Ed Miliband's Labour Party

A short post because it's late and I should be in bed; the Labour party under the leadership of Ed Miliband  is an utter shambles. He hasn't managed to make any kind of impact on the public or, as it seems, his own party. It's almost as if he's the best of the worst crop in generations; even when the Tories went through their rough patch they could field better opposition - hell a coma patient has more charisma than this guy.

I believe in the English parliamentary system; its worked for hundreds of years and hopefully it will carry on in this fashion. HOWEVER. And this is a big however. It relies heavily on the strength of the opposition to challenge the incumbent's ideology and policy and to push them to be better themselves as it's not about us and them (as the USA seems to be setting a stellar example for) it's about a journey they take towards a better future for the population. The problem now becomes obvious with Ed's complete lack of leadership, vision and originality he is merely a third fiddle even to the head of the Liberal Democrat coalition partner Deputy PM Nick Clegg who himself is the tea-boy of the current Prime Minister David Cameron. 

Although I've slightly bashed the U.S. system it does do one thing - encourage the rise of fresh faced politicians, possibly from different backgrounds and allows them a chance to shine before they inevitably get sucked into the black hole that is politics. Instead of the engaging speeches of Obama and Clinton all we get from him are half-arsed jokes and annoyingly nasal splutterings of "David Cameron policies are unraveling!" or that the state of affairs is "an utter shambles".

What he should be doing is taking a long hard look at his own positions which are widely recognized as a joke in themselves and if he cannot provide sufficient resistance to the wheels of change, no matter how benign their direction may be, then he should step aside and let another one of his floundering, unimaginative, outdated and out of touch career politician colleagues have a shot.

Woo politics...next time will be more lighthearted g'damn work...Although I can't promise there won't be something on the state of the House of Lords soon...

The State of Radio...

Hello, hello, hello...is there anybody in there?...

I read a study recently that decided pretty much conclusively validates the musings of older generations that the 80s really were the golden age of music. Of course this was based on the general trend that music (pop I can only assume) is getting louder and more repetitive - but no shit!

Pop music nowadays is a vile institution that churns out track after track of manufactured copycat rubbish that panders to the masses and you know what? It works. They can't get this stuff off of the shelves fast enough and no matter how much you try and avoid it; CDs or Ipods in the car, busses, trains etc. you will at some point end up tuned into a radio channel that's playing it because they all are; at least in the UK, and it won't take long for silence to become the less offensive option.

There're really only two options other than that commercial crap firstly, a favourite of drunk people in cabs everywhere; the easy listening channel - mellow magic, peaceful pop, affable anthems or lazy lullabies. However they package it whispered into their microphone like sweet nothings into a lover's ear it doesn't change the fact that they're playing absolute crap that nobody, of any age, has heard of. Nobody. And if this one "hit" wonder's song, and it pains me to use the word hit so liberally, can't be recognized it really shouldn't be played. Anywhere. These guys have a CHOICE they CHOOSE to play it to you and I bet they don't want to but these "DJs", used in the loosest way possible, are selling out every single day harder and faster than Snoop Dogg in Katy Perry's latest candy covered project. So instead of doing what's right. They choose instead to just repeat the same volume of tracks at the same time every day, week after week, year after  year.

The only alternative isn't that great either; classic/rock channels who claim to be "Playing those classic/rock tunes all day long" but some how manage to pick and choose everything that has been wrong with rock music between the 70s and the mid 90s instead of the real classics or anything made in the last 15 years. The thing is, I understand crappy radio station. It's not your fault I guess good music is expensive to play and you guys don't have enough money from the 30 minutes of shameless plugs and advertisements for every 40 minutes of airtime, I really do understand. What you need to do is remove that large stick from your ass and realize that the only people left listening to you are people that really have no other choice.

Having said that I've recently found one diamond in the rough but alas, as soon as I go back to University it'll be gone again. And they wonder why everyone pirates music!

By the looks of it, better burn some more CDs for the drive back...

How better to brighten up long blocks of text than with Cardbo? Cardbo doesn't know what distraction is because he aces every test he walks into without any revision whatsoever.

Distractions, Distractions...

As a University student with exams pretty soon I'm staying at home at the moment being post-Christmas and what-not. However this means for me as what I'm sure it means for so many other people. Distraction. Hell that's what started this all off.

It seems without either your friends' or peers' ability to collectively shame each other into working - you're left to motivate yourself; and as much as I hate and admire in equal measure people who can sit and work for 16 hours straight without more than a few hours break for lunch and dinner. I'm not one of them and I probably never will be. Whatever I'm focusing on wherever I am; upstairs/downstairs/outside there's something to take my mind off the task at hand, maybe it's because I hate what I do (I don't, that much) but more than anything, the one thing that distracts me most is, say it with me now, FACEBOOK.

It hovers teasingly on the end of a queue of boring tabs covering this and that but none of those drive me with a compulsive urge to check and recheck what's going on with idiotic frequency; even when I know myself that nothings happened I still have to have a peek just to make sure. And you know, I don't think I'm the only one. Unlike almost any other time of the year when everyone has something better to be doing than sat in front of a desk slamming books against their head in a desperate attempt to passively absorb knowledge, at this time of the year you can comment and like and post and sure as the sun will rise; a flurry of responses at some ridiculously alarming rate.

I honestly wonder what the hell used to go on before the internet age; knowledge? I have no doubt that books sufficed as they seem to do quite a bit these days as I progress into realms where only specialist books seem to have the specific things I'm looking for but I mean in terms of distractions there really is nothing worse....

...than stumbleupon.com it's incredible, it takes what you like, sorts through and starts throwing sites at you; figuratively chucking them out from the screen as you dodge just in time to click "stumble" again and you know you shouldn't, deep down, in fact not even that deep you can be telling yourself for HOURS that you'll just check out another site. It's more addicting than crack. Speaking of...

Flash games. Crack. Huh? I said Flash Games. Crack. There, I can't even say one without including the other. Think about it, what do you take in incredibly small quantities and it has you hooked for days/weeks/months/years. It's inexpensive and doesn't seem too bad at first and then BANG you're more addicted than that haggard old whore on a date that end up desperately going home with some young guys looking to score coke with them (It's happened before and it'll happen again; another time another story.) Anyway I digress, flash games are the devils work and if you've ever played them I don't need to make any more analogies and if you haven't? God. Please. PLEASE. Just stay away; you wouldn't do crack so don't do flash games.


Hold on, I think something might have happened on Facebook...

FirstPost.

I’ll keep it simple, I've always seen blogs as self-serving pedestals from which one shouts his or her’s opinion trying desperately to be heard over the sea of people on equally sized pedestals also trying to get their voice out. But here I am. This little thing here is not to start what will become a sensation but I feel it’s only fair to give anyone who’s stumbled upon it the proper introduction it deserves; after all, if something’s worth doing surely it’s worth doing properly?

So here I am. I don’t see myself as someone who’s trying to get their voice out on any particular subject or such alike. No seriously, I’m not. The main point of this is to indulge myself in many different areas including writing; lord knows I don’t do anything near creative enough otherwise and I think over the next little while I’ll find a bit of time on my hands and you know what they say about idle hands…

Right. Few ground rules I guess, now again this is for myself, I’m not trying to reach anyone or influence anyone; I’d love for people to read this but I’m not setting out with that expectation – until then if that day ever comes, this is for me I guess. I expect what’s to come has no format, no structure and not much in the way of strict direction. I just hope this will be something I look back on or others look upon and read about how stupid, careless, and absolutely incredible I was. An online journal of sorts complete with ramblings ‘n all.

Wordy isn’t it?