Dexter (TV Review)

Rating = 10/10        Seasons = 8        Genre = Crime Drama

I thought it was time for another TV show review, and one show I have been watching a lot lately is Dexter. It ended it's run in late 2013 after 8 seasons and 7 years of production. Although it ended last year, it is still one of Netflix's most viewed shows and that is for that reason; it's amazing. It has to be one of a few shows where everyone is rooting for the 'bad guy' not to get caught.

Plot Summary

The show starts off with it's central character, Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) who is portrayed as having a bipolar-like life. He is a Forensic Scientist for the Miami Metro Police by-day and then a sadistic serial killer by-night. As the show progresses however, we soon learn Dexter has a code which he kills by, and one of his rules is to only kill people who he believes should die, which basically means he doesn't kill anyone who is 'innocent' but only criminals.

James 'Surprise Motherfucker' Doakes, Portrayed by Erik King

Later into season 1 of the show however, we learn how Dexter came-to-be such a hellish human being, and that is mainly down to the fact that his mother was ripped apart by a chainsaw right in-front of him. His adoptive sister, Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter) is also a very interesting character. Her foul mouth and obliviousness are part of the key elements why she is a show favorite, and she also plays a vital role throughout season one (I won't tell you why, check out season one yourselves!) Lastly, another interesting character in the show is Rita Bennett (Julie Benz) whom is a caring mother for her two children, Aster and Cody, but she is also very emotionally damaged due to being abused by her ex-husband, Paul. When her and Dexter first start dating, it is clear he only really sees her as camouflage for his vigilant acts, but soon we begin to see how Dexter starts to form monumental feelings for Rita, which creates A lot of problems with his 'code'.

My Thoughts

Now, obviously I don't want to give away too much (although surprisingly I actually haven't, the show is full of mysteries) so that is all I'm going to write for the plot summary (It is only a summary after all)

Surprisingly accurate still of Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter)

Basically, Dexter is the type of show that can play with your feelings pretty well and you honestly get sucked into it pretty fast. It has a rating of 9.1/10 on IMDB, and as we know IMDB are pretty tough critics. I have just recently finished season 4, and I have to say that it actually had an emotional effect on me (Once I stop feeling so sad I'll start season 5!) and I think this is an experience with a show that everyone should have

In conclusion, Dexter's anticipation, mystery and interesting plot proves to be the best combinations for a very successful and enjoyable show. It is different to any other show and kind of turns the tables on what we would normally go for in a TV show; this will definitely get you excited about the bad guy instead of the 'hero', and as Dexter would once say, "If I had a heart, it would be breaking right now".

Graze Nibblebox #2 (Review)

Recently, my second Graze box came through the letter box and I have to say, after last time, I was pretty excited for this weeks box.  It came on the exact day it was supposed to (It must have been a problem with the post last time) and the box was packaged very nicely (as always)

Basically, after gently pulling off the pieces of plastic separating me from the food, I opened the box to a lovely picture of blackberries. Inside the bottom compartment was the usual booklet containing information on the treats received and also some friend code slips.

These are the treats I got inside my box, which I was quite happy with. The ones that looked the most appealing were the My Thai soy bites and the Walnut & Vanilla Truffle. Now, obviously they can't ALWAYS send you the stuff that you like so they will try to send you new things to try and then rate, so that's where my Rhubarb & Pear compote came from (I kind-of despise dried pears). Now I'll write my review on each individual snack!


      Salt & Vinegar Nut Selection                                                                 Walnut & Vanilla Truffle
            606 calories (Per 100g)                                                                                                               484 calories (Per 100g)

                                                   

The Salt & Vinegar Nut Selection consists of Salt                         The Walnut & Vanilla Truffle consists of
& Vinegar flavored peanuts and Almonds. You can                       Walnuts, Pieces of fudge, Vanilla flavored
taste the salt more than the vinegar, but they are still                 Pumpkin seeds and Raisins. Although this
very nice! The nice crunch and unique taste of Salt &                   looks very nice, it does not taste the way it
Vinegar are just a few reasons why I already prefer                      looks (especially the walnuts, which look
these to regular shop-bought nuts.                                              slightly caramelized but taste plain)

Rating = 8/10                                                               Rating = 5/10

            My Thai Soy bites                                                                          Rhubarb and Pear compote
            336 calories (Per 100g)                                                                                                            329 calories (Per 100g)

                                                     

The My Thai Soy bites consists of 8 bakes soy                               The Rhubarb and Pear compote consists

bites (which are very nice btw) and a sweet chilli                             of Cranberries, Rhubarb and Pear slices

dipping sauce (which is also very nice). All together, I                     (which have been dried I assume) They 

have to say this was one of the best savory snacks I have                all taste pretty nice aside from the Pear

received so far from graze, the crackers were absolutely                  having a very weird aftertaste and first-

amazing and the chilli since was nice and sweet!                              hand taste. Not one of my favorites.

Rating = 10/10                                                          Rating = 6.5/10

I hope you guys enjoyed this second review and if you want to give graze a try, click here to get your first, fifth and tenth box free! Also a quick reminder I am still doing a giveaway to win two £5 graze vouchers! This competition is over

ALS Arguments

Recently there has been an abundance of videos surfacing allover the internet involving people throwing cold water over themselves to raise money for charity, and somehow the original intention for it has disappeared and it has now been known as just a "Fun summer challenge" or "A challenge to raise awareness"

Although no one here is to blame really, It is slightly annoying about how many different variations these videos have about them and I thought I would do a little summary of what the challenge was originally for. Basically, there is this disease called ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) which - long story short - degrades A persons motor-skills over time, and as the disease worsens/spreads it can also cause numbness and muscle spasms to the persons body.

The challenge was for anyone nominated to donate to ALS research, and also do an ice water challenge (you donate either way) The ice water challenge is basically nominating a person to dump freezing cold water onto themselves and then nominate other people to do it too, but the freezing water was to symbolize the progression of the disease and how it numbs the affected body. (Fun fact, ALS is the disease Stephen Hawking has, and is the reason he is paralyzed)

Sorry for the short post today guys, I promise I have more on its way soon!

Graze NibbleBox (Review)

So, on twitter I told you guys I would be doing another review so here I am!

Last week I started a subscription with graze because I wanted to see what the fuss was about with the boxes, and then today (Tuesday) it came in the mail. It was supposed to come on Monday but I'll let it slide since they can't control the postage. It came in a small cardboard box, ideal to fit through letterboxes (So you don't need to be home to wait for the package) and it was easy to open. Then, inside I found two £5 Gift Vouchers which I thought was very nice of them to include (I did mention my blog to them via twitter and said I would be doing a review, but I highly doubt that is the reason I got the vouchers)

The box also comes decorated and has a different picture each month, this month it was this picture of lemons, which is pretty colorful. They also include a few little books inside the box, one with news about graze, another with information about each snack (Calories, fat etc) and then one with friend code paper slips. Now I'll show you guys what snacks I got and what I thought of them.


         Triple Berry Smoothie                                                                      Honeycomb Flapjack
                 109 calories                                                                                          241 calories                                                 

                 

The triple berry smoothie consisted of Banana,                    The honeycomb flapjack basically consisted of a
Cranberries, mini strawberries and blueberries.                    'Rustic rolled oat flapjack with honeycomb and
The banana tasted pretty much like banana, but                   chocolate drizzle' although you can only slightly
with a not-so-nice after taste. The rest of the fruit               taste the honeycomb, the flapjack was still very
was quite nice though, especially the strawberry's.                very nice! It tastes as good as it looks
Rating = 7/10                                                               Rating = 9/10

            Cheddar Gorge                                                                        Mississippi BBQ Pistachios
                    139 calories                                                                                                                         104 calories

                   

The cheddar gorge consisted of cheesy cashews,                     The Mississippi BBQ Pistachios consisted of

baked herb cracker bites and salsa corn sticks.                        basically just roasted Pistachios with a BBQ

Everything on this taste pretty nice, but I wouldn't                   Seasoning on them. Although there isn't much

say that the name of the product suits it, since it's                  to this product, it was pretty much the best

only slightly cheesy (the cashews)                                           tasting one of all four!

Rating = 7/10                                                             Rating = 10/10

So I hope you guys enjoyed my review! If you guys want to check out graze for yourself, click here 

This link includes my friend code inside it which gives you your 1st and 5th boxes for free!

I am also doing a little competition with the vouchers I received from graze! This contest is over

Why do you write?

Recently I noticed a few of my 'blogger' friends have been writing things on their blogs about how writing keeps them occupied from real-life issues and things along those lines, so I thought I would put my own little concept on it and call the post 'Why do you write?'

I write for a few reasons actually, one being because I generally enjoy doing it and another being because it makes me feel somewhat satisfied with myself. The fact of writing your thoughts online and then others reading/enjoying is something that makes most people feel good, and although my blog is pretty small right now, I'm sure that if I put in enough work and keep my posts decently consistent, I can get it a little more recognition (Not in any way trying to say I'm the best blogger in the world though, because I'm sure I'm quite far from it) and then hopefully build up a few members!

As for the other reason, I have always quite enjoyed writing, especially when I was younger. I would go and get sheets and sheets of paper, then fold them over into a book shape and staple them together (Like a book) then I would write my own stories on them and give them to my mum. Although they were probably the most vile stories my mother ever saw, she would still read them for me and personally I don't think I would have the same interest in writing if she never did that (thanks mum!) Ever since then I have wrote full-on short stories (Mostly horror/thriller) for my English class which got good reviews from my teacher (Yay, gimme that book deal now)

Since then, I discovered blogger when I was attempting to start a News Article for a game I played, which would include information on events and etc. That blog eventually started to get some decent views, but then the game shut down and I forgot about the blog completely. Then A couple of years later at the beginning of August, I came across my blogger account again and read through my old posts (Now, these were not the best posts ever but I did get my points across!) and after that I eventually decided to start my own blog, but make it different by putting in stuff I want to talk about. I named it Ryonymous because I wanted it to be something short and catchy but also something that could easily stick to your mind (Like Zoella for example)

So that's my story basically, nothing too soppy or emotional unfortunately (I guess I live a boring life... or I'm just not ready to share personal things yet! haha) I want to turn this post into a sort of tag thing, so if you see this post and also happen to have a blog, write your own!

Anxiety and How to Deal with it

'Life is a beautiful Struggle'

This is a pretty heavy  subject, and something I wouldn't normally post on my blog but because of recent issues I thought I would like to discuss an on-going issue that effects our population all-over the world. This issue is Anxiety, and teenagers are the most prone to experiencing it. Body weight, size and imperfections are major causes for teen anxiety and can often carry on until adulthood.

Everyone is effected by Anxiety at one point in their life, whether it's nervousness going for an interview or feeling scared of doing something you normally wouldn't. But for some people it is a thing they need to deal with every day and constantly struggle with it. One thing some people with Anxiety may experience is a Panic Attack, which most people brush off as an issue pretty easily. In an ideal world, I would say a panic attack is a moment of feeling a bit scared or a moment of feeling uncomfortable, but that would be a lie.

A panic attack is basically (Long story short) an overwhelming sense of uncomfortableness, fear and feeling generally unsafe. It's like the feeling of nearly falling off a chair, or the feeling of missing a step on the stairs but amplified for up to 20 minutes at a time. Nausea and Hyperventilation are also effects that occur during panic attacks and can often make the persons situation even worse, as can a crowd of unfamiliar faces.

Anxiety and panic attacks are very common especially in teenagers, and some people often misinterpret what it's actually like to deal with them both. Here is a list of methods I PERSONALLY found useful and effective which may be of use to you:

1. Get yourself out of the situation - This is probably the most important piece of advice I can give you. If you are in a crowded or enclosed area, and you begin to feel a panic attack coming on, get yourself out of the situation immediately and get some fresh air. Claustrophobia is also an effect of having a panic attack and gives the person the sense they can't breathe properly.

2. Control your breathing - If you breathe too quickly your brain takes in too much oxygen and you begin to experience uncontrollable hyperventilation.,

3. Get something to drink - I'm not sure exactly why this works, but it can often calm peoples down. Water is the best thing to drink.

4. Don't be embarrassed - People will often try to hide they are experiencing a panic attack because they don't want to be seen as uncool and want to be 'part of the group' but this however can make things even worse. The person will worry about not embarrassing themselves AND what's happening to them, which can add unnecessary pressure.

I hope some of you found this at least a little bit useful, especially if you personally experience these issues or know someone who does. If you did find this useful, please remember these are methods that won't necessarily work for everyone and can sometimes not be as effective.

Orange Is the New Black (TV Review)

Rating = 9/10        Seasons = 2        Genre = Comedy/Drama


So, I decided I would try and do my first TV show review today! And I thought the first show should be one that has taken the world by storm; Orange Is the New Black. It's not for everyone and can feature some intense sexual scenes, so it's not really for the younger generation per say.

Plot Summary

The shows plot starts off with the main character, Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) making the most of her freedom before heading off to prison. The first episode starts off with Piper sentenced to 15 months in jail for money laundering and drug trafficking 10 years after the actual crimes. This sentence is due to her ex lover Alex Vause (Laura Prepon) who ran an international drug smuggling cartel and would often get Piper to transport drug money from one country to another. Eventually their past catches up with them and they both end up re-igniting their lesbian relationship in prison.

The prisons complex society at first horrifies Piper, but throughout the show she manages to earn inmates trust and friendship through lesbian activities, legal help and donating her own hair clippings. The show also centers around her relationship with her Fiancé, Larry (Jason Biggs) whose normality and boringness contrasts with Alex's adrenaline-filled wildness. At first, Piper and Larry find it pretty easy to stay a couple through weekly visits and grocery unpacking phonecalls which turn into phone sex, but this soon changes when Piper starts to forgive Alex for what happened during their breakup.

My Thoughts 

Now, I don't want to give away too much of the plot (Don't worry, I merely touched on the basics of the show, there's much more!) so I think that short summary is enough for now. The show's unique style of prison-comedy and situations are also entertaining, some of these include a deranged prison wife emptying her bladder on the floor of her rejector, prison fights over an ice cream cone and over-obsessive councillors!

Susanne 'Crazy Eyes' Warren, portrayed by Uzo Abuda

I personally find that the show has a slow-burning effect, meaning it gives you little bits here and there each episode until you are able to fully put it together yourself. Although it takes a while to get fully into the show at first, it is highly addictive once you are a few episodes in. The great cast and acting is also what makes the show great, each actor portrays their character in a unique confident way which makes the series considerably easier to get into.

In conclusion, I recommend this show to anybody who likes the mix of Drama and Comedy (the show being set in prison just makes these two genres even better) and although, it does contain a lot of nudity and lesbian activity, it just adds on to the great plot.

The Forest (Game Review

Rating = 7/10          Version Played = O.3          Genre = Horror

Recently I've been playing this single player kind of free-roam horror game on steam called "The Forest" and I know it's quite popular due to lots of youtubers making videos of it, so I thought I would do a lil' review for you.

The Game

Basically, the games opening cut-scene is of a man and his male child (I assume it's his child) travelling via Airplane. The plane then begins to experience wild turbulence and shortly after crashes into a mysterious forest(y) island. The main character wakes up in the crash-site and witnesses an island tribesman-of-sorts picking up his unconscious child and walking away (The screen blacks out afterwards) This then leads you out into an open sandboxy world where you can chop down trees to get logs, craft weapons, fight off attacking cannibalistic tribes during the night and most importantly in the game (For the plot I assume) finding your son.

There isn't really a plot yet, since it's in early development but I can assume you will meet up with other plane-crash survivors at some point and go on a search to find (and kill) whoever took your son. 

Features

The game has a realistic motion blur, lots of crafting options and also unique AI. It's quite violent and slightly gory (You can build flaming torches made of body parts) but it is also very adventurous and fun. It's kind of like a mature version of Minecraft (I said KIND of) Many people love the game due to it's mixture of adventure and violence though, and I am one of them; it makes the game different to other horror games

The players most handy thing throughout the game is the Guide Book, which has information about basically everything in the game. It is also used to craft structures, weapons and items and teaches the player about basic survival by showing recipes and what berries are edible.

Throughout the game you will also come across various cannibal campsites where you can dismember anybody who gets in your way and then use the body parts to create effigies, these effigies ward off tribes that plan on attacking you by basically saying "If you don't want to end up like this, you should f**k (sorry for the swearing) off right now"

Review

I find the game really enjoyable and fun because of it's uniqueness, but there is quite a lot of bugs (Which I can understand because it is in progress) but I will need to put them into account. Some of the bugs include the Guidebook incorrectly stating what materials are needed to craft something which can often be really annoying and another bug is the players "House Boat" randomly sinking, which leaves you pretty vulnerable (I have froze to death multiple times due to this)

All-in-all I love the game because of how fun and different it is for an open world horror game, but it does lose a few points because of it's list of bugs (They only recently added so you could save also) although do keep in mind that the game is still early in development, I just rated the game for what it's like right now

Why not give it a try? The link to the website is here

Gaming & Computers

I'm sure almost (Didn't mean offence to anyone who doesn't!) every teenage boy likes games and computers, so I thought I would write something about them today!

Currently, I game on my laptop which is an Alienware m14x which is really, really expensive to be perfectly honest, but it does a great job (I know people tend to post bad things about alienware but I personally love mines) I built-my-own laptop via the website to have the specs of;

One of my favorite LoL characters!

• 8GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3230M CPU @ 2.60GHz (Not the best CPU, but the best for value of money according to many websites)
• 750GB HD

So yeah, that is the basic info of my set-up. The main games I personally enjoy are things such as League of Legends, Smite, ARMA3, Nether, DayZ and things around those lines, so if any of you happen to play any of these, comment below and maybe we can play together!

I would also like to say that if I come off like I am trying to show off or insinuate that I am rich or something I am honestly not! I am privileged to have the items I have in life and I know that some people aren't so lucky, I just felt like I was in the mood to post something about technology today.

CyberCandy (Review)

Recently I treated myself to a little order from CyberCandy and I basically thought I would write a little review!

I surfed the website for around 10 minutes before finally settling on a "Mystery Parcel" (I felt like I wanted a surprise) After filling out the order form and such, I was slightly displeased with the fact they charge you nearly £5 extra for the lowest costing method of shipping (Which can take up to 6 days by the way) but seeing as I had a discount code, I guess it didn't really have an effect on me.

The "Mystery Parcel" in Large totaled up to £26.89 (Including shipping, which you HAVE to pay) but also promised to include up to 20 items, which is actually pretty good (Depending on what items received of course)

I ordered the box on Wednesday, and it arrived on Saturday afternoon (Pretty fast for a 6 day postage method huh?) It felt pleasingly heavy for a box only filled with sweets, so that already kind of led me up for a good outcome.

So after ripping open the box, I was face to face with the exact promised amount (Yes, I was sad enough to count) These items ranged from sizes tiny to large, I'll now list what items I received with their current price on the website.

Hershey Cookies'n'Creme bar, £1.42.          Baby Ruth bar, £1.42
Coffee Crisp bar, £1.59                               KitKat Caramel, £1.99
Butterfinger Peanut Butter Cups, £1.59         Boost Nuts bar, £2.39
Cadburys Freddo Dream, £0.69                   Blueberry Pop tart pack of 2, £1.39
Tootsie Pop wild berry, £0.49                      KoolAid black cherry packet, £0.69
Berry Chewy Lemonhead & friends, £0.59   Good & Plenty candy, £1.39
Haribo Smurfs, £0.69                                   Tabasco chocolate wedge, £0.59
Twizzlers pull'n'peel cherry, £1.49                 Wonka Nerds, £1.42
Angry Birds lollipop, £0.45                           Coris squirrel sweets, £0.43
Efrutti Gummy Bear ring, £0.25                     Freshen-up gum, £0.98

Candy takeout box the website offers

The total price for all of these items is £21.94 (Without the shipping costs of-course) So basically all-in-all, with a loss of 5p, I was still pretty happy with what I got inside this box.

I must also add that although one of the shipping options claims to have almost a week arrival time, I assume that is a strategy the website uses to deter you into the more expensive option.

If you want to give it a try, head on over to CyberCandy

School, Stress and Social unavailability

I don't really expect more than a couple of tens of people to read this post, but if any of you are in the UK (Scotland to be more specific) you will know exactly what this frightful weekend is. This is the weekend before our school exam results slip through our letterboxes at the earliest hours possible in the morning.

August has always been a time of sadness and misery because of this very reason. This is due to the copious amounts of stress and anticipation building up for that one day where we know if we focused on schoolwork, or friends. Let's just say I am not exactly personal friends with whoever thought school examinations would be a great thing.

"Let's set our students on a course in each subject throughout the whole year, consisting with at least three slabs of unit overviews and assessments. Then let's test all of this knowledge within one and a half hours and determine how well they will do in the future career-wise"

As soon as school starts, we all know that's the time where we become social hermits and rarely have enough time to spend time with friends, which is always A bad thing. Good thing our generation has Facebook..

To end on a happy note, at least we all get to keep ourselves busy during school, right? (Who am I kidding, it is the downfall of every teenager who has ever lived)