Goodbye Mr. Speight

I have been a watcher of SMart since it began and my favourite was Mark Speight, I found him really funny and always used to sit in front of the TV drawing all the things that he showed me. His life began to spiral downwards when his Fiancee Natasha Collins was found dead in their flat. She died after a night of cocaine taking. She was found with 60% burns after she ran a bath and left the hot water tap on, she fell in after collapsing with suspected heart problems and was found dead. Speight said that after she died a part of him died with her. Speight went missing on April 7th 2008 after he didn’t turn up to a meeting with a family member. He was reported missing and the last time he was seen was on CCTV footage in a tube station. Yesterday (April 13th) he was found hung in a building in the Paddington Station area, a post mortem is still being carried out.

It’s presumed the grief of losing his fiancee was just too much for him, maybe he felt partly to blame as he took part in the cocaine binge. The stress of being accused of the murder of Natasha would have been a factor too, thankfully he was not charged and her death was ruled out as misadventure but this and the grief would have been huge, if not the only factors for his presumed suicide. It’s a sad loss as he entertained children for over a decade and was a prominent figure in charities such as Child line and others.

Well Mr. Speight, If there is a heaven or something like that I hope you get re-united with your Natasha. Rest In Piece my friend.

100 ways to beat boredom [Part 1]

I woke up this morning, the sun was shining, birds were singing and though “Ah, this is going to be a good day”. Boy was I wrong, I sat around got ready and realise that I had no plans and had not the funds to do anything. So I decided to take my sister to the park and that turned out to be a mistake, 20 minutes later we were home and drenched. I wasn’t going to blog today but then I realised that when bored, make a topic about boredom! So I’m going to sit here and think of 100 ways to beat boredom and if I cant reach the target, it’s easy to change the blog title.

• DANCE. This always provides me with at least 20 minutes of fun, put on some music and just go crazy. You’re in the comfort of your own home and you might find out that you were a born dancer.
• Create a blog.How obvious is this one? You’d think so but a lot of people who view blogs do not actually think they have anything good to say in their own blog so don’t bother making one. Every single one of you has something interesting to talk about, be it about your day, Karate, Design, Tap Dancing or you may even want to create a list of recipes online. So go for it and then link me to it so I can see it. Create a free blog at WordPress or  29ms.
• Join a community that interests you. If there’s a specific thing you like, for example Design and Graphics, then find a popular community/forum that will enable you to chat to other like-minded people. (For Design I’d recommend MickM or even the DeviantART Forums)
• Create your own forum. If your own blog is not for you then create your own community forum. If you don’t have your own website use places like ForumsPlace to get your own PHPBB forum for free.
• Watch TV. Pretty Standard, if theres nothing on TV then why not invite some friends round for a DVD day?
• Learn a special skill. Perhaps you’d like to learn something special like Parkour (LearnParkour), maybe you’d like to know how to design in Adobe Photoshop CS3 (Pixel2Life, MickM, PhotoshopLady)
• Remix your own song. Is there a song you really like but you’d like to hear in your own way? Go to Audacity where you can download a free music editor so you can remix any song you like!
• Bake some cookies. Cookies are really easy to make and everyone lurvess tha cookies. The ingredients aren’t hard to get and its likely you already have them in your fridges/cupboards. For a  ton of brilliant cookie recipes go here.
• Write your own song. A follow up to “Remix your own song”, if you think it’s too hard to remix a song then why not start from the basics and write your very own song? Write about something that feel or like or whatever you wish.
• Tidy your room. Okay, not what you want to hear but a tidy room makes a happy person and a comfortable nights sleep. Go all Mary Poppins on your room, put some music on and sing/dance/listen whilst you tidy, it goes a lot quicker and your parents won’t be on your case.
• Exercise. If you’re feeling out of shape or just want a good work-out, don a tracksuit and go for a brisk walk, fast run or a medium jog. Don’t forget to warm up and warm down so you don’t injure yourself!
• Play your games console. If you have a games console then play it, if you’re bored of the games you have then restart them on a difficult setting! Improve your skills. If you don’t own a games console then think about saving up for one if you want one or play games at Miniclip.
• Surf the net. If you can’t surf the net as you have nothing in particular to find then go to/download StumbleUpon, StumbleUpon can take you to a random web page that you may find interesting. Click the button to get to any random web page and keep clicking till you find what you like.
• Invent your own Language. Confuse your friends and family by speaking in a made up language. For example maybe you can mix your words up : Mum: What are you doing Charlotte?. Me: Computer playing on the I am. (a bit like Yoda)
• Ebay. Look for discount items that are a must have or sell unwanted toys and clothes you’ve grown out of.
• Study. Speaks for itself, if it has to be done it has to be done. Don’t avoid it as it will bite you in the behind.
• Design/Write your own Novel. Write a fantasy, comedy, romance or scary book! Plan your book, do some cover art, brainstorm for ideas and then begin to write. Cures boredom for months and months if you keep at it and do a chapter a day.
• Produce your own film. If you have a camcorder, go crazy! Redirect an already made film, Create alternate endings to films such as Star Wars or 28 days later. Release the film maker in you!
• Take pictures. Grab your Camera and take pictures, of sunsets, scenery, people, events. The world is your oyster.
• Read a book. I find time flies when you read a book, go top the library and get a book on something that interests you.
• Create your own game. When Joey, Chandler and Ross were bored in Friends they created random games that kept them entertained. Create your own game that doesn’t involve much thought.
• Go for a walk. If the weather is good, go for a walk. You can see the world and you might even meet new people (don’t talk to strangers but you might meet someone who isn’t crazy)
• Go window shopping. Take a stroll to your local shopping centre and peruse the shops. Something might catch your eye and you can get it the next time you have money (unless you brought money with you, if so, woo!)
• Design your own fashion line. Put pencil to paper and design your own turbo trainers, or a really cool t-shirt.
• Last but not least, Start your own TV Show. Sign up to Youtube, create your own Drama or Spoof News report using your web cam or a camcorder.

Thats 25 ways to beat boredom today, I may do some of them myself! Ill create 75 more things to do over the next week!