Saturday, May 03, 2008
Well, I'm back.
Since I last wrote here Facebook has taken the online social networking scene by storm and I'll be taking advantage of that. Using the cool import feature which allows RSS feeds to show up in Facebook notes and update without any extra effort on my part. So for those of you reading this on Facebook it originally appeared on my blog site hosted by googles blogspot which I've named Mattous Blogous (You see what I did there?). So today I took some time to look through all the old posts fixing the missing images, removing the dead links, adding some new ones and correcting an alarming number of spelling mistakes.
The main reason for starting up this again though is because I'm about to start another blog in a month-ish to share my experiences on playing World of Warcraft (WOW). The blog is called World of Mattous currently nothing much on it because I'm not playing WOW at the moment. I took a break to focus on my last term of University (which you can see I'm clearly doing heh). I don't think I'll subject the guys on facebook to importing the blog there. The vast majority won't care at all, not that you'll really care about what's being said here either but hey, you don't have to read it.
As for whats going on with me at the moment it's two weeks until I finish University, I have two projects due (which I have hardly started) and one exam. So I really don't have time for procrastinating like this. I have a house sorted for when the contract in my current house runs out. I'll be staying in Middlesbrough moving back into the house I was in during my first second year. No contracts have been signed yet but just waiting for them to do some background checks (eep) and then it should all be good. After the movings done the plan is to find a job and start paying off some serious debt that's accumulated over the last four years.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Millions of years ago
Before we could even read we were shown pictures of dinosaurs and were told that they lived 70 million years ago, after we'd learnt to read we read it for ourselves and if you were anything like me you loved dinosaurs and lets face it they are pretty cool. But I was more interested in space in school we were taught that 20 billion years ago there was a big bang and about 4 billion years ago the earth was formed and gradually over the last few billion years humans evolved from some kind of soup that appeared when the rocks go rained on.
For years I didn't have any problem with this until about 3 and a half years ago when I became a Christian. You see evolution has been a bit of a problem for me these past few years. In the bible it says that God created the earth and everything in it in just 7 days (see Genisis 1:1-2:10). Now I believe that the bible is true but I'll be honest this was probably the toughest thing for me. All my life we've been taught that the universe is billions of years old and we evolved from some kind of soup which came alive (I don't pretend to understand it that’s just what it seems like to me). You see this presents a huge problem for me the Bible says God created the Universe and everything in it in 7 days but evolution says that 20 billion years ago something exploded and here we are. Who do I/we believe?
One of these must be true unless there both wrong. I've never questioned the power of God I believe that for God making the Universe and everything in it in 7 days is very possible I don't doubt that God is capable of that, it's just that everything that evolution teaches tells us, that the universe is billions of years old. So could the world really be only 6,000 years old? That’s the number that you get if you add up all the dates in the bible. These are even the dates we use to record historical events and know what year it is (not that that's got anything to do with what I'm getting at here).
Now I don't really know where I'm going with this I'm still trying to figure it all out for myself. About a week ago one of the guys in my small group gave us all a copy of some seminars by an American speaker called Dr Kent Hovid. His seminars revealed some very interesting things, not all the things he talks about are facts but almost all of the things that kids find in there school text books about evolution have been proved wrong and for some reason they are still in the text books. One theory that has been proven wrong since the late 1800's still appears in the text books as evidence that evolution true. They weren't proven wrong by creationists either they were proved wrong by evolutionists. I'm not going to go through it all I would be writing all night if I did. If your interested then look for yourself at Dr Hovid's website www.drdino.com post your comments and feelings about it here. Like I said I don't have the answers and this website probably doesn't have them all either but I've found it very interesting so have a look and tell me what you think.
Yes I'm still playing World of Warcarft (our guild British Beef is going great) but I'm cutting down (man I sound like an addict - lets face it I am) University work is going well got a B in my last bit of course work which I'm pretty pleased with. For those of you down in Kent I'll be coming back on the evening of the 7th of April and coming back up north sometime around the 19th of 20th. See you soon!
Monday, February 13, 2006
24/7
So it's been a few weeks since I wrote here I've been enjoying a lazy reading week in which I have done little or rather no reading. Which has been fantastic, yes I've played a lot of World of Warcraft, but not too much. Though just looking at xfire (which records the time I've spent playing games each week) and I've played 40 hours of WoW (World of Warcraft). Which is like a full time job! If only I was getting paid! Whats even more disturbing is that I've spent the past year playing WoW and according to xfire I've played it for a total of 765 hours! Which if my calculations are correct is 31ish days! so I spent a whole month playing WoW in a year! Amazing really! and I'm sure very very sad! It worries me to think what exactly I spent the other 11 months doing! A large amount of it must of been sleep... probably best that we don't know!
Anyway moving on from my geekyness to more healthy areas of my seemingly uncultured life. This week is 24/7 prayer, allow me to explain. Every year the CU (Christian Union) borrows a room from St Aidens community church and spends an entire week in there praying! The idea is that there is always someone there, even at stupid-o'clock in the morning. I've done a few shifts in there and it's been really good. We've got our Alpha course starting soon so mostly we have been praying for that but other things as well, like the local churchs, Middlesbrough, the Uni and stuff.
Yesterday night I ended up at The Empire which is probably the best club in Middlesbrough it was the first time I'd been and it was completely unexpected. We saw three bands the last being the best by far called The Infadels they had one song that I had heard of but they really did rock! The Empire is alot like Shepherds Bush Empire in London, its an old theater with the 3 floors, standing down on the ground floor and seating on floors 1 and 2 all with a view of the stage.Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Multipass
A few weeks back Rachel (Chair of the CU) asked if I wanted to lead the prayer meeting that we have on Tuesday mornings and this morning was the morning. It's been ages since I've done anything like that so it was good to get the chance. I'm don't think I'm very good at leading but it went well this morning I think and so did the others which is encouraging. We've done a lot of praying for Alpha which is coming up at the end of February, not to mention 24/7 prayer week which is the week before Alpha starts so February will be a busy week CU wise.
I've been finding myself very easily distracted as I said earlier, if you are looking for something to distract you from work or whatever then I'll list a few of the things that I've been getting a bit carried away with while trying to do some work.
http:/artpad.art.com - Draw whatever you like then send the links to people and they can watch the art being re-drawn the exact same way you drew it. Heres a few of my creations http://artpad.art.com/?itmcqax74x8 - http://artpad.art.com/?itm2nabk1p8 - http://artpad.art.com/?itm2bdtkluk.
A few webforums, always good for a read - Mattous Forum, World of Warcraft Forums, FM Forums.
Lost has finally started showing again in America which means I've been watching it here. These past two episodes have been amazing! Some of the things that have been bugging me a lot have started to get explained a little more. Well not really explained but you do find out more about whats going on, but without still really understanding whats going on. I've been watching them with Pete now too which is defiantly better than watching them on my own and speaking of Pete it's his birthday this Friday which means Houseparty! then were off to Walkabout! Thats the same day my coursework has to be handed in so I'll have something additional to celebrate!Fun a Societies day back at the start of the year, picture taken by Jo I believe.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Ballz
I've been back at uni just over a week now and theres really not much to say. I'm still good and so is everyone else. During my boredom I decided to go looking for an Advert that I'd seen a few times that's really impressed me. The Sony Bouncy Balls website (or Sony BRAVIA < - my name is better) if you haven't seen it checkout the video because it's quite simply amazing.
Sony get 250,000 multi-coloured bouncy balls and start pouring them down the streets of San Francisco. First time I saw it I just thought it was some kind of special effect but when I realised that it was real I got a new found respect for Sony for doing something so crazy. The advert is in slow-motion with José González playing is song ‘Heartbeats’ in the background. The result is incredible and if it wasn’t shot on the streets of San Francisco then you would think it was alien. Beautiful stuff.
Sunday, January 01, 2006
New Years Resolutions
- Quit Drinking - Just to see if I can
- Proper Diet - Instead of just freezer food everyday
- Do some work - Because I don't want to fail my second year
- Invest more time in relationship - With God and People
- Reinstall WoW - Rejoin British Beef and cause havoc on the Agamaggan server
A note on WoW - yes I've decided to go back despite the fact that I quit only 6 weeks ago. I miss it too much and really want to get involved in the guild that I started again. I'm gonna roll either a Priest or Warrior because the guild doesn't have either (not decent ones anyway). I think I'll start by trying Priest but if it's not to my liking then I'll try Warrior. I'm going to be setting up a separate blog on my site for talking about WoW because I don't want to bore all the people that don't play.
Anyway happy new year everyone! I hope that you had a good night last night and that this year will be the best yet!
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Monday, December 26, 2005
Robosexual
Anyway moving on... I have had the chance these past 2 days to spend a lot of time working on my website. I discovered a blog called frostbolt which I found while playing around on google and I liked it! It's a World of Warcraft blog but I really liked the look of the site, seemed to have had a fair bit of customisation done to it, loads quick and is even valid xhtml! (don't know what I mean don't worry). So I did some investigating and found out what blogging system the author was using and gave it a try myself. It's called wordpress and it's pretty sweet, I've been fiddling around with the templates and got it all working well enough but, I can only do so much on this PC because it's rubbish. I even managed to import all my old blogs from blogspot which was a major selling point for wordpress as I did not want to louse the last few months posts and comments.
You can see the site at www.mattous.co.uk I'm going to continue to post my blogs on blogspot and myspace I've disabled comment posting on blogspot though, sorry Downs you'll just have to come to my site to comment :D. Theres been a small amount of activity on the forums with 4 members and 11 posts. Pretty pathetic if you ask me so get on the site people! Get involved.
No picture today. I just don't have any on this computer I'll try to get some for next time.
Friday, December 23, 2005
"Too the happy couple"
I'm back home in Kent now which has been pretty cool so far. I've had a bit of a boring day today though there's nothing really to do. Yesterday I finished off my shopping when I went into town with Maggie and saw a bunch of the guys at the pub in the evening. We are still in need of a venue for New Years Eve, we really need somewhere to have a party.
I've been doing a lot of looking around on the web because I've been bored and talking to my mates who still play world of warcraft. Man I miss that game. I'm really tempted to start playing again in the new year. I've been saying that I'll wait for the expansion pack to come out before I install it again but the way things are going now I dunno. Anyways Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you get what you want and enjoy the day tomorrow!
Saturday, December 17, 2005
King Kong
I had my interview in London on Wednesday which went ok. I don't think I'll get it though. I got to spend the evening in Kent though which was really good. I really miss the south and can't wait to get home for Christmas. I saw Graham, Lou, Bec and Franko which was really cool we went to the hop farm and just had a few drinks. Next day I came back up to Middlesbrough with my new phone which rocks. I've been taking a load of photos with it and I'm pretty impressed.
Thursday night was our CU Christmas social which was lots of fun, we had a Christmas themed quiz which our team did pretty well in (4th I think). Then on Friday it was the end of term party at the union 15 hours of Christmas. Went round my mate Jay's at 9:30am went to the union to get our free breakfast hung around for a little while then went back to his and watched some Eddie Izzard. At 1pm went to meet some others at the Cinema and saw King Kong. It's the best film I've seen for a long time with the most impressive special effects I've ever seen, it's long but Peter Jackson can't make short films e.g. Lord of the Rings. Defiantly worth seeing it's a brilliant mix of action/special effects with the strange love story, but it works you really do feel for Kong. After watching it you also my have the urge to grab a blonde lass and carry her to the top of some tall building, let out a roar and beat your chest! After seeing King Kong we went back to the union and partied the night away!
Today I have nothing much to do so I'm having a well deserved rest. I didn't get in until 3am last night and considering I started at 9:30am I think that's pretty good going. 17 hours partying at my age takes it out of you!
Friday, December 09, 2005
"Get a haircut you hippy!"
I'm still amazed by the amount of information on wikipedia (as you can find out if you follow any of my links today) they have everything! Nothing much to say really had a manic few days so I'm off to bed. Tomorrow night I'm off out to the School Disco that the Students Union is having. Usually everyone dresses up as school girls/boys but this one is special because it's the Nativity Play theme, so I expect to see lots of shepherds with tea towels over the heads, a few too many inflatable sheep, a few angels and who knows what else! The CU is also doing carol singing outside the Union before the whole thing which will be a good outreach and pretty funny I'm sure because we'll all be dressed up too! Pictures at some point!
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Information Overload!
These past couple of days I've had the opportunity to help out my good friend Matt Maude who is getting married in just under 2 weeks now. He's just moved into his house so has loads of things to do so I've been helping him get things sorted wherever I can. I've been lifting heavy stuff, making flatpack wardrobes and things. It's really good fun actually I haven't had any real experience doing that stuff and it's good practice for me when I eventually go down that road myself!
Also if your bored (and if your reading this you probably are or at least will be by now) then check out this site I stumbled upon the other day http://en.wikipedia.org. It's an online encyclopedia that anyone can add too or change. There is so much information in there it's crazy I spent all afternoon reading about Jehovah's Witnesses, Freemasons and all kinds of other things. I think as a Christian I think it's important to know what other religions/cults believe in relation to what I believe it's pretty fascinating. This site is really cool because anything your unsure of is bound to have a link explaining it, also almost any name or place mentioned will have a whole section of its own too. I could easily get lost in this site for hours!
Monday, December 05, 2005
House party
For the next 2 days we were in Newcastleton just the other side of the Scottish borders a little place called Whithaugh Park. I Love the country side and this place was awesome miles from nowhere, no TV or internet just 2 days full of Teaching, Worship and a game or two of Risk.
The speaker we had with us was amazing, his name is Steve Braye and he had his son with him too. He's an ex-military guy who used to be in the SAS which would of been enough to keep me interested for a weekend but he has the most amazing testimony and his relationship with God really just shines out of him. The teaching was a mix of a lot of things which was actually really good because it just gave God a chance to do more in me. If only the weekend was longer! Now I have to process what went on there and it was a lot. Choices, The way of the cross, sexuality, freedom in Christ and a whole bunch of other things. Lets just say God's doing a lot way too much to talk about here but I'm sure this isn't the last you'll hear of it.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Romans (8:38-39)

Found this while looking though my photos of our outreach in Texas! Very cool it's on one of Deliverance Bible Church's walls!
"These are the things that make me free
I feel like I'm stuck in "stand by me"
This night was too good to be true."
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Fable
These past few weeks I've been playing Fable I played it last year on the xbox and when I found the PC version I thought I would give it a go. It's just as much fun as it was on the xbox and even more so because they've added loads of new quests for the PC version which I didn't get to do first time round. It's also helped me get over not playing World of Warcraft anymore, I miss wow... It was a great game but the trouble is it never ends! That's the trouble with all MMORPG's they just never end! I think for the sake of my sanity and social life that games should always have an end! Which is why I picked up Fable it's a great RPG (similar to wow in many ways) but it has an end when I finish the game I have to stop playing because there's nothing more for me to do!
Back to Fable anyway by far the best thing for me in the game is the voice acting it's just so funny! Lionhead Studio's are really good at this in all there games but in Fable it's classic really extreme British accents, not the posh ones but all the other stuff, the geezers, the farmers the stoned guys at the start! It's hilarious! The story line is ok not great it seems to take big jumps and I didn't really know why I was doing certain things. It also has loads of mini games like archery competitions, fist fighting, you can buy rent out and upgrade properties to make some cash, you age, you can get married (if you like) or go to the brothel! The big feature of the game is that you can choose to be good or evil. This seems to be happening in a lot of games now, the actions you take during the game govern the way people around you react to you presence. If you really nice they will cheer but if your evil then they'll run and hide. Not only that but your appearance also changes over time if your really good then you'll end up with a halo over your head, if your bad then you'll get devil horns! Of course I went for the good side but I might re-load one of my save games and just be all out evil to see what it like.
My Character in FableNothing could go wrong anytime that I'm with you.
Like crashing a hotel room or leading up to that first kiss
Or searching for a high school that you know doesn't exist..."
Monday, November 28, 2005
Last night I went to see Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire overall I would say it's a good film nothing to get excited about really it's an improvement on the other films (I know that's not a difficult thing) but it still could of been a lot better. It felt too long for a start and yet being a big fan of the books I know how much they missed out. The acting... Well lets face it there getting better Daniel Radcliffe does make me laugh sometimes though it's just that bad and did they actually have any lessons at Hogwarts this year? I think there was one lesson in the film. They did do a lot of things well though, the special effects were very good as always, the Tri-Wizard Tournament was very well done I thought and all the stuff that they really should of got right they did e.g. The Return of "He who must not be named" was excellently done. The fact that it was a 12a certificate this time really did help, made for a much darker film. Oh and a few of my friends who had seen the film before were saying that Hermione Granger (aka Emma Watson) was kinda sexy... I just have to say NO! Wrong, wrong, wrong! She's 15!
This is my Favorite Picture of me :D On a lake in CanadaSunday, November 27, 2005
Hurley (the guy on the right) is defiantly my favorite character he's a bit of a legend and Charlie who is good in Lost but I think he will always be a hobbit to me.Thursday, November 24, 2005
It's a good job today was my day off too because I woke up in agony! Yesterday every muscle in my arms and shoulders was seriously hurting! Today it was even worse! I literally couldn't get out of bed for ages! Hopefully they'll be alright tomorrow!
Monday, November 21, 2005
I love this website, the wallpapers on there are brilliant! One to suit almost every mood and feeling. I've been using it for years so I thought I would share it
with you. If your looking for somewhere to get good original backgrounds then give it a look. I just changed mine, I seem to be changing them with the weather. A few weeks back it was raining loads so I went with a rainy pic, now it's getting cold I've gone for a cold look.
And no the guy that makes these isn't paying me, just take a look. I've had a pretty good day today, church was very holy sprity again which I love. Had a great chat with my mate Jo on the way back from lunch at the pub. It's just good to know that I'm not the only one that struggles with girls and that I'm not the only one that's trying to just give it all to God. Not a dig at anyone who is dating or engaged, bless you guys :)






