Stuey's News 2020 - Regular Posting will Return

Hi everyone!

Just a quick update to let you all know that I'm in a far better and more suitable place to be blogging again, so I expect to be updating this blog with more content in due course. Including the long-awaited redesign of all things format-related.

I have been through some really challenging times lately that has required my entire mental resources to focus upon it effectively. Consequently, it has taken my focus off my blog for a while, which cannot be helped. However, I shall be looking to resume my "Off the Scale" series celebrating all things classical music once again as I bid to make it to 100 and sign off on that series.

Thank you for your patience whilst I've worked through these issues as it has taken everything within me to keep things on course. I have to give all credit to God, for that, because I could not have persisted upon this course and sustained my progress without Him.

Thanks be to God "who always causeth us to triumph in Christ" (2 Cor 2:14) indeed!

===TLP===

Stuey's Awards 2019

Hello everyone!

It's that time of year again where I look back on this year's highlights in terms of films I have watched, games that I have bought and my TV highlight. As always, apart from the TV highlight, there will be some entries that haven't necessarily been released this year. But that is just how I roll in terms of these highlights.

It's nearly Christmas time, so let's get these awards underway...

This is My Life

Hi everyone!

Though I might not be able to see whoever reads this, know that I fully respect and love that you have taken the time to read this, an anonymous voice from somewhere across the internet.

My updates might have been sporadic for much longer than I have ever intended, it has not come without price. That price has seen an increase in importance for me to journal my way through this year's valley experiences rather than plastering them all over here.

Don't you worry, what I am hoping for, is a real sense of purpose to come through out of the aftermath of what I've written since starting my Faith Experience journals...

Furnace by Alexander Gordon Smith

 

Straight out of the mind of a very disturbing individual, this book tells the story of children who are sent to Furnace Penitentiary, a prison built under the earth where experiments can be conducted and seemingly gotten away with due to the little consequences.

This book is ideal for a teenager who loves to read and have his, or her, mind twisted up by the graphic violence. Yet for me, it swung for the fence and missed some way. It's not a bad book, I just cannot get behind a story like this where one of the main staples is violence for seeming violence sake.

I didn't really like this one, though have looser standards that standard books due to the teen rating for it. I have more tolerance for this type of fiction because there are some places that this fiction needn't go for the younger generation.

Vienna Blood by Frank Tallis

Being a Victorian-style detective thriller, though not explicitly set in those times, this book instantly caught my eye. I am a huge fan of stories that tell themselves from the point of view of an investigator like Sherlock Holmes or Endeavour Morse. Seeing the crimes from the point of view of these investigators then allows me to see whether the author will show off his knowledge of crime solving methods that are restricted before technology's now widespread usage.

Would I say that there was anything that I don't particularly like about this? Not really because I would say the author was knowledgeable enough to be able to spin a yarn that belongs on a coffee table as some light afternoon reading. It's not too heavy in detail yet manages to weave a complex tale of criminal behaviour that avoids the usual tropes in these types of stories.

After America by John Birmingham

In a world where a mysterious wave has inexplicably wiped out most of the population, what remains are bands of survivors ranging from pirates, to the remnants of a skeletal government.

This is pretty much where this book is coming from, the second in the series by author Birmingham who, until this book, I have never heard of before. It contains the standard fare from your Tom Clancy-types and yet at the same time manages to be different enough to attract my attention in the first place. I had never come across a story that intrigued me enough despite the content not being my initial go-to for reading material.

I wasn't disappointed, however, because the story is good, the writing is solid and, as much as it can do, it steps effortlessly around the tropes that, unfortunately, usually riddle these types of stories.

Stuey's News: Off the Scale Returns in October, More Reviews Coming...

Hello everyone!

Some exciting news for you, Off the Scale will be returning the first Monday of October so buckle in for that because it's going to be a wild ride as we make our way towards 100 episodes and the climax of the whole series.

In addition to all of this, I will be continuing to churn out reviews as fast as I am physically able to, which I'm hoping will be a lot sooner now that my course has finished. I am approximately two films and three books behind so will need to step up my game if I am to get them out this year.

The yearly review will still happen in December so stay tuned for that one.

Thank you all for your patience whilst I made it through a really busy August with all my courses and workshops that I was attending.

Here's to the design changes coming real soon!

===TLP===

LS037 - Speak Life into Your Situation

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to take this opportunity to post an update, letting you all know how I am doing aside from my reviews and news content that I have been posting.

It has been a really challenging few months for me as I have been forced to step back from my blog for a while to journal my way through. A lot of the stuff I cannot actually talk about on here because there are some things that are not meant for the public eye.

I have had to re-prioritise, as well, a lot of things as I am on week three of five of a course aimed at helping you to maximise the most out of your life. This, combined with the sessions I have been doing with my work and health provider, have got me to a place where I finally feel steadier...

Stuey's News: Further Reviews Coming, Off the Scale to return & more...

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for your patience. Life has just become one almighty storm right now and I'm here, caught in the middle of it. Caught in the eye of the storm, as the song goes.

Luckily, my faith in God has only gotten stronger as has my conviction to see out this year committed to changing what I can and accepting what I cannot as beyond my control.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that my revamp of the blog is still on course to be completed, as are more book and film reviews, with a view to, finally, restoring Off the Scale to continue on its journey to episode 100, the final stop in the series.

It has been one heckuva journey and I am glad to be in the eye of the storm right now (but that's a story for another time) out of harm's way.

Keep your heads up because that's where the horizon is!

===TLP===

RV009 - House of Cards by Michael Dobbs

Hello everyone!

As fast as I am starting a book, these days, I'm finishing it such is the lack of quality upon all TV stations.

But this is not a rant, nor is it a rave, but a review that has been around as a TV series for a few years now, House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey...