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Buy The Book!

By Books & Authors, Money / Finances, ThinkingNo Comments
buy-the-book-stats Since the release of The Hunted by Charlie Higson, I’ve had loads of visitors to my blog post The Latest Book in The Enemy Series: The Hunted by Charlie Higson. While I appreciate the hits, I don’t appreciate people looking for a free download of the book.

Charlie Higson has spent at least a year of his life working on this book. Carefully writing, editing and crafting this story. Writing a book is hard work. Consider that he has probably spent at least a year on each book in the series. That’s six years of his working life telling this story.

I don’t think the prices of the various formats are unreasonable for the amount of work he’s put into the book:

The publisher has probably considered that this is a children’s book and as such children may have a limited amount of pocket money. This is because they have provided the book in various formats and with varying price ranges. All of the formats being published at the same time, so that children who can only afford a Paperback copy or Kindle version don’t have to wait an additional year for the story – unlike most mainstream publishers.

So support Charlie Higson and buy the book! There’s a format in everyone’s price range.

Write soon,

Antony

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Sunday 7 September 2014

Be Creative Everyday

By Amazon, Books & Authors, Creativity, Happiness & Joy, Inspiration, Journalism, Thinking2 Comments

Recently I’ve been thinking about being creative, but not actually doing anything creative. Creativity should be something I do everyday, as it has so many benefits, including:

  • It lights up my imagination, giving me pleasure and increasing my happiness.
  • It motivates me.
  • It is good for my mind, heart and soul. It makes my mind more active, my heart beat faster and enriches my soul.
  • It helps me deal with my feelings, good and bad. It also helps me to express these feelings.
  • It makes me a better problem-solver. When I’m feeling creative, I can come up with better solutions to problems.
  • It allows me to explore ideas.
  • It enables me to look at events, situations and people in different ways.
  • Helps me to hope for and imagine better or alternative futures.
  • It gives me hope, at times when I feel that I need it.
  • Other people’s creativity inspires me.

The way to be more creative, is to play, as children do inhibited. So when I was at Waterstones at the weekend and saw these books, I just had to pick them up. Here’s my opportunity to play and be creative:

642-things-to-draw-book-cover 642-things-to-write-about-book-cover

I picked up both of these books along with a pack of felt tip pens. I’m going to draw or write something in these books at least once a day. I’ve already started.

I’ll be posting my progress here by sharing a few scanned images. Don’t expect any drawing I do to be an artistic master piece (for that see my fabulous Illustrator friend Sye); or that any writing I do will be literary genius. Just take it for what it is – me playing. I’m aiming to post a progress update once a week.

Blog soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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Tuesday 19 August 2014

Robin Williams Tribute Video & My Thoughts About Poor Mental Health

By Health, Thinking2 Comments

Robin Williams, the Actor & Comedian recently committed suicide after suffering from severe depression undiagnosed Dementia with Lewy bodies (see Blog Correction: Robin Williams’ Cause of Death). Like people around the world, I was shocked and saddened by the news.

Here’s a brilliant Tribute video to Robin Williams; that’s just 1 minute long:

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1 in 4 people will suffer from poor mental health at a least one point in their lives. And it is said that poor mental health runs in families. When I’ve talking about poor mental health, I’m thinking about the following conditions: depression, anxiety, panic attacks, bipolar, obsessive compulsive disorder, eating disorders, schizophrenia, personality disorders and suicidal thoughts.

I have suffered from poor mental health in the past. Looking at my close circle of family and friends, I know that most of them have as well. Yes to varying degrees of severity, but their poor mental health has effected their life. So I think the 1 in 4 statistic must be at best conservative. Yet there’s still a stigma attached to mental health, which seems to make it a taboo topic of conversation.

It’s time that things changed. We should talk about mental health. We should know how to look after our own mental health and how to best support our loved ones that are experiencing poor mental health. Too many people die because of their poor mental health. Robin Williams was one of these too many people.

If you are experiencing an episode of poor mental health, two useful websites are: Mind and SANE. If you are feeling suicidal please visit your nearest A&E Department for crisis support, before putting your thoughts into action.

Take care,

Antony

Edited: Monday 5th February 2024 at 07:00.

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Saturday 16 August 2014

Film Review: After The Dark (The Philosophers)

By Amazon, Inspiration, Reviews, Thinking, TV, Online Streaming & FilmsNo Comments
after-the-dark-film In After The Dark it’s the last day of term and Mr. Zimit, a Philosophy Teacher challenges his international high school students to take part in one final thought experiment: It’s the apocalypse and there’s a bunker that will save some of them. There’s twenty-one of them and only ten places in the bunker. Having more than ten people in the bunker will mean that all in the bunker perish. The class must decide who will get a place in the bunker and who wont.

To help the students decide, Mr. Zimit hands them cards with skills on (e.g. Organic Farmer, Structural Engineer, Poet, etc.) for their character in this thought experiment. He encourages them to make logical decisions.

Later Mr. Zimit ups the ante by telling students that they are required to get at least one pregnancy going during the year in the bunker and asks the students to open their cards to reveal another aspect to their character (e.g. one is gay, one is sterile, one is a midwife, one will get cancer in 3 years time, etc.). Then they have to decide again with this new information who will get a place in the bunker.

Here’s the trailer:

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After The Dark is a superb film that uses the dialogue and snippets of action to keep the watcher hooked throughout. Set in the Indonesian city of Jakarta, there are some beautiful settings in this film including Prambanan temple. The cast are mostly unknowns, but fitted their individual roles and worked together well.

There is good representation of gay people in this film. One of the students is a gay man who is out, accepted and valued by his fellow students (and there is another one that isn’t out at the beginning of the film).

The lead male character who is identified as straight, opens up his Organic Farmer card to reveal that his character is gay. He gets a place in the bunker, but when it comes to pairing up to get a pregnancy going he says he feels he wouldn’t be comfortable sleeping with a woman as a gay man. This is followed by a short scene of him and the openly gay student getting it on and then shows them becoming close as a couple.

After The Dark is a film that challenges what you believe about philosophy, logic, the survival of the human race and whether it’s important to exist or live. You’ll find yourself watching it again and again and thinking about it for days afterwards. It will be a great source of enjoyment and generate a good debate among the people you watch it with.

After The Dark is a fantastic five star film, one that has been under-rated and missed by most. It is available to pre-order/order on Amazon.

Published by: The Gay UK on Sunday 6th July 2014.

Review soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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Thursday 3 July 2014
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