Google Trends across the world

Happy 2016!  To all of my readers (thank you to each and every one of you that comes here, I do really appreciate it!) I hope that this year treats you well. I'm planning to do more creation of stuff - writing and videos - and I also want to collaborate more with other creators (if you have an idea, let me know)

2015 having come to an end, I discovered Google Trends the other day, which is quite cool - it was linked to on the main Google homepage a week or two back, and started off talking about what were the most searched for things in 2015, but I found that you can use Google Trends to see what is popular in other parts of the world.

For example, in Ireland they want to know how to eat pomelo and how to draw a minion, while in the UK people are more interested in how to get rid of brain freeze (perhaps they've been eating frozen pomelos).  In the UK - and Canada, for some reason - people are asking "What is a penny black stamp" (I'm disappointed in you people from the UK - it's a penny postage stamp, and was the first adhesive stamp made), however in the US they're asking "What is a lunar eclipse", which I'm also surprised at, maybe it's the term "lunar" instead of "moon"?

Meanwhile those crazy people from Holland (aka the Netherlands) are asking what is glamping.

Interestingly one of the most searched things in New Zealand is "what is the time in New Zealand" which fascinates me - do they not have watches or mobile phones with the time there?

Finally, South Africans want to know "how to smoke" while Australians are trying to find out how to tie a tie (and also make pancakes)

Finally, just one word of guidance for anyone not from the UK who is a fan of Downton Abbey - if you want to look like an absolute genius, go look up "pernicious anaemia" - when it gets to the finale you'll look amazing if you already know the answer.

Downton Abbey The Finale (nearly) - WARNING SPOILERS...

Last night the grand finale of Downton Abbey (except for the Christmas special) came and went.  I've been a long-time fan of Downton Abbey from series one, and it's a shame that it has to come - nearly - to an end.  My Sunday evening Downton with a coffee and snacks is always a delight, and to think of it being no more is slightly saddening.

I must admit that this last episode - and the one before - left me a little ambivalent, as although I enjoyed them, they both left a little in the way of storylines to be closed (which of course they need to be left open to give something to resolve in the Christmas special!).  Nevertheless, it was still very good.

I do recommend, for those wanting a little bit more Downton to check out Downton Wars on YouTube (by Rob James-Collier aka Thomas Barrow or the "Evil Butler") and if you like do consider making a contribution to Chilterns MS Centre.

Needless to say (although I will say it) if Lady Edith does not find happiness in the Christmas special I shall track down Julian Fellowes and frown at him disapprovingly.

Like this...

And this...

And this...

And perhaps most scarily...

This.

Garage doors, Downton Abbey and FIFA

I'm typing this having just come inside from the garage, where I've been power tooling.

This would be a picture of a power tool.

Over the last few months, we've been having a battle with thieves attempting to get into our garage for nefarious purposes (I assume that it is for nefarious purposes, if it is a holy order attempting to find the secret of life and they believe that it is located within the concrete and metal construction at the bottom of the garden, then they're welcome to explore for it,as long as they leave it tidy. (or at least tidier than it is at the moment).

They broke in one of the doors - we've secured it. So now they've broken in the other door, so it's now been secured too.  I hope that this will be the end of it, but for some reason I suspect not.

Next - Downton Abbey Series 5 has just finished!  I won't spoil it for anyone that hasn't seen it yet, but it's all very good.  I just always gets disappointed because I've just got into the habit of spending Sunday evening watching Downton Abbey with a coffee and a yoghurt or something, and now I have to think of something else to do.

Which I may have, actually - I got Fifa 12 (yes it's old, but it was only £2) for the Wii at the weekend, and am thoroughly addicted.  So far I've got Bradford City promoted and won a cup with them, that said the game is on easy so I'm thinking that I might restart and try on Medium.

Or the other hand,beating Hull City 6-1 was quite fun.  Maybe I'll stay on Easy a little longer.

Are you ready for Apple Dumpling Day?

September 17th is national Apple Dumpling Day!

To be brutally honest, I'm not entirely sure what an apple dumpling is, I understand that it's an American delicacy.  I believe that it is a peeled and cored apple, coated in cinnamon and sugar, cooked within some pastry.  Don't get me wrong - I'm very very keen indeed to sample one, I just don't think that I've ever had one.  By all means if anyone I know is baking some tomorrow, let me know and I'll happily take one off your hands!

Meanwhile for UK readers, (I may not be able to say that for much longer bearing in mind the Scottish referendum coming up!) I am very excited because on Sunday, Downton Abbey returns, and with it so does my Sunday evenings with a bit of supper, maybe a hot chocolate (depending on the syns - I have just started Slimming World after all!).  I've been deliberately avoiding any spoilers about the series on the internet as I want it all to be a great surprise.

Before that though, in twelve hours however I shall be at Hull College for the Higher Education Freshers Fair, getting ready to promote the Travelling Book project, I was there last week which went very well and I'm hoping for a good response from the HE students!  If you're in the area do stop by the college, I have a free competition going on, free sunglasses and sweets (although not a huge amount of either), plus students are able to support the Travelling Book project at a cut-down price for a short time!  We'll be open from 10am onwards.

Now I'm off for a quick half hour on Hearthstone before bed, apparently it's up to 20 million players and they're planning to release it on Android tablets and suchlike which is excellent news for a Android fan like me - Hearthstone does work on my laptop (just) but generally to play I have to be on my desktop at home, while a quick game when out and about would be grand!

Pancake with face

And a belated Merry Christmas to you all!  Hope you had a good Christmas Day, myself and my other half came down with something on Christmas Eve (not sure if food poisoning or a bug, myself I suspect the former) so we were pretty much out of that all that day and although we had a good time on the big day itself we did both go for a nap mid-afternoon!

Spoiler alert - after the picture below I'm going to talk about the Downton Abbey Christmas Special.

It's a pancake! And the raisins make a face!!! O. M. G.

My other half likes these pancakes you can get with raisins in that can be eaten cold or toasted.  Anyway this one the raisins made a face.

Yay :)

Anyhow, Downton Abbey.  I saw the Christmas special last night, very much enjoyed it as always.

But the end - and I'm delaying saying about it in case someone who hasn't seen the episode but is planning to is reading this - was a shock.

Almost as an afterthought, Matthew gets killed (presumably) in a car crash. Certainly the blood gliding down his blank face can't be beneficial for his health.

Downton Abbey is no stranger to death - the show kicked off with the sinking of the Titanic taking out the obvious male heirs, and over the years we've seen regular crew Lady Sybil and William die, along with the attache to the Ottoman Empire.

My first reaction was to criticise the show for killing Matthew so randomly and swiftly and as one of the nicest characters in the show he'll be sadly missed.

However, thinking about it does this only go to show how good the series is, to make me care about the characters in this way?  And I can't argue that Matthew's death isn't historically likely - although national road accident statistics weren't collected in 1921 (when the episode was set), in 1926 they did begin to, and in that year 4,886 deaths were recorded.  To give this figure some detail, in 2011 the number of deaths was 1,901, despite the fact that the daily flow of motor vehicles has increased by some 150% over the forty years from 1965 to 2008 (can't find statistics going back beyond that but I can't imagine traffic has lessened pre-1965).  Of course 1,901 is still far too many deaths - 1 is too many - but it does show that we are more careful on the roads today (as well as roads being better controlled, better emergency response systems etc).

I suppose my only concern is that the show has so many ups and downs and surprises and twists that it almost feels more like an episode of Eastenders (which I was a fan of for many years until the Sunday omnibus vanished from afternoons) than a period drama. But does that matter?

At any rate I will be watching the fourth season when it arrives to give me more to blog about!

Anyone got ideas for my evil twin...

I'm gearing up to do some (hopefully) regular videos of me and my evil twin Joel (if you don't know what I'm talking about, check the test video out here), I've now received a free tripod thanks to my best mates father (bizarrely I was sat in the passenger seat of my fiancees car, thinking "I could really do with a tripod for my videos", and then my mate rings me and goes "I've got you a tripod!") and I've been and purchased a newer, bigger and faster SD Card for use.  I never knew before having a video camera that SD Cards came in different speeds, but apparently so.  I now have a 8Gb SD Card which is surplus to requirements so if anyone wants to buy it for a few quid let me know - it did work fine recording videos to be fair, and it'd be fine for photos of course.

Of course now I'm suffering with writers block and can't come up with anyone funny to record - well perhaps one thing, but I need a pie for that (you'll see)

Apart from that it's been a nice and quiet weekend, broken up by visiting St Stephens shopping centre in Hull on Saturday afternoon, which is not for the faint of heart!  I usually try to avoid shopping when it's busy but I needed to get started on the Christmas shopping - less than seven weeks to go - so I braved the crowds. There's a new shop called Menkind in St Stephens which is full of fun gadgetry and the like, one of the shop staff was chasing passersby with a remote controlled inflatable R2D2 which was very funny.

No Downton Abbey tonight!  I've got used to staying up slightly later than normal on a Sunday evening to see the latest goings on.  It's probably fair to say that the third season wasn't quite a good as the first two, but still well worth watching.  Roll on Christmas special!

Downton Abbey is so addictive (kinda like Gangnam Style)

Why is Downton Abbey so addictive?  I've watched the first episode (recorded so I can fast forward through the adverts - I don't mind the odd advert but there does seem to be quite a lot in a typical Downton Abbey episode) and it took about 30 minutes for me to go from "Not really bothered about this" to "Oh my god is she going to get married? Oh no, Tom's drunk - ah he's been drugged. Matthew, good lad!" and going from scene to scene desperately hoping that this wasn't the last one.

Now, two episodes in, I can't wait for my next fix of period drama / soap goodness tonight!  Very strange.

I watched the Guild Season six launch show last night, featuring Felicia Day, Kim Evey and the director of season six, Christopher Preksta.  The show was very good (although they had one or two technical issues, primarily with showing the community synopsis videos - they still got around them though) and really psyched me up for Tuesday and the release of the first episode of Season Six, I can't wait! Despite the fact that my video didn't get featured (not surprisingly!) I really enjoyed it and the "winner" (not a winner because they're not allowed to have competitions in the US?) produced this fantastic 8-bit synopsis video.

In other news, Gangnam Style by Psy looks as though it's going to be the new Number 1 on the UK charts today.  Views of this hit music video by the South Korean rapper have shot through the roof - when I first saw it, there was 51 million views (a decent amount by anyones estimation).  It is now standing at over 325 million views, which is more than the entire population of the USA, and with something like 38 million of those views being in the last 4 days it is extremely popular right now.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go here.

And when you've seen that, go watch the many parody videos out there.

Like this one - the Oregon Duck and his friends put in way too much effort making an excellent and extremely funny video. Well done guys!

Or the baby one if you're a parent :)  Their channel is actually pretty cool so it's worth checking out too.