scrappythoughts.com

The Highest Paid Actress – and she’s British!

Lewis — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:12:31 +0000

Step aside Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep and Cameron Diaz! A recent report has revealed that the highest earning actress in the world is British – and she is still as University. Emma Watson, most famous for playing frizzy-haired witch Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series, earned $30 million during 2009. Emma spent most of the year filming two Harry Potter films that will see the end of the series.

Now studying at the prestigious Brown University in New England, Emma is walking proof that fame and fortune at a young age does not necessarily mean a direct road to Rehab! And following the news of the Oscar nominations meaning that there is little hope of Britain scooping one of the major awards this year, we at least have one thing to cheer.

University of Burnley FC?

Callum — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:53:03 +0000

Burnley Football Club have unveiled an exciting new proposal that will see their Turf Moor stadium (and the surrounding areas) transformed. The development includes student accommodation, restaurants and an entertainment complex. However, the one factor that makes this very different from other multi-functional football developments is the inclusion of a football university.

This proposal could see the football club team up with Liverpool John Moores University to become a world-class academic institution where people can train in courses such as sponsorship, football finance (with the owners of Portsmouth already signed up!) and stadium design. Football club chief executive Mr Paul Fletcher MBE has said that this project, which could take 2 to 3 years, would be “a blueprint for a new Burnley”.

Digital Sales Change Gaming

Lewis — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:50:55 +0000

The days of heading down to your local Gamestation to buy the latest release from EA may soon be over. Statistics reveal that digital games sales are increasing at a great rate. Purchasing new games online is pushing to replace physical shop purchases. This is shown by the news that Pandemic Studios (purveyors of fine shrinkwrapped games) have announced that they have let 200 jobs go, whilst a few short miles away Nexon Corp.’s U.S. division announced a 12% increase in 2009.

What this means to a gamer is simple – access to games is becoming increasingly convenient. Although new releases of major games might lead to a strain on bandwidth, this can be the only negative of getting immediate digital access to the games you want!

Oscar nominations announced

Lewis — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:34:06 +0000

James Cameron’s goliath Avatar has obviously been the talk of the town over the last two months. This is reflected in the number of Oscar nominations that the film has received – nine. Surprisingly, the number of nominations has been equalled by The Hurt Locker. This Iraq war-based film follows the actions of a small bomb disposal team in the Middle East.

With both films receiving Best Director nominations, this means that Cameron will be up against his ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow, for the award. Ms Bigelow is only the 4th woman in the history of the awards to be nominated for Best Director and is bidding to be the first woman EVER to win the award.

The nomination that has pleased me the most (although it is hardly a shock) is the announcement that Up will be vying for Best Animated Movie. If it was up to me, this charming and uplifting (pardon the pun!) story should sweep the awards.

Transfer Window Closes

Lisa — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:13:21 +0000

At 5pm yesterday, the football transfer window slammed shut with great authority, although the number of transfers passing through this window was fairly minimal. Barring Manchester City paying £5m or £7 (depending on which report you read) for Middlesboro winger Adam Johnson, and Portsmouth getting as much money as possible for their assets before they foreclose, the window was restricted to loan and free signings.

As a result of the global recession and the amount of debt hanging over many clubs around Europe, the number of transfers was minimal. This day used to be a fabulously exciting time for football fans, but this year was very much a damp squib. Many larger clubs often mention that January is only a time for panic or emergency buying, but even if this was the reason, this football fan was left feeling pretty cold about the whole affair!

1 billion reasons to game online

Lewis — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:42:31 +0000

It was recently announced that the latest version of Call of Duty game, named Modern Warfare 2, has grossed over $1 billion in sales since its release at the start of November 2009. Christmas is obviously a popular time of year to be buying games, but it looks like the shear pulling power of such a big brand has helped developers Activision to have a successful start to 2010.

This amount of worldwide spend suggests that this is not a localised trend and that we are very much a world of gamers, with the spectrum of players being from the young through to the old. So what exactly is the pull of a game that depicts the gamer set in a scene of war, either commanding a team of soldiers or on a solo mission attempting to achieve numerous objectives ?

Bailed out bankers

Lewis — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:00:01 +0000

With RBS due to shell out a reputed 1.5 billion pounds in bonuses to their employees in the near future, we have seen uproar amongst the country where many people are still reeling from the effects of the recession we currently find ourselves in. Some of these bankers are the same people who many of us believe are responsible for the ‘mess’ the country finds itself in.

What should be the right thing to do, should as some people suggest, encourage these bankers to stay within the UK as they will continue to spend money and support the economy or do we risk losing them to one of the major financial districts around the world. Would it be better purely to let them continue to pay out these bonuses and tax them in the long term and allow them to contribute to attempting to stabilise the country’s economy.

So if you were Prime Minister would you step in and make change, or would you look to reassure the country that its in their long-term best interests ?

English Football Transfer Window

Lewis — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:40:52 +0000

Over the past few weeks the transfer window has been simmering, the first few weeks very much about speculation in newspapers. We have seen very little activity amongst the Premier League clubs. I personally think, as is the norm with this window, that majority of business will be done in the last few days before the deadline.

With teams like Portsmouth and West Ham looking to have financial troubles, then it is likely that some late bids will succeed and we will see a flurry of activity. My own team have made 3 signings, who have all come from Celtic. Gordon Strachan has gone with players he knows a bit about by signing Willo Flood, Barry Robson and Chris Killen to try and mount a serious challenge to get back into the Premier League.

So the question to finish on is who will Manchester City sign next ??

Winter running training

Lewis — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:36:13 +0000

This cold winter snap doesn’t seem to be near an end at the moment. The snow that fell nearly 2 weeks ago is still on the ground, mainly as ice and I think the conditions we have now are actually worse than the snow showers we endured.

I am meant to have started training for a 10k run in Manchester that is in May but so far have been unable to get out to train, due to all the pavements being caked in ice. I am now hoping that we get slightly warmer weather that will allow for the ice to disappear, otherwise its back to running on a treadmill in the gym, which for the record I absolutely detest.

Lets hope the weather is reading this plea and that I will be back out pounding the streets soon.

Toothache

Lewis — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:01:35 +0000

Well after a Christmas and New Year that involved lots of over indulgence I am now suffering with severe toothache as I have managed to lose half my filling.

Been to the emergency dentist and they have given me antibiotics, but I have to wait a full week before they can do anything about it. Im thinking that its going to be a long and painful week, which I will struggle to get through. But at least i will have inadvertently fulfilled one of my new year’s resolutions by going to dentist.

Its all going to be part of my new, healthy lifestyle for 2010, watch this space to see how I get on !!