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Soul Survivor

I’m in a bit of a writing mood this evening so I thought id raise the subject of Soul Survivor.

Soul Survivor is a Christian camp that I (briefly) went to last week. For those who are observant you may wonder why I put ‘briefly’ in brackets. Well I only actually stayed until the 3rd day at Soul survivor at which time I decided to go home. To put it simply I seriously didn’t enjoy the event. I shall explain why without being too pessimistic!

Soul Survivor is by far the most eccentric event I have ever attended in my life. Loads of people like this aspect of the camp but for me it seemed to cast a shadow over the real issue which was God. Now in honesty I would be lying if I were to describe myself as a Christian at the moment, atheism looks like a far more realistic belief (however that is another subject altogether!) and for that reason I don’t want to talk about God’s interaction at Soul Survivor since it wouldn’t be my place. From a personal point of view I was gaining nothing out of the talks or worship which took place. It’s clear other people were as discussions seemed to be sprouting between people at the camp. I actually got involved in a discussion about the idea of Hell. This conversation sparked a realisation within me and almost an anger against Christianity simply because most faithful followers seem to take faith as something to be proud of.

Only a fortnight ago we were given a questionnaire at my youth group about finding out what Spiritual Gifts we may have. The test involved numbering certain boxes against a question we either strongly agreed to or didn’t agree with. Now when this ‘test’ was given to me I thought it was some kind of joke and started laughing to myself. I then looked up to see a room full of concentrating, serious faces! I couldn’t believe it; people were actually taking this test seriously! It made me realise how much power religion has over some people and how the blind believing of faith can make people do stupid things or even believe ridiculous things. I did the test anyway and was glad to receive a single point for faith. Made me realise I’m not mad!

Soul Survivor seemed to play off those grounds of blind believing and for that reason that is maybe why the majority of people enjoy it. However I’m a person that doesn’t like blind faith, I just can’t be convinced by it simply because it’s the ignorance of evidence and reason. On the first night 160 people went up to the front to become Christians and I honestly couldn’t work out why, I still can’t. The talk before had just been about having a relationship with God of which no historical or scientific evidence had been given. People just bought into the idea that a God must exist because he exists! I understand that everyone is different and everyone has their own special reasons for believing but surely all belief should be backed with reason? It reminds me of a terrible but comical talk given by a preacher named J John last year. His talk was simply a Christian rant against anybody who wasn’t Christian and of which over a 1000 people came to the front to commit their lives to Christianity.

Now I am not disputing the fact that a God may exist. He may! But I am sad to say that I am being more and more convinced that his existence his nothing but mere emotional reaction for most people. It was for me when I was confirmed 3 years ago. You may wonder why I said ‘Sad to Say’; a personal God would be amazing, just to know that somebody more powerful than yourself is with you all the time and helping you feels great. However I no longer have this feeling and for that reason it is sad since this feeling has probably departed forever. However I would rather live an unhappy truth than a deluded comfort.

Time for a Job Change

Its time I started looking for a new Job but it’s not that easy!

I’m not entirely sure what to do. If I were to find a job based off my skill areas then that would be something to do with technology and arguing. I don’t think such a job exists sadly so instead it’s time to do a mass CV drop again. Epsom tomorrow and hopefully I may strike lucky! A job where I sell geeky gadgets or books would be the ideal job at the moment but the chances of finding such a job is so slim considering the masses of other people on the job hunt as well. All I can do at the moment is join the crowd of job hungry sheep and maybe at some point will find become lucky and find a small farm gate!

On a different note I am selling a domain name. I’m new to domain name selling but am doing alright so far! It’s not a bad address either (tbuild.com) so hopefully I may earn some cash of that. I’ll keep all of you blog readers updated with that story.

Richard Dawkins and Alister McGrath

Found a very interesting video discussion between Atheist, Richard Dawkins and Christian, Alister McGrath. After having watched it the debate seems very balanced with both individuals clearly sharing their views with each other.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6474278760369344626

The Alps

For the second part of my holiday this year I stayed in a villa located in the Alps. The house was situated in a valley which meant we had mountains all around us. Even though we were in the valley we must have been fairly high up since clouds appeared very low. In fact one day there was a thunderstorm and after a while my dad realised that we were standing inside of the thunder cloud. Noticing his haste to return inside I copied him and instead watched sky!

During the week in the Alps we went up two mountains by cable car. One of the mountains was 10,000ft high and the second was 11,000ft. At that those kinds of heights the temperature really does drop at the summit. When climbing the 11,000ft mountain the temperature dropped from 32c to 0c! As you will see in the pictures Glaciers were at the top peaks and on the 11,000ft mountain we were actually above the cloud. We also visited a third mountain during our visit to the Alps which we actually climbed! It was 5000ft high and at the top was a mountain lake. The lake does look beautiful in the pictures but at the time it seemed a bit disappointing. I think the mere fact it took 3 hours to reach the lake I was beginning to imagine something more worthwhile!

Not only were going up the mountains amazing but so was simply walking around them. Most of the pictures taken in the Alps were taken looking up at the mountains. At one point I managed to take a picture of a snow capped mountain with two greener mountains either side. The scenery was absolutely stunning! It’s something you only ever seem to see in Microsoft desktop background!

Overall it was a good fun time. Only after I got home I realised how pure the Alpine air was and I really do miss it. Next year the family are thinking of returning to a different part of the Alps, perhaps ever going to Italian Alps. I have included some of the pictures which I took during the holiday in this post.

Public Debate on Complexity and Evolution

I had a listen to this debate and found it very interesting. Its very well done and provides a lot of support and fundations for evolution. Even if you don't fully understand the science behind evolution it shouldn't be too difficult to understand.

"On evening of 9th July 2007, the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation keynote event was held at London's Natural History Museum. Featuring Richard Dawkins, Steve Jones, Lewis Wolpert and chaired by Peter Bentley, a discussion on evolution and complexity took place in front of an audience of 600 people. On this page you can listen to the discussion and take a look at some of the photos of the event."

http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/p.bentley/evodebate.mp3

What does it mean to be a Christian?

Really my thoughts at the moment are based around this topic. Recently I have seriously considered Atheism from some of the conclusions which I have come to resulting from this question. I think many Christians think about this question sub consciously. Especially during times of doubt and it seems this question is always at the core, it is for me.

Does being a Christian mean going to church every Sunday? Being good all the time? If both answers to these questions were to be yes then an image of a fundamental, mindless and possibly bored person comes to my mind. Is that what Christianity is all about? After thinking... it just couldn’t be. In fact I think the state of the church at the moment is a classic example of what an unhealthy Christian looks like. Now I don’t want to be misunderstood as I believe avoiding sin and attending church are all very healthy things but there is so much more. I don’t like the word Christian; it makes me feel like I’m useless, brainless, cut off from civilisation. In fact I prefer saying “Yes, I do believe in God because if a God does exist then he would only have all the qualities which are shown through Christianity.” Being a Christian is about living for what we were intended for. We all need to understand that there are more than pleasures for the body. If you look around you will see evidence for this, how else can you explain how you know what is good and bad, how people cry out for a power greater than themselves during pain or how we somehow have an idea of what is perfect in a world full of pain? We are not defined by our names or actions. We are defined through our creator as he has designed each and every one of us for a purpose. Our lives are a gift from God and each breath should be made in honour of him, not against him. People need to recognize that although we may look different in body that our spirits are all the same, no matter how much sin we have committed or how far away from God we feel we are. We are all equal in a world full of brokenness; the world as it is now was never intended for us and so we are all foreigners in a land of pain. Some of us are lost when we lose track of God’s great light, his love for us and these are the times we start to feel the guilt and pain as the world closes in around us. We need to learn that the only way to get through these troubles is to keep hold of God, even when the road gets rough.

A Holiday of Experiences!

The end of the first week of my holiday is coming to an end now and wow I have had a lot of experiences! I have spent 2 days in Paris, a city I have never visited before and been up the Eiffel Tower, visited the art gallery seen in the Divinci Code and to a second art gallery to see famous original artworks by Monet, Reniro, Whistler and Van Gogh.

Not only that but I have also spent 2 whole days at Disney Land Paris (9am – 11:45pm)! My best ride at Disney was definitely Big Thunder Mountain which was surrounded in amazing life like scenery which made the ride even more stunning! I also went on the rides Pirates of the Caribbean, Phantom Manor, Disney Land Railroad, Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear Lazer Blast and “it’s a small world”. Disney Land Studios was also open and there I watched a motor car stunt show which was great! I have done so much more than listed here but overall it was a great fun time! The only down side to Disney Land is the pipe music which constantly plays around the park which did slowly drive me mad!

Tomorrow I am off for the last week and half of my holiday. We are all staying in a villa somewhere up in the Alps which apparently has beautiful surroundings. Since we are close to the borders we may visit Switzerland on one day but that has yet to be decided.

London McDonalds Bomb Scare

(This message was typed before the blog entry date)

Today I have had a rather worryingly close encounter with terrorism. It all started at London McDonalds after somebody left a suspicious looking suitcase. Due to the terrorist attacks in London this suitcase was reported and was regarded as a possible bomb. At the time I was working in the Mindshare offices which are located several floors above McDonalds’ which meant that our offices were in possible high danger. However since this was a possible bomb threat the main instruction given to the police to us was to simply stay away from the windows (windows would shatter in the event of an explosion). I was fine with this instruction although admittedly worried since if a bomb did go off the building would be devastated. The police realising this possible danger said that evacuation on our level of Mindshare was optional. After having thought of the phrase “Better safe than sorry” I decided to leave the building and made my way outside where the road had been taped off all the way up to Leister Square.

Luckily the threat turned out to be false in the end and instead the whole drama managed to give me time off from working! It’s scary to think how much pain is caused in the name of religion.

Life Ramblings

I’m so bored! Today has been a rather good day since I have had the whole day to complete all my Cisco exams which means I now have no more work left for my holidays but sadly I don’t have much planned for this evening.

Helen has gone off to the Cinema to see Harry Potter with her friends this evening. I really wanted to go along but sadly it didn’t work out. The tickets were booked before it was confirmed I was going along so a bit annoyed about that but it’s not that bigger issue. Just feel a bit left out! Instead I’m going to help down at youth group this evening. Young kids aren’t really ‘my thing’ but hopefully this evening will go well and maybe get some good conversations going.

Tomorrow is my last shift at McDonalds since I’m on holiday for 2 weeks from the end of next week. I only have a 6 hour shift tomorrow which is nice and hopefully it will go quickly!
Work experience next week as well!

I’m working down at a big advertising agency (can’t remember the name) who are the 3rd biggest in the UK. Although it’s nice doing all the work experience I have a feeling next week will be a busy week and then I’m on holiday! So I’m not sure how much social time I’ll have before holiday but the experience will be great! Since the GMTV studio is close by where I’m working I maybe able to watch GMTV being filmed live in the morning! Sounds like good educational fun!
Oh yes, travelling in London with a critical terrorist risk will also be interesting. Although I’m not really that concerned about the prospect of religious extremists I guess my eye will always be kept open. It’s strange how religion seems to be the cause of all this violence. As a young child I always viewed religion as something which was calm and peaceful but I guess with any faith you’re going to get the odd extreme people.

I think this has been my first blog entry which mimics that of a diary. I have thought about keeping a diary but I never seem to get around to doing it. I find on a blog you always have to be careful with what you write since anybody could be reading. However with a diary you can fully speak your mind without upsetting anybody. Maybe this holiday I shall start a diary.

I have food now so I’d better post this blog entry now!

Exciting Bible

I have to admit that I have never been a huge fan of theology. The prospect of a bible study at cell or church never really got my heart racing and I’m sure that a lot of people would think the same way. However recently I have honestly found the bible amazing! My youth leader has lent me a different version of the bible, ‘The Contemporary English Version’ and it’s so easy to understand. My second bible is the ‘English Standard Version’ and although this is the most accurate translation to date the sentence structures are poor compared to the CEV. Last night I had a read of Romans from the CEV bible and it was actually like reading a real letter! All the language flowed incredibly well and I actually enjoyed reading it, so much so I completed reading Romans in about 40 minutes. It’s amazing what a person can do when they put their mind to it.

My aim now is to really deepen my relationship with God by reading the bible. Previously I have heard people talking about how reading the bible strengthens your relationship with God and I honestly regarded them as foolish. Now I understand that it actually does strengthen the relationship.

I don’t know why I have suddenly found an excitement for the bible, it seems strange. Surely I should find the bible boring and lengthy? Now instead of looking at the bible as only an historic piece of evidence I am started to see ways in which God works and how I need to change my life.

Money and Holidays

Almost the end of sixth form for this year! School breaks up the end of this week and then I have a weeks work experience up at London. Shortly after I'm off to France for 2 weeks which should be great, apart from not seeing Helen. The outlook on my life looks great and my only aim at the moment is to make sure I don't spend all my money! My last working day at Macdonald's is this Saturday and for the next month I need to make sure my money outcome is low since I won't be earning!

For my Holiday I shall be purchasing 'Mere Christianity' by CS Lewis which is bound to be a good read.

Anyway this is a rather pointless blog entry as I currently have nothing better to do with my time. Hence why I'm considering doing pod casts on my blog. Maybe some feedback if you would like pod casts?


(Since starting up this blog I have been very fickle about which design and template I should use but now the searching is over! I have decided to keep using the current template which you now see before you.)

Richard Dawkins 'The God Delusion'

I love reading, it’s one of those past times which relaxes you but keeps the brain ticking. So when Richard Dawkins released his book “The God Delusion” I could not resist reading it. The reason I am writing about this today is because I have now finished the book and can give my valid opinion of it. I am also suffering from a horrible cold which has caused me unable to work at McDonalds today; can’t work around food when sneezing and coughing every 10 minutes unfortunately. Anyway, on with an overview and my opinion of the book. (Warning! This may turn out to be a fairly large blog entry!)

Richard Dawkins is an atheist, he has actually been dubbed ‘World famous atheist’ on much of the advertising concerning this current book title release. So his book “The God Delusion” is his attempt to disprove God and ultimately the purpose of the book is to cause the reader to become an atheist by the end (this was written within the book). I have now finished the book after having read page to page and can honestly say I’m not an atheist and I will attempt to explain why later.

The book is divided up into many different chapters with names such as ‘A deeply religious non-believer’, ‘Why there is almost certainly no God’, ‘The roots of religion’, ‘The ‘good’ book and the changing more Zeitgeist’, etc. All of these chapters and more attempt to cover from every angle why someone may have a belief in God. Although this sounds good this is one of the key areas in which this book fails. Richard Dawkins is like any other person which means he has his skill areas and failures. Due to this ‘The God Delusion’ in places puts forward very awkward arguments against the existence of God. For example Richard Dawkins at one stage announces that Jesus has may have been misunderstood in the bible. For people that have any knowledge of theology this claim seems outrageous and at first I actually misunderstood it for humour!

This is leads me onto part of the reason why no Christian should feel threatened by this book. Richard Dawkins has next to near no sound theological knowledge. This is very apparent throughout his book when at stages he regards theologians as ‘stupid’ and announces his disrespect of theology. This causes him on stages to say very foolish things and at one stage he actually misunderstands the basic principle of freewill.

Despite my rejection on some of the books points there are a lot of interesting facts and scientific evidence/theory in the book. This is the skill area Richard Dawkins most obviously has and using science theory and evidence he attempts to disprove God. However although in places he puts forward good arguments he always falls short since he has failed to tackle one the biggest questions of all which is ‘How was everything created at the beginning?’. This simple question with a somewhat more complicated answer is something he never can attempt to answer and in a radio interview last year Richard Dawkins was unfortunately slaughtered over this one question by a journalist.

Anyway, I believe I have written enough now. If anyone reading this blog wishes to ask any specific questions about the book then feel free to leave a comment. I have in no way covered all the points this book raises since there is just too much to write.

Catholic Mass

Had a Catholic Mass at school today and I can honestly say that it was the most boring, uninspiring waste of time I have ever experienced. To begin with everyone seems to speak in monotone during the whole mass which just gives an atmosphere similar to that found in a graveyard; dark, gloomy and dead. All the songs are just totally dry during the service and nobody seems to have a great desire to sing them.

Everyone just looked bored, even our school priest looked bored! His sermon was a full reflection of the boredom that seemed to grow throughout the service. I can’t speak for everyone in that service but I didn’t even understand his sermon. With his monotone voice added to the factor of confusing bible teachings this just caused a tiresome atmosphere. One of my friends actually fell asleep four times and I almost nodded off twice!

During the 1 Hour 30min service I also felt like an idiot. Mainly because I believe in all this Christianity ‘God lark’ and there I was standing in the most boring, ungodly service ever! The majority of people around me who don’t believe in God must have thought that any Christians are completely barmy for believing in God and enjoying bone dry services. I bet when Jesus was on earth him and his mates didn’t spend time procrastinating over religious dogma! They were too busy having water changing into wine and partying.

Tomorrow my philosophy teacher invited me to a meeting regarding the school Mass’ at Holy Cross school and to be honest it just sounds like a waste of time. All the teachers wonder why nothing happens during the mass when they don’t even invite Gods spirit into the service! Everyone is too busy reading a script for the service and keeping everyone under control.

These are the following things that need changing to get the best possible service for school...

1. Get rid of the fucking organ and replace it with real instruments (guitars, drums... spice it up for the kids)
2. Have a homily more evangelistically based; the majority of the people in the room do not know God.
3. Teachers, don’t make the kids feel like they are under constant watch
4. Monotone voices should be banned
5. Don’t follow the whole service to a strict script
6. Have a worship leader so that they can set the tone of singing
7. MOST IMPORTANTLY, Make the service about God. In his power... not yours.

This Feeling

I have found a feeling that is exciting, caring, offers security and comes about in times of need. Such a feeling is sometimes labeled as love but this seems somewhat of a limiting word when this feeling which I am experiencing seems to be towards me rather than within me. I cannot name this feeling which seems to suggest that it must be greater than myself. Not only that but this feeling seems to have been given freely to me as I seem to have paid nothing in return. Such a feeling should be experienced by all people and it can be, if only people were to ask.

Charlie the Unicorn

Here is a very funny video found by my friend Tom about a week ago!

Retarded... but funny!

Writing

For a while now I have been thinking it and now I have made my decision. I'm going to write a book! Basically more and more I am seeing how the words 'faith', 'religion/religious' etc, are just completely taken out of meaning or given new meanings which are completely untrue for the context they represent. I'm going to attempt to write a philosophical styled book on the 'Concept of Faith' and try to show how some of our societies ideas are wrong or misunderstood about Christianity. To be honest the book may just end up to be a very large essay but its worth a try!

Christian at School

Being a Christian at school has never bothered me. To be honest I don’t think my beliefs really bothered any non-Christians in my earlier school life, or at least that was my experience. That may have been down to me going to a Catholic school and so religion was an accepted part of school life but now in the sixth form many boys seem to have found their own individual independence and with this comes their own ideas and interpretations.

The general view of Christianity in my sixth form would be best described as ‘Crazy’. Earlier today I was talking to a boy I don’t particularly know very well about music and he showed me a band he was currently addicted to. The conversation went on and he found out I was a Christian that had a girl friend. Instantly his question was “Have you had Sex?!” and my response was “No, not before marriage”. By the look on his face you would have thought that he had just seen a flying pig from outside the window behind me! With that same look of shock he laughed and then hastily retreated towards his close group of friends.

Later on in the day I was talking to a friend about a Paris trip he had been on and how he had went to see ‘Moulin Rouge’. As soon as I took an interest into the performance he simply replied with “Well you won’t like it, you’re religious”. I then replied “I’m no more religious than you”.

It seems that Christians are heavily stereotyped at school. In the case of myself I hate being stereotyped into a religious context. Yes I believe in God but why does that make me religious? What does religious even mean? Surely if we mean ‘religious’ on the basis of ethics then that makes us all religious? At some point during my life I’ll write a book on ‘Religious’.

Even though I don’t like being classed as that ‘religious person’ it doesn’t shake my faith or confidence one bit. People are all entitled to their own opinions but something this has shown me today is the problems Christians may have in other schools regarding their beliefs.

Weekend at Worcester

After having seen Surrey, Gloucester and Reading university I seem to be fast approaching a gyro knowledge of university's! This weekend was spent visiting Worcester university and it wasn't that bad! Since the open day was early Sunday morning it would have been ridiculous to try and attempt the 3 hour car journey there and back again in one day. For this reason the weekend gave an opportunity to once again stay over at a friends house in Worcestershire.


The Saturday evening was spent playing guitars, watching funny videos and drinking. Well when I say drinking it was my Dad who seemed to do most of that after having woken up the following morning with a mild hangover! At first he seemed surprised by this but after having conferred with my mum about the bottle of wine and crate of bear he had the surprised look upon his face soon vanished!


After having arrived at the university we were greeted by a protester against vivisection (animal testing) . It seems Worcester University does animal testing on some of its courses. Instantly I knew this university was definitely an option for me.


Although the course wasn't quite what I was looking for the uni would definitely be a good 4th or 5th choice on my UCAS application. The most interesting thing about Worcester university is the accommodation. The most expensive rooms available offer 'hotel like' services with everyday room cleaning and clean sheets provided. £87 a week may sound expensive, but its worth it!

Shrinking Cisco

Right from the beginning of the year my Cisco networking class has been shrinking. What originally started out as a class of 10 students has now dropped to a class of 5. The two latest drop outs were Josh and Simon which have actually wanted to give up the course ages ago because they weren't enjoying it and also seemed to be struggling.

During the year we also lost one of our teachers since he wanted to move back to Australia which put the school under a lot of pressure to continue the course. That was all sorted once Steve O'Neil was hired to be a part time Cisco instructor. However our future instructor for year 13 today has decided to pull out at the last minute which has once again put myself and everyone else taking the course in a state of uncertainty.

All of these problems isn't really the school's fault at all, just a bit of bad luck but I fear I am loosing passion for the subject. At the beginning of the year I seemed to have a real urge to learn Cisco and to work the best I could, now when I work I worry about what all my hard spent time is going to buy me. Ah well, all I can do is wait and spend my time programming those routers!

English Annoyances

Back at school for real now and year 13 looks to be a good year but for some unknown reason we still have to take the subjects we are going to drop!

I'm dropping English... fast!

It has been my worst subject for year 12 and it isn't getting better. I have now done my English exam and have completed all the year 12 work and now the class is moving onto year 13 work. However none of the students are not able to drop their subjects until the end of year 12. Its stupid!

Concept of Faith

During many of the philosophical or theological discussions I seem to have every day of my life the concept of faith always seems to be raised. This is usually done in one of two ways. Either I am told I have very little faith or I say to someone else “you only have faith”. The concept of faith is a very important around Christianity. Some regard faith as ‘blind believing’, a mere psychological condition a person has. Surprisingly many adopt this view within our own western society without any backing to it. Characters such as Richard Dawkins seem to view faith in this way and repeatedly mock Christians because of it. Here I shall attempt to explain my philosophy of faith and what it means to me.

Definition of faith = Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence

Faith is a word often associated with religion. However I rarely hear faith being used with other situations. Firstly we need to understand that the word ‘faith’ is not religion specific. It is a word within its own right from which the definition can be seen above. Faith is a personal word; I have faith the chair I sit on now will hold my weight, I have faith my parents won’t lie to me, I have faith that my teachers at school will help me towards getting the best possible grades. This rules out any misinterpretation of ‘faith’ being stereotyped into a religious context. However for the purpose of this article I shall be using faith in just that context.

As mentioned earlier faith can and in my opinion very often take the form of ‘blind’ believing. However this time I put the word blind in comers simply because blind faith doesn’t exist. Since faith is a personal response to a given question (in this case the existence of God) it is impossible for blind faith to exist. Blind faith suggests no proof of belief. As God is a personal question this requires a personal response so therefore blind faith couldn’t exist simply because it would require personal proof. This personal proof acts as fact for the individual which makes their faith very much real to them. In more simple terms it is the individual’s experience which shows them that a God exists. It is this form of faith which from now on I shall call “Personal Faith”. It is this type of faith from which we all start our Christian lives at and it is this type of faith from which all our emotion and doubts derive from. It is also this form of faith which is impossible to show to others since it is personal evidence. However I shall go into more detail with this later.

However the faith we can show to others is “Knowledgeable Faith”. Knowledgeable Faith is built from the foundation of Personal Faith. For example knowledgeable faith maybe knowledge of theology or philosophy. It is this of which we can show others why we believe in God.

So basically:

Personal Faith is.... I believe in God

Knowledgeable Faith is... I believe in God because Jesus rose from the dead

The two above examples really show the difference between forms of faith. Now that we have distinguished between these faith types we can delve more deeply into the world of faith.

It’s a well known fact that Theist’s have faith. However rarely do you hear of an atheistic faith. Now the combination of atheist and faith does sound ridiculous but it definitely exists. In the same way Personal Faith acts as the foundations for a theist it also does for an atheist. For example an individual may choose to become an atheist due to violent parents, unhappy school life or other personal reason. These feelings then act as the foundations for building their knowledgeable faith. The personal faith an atheist has is the same as the theist personal faith in the way that it cannot be proven/recognized by others and is the foundations for which knowledge is build upon. An example of this knowledge for an atheist is typically science and history. However this doesn’t mean that Theists don’t also use this as a form of evidence. It is from this that we can learn how to argue for or against the existence of God following the personal and knowledgeable faith principle.

Imagine a large room and at one end of the room is standing an Atheist and at the other a Christian. Both individuals both believe firmly that they are correct with their beliefs and have been asked to participate in a typical debate around the existence of God. The Atheist has knowledge of science whereas the Christian has knowledge of history and theology. Any debate that revolves around the existence of God always is based around knowledgeable faith. It’s this form of faith which can be show to others and discussed and although its evidence for belief for the individual it is not crucial as personal faith acts as the foundations for belief. When the atheist and Christian start debating it’s very much the same as a tennis match, both individuals are firing their questions at each other and then respond. By the end of the discussions although there seems to be a clear winner of the debate it’s also clear that the existence of God was merely questioned rather than answered. Why is this? This is down to both individuals only using their knowledgeable faith to throw arguments at each other. The person who seemed to have clearly won the argument was the individual that managed to shake the personal faith foundation of the opposing individual.

Now all that typed above may seem pointless however this article does serve a small purpose! When the foundations of the individual’s personal faith were shaken this is the time that they use their knowledgeable faith to piece back together their personal faith. In other words by having their beliefs challenged they found a chance to grow or change. For example an argument raised by the Christian over evolution may have caused the atheist to read back over his material and see flaws and through this was shown that a God must exist. For the Christian this may have meant that they managed to find a new ways to grow in God and through that their personal relationship with him was enhanced.

Now I am aware this last paragraph seems to put me into some kind of arrogant spotlight but it shows an important point. The majority of people I see around don’t usually challenge their personal beliefs enough in my opinion. It’s always good reading Christian material but what’s wrong with reading atheist material? When I bought ‘The God Delusion’ many people thought it was stupid and I was maybe going to start questioning things about my beliefs. All I can say to this is good! I want to be challenged with my beliefs. The person who is most likely to leave Christianity is the person who stays in their comfort zone and regards anything apart from Christianity to be evil. Having atheist beliefs is not evil and I jump at the chance to question why others have different beliefs compared to me. I am not saying we should all live by the world since I’m against that but what is stopping us from looking deeper into atheism or other religions? Is it the fear that we may get ‘converted’ or maybe we just don’t find it interesting? Either way I say to everyone who believes in God to enhance their knowledgeable faith in some shape or form. It is that which helps build up the armour of God around us so that we may live our lives according to God rather than the world.

Journalism

This week at school we have had something called a 'UCAS Week'. This is an opportunity for all the students to research the courses and universities which are open to them. For me this has been a very difficult decision because my ideal career would be journalism. Apart from this field of work being very competative it is also one of those few jobs which you get to purely by your experiances (apart from the more specialised Journalism fields). For this reason I have started to pursue as much journalism experiance as possible. For instance I have managed to get permission to write an article for the school magazine. I also hope to get some of my writing published by the local guardian or Surry Comet however I still need to work on that.

If any anybody reading this blog knows of any journalism contacts that maybe useful for me or has any useful advice then please leave the appropriate comment. Thanks!

My thoughts of David Cameron

Since I turn 18 next January obviously that means I’ll be able to vote. This it seems poses a problem for me since I don’t really know all that much about politics. As you may have noticed I have added a new section to this blog to include Politics and through this I hope to share to you my thoughts on current political affairs.

“David Cameron” is the name I’ll most commonly hear from people when I ask them who they would vote for. It seems that Cameron’s urge to join the political scene through appealing to youngsters is working to some extent. Many people are now seeing that Labour have spent far too long screwing the country around and that Liberal Democrats don’t actually have a clue what’s going on so the logical next step seems to be the thoughts that the Conservative’s are the new winners. After David Cameron was elected Charles Kennedy stepped down after pressure from his piers that he might not be able to handle the new onslaught from opposing parties. At this announcement Charles Kennedy also admitted his long term problems with alcoholism, perhaps this was why he didn’t know his own party policies when grilled about them on ‘Question Time’ during 2005? All of this activity within other parties makes David Cameron really look like the Top Gun. David Cameron doesn’t fool me.

David Cameron studied at Eton secondary school. This is possibly the most famous school in the world and is the home of all those “upper class folk”. You actually only get into the school if your daddy is rich, has a thin wife and is well known. In fact all the schools which Cameron studied at were for the posh and ‘intelligent’ people. For his primary school he went to Heatherdown Preparatory School, went to Oxford University has a young adult and for a gap year worked with his God Father doing research and attended house of commons debates. This is all very well but something is missing from his experience. If you look closely he has never had experience of what it’s like in the real world. Much of his learning experience has been involved around his family and in posh schools.

I don’t doubt David Cameron isn’t an intelligent guy, he must be fairly intelligent to get into Oxford. The fact is I would never vote for him. He has never experienced the lives that all we normal people lead so how is he able to relate to us? I don’t think he can, especially with the older generations within this country. If you visit the Conservative website you will see the delights of ‘Cameron Cam’ which gives an insight into the life of this “great leader” and throughout the short videos you can see him for the twat he clearly is.

Throughout all of his new party policies it’s clear that he isn’t acting on his own beliefs at all. For instance in Health, Education and Environment policies he promises to make big changes. For instance he was caught cycling to work and then his documents were delivered by car from his house. He cycles to give the impression of “I am green” but his car carrying the documents gave out all the pollution secretly.

In conclusion Cameron won’t be getting my vote because he doesn’t think for himself but rather plays on public opinions. I would much rather have a leader which is able to speak his mind than sucks up to the idiots of this country. He also hasn’t had any real life experience which I think is critical for the role of Prime Minister.

Exeter School Prank

Last year when I was about to finish year 11 at school there were all sorts of rumors going around about terrible school pranks. For example setting off stink bombs in the corridors or playing around with the staff parking area. It seems that a school in Exeter which prides itself with having “creative students” has suffered possibly the best practical joke when students let out 4,000 live crickets during a parents buffet evening. I found this hilarious and to whichever students carried out this incredible deed has possibly achieved the best ever prank ever witnessed in our great little country. This school charges parents £3000 a term so close your eyes and imagine the type of parents at this evening. If I were to take a wild guess I would say very smartly dressed with the majority driving BMWs. Classic!

In the Ubuntu Spirit!

A while ago I saw an advertisement by Ubuntu Linux for free operating systems to be sent straight to your home. Now me being one of these geeky type of guys certainly had to try this out and I am proud to say that it worked! This morning 3 operating systems turned up at my door, 2x 32bit installations and one 64bit version. Ubuntu also went that little bit further and included free stickers! With the prospect of McDonalds work for most of the day this certainly is today’s highlight... well of course until I see Helen later on!

Is it your mind?

After having gone to Sutton and seen the amount of advertising in shops a thought suddenly occurred to me. Does all this advertising about music, films, books affect me as an individual? Since I was asking myself the question I’m sure to some extend it does. Maybe that is why so many young people these days wish to have their own bands or dress in such wacky fashions. However these types of things don’t bother me, it’s the normal process of growing up having childhood idols. But have we ever tried to think like someone else? This might be like trying to be controversial like Jeremy Clarkson or Terry Wogan, being pessimistic and judgemental like Simon Cowell or maybe copying the mind set of somebody else you know. This is something which I have increasingly become aware of and maybe this is a problem with our society. Is the mind inside of you yours?

Freud who was a philosopher explained his theories using psychology had the theory that the mind was set into three parts. These three parts were called the id, superego and ego. The id is who we are, the superego is who we show and the ego is our true personality that is hidden. People choose the balance between how much of the ego they show and this is then how their personality is discovered. How many of us choose to be like somebody else?

In my opinion I think fear is the biggest factor effecting people these days. With the countries threat level still over moderate for terrorist attacks always adds to the suspense when travelling in public. There is an increasingly huge amount of programmes on television with such titles as ‘How to look good naked’ and ’10 years younger’ so we subconsciously all become aware of how good we look. There is always possible threats of new super diseases wiping us all out like the BIRD FLU which has turned out to be false. Finally the most recent fear driving pledge is global warming which I have covered earlier in my blog. With a nation in so much subconscious fear is it surprising that we hide our true selves?

The Philosophy of Philosophy

I like Philosophy. I think it’s a great subject that does get people thinking outside the boxes of their little lives. Tomorrow I have my philosophy exam and so for the last few weeks I have been revising all the philosophical arguments put forward by various philosophers over time such as Plato, Aristotle, Tomas Aquinas, Augustine. But how essential is Philosophy to our lives? In my opinion, very! When I’m out and about these days the majority of people I see are listening to music, watching videos, browsing the internet, texting on mobiles or talking on mobiles. Its seems that our society is turning into a nation of people that only believe in things they watch or hear on the electronic waves which take up so much of our lives. I have only come to see how much time I waste just slowly aging in front of computers and televisions or how deluded to the world I am when listening to my mp3 player in public. Real world events such as poverty and war have become desensitised by our televisions. In the eyes of our community the fear of climate change (which is still only theory) seems to be a bigger concern compared to children dying of HIV in Africa.

What has happened to us all? How is it possible for us to fall so short?

What are we all waiting for? Maybe we are waiting for the famine to pass in other countries, maybe we are waiting for somebody else to step in first to sort the problems out or perhaps we are waiting for that brand new mobile to come out on the market. Only 4 more months till it is released, in other countries that maybe over 10,000 family’s dead of famine, war, disease or poverty. Why are we all so desensitised by it all?

When I think of all these things suddenly my heart is filled with sorrow and the aspect of my 3 hour philosophy exam tomorrow doesn’t seem that important. Perhaps I could become an IT technician, teacher, network engineer but what good would that be? Still right this very second people are dying, crying out for help and I’m not going to ignore them. After all how can we ignore them? A few thousand miles away the reality of surrey is smashed when a mother is holding her dead baby in her arms. On television this maybe regarded as ‘news’ however I regard this as ‘our fall’.

A Goat to Revision

Revision is boring, infact it is more than boring. The best way to compare revision is to that of a rotting carcass of a goat in your back garden; it smells and you dont want to go anywhere near it but at some point its going to need moving otherwise you'll have a maggot problem which would be even more work! Revision seems to not get done, build up and then finally screw you over. In my case I just forget about 60% of the stuff I learned all year and so revision means im going over totally new stuff. This really is a bugger when I have 1 week to learn 6 months worth of work! The secret is to not let revision get the most of you. Okay, your future maybe at stake but who cares? Im sure ill end up fine whatever I do so Im quite happy giving God my future and my stress whilst I struggle on with revision. Seems to be working for me!

Farewell Fishy

Sadly the biggest fish inside of my fish tank will have to go this weekend. Its now grown to 14.5 inches and is a complete pest inside the tank. There is also a faint possibility of me purchasing a brand new fish tank soon which will be slightly smaller than my current tank which is about 140 litres.

The scientific name for the fish I will have to get rid of is called a Plecostomus. A picture of it can be seen below.

Giving Glory to God

I have always wondered how this is achieved. How am I meant to 'give glory to God'? God is fairly big and just powerful, so how am I meant to give glory to God? Surely anything I do is nothing in comparison is tiny, smaller than a grain of sand? I guess I could try and read the bible everyday, give money to a charity, always act nice around people but somehow all of these things still seem to be falling short. Giving glory must be something more than this, afterall God is big so surely I should do something big in return. How about giving my life to God? But what does this mean? Does that mean I put up my hands in worship and then shout to God ill follow you? I don't think it does. I have always done those things and although I have felt changed, I have never been changed. I have gone around my daily life still acting the same way with the thought in the back of my mind that God is supporting me.

The challenge I have come to see is a challenge many of us struggle with. My life was created by God so surely it should be all about God? Now how do I do this, how do we do this? Firstly I am not going to give up anything, thats stupid, why give up the stuff which God has provided me with? Nothing I own will ever be mine since they are God's so logically that must mean they go behind me. They are Gods gifts to me, they were given because God loves me and so they should go behind me. In response to this I must put God in front of me. This means following the teachings laid out in the bible. Of course there is only one main teaching which applies which is 'Love your neighbour', easier said than done but the word 'love' does sum up what my life should be about. My life should be all about love. Love is not jealous, is kind, caring, thoughtful, forgiving and so all of these attributes (and more!) should be apart of me. This should change my lifestyle dramatically but I don't care. I don't want to be in the everyday work cycle of the world, I don't want the mechanical mind of a scientist or the belief of an atheist. There must be a meaning to this universe otherwise there would be no purpose to it.

Summer Start

Well I can safely say that at the moment we have summer weather! This is great for most of us but for the more ‘metallic’ of my family members this is a big problem. Yes, my computer has started overheating again which means less computing time for me. Well I guess that can only be a good thing! Half term has also started which is usually a big deal for me but since I have been in the house ‘revising’ most days the idea of having more time at home isn’t that appealing.
Tomorrow I am going back to McDonalds to work. It seems that my desire to drive a car is greater than that for giving up McDonalds. I’m actually sending off for my provisional driving licence soon, to my shock and horror it will cost me £45, this driving nonsense is expensive! My shift time starts at about 12pm till 6pm which isn’t bad at all but I fear for my life being put on the express lane again.

Bulk of Exams Looming

Tomorrow I have 6 hours worth of exams. Id be lying if I said I wasnt nervous about the prospect of going through 3 hours worth of english papers. Anyway all I can do is hold myself together for one more day and hope everything goes smooth through the exams.

Mcdonalds Sucks

I have just come home from Mcdonalds after the worst ever day. I was put onto the express lane with a broken chip dispenser, a lack in large chips and a huge que of people. After an hour of working on the express lane I was ready to die. My first attempt to ask to go on break was directed at one of the main managers near to me. He asked how long id been working for and it has been 3 hours and he said he wanted his break first and then just walked off. I then attempted to ask a second manager and he seemed to igonre me twice. Eventually I decided to just walk up to him and say I was ill (which was true in the sense I had a huge stomach ache and was ready to die). He told me to sit outside and have a drink and see how I feel, he also said that if I was truely ill then there was no point me working since I was around food the whole time. I took a water sat outside for about 3 minutes and then decided to clock myself out and leave. I suppose I should have told one of the managers but I was so fed up with the stressy girl who I was working with (she was horribly sarcastic) and the lack for managers to care about their employees that i just left.

Ill phone Mcdonalds much later today and say sorry for my sudden leave but I felt quite sick. I think ill also hand in my notice since this job really isnt for me. I can use my brain but im really not a physical person.

Waves

Im on study leave now and it is so boring. With the exception of Tuesday I have been stuck in ever day of this week revising. Im a bit nervous about some up coming exams as well since I really cant afford to muck these ones up. After speaking with Helen last night it seems that our relationship is a bit rocky as well. Its a problem I have seen up coming and it was bad that we had to speak over msn about it, msn seems to always make things worse than they actually are. So in conclusion im not having the best time of my life at the moment. Its amazing how time moves on and changes, sometimes I so wish we could sometimes move the clock backwards.

Life is rolling along

Well life at the moment seems to be going fine. Apart from the occasional spurt of work I get from school everything is good. Many of my exams are coming up soon which is a bit worrying since I failed the last lot, hopefully these new exams will go better! One of my main concerns really has been with friendships since the ever increasing work load from school added together with the work down at mcdonalds really does cut down social time. However since my mates are all working this doesnt seem to be a problem!

I also get my mobile upgrade now! I have decided to go for the XDA Orbit pda from 02. Alex already has this phone so I need to think of new inventive ways to make my device more interesting than his! Anyway that makes me sound boring!

Global Warming Myth

Since the 1980’s a few scientists had a theory that increased Co2 emissions would cause temperature rises, now little over 20 years later this theory seems to have been taken as fact by the majority of people. The media are now one of the main sources of information regarding global warming and politicians are now catching on with public demanding better ways to dispose of rubbish and cleaner emissions from cars and busses. It’s very easy to look at global warming now and see that it is a fact, however is it? Have you ever seen global warming evidence or have you just believed the crowd and this myth of global warming?

One of the main fears of global warming is that it will cause more storms, coast line flooding and generally destroy our climate which may kill thousands of animal species. Without going into a lot of scientific detail the earth is warming, however if this is to do with us seems unlikely. During the 20th Century the climate of the planet has risen by 0.6c. From looking at the evidence it seems very unlikely that this climate change is to with us. For instance even if Co2 did raise the temperature did you know when a volcano explodes it gives off twice the amount of Co2 that America makes in a whole year? Did you know that cows are higher Co2 polluters compared to most modern cars? It seems that nature on its own is responsible for more Co2 pollution over the years compared to us; cows have been around far longer than cars. The Earth has always had climate changes over the years, just look at the ice age and that went alright.

Storms and floods are said to increase with global warming, there have always been storms and floods but to say that they will increase is very far fetched. Some Scientists around the world believe that the Earth is slowly dying however some don’t believe this. Dr. John Christy, professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Alabama at Huntsville said: "I remember as a college student at the first Earth Day being told it was a certainty that by the year 2000, the world would be starving and out of energy. Such doomsday prophecies grabbed headlines, but have proven to be completely false."

I believe that global warming is a myth. This myth is used by the media and politicians to drive fear into people which is what feeds commercial success and gives politicians common ground to interact with people. To say that the climate is caused by humans is very unlikely due to the lack of evidence supporting that claim and I am willing to bet any amount of money that the ice caps will still be around in 40 years time.

Got The Job!

Well I got the Job! I am now a crew member at McDonalds which means for the first time in my life I have regular money income!

2nd Interview!

I have my second Mc Donalds interview! According to Alex Fry this isnt really something to be proud of and in a way I agree, soon I maybe a grease monkey. However getting a job will mean for the first time in my life I will be earning money! However I won the first battle but the war isnt over. For the second interview its one on one with the head of the store... in an interview. So I should be fine, left to my own devices I can talk for a while. I only hope that connection between my brain and my mouth doesnt become loose during the interview!

If I do get through the first interview apparently I have a 2 hour long health and safety talk! Now that will be boring. Apart from pointing out the obvious these talks will mentally cripple anybody who takes them seriously.
(if your are one of the people from mcdonalds viewing my blog I would like to point out im joking, health and safety is great and is very important...)

The Puzzle of God

One of the most frequently asked questions I get each week is about my personal beliefs. Some ask if I’m a Christian, Atheist, Pagan or part of some other cult. Back in May 2005 I took my confirmation to become a Christian. Back then I was fully on for God however now in 2007 I look back on my commitment to Christianity and instead ask the question ‘Why did I make that decision?’ This has been one of the hardest questions iv come to face with and since mid 2006 I have been struggling with the idea of a Christian God ever since. So the short answer to what do I believe in at the moment is nothing. I don’t know if a God exists and I have no evidence to say that he doesn’t. However despite my lack in faith I still have a sharp mind which I am trying to use to bring myself to some sort of conclusion so that I may have rock solid beliefs within me.

Amongst my Christian friends they would be most interested in why my lack of faith. I believe the thing that started me questioning God was logic. I went to a number of sermons at Soul Survivor and usually every Sunday at church, I still do go to sermons. Somehow the character of God being shown by others certainly didn’t match up with my idea of God, the feelings I had inside of me. So looking at this logically then a God would have to be personal to each person, almost unique in ways and characteristics. Obviously then you could either say “well maybe there is more than one God?” or you could do what I did and thought “Isn’t this evidence that one God doesn’t exist?” Either way this widened my gap of questioning and brought me onto some more questions. Every time I go to church I look around. Since I go to a youth group people are very young there, lack knowledge (as I recently recognized in myself) and seem to always be having a good social time. Not only this but the actual youth group is run by young people. How then is it possible to take everyone seriously? Everybody is young and doesn’t yet have full knowledge of the world around them and yet they believe in a God. In my own experience believing in a God is a very easy thing to do when you go down to church Sunday and everybody is worshipping and having fun. However looking out at the real world, no sign of a God can be found. One of the biggest obvious questions is about suffering; that question leads onto our freewill, that onto Gods characteristics. All of these questions to me don’t have any answers and eventually you’re left with confusion and a mind boggling puzzle, a puzzle that would take a lifetime to solve.

To put it bluntly, I’m not against the existence of God like some people may believe. I want a God to exist, life after death is a wonderful thought and the idea somebody more powerful than yourself loves you forever. I’m currently going out with a girl who is a Christian and for me to share her beliefs once more would be an amazing thing. However the fact is there staring me in the face, I will only believe in God unless I see physical proof because I don’t believe I could ever believe in something without visual evidence. If a loving God does exist then I’m sure I will see this evidence sometime in my life, maybe I’m meant to be questioning at the moment in ‘God’s big plan’? I only hope that this questioning one day ends.

Interviews and Waiting Games

Well I had my McDonalds interview today which was interesting. For the first interview all the people that turned up for the jobs were put into two groups. We then were given tasks, which were boring and pointless. Anyway I thought the whole process went well and on one of the tasks I actually lead the team discussions which hopefully put some limelight on me. Anyway I dont know if I have got the job yet. Ill only know that in my second interview. So hopefully ill get a phone call soon!

On a different note I love global warming! Its the best thing which happened since cheese! Such good weather at the moment.

System Of Education

1. School is for Practice
2. Practice Makes Perfect
Conclusion... Nobody is perfect so why go to school?

School it seems is a drain, a waste of time to just prove the point that you could do the work right from the very beginning. School also runs under the same type of values as the media, these values are all that of fear. Fear is used to scare people into thinking unless they have the right grades they wont be able to do what they want. Schools try to get all the students to university simply to gain education points and the goverment drains money from the students with student loans. This is a maze of weeds preventing most from becoming something; this maze of weeds also prevents people seeing the light at the end, this lacks motivation. In the end we are left with an education system that is brutal, unforgiving and selfish.

Having said that we need this education system and the only way to get past the weeds blocking our paths is to fight back by going along with the system.

We have two choices...
1. Either stop working and get destroyed by the weeds
2. Fight back the weeds and find your goal

Im fighting back the weeds by doing my work at school and staying out of trouble. Some may look down on me because of this and may say 'He is a sucker to the system'. I assure you the system of education is more powerful than a bunch of students and whilst we are all tangled in the weeds its impossible to fight them all back. The only way to destroy the weeds is to come out the other side with your grades and friendships you made along the way. We are then able to look down on the forest of weeds and make a difference to those are fighting through.

Return From Worcestershire

Im back from Worcestershire and it was great fun! In the past few days I have driven quad bikes and flown helicopters. The house was fairly big and was surrounded by fields which was nice compared to being surrounded by outer London buildings. The quad bike was very fun! I was on it non-stop at one time to the point it just ran out of fuel! The helicopter was also fun however my dad was better at landing it compared to me.

Anyway im back in the working world again! Im sure all the teachers will be working us like mad leading up to the exams so my aim over the next couple of months is to simply keep my sanity!

Hope at Last

I may have a job soon! I have been looking for a Job for the last 4 months and finally a glimer of hope has appeared in the form of Mc Donalds. Okay, it maybe hard work and I may find myself turning into a grease monkey but the pay is good! Finally my dream of owning a Ford GT is coming closer, I can almost smell the burning fuel and hear the sound of screaming environmentalists.

On another note I am going away on holiday tomorrow to Worcestershire to some family friends. Should be good fun and finally gets me away from the boring depths of Cheam!

Mobile Upgrade Time!

Well it’s that time of the year again and it’s time for me to upgrade my mobile. Now this year I have a bit of a problem with getting a new mobile. A couple of years ago getting a new mobile was an easy task since technology was moving so fast it was obvious which was the best mobile. However there are so many mobiles on the market it’s difficult to choose one that would fit exactly to my needs.

Now on the phone market there is a lot of activity with mobiles coming from Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Nokia, Motorola, Asus and now even Apple so there is a lot of competition. However three phones seem to stand out of this forest of beautiful materialism and they are:

- Sony Ericsson W880i
- O2 XDA Graphite
- Nokia N95

Now I bet your wondering why on earth I only listed these three phones out of the dozens I could have picked. The fact is these three phones are the example of ‘next generation’. All of these phones aren’t some ‘easy middle job devices’ companies made to only make money. Companies made these three mobiles to show what was possible, these phones seem to have feeling put into them and this is reflected by their nature.

Sony Ericsson W880i
Now since I already own a Sony Ericsson W810i obviously this new mobile announced by Sony interests me hugely. The design seems to be based off an apple iPod, except Sony has improved it by giving the design a more mature sophisticated look. However it’s not just the look of this mobile which is impressive, just like an iPod it’s built for music from the ground up and includes a huge 262K colour screen which is a fast improvement from the Sony Ericsson W810i 64k screen. However there is a down fall and this down fall proves the modern isn’t always the best. The W810i model uses ‘Memory Stick Duo’ memory cards which are fairly large but allow storage up to 8Gb which leaves many iPod nano’s far behind. However the new W880i model uses a new kind of memory technology called M2. These memory cards are about the size of an ant, however so is the memory with a maximum storage capacity of 2Gb. Although this is a lot of space for a mobile device I can help thinking was the Sony Ericsson slim fast look worth it? Again this slim design seems to have limited the phone in a number of different ways. The camera on the back of the phone is exactly the same as the W810i model but worse since it doesn’t have a flash, onboard speakers are worse with less depth which makes music even more high pitch and the keypad is difficult to use if you have large fingers like me.
Overall this phone is stylish, sophisticated but somewhat lacking the minimum output expected from a modern mobile phone.

O2 XDA Graphite
This mobile may look ugly and bulky looking however things do get better. This mobile is more than a mobile, it’s a computer complete with Processor, Ram and Operating System. Powered by a powerful Intel XScale 416Mhz processor, 64MB Ram and 128Mb of memory with a M2 add on capacity with a maximum of 2GB this phone is basically a travelling office. It even uses the highly advanced Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system complete with Office, Window Media Player and MSN. Built in Wifi allows this mobile to connect to wireless access points which is excellent for on the move work. However the downside definitely comes from the battery front with a minimum of 4 hours talk time, however from the amount of features this mobile contains it’s worth it. Once more this mobile is built by Asus, so needless to say this device should be something special...

Nokia N95
As soon as I saw this phone the word ‘elegant’ came to mind. The smooth edges and rounded style are like that of a perfectly formed woman. This isn’t just another Nokia N series slider phone, this phone slides both ways. Slide down and the key reveal themselves like legs hidden beneath the dress and an upwards slide shows the lovely blue glowing media keys. This mobile defines what a media mobile should be with a huge 16 million colour screen and 5MP camera. With the capacity to store up to 2Gb worth of music this mobile seems to be the best mobile out on the market, or is it? I have used the Nokia N70 and that is dead slow, infact is takes about a minute to switch the thing on. Embarrassingly the Nokia N95 is used exactly the same technology. I just hope Nokia have sorted the slow speeds out otherwise this mobile will be useless as a media devices, infact XDA Graphite maybe better.

Conclusion

Now for the conclusion. All of these mobiles are something special Sony Ericsson W880i is a beautiful music phone, XDA Graphite is a portable desk and Nokia N95 is a media center. Dispite this I still have a hunch that the mighty Sony Ericsson W810i maybe better. Even though it is now a couple of years old the W810i as a music phone still sets the benchmark. Its small, good looking and gets the job done. Unless I want to take some fancy 5MP pictures all the time there is no need for me to upgrade to any of the above mobiles. Basically this means this whole feature of my blog was pointless. Ill update my blog once I have got my new mobile.

Welcome All

Well this is my first blog. I have written stuff on myspace before but to be honest we all know myspace has issues all the time, especially with the 'down time' amount. I think getting a myspace was the worst thing I could have ever done. Over the past 18 months of owning a myspace I must have spent at least 2 out of the 18 months waiting for myspace to load! However now I have a blogspot and I know this is sad, but im quite excited by this blogging business. My aim is to keep this space completely up to date with my latest ramblings about life which includes current news affairs, latest technology news and my moanings. Of course all of these topics will be highlighted with my rather abstract humor and imagination so hopefully this blog will be something worthwhile in the end.... or just another waste of time.