Google's march towards taking over the internet, and nowadays, the world, continued recently with the launch of their latest service, Google Video. The idea behind it is to allow everyone to be a movie producer, director and publisher all at once. Actual tv companies can put out trailers, episodes and snippets; while amatuer videos where anything goes are now going to be available under one mass library run by the esteemed search engine creators Google.
The problem that comes with this is like anything that happens regarding the internet and censorship. Critics have already attacked Google's new tool for, as the charge goes, allowing content which isn't suitable for all ages and natures, and with such easy availability. Google's argument is that it is, and always has been, about allowing users democratic access to information. By doing so they have become the number one search engine online, and are now a giant of a company within the internet industry.
Obviously, Google isn't allowing vidoes of child porn, hardcore porn, violence or anything of such extreme nature, and its content is monitored and censored when it gets put online. These sort of areas are the ones that always come up when it comes to the regulating the internet so it would be ridiculous for them to attempt it. However, one user's softcore is another user's hardcore, etc, so it becomes hard to draw the line. Google, naturally, want to attract as much attention and business as possible in order to compete with and outdo rivals, and that means innovating and constantly reinventing the boundaries. As I've said, there are obvious boundaries of acceptable content which Google has not crossed. But since Google is the first major company to offer such a service, they also want to be able to capture as much of the market as possible: to do otherwise would be stupid because someone (Murdoch) comes along, and raises the stakes that little bit more to offer something extra for users, and takes away the business. At the end of the day, Google's worth hundreds of millions, and you don't get like that in the media by playing nice.
Google have been scrutinised so because of their familiarity: I mean, if you really do want to see a busty blonde girl getting ruined by a big black cock, there are millions of websites just waiting for your credit card. In fact, you'd probably go to Google.com to search for the websites. Google has always been a tool; for finding sites, images and more, and now they're offering a service that allows anyone to put out videos, and anyone to watch them for free. With their censorship they enforce, Google are still being as democratic as they can be. While the internet era is well and truly today, and the world will never (barring a meteor) return to pre-internet days, the glory of its emergence has now fizzled out. Like just about anywhere in the world; the internet is a beautiful city, but there are some streets you really don't want to go down. The internet isn't a nice place, in truth, but the sweeping arguments that go with regulating it have missed the point rather: that Google is a business in an industry where innovation rules, and user hits are power.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Monday, January 23, 2006
The back at Uni view
Keen followers of my blog (ahahahaha) might notice the ability to write during term time is something that's been missing from this blog since I started year 2 of Uni. That's right; I'm online. Last thursday, the 19th (a day to remember), BT, god bless 'em, connected our line at their end and lo, the internet arrived at Bournemouth!
It's not, actually, that great a thing: with all this work I have due, and my committment to not going out more than once a week in order to maximise my time to do it, the evenings coming home at 3am being off my face have been replaced, so far, by staying up til 3am being tired and on the internet. So like a poisened chalice, the internet has been....erm, a chalice....with poison...
I don't know whether I'm under contract with Nerve* magazine, the Bournemouth Uni magazine that I write sports comment for (I do really: I've not signed anything), but just in case, I will refrain from putting the article I've written for the next issue in this post otherwise it would smack of not being able to think of anything else to write. Suffice to say, the underhanded News of the World paper deserves its up and coming sueing by Sven-Goran Eriksson after its needless and disgusting actions recently with the England manager. A tabloid rag indeed it is.
It's 1:40am, and since this was only a post to catch up, I'm going to bed.
It's not, actually, that great a thing: with all this work I have due, and my committment to not going out more than once a week in order to maximise my time to do it, the evenings coming home at 3am being off my face have been replaced, so far, by staying up til 3am being tired and on the internet. So like a poisened chalice, the internet has been....erm, a chalice....with poison...
I don't know whether I'm under contract with Nerve* magazine, the Bournemouth Uni magazine that I write sports comment for (I do really: I've not signed anything), but just in case, I will refrain from putting the article I've written for the next issue in this post otherwise it would smack of not being able to think of anything else to write. Suffice to say, the underhanded News of the World paper deserves its up and coming sueing by Sven-Goran Eriksson after its needless and disgusting actions recently with the England manager. A tabloid rag indeed it is.
It's 1:40am, and since this was only a post to catch up, I'm going to bed.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
A new dawn, a New Year
So 2006 is upon, indeed already washing over us as it is now the 3rd of January. This is probably going to be a grumpy post, but then my grumpiness breeds criticism, and there wouldn't be much point in a blog if it just said "this and that are good and ok".
Mainly I'm annoyed because I spent 9 hours at Sainsbury's today, working on a bank holiday after also working on New Year's day. Sainsbury's, it became evident, was the only place in Rustington open, when the entire village and its dog started queuing up at one of the 20 tills open at 3pm. I've only been working there for two weeks over Christmas and I've had enough - thank God I only have one more shift to do on wednesday. I just lost my will to be cheery and overly polite when, at 5:55pm, 5 minutes before closing, the announcement came over for people to come and buy because there was no time left to shop, and I looked down the end of my checkout and saw 5 or 6 people with not just a few bits of shopping queuing up. When the second or third customer came through, and said to me "You're closing early tonight", it took all my strength not to retort 'You should be thankful we're open at all at 6pm on a Bank Holiday, you stupid, old, ungrateful bint'.
Anyway, it's because I'm tired - staying up til this hour (1am ish) and having to get up at 9:30 and 8:30 respectively. Tomorrow I've got no such commitment, except for having to write a literature essay...oh.
Still, the initial part of 2006 was great - at a pub for New Year's Eve with friends from college and - bizarrely - my parents who happened to be there with their friends. I don't remember 3 and a half hour worth of drinking, nor why it took me two hours to walk home. Still, I enjoyed New Year's celebrations as I predicted I would in my previous post; much more than Christmas Day.
I ranted then about consumerism, and today we were selling chocolate eggs. Christmas Day, with 3 months of expectation behind it, was only 8 DAYS ago and now it's all about Easter eggs! Admittedly, the big ones are not on sale yet, but all the mini-eggs and truffle eggs and extra eggs that rake in the money for Cadbury's and Nestle etc are out in force already. You can see how very easily, and very quickly, two religious based holidays have become distorted and twisted into universal celebrations of material goods and chocolate, with preceeding sagas, months long, of advertising putting out the message of nothing at all, except to make people not think about what the adverts are asking them to do, and just doing it. Certainly, no one is thinking of the reasons why these dates in December and April are noteworthy in the first place - indeed, I put April as a month because even now, as I criticise, I don't know the exact dates that are important when it comes to Easter.
That said, I LOVE Creme Eggs and I will be buying them from time to time in the next 4 months or so while they're on sale.
Mainly I'm annoyed because I spent 9 hours at Sainsbury's today, working on a bank holiday after also working on New Year's day. Sainsbury's, it became evident, was the only place in Rustington open, when the entire village and its dog started queuing up at one of the 20 tills open at 3pm. I've only been working there for two weeks over Christmas and I've had enough - thank God I only have one more shift to do on wednesday. I just lost my will to be cheery and overly polite when, at 5:55pm, 5 minutes before closing, the announcement came over for people to come and buy because there was no time left to shop, and I looked down the end of my checkout and saw 5 or 6 people with not just a few bits of shopping queuing up. When the second or third customer came through, and said to me "You're closing early tonight", it took all my strength not to retort 'You should be thankful we're open at all at 6pm on a Bank Holiday, you stupid, old, ungrateful bint'.
Anyway, it's because I'm tired - staying up til this hour (1am ish) and having to get up at 9:30 and 8:30 respectively. Tomorrow I've got no such commitment, except for having to write a literature essay...oh.
Still, the initial part of 2006 was great - at a pub for New Year's Eve with friends from college and - bizarrely - my parents who happened to be there with their friends. I don't remember 3 and a half hour worth of drinking, nor why it took me two hours to walk home. Still, I enjoyed New Year's celebrations as I predicted I would in my previous post; much more than Christmas Day.
I ranted then about consumerism, and today we were selling chocolate eggs. Christmas Day, with 3 months of expectation behind it, was only 8 DAYS ago and now it's all about Easter eggs! Admittedly, the big ones are not on sale yet, but all the mini-eggs and truffle eggs and extra eggs that rake in the money for Cadbury's and Nestle etc are out in force already. You can see how very easily, and very quickly, two religious based holidays have become distorted and twisted into universal celebrations of material goods and chocolate, with preceeding sagas, months long, of advertising putting out the message of nothing at all, except to make people not think about what the adverts are asking them to do, and just doing it. Certainly, no one is thinking of the reasons why these dates in December and April are noteworthy in the first place - indeed, I put April as a month because even now, as I criticise, I don't know the exact dates that are important when it comes to Easter.
That said, I LOVE Creme Eggs and I will be buying them from time to time in the next 4 months or so while they're on sale.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
The Christmas Post
Nice pun.
It's been a not-very-Christmassy Christmas here. I got a guitar amp - yes, riffage! - and the new FM2006 which I may have to leave at home once I go back to Bournemouth otherwise I expect I'll fail the year. Some general other stuff too which has all been very nice, and I count myself lucky that etc etc.
The trouble with Christmas is you start preparing with the shops - in about September. You spend 3 and a half months building up to one day. And it never quite delivers. Sure you get lots of nice new things, and you have a fantastic lunch which is always the best part of the day. But really, as celebrations go, it's a bit flat. It's just one day for crying out loud.
This is of course from an aethiest's point of view. I have nothing to celebrate on the 25th of December, it just marks a point where I can give and receive presents with the people I want to do this with the most, so why should I start thinking about it so far beforehand? (Answer: because capitalism wants to make as much money from the 'event' of Christmas as possible). As an actual date, an event, New Year's Eve is much, much more significant. There's something far more finite, about the end of one year, and the start of a new one: looking back and being able to file away, if you like, the events of one year, and to contemplate and look forward to the new.
This may all seem a touch pessimistic, but this year I started to see a futility in it all. All the effort - even in little things like rolls and rolls of wrapping paper, hundreds of cards - for one day. Maybe next year, I'm going to say to people: "don't buy me anything, buy something for yourself" and I'll do the same. Instead of everyone spending their money on everyone else, no one spend it on anyone but themselves. The result? You probably save money, unless you go crazy, and get all the stuff you want for Christmas!
And anyway - next time I shopping, I'm off to the sales to pick up what I didn't get for Christmas. They started Boxing Day! So people spend 3 months or so buying buying buying for christmas, have a day off and then start again looking for that must-have bargain.
Perhaps that's what the 25th of December marks. The one day a year that consumers have off.
It's been a not-very-Christmassy Christmas here. I got a guitar amp - yes, riffage! - and the new FM2006 which I may have to leave at home once I go back to Bournemouth otherwise I expect I'll fail the year. Some general other stuff too which has all been very nice, and I count myself lucky that etc etc.
The trouble with Christmas is you start preparing with the shops - in about September. You spend 3 and a half months building up to one day. And it never quite delivers. Sure you get lots of nice new things, and you have a fantastic lunch which is always the best part of the day. But really, as celebrations go, it's a bit flat. It's just one day for crying out loud.
This is of course from an aethiest's point of view. I have nothing to celebrate on the 25th of December, it just marks a point where I can give and receive presents with the people I want to do this with the most, so why should I start thinking about it so far beforehand? (Answer: because capitalism wants to make as much money from the 'event' of Christmas as possible). As an actual date, an event, New Year's Eve is much, much more significant. There's something far more finite, about the end of one year, and the start of a new one: looking back and being able to file away, if you like, the events of one year, and to contemplate and look forward to the new.
This may all seem a touch pessimistic, but this year I started to see a futility in it all. All the effort - even in little things like rolls and rolls of wrapping paper, hundreds of cards - for one day. Maybe next year, I'm going to say to people: "don't buy me anything, buy something for yourself" and I'll do the same. Instead of everyone spending their money on everyone else, no one spend it on anyone but themselves. The result? You probably save money, unless you go crazy, and get all the stuff you want for Christmas!
And anyway - next time I shopping, I'm off to the sales to pick up what I didn't get for Christmas. They started Boxing Day! So people spend 3 months or so buying buying buying for christmas, have a day off and then start again looking for that must-have bargain.
Perhaps that's what the 25th of December marks. The one day a year that consumers have off.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Music For Africa project
In a backstreet in Hove, Brighton's bastard sister, on a freezing cold night in bleak mid-December, in the cellar of an unassuming cafe that looks like any of the hundreds of small cafes in Brighton and Hove, I had the priviledge to be present to an evening of musical brilliance in the name of charity. The place (it is a cellar after all) holds about 40 people, but the 40 that were there were in for a bit of a treat.
MusicforAfrica is a project set up by Dani Wilde, one of the performers during the evening, to raise money to provide a primary school in Kenya with the resources to teach the kids there musical education for one year. One school, one country, one year. It's not much - in fact in terms of the recent WTO talks it's barely a grain of wheat in the sack, but it's a start, it's something, and what's good is that it happened. Dani recruited 4 other musical friends, and put on a charity concert, simultaneously selling a Music for Africa EP - every penny made to go to the cause.
The peformers were Dani Wilde herself, a phenomenally talented singer who would walk a 'talent' competition like The X Factor; but in hindsight it would be a waste of such a voice. Al Brown, another fantastic singer in the mould of jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald, managed to overcome a middle-aged drunk woman, possibly a hobo, trying to match her note for note during 'I Just Wanna Make Love To You'. Phil Bentley, who was the first act supported by a cellist called Sarah, opened the night with a set of gentle piano songs sung in an even gentler voice, akin to James Blunt but much more listenable. Sarah-Louise Boyle, who can't have been a day over 18, was absolutley gorgeous ;) and sang her own songs with lyrics and musicality that belied her years. And finally, Roger Davies, Yorkshire man born and bred (that's a fact), finished the night with his brilliant songs, gently-comic lyrics accompanied by warm acoustic guitar playing.
The night finished with the whole reason I was lucky to be there - Roger closed with a song penned by a certain Dad, called 'Bushfire'. (The song is called Bushfire, not my Dad). He also helped put together the CD for Dani - and last night (19th) it all came to fruit in a great night of pure relaxed entertainment that didn't take itself to seriously, and the benefits were all for charity.
Buy the CD.
www.musicforafrica.moonfruit.com
MusicforAfrica is a project set up by Dani Wilde, one of the performers during the evening, to raise money to provide a primary school in Kenya with the resources to teach the kids there musical education for one year. One school, one country, one year. It's not much - in fact in terms of the recent WTO talks it's barely a grain of wheat in the sack, but it's a start, it's something, and what's good is that it happened. Dani recruited 4 other musical friends, and put on a charity concert, simultaneously selling a Music for Africa EP - every penny made to go to the cause.
The peformers were Dani Wilde herself, a phenomenally talented singer who would walk a 'talent' competition like The X Factor; but in hindsight it would be a waste of such a voice. Al Brown, another fantastic singer in the mould of jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald, managed to overcome a middle-aged drunk woman, possibly a hobo, trying to match her note for note during 'I Just Wanna Make Love To You'. Phil Bentley, who was the first act supported by a cellist called Sarah, opened the night with a set of gentle piano songs sung in an even gentler voice, akin to James Blunt but much more listenable. Sarah-Louise Boyle, who can't have been a day over 18, was absolutley gorgeous ;) and sang her own songs with lyrics and musicality that belied her years. And finally, Roger Davies, Yorkshire man born and bred (that's a fact), finished the night with his brilliant songs, gently-comic lyrics accompanied by warm acoustic guitar playing.
The night finished with the whole reason I was lucky to be there - Roger closed with a song penned by a certain Dad, called 'Bushfire'. (The song is called Bushfire, not my Dad). He also helped put together the CD for Dani - and last night (19th) it all came to fruit in a great night of pure relaxed entertainment that didn't take itself to seriously, and the benefits were all for charity.
Buy the CD.
www.musicforafrica.moonfruit.com
Saturday, December 17, 2005
"Goodnight and goodbye..."
On thursday, for the last time, Trevor McDonald closed the 10:30 ITV news and so ended his association with it. The one respected face on ITV1 will not be disappearing from our screens, or even ITV, but will no longer be presenting the news - which is a shame since ITV's news has always tended to be a bit sensationalist, aiming at the News of the World reader first. It's hard to say whether it's been a case of McDonald bringing the channel up, or the channel dragging McDonald down.
In his stupidly short interview about his retirement (I suppose the BBC didn't want to give him that much coverage - they didn't even say when his last broadcast as newsreader would be) he mentioned a few points about how television news is still vital, important to people today as ever before. McDonald is obviously a person to listen to and has the knowledge to know what he's talking about when it comes to news and media, and it will be interesting to see what he does next after getting to air his own views on the industry he has worked in for so long, in his last moments in it.
In his stupidly short interview about his retirement (I suppose the BBC didn't want to give him that much coverage - they didn't even say when his last broadcast as newsreader would be) he mentioned a few points about how television news is still vital, important to people today as ever before. McDonald is obviously a person to listen to and has the knowledge to know what he's talking about when it comes to news and media, and it will be interesting to see what he does next after getting to air his own views on the industry he has worked in for so long, in his last moments in it.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Sports comment
So Harry Redknapp, 'Judas' to Portsmouth fans a year ago, has done a U-turn down the M27 and gone back to Pompey, where the fans hope he'll turn into Jesus and rescue them from their thus far shit season and impending relgation.
It was quite clear last Saturday (3rd) that Harry Redknapp has never given much of a damn for Southampton FC. Usually so clever in the transfer window, he did nothing for us - Ricardo Fuller? you can go back to Fratton Park as well. And our indifferent form in a League populated by clubs so much poorer than us isn't deserving of him leaving us in the lurch - we should have sacked him. Oh well. We've got Theo Walcott!
On the England world cup group: Paraguay, Sweden and Trinidad/Tobago. We've got to be looking at 7 points there, really 9 since we're the "2nd best team in the world". We'll probably play Germany in the knockout round, and it will be a case of reproducing THAT 5-1 win vs home nation form. Then it's (probably) Argies in the 1/4 finals, Brazil in the semis, then regardless of who in the Final, if we make it that far, by God we deserve to win the damn thing.
It was quite clear last Saturday (3rd) that Harry Redknapp has never given much of a damn for Southampton FC. Usually so clever in the transfer window, he did nothing for us - Ricardo Fuller? you can go back to Fratton Park as well. And our indifferent form in a League populated by clubs so much poorer than us isn't deserving of him leaving us in the lurch - we should have sacked him. Oh well. We've got Theo Walcott!
On the England world cup group: Paraguay, Sweden and Trinidad/Tobago. We've got to be looking at 7 points there, really 9 since we're the "2nd best team in the world". We'll probably play Germany in the knockout round, and it will be a case of reproducing THAT 5-1 win vs home nation form. Then it's (probably) Argies in the 1/4 finals, Brazil in the semis, then regardless of who in the Final, if we make it that far, by God we deserve to win the damn thing.
Dear blog...it's been a while/cuNTL
Dear God! According to this site, it's been 4 and a half months since I last updated this lovely blog! And it is true, it has been. Why, I hear you cry. Well I'll tell you.
It isn't a lack of interest, it really isn't. What has happened is this: since the end of September until today, I have been in Bournemouth at my beloved Uni, doing my second year. Pressure of work? Nope. Going out too much? Nope. Access to internet at home? NONE whatsoever! Therein lies the problem, faithful blog readers. I have had no internet access in the house I have been living in for the last 2 and a half months. I haven't had time to update this when I have been able to get on the 'net, since whenever that has been, it has been for a specific reason, often related to Uni, and I have had no general time to do this. Woe is me.
NTL, the media company, are wankers. We signed up for a connection on the 29th of September. Here we are, December 11th....nothing. Excuse after exuse after misplaced details after broken waterpipe after excuse. It's been ntl:hell as one website, devoted to ntl: customer service problems, has dubbed it.
So what has happened to me in the last 4 months? I've been studying hard (hahahahahahaha) at Uni, and going out a lot while my relaxed workload permits me. I saw Bloc Party in October which was superb/awesome/brilliant. I've learnt a fair bit about Narrative Structures, Joseph Conrad, InDesign, Photoshop, Marxism (somehow), Gatekeeping, Framing, ooo lots of exciting stuff. And Content Analysis, which is a crock of shite.
I got thrown out of The Old Fire Station last friday week for being very sick, and banned til next term, but sneaked my way in friday 2 days ago anyway for an excellent 6 hour marathon party. I can't remember many more specific things now since it's been such a long time but not at least I can hopefully update whenever I want now I'm home.
Goodboo, blog!
It isn't a lack of interest, it really isn't. What has happened is this: since the end of September until today, I have been in Bournemouth at my beloved Uni, doing my second year. Pressure of work? Nope. Going out too much? Nope. Access to internet at home? NONE whatsoever! Therein lies the problem, faithful blog readers. I have had no internet access in the house I have been living in for the last 2 and a half months. I haven't had time to update this when I have been able to get on the 'net, since whenever that has been, it has been for a specific reason, often related to Uni, and I have had no general time to do this. Woe is me.
NTL, the media company, are wankers. We signed up for a connection on the 29th of September. Here we are, December 11th....nothing. Excuse after exuse after misplaced details after broken waterpipe after excuse. It's been ntl:hell as one website, devoted to ntl: customer service problems, has dubbed it.
So what has happened to me in the last 4 months? I've been studying hard (hahahahahahaha) at Uni, and going out a lot while my relaxed workload permits me. I saw Bloc Party in October which was superb/awesome/brilliant. I've learnt a fair bit about Narrative Structures, Joseph Conrad, InDesign, Photoshop, Marxism (somehow), Gatekeeping, Framing, ooo lots of exciting stuff. And Content Analysis, which is a crock of shite.
I got thrown out of The Old Fire Station last friday week for being very sick, and banned til next term, but sneaked my way in friday 2 days ago anyway for an excellent 6 hour marathon party. I can't remember many more specific things now since it's been such a long time but not at least I can hopefully update whenever I want now I'm home.
Goodboo, blog!
Sunday, July 24, 2005
The future is passing me by.
I don't know what I've been doing in the 3 and a half weeks since my last entry, but there's certainly not much worth mentioning. Oh, I went to the biggest music event in history, Live8...
...but apart from that, nothing. I meant to come on here sooner and moan about how I've been spending money that doesn't exist, that is; my overdraft, and doing nothing about replacing it. After failing with Sainsbury's, or more accurately, Sainsbury's failing ME (still undecided whether or not to write to them arrogantly asking to be removed from their pool of holiday staff), I even went as far as to sign up to an employment agency, the sort of place Eastern Europeans go to for job help, which was a complete waste of time - by the time they got back to me with work, I had in the two weeks it had taken, already fixed up two jobs for myself. It's taken me a month and a week to find work since coming home from Uni, which is a month and a week of income wasted, so that's why I'm going to try and balance the two jobs.
The first is at Next, the department store which, I'm told, is great for women's clothes. It is not, and this I know for a ffact, that good for menswear - overpriced, underfashionable in my opinion. Happily, I work there and don't shop there :) . I have a long week of big shifts, started today (YES, money going IN to my bank!) then I'm hopefully going to be able to pick and chose some part-time work, which suits me fine.
Because the second job is at a local Brewers Fayre, doing bar work/waiting, but this is limited to 2 evenings a week. So more regular, but less work - which means I can arrange shifts at Next (hopefully) to fit in with how much work I want to do in a week, (i.e can be bothered), or how much money I want to earn. If this does work out, I'll be laughing.
"Dear Sainsbury's...."
************************************************************************************
Oh, yes, I know what else happened, I got my Uni results back from my first year. A pass: 62.96%, which I am well chuffed about. It's always the way, but as I look back on how I felt the exams had gone originally, it's quite a contrast to the actual results. Media I didn't do too well in, I got that feeling right, but Interpersonal, god! There's me thinking it went well, and it was a pretty poor result! Luckily, Language turned out to be as easy as it seemed on the day and I pulled out a 2:1, just, in Literature: thought it had gone horribly, so it must have been me responding to the pressure of such a shit exam paper.
Anywho, no resits, and a pass at 2:1 level. That'll do me.
************************************************************************************
There doesn't seem a lot to say about the new terror situation in this country. It was always going to happen sometime, and it could, to be honest, have been a hell of a lot worse. Measures taken so far have certainly gone some way to preventing more attacks, if we are to believe the media, though perhaps have simultaneously heightened the feeling of paranoia among the public. Despite this, at any rate, the way in which the country as a whole, as well as Londoners, dealt with the actual attacks on July 7th, was superb. ENG-ER-LAND! and so on.
...but apart from that, nothing. I meant to come on here sooner and moan about how I've been spending money that doesn't exist, that is; my overdraft, and doing nothing about replacing it. After failing with Sainsbury's, or more accurately, Sainsbury's failing ME (still undecided whether or not to write to them arrogantly asking to be removed from their pool of holiday staff), I even went as far as to sign up to an employment agency, the sort of place Eastern Europeans go to for job help, which was a complete waste of time - by the time they got back to me with work, I had in the two weeks it had taken, already fixed up two jobs for myself. It's taken me a month and a week to find work since coming home from Uni, which is a month and a week of income wasted, so that's why I'm going to try and balance the two jobs.
The first is at Next, the department store which, I'm told, is great for women's clothes. It is not, and this I know for a ffact, that good for menswear - overpriced, underfashionable in my opinion. Happily, I work there and don't shop there :) . I have a long week of big shifts, started today (YES, money going IN to my bank!) then I'm hopefully going to be able to pick and chose some part-time work, which suits me fine.
Because the second job is at a local Brewers Fayre, doing bar work/waiting, but this is limited to 2 evenings a week. So more regular, but less work - which means I can arrange shifts at Next (hopefully) to fit in with how much work I want to do in a week, (i.e can be bothered), or how much money I want to earn. If this does work out, I'll be laughing.
"Dear Sainsbury's...."
************************************************************************************
Oh, yes, I know what else happened, I got my Uni results back from my first year. A pass: 62.96%, which I am well chuffed about. It's always the way, but as I look back on how I felt the exams had gone originally, it's quite a contrast to the actual results. Media I didn't do too well in, I got that feeling right, but Interpersonal, god! There's me thinking it went well, and it was a pretty poor result! Luckily, Language turned out to be as easy as it seemed on the day and I pulled out a 2:1, just, in Literature: thought it had gone horribly, so it must have been me responding to the pressure of such a shit exam paper.
Anywho, no resits, and a pass at 2:1 level. That'll do me.
************************************************************************************
There doesn't seem a lot to say about the new terror situation in this country. It was always going to happen sometime, and it could, to be honest, have been a hell of a lot worse. Measures taken so far have certainly gone some way to preventing more attacks, if we are to believe the media, though perhaps have simultaneously heightened the feeling of paranoia among the public. Despite this, at any rate, the way in which the country as a whole, as well as Londoners, dealt with the actual attacks on July 7th, was superb. ENG-ER-LAND! and so on.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
general catch up / Very real problems
It's been a month, readers, according to bloggers time-keeping, which I'm sure is accurate, but I can't believe that I've somehow filled the lat 30 days with actually doing things and keeping busy. Oh wait, I haven't.
There was the Summer Ball weekend (I got drunk on the wrong day, but otherwise ace), System of a Down concert (bruising but phenomenal again) and the Highdown tour which was, as ever, immense. So there's about 10 days worth of doing stuff, but leaving no excuses for my month long lack of blog activity! Except the truth: I'm home from Uni now, and the sole computer with internet access is a) shared by 4 people, b) has 56k dial-up, c) shit, d) has windows 98, e) has 128mb ram, f) really, shit. So actually taking the time to write a blog entry requires almost the full attention of this poor, tired, battered computer (soon, finally, to be replaced).
But I feel forced into it (onto the serious stuff now) because of things in the media recently. Taking the most recent first: two deaths, in Manchester and Oldham I think, with two things in common. The killers were teenagers, and the deaths were pointless to the extreme: one, apparantly, occured when the formerly-living-now-dead man refused to give the teenage boys a lighter for cigarettes. The other was due to the man suffering a brain haemorrhage after having to chase off the yobs, from throwing stones, eggs etc at his house for no given reason. So there are now parts of the young generations of society capable, in a situation of dispute or argument, of going far enough as to actually kill another person. I thought things were bad but....what the fuck is wrong in our society today when things like that take place? It's not the answer, but part of it is: respect. No one has any respect for anyone else anymore, and it's a situation that's becoming dangerously close to spiralling out of control (I seem to have said that before...).
The other thing is my attempt to defend Happy Slapping, or at least it's reputation. Not, however, to condone raping 11 year olds and filming it on video phones. Or stabbing people and filming the aftermath. That sort of thing is so wrong it's not really possible here to do justice to a scathing attack it deserves. Suffice to say the people that do it deserve nothing better in life than to have a bad one. Perhaps one cut short by cancer, something like that.
But anyway, the point is that atrocities like the above are NOT instances of Happy Slapping. Originally, Happy Slapping was literally filming someone running up to a complete stranger in public, slapping them without the intention to actually hurt, and running off again. While it's an admittedly strange line of humour, at the same time it isn't exactly rape. Part of the problem lies, I think, in the media - the notion of Happy Slapping has been misused or misplaced. 'Happy Slapping' has become an umbrella term for an ill-informed, misguided media to cover anything they like with - which is why is has been so attacked recently; wrongly, in my opinion. I'm not saying slapping strangers is funny, or even worth doing, and certainly not saying that rape, violence and muggings are the sort of things that should pass for entertainment. My point here is to make the distinction between the original idea behind Happy Slapping, and the crimes that are now wrongly assigned the title of being occurrences of it, and to simply suggest that the problem is not Happy Slapping itself, originally fairly harmless and pointless, but the types of person who have taken it too far. If you look past the media-frenzy of citing countless 'shocking' examples of Happy Slapping, the real problem lies in the fact that there are simply more people, partiularly youths, that are likely to act criminally in society today, or to go to the extremes of violence and now, in Manchester and Oldham, murder. It is that which needs to be sorted.
There was the Summer Ball weekend (I got drunk on the wrong day, but otherwise ace), System of a Down concert (bruising but phenomenal again) and the Highdown tour which was, as ever, immense. So there's about 10 days worth of doing stuff, but leaving no excuses for my month long lack of blog activity! Except the truth: I'm home from Uni now, and the sole computer with internet access is a) shared by 4 people, b) has 56k dial-up, c) shit, d) has windows 98, e) has 128mb ram, f) really, shit. So actually taking the time to write a blog entry requires almost the full attention of this poor, tired, battered computer (soon, finally, to be replaced).
But I feel forced into it (onto the serious stuff now) because of things in the media recently. Taking the most recent first: two deaths, in Manchester and Oldham I think, with two things in common. The killers were teenagers, and the deaths were pointless to the extreme: one, apparantly, occured when the formerly-living-now-dead man refused to give the teenage boys a lighter for cigarettes. The other was due to the man suffering a brain haemorrhage after having to chase off the yobs, from throwing stones, eggs etc at his house for no given reason. So there are now parts of the young generations of society capable, in a situation of dispute or argument, of going far enough as to actually kill another person. I thought things were bad but....what the fuck is wrong in our society today when things like that take place? It's not the answer, but part of it is: respect. No one has any respect for anyone else anymore, and it's a situation that's becoming dangerously close to spiralling out of control (I seem to have said that before...).
The other thing is my attempt to defend Happy Slapping, or at least it's reputation. Not, however, to condone raping 11 year olds and filming it on video phones. Or stabbing people and filming the aftermath. That sort of thing is so wrong it's not really possible here to do justice to a scathing attack it deserves. Suffice to say the people that do it deserve nothing better in life than to have a bad one. Perhaps one cut short by cancer, something like that.
But anyway, the point is that atrocities like the above are NOT instances of Happy Slapping. Originally, Happy Slapping was literally filming someone running up to a complete stranger in public, slapping them without the intention to actually hurt, and running off again. While it's an admittedly strange line of humour, at the same time it isn't exactly rape. Part of the problem lies, I think, in the media - the notion of Happy Slapping has been misused or misplaced. 'Happy Slapping' has become an umbrella term for an ill-informed, misguided media to cover anything they like with - which is why is has been so attacked recently; wrongly, in my opinion. I'm not saying slapping strangers is funny, or even worth doing, and certainly not saying that rape, violence and muggings are the sort of things that should pass for entertainment. My point here is to make the distinction between the original idea behind Happy Slapping, and the crimes that are now wrongly assigned the title of being occurrences of it, and to simply suggest that the problem is not Happy Slapping itself, originally fairly harmless and pointless, but the types of person who have taken it too far. If you look past the media-frenzy of citing countless 'shocking' examples of Happy Slapping, the real problem lies in the fact that there are simply more people, partiularly youths, that are likely to act criminally in society today, or to go to the extremes of violence and now, in Manchester and Oldham, murder. It is that which needs to be sorted.
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