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"From out of the dark"

From Out Of The Dark

From out of the dark is a collection of 6 songs finished during the infamous Covid lockdown of 2020, drawing musical influences from many different genres and based on different themes close to my heart.

Some with a narrative, others about how I felt a particular junction in life, playing music, writing and recording songs has been a great outlet for me and helped me deal with and express myself in a productive fashion.

With no single genre over the six songs I decided to put them out as From out of the dark, to show how something good can come from the darkness. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed making them.

I appreciate so much all the friends and family who have helped critique these tracks ready for public consumption. Thanks also to my younger sister, Hannah, for providing her vocal talents and lyric writing on two of the songs.

Please listen below and follow me on all of my social networks using the links above.

Matt x

#AShortHistoryOfTractorsInUkrainian by Marina Lewycka spoiler free mini book review


My opinion of this book seems to differ from many of the critics and online reviews I have seen, all commenting on it's laugh out loud qualities and hilarity. Whilst in places I found the story amusing, in the beginning I found it to be slow going, and at times I wasn't sure I'd continue to the conclusion. 

I am however glad that I stuck with it, as along with being amusing, it is sad, frustrating and infuriating, sometimes simultaneously! I was completely hooked about a third of the way in, desperately hoping for a satisfying conclusion to events.

The story (without spoiling events, and stating nothing that isn't in the blurb) is told from a younger siblings in a Ukrainian families point of view. After her mother passes away, the family are brought together, firstly by the funeral, and subsequently by the elderly father's poor series of decisions, from which he marries a young, Ukrainian, aggressively blonde and similarly demanding divorcee woman. The father's infatuation leads him to squander his finances on the gold digger, on cars, surgical enhancements and education for her son. These events stir up past memories and feuds between the sisters, all of which must be put to one side for the sake of rescuing the father from the assault on the senses that is Valentina. 

What I think makes this a successful read is Lewycka's ability to induce empathy for all of the characters - even the peroxide haired, boob enhanced Valentina at times. It becomes increasingly frustrating towards the climax of events, and therefore hugely satisfying as we ride the proverbial railroad out to the end, discovering more about the families relationship, and of wartime history as we go. 

To coerce such a variety of emotion throughout it's pages is surely a credit to the penship of Lewycka, and I highly recommend this read for fans of emotive, humorous writing, wartime history and of family dramas.  

#RiversOfLondon mini spoiler-free book review

Rivers of London is the first book in a series of Novels by Ben Aaronovitch where a London Met officer named Peter Grant's life changes for the bizarre, after what should have been a regular encounter with the career advisor at work. Instead, Grant becomes one of the chief detectives in a most unusual case, involving ghosts, magic, victorian drama, spirits of the river and people's faces falling off. 

So as not to spoil the plot, I'll only say that this story is a gripping, amusing and exciting tale, aimed at young adults - the writing style is similar to that of Tom Holt - almost comedic in parts, meets detective story something akin to the wittier episodes of Castle. The characters are all memorable and interesting, and following Grant's tutelage into the basics of all things magical is not only intriguing but believable. He's very much an amateur wizard in training. There are two main story arcs within the novel, that intertwine well with a successful impact on the pace of the storytelling; the first is the tale of the gruesome fantastical serial killer causing people's faces to leave their heads, and the second that of the political, territorial disputes between the sprites and controllers of London's waterways.

The character descriptions, especially those of the female characters (all of whom seem to have heaving, ample breasts) and the description of Grant's upbringing and early career as a half cast African police officer are employed well and believably throughout, 

The story culminates in a riotous outbreak in the streets of London, and our hero detective feverishly tries to solve the case, capture the offending spirit and save his friends. I found myself glued to the pages, despite the sometimes annoyingly long chapters (I like to finish an entire chapter before putting a book down to take a break) and found the conclusion satisfying, but leading up to the next tale in the series, which I'm looking forward to immensely, successfully. 

For fans of Tom Holt, fantasy, magic and science fiction; detective stories, humorous writing and generally good storytelling. 

#ForbiddenIsland board game

I thought for my first board game review I'd look at something a bit different. Forbidden Island is a beautifully presented game by company Gamewright Games for 2-4 players, but is most fun with a team of four.


At it's core, the gameplay is cooperative. Your group take on different roles from a group of explorers, who have come to the island in search of ancient treasure! Unfortunately, your being there has set of an ancient booby trap! The island is sinking! It is your teams job to make off with the four ancient treasures and make it back to the helicopter pad before taking an extended nap with the fishes.


Each character has a profile, affording them slightly different abilities to the others, for example there is a diver, who is able to circumvent flooded parts of the island; a pilot, who has additional helicopter benefits and so on. The locations of the island are represented by double sided cards, each with a beautiful rendered illustration one side, and a pale blue version of the same location the otherside to indicate when the area has become flooded. Fail to reverse the effects of flooding in time and the card goes out of play permanently, making maneuvering around the island more difficult, and collecting the treasure harder or even impossible.


The locations have excellent names. Coral Palace; Fool's Landing; Cave Of Embers etc, and only certain locations have an ancient treasure hidden within. These are represented by four brightly coloured plastic figurines, and your characters are represented by colourful plastic pawns.


Each turn is made up of four actions, which can be used to move tiles, shore up a tile (unflood a partially flooded location) or swap items with your group if you're near enough to do so. At the end of every turn, treasure cards are taken, with the aim of collecting four identical treasure cards before making your way to the trinket on the island and taking it back to Fool's Landing for your imminent escape. There are also item cards to aid you in your quest, and Water's Rising cards, which increase the water level, represented by a sliding point card. At the end of every turn a number of location cards are drawn equal to that on the water level card. These location cards then become flooded location tiles! Once and the tile is flipped over to the blue side; twice and the tile goes out of play for good! Unless a rule specifies, you are unable to navigate through these now empty spaces, and as the proverbial walls close in the harder it becomes to move freely and help out your team. This has a good effect of increasing the pace, gradually making gameplay increasingly frantic as you scramble to collect, trade and escape the island with your team mates.


For those proficient in escaping the island, the water level can be set at a higher level at the beginning of play, to make the game more difficult from the outset.

Forbidden Island is an extremely fun game to play, with friends or family. The cooperative nature requires good communication and quickly results in collaboration over tactics, and much mirth when it all goes pear shaped.

Presented in a sturdy tin, the artwork and overall feel of the cards is of supreme quality, and the game requires no assembly at all. Furthermore, the replay value is high given that you can make it as difficult from the get go as you see fit. Currently retailing on Amazon for under £14 (at time of writing) it also represents incredible value for money. And gameplay can be improved further by investing in the official soundtrack of the Indiana Jones movies. Essential for any board game collection. Recommended by Gamewright for ages 10 and up.

Asus #Chromebook


I wasn't sure about the appeal of Chromebooks until having this demo unit through work to play with. I can now completely see the appeal, and I'll be saddened when my unit has to be returned to the generous supplier. 

As a netbook, the ASUS Chromebook CB5-571 (catchy) comes with the Chrome OS preinstalled. The idea behind google's notebook OS is that everything runs using a selection of Web Apps, rather than relying on downloads and installed software to perform tasks. This means the hardware can be much more lower specified, resulting in cheaper up front costs. Never the less, the CB5 is equipped with a 1080p screen, 2GB of RAM and a 32GB SSD. The processor is an Intel Celeron 3205U.

Now that internet in the UK is actually becoming up to scratch, running software is no longer the issue it may once have been, and I never found myself in want of storage space or processing power to run any of the apps I needed to. If you're invested in Google's architecture already (Google Docs, Slides etc) then everything is as you'd expect and more importantly, where you'd expect it. I was also able to use document editors from Office 365 as well, so compatability was never an issue. 

The unit has been described as feeling/looking quite cheap, but I personally like the clean white modern plastic housing for the machine, reminiscent of one of the early Macbooks. The keyboard was comfortable, but the trackpad did feel cheap, making a horrible noise when tapped or clicked. A bit annoying. 

The unit powered on to the sign on screen in a matter of seconds, and I didn't experience any lag whilst running the device at all, and found that for light use over the week the battery stood up excellently well. In fact I'm not sure I've had the charger out of the box!

There are a few key apps in the Chromebook store like Google's version of office, but as this becomes ever more populated the credibility of these machines will only improve. And for a penny under £200, these really are a viable alternative to a tablet, especially if you want something a bit more serious and do a lot of keyboard work. 


#OneRedPaperclip by Kyle Macdonald

One Red Paperclip is the story of one Canadian's rather epic tale of becoming a true entrepreneur.

Kyle Macdonald begins by telling us of how he has become stuck in a rut with life, struggling to find work, waking up late and generally spinning his back wheels trying to get anywhere. He makes the decision to embark in a game he used to play growing up called bigger and better, the concept of which is simply to take any odd, mundane or downright stupid item and aim to trade it for something bigger and better. If you hadn't guessed already, Kyle begins with one red paperclip.


Growing up there were rumours of people trading up to things as immense as cars. Kyle makes it his mission to trade up to a house for him and his girlfriend, making 14 trades, each slightly more impressive then the last, for a variety of reasons. What's nice about this story, is not only is it based on completely true events, but Kyle is constantly aware of his moral compass - he does not want to to trade straight to a house later with a company that believe it will get them good press - he wants to trade his items or experiences to genuinely help or enrich the quality of life of other individuals.

This is a gripping, interesting, funny and quirky tale, with some downright odd trades keeping the story fresh and interesting, broken up with Kyle's opinions and attitudes towards life; about staying grounded, genuine, and being passionate about whatever it is you may be doing, no matter how insignificant you may feel it is. An excellent read.

#BooksBooksBooks

One of the symptoms of depression can be severe difficulty in concentrating on tasks one used to enjoy for no apparent reason other than a feeling of not being bothered. For me, my music and my video gaming very much has taken a back seat lately, and despite wanting to get back into it, my interest in actually starting anything is still low. It's gradually improving - just slowly. 

However, on the plus side, my reading has gone up exponentially and I've been getting through books, magazines and newspapers (well, crosswords!) more and more. As we come up to Christmas, here are a few I've finished recently, and my completely spoiler free impressions of them.


Nick Frost - Truths, Half Truths & Little White Lies



I love Nick Frost as an actor - everything he does just seems to somehow turn to gold, from his movie work with Simon Pegg, to his independent outings such as Cuban Fury and Hyperdrive. I also adored Mike in Spaced. 

Not only do I love his artistic output though, I also think we'd really get on as mates - I love how he comes across in interviews and generally as a human being: funny, confident but never obnoxious nor arrogant. It surprised me to learn then, in his book 'Truths, Half Truths and Little White Lies' that he'd actually had quite a rough time of things growing up. 

A largely dysfunctional family unit led to Nick's emotional demise, and within his book he discusses some obviously poignant moments and experiences that helped him cope with some serious issues. 

It's a humbling read, and really feels like Nick is baring his soul to you as a good friend. I was mightily intrigued throughout, especially to learn of his travels and exploration around the world, learning how he made his living and how he got to the beginning of his journey to where he is today as a successful comic actor and film maker. 

I'd recommend this to any fan of Nick's work, and even those who aren't but would like to find out that even after having the hardest time of it, things can and often do work themselves out.


Simon Pegg - Nerd Do Well 



I do love Simon Pegg, and much like his counterpart Nick Frost everything he stars in seems to become successful, and there's nothing he's done that I've really disliked. 

I'd like to think that we'd get on quite well if we met up to go for a pint together - we have very similar interests - retro video games, science fiction, comedy... I'm sure it'd be a great laugh!

Nerd Do Well is Pegg's recount of how he got into acting, comedy and writing in general. These autobiographical segments are full of anecdotes and funny stories of how he came to meet and work with many of his contemporaries. It was all very interesting and I found it difficult to put down, but what was especially nice about this read is that it is broken up with a fictional tale of Simon and his Robot butler (imagine C3PO combined with Alfred from Batman) and their comedic heroic exploits. All of Pegg's geeky influences can be seen in this, from Thunderbirds to Batman and of course Star Wars.

I also really enjoyed Pegg retelling his experiences of popular culture, and how these have influenced his artistic output and more generally his tastes over the years. I would recommend this to any geek, especially if you're familiar with anything Pegg has had anything to do with.


Chris Hadfield - An Astronauts Guide To Life On Earth 



For a real life astronaut, Chris Hadfield is a remarkably down to Earth individual. This book came highly recommended to me from a number of people, and I'm glad I gave it a go.

The book is sort of a self-help/life guide meets auto-biographical exploit through many of the decisions and life events that helped shape Hadfield's life and career into the David Bowie singing astronaut of the Canadian Space Agency. As somebody thoroughly interested in all things space travel, I was excited to get an insight into life training as an astronaut, as well as into Hadfield's experiences of the NASA shuttle, the Russian Soyuz capsule and life aboard the ISS.

Hadfield explains the workings of these well, simultaneously educating whilst never sounding arrogant or condescending. He is genuinely humbled by the experiences that life has afforded him, and his appreciation of this is ever apparent throughout, despite knowing that he has obviously put in masses of effort to make his dreams a reality.

Throughout though, Hadfield delivers great personal insight into keeping positive throughout life, no matter what your goals. He discusses how best to keep yourself grounded, whilst pushing yourself to achieve and ultimately enjoy what life has to offer, throughout the bad and good times.

Witty, intellectual and sometimes emotional, I would recommend this not only to people with an interest in space and space travel, but also those looking to better themselves as individuals. Interesting and entertaining.



Graeme Simsion - The Rosie Project



This is a beautiful story, and a real page turner. I really struggled to put this book down. Shockingly, even my video gaming time suffered! 

It's the story of how our main character, a 30-something, unlucky in love genetics scientist sets out in a super logical quest to find himself the perfect partner. A prime candidate for somebody on the autistic spectrum, Don is a stickler for routine, bordering at times on OCD, and finds it very hard to understand emotional expression and to empathise with his fellow human, often taking things literally. A good comparison would be Sheldon Cooper from the big bang theory. 

Don scientifically sets up a 'Wife Project' questionnaire to help find his life partner after the advice of his few friends, but after a series of twists and turns, his logical brain meets illogical Rosie. Other projects take over, and Don's normal routine is shattered as he attempts to juggle these new aspects of his life. 

To avoid spoilers, I'll leave the plot summary there. Know that this is an emotional, comedic story, with genuine laugh out loud and sad moments, despite Don's emotional difficulties. I became truly invested with all of the characters and just couldn't put it down until I arrived at it's conclusion... A triumph in story telling!


Nick Offerman - Paddle Your Own Canoe



As a big fan of Parks and Recreation, I was excited when I saw Nick Offerman, known on screen as burly, moustached Ron Swanson, had written a book. Like many of my recent reads, this is another autobiographical meets life advice kind of book. 

It's been a while since I finished this, but i'll try my best so summarise my impressions. Nick is simultaneously nothing like his on screen alter ego, but also incredibly similar! Having grown up on a farm, Nick is a very manly man - he insists he doesn't always have his moustache, but I find this hard to picture in my mind as I read through his humorous anecdotes of his early life, passion for red meet and dark liquor, and actual abilities in woodworking (with which he runs his very own woodworking shop, and has even won awards!)

Nick is incredibly humble and grateful of his upbringing shaping him into the rounded and independent individual that he has become. As he moves on to talk about his beginnings in comedy - working in sketch comedy groups etc, and meeting his wife, Megan Mullally, about whom he expresses immense affection and gratitude toward, he still maintains a grounded attitude towards life. He has many pearls of wisdom to offer, all the while being entertaining, funny and actually quite lovable. An enjoyable read. 


So, there we have it! All caught up on my brief, spoiler free reviews on all of my recent(ish) reads. Let me know if you agree/disagree with what I say, or if you just wanna chat about any one of them. Thanks for reading!

#StarWars #TheForceAwakens


As a massive fan of the Star Wars films and expanded universe, I was a little apprehensive about the new film. The abundance of trailer hype couple with the ferocious push on marketing (it seemed every shop from supermarkets to video game stores were pushing the merchandise!) worried me - surely a franchise as successfully as Star Wars shouldn't need quite the aggressive investment in promotion as episode 7 received.

I'd also just read Simon Pegg's 'Nerd Do Well' in which he talks about his disappointment getting to witness the release of episodes 1-3 first hand and had begun to feel his apprehension to episode 1 as my own with episode 7.

Luckily, I needn't have been worried at all.

Of course, it isn't the best piece of cinematography ever - it's not an artsy or cult film as we already know! What it is, is a love letter to the original films, with very similar directive choices and a tone that imitates the non serious nature of those original movies.

The acting for the most part, is extremely well performed. Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher make it feel like we are genuinely picking up where we left off with some old friends, and the new talent always seem to relate to somebody from one of the other films, whether in appearance or acting style. I was particularly impressed with the work of Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, who, unlike Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker in episodes 1 through 3, who comes off in the end as a bit of an annoyance and spoiled brat, actually portrays a genuinely torn individual, emotionally distraught and legitimately troubled, without becoming irritating.

The special effects and artwork are superbly done; costume design is fantastic, and both the script and story kept me hooked until the end. The Williams soundtrack is yet another triumph throughout, and the action sequences are believable unlike in some of the scenes in episodes 1-3. You're playing with essentially a laser on a stock!!! There should not be quite as much spinning!!


So, in my effort to make this a spoiler free first impressions review, I'll stop there, and say that as an avid fan of the entire works of Star Wars, despite it's flaws, episode 7 is a great success and deserves your attention, as a fan or newcomer.

May the force be with you, Star Wars. Always.

#Bett2016

Bett 2016

For those who work in the IT for education sector, be they technicians, teachers, subject leads or just tech savvy teachers, Bett is the annual convention for all things new and exciting in educational IT development and releases. Held at the Excel arena in London, it’s an extremely large affair, containing suppliers and manufacturers of hardware, software, applications and web services, all specifically relating to IT in education.

This year was my first year going to Bett, and it’s clear to see where the focus of the events many displays seem to be centered around. The hardware is getting smaller, more software than ever before is free, and lots of services that once required schools to invest in their own, often expensive and sizable, hardware are becoming cloud based, managed by companies at locations completely separate from school sites, using the power of the internet.

Attending an event like this, it’s unavoidable returning with a swathe of material to wrap your head around, some useful and some really not, depending on your background and job role. Here are some of my highlights for the event and what I thought would be most useful for the education sites I help support with their IT.



1.      Code Club – Interactive Workshop using Scratch and Raspberry Pis (on Linux) - Making a ChatBot


This Code Club demonstration has drawn me to a couple of computing aspects I think would be excellent to utilize around our schools. The first is the service Code Club itself, a free bank of resources and volunteer led workshops for children ages 9-11 teaching the fundamentals of computer coding, often using familiar software such as Python or Scratch (anyone delivering the new computing curriculum already will have likely seen these before). To find out more about Code Club, visit www.codeclub.org.uk

Now owned by the Raspberry Pi company, they predictably have begun delivering these courses using the Raspberry Pi hardware. If you’re unfamiliar with Pi computers, the philosophy is a computer for everyone – a PC so bare bones a model can be bought for around £26, and contains everything needed to assembly a working computer, with operating system, internet connectivity and the ability to be used for programming. These would be an ace way to show children in schools the parts of a computer, and how they come together.

Using both of these resources together could be invaluable to schools with a minimum financial outlay. And because the Pi can run Scratch, any hardware schools already have will be compatible.

2    Lego WeDo 2.0 – Interactive Workshop on computer coding through science



Lego have always been at the forefront of using Lego with technology, famously through the Mindstorms series which are now geared at the secondary level of education. Further down the key stages, they have introduced WeDo and now WeDo 2.0, a computing program and tablet app that teachers computing fundamentals such as algorithms and consequential thinking through the medium of other subjects. For this interactive workshop, we were looking at coding through science.

The WeDo 2 pupil starter set goes for £299, with various offers and discounts for purchasing add ons and in larger scales. It uses a software program and tablet application and comes with a Bluetooth enabled motor and connection unit, which connected to our demo iPad unit in seconds, and which can be used to attach various sensors to. For this project, we were tasked with making the head of our little buddy robot rotate according to a command.

The software is incredibly intuitive and much like scratch in how you go about placing commands in a sequential order, changing variables and debugging, only it is more visual, relying on less text to explain outcomes (though there is a comprehensive definition library to help with this). What I like about the Lego sets is that, rather than seeing the outcomes of their coding and debugging on a screen, the children can relate this to the real world outcome of having their robot move, in this instance rotating.

It also promotes a higher level of debugging – not only do you have to fix the code to correct any problems, but there may be aspects of the physical model design that need altering to help the code run efficiently, for example we found we needed to reattach our robot’s head using a longer axel in order for it to move independently of the body. We also found we could start and stop the code using a light sensor, with minimal input from anyone around.

For the initial outlay then, I feel these sets would definitely contribute positively to the computing curriculum, but when you consider the sizable software package that comes along with it, not all of which have to use models, then the value for money really is terrific.

3    Hardware Encrypted Memory SticksiStorage by datashurPro

With the introduction of the cloud, it might seem strange having something as simple as a memory stick in my list of Bett highlights. However, how much do you really know about the large warehouses full of computers and storage that the big companies own, miles away in a desert somewhere? Possibly..?

For people that work frequently with sensitive information, using encrypted laptops proved troublesome, not only often requiring multiple log ons, but also the risk of losing this important information should passwords be forgotten or corrupted, or a member of staff leaves etc.

The Istorage stick is a high quality flash drive that encrypts the information before it even comes into contact with a computer. Relying on a pin code rather than a password, to unlock your device you would enter your pin before attaching it to a computer, and hey presto – secure information!
This would free up your laptop from any clunky encryption software without giving you yet another complicated paSsWOrd26 to remember – just a pin. A 4GB USB 2.0 stick starts around £30-40.

4    Active Floor – Interactive Floor Projection


Active Floor is exactly what it sounds like – an Interactive Floor. Using the witchcraft that is interactive projection, Active Floor can make a touch screen interface on any surface. An interesting way to get pupils involved and active during lessons.

Whilst possibly not suitable day to day, I could particularly envisage these projectors being utilized in SEN settings, such as breakout, inclusion and immersive rooms etc. Imagine playing a giant piano using your feet? As an interactive sensory experience this offers something innovative, and they’re bundled with an interactive floor specific software package. Visit activefloor.com for more information.

5    Story Maker (The Gruffalo edition) and ImotionPro – by Intofilm


IntoFilm, much like Code Club, are an organization helping get children and young people into the world of video editing and animation. They offer free resources on starting film clubs, such as templates on film reviews or storyboards etc. At Bett, they were showing us the newly released Gruffalo intoFilm app, which allows users to edit and create videos from genuine video and audio samples taken from the Gruffalo short film. Users are able to trim, edit, record, apply effects and save their work using iPad and Android platforms. It’s also a completely free download.

Secondly, they were also using an app called iMotionPro to teach animation. I’ve seen a lot of animation tools for tablet which have a tendency to overcomplicate things. Imotion (free) and ImotionPro (£2.99) is a simple way to capture lots of images, change the rate of play, and animate them together.

Learning how films are made this way, not only gives children great insights into the technical world of film and video editing, but also into the literary concepts of good story telling, effective review and discussion, not to mention an improved vocabulary. It also boosts many cross curricular skills, and with the help of IntoFilm’s resources could become a prominent part of a syllabus. Visit http://www.intofilm.org/ for more information.

6.    Google Education – Google Chromebooks and Google Classroom


During my time at the Google stand, I was privy to experience a few different aspects of Google’s commitment to working within the education market. Despite my love of all things Office365 at the moment for education, the Google market is nevertheless impressive.

Firstly, the hardware – Google have now lots of different technological giants pooling in to work on Google Chromebooks – essentially laptops that run on the Google Operating System. The idea behind them is that they require very little in the way of raw power to function, as the majority of Google’s OS features are used through the magic of the cloud. Now that internet in the UK is actually starting to be pretty dependable, these are now becoming a viable option, and there were many sleek designs on show. Recommended for children were the HP models, for their robust build quality, but for anyone else it really depends on personal preference. I liked the Lenovo’s myself.

Next, I was shown Google Classroom – a free web resource which allows for joint collaboration between teacher and pupil, allowing simultaneous editing of documents, as well as the ability to instantly share work with teachers and classmates, and seek support out of school time. This also works in real time, and allows for immediate feedback, including annotations, follow up tasks etc. Did I mention that this is free? For our demonstration we labelled a scientific diagram, were able to submit this to our teacher who could then view, mark and repost for us to make any follow up changes.

As well as an online Office style suite, there are also hundreds of apps available from the Google store which can be added to Google classroom for you to use. Did I mention, this is free (And will work on any computer/mac/chromebook etc). If you’re seeking out a variety of options within e-learning in your school, Google classroom definitely deserves a look in, too!