THE HENWATCH BLOG

                                                        A while back my son & daughter in law bought me a present for my birthday , it was a chromecast hd  dongle . At first it had so many limitations and there really weren't that many apps that were chromecast friendly . You could cast you-tube easily and a lot of the other music channels as well , but ultimately its relevance and usefulness was very limited .                                                        Enter xbmcast , a clever little app you can get from xbmc/kodi                                              Apps to be installed on any Android Phone ! , and the world of chromecast opens up like a phoenix that has risen from the ashes . Along with the  bubbleupnp app and your casting world becomes a tv & movie wonderland . No more need for downloading , very little time wasting as you are simply streaming from the internet . And the price of this little chromecast is about 40 euro .                    

                                                        So here we are 29th January and I expect all those new year resolutions have made their way effortlessly out the window . Not that I'm a pessimist , no in fact I would say realist is how I'd best describe myself . I understand with all the best of intentions , resolutions were sworn upon , they were how your lives were gonna change for the best in 2015 . What we never factor in though is the pleasure factor . This is the one thing that can destroy the best of intentions .                                                         Indulgence can be enjoyable if a little control is exercised , and things can remain the same without getting out of control . But here we are in the middle of winter and how is one supposed to get through without a little indulgence . Without it days can appear very boring and very long . You sit down and watch a movie , and whats watching a movie without goodies like ? Its like going on holiday an

                                                             Do anyone know what the real scourge of our society is ? Has anyone got any idea what has us in such a mess ? Which begs the question does anyone really care ? These are the questions we should be asking ourselves day in and day out . Because wishing and hoping is just not doin it for us right now .                                                              Apathy is the scourge of the masses , and acceptance goes along with it as being a so dangerous position . Having been one never to accept things on face value , it has always been my view that we should all question everything . And as a result I have passed on this position to my children , hoping they will never fall into the trap of acceptance and become apathetic . I hope that having passed this on it will have some bearing on how they approach things and how they deal with common obstructions in life . Because as we all know obstructions and obstacles are the thin

                                                          Today I watched the movie American Sniper with Bradley Cooper , and as a war movie it was quite good ! Now let me explain that before I watched the movie I was made very aware of the criticism the movie got and how historically inaccurate it may have been . I was also aware of certain things that Chris Kyle is supposed to have written in his book about his Iraq experiences . The truth of the matter is really quite simple , he was a soldier !                                                           On a personal level war is abhorrent to me , evil will never be defeated with evil .  And no matter what side you're on , and who you believe which is the real question , war is never the answer to anything .                                                           Chris Kyle like all of his comrades went to Iraq with the misguided knowledge that their own country was under attack from the Iraqi's . They were told that Iraq

                                                            It was with great interest that I read today an article from WikiLeaks informing us that 59 International Organisations have called upon the U.N to remedy human rights violations in the pre-charge holding of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange .                                                             This coming June Julian Assange will have been a political prisoner who is basically condemned to house arrest without ever having been charged , and having his right to due process being blocked form every angle .                                                             He is and always has been guilty of only one thing , and that is the crime of telling the truth . Something our politicians and the other politicians of the world are truly guilty of . When someone be it official or otherwise pleads ignorance to the truth , its time for for the truth to become an absolute !

                                                          Hi , I just posted and blogged earlier , a blog called " Gray State " The Rise by David Crowley . It needs to be seen , it needs to be understood !                                                           This man David Crowley plus his wife Komel and their five year old daughter Rani were found dead of supposed gunshot wounds that was described as a supposed murder suicide at the family's home .                                                          He was having great difficulty in getting promised backers to continue supporting his documentary called Gray State .                                                          It is not my place to speculate , but I am finding it hard to understand why murder/suicide ! David & Komel Crowley R.I.P 

                                           Having the opportunity to mend a fence and not doing it , is like leaving your mouth open and hoping something wise will come out of it !

                                                               The time has come to put forward our own version of  a New World Order . The time has come to ignore the misinformation and lies that have been fed to us by those lying self interested politicians and clergy . The fact is they the governments and huge corporations and clergy I need add , have the means at their disposal to sort out hunger poverty and all the pains we as human beings have to suffer . We need to grab this huge opportunity to take back what is rightfully ours , our freedom , our self worth and most of all our humanity .                                                               These are all the things that have been drained away from us over the passing of time . We need to tighten our belts , sound familiar ? To make the world great again we need to introduce an economic austerity package . You will have to go backwards to proceed forward . Your families may die during this process , and there will be an

                                                           Good Monday dear people , hope the week-end was good for you . Yesterday Arsenal beat Manchester City , and for 2 solid hours I became an Arsenal supporter , not really something I am comfortable with ! But they came through and allowed Chelsea the team I support to go 5 points clear at the top of the league table . Now that for me was a good end to a very cold week-end .

                                                             What is it about people , could be friends , family , or just acquaintances , that they think they have the right to expect things from you without even an agreement or an understanding of what they are asking you ? They sometimes even ignore the question , can this person handle this favour I am asking ? Will they have the time and effort to accept this thing being asked of them ? And explaining that maybe you can't , suddenly becomes a reason to be short , disrespectful and downright rude . These are the questions that sometimes need to be asked to get a better understanding of the how's and the why's .                                                              Expectancy , you see that's the basic problem ! I expect therefore I should receive . Sorry but without a forethought , and some basic common sense that is not the way it is . And expecting someone to be at your beck and call no matter what the sit

                                                      Are people so afraid that someone questioning their beliefs and their Gods are gonna make their religion seem stupid and less important ? Are they so afraid that looking into the possible inaccuracy of their holy books teachings that billions of people are gonna be swayed by said coverage ? Have they so much fear and lack of confidence in their beliefs that they need to scourge the world with their barbaric atrocities just to make a point ?                                                      The world has and always will have doubting Thomas's , and they always will try to sway people to their way of thinking . Nothing strange there , its good to question ! Its so good to re-affirm , its healthy to be unsure , and get some fresh views on age old problems and teachings . It doesn't mean disrespect to question something , its a way of finding understanding .                                                      When you clos

                                                 So here we are in the 21st century and nothing has changed in Saudi Arabia with regard to punishments handed out to its citizens . How is any country like S. Arabia supposed to be respected and admired by the outside world with the latest atrocities so very warm in peoples minds ?                                                  Raif Badawi is a blogger , and like myself likes to put things out there , be it for self gratification or mischief it doesn't really matter . But living in Saudi and blogging about how things are done in his home country , is a step too far as far as King Abdullah is concerned . You see he and his very powerful clerics have handed Raif a sentence of ten years in prison , 1000 lashes to be administered every Friday after prayers , and was also fined for his criticizing these powerful clerics .                                                  Just this morning before he was due to get his 50 lashes for the d

                                                          Ok lets take a break from politics & religion , though that's a hard one . It seems everything and those two subjects are inter related at the moment and there's no getting away from it !                                                          Whats the new fashion chant for this year ? Whats gonna impress the life out of us so much so we're just gonna have to have one ? Which Hollywood star is gonna die from too much drink or drugs ? Whose famous restaurant is gonna be the in place to be in 2015 ? And how long are you gonna have to wait to get a table ? Will some Comet come closer to earth than previous one's , and more to the point " ARE WE GONNA CARE ?".                                                          I really don't give a damn anymore . its so pointless . I read someone's blog today about a village far away from the effects of consumerism . This old guy had just come back fro

                                                              I am having great difficulty trying to filter everything thats coming from the minds and mouths of the media . I am having bigger difficulty trying to understand and again filter whats coming out of the mouths of our elected representatives . We all wished each other  a happy new year only two weeks ago , and with great optimism we hoped for a better year . Then we soon realized that happy new years are so full of reality and pessimism that wishing certain things might happen was but wishful thinking . Its so disappointing that nobody has even the faintest notion of how to cure the cancer in society that is religion .

                                                              I see everyone is getting pissed off with the inaccurate reporting of the Je Suis Charlie affair . You really can't blame them , there is so much misinformation flying around its hard to know what the truth is anymore . To make matters worse you have the world leaders taking every opportunity possible to promote themselves as peacekeepers and concerned politicians as they line up in a fake photo giving the impression they were part of the actual demonstration . How insincere can you be without actually coming out and saying so ? Not these pillars of shite , no these rare pieces of excrement take it all in their stride . You should all be ashamed of yourselves , you are the the people who created this bullshit by NOT LISTENING TO THE PEOPLE .

                                                          The more days that pass since the slaughter in Paris , the more murky and confused it gets . Its so hard to find the truth these days , is it any wonder that people are so up in arms with governments and the justice system ?                                                           I suppose all of you have seen the unedited video of the policeman getting shot while lying on the ground ? I have watched it over and over , and the more I see it the more I am convinced it is fake . I could be wrong but there's a huge slice of society who are questioning the validity of the video .                                                           Add to that the hostage situation in the Kosher supermarket , where four people were killed and of course the terrorist , and it all adds up to nothing but confusion . No clear explanation of what happened , another conspiracy theorists wet dream . It all begs belief that is any of the truth

                                                   This morning I woke up with the same woman I have woken up with for the last 40 years ! On this day The 10th January 1975 I married the love of my life , I said I do to the strongest , most irrational , most loving , most forgiving , person I have ever met in my life . She is everything to me and more , she can wrestle a smile on my face with the blink of an eye , and she can stop a conversation with a turn of her head .                                                   We met for the 1st time in a club in Dublin called The GoGo in 1966 when we were both 13 years old . The rest is history , a history that I was so lucky to share with her and will continue to until forever !                                                   There is so much I could say about my wife Catherine , but the best thing I will say is that she is and always has been my soulmate , my private counsellor , my advisor , my reason for getting up in the mornings wh

                                             With all this reporting about the atrocities in Paris , its so very hard to see the forest for the trees . Policeman shot on the ground , kalashnikov bullet bounces off pavement , and not a drop of blood to be seen . Slaughter in supermarket , who has killed who ? Its the makings of a definite conspiracy theory , and do you know what ? We will never find out the real truth .                                              The only terrible fact that has emerged is the slaughter of innocent people , again in the name of someone's God . That's not the way things were supposed to be , we should have freedom of speech and expression . Anything other than that is mere slavery to the fear agenda , the confusion of the masses . The disinformation that's doing the rounds is another reason to be angry , the media can't look at each other and agree on anything . Methinks there's a hidden agenda and it does not include anything that m

                                                 I was just watching a video on facebook put up by a lady named Rebecca Ajibola . It was shared by The Anonymous Group , and it showed a guy resisting arrest who was being thrown round by a police officer . What came next was just so gruesome it blew me away 1 The police officer took out his gun and shot the guy at point blank range . Some people in the comments section said he was only tazered and that because he was resisting arrest he deserved to be shot .                                                 Now in my opinion for what its worth , it doesn't matter whether its a gun or a tazer , shooting someone like that is simply unacceptable . Its barbaric , its savage , its not as if the guy was armed , he wasn't . What is it about the American psyche ? What is it  that has you so de-sensitized to horror like this ? Can you not see the wrong in this ?                                                Children are killing parents w

                                                   In have just finished my daily ramble through Google+ , and normally you see some beautiful photography and stories . As usual you give them a plus if you like them as you well know . But I came upon a photograph of a young child who couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 dressed up and with make up made to appear like Amy Winehouse . To be honest I found it disturbing , not that she looked a little like Amy , but the fact that some parents see their children as an extension of their own  ego so much so that they paint them like little adults and feel its alright to present them to the world like this ! Shame on you , They are babies , Let them be babies !

                                                 Its very difficult to talk and chat about things that worry you and sometimes haunt you . The difficulty is that the truth and being honest about yourself and others can be a very enlightening and liberating experience . Not always in a positive way , as others and yourself sometimes are not ready for such  information , with the capacity to turn your world upside down .                                                 The idea of safety , be it your own or your family's is always to the foreground of your mind , its simply a primitive thing that you never want its ugly head to rise in the name of protecting ones selves . But sometimes that ugly head has no choice , and its not always the best excuse to use it , but as I said sometimes you just have no other choice . We are born the way of all mankind , we love , we hate , we protect and we try our best to be happy . But whenever something happens to knock us out of our rhythm , that

                                                        Am trying my best here to get out of Holiday mode and its doin my head in . It seems like its gonna last forever and that's not my idea of hunky dory . I know it will pass so lets continue on to something different alright ?                                         I watched a movie last night called The riot Club , there weren't too many stars that I recognized and so I watched with a little doubt in my mind . But straight away my doubts were blown aside and I thoroughly enjoyed this one and three quarter hour British movie .                                        The movie centered around Oxford College and town , and the college's students . What you have to remember is that these students are from very privileged families and therefore being skint would never be an issue ! Anyway .........                                        The story proper was about these ten students who belong to a secret society called th

                                                 Welcome to the New Year , hope we all enjoyed ourselves counting those seconds down and may your wishes all come true . We had a quiet one , we watched Jools Holland's Hogmanay on BBC 2 and as always was a blast . Ed Sheeran was really good , his version of Master Blaster (Jammin) by Stevie Wonder was excellent . Paolo Nutini was in great form and the legendary Boz Scaggs doing Lido Shuffle had to be seen to be believed , a true Music Man !                                                 We wished all our wishes , and blew all our kisses , and settled back down and watched the rest of the show . Maybe next year we will go to a black & white ball as we had done so many times before , then maybe we won't . I am not exactly a great believer of going to these extravagant outings , to be honest I'm not really bothered . I hope my wife doesn't read this , she won't be a happy bunny .