Tuesday, 15 December 2009

£1m east street mall

East street development was given the green light by council officials last night, but locals are still not convinced with the scheme, which could dramatically alter Farnham's public image.

The meeting between council representatives and locals began with Greg Vincent of development team Crest Nicholson who are in a partnership with Sainsbury's managing to sway some people's opinions. When questioned by one councilor: "There is nothing for Farnham's youth to do here, will you change that?" Mr. Vincent replied: "Our anchor store is potentially New Look.î As on looking students gave some applause there concerns may have been lifted.

Yet some were not easily persuaded as a member of the public said after the meeting: "What am I going to do when the roads are blocked with building works?" As the town is set for change it would seem most are still worried that house prices will be slashed as Mayor Fleming expressed her concern. But Mr. Vincent said: "Market values are on the up."

Plans include the development of an 8-screen cinema in Farnham, as councilor Chris Mansell previously said: "People are calling out for the project. We have a university college of 2,000 students - they can't believe Farnham hasn't got a cinema." Nearly 200 flats are expected to be built along with an undercover parking facility all state of the art. The whole project is approximately going to cost £100m according to previous reports, a large fee for a small town. But it appears demand is high in the area from major brands like River Island and H&M both willing to rent space in the shopping facility.

All sides aren't entirely happy yet the plans do seem to be pushing forward with a more planning discussion set in a few months time. The meeting did run smoothly without any hostilities but as consent has already been given Farnham will have to modernise with or without resident's approval.

Tango down

Modern Warfare is back with a blast. With more terrorist conflicts than ever before it offers the best single player campaign the series has to offer. Along with top quality graphics it makes Modern Warfare 2 really come to life.

The franchise turns its attention to detail as every aspect of the game has been improved. The game feels as though you are there, or even in a movie. The graphics are simply that good. You could easily be mistaken when you get up and start pretending to breach your kitchen, it really feels as though the player is the game now. Every move you make affects the sequence of events to follow, from how quickly you kill an enemy to where you position yourself on the map.

Yet its very hard to find something truely bad about it. Only slight improvements could really be made to the multiplayer side of things, perhaps more maps or even more detail on certain ones which offer limited tactical play. New and improved perks and killstreaks do offer a wider variety to public online gaming though, there are plenty of ways to counter somebody and get better as you play for longer. Those who have played previous versions of Call of Duty will notice it is very similar in that regard, you can see yourself progressing as your leg shots turn to headshots over time.

With endless amounts of achievements and accolades, players will find it difficult to put the game down. However, it does offer something for every type of player. A casual player could pick it up and enjoy themselves, whilst a more hardcore gamer could sit there for hours working through the achievements. Each aspect of the single player game really shines, the story line is terrific with twists and turns at every corner. I found myself watching the story line in the same manner of watching a film, you will be shocked at some points but you will be in awe at everything else.

As winter is upon us, it really does offer the perfect supplement to a night in with your mates, you'll be shouting and screaming at the person next to you then finally turning to them with your anti-terrorist lingo. When you start saying threat neutralized and roger that it really has become time to leave the appartment. But that will be hard with this installment, the sequal definatly delivers. It is now flagship for the shoot-em-up genre and it doesn't dissapoint on a any front.

Obama's cut to C02

Barack Obama has given the go-ahead to cut America’s CO2 emissions in the next 40 years by more than four-fifths, or so it seems.

The US president also agreed to attend to the crucial climate change talks starting on December 9 in Copenhagen according to White House officials. International pressure from the world’s super powers forced Obama’s hand in the decision, especially as he is expected to claim a Nobel Peace prize in Oslo after the summit closes.

With the White House calling Mr. Obama’s decision to attend “A sign of his continuing commitment and leadership to find a global threat of climate change.”

At the meeting he is likely to commit towards cutting emissions by 17 per cent, as early as 2020 and by 2050 83 per cent is his estimate. Yet critics disagree by claiming he is basing those figures on 2005 levels, which could result in a much lower result.

However, as the US is a major contributor to CO2 emissions across the globe at least Mr. Obama has recognized the impact his country is having on the current climate, even if he has done so reluctantly. A green peace representative said: ”None of the developed countries are going nearly far enough and, with reductions of just four per cent in real terms, the US is proving to be the laggard of the lot.”

state of the game

Farnham football fans have expressed there overwhelming support of a rematch between Ireland and France after the “Hand of Henry” goal, a poll shows.

FIFA officials concluded that it was not in the best interests of the game to replay the match even though French skipper Thierry Henry helped France to the World Cup finals by blatantly using his hand to control the ball and set William Gallas up for the goal. Nearly 80 per cent of people voted in favour of a rematch between the two international sides, one sports shop worker said: “Replay, the referee should be good already but technology would make it much clearer.”

The controversial decision has caused gathering support for technology to be used in the game as long as it doesn’t interrupt the game’s rhythm. Close to of fans 60 percent want technology to be introduced. One 18-year-old female student said: “It would take 3 hours between decisions, it would be like American Football. Where would you stop?” A 19-year-old male fan stated: “With all the stoppages and time wasting already in the game it would disrupt the natural flow of a match.”

It also seems England’s hopes for winning the World Cup seem bleak as only 20 per cent of Farnham sports fans believe in their national side.

Juiced gets squished

Local workers face unemployment as popular smoothie shop ‘Juiced’ closes down as the recession hits Farnham.

The unforeseen closure has forced several employees out of work. As the unemployment toll begins to reach three million people in the country alone, there are minimal opportunities for these people to get back into jobs.

‘Juiced’ had become increasingly popular amongst students and workers; many would often go to the shop during their lunch breaks. A former customer interviewed outside the store said: “I used to come here all the time, where can I go now?” As the company could no longer fund its costs, it seems to have finally crumbled under the weight of the recession. Now even less part-time jobs will be available in Farnham, ‘Juiced’ was well known to be generous in its job opportunities for university students.

The unique outfit’s Downing Street location is a difficult space to fill, as an investor has not been found to replace the shop as yet. Not only does it mean that more individual shops in Farnham are losing business due to the rising costs of maintaining a store but new companies refuse to open, as it would be a risky investment.

material for television

LINK –

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Our correspondent was there to witness the historic event.

PACKAGE & VOICEOVER –

Former solidarity leader Lech Walesa initiated the momentous ceremony by toppling the first of a 105 kilometre snake of dominoes crossing through Berlin. A symbol of the unity created by the downfall of the Berlin wall which ended East and West Germany’s segregation in 1989. Not only did the event unite Germany, but it had a global impact. As the guest speaker U.S. senator Hilary Clinton demonstrated. A grand finale of spectacular fireworks closed the event at the Brandenburg gate.

television evaluation

We had to produce a television package on Christmas shopping in Farnham. After previously working on a TV set during a lesson, I had minimal experience to create the package but after working with the editing software and the radio equipment, similarities could be made so I could work effectively to complete the package.

My TV package contained a voice over, images of the surroundings, interviews, a vox pop and two pieces to camera. I managed to do all of these and edit them into a minute television package. All of these were enjoyable, especially as I intend on specialising in TV. I managed to find the vox pop difficult in comparison to radio, purely due to the way our package was planned out.

A vox pop didn’t entirely fit into my plan yet I managed to alter it so that the answers given from the public were relevant to the section of work I produced, and it even emphasised some of the comments made before. However, I asked a person to be interviewed and she did not want to be filmed, this was perfect for the vox pop piece whilst I initially thought it would have been a difficult situation.

This then lead to a piece to camera that summarised the events, I thoroughly liked speaking publicly to the camera on my own as I could improvise and use my own style of speaking to try to impact upon our viewer. The voice over work was simple to edit as I had an idea of speaking over a sequence of images we shot across the surroundings during our interviews. Improvements could have been made to the quality of shots and camera work with more practice.

Furthermore, I can compare television writing to radio quite well. The script for a radio story is much less difficult in my opinion as when I wrote the extra material for television I found that I had to include different technical terms and possibly shots to indicate what would happen for the person reading it. Yet I also believe working for television was much harder as you need to focus on much more than just your voice, the presentation of the person on camera along with basic things like how to hold the microphone so that it isn’t interrupting the vision of the camera.

I found television writing very different to print but equally interesting, television writing has to be shorter and more “punchy” whereas print work needs to contain more information and in greater detail. Though I can draw comparisons to introduction writing for print and a news story for television.

Radio Evaluation

During the production of our Remembrance Sunday radio production I worked with a team to create a vox pop based on residents of Farnham’s thoughts.

Personally I interviewed four participants of the vox pop, which I found quite challenging as it was one of the first times I have interviewed people using the equipment we needed, and it was difficult to find the right questions to ask. This was difficult because I was aiming to get a response that could be used in conjunction with other people, so there opinions had to be either completely different or very interesting.

Working with the new equipment was exciting as none of us had the knowledge of how to maximize its use, yet we were able to work around this issue through co-operation. Improvements could have been made to the quality of audio through editing yet we did make good use of the sound buffer technology available, we tried to correctly position the wind buffer to weaken the impact of noise interruption.

Furthermore, I had to edit the sound clip into a 30 second file. I found this not too difficult even though it was new to me, as converting the file and using software like Adobe Premiere Pro and the website “sound cloud” was quite straightforward. Combining the audio into a vox pop was a challenge though, I had to remove any answers from the public that contained stutters, lengthy pauses and some of most of their responses had to be cut down to only a sentence or two. Yet I feel with more practice and experimentation with the software I could of improved my editing of the sound file.

A major problem and assumption we initially had was that due to Farnham’s more elderly population we expected less interesting responses. Which proved to be an error of misjudgment on our behalf as we actually got quite controversial and interesting remarks.

Even though we struggled initially we broke into our stride after the first interview, we began to ask more controversial questions that manipulated the person we spoke to into giving us more interesting answers. We also asked direct open questions which lead to the person speaking at more length so we could obtain more information and cut it down to the pieces we desired using the editing software available. I do feel that I have learn t a lot during the production of the vox pop, especially about Remembrance Sunday itself, how to use the equipment and how I can improve my interview techniques.

Radio Stories

Radio Stories by tlee888

Tuesday, 8 December 2009

Tuesday, 20 October 2009

beach ball mayhem

Well Pepe Reina and Liverpool were undone once again this season, for the fourth time infact. This time by a physical, powerful Sunderland side who got the rub of the green in their favour.

The beachball that could of cost Liverpool the title? Well thats a dreamland excuse for a poor performance. Without Gerrard and Torres, Rafael Benitez cannot get it right. If you look through their squad I'm not entirely suprised, poor signings at a high transfer cost is really putting the pressure on Rafa. Look at the amount hes spent and the quality hes brought in. It doesn't add up at all.

Monday, 12 October 2009

update

With the release of Ulduar our guild has steadily began progressing through the content that awaits us in the titan city. We have already faced numerous challenges clearing eight bosses in our first two raids. So far these bosses have been designed quite well by Blizzard, as they have reinvented some of the mechanics used in other fights and adapted them to the ones inside Ulduar. Along with some relatively new creations like the Flame Leviathan event, Ignis and the toy pet of Mimiron known as XT-002 Decronstructor is a particular highlight. From our perspective so far we are pleased with the layout of the instance, with the clever use of teleporter's to add to the navigation of the raid instance and the overall presentation is a very simple yet effective one.

Therefore, the storyline of Ulduar bases itself around the Old God of Death Yogg-Saron, as this titan forged city is actually his prison. His corruption has seaped throughout Northrend, even challenging the Lich King's domination over the frozen wastes. With the Alliance and the Horde seemingly destined to go back to war, the Kirin Tor and its leader's pleaded with Thrall and Variann to go war with the greater enemy...being the Old God. With the factions divided, it seems that is left towards the people of the magical city of Dalaran. Unless we can provide the battle against Yogg-Saron's will, all of Azeroth's sanity will surely be lost.

WoW!







After recently using Blizzard's free character migration tool to Neptulon, we've found a new lease of life once more. Motivation has risen and progression is getting back on track to where we want to be. The aim is to progress to challenge for realm firsts here and so far it seems like a positive step. And with a guild name revert to "The Untouchables" things seem to be back in order.

There hasn't been as much trouble with delay or lag, more friendly players and a welcoming environment, recruitment has actually improved and the only downside is the horde side's economy. Which is lets face it, horrendous. But other than that minor problem the server has really surged us on towards our goals. Currently setting up two groups to challenge nearly every 10 man possible including hard modes, so overall the transfer has done us well. Especially as we haven't lost many people along the way either.

With anub'arak soon to be down (probobly tonight) in ToGC 10, the only remaining issue is for us to maximise our DPS. The skill level, concentration and execution required for Trial of the Grand Crusader 25 is a big step up. No complaints. It's made the majority of our team really begin enjoying WoW once more, it was going downhill but now there is a challenging aspect of the game brought back to its rightful place.

Now the main topic of conversation and the whole reason why we came here was to achieve realm firsts. The determination and leadership is improving, now were learning how to best co-ordinate our DPS into beating the timers on these encounters. We lacked around 40% DPS the first time we tried the encounter and since we transferred haven't tried again, instead we've focused on gearing up new recruits and all the members to push our DPS through the roof. As it seems to be a main requirement now, healing seems to be less of a concern compared to the damage output of our group, positive signs have come from our ranged now keeping up with the melee.

Tuesday, 6 October 2009

Look whose back!

A suprise return to the big screen for Oscar winner Heath Ledger. After his shock death nearly two years ago few expected to see anymore of the man that made the latest Batman film a real success. His performance for upcoming 'The imaginarum of Dr Parnassus' will re-unite fans of the star actor for one last hurrah. As Ledger's sudden death came midway into the production of the new hit film it was almost inevitable that the crew would have to give up, yet director Terry Gilliam and the cast carried on in a new direction. Any Oscar's winner would of got a worthy reception but with this young star's tragic death came a new level of sympathy.

With Ledger's death came tributes from his peers, such stars as Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Collin Farrell all sung his praise. This triangle of amazing actors signed up to finish the film Ledger started, the three had to take separate roles of varied characters who Ledger's role will morph into at stages during the film. It may sound confusing and possibly even not very good, yet so far previews are soaring not only for the man who stole the show as the 'Joker' but for a film which could so easily of been missing from the big screen this fall.

Title race heats up

After super Sunday's key clash between Liverpool and Chelsea the title race has once again gone back to a two horse race. Didier Drogba was a constant nuisance for the Liverpool central pair, he tussled and fought with Carragher until finally he broke the deadlock. A dull stalemate has been a problem with this fixture in recent years and this weekend could of been similar based on the team sheets.

Not only did Ancelotti pick a masterful lineup but his tactics were spot on, Deco and Lampard consistently combined to keep possession which was vital. Essien and Ballack ran the show by putting Gerrard on a tight leash, they worked tirelessly and got their just rewards. Anelka twisted and turned Skrtel whenever he got the chance, the Liverpool defender was always on the backfoot and keppt getting dragged out wide. Leaving a big hole in the middle of the park for chelsea's creative foursome to spark life into the game, it was always going to take a touch of class to get the win and thats just what Abramovich's Chelsea did.

Now it's surely down to just United and the blues. United didn't turn up on the day and practically let Sunderland upstage the red devils. Only a late goal could save our blushes, a poor performance topped it off so luck must of been on our side. This makes Chelsea and Man United both on level losses, it may just come down to November 8th to see who will go into the Christmas period on the top of the table. With the battle of Stamford Bridge closing in, both sides will need to keep a solid record in the buildup to this highly anticipated match

Monday, 5 October 2009

manchester citys millions wasted

After a tightly contested match with aston villa tonight it looks like the cracks could well be forming in city's team. The summer signings have paid off in some regard, as the defence really does look promising especially with young starlet Micah Richards certain to learn from his new teammates, with both full backs certain to make an impression this season the centre halfs need to find a partnership quickly. Kolo Toure's leadership skills are questionnable, and I highly doubt he can compete to the highest level in europe, whilst Lescott is far to inconsistent.

Hughes has bought well until the key signings, their midfield is weak. Besides Wright-Phillips, they lack pace and creativity in the centre of the park. Barry is too slow, his vision and passing variety aren't anything close to the other top midfielders in the league. I'm suprised the Sheikh owners didn't push for a big name signing or flair coated winger like Ashley Young of Villa. After his performance today, I feel like I wish we had him at united. Valencia isn't really shaping up into a Man Utd type of player, he refuses to beat a defender or even have a shot at goal. Yet Young has blistering pace, vision and creativity and doesn't shy away from hitting attempts goal bound.

Tuesday, 29 September 2009
















Recent reports from the Manchester United website have stated that both Ji-sung park and Michael Owen missed training ahead of Wednesday's clash with German outfit Wolfsburg. United's young guns Frederico Macheda and Danny Wellbeck have both been included in the champions league group stage squad this season and Sir Alex looks set to give them game-time if we can break through to the next stage quickly.

I'm looking forward to seeing Owen and Berba upfront leading the line, Berba's creativity and vision combined with Owen's decision making and guile will make it the perfect way to open up a tough defense. Rooney's brute force can be useful yet sometimes a more subtle touch is needed, with Carrick returning in midfield to partner Fletcher it looks promising for the long-term. With Anderson, Nani, Gibson and Possebon already looking class acts, Scholes is the prime example of a guiding light when these young players need it. His touch of class and overall character has been an example for anybody in the game to date.
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This blog is dedicated to a range of topics such as sports news, football articles from the premier league to la liga. Films and box office hits, reviews and previews on upcoming releases.