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!