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