The Dark Knight Rises - Spoiler Free!

WARNING: Do not read this if you haven't seen the previous movie. This may spoil the ending. However, this blog does not contain any The Dark Knight Rises spoilers.

Often, me and Mr Husband go to the cinema. We tend to go for the Orange Wednesday offers. If you don't know, that's 2 tickets for the price of 1 on Wednesdays from the phone company Orange. And we enjoy it a lot but the downside is that we don't get to go to many movies on the actual day of release. We almost have an unwritten rule that we only go on the actual day of release if its something really worth seeing before Wednesday.

One movie was Christopher Nolan's conclusion of the Batman trilogy. We wanted to see this for a long time. I am personally a huge fan of Christopher Nolan as a director. I was introduced to him with The Dark Knight and it was an impressive movie. But at the time, I wasn't aware who he was as a director. What really introduced me to him as a director was Memento. I had to watch it as part of my course. Then there was Inception which was an amazing movie and really showed how he preferred to do amazing stunts through the camera and not through special effects - something I agree with so much. In an upcoming blog, I will explore these movies more. But for now, lets focus on The Dark Knight Rises

Without giving anything away and using Internet Movie Database, I will quickly explain the outline of the movie. It's set 8 years after the previous movie. Gotham City has branded Batman an enemy of the city after the perceived murder of Harvey Dent aka Two-Faced. However, another super villain has begun to terrorise the city, in the form of Bane. Batman must return and save Gotham City.

Personally, it was a great ending to the trilogy and leaves the door ajar to another set of movies as well. I really enjoyed it throughout but I really want to sit and watch all three films again to fully appreciate the trilogy again. To be honest, I said the same thing when I saw The Avengers movie. I really felt I needed to re-watch Thor again. Both great movies as well.

So what was Mr Husband's point of view? Mr Husband's quote when we came out the cinema was "Sorry Joss Whedon but Christopher Nolan is now my Master." This is very high praise from Mr Husband since Joss Whedon is one of his favourite directors.

If you get a chance, please go and see this movie. It's really great!!

Before I end this blog, I want to say that my thoughts are with the families and friends of the people who died due to the shooting in Aurora, Colorado. No one should ever lose a person close to them like this. No one.

The Story of my MacBook Pro

When I had the idea for this blog, I still had my original Windows 7 laptop. However, after my exams, I got a MacBook Pro (late 2011 version). And how it came to be is a story I like to tell. With everything else going on, this is the first time I've been able to tell it to my blog

Before I go into the actual story, I should explain how I ended up loving Apple products. If you spoke to me 3 years ago, I hated Apple and how you would end up being tied to the one company without little freedom for other software. I didn't like the products but Mr Husband was even worse. But through his job, he admitted that he would need to know how to program on the upcoming Apple products - just incase he was asked to do it. So he ended up buying the iPhone 3GS and the MacBook Pro (Mid 2009). He didn't want to but he needed to. But over time, we discovered how much better the Apple products were to normal Windows PCs and Linux Operating System (since Mr Husband was using it at the time). The reason that Apple was all tied together was because you didn't need the freedom. Software such as Anti-Virus and WinZip aren't needed. Over time, we realised the advantages of using the Macs over Windows, and we began to use Apple products more.

This being said, I've only recently got my MacBook Pro. This was because I was given a laptop due to my dyslexia. However, whilst I am grateful for the laptop - it wasn't the best laptop. After a few weeks of few, my battery life went from one full hour to only getting between 10 to 20 minutes at the most. I got the laptop when Windows 7 first came out, which meant that all the software hadn't been fully tested for bugs. And it showed through. Over the last year of my degree, I ended up using our Mac Mini (which is really used as a media centre) to complete my coursework and use for revising. And it was at this point, I discovered that the Macs were so much more effective than my current Windows laptop. I began to use my Windows laptop less and my Mac Mini more. There was one major disadvantage though. The Mac Mini is portable as long as you have easy assess to a monitor. However, this wasn't the case at my University. So the long painful method of saving up began.

Fast forward to the last day of my exams, I organised to meet up with my Dad. I don't get to see him much due to his job but when he's home, then we have good quality time together. So, we have a little after-exam traditions. So I was on my way to meet him when I get a call. He asked me to go and meet up with him but to remember my student ID because he needed it for the discount. I didn't really think anything of it but I said not to worry and I would see him soon. After that, we met up and he told me that he wanted to go into the local shopping centre to buy some trousers. Again, this was reasonable so I said we would go. At the local shopping centre, I asked if we could stop at the Apple store. For me and Mr Husband, this is very much a routine to go and admire all the products in the Apple store. So Dad said yes and we wondered into the Apple store and Dad stopped at the MacBook Pro. He then asked someone to help him pick a MacBook Pro FOR ME! I'm telling you now - my jaw hit the ground. I really didn't expect to get a MacBook Pro. But Dad told me that I deserved it for my hard work at University so this was a graduation present and a birthday present combined. Dad understood that the Windows laptop was slowly dying - at this point, most mornings it would squeal for 30 minutes until it had warmed up. But he also understood that the MacBook Pro was needed for my University work for my dyslexia.

I've had it since May and I love it. And I'm glad I got it before the upgrade since all the newer MacBook Pros no longer have a DVD drive. Which is a really minor thing but at least I have it if I need it. I'm looking forward to Mountain Lion coming out since it will have dictation on it as well. But now, my Apple product family is complete and I'm really happy about that.