Long Time No Blog

Firstly I would like to make an apology for not posting in a while, but I have been rather busy. Firstly, on monday, as I have explained before, we did the radio again. All day, from 7am - 8pm. Which I can tell you is a bloomin' long day, especially when you are running it. I can tell you that sleeping for about 20 hours was well needed after that.

Although of course, that never happened. All week I have been working crazy amounts of overtime to save up a bit more money for university when I go off in a few weeks time.

This was something I wanted to talk to you about, as I have found out through my own experiences, our student loan will not be enough. Now if you are looking to go to university and things, one of the things you do need to make sure you think about is money.

How are you going to get your way through uni? It is also well known that a big part of going to university is the er... social side of things, and this is something you also have to think about. Do you have enough money every week to last you through the year? If not, then how are going to make sure you do? Do you need to find work whilst you are at uni, or even find work during the holidays when you are home too?

These are all questions that I think need their own post to help answer and for me to give my opinion on them, so stay in touch for the next installment.

Thanks for reading,

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Alrewas Radio Rocks - This Bank Holiday Monday at Alrewas Village Hall!

As previous posts would suggest, tomorrow, Bank Holiday Monday 26th August 2013, Alrewas Radio will be live between the hours of 7.30am and 8pm, alongside an Alrewas Arts Fest Pop-Up Archives Arts Cafe Flea Pit thingy. Basically it will be a great day or afternoon or whatever to pop down to the village hall and have a chill, watch a film, listen to some live music and have a nice cuppa and a piece of cake.

Not that I am trying to get you all away from your computers though, quite the opposite. Because as I said, but just in case you missed it, Alrewas Radio - LIVE - 7.30AM - 8PM. We have so much going on tomorrow it is really exciting and there is going to be some golden radio!

To kickstart the day, I will be taking James' normal breakfast show with the return on Barge Or No Barge in a new interesting format... yeah that;s right you will have to tune in to find out what that is all about.

We have  got plenty of new DJs on this time and Caitlin is one of them. She will be doing a Charts Show, definitely one to listen to if you like the modern music scene, and also want to support new Alrewas Radio up and coming DJs.

Then we have the return on the nostalgic duo: Ellie and Alisha to bring us some more amazing tunes from years gone by. They have 2 hours of pure gold from genres including Motown, Soul, Rock and Roll in all it's formats and 60s pop.

Next 2 brand new DJs again, this pair play together in the County Jazz Band, and will be showing off some of the best Jazz tunes. This is something I am particularly looking forward to, something different to the usual Beatles and Queen format of Alrewas Radio, and also some fresh faces... or voices... or whatever.

Next we have 2 new shows, but with the same old lot. First is the premier of The Great Debate, a talk show where we discuss certain topics and different views and opinions surrounding them. The theme for tomorrow is the eduction system. Tune in for more: Radio 4 eat your heart out.

The second of the 2 new shows is On This Day, where we play music that was released or made famous or in the charts or whatever on 26th of August from decades gone by. Based on our normal decades show, a more condensed and fun version. Definitely some really good tunes to listen to.

Next we have the return of the Legend Mr James Richardson, with his Drive Time show, some classic features returning no doubt such as Cheesy Track of The Day, and Foreign Favourites.

Sam Wilkinson, a rookie radio DJ (did you see what I did there?) but he has some absolutely brilliant tunes to play (I know this because he is the only show who has produced a tracklist, including my own show!). Please support him whilst you eat your bank holiday tea, it will be great fun.

Lastly but not leastly, me and James will be rounding off the day in Jamie's absense with some really fresh and modern dance anthems, something which we thought we would keep seperate from the rest of the day of radio and give it it's own slot at the end of the day when you can sit back and relax, or get up and have it little dance in your living room, to some great new tunes.

I hope you do find time to tune in tomorrow, it will be great to have you. Here is how:

tinyurl.com/alrewasradio

or alternatively go to: http://www.alrewas-artsfest.co.uk/ARhome.html

And be sure to get in touch with us by either tweeting us: @AlrewasRadio
Or send us an email to alrewasradio@hotmail.co.uk
Or you can even make a request using the widget on our website listed above.

Thanks and we will be in your ears tomorrow!

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Topic Focus...

One of the worst things a blogger can do is start with a title. It ties you in to you subject matter and it doesn't allow you to think more freely to create a better article, which the subject of may naturally change in the first few sentences, the first few words even. But that of course is exactly what I do. Would you expect anything different?

The last post I titled a "Inspiration", in a bid to try and get my mind to think of something to write about. It ended up being another blog about me leaving for university. I looked back at recent blogs have some sort of link with me going off to university. And feedback from you guys is very positive towards blogs about student life and the progression to Uni.  

So I am making a decision, that the most productive path for my blog to follow, as well as it being the best, is about my life as a student. Following examples such as www.thestudentblogger.com I am going to talk about things which are happening for people who are looking to go to university in the future and want to find out more from a first person perspective, as well as interesting stuff and quirky little things that I am in no doubt will happen.

I thin by doing this it gives my writings some direction and some purpose as apposed to me just telling you what level I am at on Candy Crush (Still level 28 by the way)

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy the slightly revised format of the blog and I look forward to writing many more happy posts in the future!

Thanks very much for reading! Got something to say? Write it in the comments below, or you can even email me at tomstalkblog@yahoo.co.uk

Why not check out thestudentblogger.com. If you are reading this you will probably also be interested in this!

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Inspiration...

There reaches a point in everyone's blogging where you will inevitably, eventually, horrendously run out of ideas. Thinking today about the multiple blogging ideas I could write about: The 12 year old kid with DOPE written on a baseball cap who came into work today. I even know where you can buy a hat like that. Or maybe I was thinking about telling you my parents were off to Yorkshire. Again. Which might be interesting, but it probably won't be. Or I could even tell you about the worlds most amazing potato wedges that I created tonight, but that I can see is just as boring!

You can see where my lack of inspiration comes from really. I mean all I have really done today is go to work and play candy crush, then cook potato wedges. Actually on the Candy Crush front, I have managed to finally crack level 25... I know not impressive, but from humble beginnings... I have only been playing it for 3 days...

So as many of you may know, I am off to university in just a couple of weeks. This means that I am going to have to give up the job I currently hold at The Co-op. While this news may appear to be sad for me, I really don't think I will miss it. And I am not going to start complaining about the opportunity I have had to have a job, and earn decent money doing it, which has set me for many things, not least of which is running ad maintaining my car, working at a shop like the Co-op can have a lot of things compared to Candy Crush.

The frustration. You spend your entire life trying to make things work which are just not going to work. I think the problem with working in a retail shop is that they are all set out to be the same, and therefore the systems are just not adaptable to different situations. In trying to think of the best way to explain this, it is like trying to fit a ball into a cube shaped box. It doesn't fit in nicely. I mean you can get it in with a bit of squeezing and pushing, but it is not perfect, in fact in many ways the ball is now ruined.

This is the same with the shop. When it was a newsagents before, everything worked, because it was designed to work in that situation. A small shop with a limited access and limited stockroom space in a 60's prefab row of shops. Stock came to the shop in the owner's Citroen Belingo van, people only bought a paper and a bag of humbugs and everything ran smoothly. Now deliveries come in on huge lorries, in cages and trolleys far too big to fit in the stock room and at one point in the shop the aisles aren't even wide enough to fit a trolley through. How are people supposed to shop for their groceries in a shop which is barely big enough for 4 pints of milk and a loaf of bread?

I suppose you have to treat everything as a learning opportunity, and there have been some parts of the job that I have really enjoyed, like the colleagues I have had,  and other things that I hope will be part of my future career: the mindset of business, predicting what people will buy, helping customers out and advising them on what the best product is. But there are many things that, a week on Saturday I will be more than happy to wave goodbye to.

Oh and check this, in my tea break in writing this article, I managed to get to level 28! Watch out Dad, 32 here we come!

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Exciting News!

I have some great news for all those people who just can't get enough. I now have an email address and a weekly email newsletter! I understand that for some of you the best way to keep up to date with the blog is to recieve an email newsletter! So all you have to do is send me an email to this address: tomstalkblog@yahoo.co.uk and you will forever on recieve a weekly notification of what I am posting as well as a little bit more about what is going on in my life and the life of the local community.

Please send me an email at tomstalkblog@yahoo.co.uk if you would like to subscribe to this weekly newsletter! Thanks for your support!

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Mobile Gaming - Is It The Future?

This post is an aside from a recent post I put out about the ever popular mobile game Candy Crush Saga. The thing about this is that it is something really well debated in the global gaming community, and was something that I wanted to get on a bit of a technical soap-box, but knowing there was people like my gran reading my blog, I thought I would do it on a separate occasion!

Candy Crush has been the fastest growing mobile game of 2013. It to date has around 44 million global downloads, with this growing by 110 downloads every minute, something in itself a magical figure. The thing that this really highlights to me is the rapid rate that mobile gaming is growing and changing and developing. I think the main thing with it is that it is all about games being more and more accessible  People can play it on the bus, while they are having their breakfasts, over a cup of coffee, rather than having to boot up PCs and spend hours getting incredibly involved and engaged in the game.

Not only that, but the short time that 1 game takes makes it a lot more available for people to play, they can have a round of candy crush before they get out of bed, while they are having a cup of coffee or in those ever shorter spaces that we have in our day-to-day lives. 

Just to have a game on something like COD or Halo takes 20 minutes at a minimum, and even then if you are sitting down to play a game on a console, then you end us spending a lot longer than 20 minutes. People just can't find the time in their lives to do this, whereas mobile gaming is much more fast paced and light-hearted.

I still think though, when you posit the idea that mobile gaming will eventually take over from PC gaming and console gaming, that this will never happen. The mobile gaming audience is a completely different one to that of more substantial video games, and is something that will stay that way for as long as they exist. All mobile gaming does is open up a new avenue, a new industry created by the ever increasing complexities and capabilities of our mobile phones.

And that is the magic of mobile gaming. People who play World of Warcraft for hours every night, will continue to do so, undisturbed by Candy Crush, Farmville and the likes, it is almost like the 2 move in parallel universes. The industries aren't competing, and in fact I think they can really work together well. There is already some evidence of this, the big game development organisations have made mobile versions of their games, like EAs Fifa and Rockstar's GTA III as some examples of games that I have found work really well on a mobile. 

The question however is does the future lie in mobile gaming. And I think for the industry, mobile gaming at the minute certainly looks to be more profitable, especially if you find the right game for your audience. And I think that can also be said for the devices themselves, in that mobiles and tablet PCs and Apple's equivalents are developing at a much quicker pace than the PCs and consoles. The best things we have seen in the past few years is motion controlled technology like X-Box Kinect and Playstation Move, whereas smatphones, tablets and the like have pretty much come from nothing in the past 2 years, and continue to develop at the same rate.

If you have any feelings either way on this topic, then please comment below. I would be really interested to read your opinions on what you think is the geography of gaming in the future.

If not, then thanks for reading, and you can follow me on twitter: @peachy146