I’ve recently become addicted to Goodreads, but more about that later. One of the functions of Goodreads is that my book reviews will be automatically published onto this blog.
To do that I need to find my blog’s post URL, which is easy to find in the source code of your blog web page. But if your doing this on an iOS device, there’s no option in Safari to allow you to view the source!
Luckily I happened upon this page, which instructs you on creating a bookmark with some JavaScript. Very simple, took me a couple of minutes to do, and now when I want to view a web pages source code I just need to click on my new bookmark and Hey presto!
As previously discussed, I’d like to find out what you, the listener, really want out of the Virtual Pizza podcast.
Please click the link below and take 5 minutes to take this survey. The results will be really useful in working out how the show is going to continue into the new year and beyond.
Wow, 2013 is upon us already! Where did that come from?? The last few months have been a blur, not much time for writing on here, let alone recording a new show! Work has pretty much taken over my life, leaving little energy for anything but watching TV, playing a few games and sleeping. I have managed to lose 3 stone (19kg or 42 pounds) though!
New Year is a funny time – it provides us with a break in things, a natural ‘line in the sand’ to stop what you’re doing and try to take an objective view of your life. This usually results in the traditional making of new years resolutions and subsequent breaking of!
A recent poll listed the top 10 resolutions as being:
Spend More Time with Family & Friends
Fit in Fitness
Tame the Bulge
Quit Smoking
Enjoy Life More
Quit Drinking
Get Out of Debt
Learn Something New
Help Others
Get Organized
Various experts now say that 9 out of 10 of us will break our resolutions very shortly after making them. Melanie Haiken has written a useful piece for Forbes:
5 New Year’s Resolutions You Won’t Keep – And 5 You Will
How do I know? Because in the past 10 years, experts have learned a lot about how we make and break habits, and nine times out of ten we go about it the wrong way. Here are a few of the most common New Year’s resolutions that get made year after year – and that are forgotten just as often.
The article lists some useful tips for making your resolutions achievable, with some useful tips, and can be found here:
My New Year’s Resolutions? Well, I’m going to make 4 achievable resolutions, i.e. no set targets:
Live healthy: 2012 was a great start with my weight loss and revolutionising my eating habits, so 2013 is going to be focussed on continuing that pattern and introducing some form of exercise on a weekly basis
Stress less: my stress levels have recently been reaching new highs over the last few months, so this year I’ll be looking at ways to manage my stress, whether by taking time out for myself or possibly looking into other stress busting techniques.
Work towards a dream: my current lifestyle is not where I still want to be in 5 years time. I want to be focussed on an end goal of moving to a place where I don’t have to do what I’m doing at the moment. Sounds vague I know, but 2013 will be the year when I look at where I/we are going and making changes to move towards that long term goal.
Restart Virtual Pizza!: The blog and the show have been neglected for a number of months. In 2013 I’m planning to write and record more often. The format of the podcast may have to change, as getting contributions for a regular bi-weekly show was becoming more difficult due to the team’s other committments, but it’s something that people seemed to really enjoy, and I got a lot of satisfaction from producing the shows and getting feedback! Time to put my thinking cap on…
So, have you made any resolutions? Do you bother when you know they’ll probably be broken? Feedback as always is very welcome!
The Newsroom is the latest HBO TV offering from Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, The Social Network, Moneyball) and stars an ensemble cast including Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, Dev Patel, Olivia Munn, Jane Fonda and Sam Waterston.
Daniels plays anchor Will McAvoy, who, together with his staff set out to put on a news show “in the face of corporate and commercial obstacles and their own personal entanglements.”
Sorkin described The Newsroom as
an idealistic, romantic, swashbuckling, sometimes comedic but very optimistic, upward-looking look at a group of people who are often looked at cynically. The same as with The West Wing, where ordinarily in popular culture our leaders are portrayed either as Machiavellian or dumb; I wanted to do something different and show a highly competent group of people.
Each episode is built around a major news event from the recent past, such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill or the killing of Osama Bin Laden. This reality acts as a background for the interpersonal drama, as well as providing a sense of familiarity, as we’re more likely to know what’s going on and therefore the show doesn’t need to spend time explaining sometimes complex plots.
If you loved the West Wing, I’m pretty sure you’re going to love this. The chemistry between the cast is superb, especially with Daniels and Mortimer, playing ex-lovers, now colleagues. The ensemble brought together works well, with characterisations being formed pretty rapidly.
Using past, real news stories works so well. It gives you a familiarity with the world, a foot already in the door to their world. A position of power of the characters where you know whats going to happen (at least in the news story) but are eager to find out how the team deal with it. The show sometimes does fall on the side of sentimentality, but this is quickly forgiven with strong dialogue and fantastic performances.
By the end of episode 1 I was hooked, and now with only 3 more to go to the finale, I’m feeling that bittersweet pleasure of needing to watch more but knowing that the ned is in sight and I’ll have to wait until next year for more.
Here’s one of the standout scenes from episode 4, the shooting of Gabrielle Gifford, and how the team hold off calling the Congresswoman’s death (unlike many of the other stations) until they receive full confirmation (contains strong language). Stunning TV.
I can’t recommend this show enough. Season 1 consisted of 1o episodes, with a second season being commissioned shortly after the first episode was aired. Season 2 is due in 2013 and will more than likely cover the 2012 US Presidential Election.
The Newsroom has been shown on Sky Atlantic in the UK, HBO in the US and SoHo in Australia.
I’ve been pretty ignorant to the huge amount of quality content that’s available on YouTube (something that is going to be addressed in the next episode of the Virtual Pizza Podcast with a new guest contributor!), but now with the increased availability of this ‘channel’ across many platforms (PC, phones, consoles, Smart TVs, etc) it’s become difficult to ignore.
From make up tips, how to make wet felt, unboxing of new technology and reviews of various products, You Tube gives people with a basic camera to produce their own TV shows. A lot of it is crap, but there are some real gems out there!
One of my recent finds is a review of Guild Wars 2 by Angry Joe.
This is possibly the most entertaining games review I’ve seen! It’s quite long for a review (around 30 minutes) but the time, energy and effort into producing such an amusing, well produced piece is very commendable. In fact, it’s that good, if you’ve got a PC/Mac that’ll run the game, you’ll probably be getting out your wallet by the end of it!
I’ll be checking out more of Joe’s videos – if they’re anywhere near as good as this one, I’ll have a few hours of entertaining TV ahead of me. Enjoy!
As previously discussed, I’d like to find out what you, the listener, really want out of the Virtual Pizza podcast. 
Wow, 2013 is upon us already! Where did that come from?? The last few months have been a blur, not much time for writing on here, let alone recording a new show! Work has pretty much taken over my life, leaving little energy for anything but watching TV, playing a few games and sleeping. I have managed to lose 3 stone (19kg or 42 pounds) though!
