Update...
Well due to the fact I'm about to do a talk next Monday on the benefits of Social media, i thought it best if I actually post an update to my poor neglected blog. I knew I was going to try using this blog to post only issues and event's and not really use it as a diary, but it's the only public format of blogging I do, everything else I do is on my closed network Facebook profile. So where are things going? Well I'm in the final few months of my degree and should be producing more materials for my production project (Social media surgeries) and working on my dissertation (on political discourse use on Twitter during the 2010 election). I can't say it's all going super swimmingly, I've got a cold that's a distraction, my relationship with Kat has failed after 3 years, and I'm feeling a little demotivated. But hell! I'm going to try doing a better job from now on. I often think that the de-motivation is down to my short attention span, I find it very difficult to do hours of work on something that is either tedious, or down-right boring (oddly I still get good marks on the majority of my essay work). Regardless, lets look to the future. Where am I aiming for? Well I suppose I'm looking towards a job involving social media in some format of social enterprise (I know the Conservative gits are pushing to get more of them, rather than charities, which is good for me as a job, but more charity would be better for society). In case you didn't know, a social enterprise is a business set-up to improve society, so it's kind of a win-win thing for both the owner and the people that use the service. Is there a chance for this in Tamworth? Well I think there may be a possibility Tamworth has areas that need some kind of social improvement :P Either way my degree has opened my eyes to new ways of earning, and new ways of producing. I'm enthralled by some of the theory that surrounds media, and I'd like to study the area some more if I get the time in future. Good job I got my degree before the price hikes start to get silly (£9k a term is ridiculous). Anyway, this has been an update to prove that I'm practising what I preach. Content is king!Child Abuse awareness and the power of social media
I'm wondering why so many people can't see the benefit of awareness drives. Sure it won't directly stop the thing they want to raise awareness about, but by raising awareness it makes it harder for people to ignore things that happen daily.Also, demanding people donate rather than just take part isn't exactly helping anyone. Donation is good, but so is the free publicity that social networking provides. It costs many thousands to run an advertising campaign, and by self promoting a cause you save that institute money they can then put to a better use.
I know of some people that regularly donate... not because they deeply care about the organisation or cause, but simply because it sounds good to other people that they give to charity. It's like those big companies that give thousands to some charity, just for tax relief or to leach off of the publicity they get for skimming off a minor percentage of their profits. Sure, the money still goes to charity, but just because you donate, it doesn't mean you're any better than the bloke in the pub that talks about the issue with his friends.
Awareness is highly important in stamping out issues to our society, and by talking about them we give the ignorant nowhere to hide from the realities that occur daily.
If you feel you want to donate, then this mini-rant was about the Facebook campaign to change your profile picture for a few days to raise awareness about child abuse. Head on over to the NSPCC website and donate a little if you can. Or, do a post on your blog, Facebook page or tweet about this issue. Every little helps.
Ok I'm done.
Religion
It is said that if you don't want to offend someone then there are two subjects to avoid at the dinner table. One is politics, and the other is religion (and I've covered politics in another post). Now this post is bound to offend someone (probably if you believe in one of the many religions out there) but I'll not apologise for my views. I'm not impressed by people that would like to censor the views of others if they hold an oppositional view to a religious belief.
I've grown up in a family where I was taken to church on a Sunday at a young age, sung religious songs in primary school, and while in the Scouts there was the obligatory attendance to the Sunday service. All this was a boring experience that didn't endear me to god or any other religious figurehead, I wasn't horribly scathed by the experience and certainly wasn't touched up by any priests, yet I turned out with the view that there's no such thing as an omnipotent being in the sky.
This blog post is about my thoughts on religion and how my views have been shaped by my upbringing and the society I live in. If you want an all out attack on religion then it's best to watch something with ton's of evidence backing it up like Richard Dawkins program 'The God Delusion'. It's more about how science is under attack from belief over proof, yet is fascinating to watch the depths of belief people have in things they have no proof of.
Religion is for primitives
I see religion as a rather quaint thing in this modern age, with all the wonderful scientific research done over the years, we've found answers to many of the big questions in life and thus killed the mystery that ancient societies had to explain with magic/god/spirits etc...
There is evidence of sun worshiping in some early cultures, afraid that the sun might not rise again, early mankind may have worshiped the sun in the hope that showing devotion to this fiery ball would ensure it returned to them every day. A fear of the unknown fuelled this worship until knowledge was expanded and people realised that worship wasn't required for it to return.
I can understand why belief in otherworldly beings was a favourite back when fire was still a mystery or when the world was still thought to be flat. Wanting an answer yet lacking a better explanation for the hows and whys of a phenomenon, I can only guess that someone at some point claimed it was some kind of god figure that was responsible for the unexplainable. Through random luck, worship and sacrifice may have looked like it worked, their belief had been rewarded and thus engrained a culture of belief in whatever they came up with.
Now, given that I've had a modern education I'm aware that the sun rises because the earth rotates around the sun and thus at some point we face away from it and everything gets dark as a regular occurrence. I'm also aware that my fortunes are not secured by burning offerings to deities. I'm quite happy that science has ensured I don't waste time bowing down at the sun every day, or sacrificing my possessions as an offering towards imagined gods.
Talking to voices... you must be mad!
So why do people believe in religion? It's obviously not because they have quantifiable proof that their dedication has yielded results. Possibly it's a cultural thing that they were pressured into, or simply that they lack enough education to know any better? Who know's if there's really a reason for a collective group all thinking alike on the divine. It's much more likely that it's different for each individual, and some may even have a respectable answer as to why they believe.
My partner Kat recently said an amusing thing about religion: "say that you talk to voices in your head and they lock you up for lunacy, yet say it's god you're talking to and it's perfectly fine". It's funny, but true that the belief in some invisible being that answers your prayers is considered ok, yet talking to yourself isn't (I don't talk to myself that much).
Back in the days of the bible, god made regular appearances in person or through some obvious proxy that had his stamp all over it. So why doesn't he bother with these appearances today? Why do all religious stories have such massive involvement from the gods, yet in the modern age it's always that god works in mysterious ways and isn't around for personal appearances.
It's frowned upon to scold someone for their belief system or to offend them by doing something that's oppositional to what they've been taught. This factor is more present in some religions than others. Christianity is a bit of a joke now in this country, with it having to just accept jokes made at it's expense as freedom of speech (with the exception of inciting religious hatred through a joke). Yet if I was to make a joke about Islam, then there would be all sorts of people jumping on the criticism band wagon. You only need to look back to the rioting that happened over some cartoons of Muhammed, to see that the reactions of religious types can get out of hand.
I wonder if atheists could get away with burning down embacies and rioting because some religious figure says we're going to hell or we're infidels for not believing in what they preach?
Religion and how it can be a good thing
Ok, so religion isn't all bad, many religious charities do good work (amusingly I just typoed the error "god work") around the world, and the aid they give can't be called a bad thing. You also see people that have suffered trauma finding a crutch in religion to help them get through hard times. Churches have become the facilitator that brings a community together, and enriched the living standard for many.
But it's not all good
Despite the good that can come from religion, the bad outweighs any possible benefits it gives. In recent history terrorist attacks have been attributed to religious groups, and many ongoing conflicts are based on differences of faith. It's easy for right wing fanatics to whip up anger at an entire religion based on the actions of just a few zealots.
I'm being careful not to sound like I'm tarring any one religion with the same brush that it's fanatics get tarred with. It's unfair to compare a peaceful muslim with the same people that flew into the twin towers, or the Christian fanatic that bombed abortion clinics with a little old lady who attends church on Sunday, they're obviously not the same people just because they follow the same religion.
I think at the heart of the matter is the misunderstanding of what was written all those years ago. Religious texts tend to be quite vage and open to interpretation. One person sees that he should respect everyone, while another see's a need to kill the heathen. It's not like the bible is a simple leaflet with bullet points telling you what is ok and what's not. You will get people twisting the multitudes of passages and lines to fit whatever they want them to.
I remember a while back I was reading an interesting take on the whole god not liking gay people thing. The article talked about the Sodom & Gomorrah incident where god destroyed the places for the acts they performed. This is commonly interpreted as god hates gays because sodomy is bad, yet sodomy in the ancient world was often done by entirely straight men as a way of humiliating defeated foes, not as a sexual act (I'm sure it was also a sexual act as well). The article was quite well written and had lots of passages from the bible to back it up.
Looking back over the ages, there has been holy wars, witch hunts, the inquisition (nobody expected the Spanish one) and persecution of all kinds, all in the name of religion. Even now, people are blindly going on what they are told by religious figureheads with an agenda.
Why bother persisting with these ideas?
Well because religion is a fairly good control mechanism for those that preach the teachings. I can see how the threat of an eternity in hell (or whatever the equivalent is in other beliefe systems) is quite worrying to someone that thinks it might happen to them. It's in the best interests of a religious leader to insist that they commune with god and can help the faithful if they do as they say.
Obviously some people disagree with what is said, but there's always an element that go along with what is told them, those that wish to believe that stoning a woman to death is the right thing, or that you should only marry into the same religion or some other such faith based nonsense.
That Creationism nonsense is another of those tools that religious types have employed to try and influence young minds, and it's all in an attempt to keep their views as valid ideas for educational practice.
I don't think that religion should be left out of education, knowledge of it plays an important part in helping us understand other people and cultures. But it shouldn't be taught as factual information to children, it only helps to confuse them early on.
I suppose people can make their own minds up if they want to embrace religion, they don't need converting.
Conclusion
Religion should die out the more we expose ourselves to scientific investigation and understanding. It is through science and human endeavors that we conquer the woe's of this world and understand how it works.
When religion is gone then peoples actions will be more on their own heads, and not in the name of some belief system that lets them morally justify their actions.
I could probably write more on this topic, but I'm hungry and no divine source has produced a sandwich for me yet.
God doesn't work in mysterious ways, life sometimes just throws up good and bad shit and we have to deal with them with the gifts we were born with.
You'll ne‘ver see me praying to the sky for help.
Public Transport
This will only be a short post, I've been working on a larger post about RPGs that'll be uploaded soon. This post is just a quick gripe.
Train= £4.40 (free station parking) 1 change - 1hrNew Journey:Car= £6.24 (+£1 parking) 30mins
Train= £9.20 (+£6.20 station parking) 1 change - 1hrNow that I'm moving to Tamworth the journey cost via train is not only ridiculous, but they charge a fortune to park there as well. I thought the government wanted us to use more public transport rather than using our cars? Even with the price of petrol as it is, we're talking a saving of £40.80 a month by driving in (assuming I'd walk to the station rather than parking and paying more). I suppose there's the running cost of the car (road tax, MOT, insurance) but still, it's not really giving me any financial incentive to bother saving the environment. I can't even get a student rail card because they're not valid during the times I need to travel. I love taking the train to places, with these current prices I'm not going to be a regular user. Stop raping my wallet and I'll use the train more!
Shaving
I feel the need to share a revelation that only really men will appreciate. I've been shaving now for years with a variety of razors and I've developed 0 brand loyalty to any of the big companies.It's not exactly like they stick to one design concept, and the price of new heads on a razor are astronomical enough to make you buy whatever is on offer at the time.
More adventures in gaming (Metro 2033)
After my last post I had a hankering to play something postapoc, I wanted something similar to S.T.A.L.K.E.R, and had heard good things about Metro 2033 and gave it a try.
-Need to scavenge
-Low-tech start
-Russians (anything postapoc is improved by having Russians or their technology in it)
-Mutants
-Nazis (Best thing to shoot at ever).
-Weirdness (which in this case was psychic phenomena and weird new races) The game experiments with warring factions (Revival Nazi Vs Communist factions), low-tech weapons using air pressure, fun rail based action (literally on rails down in the metro), mutant and proto-human mutant plot that dabbles with ghosts/occult
How I remember gaming and its modern revival
The Begining
I've been gaming seriously since my dad first got games for our old Amiga 1200.
Modern GamingFast forward to now and I've played a hellofalotta games since my early days of gaming. I've spent countless hours on games like Baldur's Gate 2, Red Alert, System Shock 2, Daggerfall, X-Com and Lemmings. All these games were new to me and brought something different to my gaming world. Looking at modern gaming there's plenty of new games coming out now, and we've been inundated with a huge number of remakes, sequels and spiritual descendants that have been marketed as all the old stuff you liked, but now better. Well that's where the buck stops. I feel sorry for new gamers that play these highly polished re-branded games. In my opinion many of the new games lack the key elements that made the old games into the classics they were.
Case StudySystem Shock 2
It's not all shite
Many folks moan about how Nintendo re-make their old games and hardly innovate. Well they're one of the few companies that know that it's almost impossible to remake a classic game without including the core mechanic that made the old one so great.We know that in the current climate that companies are less likely to take a chance on something new. It's a big risk sinking in thousands of pounds to create some new slick looking game that expands the very boundaries of gaming experience, when you can just create a sequel to something that'll make cash simply from brand association. We've seen attempts at genre reboots with things like Dragon Age (which turned out to be a graphics update to Baldur's Gate with a slight cropping of universe size). It was still a welcome attempt and I really did enjoy playing the game.
There's also games like Starcraft 2 which push 0 boundaries and expand on the original by almost nothing. The main reason I'm guessing is because the original was almost perfect and only needed a graphics update for the modern age.
Conclusion Gaming is suffering from a stagnation of investment and creativity. It's not a good time to be a new start-up company with a great new idea. It's more than likely going to be passed over for a bankable/boring sequel to a successful game. We're seeing some interesting takes on old games coming out like Metroid: Other M. But it's hard to find new innovation in modern games.
Projects for after the move to the Worth
Things I need to do:Uni:-Carry out and succeed with my social media project in Tamworth (have a lasting impact).
-Succeed at my 3rd year. Go for gold! :P
-Read more around social media theory. Physical:
-Get fitter, and aim for the 2012 London marathon in honour of my dad.
-At the very least sort out that beer belly (the new sit-up/roll cage should help).
-Do more cycling (Used to enjoy the 6 mile daily trips I undertook while un-employed). Mental:
-Find a place for some alone time. I need somewhere remote, peaceful, natural to meditate alone. Need a place to organise my thoughts (a lonely, windy hill top and some classical music would be nice).
-Write more blogs on a consistent basis.Travel:
-Sort and arrange the world travel plans. Need a list of place I want to see (not just Japan).
-Do the bloody travel with Kat!Gaming:
-Paint or get painted my Ink Eyes Sculpture (not happy with the pre-done job).
-Expand/paint my FoW army
-Expand the MTG collection and build more decks using crappy/weird rares (It's more fun).
-Build/paint/play with my Warmachine Cryx force.
-Many, many, many, electronic games (the new Fallout, Deus Ex, X-Com, Guild Wars, Starcraft, Diablo etc...).This list really could go on, but it's best I stop here. I'll try checking these off in the future and I doubt many will be done other than gaming :P
May 6th election
Don't forget to vote today. It's a chance to change things from how they are. I'm voting Liberal Democrats because their manifesto is the best for me, and I think the country. A few thoughts:-Labour took us into a war we said we didn't want.
-Labour have been in charge for so long and I've seen little positive change.
-Labour and Conservatives voted for the DE Bill to be rushed into law (3 strikes and no more Internet for you, cutting off sites for any material suspected of having potential copywrite material e.g. YouTube).
-Conservatives will bring back fox hunting.
-The BNP are racist wankers!
-Liberal Democrats helped in the construction of the Deathstar. You don't have to agree with me. But please don't vote blindly based on the leader you like or without looking at a parties manifesto. This is the last political post I'll do untill after the election. Go Liberal Democrats! Sent via iPhone.
What's with all the foxes?
Anyone who knows me well enough, knows that I've got a tribal fox tattooed on my arm with the script 'Vulpes Vulpes' underneath. I also collect things with foxes on and I'm rather fond of the little critters as well. But if someone was to ask me why I'm obsessed with them, then I often give a quick answer along the lines of "I see them as some sort of totem animal". The truth is that I associate them with certain principles and ideals and as part of this I feel they represent elements of both myself and beliefs.
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