There’s a misnomer pushed by highly driven people that to be successful you have to ‘hustle.’ “Run your own business and, if you love it enough, you’ll never work a day in your life.” But I’m here to semi-bust that myth. My experiences will not align with everyones, but hopefully, maybe, it might help someone who is going through the same stuff that I have. I’m sorry if this comes across as self-indulgent.

I left University in 2013 with a degree in Film Production. …

I wrote this as part of my job as a Technical Specialist in Esports Broadcasting at Staffordshire University London, to highlight the work I did for the Virtual Open day on the 4th April. Please enjoy.

Working from home has become the norm for most of the UK due to COVID-19, and we’ve all had to adjust to not being able to work from, well work. Universities need students and one of the main ways we recruit students is by holding Open Days. But you can’t do an Open Day if there’s no access to campus, right? At Staffordshire University we disagree. As soon as we knew that an in-person Open Day wasn’t going to be possible, we began transitioning to a Virtual Open Day. This was two weeks ago.

At Staffordshire University London, a satellite campus based in East London, we were fortunate to be the third campus to host our Open Day (behind the Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent campuses.) The problem we had was that the shutdown of the campus was imminent, and the situation was changing quickly. We were set the task of fleshing out the Open Day on a Monday, and the campus was, unbeknownst to us until that afternoon, to close on that Thursday. I knew we had to plan, film, and collect all the content as soon as possible before the inevitable happened. …

Spoilers, duh.

I’m not going to make out like I’m a CW DC “Arrowverse” newbie. I have watched four seasons of Arrow, two seasons of The Flash, and the first season of Legends of Tomorrow. …

LG was first to announce their 2020 line up of consumer gadgets at CES this year. There was the usual slew of OLED and LCD TVs, washing machines, fridges, and a… wine cellar (weird flex, but ok.) One thing that did catch my eye is the inclusion of the ThinQ branding on most products. According to LG, the ThinQ moniker is attached to any of their products which happen to have a smart feature, this could mean the product uses AI to intelligently wash your clothes, you could get notifications from your fridge when you’re out of hummus, or it knows when you want to get wine drunk and makes sure that bottle of Chardonnay you were saving for a special occasion is at the right temperature. …

How many times do you leave your phone at home? I’m imagining not often. It’s becoming increasingly important to use digital tools like phones and computers in day to day life. But what if you’d not only grown up not having a smartphone, like I had, but had never owned a computer device until you were well into adulthood. Well, this is the situation that many people find themselves in, especially people over 70. People like my Grandparents.

David and Rosemary don’t regard themselves as being computer literate. …

My last blog post was about Movies with Mikey, a film review series that deep dives into a film. So, I decided to do a homage. Enjoy.

Spoilers.

Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), is the second instalment of the Hunger Games games quadrilogy of films, based on the books by Suzanne Collins. …

The movie video essay has become boring. The YouTube genre popularised by the now abandoned ‘Every Frame a Painting’ channel, has become stale. You know the videos; slow male voice stressing certain words to add some gravitas to what is being said, onscreen graphics that ease in and out onto brightly coloured backgrounds, and chill hop music in the background. But one Movie essayists has broken from this convention and created something so fresh and unique it can’t be replicated.

Movies with Mikey, is exactly what it sounds like. It’s like going to the movies with Mikey Neumann, the creator of the series, as he tells you exactly why he loves the film he’s concentrating on.

Films are subjective, and when they’re evaluated there should be a consideration for this. There will never be a film review that 100% aligns with your views and that’s ok, I don’t agree with everything Mikey says, but I sure respect his views, as he’ll often explain his point of view without being condescending.

His videos, which will often concentrate on a film that has been out for a while-or at least is no longer in the theatres-explores how the film was made, the challenges it faced during production and the intentions of the filmmakers. But it’s his insights and his ability to become emotional over a film which sets him apart. He’s not scared to relate his experiences to the films he watched. He often talks about love and the importance love has on the intention of a film. …

There’s no question that games have come on a long way since the 8bit era of the NES and Megadrive. Character animations, lighting, and texture quality are at a point where they’re rivaling animated films in their quality. But they don’t look quite as good as the latest Pixar or Dreamworks animation. Why is this?

One reason is how the medium works. Video games are required (mostly) to be interactive, allowing the player choice over what they do. It’s an active experience versus the passive experience of a movie. …