Friday 29 June 2012

It is all about Attitude Not Age

It makes me laugh when people say that they can't use technology such as PCs or Mobile Phones or DVD players because of their age. It also makes me laugh when other people say this about them, and that you have to make allowances because of an individuals age. Nonsense! I was born in August 1976. Myself and my generation did not grow up with DVD players, DVD recorders, MP3 players, USB sticks, Mobile phones, Personal Computers, The Internet, social media such as Facebook (Which I am on) and Twitter (Which I am not). We did not have Freeview, or topboxes or multi-channel TV. We only had the old BBC computers. We had the old Analogue system. We did not have flat screen TV's in the late 1980's and the early 1990's.

The first ever time I used the Internet was on the evening of Monday 8th September 1997. The first time I got a Mobile Phone was at Christmas 2001. The first DVD player I got and used was on Tuesday 4th February 2003. The first time I got an MP3 player was on Wednesday 23rd March 2005. The first time I went on Facebook was in late August 2006. I got them, used them, moved on and adapted. I have had four Mobile phones since then. Yahoo was the main search engine when I first used the Internet. I have had four MP3 players since March 2005. If I had taken the view that I couldn't move with the times and adapt, I would still be listening to a Walkman, watching Analogue TV, which is practically impossible now anyway as it has been turned off. I wouldn't have a Mobile phone, I wouldn't be using the Internet. I wouldn't be on Facebook. I would still be using Video players and records and wouldn't have a Flat Screen TV. More to the point, I wouldn't be writing this now, because I wouldn't have access to a blog! The world did not stop in 1990 or 2000 or 2010.

For me it is all a matter of attitude: Age is irrelevant. You are never too old to learn, adapt and move with the times. Never. When you adapt that attitude, the only thing preventing you from doing so is yourself.

Thursday 28 June 2012

Ambivert

There was a programme on the BBC a while ago about extroverts and introverts. I don't think that I am either. I would say that I am an Ambivert. I am sometimes an extrovert yet at other times I am an introvert. For me, it depends where I am and who I am with or what I am doing or my mood at the time. I wouldn't want to be either 100% of the time. I have said when someone oozes self-confidence I tend to be mistrustful of them because it makes me wonder what they are hiding. It is often said, mostly by people who don't know me very well, that I am a loner, but that isn't the case. If you know me well, or get to know me, you will learn and discover that I am careful and selective about who I befriend and associate with. I have a few close friends and a few other friends. but the friendships I make seem to be long lasting and I don't befriend unsavoury characters, Arseholes or Dickheads. I don't have loads of acquaintances who I believe are friends, because often in that situation, where are they when you are in trouble or things go wrong? In fact, you can't really class them as friends. I would almost die for my closest friends of all.

Saturday 23 June 2012

The best thing that can be done with anything is to ban it

The best thing the authorities can do is ban something, if they want to increase its popularity or success. This applies to whether it is a film or a song, or a comic act which creates or causes offence with the public. The authorities banned Clockwork Orange in 1973 because some 16-year-old nutcase attacked and killed a 60-year-old a tramp in Oxford, called David McManus. Afterwards, the defence of the killer was he did it because of what he had seen in the film Clockwork Orange. Yes, Clockwork Orange had moments of violence. It must have been shocking for when it was released, which was two years before, in 1971. It remained banned until after when Stanley Kubrick, the director of the film, died in 1999. However, to blame the film on some twisted sicko killing a tramp is totally absurd. If that individual hadn't seen the film, then he would have committed or carried out some other crime or done something similar to this, because it obviously was in him anyway. It was just that Clockwork Orange was the catalyst for him to do it. He would though, have ended up in court over something else, as sure as night follows day.

I personally thought that Clockwork Orange was a good film, when I finally obtained it on DVD in December 2007. It didn't make me feel like killing anyone for no reason, least of all a 60-year-old tramp. It certainly didn't make me want to emulate the sadistic Alex on any level, and do you know why, because it wasn't in me. I watched it mainly just to see what the furore was about. Perhaps if such a furore hadn't been created, I might not have bought it.

The authorities also banned the film "The Exorcist" for 25 years, in the same year. Perhaps the reason was because it upset some people who had psychiatric or psychological problems. Again, you must have psychiatric or psychological problems to be upset by it in the first place, though it wouldn't have helped, if people self-harmed because of seeing it, it was merely a catalyst, rather than a cause. In 1998 I went to see it just to see what all the fuss was about. Perhaps again, it was disturbing and outrageous for the time. I didn't think it was particularly scary. I went to see it just to see what the fuss was about. On 29th April 2011 I watched the Alan Clarke film "Scum" which I believe was banned for a time. I like it as a film. Would I have been as interested if it hadn't been banned?

The song "Ebenezeer Goode", which the group The Shamen took to number one for four weeks in September 1992, caused controversy. The song was initially banned by the BBC, and the single was eventually withdrawn after the band were hounded by the British tabloid press. It got to number one in Drugs Awareness week. A blonde bloke in an hat jumping around singing that "E's are good" isn't going to make me take Ecstasy. It didn't make me take it 20 years ago. Hearing it wouldn't have made me take it 15 years ago, or 10 years ago or now. If you were to take Ecstasy because of that song, then it must have been in you to take it in the first place. Again, a catalyst, not a cause. There was references to Cannabis in the song. It didn't make me smoke Cannabis because of that.

Would it have got to number one if it hadn't been banned or had it had those lyrics? Same with Frankie Goes to Hollywood's song Relax. That was about number 68 when banned when the DJ Simon Bates read the lyrics out on air live and he was totally disgusted by them. If Bates hadn't done that, would the song had got to number one? It can be argued that Frankie Goes To Hollywood owe their career to Simon Bates. It is a lot harder nowadays to ban songs, as opposed to the pre-Internet days of 1983 or in 1992 when the Internet in its infancy and in the pre-social media days of Facebook and Twitter or pre-music downloads. Clarkson and Giggs tried to impose injunctions on stories of their private lives coming out in 2011. They were both unsuccessful. Twenty or thirty years before, they would likely have been.

Thursday 21 June 2012

Suspicious of the superconfident

In life, I rather would have honesty and unpretentiousness from other people, than bullshit, lies, deception and pretentiousness. As I have that stance, I am not keen on false modesty, because it is what it is - false. I also believe that if you are too passive, or don't act enough, either people will take advantage of you, use you, walk all over you and that you will get nowhere. However, this doesn't mean that I am a superconfident person though - I am not. I do not ooze self-confidence and self-belief. In some ways I have low self-esteem. Whenever I see someone in life who is superconfident and oozes confidence and self belief, it makes me suspicious of both them and their motives. I can't help thinking to myself, "What are they hiding? Why are they like that?". I always think they must have some flaw or character fault that they are hiding somewhere. This stance might be because I don't project myself enough, despite having some assertiveness to my character. I don't know why I take this stance, or why I mistrust people like that, but there you are.

Sunday 17 June 2012

Never meet your heroes

In life, I think it is best that perhaps that you don't always meet your heroes. How many times have people met a famous footballer or rock star or actor, who was an hero of theirs, and have come away feeling disappointed because they seemed to be dour or uninteresting or shy or just average, when they were expecting a larger than life, dynamic and charismatic personality. Often a football pitch or the stage can be a place where they do come alive. It is odd because I am not very comfortable at parties or situations where a lot of people are present or where I don't know people, but I have, in the past, gave one or two talks about life on the spectrum and I seem to lose that when speaking.. The ability to perform, or speak or play an instrument or sing is like a shield or barrier for the individual concerned.

Friday 15 June 2012

There is no secret about the cause of increasing waistlines

I saw a newspaper article earlier this week saying that we are on average 3 stone heavier than we were in the 1960's. It isn't rocket science why that is or no great mystery. Think about it.. in the 1920s and the 1930s people had malnutrition and poor diets with the depression and poverty, in the 1940s there was World War II and rationing.. you didn't see many fat people around at that time unless they didn't photograph them.. the diet that people generally had was much more healthier than today, and up to the late 1980s/early 1990s there was Coal mining, Steelworks, Mills, and Shipyards, heavy manual labour and in the past people walked it to work or biked it and didn't drive or bus it as much... Nowdays people do that and many jobs are much more sedentary. Plus there wasn't as much processed food or fast food as now.