Last week I met a few people from overseas, and it got me thinking about how big the world is and the enormous range of people and cultures that exist on this planet. The people I met mostly spoke spanish, which is great because although I got an A in spanish GCSE, I think we all know that languages taught in Britain are on par with being taught PE or something else as menial; teachers teach you to pass the exam, not speak spanish. In other countries, when they are taught English they actually learn how to speak english, even if it might be a bit ropey at first, with practice it just gets better and better.
Sometimes I think we take it for granted that most people on this planet are able to speak (basic) english. Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. There are around 6,692,030,277 people in the world (thanks google), which roughly means 1 in 4 people in the world will know at least a couple of phrases of English. The classic stereotypical brit on holiday will not attempt to speak any of the native tongue, they will instead speak in english to the shopkeeper/barman/animal, and if they do not understand they will simply speak louder, as if this means they will understand. I find this quite distressing; imagine if some polish guy came in your workplace and started screaming polish in your face in an attempt to make you understand, and all the while you know he is insulting you to your face.
Whilst learning other languages is obviously difficult, it can also be very rewarding. Through meeting so many spanish speakers over the past week, I can feel that my spanish has improved, and it is fun to learn because I am learning words and phrases that I want to learn, not 'my favourite subject is english because i think it is fun', like the bullshit they teach you in school. I can now hold a conversation in spanish, which is very useful - spanish girls... jheeeez! Other than english, the other most widely spoken languages in the world are chinese and spanish. At some point in my life I am going to attempt to learn cantonese (a type of chinese), when and where is another story. It will be immeasurably complicated, mainly due to the fact that when you learn another language you use the same alphabet and some of the words are the same or vaguely similar; in chinese there is no alphabet, only symbols for whole phrases. Sometimes the meaning of a sentence will be changed by only the tiniest flick on a character.
Just by meeting just a few people from other countries (this past week I have met people from Malaga, Columbia and Switzerland, to name a few!), I have noticed just how different their way of thinking and values are, which I find fascinating. I didn't feel like this before last week, but I am slightly bored of England. Obviously I can't say that with any real sort of conviction because I haven't been everyone, but coming from a very middle class family I have seen a fair bit of it on my holidays! It has definitely got me really excited for my trip to Australia (1 month exactly till I fly!), I am going to try and talk to as many people as I can (not everyone obviously, probably mostly the pretty girls!). If you spend your whole life only speaking to english people and living english lives (which works for some people, I'm not saying it's a bad thing), then you will have spent your whole life experiencing mostly opinions and stereotypes of english people. More brits than you think fuck off out of this shithole and start life elsewhere, hell if people can learn english (which is a pretty fucking bent language, an amalgamation of about 3 thousand different languages, probably why it became the most widely spoken though) then english people can definitely learn another language, it's not like because we're english we have to speak english. Languages do take slightly longer to learn if you are english, because you are not used to all the rules that govern other languages (I'm sure you remember all that bullshit about verb endings), but once you conquer them it is relatively simple. The best way to learn a language is to learn a basic understanding (rosetta stone or whatever your weapon of choice may be) and then go and live somewhere where you have to speak that language, you will be fluent within 3 or 4 months. Remember, you can do anything you set your mind to.
Ok, so to sum up, everyone in england = wankers! Haha not quite (a good 60% though still), but seriously, I mean I love my city, but how would you know if your soulmate wasn't halfway across the poledancing at a bar in tokyo? (if that's your thaaaang). Or that mexico city was actually the sickest city on the planet, or that poland is actually a really really nice place. Next time you see someone in public who you can quite clearly tell is foreign, and looks amazingly pretty or a bit quirky, I challenge you to approach them and start a conversation, most people from other countries feel really welcomed that someone has taken the time out to talk to them! (most, not all, don't go messing around with no bearded muzzies). Until I next get some cracked out thoughtflows, peace out
Speak to a stranger but stay out of danger!
James
Monday, 8 March 2010
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
D:
03.03.2010
Quick one just for the kids
Via Facebook:
'Robbie Ramsden
James I think you should go update your gay little blog... '
Robbie Ramsden is the real gay.
Updated!
Less hating more creating
James
Quick one just for the kids
Via Facebook:
'Robbie Ramsden
James I think you should go update your gay little blog... '
Robbie Ramsden is the real gay.
Updated!
Less hating more creating
James
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Virtual Insanity
The video game industry. In 2010, it is one of the largest markets on the planet. The amount of people who own a console, play games on their pc, or any handheld peripheral in this day and age is staggering. No longer are they 'just for kids', now there is a whole campaign about getting the whole family involved. I've played video games for the majority of my life and these are some of my thoughts that I have about them.
My video gaming career started from a young age. I used to be in love with the Sega Mega Drive, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in particular. I didn't own one, I used to go round to my friend Theo's house and play it till my fingers hurt. There was one time when my Mum had come to pick me up, called for me about 5 times to no reply, so Theo's Mum came up to tell me it was time to go, and I told her to fuck off! At 7 years of age! Rah, looking back that is some next level of hooked, and it only got worse.
I had all the Gameboy shit, must have clocked all the pokemon games (never did catch them all though, what was the point?). There were some other sick games on Gameboy/Gameboy Colour, Zelda springs to mind. We got a big fucking Dell PC around the time I was in year 5, and me and my Dad used to boss it on this game called 'Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines'. It takes place in WW2 and you control all these little dudes that run around and kill Nazis, although there is an emphasis on stealth in the early levels you can just cruise around doming Germans to your heart's content, gets a bit trickier once you get into Germany and that though. So anyway, I used to sit at this big fucking Deller for hours on end, there were other games that I used to hit up too, flight simulator, lego rock raiders, all which kept me amused to no end.
I always used to ask for a playstation when my Birthday or Christmas was near, even though I knew my Mum would never get me one. The first console I ever got was a Nintendo 64, donated to me by a friend who got a PS2 (what a nice guy!). Now as soon as I got one of those, I knew I was on to something. There were some dooooooope games for that console, Ocarina of Time motherfucker!! Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong, I could go on (if any of you ever played Conker's Bad Fur Day, come talk to me, that game was toooooo crease). From N64 we moved up to a PS2 which my brother got for his birthday (what a wanker! Pops got it cheap at Makro, gotta love). So that was a pretty sick console for a while, although it kind of lived in my brother's room which was a bit gay, couldn't really hit games late night. I forgot to mention, I used to share a babysitter and the kid who I shared with had a PS1, we played every sick game on that, Tony Hawk's, Metal Gear Solid, Crash Bandicoot bla bla bla. When he got a PS2 he donated me his PS1, and I think there is when my love of RPGs (Role playing games, not rocket propelled grenades) began. I bought Final Fantasies 7, 8 and 9, and completed 7 and 9, didn't really like 8, the magic system was a bit fucked up.
This must be getting a bit boring for you guys, so I'll wrap up my gaming history as quick as I can (no promises). When I got a computer with the internet in my room, a whole new world opened up to me - online gaming. I started off getting fucking hooked on a game called Counter Strike: Source. It's your basic shooter, you run around as either a Terrorist or a Counter Terrorist trying to plant or defuse a bomb or saving/protecting hostages. There are massive public servers which anyone can join, but the real beauty of that game was when you found 4 other people and had a match. This involved using VOIP (voice over internet protocol) programs such as Ventrilo or Teamspeak (you thought skype was new! ha!) to talk with your teammates, telling them where the enemies are, basically becoming a fucking nerd, but I didn't care I was having way too much fun. I joined various clans (teams online) and had varying degrees of success. Obviously the more you play the better you get, but I was hampered somewhat by my shit pc and my wireless connection, sometimes my internet would just drop right in the middle of a league match, my clanmates were not amused. I didn't really have the money to buy a sick gaming pc, which is what you need really if you want to take it seriously. There were tri-annual LANs where everybody from the community would take their pc to like a big events hall or something, sleep there, and have a tournament. The prizes at these events ranged from pc peripherals (headsets, mice) to 15 grand. While I never went to one of these, I seriously considered it at some points. In some ways I'm glad I didn't, I would have never found my way back!
I said I was gonna wrap up my career quickly, well there's still one more games I haven't told you about. I haven't told many people this, because it's very embarassing (and here I am writing it up on the fucking internet), but yes, I used to play World of Warcraft. I know. Fucking WoW. I remember telling myself I was never ever going to play that game, that I was too cool and too into Counter-Strike (we used to hate on WoW all the time on Vent). But a couple of my Counter-Strike 'friends' downloaded the demo, so I gave it a chance, and bought it when my 7 day trial ran out. I'd like to take a moment here to talk about the people that you meet online. You get your run of the mill spastics who badmouth everything and everyone, and by god you learn to fucking hate them, but you also meet people who want to play the game and use teamwork to do well. I was one of those, although I did my fair bit of abusing, only when it was due of course (sometimes not hehe). One friend I met playing WoW (and Counter-Strike) I actually went down and visited in Cornwall, and I had a sick fucking time. He's a couple years older than me, at Bournemouth uni now designing computer games or some shit, but he wasn't a spotty nerd with a pasty grill and glasses, he was just like me, although slightly emo-er, but it wasn't an issue, we puffed nuff cron and had good times.
Deviated yet again, right World of Warcraft. Yea, so once you actually play the game, if you're not hooked by level 10 there's something going on. The scope of detail in that game, even if you are mildly interested in fantasy (orcs n shit), is fucking unreal. It is literally another life online. You don't have to eat and wash and shit (although you can eat), but once you get it in your head that you want your character as G'd out as possible, you will become addicted. It's not really a game you can play casually, although there are some players like that, but you get the most enjoyment out of it if you just immerse yourself in it (for 15 quid a month I think most people would want to get what they paid for). Of course, your social life suffers. Mine did. To be honest I would basically run home from school and sit on it till bedtime really, proper fucking hooked. I basically lost my first girlfriend because of that, I mean I still saw and fucked her obviously, but in the end it was just me being a fucking knob. Now the people I met on this game were another level of hooked. There would be people in my guild (clan, whatever) that would be on from the moment they woke up to the moment they went bed. There was this one mum who was on it all day with her kid, he didn't go school or nothing they just both sat side by side on their computers. In Counter-Strike you have to use strategy to win, and in World of Warcraft once you reach the top level (70 when I was playing, think it goes up to 90 or something now) you basically start blinging out your character, and you can only do that by killing gnarllllly bosses in the dirtiest dungeons. You can't even enter these dungeons unless your 25 man deep, so each night I used to sit in a vent with 24 other people, more sometimes, and try and take down these stupidly hard bosses. You would spend whole nights just constantly dying against one boss, and when you know it wasn't your fault and someone elses because they wouldn't move out of the fucking way of the chain fireball or something, you start to get a little bit wound up. And then there were other nights where you killed the fucking dirtiest boss you'll ever find and it would drop some siqqqq garms that boosted your stats above the fucking stars and you remember why you play this game.
So yea, my name's James and I used to play World of Warcraft, not proud about it but it was a fucking good game, anyone who tries to chat shit you can't even begin to understand. When I had finally kicked the habit, I sold my characters for 300 euros to some danish kid. Bet your not laughing now! Well you probably are, who am I kidding, I'm never gonna get that time or that girlfriend back. Anyway, I started writing this to discuss video games not just my neeky life, back to the matter at hand.
Think about the games that were around when you were growing up, they were nowhere near as advanced as they are now. Take Call of Duty for example. If we all that growing up we would be fucking hoooooked! (I prestiged once, instantly regretted it, never doing it again). Kids (and adults) are growing up today in an ocean of online entertainment, you can sit in front of a screen all day and be kept amused, I feel living proof of that. But what are all these games doing to the youth of today?
How many kids do you know that are under ten years of age yet have played games that are 18+ rating? Nuff. Now, this is against the law, they would never be able to buy it in the shop (I saw some little kid asking for GTA in game one time, fucking funny the way the guy was just like NO), so how do they get hold of them? Basically Mummy sees this game, kid whines on for a solid week about how he NEEDS it in his life, Mum finally caves and buys it for him. Now, in my eyes, when Mum goes to game and plonks down Left 4 Dead 2 on the counter, the guy behind the desk should ask who the fuck she is buying it for, because quite clearly she's not gonna race home and started blowing out zombie brains (that last sentence could be taken....sexually), it's for little Timmy at home who's gagging to see some heads roll. Parents who buy overage video games for their children are basically lazy, they see that their kid really wants this game and they know that it will free up alot of time in their day where they don't have to clean up piss and shit (ok maybe I went a bit too far) and they welcome it with open arms.
So the youth of today is fucked, let's talk about something positive. Obviously not all video games are bad, I for one think that the nintendo Wii is a really good idea. To be fair I don't own one, I just see the adverts but the idea of making console gaming something everyone can enjoy not just watching your mate (wilf) destroy your KD on CoD is a good idea. Also, if the people you met online weren't fucking idiots half the time you might actually have fun for once, people don't seem to understand that when you communicate it makes the game 20 times easier. As a possible career choice (making music for video games), I think its important that the video game market stays healthy, but at the same time I would like to see it keep moving forward at the pace that it is now. They say the next generation consoles are gonna blow our fucking minds, that it's going to be some VR shit but personally I don't think I would enjoy running around inside some polygon world all that much. I would like to see some new ideas, new controllers and shit (they never experiment, playstation has had the same trolly for time, I suppose if it ain't broke don't fix it), just a general breath of fresh air. Also, I would like to see them stop wasting money on releasing pointless games such as High School Musical 2 for the DS (don't know if that's an actual game, probably is though). The amount of resources and effort it must take to make a complete game must be alot, why waste it making a remake of Pocahuntas.
Whether you love them or hate them, video games are slowly becoming more and more intertwined with out lives. And despite what people say, they are a good source of release, but only if you play well! There is nothing worse than coming home after a stressful day and playing like some fucking diseased donkey on call of duty, it will make you want to put your fist through your screen. At the same time, they are slowly destroying working class Britain, so many people just collect their dole and sit on WoW, I mean it's not like they need much money to live, just an internet connection and a subscription. In my opinion this is why we have so many foreign workers doing the 'shit' jobs in this country, because most of the youth of today wouldn't take a job in a warehouse for shit pay, and the Polish are more than happy to work it, especially since it pays better than at home. Anyway, I've rambled on for long enough and it's nearly closing time at work, so I'll save you all and fuck off.
More gaming less flaming (only the 1337 will get that)
James
My video gaming career started from a young age. I used to be in love with the Sega Mega Drive, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in particular. I didn't own one, I used to go round to my friend Theo's house and play it till my fingers hurt. There was one time when my Mum had come to pick me up, called for me about 5 times to no reply, so Theo's Mum came up to tell me it was time to go, and I told her to fuck off! At 7 years of age! Rah, looking back that is some next level of hooked, and it only got worse.
I had all the Gameboy shit, must have clocked all the pokemon games (never did catch them all though, what was the point?). There were some other sick games on Gameboy/Gameboy Colour, Zelda springs to mind. We got a big fucking Dell PC around the time I was in year 5, and me and my Dad used to boss it on this game called 'Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines'. It takes place in WW2 and you control all these little dudes that run around and kill Nazis, although there is an emphasis on stealth in the early levels you can just cruise around doming Germans to your heart's content, gets a bit trickier once you get into Germany and that though. So anyway, I used to sit at this big fucking Deller for hours on end, there were other games that I used to hit up too, flight simulator, lego rock raiders, all which kept me amused to no end.
I always used to ask for a playstation when my Birthday or Christmas was near, even though I knew my Mum would never get me one. The first console I ever got was a Nintendo 64, donated to me by a friend who got a PS2 (what a nice guy!). Now as soon as I got one of those, I knew I was on to something. There were some dooooooope games for that console, Ocarina of Time motherfucker!! Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong, I could go on (if any of you ever played Conker's Bad Fur Day, come talk to me, that game was toooooo crease). From N64 we moved up to a PS2 which my brother got for his birthday (what a wanker! Pops got it cheap at Makro, gotta love). So that was a pretty sick console for a while, although it kind of lived in my brother's room which was a bit gay, couldn't really hit games late night. I forgot to mention, I used to share a babysitter and the kid who I shared with had a PS1, we played every sick game on that, Tony Hawk's, Metal Gear Solid, Crash Bandicoot bla bla bla. When he got a PS2 he donated me his PS1, and I think there is when my love of RPGs (Role playing games, not rocket propelled grenades) began. I bought Final Fantasies 7, 8 and 9, and completed 7 and 9, didn't really like 8, the magic system was a bit fucked up.
This must be getting a bit boring for you guys, so I'll wrap up my gaming history as quick as I can (no promises). When I got a computer with the internet in my room, a whole new world opened up to me - online gaming. I started off getting fucking hooked on a game called Counter Strike: Source. It's your basic shooter, you run around as either a Terrorist or a Counter Terrorist trying to plant or defuse a bomb or saving/protecting hostages. There are massive public servers which anyone can join, but the real beauty of that game was when you found 4 other people and had a match. This involved using VOIP (voice over internet protocol) programs such as Ventrilo or Teamspeak (you thought skype was new! ha!) to talk with your teammates, telling them where the enemies are, basically becoming a fucking nerd, but I didn't care I was having way too much fun. I joined various clans (teams online) and had varying degrees of success. Obviously the more you play the better you get, but I was hampered somewhat by my shit pc and my wireless connection, sometimes my internet would just drop right in the middle of a league match, my clanmates were not amused. I didn't really have the money to buy a sick gaming pc, which is what you need really if you want to take it seriously. There were tri-annual LANs where everybody from the community would take their pc to like a big events hall or something, sleep there, and have a tournament. The prizes at these events ranged from pc peripherals (headsets, mice) to 15 grand. While I never went to one of these, I seriously considered it at some points. In some ways I'm glad I didn't, I would have never found my way back!
I said I was gonna wrap up my career quickly, well there's still one more games I haven't told you about. I haven't told many people this, because it's very embarassing (and here I am writing it up on the fucking internet), but yes, I used to play World of Warcraft. I know. Fucking WoW. I remember telling myself I was never ever going to play that game, that I was too cool and too into Counter-Strike (we used to hate on WoW all the time on Vent). But a couple of my Counter-Strike 'friends' downloaded the demo, so I gave it a chance, and bought it when my 7 day trial ran out. I'd like to take a moment here to talk about the people that you meet online. You get your run of the mill spastics who badmouth everything and everyone, and by god you learn to fucking hate them, but you also meet people who want to play the game and use teamwork to do well. I was one of those, although I did my fair bit of abusing, only when it was due of course (sometimes not hehe). One friend I met playing WoW (and Counter-Strike) I actually went down and visited in Cornwall, and I had a sick fucking time. He's a couple years older than me, at Bournemouth uni now designing computer games or some shit, but he wasn't a spotty nerd with a pasty grill and glasses, he was just like me, although slightly emo-er, but it wasn't an issue, we puffed nuff cron and had good times.
Deviated yet again, right World of Warcraft. Yea, so once you actually play the game, if you're not hooked by level 10 there's something going on. The scope of detail in that game, even if you are mildly interested in fantasy (orcs n shit), is fucking unreal. It is literally another life online. You don't have to eat and wash and shit (although you can eat), but once you get it in your head that you want your character as G'd out as possible, you will become addicted. It's not really a game you can play casually, although there are some players like that, but you get the most enjoyment out of it if you just immerse yourself in it (for 15 quid a month I think most people would want to get what they paid for). Of course, your social life suffers. Mine did. To be honest I would basically run home from school and sit on it till bedtime really, proper fucking hooked. I basically lost my first girlfriend because of that, I mean I still saw and fucked her obviously, but in the end it was just me being a fucking knob. Now the people I met on this game were another level of hooked. There would be people in my guild (clan, whatever) that would be on from the moment they woke up to the moment they went bed. There was this one mum who was on it all day with her kid, he didn't go school or nothing they just both sat side by side on their computers. In Counter-Strike you have to use strategy to win, and in World of Warcraft once you reach the top level (70 when I was playing, think it goes up to 90 or something now) you basically start blinging out your character, and you can only do that by killing gnarllllly bosses in the dirtiest dungeons. You can't even enter these dungeons unless your 25 man deep, so each night I used to sit in a vent with 24 other people, more sometimes, and try and take down these stupidly hard bosses. You would spend whole nights just constantly dying against one boss, and when you know it wasn't your fault and someone elses because they wouldn't move out of the fucking way of the chain fireball or something, you start to get a little bit wound up. And then there were other nights where you killed the fucking dirtiest boss you'll ever find and it would drop some siqqqq garms that boosted your stats above the fucking stars and you remember why you play this game.
So yea, my name's James and I used to play World of Warcraft, not proud about it but it was a fucking good game, anyone who tries to chat shit you can't even begin to understand. When I had finally kicked the habit, I sold my characters for 300 euros to some danish kid. Bet your not laughing now! Well you probably are, who am I kidding, I'm never gonna get that time or that girlfriend back. Anyway, I started writing this to discuss video games not just my neeky life, back to the matter at hand.
Think about the games that were around when you were growing up, they were nowhere near as advanced as they are now. Take Call of Duty for example. If we all that growing up we would be fucking hoooooked! (I prestiged once, instantly regretted it, never doing it again). Kids (and adults) are growing up today in an ocean of online entertainment, you can sit in front of a screen all day and be kept amused, I feel living proof of that. But what are all these games doing to the youth of today?
How many kids do you know that are under ten years of age yet have played games that are 18+ rating? Nuff. Now, this is against the law, they would never be able to buy it in the shop (I saw some little kid asking for GTA in game one time, fucking funny the way the guy was just like NO), so how do they get hold of them? Basically Mummy sees this game, kid whines on for a solid week about how he NEEDS it in his life, Mum finally caves and buys it for him. Now, in my eyes, when Mum goes to game and plonks down Left 4 Dead 2 on the counter, the guy behind the desk should ask who the fuck she is buying it for, because quite clearly she's not gonna race home and started blowing out zombie brains (that last sentence could be taken....sexually), it's for little Timmy at home who's gagging to see some heads roll. Parents who buy overage video games for their children are basically lazy, they see that their kid really wants this game and they know that it will free up alot of time in their day where they don't have to clean up piss and shit (ok maybe I went a bit too far) and they welcome it with open arms.
So the youth of today is fucked, let's talk about something positive. Obviously not all video games are bad, I for one think that the nintendo Wii is a really good idea. To be fair I don't own one, I just see the adverts but the idea of making console gaming something everyone can enjoy not just watching your mate (wilf) destroy your KD on CoD is a good idea. Also, if the people you met online weren't fucking idiots half the time you might actually have fun for once, people don't seem to understand that when you communicate it makes the game 20 times easier. As a possible career choice (making music for video games), I think its important that the video game market stays healthy, but at the same time I would like to see it keep moving forward at the pace that it is now. They say the next generation consoles are gonna blow our fucking minds, that it's going to be some VR shit but personally I don't think I would enjoy running around inside some polygon world all that much. I would like to see some new ideas, new controllers and shit (they never experiment, playstation has had the same trolly for time, I suppose if it ain't broke don't fix it), just a general breath of fresh air. Also, I would like to see them stop wasting money on releasing pointless games such as High School Musical 2 for the DS (don't know if that's an actual game, probably is though). The amount of resources and effort it must take to make a complete game must be alot, why waste it making a remake of Pocahuntas.
Whether you love them or hate them, video games are slowly becoming more and more intertwined with out lives. And despite what people say, they are a good source of release, but only if you play well! There is nothing worse than coming home after a stressful day and playing like some fucking diseased donkey on call of duty, it will make you want to put your fist through your screen. At the same time, they are slowly destroying working class Britain, so many people just collect their dole and sit on WoW, I mean it's not like they need much money to live, just an internet connection and a subscription. In my opinion this is why we have so many foreign workers doing the 'shit' jobs in this country, because most of the youth of today wouldn't take a job in a warehouse for shit pay, and the Polish are more than happy to work it, especially since it pays better than at home. Anyway, I've rambled on for long enough and it's nearly closing time at work, so I'll save you all and fuck off.
More gaming less flaming (only the 1337 will get that)
James
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Future Music
Had some thoughts on the way the Music Industry might be heading for a while now, feel to air out my thoughts on the matter. The Music Industry today is in a state of turmoil, although some people have said that it is in a state of 'transition'. I'm sure you would agree, music is a big part of our lives; it shapes our teenage years, dresses us (strangely sometimes!), changes how we think, our moods etc. Without music, I think our lives would be very grey indeed.
I listen to the radio nearly every day at work, normally turn on Kiss from 11 till 12 (Kisstory dun know!) and then Smooth FM until everybody leaves to keep them happy, and then for my final half hour or so I have a little boogie to SelectFM UK (HEAVYWEIGHT HOUSE, LIVE LARGE AND IN CHARGE!). The occasions that I do listen to chart music (Sonia does love a bit of Capital), I am amazed by the amount of crap that gets pumped out on a regular basis. I mean, it's not like the songs are unlistenable (let's hear it for neeeeeeew yoooooooork!), but nearly every tune I hear these days is a resample of another tune - if you listen to Smooth FM or another station that plays vintage music you will see what I mean. The female pop song arena is dominated by electronic beats and wishy washy synths, listen to any Lady Gaga or Saturdays tune and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about
The problem with popular music now is that it is that it is being produced for radio and tv i.e over compressed and boosted to the absofuckinglute maximum. While I was still in college, my recording teacher showed me something very interesting; he played a Led Zeppelin tune and showed us the graphic EQ compared to a Fall Out Boy tune and the difference in the dynamic range was astounding. Songs are pushed to the absolute limit so they can be the loudest on the airwaves. This all detracts from the overall vibe of the tune, there are no quiet bits to chill too or significant break and drops to go barmy to, it's just all straight in your fucking grill.
Let's talk live music. In my opinion, this is a shrinking market. It will never die out completely obviously, the amount of people who live and breathe rock n roll, indie, heavy metal and every other backwards arty fucking genre that you a fiddle with a guitar to is too large to ever let it die out. But personally, I am fucking tired of listening to some shit band from Coventry try and reinvent something that I've already heard (The Enemy anyone?). It frustrates me when shit bands get good, and I'm sure it hurts you too. The problem with the way bands get big these days is that labels don't look at the music, they look at the hairstyles and the clothes first and decide how they can spin it to make money (The Horrors anyone? I could go on). Image is more important than the music these days, although there are exceptions. It is these exceptions that I find myself listening to most often, bands who are big because of the music they have created, not the shoes they are wearing or who they are fucking. A good example of a band who have broken through on the strength of their music is the Whitest Boy Alive, there are others I'm sure but they immediately spring to mind. You have to wonder, why are 80% of bands these days shit? It's because 99% of the time they are following some kind of formula, either through image or ripping off someone elses tune. Granted, it is hard to make 100% original music these days, but I hear some songs which are nearly note for fucking note. Hell, I used to be in a band, and our first single was a sly cat of Iggy Pop's I Wanna be a Doll.
The internet has changed music permanently, there's no question about that now. Some say it's a good thing, others a bad thing. Personally I think it's a bit of both - the ease of finding and listening to a song, either legally or illegally means someone is Hawaii could write a ukelele banger, upload it to Soundcloud or something (wicked site) and I could be listening to it the next day. On the other hand, the ease and availability of music is detracting the quality of it, as shown by chart music today. This has been said before countless times, but I think the whole business model that the Music Industry uses needs a very good look-over. It pisses me off when you hear major labels whining and bitching about how much money they're losing, do you know how much fucking money they made before illegal downloading became common?! I think it's time for a change, in this modern environment, you don't need to be signed to EMI or Sony BMG to release a song, you can release it yourself! Indeed, independent labels, while they make next to no money, often release the biggest tunes. The ease of releasing a tune is relatively simple aswell, 9 times out of 10 if you've written a good, quality tune that is exciting and keeps people interested or dancing for 70% of the tune then if you approach a couple of labels at least one of them is bound to be interested.
There is a bit of a problem with this digital music age, in that there is so much fucking choice of shit to listen to that alot of it doesn't get listened to at all. I blame this partly on MySpace (remember?). I can't remember how many times someone linked me some piece of shit band to listen to, clicked on their page, listened to 30 seconds of their tune, got bored and turned it off. If you want to get a lot of plays on your MySpace, just make the first 30 seconds of your tunes really interesting. Someone said to me (I think it was my old teacher, good old Liz Penney!), that in the future we will all be listening to 1 minute songs, and to be honest I don't see that as too far off an idea. We would be able to fit more music into our lives, and at the hectic pace that we lead them it would make alot of sense.
You may not agree with my next point, but I don't care! I see the future of music becoming completely digital, not in the sense that everything is going to be blip blip blip, but everything will be run through some sort of effect or plug in to beef it up or something. The scope of what you can do in modern day DAWs (that's digital audio workstations such as Logic or Cubase for the computer illiterate) is fucking immense, you could produce anything you hear on the radio, it's just how you make it. If you want to hear some real future music, check out a guy called Bop. He's from Russia, St Petersburg, and I think his music is absolutely astonishing. Here is a link to his site (www.iambop.com), download the micromix, it's a minimix of all the tunes on his album. I love the way he can create a sense of space in his tunes, it's not really dancefloor material but definitely bedtime zoot music. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but just listening to it and trying to understand how half the sounds are created, you can tell alot of time and knowledge has gone into making this shit.
So to sum up, all pop music is shit, and dance music rules! Haha, not quite, but I definitely think there is going to be a major shift towards electronic music in the years to come, to be honest it's already heading that way. In the top ten this week, only 'Owl City - Fireflies' and 'Alicia Keys - Empire State Of Mind (Part II)' are live (obviously produced on a computer but you get my drift, it wasn't written on a computer). Anyway, this has taken the majority of the day to write, having flitted back and forth to Greggs in Lewisham and shit. Because of that I don't think I explained myself very well, when I read over it I'll probably think I was smoking crack or something, but fuck it, it's Friday, I've got the perfect weekend lined up and I don't give a shit! Love you all
More raving, more or less misbehaving?
James
I listen to the radio nearly every day at work, normally turn on Kiss from 11 till 12 (Kisstory dun know!) and then Smooth FM until everybody leaves to keep them happy, and then for my final half hour or so I have a little boogie to SelectFM UK (HEAVYWEIGHT HOUSE, LIVE LARGE AND IN CHARGE!). The occasions that I do listen to chart music (Sonia does love a bit of Capital), I am amazed by the amount of crap that gets pumped out on a regular basis. I mean, it's not like the songs are unlistenable (let's hear it for neeeeeeew yoooooooork!), but nearly every tune I hear these days is a resample of another tune - if you listen to Smooth FM or another station that plays vintage music you will see what I mean. The female pop song arena is dominated by electronic beats and wishy washy synths, listen to any Lady Gaga or Saturdays tune and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about
The problem with popular music now is that it is that it is being produced for radio and tv i.e over compressed and boosted to the absofuckinglute maximum. While I was still in college, my recording teacher showed me something very interesting; he played a Led Zeppelin tune and showed us the graphic EQ compared to a Fall Out Boy tune and the difference in the dynamic range was astounding. Songs are pushed to the absolute limit so they can be the loudest on the airwaves. This all detracts from the overall vibe of the tune, there are no quiet bits to chill too or significant break and drops to go barmy to, it's just all straight in your fucking grill.
Let's talk live music. In my opinion, this is a shrinking market. It will never die out completely obviously, the amount of people who live and breathe rock n roll, indie, heavy metal and every other backwards arty fucking genre that you a fiddle with a guitar to is too large to ever let it die out. But personally, I am fucking tired of listening to some shit band from Coventry try and reinvent something that I've already heard (The Enemy anyone?). It frustrates me when shit bands get good, and I'm sure it hurts you too. The problem with the way bands get big these days is that labels don't look at the music, they look at the hairstyles and the clothes first and decide how they can spin it to make money (The Horrors anyone? I could go on). Image is more important than the music these days, although there are exceptions. It is these exceptions that I find myself listening to most often, bands who are big because of the music they have created, not the shoes they are wearing or who they are fucking. A good example of a band who have broken through on the strength of their music is the Whitest Boy Alive, there are others I'm sure but they immediately spring to mind. You have to wonder, why are 80% of bands these days shit? It's because 99% of the time they are following some kind of formula, either through image or ripping off someone elses tune. Granted, it is hard to make 100% original music these days, but I hear some songs which are nearly note for fucking note. Hell, I used to be in a band, and our first single was a sly cat of Iggy Pop's I Wanna be a Doll.
The internet has changed music permanently, there's no question about that now. Some say it's a good thing, others a bad thing. Personally I think it's a bit of both - the ease of finding and listening to a song, either legally or illegally means someone is Hawaii could write a ukelele banger, upload it to Soundcloud or something (wicked site) and I could be listening to it the next day. On the other hand, the ease and availability of music is detracting the quality of it, as shown by chart music today. This has been said before countless times, but I think the whole business model that the Music Industry uses needs a very good look-over. It pisses me off when you hear major labels whining and bitching about how much money they're losing, do you know how much fucking money they made before illegal downloading became common?! I think it's time for a change, in this modern environment, you don't need to be signed to EMI or Sony BMG to release a song, you can release it yourself! Indeed, independent labels, while they make next to no money, often release the biggest tunes. The ease of releasing a tune is relatively simple aswell, 9 times out of 10 if you've written a good, quality tune that is exciting and keeps people interested or dancing for 70% of the tune then if you approach a couple of labels at least one of them is bound to be interested.
There is a bit of a problem with this digital music age, in that there is so much fucking choice of shit to listen to that alot of it doesn't get listened to at all. I blame this partly on MySpace (remember?). I can't remember how many times someone linked me some piece of shit band to listen to, clicked on their page, listened to 30 seconds of their tune, got bored and turned it off. If you want to get a lot of plays on your MySpace, just make the first 30 seconds of your tunes really interesting. Someone said to me (I think it was my old teacher, good old Liz Penney!), that in the future we will all be listening to 1 minute songs, and to be honest I don't see that as too far off an idea. We would be able to fit more music into our lives, and at the hectic pace that we lead them it would make alot of sense.
You may not agree with my next point, but I don't care! I see the future of music becoming completely digital, not in the sense that everything is going to be blip blip blip, but everything will be run through some sort of effect or plug in to beef it up or something. The scope of what you can do in modern day DAWs (that's digital audio workstations such as Logic or Cubase for the computer illiterate) is fucking immense, you could produce anything you hear on the radio, it's just how you make it. If you want to hear some real future music, check out a guy called Bop. He's from Russia, St Petersburg, and I think his music is absolutely astonishing. Here is a link to his site (www.iambop.com), download the micromix, it's a minimix of all the tunes on his album. I love the way he can create a sense of space in his tunes, it's not really dancefloor material but definitely bedtime zoot music. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but just listening to it and trying to understand how half the sounds are created, you can tell alot of time and knowledge has gone into making this shit.
So to sum up, all pop music is shit, and dance music rules! Haha, not quite, but I definitely think there is going to be a major shift towards electronic music in the years to come, to be honest it's already heading that way. In the top ten this week, only 'Owl City - Fireflies' and 'Alicia Keys - Empire State Of Mind (Part II)' are live (obviously produced on a computer but you get my drift, it wasn't written on a computer). Anyway, this has taken the majority of the day to write, having flitted back and forth to Greggs in Lewisham and shit. Because of that I don't think I explained myself very well, when I read over it I'll probably think I was smoking crack or something, but fuck it, it's Friday, I've got the perfect weekend lined up and I don't give a shit! Love you all
More raving, more or less misbehaving?
James
Friday, 29 January 2010
Oh Bananas!
Bit of a change from the normal headfucker posts, just had a mad crazy thursday night! Can't be bothered to type it out to everyone on facetube so I thought I'd bore you on here.
Night started out slyly on the wrong foot, there was meant to be four of us going up, I'd booked four tickets but two flaked out, was cool though me and dan are the original partners in crime when it comes to drum n bass (I have seen D dots rolling around on the floor before trust me). So we roll up there 2 deep, (had to emergency exit from the bus still, that shoreditch slash is a killer, could of filled the fucking sea), our plan being find two honeys in the queue and get them in for free. Turned up there, no one in the fucking queue! Not like we were gonna dick about like lemons shouting about free tickets, so we swiftly headed inside.
To the bar batman! Went downstairs, music was alright, not loud enough though. Ordered two double Jameson's and coke, 16 pound 60!!!! I thought he said 6.60 and gave him a tenner, when he busted my balls with the big 16 I nearly fell backwards. Had a little boogie, then went out for a zoot and sat down outside some edgy bar which was closed. Two people sat down a bit away from us, I encouraged them over with a waft of cron. One had scruffy ginger hair, Daniel was like, 'cool bruv what's your name?' to which (she) replied 'sarah' in some DEEEEEEP voice blad! Dan was like... oh. Had fun with them, fucking art students though, felt like I had been up the arse of Pete Doherty (who apparently has made a baby, the spawn of that man cannot be a good thing).
Went back inside and skanked a bit more, music started pickin up, they pumped the system n all. Met some more randies (BASILDON BOYS GONNA DROP SOME LYRICS! na, I wish, Taz n Beefy 4eva!) who were kind of forgettable. Ended up leaving the club around 2ish, Tony was just dropping the baitest of tunes, me and dip aren't one to bounce to log tune, especially 5 in a row.
Started walking to the N47 stop, it both taking us to home to Catford n all. At this point in time we were both pretty slew, I think I was having trouble staying upright. This is where the night began to get a bit interesting. We were walking for ages, I was following Dan cos he has google maps on his wackberry, through some expensive parts of London, I think we were walking through the financial bit. Found some siiiiiiiiiq skate spots, alot of them were knobbed though. We were joking about saying we should smash the windows and raise up nuff equipment as you do, and then we walked down some tiny street with a Costa Coffee on it. There was a van parked outside, and no one was around at all. I looked inside the van and there was bare crates of boxes, picked one up and was like DIP WE ARE SERI DIP. Set off down the road, turned the corner to see what we had raised, and it was a whole box of Costa Coffee fruit and nut biscuits! JACKPOT! We were walking around going up to literally everyone and asking if they were hungry, put bare smiles on tramps faces, feel really good. Asked two underground workers, one was like 'what flavour' other one was like 'I don't eat stolen goods mate'. Suit yourself.
So yea we were livening up the bus stop with our biscuit bonanza, wacked out the last pre rolled cron it was a fucking party. Met two girls from Goldsmiths (it's impossible not to), one was kind of peng the other one was a bit grim, but Dan got their numbers so it was all bless. Started chatting to some randy Polish guy (again, impossible not to in London, or England for that matter), and when he got on the bus he took his hood down, I was NOT expecting him to have a chromed dome, trust me I could see my face and shit. Hype started winding down, fed the whole bus with biscuits (Dipper had eaten about 8 by now, packets of two aswell!), Polish guy got off in Surrey Quays (who lives there? Polish mandem obv), said goodbye to Dip and jogged home from Catford. Blinder of a night
I have discovered I've managed to lose my wallet AGAIN, although it's not as bad as it could be, only 2 cards and an Oyster but still, 3rd oyster card lost this year! Gonna have another hunt when I get back from work, might just be under my bed (fucking hope so!). So there we go, hope I've put a smile on your face with our shenanigans, I wish more night were like that! Must of spoken to nearly everyone I met (not everyone obviously, I say a good 65% though), I don't see why we don't do it more often, you can meet the creasest people and the hottest honeyz! can't link if you don't open your mouth, give it a go. Gonna try hack the rest of work, don't feel too bad although I did wake up still feeling pretty hammered, got in late as you can imagine. This glass of water here is like drinking from the Holy Grail right about now, fourth cup already. Gotta drink water homies! Peace
Be a bit spontaneous, meet someone fame-eous (that was bad, couldn't think of anything better though, brains melted)
James
Night started out slyly on the wrong foot, there was meant to be four of us going up, I'd booked four tickets but two flaked out, was cool though me and dan are the original partners in crime when it comes to drum n bass (I have seen D dots rolling around on the floor before trust me). So we roll up there 2 deep, (had to emergency exit from the bus still, that shoreditch slash is a killer, could of filled the fucking sea), our plan being find two honeys in the queue and get them in for free. Turned up there, no one in the fucking queue! Not like we were gonna dick about like lemons shouting about free tickets, so we swiftly headed inside.
To the bar batman! Went downstairs, music was alright, not loud enough though. Ordered two double Jameson's and coke, 16 pound 60!!!! I thought he said 6.60 and gave him a tenner, when he busted my balls with the big 16 I nearly fell backwards. Had a little boogie, then went out for a zoot and sat down outside some edgy bar which was closed. Two people sat down a bit away from us, I encouraged them over with a waft of cron. One had scruffy ginger hair, Daniel was like, 'cool bruv what's your name?' to which (she) replied 'sarah' in some DEEEEEEP voice blad! Dan was like... oh. Had fun with them, fucking art students though, felt like I had been up the arse of Pete Doherty (who apparently has made a baby, the spawn of that man cannot be a good thing).
Went back inside and skanked a bit more, music started pickin up, they pumped the system n all. Met some more randies (BASILDON BOYS GONNA DROP SOME LYRICS! na, I wish, Taz n Beefy 4eva!) who were kind of forgettable. Ended up leaving the club around 2ish, Tony was just dropping the baitest of tunes, me and dip aren't one to bounce to log tune, especially 5 in a row.
Started walking to the N47 stop, it both taking us to home to Catford n all. At this point in time we were both pretty slew, I think I was having trouble staying upright. This is where the night began to get a bit interesting. We were walking for ages, I was following Dan cos he has google maps on his wackberry, through some expensive parts of London, I think we were walking through the financial bit. Found some siiiiiiiiiq skate spots, alot of them were knobbed though. We were joking about saying we should smash the windows and raise up nuff equipment as you do, and then we walked down some tiny street with a Costa Coffee on it. There was a van parked outside, and no one was around at all. I looked inside the van and there was bare crates of boxes, picked one up and was like DIP WE ARE SERI DIP. Set off down the road, turned the corner to see what we had raised, and it was a whole box of Costa Coffee fruit and nut biscuits! JACKPOT! We were walking around going up to literally everyone and asking if they were hungry, put bare smiles on tramps faces, feel really good. Asked two underground workers, one was like 'what flavour' other one was like 'I don't eat stolen goods mate'. Suit yourself.
So yea we were livening up the bus stop with our biscuit bonanza, wacked out the last pre rolled cron it was a fucking party. Met two girls from Goldsmiths (it's impossible not to), one was kind of peng the other one was a bit grim, but Dan got their numbers so it was all bless. Started chatting to some randy Polish guy (again, impossible not to in London, or England for that matter), and when he got on the bus he took his hood down, I was NOT expecting him to have a chromed dome, trust me I could see my face and shit. Hype started winding down, fed the whole bus with biscuits (Dipper had eaten about 8 by now, packets of two aswell!), Polish guy got off in Surrey Quays (who lives there? Polish mandem obv), said goodbye to Dip and jogged home from Catford. Blinder of a night
I have discovered I've managed to lose my wallet AGAIN, although it's not as bad as it could be, only 2 cards and an Oyster but still, 3rd oyster card lost this year! Gonna have another hunt when I get back from work, might just be under my bed (fucking hope so!). So there we go, hope I've put a smile on your face with our shenanigans, I wish more night were like that! Must of spoken to nearly everyone I met (not everyone obviously, I say a good 65% though), I don't see why we don't do it more often, you can meet the creasest people and the hottest honeyz! can't link if you don't open your mouth, give it a go. Gonna try hack the rest of work, don't feel too bad although I did wake up still feeling pretty hammered, got in late as you can imagine. This glass of water here is like drinking from the Holy Grail right about now, fourth cup already. Gotta drink water homies! Peace
Be a bit spontaneous, meet someone fame-eous (that was bad, couldn't think of anything better though, brains melted)
James
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Happiness
Past week or two there's been a sly shift in mood from me as many people close to me may have clocked. Acheiving happiness isn't hard, you just know how to tap in to your body and how it runs. You treat it like a piece of shit wife then you gotta respect that fact that that bitch is gonna kick and scream at you until the day you die, maybe even the afterlife if there is one. If you treat yourself right, you will be marvelled at how easy it can be to put a spring in your step.
Take drugs, for example, yea you can feel hell fucker good like you're in the most amazing place and everything you see sparkles, trust me I've been there, but you don't stay like that forever, sometimes I think we all wish there was a magic button on our bodies which instantly resets you to sober. You could play about with it, make the most ridiculous circumstances actually, like go out on an amazing lunch break where you fly the intergalactic highway, then turn up back at work and instantly be in the ZONE. Might have gone a bit too far there, what I'm trying to get at is that hangovers, comedowns, STALE BUZZ (slyly stale right now) are all signals from our body to our brain that this shit just isn't all that good for you in the long run, and it makes damn sure you know that. I don't know if anyone does any major exercise (some do, some don't) but I went skating tonight for the first time in about 2 weeks and I was BLOWIN. I mean I cycle to work and back each day, but to be honest it's only 15 minutes tops there and back, and even though I burn it there and back I honestly don't really feel myself getting fitter. Because we are young, sometimes I think we take our health for granted a bit too often, because if you're still smoking 15-20 a day well into your 20s, you're going to have some serious underlying health problems that could end up being fatal. You've also got to take into account the second hand smoke, you are literally smoking even if you don't smoke. In some ways I think this is kind of offensive to people who don't smoke, in particular a certain friendly squat which too much of us spend large periods of time in, I'm sorry to say (you all know what I'm talking about). Feel as if I've digressed a bit. Oh yeah, drugs. Another thing to consider is the state of your brain after you constantly melt it with harmful chemical substances, which brings me nicely onto my second point, mental health.
I have been working at a doctor's surgery the past couple of months now, and my job began as basically scanning all the confidential post onto the computer system and direct them to the relevant doctor's. I'm supposed to keep complete confidentiality, but often you have to read the content of the letter to know what to categorise you (hope I'm not losing you here! If you're tired go to bed, I may be here a while), which means you read some fucking boring letters like Jack and his orthopaedic knee (and his fucked up arm while we're at it, and ya webby toe! love ya jack man), whilst sometimes you read about how much cron Federico Dominico Luigi Margaretti Fumagalli Switzerland is smoking a day and how his life is slipping into a state of disrepair. (although recently Fede has found new meaning as a shotter, I rate him for finally seeing how to play the game and win) Which can be fairly interesting. But I find it surprising how alot of people that have mental health issues are our age. Now I know that alot of these people are from lower class families, but why should that make a difference, they live in the same fucked up world as we do, admittedly we have certain luxuries (this 32" beast of a TV that I'm staring at) but we're both equal human beings (although there are not a single two souls on the planet who have exactly the same DNA code, something which still amazes me). I honestly think depression is a byproduct of our society, and it could cripple us, being in a constant state of negativity affects how we act and interact with those around us. I know there's times when I've been majorly pissed off with the world and maybe even thought about taking my own life, mostly when I was younger, hopefully I've outgrown those sort of thought patterns. Think about how primary school kids get bullied, that shit affects how you trust people and gives you lasting memories, I know I remember some traumatic experiences during the first stage of education. Anyway, enough about the downers, time for some uplifting shit, some simple things to do help deal with the neverending turmoil that is our planet these days.
Firstly, your body. Give it what it needs. It doesn't need shit. I fucking love chicken, who doesn't, but if you eat it all day, well they say you are what you eat, so that would make you a chicken. Humans have evolved so far because of the fact that somewhere in the world something you would never DREAM of touching is being eaten (insects anyone?). It is through this that I believe we gained the molecules and genetic information that makes us the most successful animal on this planet (this is getting pretty deep, rah). Anyway, don't eat shit and you won't feel like shit. Also most of us are constantly dehydrated. In an ideal situation, you should drink 2 litres of water a day, and urinate as much as possible. It's not good to hold in 1s and 2s, this is the body's natural way of geting rid of the shit it doesn'twant, why on earth would you hang on to stuff which has no nutritional value? Drinking lots of water also cleans out your system, recently I have been drinking 10 glasses of water a day and a lot of tea aswell, and sure you piss like a hose all day, but you can instantly feel the difference, you can think clearer and you are far less distractable (is that a word), the brain needs water and depriving it will cause it to start to dry out. Can't remember that randy fact of the ratio of water in our bodies, and neither can I be arsed to describe how important eating healthily is as well, we all know it but for us sugars and fats are just more appealling, this is your body's way of trying to survive for long winters and such, but we don't live in the fucking caves anymore so it is actually harmful to us.
Getting regular exercise is also really good for you, it's just unfortunate that our lives are so full of so many choices of how to pass 24 hours in a day. Even if we think we are busy, I'm sure we can find time in our lives to exercise how ever many hours it is in a week we're supposed to do (not good on my facts tonight, google is a whole mouseclick away but it looks so far...). A good way to begin exercise is to set yourself small, acheivable targets, not some gnarly regime, that path is bound for failure. Once you find that you can easily do 30 push ups before you go to the shower, you can then set yourself more, like 30, then 20, then 10, constantly adding the reps is a good way to quickly build muscle or lose weight, in moderation and over a period of time of course. Which brings me onto my next point.
Setting yourself little goals and things that you would really like to do or learn can be a great way to get yourself feeling positively. There is nothing more satisfying than getting the girl you always wanted, or finally learning that fucking nollie flip. This can have a sharper side to it though, as set your targets too high or don't do something that you know you can achieve only leads to more negative thoughts. There's a fine line between success and failure, and trust me I've been on the wrong side, can start a whole episode of chain reactions that steamroll into you feeling like shit. I guess what shapes us as individuals is how quickly we return to the fray after the fall, some people are very good at taking it on the chin while others flip out and self destruct into global thermonuclear war (too much call of duty). I'd like to think that I've gotten better at dealing with these situations, to the point where if something overly gnarly happened now, sure it would shock, but I think I'd be able to get past it fairly quickly, no-one likes holding grudges (some more than others), the minute we stop and think that they would rather be friends than enemies the minute the shit is sorted. There's people I dislike I'm not gonna lie, but it's mostly because of the way they act or speak about other people or in general, not because of my opinion (well I suppose that is an opinion, shot myself in the foot there).
My final point is breathing (hey it's 2.15 in the morning and I wanna go bed, gotta work at half ten and I'm going clubbing tomorrow (tonight actually) so I'm gonna try be as brief as possible, if at all possible). I bet you think you're the fucking shit at breathing. You could do it since day one. You can even do it when you're sleeping (not when you're unconscious though ya stupid fuck). Well here's what dickhead, you're fucking crap at breathing. Hate ta break it to ya, but here's how it goes. I think I'm being fairly obviously in saying that if we didn't breath we would die (wow I am buzzinggg to say something retarded like that), but I bet you didn't realise just how important our good o2 is. The minute you get out of this smoketrap of a city we call London, the minute you realise how shit the quality of our air is. There's a reason people who live outside the cities are the way they are, although it does turn them a bit funny let's not beat around the bush). A while ago I borrowed a book called Healing without Freud or Prozac: Natural Approaches to Curing Stress, Anxiety and Depression without Drugs and without Psychoanalysis , link here, had to Amazon that fucker, happy now. It was a pretty amazing read, I thoroughly recommend it, although you may have to hide behind something else on the bus, unless you want people thinking you're a bit loopy. Basically the first chapter is about breathing, and some simple exercises to enter your brain into a state of high concentration, I'm not gonna go into it now (read the book for fuck sake) but by learning how to control your breathing you can easily make a potentially damaging situation into a good one in the blink of the moment. Learning how to control your breathing through sex is also VERY intense, I think there's some shit about it in the karma sutra or something. I bet hardly any of us have ever tried to meditate, but there's so many good things about clearing your mind and thinking in a productive way, hell how the fuck do you think we have evolved from shitting in our hands to 4 blade razors. The basic concept of meditation is to think about nothing but your breathing, concentrate only on taking in the perfect breath and feeling yourself exhale, this is harder than you think, I've been trying it for a while now on and off and I can't say I've ever properly been in a state of meditation. Most of the time I use it to get to sleep, which I suppose you could call a state of meditation, more rest and dreamtime if you're being anal.
I could probably go on longer, but I can feel my brain melting and I have a gnarly day tomorrow so I might round it off. Apologies also if I've made you feel like a retard by stating the obvious so much, but sometimes it just needs to be done. So yea, I'm not condoning the use of drugs, shit I take as much as the rest of you, but I can definitely see myself getting bored of them, already bored of this shit that we keep shoving up our noses, meph, mioaw miaow or whatever the fuck you wanna call it (who calls a drug mcat, I mean come on), cheap knock off in my opinion. I think we may have all skipped a beat in taking so much so early in our lives, people say you make your friends at uni for life because they're the people you first take drugs with, but I know there's already certain people in my life who aren't going anywhere anytime soon because of the scatty times we've had that have brought us closer together, or at least I hope not. Shit some of us even go back primary school days, christ. What else, oh yeah eat right drink right breathe right and err, think right? think that's everything I dribbled about for a good hour, never get that back again. Stay positive
Less drama think about karma
James
Take drugs, for example, yea you can feel hell fucker good like you're in the most amazing place and everything you see sparkles, trust me I've been there, but you don't stay like that forever, sometimes I think we all wish there was a magic button on our bodies which instantly resets you to sober. You could play about with it, make the most ridiculous circumstances actually, like go out on an amazing lunch break where you fly the intergalactic highway, then turn up back at work and instantly be in the ZONE. Might have gone a bit too far there, what I'm trying to get at is that hangovers, comedowns, STALE BUZZ (slyly stale right now) are all signals from our body to our brain that this shit just isn't all that good for you in the long run, and it makes damn sure you know that. I don't know if anyone does any major exercise (some do, some don't) but I went skating tonight for the first time in about 2 weeks and I was BLOWIN. I mean I cycle to work and back each day, but to be honest it's only 15 minutes tops there and back, and even though I burn it there and back I honestly don't really feel myself getting fitter. Because we are young, sometimes I think we take our health for granted a bit too often, because if you're still smoking 15-20 a day well into your 20s, you're going to have some serious underlying health problems that could end up being fatal. You've also got to take into account the second hand smoke, you are literally smoking even if you don't smoke. In some ways I think this is kind of offensive to people who don't smoke, in particular a certain friendly squat which too much of us spend large periods of time in, I'm sorry to say (you all know what I'm talking about). Feel as if I've digressed a bit. Oh yeah, drugs. Another thing to consider is the state of your brain after you constantly melt it with harmful chemical substances, which brings me nicely onto my second point, mental health.
I have been working at a doctor's surgery the past couple of months now, and my job began as basically scanning all the confidential post onto the computer system and direct them to the relevant doctor's. I'm supposed to keep complete confidentiality, but often you have to read the content of the letter to know what to categorise you (hope I'm not losing you here! If you're tired go to bed, I may be here a while), which means you read some fucking boring letters like Jack and his orthopaedic knee (and his fucked up arm while we're at it, and ya webby toe! love ya jack man), whilst sometimes you read about how much cron Federico Dominico Luigi Margaretti Fumagalli Switzerland is smoking a day and how his life is slipping into a state of disrepair. (although recently Fede has found new meaning as a shotter, I rate him for finally seeing how to play the game and win) Which can be fairly interesting. But I find it surprising how alot of people that have mental health issues are our age. Now I know that alot of these people are from lower class families, but why should that make a difference, they live in the same fucked up world as we do, admittedly we have certain luxuries (this 32" beast of a TV that I'm staring at) but we're both equal human beings (although there are not a single two souls on the planet who have exactly the same DNA code, something which still amazes me). I honestly think depression is a byproduct of our society, and it could cripple us, being in a constant state of negativity affects how we act and interact with those around us. I know there's times when I've been majorly pissed off with the world and maybe even thought about taking my own life, mostly when I was younger, hopefully I've outgrown those sort of thought patterns. Think about how primary school kids get bullied, that shit affects how you trust people and gives you lasting memories, I know I remember some traumatic experiences during the first stage of education. Anyway, enough about the downers, time for some uplifting shit, some simple things to do help deal with the neverending turmoil that is our planet these days.
Firstly, your body. Give it what it needs. It doesn't need shit. I fucking love chicken, who doesn't, but if you eat it all day, well they say you are what you eat, so that would make you a chicken. Humans have evolved so far because of the fact that somewhere in the world something you would never DREAM of touching is being eaten (insects anyone?). It is through this that I believe we gained the molecules and genetic information that makes us the most successful animal on this planet (this is getting pretty deep, rah). Anyway, don't eat shit and you won't feel like shit. Also most of us are constantly dehydrated. In an ideal situation, you should drink 2 litres of water a day, and urinate as much as possible. It's not good to hold in 1s and 2s, this is the body's natural way of geting rid of the shit it doesn'twant, why on earth would you hang on to stuff which has no nutritional value? Drinking lots of water also cleans out your system, recently I have been drinking 10 glasses of water a day and a lot of tea aswell, and sure you piss like a hose all day, but you can instantly feel the difference, you can think clearer and you are far less distractable (is that a word), the brain needs water and depriving it will cause it to start to dry out. Can't remember that randy fact of the ratio of water in our bodies, and neither can I be arsed to describe how important eating healthily is as well, we all know it but for us sugars and fats are just more appealling, this is your body's way of trying to survive for long winters and such, but we don't live in the fucking caves anymore so it is actually harmful to us.
Getting regular exercise is also really good for you, it's just unfortunate that our lives are so full of so many choices of how to pass 24 hours in a day. Even if we think we are busy, I'm sure we can find time in our lives to exercise how ever many hours it is in a week we're supposed to do (not good on my facts tonight, google is a whole mouseclick away but it looks so far...). A good way to begin exercise is to set yourself small, acheivable targets, not some gnarly regime, that path is bound for failure. Once you find that you can easily do 30 push ups before you go to the shower, you can then set yourself more, like 30, then 20, then 10, constantly adding the reps is a good way to quickly build muscle or lose weight, in moderation and over a period of time of course. Which brings me onto my next point.
Setting yourself little goals and things that you would really like to do or learn can be a great way to get yourself feeling positively. There is nothing more satisfying than getting the girl you always wanted, or finally learning that fucking nollie flip. This can have a sharper side to it though, as set your targets too high or don't do something that you know you can achieve only leads to more negative thoughts. There's a fine line between success and failure, and trust me I've been on the wrong side, can start a whole episode of chain reactions that steamroll into you feeling like shit. I guess what shapes us as individuals is how quickly we return to the fray after the fall, some people are very good at taking it on the chin while others flip out and self destruct into global thermonuclear war (too much call of duty). I'd like to think that I've gotten better at dealing with these situations, to the point where if something overly gnarly happened now, sure it would shock, but I think I'd be able to get past it fairly quickly, no-one likes holding grudges (some more than others), the minute we stop and think that they would rather be friends than enemies the minute the shit is sorted. There's people I dislike I'm not gonna lie, but it's mostly because of the way they act or speak about other people or in general, not because of my opinion (well I suppose that is an opinion, shot myself in the foot there).
My final point is breathing (hey it's 2.15 in the morning and I wanna go bed, gotta work at half ten and I'm going clubbing tomorrow (tonight actually) so I'm gonna try be as brief as possible, if at all possible). I bet you think you're the fucking shit at breathing. You could do it since day one. You can even do it when you're sleeping (not when you're unconscious though ya stupid fuck). Well here's what dickhead, you're fucking crap at breathing. Hate ta break it to ya, but here's how it goes. I think I'm being fairly obviously in saying that if we didn't breath we would die (wow I am buzzinggg to say something retarded like that), but I bet you didn't realise just how important our good o2 is. The minute you get out of this smoketrap of a city we call London, the minute you realise how shit the quality of our air is. There's a reason people who live outside the cities are the way they are, although it does turn them a bit funny let's not beat around the bush). A while ago I borrowed a book called Healing without Freud or Prozac: Natural Approaches to Curing Stress, Anxiety and Depression without Drugs and without Psychoanalysis , link here, had to Amazon that fucker, happy now. It was a pretty amazing read, I thoroughly recommend it, although you may have to hide behind something else on the bus, unless you want people thinking you're a bit loopy. Basically the first chapter is about breathing, and some simple exercises to enter your brain into a state of high concentration, I'm not gonna go into it now (read the book for fuck sake) but by learning how to control your breathing you can easily make a potentially damaging situation into a good one in the blink of the moment. Learning how to control your breathing through sex is also VERY intense, I think there's some shit about it in the karma sutra or something. I bet hardly any of us have ever tried to meditate, but there's so many good things about clearing your mind and thinking in a productive way, hell how the fuck do you think we have evolved from shitting in our hands to 4 blade razors. The basic concept of meditation is to think about nothing but your breathing, concentrate only on taking in the perfect breath and feeling yourself exhale, this is harder than you think, I've been trying it for a while now on and off and I can't say I've ever properly been in a state of meditation. Most of the time I use it to get to sleep, which I suppose you could call a state of meditation, more rest and dreamtime if you're being anal.
I could probably go on longer, but I can feel my brain melting and I have a gnarly day tomorrow so I might round it off. Apologies also if I've made you feel like a retard by stating the obvious so much, but sometimes it just needs to be done. So yea, I'm not condoning the use of drugs, shit I take as much as the rest of you, but I can definitely see myself getting bored of them, already bored of this shit that we keep shoving up our noses, meph, mioaw miaow or whatever the fuck you wanna call it (who calls a drug mcat, I mean come on), cheap knock off in my opinion. I think we may have all skipped a beat in taking so much so early in our lives, people say you make your friends at uni for life because they're the people you first take drugs with, but I know there's already certain people in my life who aren't going anywhere anytime soon because of the scatty times we've had that have brought us closer together, or at least I hope not. Shit some of us even go back primary school days, christ. What else, oh yeah eat right drink right breathe right and err, think right? think that's everything I dribbled about for a good hour, never get that back again. Stay positive
Less drama think about karma
James
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Haiti
Starting these off again after some recent goings on
The recent earthquake in Haiti is in the record books as one of the largest natural disasters known to man. So far, over one hundred and fifty THOUSAND bodies have been buried, according to the government. Here is an alarming quote I lifted from a hit off Google:
"Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble — 200,000? 300,000? Who knows the overall death toll?" said the official, Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue.
Port-au-Prince, the capital, had a population of 1,082,800 before the earthquake, so that means that literally 1 in 5 people are dead, that's quite outstanding. For fuck sake, the last time that many people died a nuclear bomb was dropped, something's going on. How long until a major international city such as Tokyo or Los Angeles gets completely wiped off the face of the fucking planet? The damage done to the city of Port-au-Prince is pretty incredible, I severely doubt there will be much activity there for at least a couple of decades, the whole fucking city is full of bricks and dead people. If this happened to a city as important to the world like LA or Tokyo (which are both near fault lines in the tectonic plates, Tokyo sitting in the middle of a joining of 3), the amount of global chaos that would ensue would be unbelievable. Can all these recent disaster movies at the cinema come a reality? It's on the fucking news. Films portray recent goings on, there's a film about 9/11 and countless other films re-enacting important events, think about how many fucking war films there are. We are breaking our planet and we know it.
Wow, just re-read that paragraph and it what a way to shit in a sandwich that is. Try read that in the morning and have a good day. No way. Didn't really come on here to make people wanna jump so I'll try get back to the original retarded thoughts I had bubbling away up there when I turned on this fucking thing because I couldn't sleep. Even though this is one of the single biggest natural disasters in the history of mankind, what have you personally done for the people of Haiti? This isn't a guilt trip, I haven't done a fucking thing believe you me, the closest I've heard from anyone I know saying they did something good for Haiti was go to a rave in aid of them. Wow, so you won't help them out of the blue, but if they put on a sick night for you and your mates to go and get completely off your trolley at you're all for it. Nice. I can't be bothered to do any gnarly math right now, (it's 4 in the fucking morning even if there is a calculator button in the top right hand corner of my keyboard) but if everyone in the world who could afford to give like a quid or something did, these people would be in haiti would be driving round in ferrari's or something. OK, maybe not to that extent, but there's 6 billion people in the world for crying out loud. Thing is, there's all this shit about they ain't even getting aid so it's not like i'll be putting a pound into the box at greggs in luusham anytime soon, that pound coin is strictly for steaky bakey purposes. mmmmmmmmmmmm
Expect a couple more of these from now on, I doubt they'll be daily (hell it was my new year's resolution to not just switch on my xbox as soon as I fucking got in from work and just nerd out on it till bedtime) but I'll try keep it like twice a week or something, maybe even go a bit more personal than just the random shit that I used to post up on here last year (re-read some of those earlier... wow memories), I'm not sure. Looked about at some other people's (a certain ex girlfriend of mister john nash petherbridge) and wow that is some next level of stalk. I felt kind of abused to be honest, maybe it was just that one. Shit already got a bit too personal, might get in trouble for that. Better quit while I can.
More thinking less drinking?
James
The recent earthquake in Haiti is in the record books as one of the largest natural disasters known to man. So far, over one hundred and fifty THOUSAND bodies have been buried, according to the government. Here is an alarming quote I lifted from a hit off Google:
"Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble — 200,000? 300,000? Who knows the overall death toll?" said the official, Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue.
Port-au-Prince, the capital, had a population of 1,082,800 before the earthquake, so that means that literally 1 in 5 people are dead, that's quite outstanding. For fuck sake, the last time that many people died a nuclear bomb was dropped, something's going on. How long until a major international city such as Tokyo or Los Angeles gets completely wiped off the face of the fucking planet? The damage done to the city of Port-au-Prince is pretty incredible, I severely doubt there will be much activity there for at least a couple of decades, the whole fucking city is full of bricks and dead people. If this happened to a city as important to the world like LA or Tokyo (which are both near fault lines in the tectonic plates, Tokyo sitting in the middle of a joining of 3), the amount of global chaos that would ensue would be unbelievable. Can all these recent disaster movies at the cinema come a reality? It's on the fucking news. Films portray recent goings on, there's a film about 9/11 and countless other films re-enacting important events, think about how many fucking war films there are. We are breaking our planet and we know it.
Wow, just re-read that paragraph and it what a way to shit in a sandwich that is. Try read that in the morning and have a good day. No way. Didn't really come on here to make people wanna jump so I'll try get back to the original retarded thoughts I had bubbling away up there when I turned on this fucking thing because I couldn't sleep. Even though this is one of the single biggest natural disasters in the history of mankind, what have you personally done for the people of Haiti? This isn't a guilt trip, I haven't done a fucking thing believe you me, the closest I've heard from anyone I know saying they did something good for Haiti was go to a rave in aid of them. Wow, so you won't help them out of the blue, but if they put on a sick night for you and your mates to go and get completely off your trolley at you're all for it. Nice. I can't be bothered to do any gnarly math right now, (it's 4 in the fucking morning even if there is a calculator button in the top right hand corner of my keyboard) but if everyone in the world who could afford to give like a quid or something did, these people would be in haiti would be driving round in ferrari's or something. OK, maybe not to that extent, but there's 6 billion people in the world for crying out loud. Thing is, there's all this shit about they ain't even getting aid so it's not like i'll be putting a pound into the box at greggs in luusham anytime soon, that pound coin is strictly for steaky bakey purposes. mmmmmmmmmmmm
Expect a couple more of these from now on, I doubt they'll be daily (hell it was my new year's resolution to not just switch on my xbox as soon as I fucking got in from work and just nerd out on it till bedtime) but I'll try keep it like twice a week or something, maybe even go a bit more personal than just the random shit that I used to post up on here last year (re-read some of those earlier... wow memories), I'm not sure. Looked about at some other people's (a certain ex girlfriend of mister john nash petherbridge) and wow that is some next level of stalk. I felt kind of abused to be honest, maybe it was just that one. Shit already got a bit too personal, might get in trouble for that. Better quit while I can.
More thinking less drinking?
James
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