel of confusion to take over my mind.

As we quickly got off the ride to go and see our photos in the shop I could see the two Ben's faces light up with laughter. Now that Oblivion was done multiple times the next zone held the Queen of speed and the not so amazing Thirteen. We jumped into the queue for Rita leading to some right laughs with the group whilst we waited. On Rita it always says " Hold on tight " but am I seriously going to take their advice? No. I stuck my arms tight into the air, the track came crashing down and the lights suddenly turned GREEN!!!!!! Zooooooooooooooooom...... Desperately trying to stick my arms down there was no going back. Shouting and waving my arms we were going so fast I hadn't got time to think. In a flash the Queen of speed was conquered. We were going to go on Thirteen, but the queue was stupidly long and the ride wasn't even that good anyway. 

The duck of Alton Towers 2012 - <3

Seeing as some us wanted to get wet we decided to adventure towards the log flume. Since the log flume has been at Alton Towers it never fails to get the public wet ( I mean drenched from head to toe ) As we were queueing we were all trying to come up with an idea of what to do on the ride, so it came down to lifting our tops up and just pulling faces. C'mon we are lads... Forgetting there was no lockers we had to take our bags on the flumes with us and get them soaked just like our clothes. Getting 5 grown lads into a small log and 3 bags isn't the best idea. The only thing we could say whilst going round was " What a freaking sausage fest this is " Hahahaha. As we got to the top of the flume we were all struggling to get our tops up seeing as our bags were in the way, but we did it in the end. Which was a lot of effort. 

Topless log flume Jake, Rory, Finn, me and Will

We finished the day off with the river rapids which was quite a lot fun considering hardly none of us got wet apart from Will and Alex. We did end up running back to the Ripsaw again just to get wet which wasn't a good idea. Walking back to the bus  the lads decided to waste their money trying to win stuffed animals on stands that were most probably rigged, but it was really funny to watch them all fail.

Altogether going to Alton Towers with my IT group had to be the best time I have spent with them all and now we have all broken up for the Summer holidays. Thanks for a great time lads and also for being a great group to work with.

Special thanks to the duck and Bhav! See you after the Summer maybe!

End of the day - Alton Towers IT Group.

Thanks again guys it's been a pleasure to work with you all and laugh with you all, also talking about Tesco with Big Man John.

Luke St.Denis.

Making The Right Decisions

Making The Right Decisions

There comes a time in our lives where we have to make decisions that will affect us long term or short term depending on the repercussions of our actions or others actions. The decisions we make might not be forgotten or forgiven, but they do help us progress in life and help us get past those crucial hurdles that block our emotional thought process.

( I will finish the rest of when I am ready to think :) )

Confidence

Confidence
Confidence is a thing that most people lack in their life. Confidence is something that makes us become people that do not fear certain things that use to scare us as a young child, such as the dark or heights. Confidence is something that gives us that extra little push in life to do something we would never think about doing, such as volunteering or simply going on a ride at a theme park. We are guided by family and friends throughout each day of our lives getting that so called ' Confidence boost ' that we need to progress and excel in certain areas. Certain areas could be, handing your course work on in time, making new friends or going out into big open places.

Lately I have noticed that women and men are starting to lack confidence at our age which is between the ages of 15-18. Women feel the need to be the centre of attention by taking photos of themselves that show off their boobs or ass just to get 100+ likes on Facebook. Men also feel the need to take photos whilst showing their six/eight packs, but what does that achieve? Nothing... Women and men start to feel conscious about their bodies just because of some people flaunting theirs off which makes them lack confidence and then they start doing stupid things just to become this so called ' Perfect ' that us lads or women supposedly love!? 

Let me clear one thing up... I like women that are curvy, women that don't wear a tonne of make up, women that don't starve themselves just because they put 2 pounds on, women that have self confidence and take pride in who they are and women that do not want to be the centre of attention. I can't stand women or men that make others feel like crap just because they have small imperfections, It's unfair. We all know the real reason to all of their bitching and bullying is just because they can't stand themselves and they have to wear the whole of boots ( To those that don't know what Boots is, it's a cosmetics store etc.. ) and also wear clothes that EVERYONE BLOODY WEARS!!!  Jesus.... what gives people the rights to dog down or make others feel bad, it only makes them become someone that always feels inferior to the same gender and someone that they are not personally happy with.

Moving back to the whole confidence issue. We now live in a world where people have to look the same to fit in otherwise they will get talked about or bullied, everyone has to act the same or yet again we get bullied, but isn't it time we actually started accepting each other for who we are and not for what we try to be to fit in? It's a shame that I have to grow in such a time like this because it only starts to pressurise us all in the end.

We have all made others feel like crap before, but we can still question why others do it when we realise about the damage it can cause and also when we grow up and finally stop caring what others think and be ourselves.

Luke St.Denis

The Gaming World Is Dying.

The Gaming World Is Dying...

Since the 1950's videos games were being developed and they were based around vector displays, not analog video. It wasn't till 1972 when the first video game console came out which was known as The Magnavox Odyssey. TMO was the first console which was able to be plugged into standard television sockets allowing users to play in their homes rather than having to walk down to an arcade and waste money enjoying their favourite pass time games. The game Pong was released further into the year of 1972 which became a massive hit in the gaming world which was developed by Atari. As video game consoles development became a more frequent interest the Odyssey 100 and Odyssey 200 were released then other consoles that copied the technology only allowing one game to be played which was Pong.  

You might ask what this has got to do with New Technology, but it's quite clear. We are currently half way through the year 2012 and it's been 40 years since the first video game was created and 40 years since the development of the first console. Don't you think it's rather freaky how fast the development of consoles has increased in such a short time? 


New Technology has been created at a much cheaper cost due to the labour in China and in poor working conditions. New Technology has the tendency to break fairly easily compared to the blocks once known as the NES or the original Xbox, but it's becoming far to expensive to replace let alone repair such things like a screen on a 4th Gen IPod/IPhone. We could say that many years ago Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft were all up for customer care, but now all they care about is which game they could possibly copy from 20 years ago and give it better graphics or change it's name a little. Games back in the 90's such as Pokémon Blue, Red and Yellow were the very same games that most of us 90's and even 80's kids grew up with not forgetting the remakes of the early 00's which were still okay I guess. 


I walk past games stores such as GAME and Voodoo consoles and they're are becoming a thing of the past. Earlier this year GAME went into administration due to it's profit loss and also money that was owed to other people because of one obvious thing... IT DOESN'T OFFER THE GAMER WHAT HE/SHE WANTS ANY MORE! It's okay putting 4000000 stands with Farmville credits or Runescape credits on them, but no one is seriously going to buy them? Why don't they just make their shops more spacious and light rather than cramming stuff into it like a NEXT sale in the Winter. They could actually stock their shelves with all types of games rather than just sticking to a target audience which is the people that play the Xbox or PS3? PC gaming is becoming a bigger thing now since the development of PCs and kids finding it easier to build their own rig seeing as it's not rocket science, but GAME still chooses to cram the PC section into the corner just like putting a child in the corner for being naughty.

It would be nice to see new companies take the customers views into consideration, but most of them close after the first 4 months due to on-line sites such as STEAM or Origin which offer games for a much higher discount at excellent prices. That's another reason why most shops like GAME and Voodoo are closing down not just because of profit loss, but because of sites like STEAM taking all their custom. Even I have been using STEAM for 5 years now so I am sadly giving all my custom to STEAM rather than GAME, but like I said if GAME offered what they use to the industry wouldn't of been hit as hard as it has been.


Luke St.Denis

Freedom?

Freedom?

Freedom is a prospect of living a free life without commitment or worry. Nothing to tie you down such as controlling people or the fact most of us have no money. Just imagine a life without having to care about others, a life which people gave gifts rather than asking for money in exchange of goods. That will never happen seeing as we are programmed to worship money like it was God of some sort and the problem about caring for others is something we naturally do due to our emotions that connect us to that specific person.

 A simple walk in the rain across a baron field clears our minds of all the implications flooding our over worked brain, but when we enter back into the hectic world our minds become flooded once again with the problems we once got rid of on the field. I see freedom as an opportunity to build myself up to be something I am happy with before I commit to certain things such as relationships or working, but my thoughts about certain matters prevent me from doing so. Walks cleanse the mind allowing you to rethink over things that bother you and also make things become a lot clearer. Hey a walk is free and the free things in life are what makes us happy to be alive!!

 Luke St.Denis

Trust and Respect

Trust and Respect

Trust and respect are two similar things you both obtain through certain actions. Whilst obtaining one of these a certain person such as a close friend or family grow bonds with you. The bonds could simply be secrets or an act of love for one another. Trust and Respect both can easily be lost in the matter of seconds without battering an eyelid or without hesitation due to your actions and opinions. Personally I think trust takes longer to build compared to respect because trust is like handing your own life over to someone you once hardly knew and letting them know everything, well mostly everything about you. Some people find it hard to trust others because of previous incidents with family or friends and that is why I think trust is a lot harder to build rather than respect.

Respect comes in many forms. Respect might be awarded through acts of good or simply sticking up for a friend or person that is in trouble. Respect is quite a funny process seeing as everyone has their own ways of dealing with certain situations and also they have their own opinion. Lets say I was debating about a subject of immigration and started talking about the reasons why they might seek refuge in the U.K. such as war in their home country or looking for a better life seeing as our education and health care system is top grade. People might kick up a fuss and attack my views seeing as the media twists everything and makes the public think they are job takers and scroungers, thus earning me less respect with that select group of people, but on the other hand there will be people that will agree which will earn me respect in their eyes.

As I come to think about it Trust and Respect can be similar, but they are completely different in certain situations. Whilst trust grows bonds with the implications of love and relationships respect differs depending on what we say and how we say things to different people.

Trust is a touchy subject for most including myself. I am rather paranoid thinking that everyone is against me when clearly it's not true. Just because of one person that decided to go behind my back and play with me like their toy it made me become insecure thinking that everyone will be like that in relationships making it hard for me to open up and trust people. Being brought up by parents that make sure I respect my elders and that I trust them seeing as they're my parents it makes me realise that both trust and respect are the most important things a person can do to another human being.

Luke St.Denis

Exciting Prospects.

Exciting Prospects

Normally a teenager of my age would be gearing up for the Summer or parties and looking forward to hanging out with friends, but I am more looking forward to just attending my local council meetings and debating with friends about certain topics. Every week Wednesday is the best day for me. Late start to college at half 1 and a late finish at half 4 then going into town at 6 to go to the council. I make it seem like I have such a boring life, but trust me I do not.

Next year I am hoping to do something called Camp America which allows me to work out their for 9 weeks being a Councillor for kids that attend the camp. The kids will range from young to old and come from all different backgrounds. I will be doing this in the Summer of 2013 hopefully, but first I have to fund and sort out my CRB check when I turn 18 and start to volunteer properly. I will have to pay out roughly about £566 including other things so to be safe I would say about £1000 max and also I would earn between $600 - $800 dollars whilst I am out there.

Doing something like that would be a major opportunity for me seeing as working with kids is something I would like to do when I am older and it gives me the stepping stones to allowing me to excel in different situations when they arise. Camping in America for 9 weeks working with kids that all have different stories seeing them progress through camp and gain skills they will use from then on would be an amazing thing to see and do.

Luke St.Denis

Nothingness.

Nothingness

I tend to get these random moods where I just sit looking at my computer screen doing nothing, but just thinking about something I can't quite catch up with. It's like you have forgotten how to think about things and all you focus on is things that are around you. You try your hardest to think about something that you want to do or like, but all you get is a dead end. Why does this happen?

Nothingness. Could nothingness actually be something? Something as in a thought process or a vast space? Something like that will never be answered with a straight answer, but with many confused and incorrect ones. What could be the reason to this? Could it be that my brain has had a system dump and crashed its self ready for a reboot or has it just simply called it a night and went to bed... Hmm... WAKE UP YOU STUPID THING!! *Taps head violently*

Luke St.Denis

Moving on...

Moving on...

When someone comes into and then leaves our life we tell ourselves that we will be fine and move on. Each day we say the same thing to ourselves " It will be fine I will just do something to entertain myself whilst I forget about it all " Whilst we do these certain things to help ourselves we can't help but think of what would of happened if they didn't leave. Our brains hold close to us the memories of what once was something you were happy about, but things change and we become a prisoner of our own mind.

The mind is far to complex for us to fully understand. We use it to our best abilities and use it to make decisions that will affect us for the rest of our lives. I have recently been looking into subjects about the heart and how the heart actually controls all of our thought processes, but the brain just gives it a thought and then works on it. A test was done with pulse magnets that were connected to yoghurt which is a living organism. When the test subject felt certain emotions the body/heart gave of electro pulses that affected the yoghurt and changed the readers. What I am trying to say is what if the heart really is what makes our minds up and controls how we feel about everything..? The relationship term heart break isn't called Mind break now is it?

There isn't a day that goes by which I don't think about people I loved that passed away such as my Granddad or Dad. Me and my Dad didn't really have the best relationship I suppose at the age of 5 he made the decision that he didn't want to see my any more and that's when I started to resent him. I am not one of those people that easily forgives people unless my emotions are caught in a crossfire ducking and diving whilst searching for closure. He sadly passed away a few years back in August, but I just shrugged it off and went meh... I have always been in denial about certain subjects because of things that happened in my past, but it doesn't mean I never cared. My Granddad was like a Father figure to me. I spent most Summers round his with my Nan and we spent heart warming hours playing together and walking along the beach down the coast.

I would say the passing of ones we hold close to us will make us stronger in the long run because we still try our hardest to make them proud knowing that some how they're watching over us seeing if we make them proud even if they are not here with us today.

Even if my Dad didn't want to see me he still asked my Brother how I was and what I am doing, it still shows that he cared, but I was just a handful and very stubborn from a young age. Moving on is hard, but it takes a lot of time to leave the past behind and for us to focus on the future knowing that they will never get to see us become a Dad or someone happy with a Job they strived for.

Luke St.Denis

Television and Emotional Properties

Television and Emotional Properties

Since I was a young boy my parents would sit me down in front of the picture box and let me enjoy my favourite flashy cartoon for a few hours. My parents never let me just sit there for hours on end and let my brain turn to mush, they actually cared about my mental health and also got me more physically involved with other things such as arts and crafts, learning to ride my bike, going out to the shops or taking me down the brook to splash about in the Summer so I was active.

Many years ago that's how life was. Money was tight for many years, but my mum still tried her best to keep me and my brother active by doing whatever it takes to do so rather than plopping us both down in front of the television like most parents do today. The television... for £1000 - £1500 you can buy yourself and the family a great piece of kit most probably full HD or maybe 3D, Sony or Samsung etc... It doesn't matter how much money you have most families in the world will have a decent TV or maybe 2 - 3 of them.

Since I reached the age of 13 - 14 my tastes changed in what I loved to watch. My taste changed from watching cartoons on repeat to watching the History channel, Geography channel and the Real World channel. That's when it all changed. Shows started to appear about the Wars other countries have been involved with, shows about Global Warming, Animal documentaries and deforestation of their homes in the Amazon Rain Forest. The television can project so many different emotions upon teenagers such as Sad, Energetic, Caring, Angry and Worry. We are brought up not to be bothered about what goes on in the world because at the age of 14 there is nothing we can do to prevent it our parents say, so why should we bother?

I watch the News on a daily basis on stations such as the BBC, CNN, Channel 4, CBC, SKY, ITV and Channel 5. All I see is constant blood shed or constant bombs going off in the Middle East, but when does the good things that us ' Humans ' get shown...? Hardly never. I have stopped watching TV now because of my own emotional state watching the News seeing American and British troops being brought home in coffins just because the president will not bring then out quick enough. Oil results in death and the greed of the country. 

People ask me why I am so Cynical and Negative, but I don't really have a clue. I blame parts of it being the fact I use to watch shows such as the ones I have said and also the News for nearly 5 hours a day, but is it really the TV shows that make me like this? Since I have stopped watching TV I have become happier I suppose which is a plus at the moment seeing as I have nothing good to say about how our world is governed.

Television is a big box of emotions that people try to enforce upon the public that watch it. At the end of the shows they say " If you've been effected by the actions in this episode of a soap please contact such an such and they will be able to help you out " I think they do it on purpose because for one they make a lot more money out of their shows if they relate it to real life and they have to be as realistic as possible to get their point across. The parents of today have also become to lazy by just letting their kids become obese whilst watching their favourite TV shows, they all think it's a lot easier just to smack their kid down in front of the box and let them become less developed rather than teaching them stuff such as mathematics and also improving their English. I have become someone with so many thoughts and opinions from watching TV and personally I hate it. Seeing things for what they really are has become a sixth sense and it's not good.

Luke St.Denis

Who we want to be and why!

Who we want to be and why!

People... For years we are brought up by people that want the best for us and want to see us become someone we want to be, but that's the problem. Who do we actually want to be? Throughout our education we dive into different learning environments that might or might not appeal to us, but we still give it a try. At the end of the day isn't that what makes us who we are today?

I see it like this. It isn't till we grow up between the ages of 15 and 18 that we start to understand what the world has to offer being it the real working world or deciding to study at a position for further education. We normally never turn out to be who we wanted to be when our parents asked us when we were 5 being it a Vet, Fireman, Policeman or a Jet Pilot, but we do become someone we decided to become not because of what others have said or done, but because of the choices we take at the given point in time.

So... do we become what others want us to be or become someone we want to be? Each has their advantages and disadvantages, but only one truly makes us happy.

I do not have a clue about who I want to be or what I want to do, I just live everyday as it comes and take the amazing opportunities that are offered to me and make best with what I have. I am not influenced by these so called idols that others revolve their lives around because I would rather follow a life that I want rather than being influenced into a trend or click just to fit in with others that follow the same idol as to say.

Everyone is becoming the same and the term ' Unique ' is becoming a dying term used by many. The only time we can actually use the term unique is when people are showing of their skills or talent, but how the fashion world is turning out unique is a thing of the past. People are to busy caring what others think about them, so they try hard to become someone others want them to be just to fit in like I have previously stated. Hmmmm... I think to much about stuff like this I should really just stick to being a teenager and worry about this stuff when I really have to.

Luke St.Denis