Sunday 29 March 2009

Spring BBQ at TO's


Global warming, while being a terrible curse on this globalised world, also has a silver lining. A nice sunny day in early spring. Shorts on. Sunglasses on. Windows down. BBQ Time.

However, BBQ's tend to be a little difficult without a BBQ and without any gas. Never fear for this is only a minor setback to such an intelligent group of males. We banged the grill on and got on with enjoying the sun, music and jokes from the night before (see earlier posts!)

'Dick' dove into the role of head chef, i assumed the position of sous chef while 'Bear' rendered himself useless almost immediately. Later 'Sherman' joined us with a crate of beer and a bottle of JD (after last nights antics this made me turn the same colour as the 99 ice cream's that somehow made it to the party!)










TO

"Here We Go Again On Our Own!"

This morning my merry men and I embarked our our weekly journey that puts amateurs across the country to shame. We are D&C Athletic FC. We are titans (not) of the East Cheshire Sunday Football League. However, its difficult to play when the star defenders, goalkeeper and strikers are lost....:



TO

Why log on TO's Headspace by Gary Lonsdale

Another quick self-explanatory video, dont believe me? ask them:



So keep coming back!

TO

Adams Corner - Preview

After signing a highly sought after writer (Dick Whittington) Adam will now be gracious filling a slot every Wednesday fortnight with his thoughts, dreams, aspirations and much much more. He's a sneak preview of what is to come in an exclusive 2min interview:



Enjoy!

TO (and Dick)

Why log on TO's Headspace by Jessica Frazer-Hanley

Quick self explanatory video:




TO

Saturday 28 March 2009

Quote of the Week

I think its a poignant week for a quote about failure. I think its important that everyone reminds themselves that to make a big jump you require a run up. The difficult things in life that make us doubt ourselves are what make the good times that much more enjoyable. It's important to share these troublesome periods with those around you and seize opportunities that you usually ignore.

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."
Theodore Roosevelt

Thursday 26 March 2009

Just when you thought the Saw Franchise had finally died....

...they go and make a ride at Thorpe Park, at least it can't be any worse than the last film.

That being said this looks like Brown trouser stuff, i chose this computer generated version because it has the music with it, this alone makes me want to cry for my 'mummy' and cuddle a pillow....

Supermarket Sweep

Even the seemingly peaceful Albert Einstein once said I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war. I had to keep this is mind last weekend when doing my weekly shop, an activity which strikes fear to the heart with the sad realisation that the fridge is in fact empty. That is the exact moment i know that it will be a bad day...

...issues with Supermarkets:

  • Why do you always realise you need to go on a Saturday?! The busiest day of the week and the one day when you really do have something better to do.
  • Why do you only ever see people you don't wish to talk to?! This is probably the most traumatic experience in nearly all life. You see the person down the aisle and desperately search for a way to avoid contact, contemplating joining the frozen peas if only you don't have to speak to that high school teacher that you always hated. You know they feel the same and you also know how you feel about them. Yet this only seems to encourage them as they plaster that crooked smile, knowingly torturing you with every question, probing into your current life, a place they don't deserve to be.
  • Why is EVERYONE in the way?! This is something i always forget until i arrive at the unholy place itself. Upon entry i look around and i am totally dumbstruck by the amount of stressful middle aged women with 1-4 children in tow (equally annoying), a record only ever equaled by my old high school parents evening. This may seem harmless enough, until you realise that every one of these people has a genetic code built inside which means THEY will be the ones to get to that last chicken fillet, not you. Ironic that these adults try to raise their children with manners and as upstanding members of society, but in Supermarkets these go out the window...like in prison...i think.
Am i the only person who sees parents in Tesco like New York taxi drivers!? I can imagine Mrs. Smith psyching herself up before the journey, looking in the hallway mirror....

"You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking... you talking to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? Oh yeah? OK."

...then climbing into her Volvo V70 telling little James to stop chewing gum....

TO

Chimpanzee Riding A Segway

Something that has been tickling and annoying me and just about everyone that spends more than 5 minutes in my company, i challenge you not to hum the tune and not watch it more than once!

Thoughts Of University

Next, university. Is it what everyone makes out to be. I think there's arguments for and against. I know a lot of people reading this will be waiting for me to lay into uni like its the worst thing ever created on the planet. I did feel like that, but it was a situation not the truth. University means different things to different people and there are actually a surprising amount of variables. Obviously, it is expensive. This automatically changes how someone might view something. You can put a monetary value on whatever benefits or drawbacks you see at university. At the moment its £8,000 a year for most unis outside London.

There is a question which has to be the starting point. Why do people go to university? The answer is as varied as the amount of people who go to uni. Some go for the chance to get to a better place in life, this is my personal motivation. Some go for the experience, the life changing experience that shapes who you become. Some go to network and some go purely because of peer pressure, because they feel they have to or because they want to avoid getting a job/ paying tax. These are all valid reasons (minus probably peer pressure). But this means uni can be enjoyable or not for different people because of their own motivation. If you go for the experience and worry little about work then you will obviously enjoy it more, and vice verse. It can be very stressful as i have found myself. Everything familiar dissipates and you have to learn to make your own comfort zone, maybe this is reason enough for going to uni.

i am still of the view that vocational jobs do not require degrees and working for the 3 years would be a far better idea instead of a degree in tourism or film studies. Maybe i'm being elitist but the fact remains the more people who go to university the more diluted degrees are and the less mine will be worth (should i finish!) i don't think that people who do not go are particularly missing out, working 9-5, they are probably learning similar life lessons. In fact i respect people who do this a hell of a lot as it is easier to go to uni and just flunk. There is a theory that the government encourages as many people as possible to go to university as it is a hell of a lot cheaper than paying for people to be supported by benefits and be economically inactive.

I think a lot more should go into making people aware of what uni LIFE is like. There is an obscene amount of reading involved and depending where you go you are expected to do it. It can be overwhelming, everyone else appears to be further ahead and/or far more intelligent than you (keyword: appear).

The fact is no one can tell you whether to go to university or not, there are so many variables to think about that you have to think long and hard yourself and then think some more.

Thoughts Of Age

So here is the next installment. I'm traveling on a train to London and boredom has meant i will finally use my phones Microsoft capabilities (surely leading to some finger cramp/future ailment!). To be honest this is mainly a test of how much i can be bothered to write purely on my phone, however some good may come of the thoughts that are floating in my head at the moment (although i think i value my own thoughts more than anyone else ever will).

I've already discussed my views on the purpose of life and religion. Next i think will be growing old, especially with my 19th birthday in the next couple of days. I never really was that bothered about birthdays, yes its nice to know people care and its an excuse to celebrate but to be honest i feel a falseness and unease at the attention of celebrating my own birthday. Pretending you really want those socks has become an Oscar worthy performance for me. Not wanting to cash old relatives (the ones left) cheques partly because of guilt and partly because you don't see it a worthy trip to the bank for £2.50. I don't mean to sound ungrateful but inflation is a terrible thing. In actually reality i feel like this for most commercial celebrations (Christmas, fathers & mothers days). Maybe im just a grumpy old man before my time, maybe i'm just a cynic realist who sees little value in traditional anythings. I'm a minimalist, laminate, chrome and glass kind of guy i'm afraid.

It seems that all children are in a hurry to grow up, i know i was. I used to watch my brother doing coursework wishing as hard as i could i would be given the chance to do something that official at some point. Yet when given the chance i want nothing more than to avoid it! Wishing you life away is a common trait among youth, and as is wishing your life back when you reach a certain age. The consensus of people i have spoke to say that high school were the best days of life. As i went to a high school made up of 90% cretins (correct at the time - some have matured) then i don't quite agree but i can see the points. Lack of commitments and no real life changing decisions but with an increased level of freedom, sounds like heaven right now.

i do often feel like i'm old before my time. I do find i get along best with similar souls (Gareth) while we talk the day away saying how things have changed. Getting old is an inevitability, this is why i struggle to see why there is such an importance placed on birthdays. Its such a cliche but its one day a year, just like the rest, if it were that we celebrated one birthday a life, say 18, then i wouldn't be so begrudging but every year....... No not for me. My main complaint is the same as a lot of other areas of my beliefs. I always say when i don't believe in something "not for me", now i could spend my time converting people to my cynical but realist way of thinking (which i have done) but i don't. I accept others views, but it grates me when others don't accept mine. Like i'm abnormal for this view, and that because its their birthday i somehow owe them something...? You have to do this/that because its my birthday, in reality this will make me do the opposite.

Getting old is the only guaranteed thing in life besides taxes, we should in fact build structure of this stability not be scared of it. Age is after all just a number.......

Thoughts Of Life

Well this is the first i wrote:

Well here i am, no fancy text, just my thoughts. which to be honest may be worth some in the future. i do one day wish to write a book of thoughts, but a more centralised publishing. at the moment however I do not know enough about a particular subject to advance further than the current knowledge so i'm going to stick to what I know the most - myself. these are my thoughts, they are not the truth nor do I profess them to be, these are just what floats around my head daily; while I wonder does anyone else ever think like this?

I'm not going into much detail about my views and im going to skim a few ideas. starting with the largest of today's issues:

Religion

Forgive my short sightedness but i am going to single out Christianity as I am not too "hot" on other religions and it is the religion is have fought with for so long. I once sent a text to a service that answers any question you have to ask, i asked the classic religion question, "if god exists, then why is there war in the world". The reply. Not only was i shocked and quite frankly angry at it, but i felt cheated. "God does not cause war, war is caused by the free will that God allows us". Now am i alone in thinking that there are so many things wrong with this statement. Firstly, if "God" gives us free will, then it is not FREE will. If religion allows us free will then surely it cannot be upset that the youth today seems to be exercising its right to it by rejecting being force fed beliefs. This is why i am grateful to live in a multicultural society as it now forces the government to cater for everyone and not just white christians. Secondly, if that "free will" is mine to do with as i wish then what control does "God" have? See i have a pessimistic view on religion that it was a tool created as a weapon to control people and as a form of coordinating decisions by the hierarchy. It is no coincidence that the Church is the richest institution in the world. Did "God" tell medieval knights to travel to the middle east and kill every Muslim man, woman and child they saw, after raping and pillaging them? If so, then that's a being i don't want anything to do with.

I do not purge people of their own views of religion, infact i believe that the encouragment to be a better person and the hope it can give people to be a good thing. However, it is not for me and i am yet to me a religious christian who will accept that.

Purpose of Life?

i will take the opening statement of a man called Christian de Duve (Biochemist, 1974 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine) when asked the same question;

"I should mention first that this is a loaded question, with several implications. A "purpose" pre-supposes a mind that conceived it, as well as the ability to implement it."

You create your own universe. The fact is that everything you do affects you and others, and how the person reacts to you affecting their universe in turn is them creating their own universe. Yes, other people can do things which will affect your life, but how you react is you creating your own universe. The only way that it can be affected without your control is life and death, which is why these things are so prestigeous. There is no such thing as luck or fate - just variables we are not aware of. Assuming that we know all the possible variants then we can make a full decision that is not luck. So being unlucky/lucky is simply being unaware; which happens to everyone everyday so there is no need for such a phrase. A Perfect example of this is snooker/pool. You can scientifically work out every single shot and where it should go, its just that most players are good enough to do this using their brains, therefore its not unlucky you missed. The classic " what if theres a bomb on a train" arguement has no standing either. You don't know theres a bomb on the train, thats the only reason you're on it, lack of information. Fate goes under the same principle. The way fate is interpreted implies that if you were "destined" to meet someone then you sitting still not moving would bring that about, but the fact is when you leave the house and go to a place etc, you are making a decision and therefore controlling your own fate.

The purpose of life is exactly what is says. LIFE. L.I.F.E. You are life, you create life, that creates life and so on. I am a darwinist. My genes survived millions of years from constant evolution and i will hopefully pass them onto my children. Therefore, the reason i am at university is to get a BETTER job, to earn a BETTER salary, to get a BETTER house, in a BETTER neighbour to give my children a BETTER life, and a BETTER chance to succeed so their children have BETTER lifes. This is why i am in awe of some tribes in Africa and South East Asia. They have methods for selecting plants and foraging that have been developed over thousands of years and that to me is the purpose of life in its simplest of forms. When some dies of eating that berry, you dont eat it, you tell your kids not to eat it and so on.

This brings me to the fact that i have an unerving urge to be great. Not just good, or OK but Great. I have a wish to be remembered. I want to be one of the people children learn about in school. I want my name to live on through the ages, so people can say i dated/went to school with/was friends with/am related to him. To make my mum proud, so she knows she did a good job by herself and that im taking her views and adapting them to make the world make sense to me.

Like i said at the start keep this in mind, it may be worth something - not just monetarily but i wish more that someone can read this and take something from it. Help them think about how they feel, let young people who feel like this know they are not alone and they are not different or unintelligent.

I will succeed. Because i have to. To Survive.

A Personal Context

I just wanted to share with all the work that leads me here today, my first foray into any kind of personal writing that was undertaken around 2 years ago just before i turned 19. Im not going to edit them, instead i will paste them in all their glory. Only my brother has read these, and he openly mocked me so hopefully we can all have a good laugh! There are 3 in total, Thoughts of Life, Age and University.

Hello There!

Hi all (in fact no one...)

I've always wanted to have one of these 'blogs' and only my fear of all this reasonable have prevented this. However I now feel it is necessary for me to spread my proverbial wings, write utter nonsense and deal with consequences at a later date!

I will obviously just post this as and when they come into my head and treat this as a diary of some kind, perhaps not what most want to read but i guess i'll do it for myself and see what happens.

Feel free to comment and interact!

TO