Scottish Football on the Brink

I generally don't blog all that much about football (surprisingly) but I think that it is important to have my say on the current situation at Rangers FC. For those of you that don't know, one of Scotland's two biggest clubs went into administration recently, resulting in a 10 point deduction and the specter of being wound up looming large over Ibrox. Being a Livingston fan, I'm in no position to laugh or enjoy their current situation because my club have been in and out of administration twice in the last 8 years. That lead to many a sleepless night and the unnerving fear of losing one of the most important things in my life. I'm going to have my say on the matter though because I'm genuinely worried for the Scottish game at the moment.

I'm a Local...Get Me Out of Here!

Facebook is a marvel don't you think? Without it we would not be able to get our grievances off of our chests or read about those of other people that seem to haunt their lives so. It seems that every time I click onto Facebook I see at least one 'friend' moan about where they live and the fact that they have to 'git oot ae this place'. Firstly I would like to point out that I detest people writing like that. I was once a person of such literally laziness but I've since shaken my bones to become the very person that you read today. The only time that you'll catch me writing anything like that would be out of mockery of people that are the same age as me but act as if they are 12. Anyway, back to my main point. People don't ever seem to be happy with where they come from. They always seem to feel that the grass is much greener somewhere else but my view is that the place you live is what you make of it, not what it says on the tin.

Advice to Naive Sports Stars

Following on from the fact that I don't really blog about much else than person experience at the moment, today's post is going to be about something that I learned today. I'll provide you with your fix of 'world events' later on but you'll just have to wait for it! Today I played football for the first time since the summer and it didn't go very well. I thought that I was a lot fitter than I actually am and this attitude that I had soon lead to problems. 

Inter-Disciplinary Conversation: Some Advice

The parity between Monday and Wednesday post is becomes more and more palpable as the weeks go by. Maybe I'm just struggling for ideas at the moment or, even worse, maybe I've lost it all together. The truth of the matter is that they have always been pretty close together anyway and maybe it's time that I dropped the distinction that I've been clinging onto with my fingertips for so long now. The reason why I open with this is because my post for today is literally just talking about my position in the world. I write about that kind of thing most weeks and because there is a mention of the word 'world' in there I suppose that's why I've kept the distinction between Monday and Wednesday going. Anyway I'll get on with it now. Today's post is about something that I started to notice when I came to university which has now grown and developed into something that I feel defines a part of someone's personality. This, my friends, is where society breaks up.

Coroner's Winehouse Verdict

As a follow-up to the post that I wrote when Amy Winehouse passed away, I've been keeping an eye out for the post-mortem report being released by the coroner. It was reported today and the conclusion of it was that she died from drinking too much alcohol. It's apparently called misadventure which I think is a little crass considering it is relation to someone's death. I would never call it an 'adventure' when I decide to have a drink so maybe a little rethink on that phraseology might be on the cards I think. The reason for me deciding to make a note of this report today was that, in the period of time between her death and now, so many people have been saying that it must have been an illegal substance that killed her; it was apparently inevitable that she has taken too much of something. I think it's sad that people jumped to conclusions, even if those conclusions were founded in the hard facts of her life.My view is that she was, and still is, treated far too negatively in the press and I feel that today's news should draw a line in the sand.

Apologies for this being a short post tonight but I'm completely knackered and it's the best I've got for you this evening.

Thanks for reading anyway,

Martin 

The 2011 Reality

I love to listen to adults talking about the past and what the good (and bad) things were from their time as a young adult. In many respects the 'now generation' is living the high life because we've not lived through a war that's affected the home front; we've not had to do mandatory service in the army; and as young people nowadays we have more rights than ever. We live in a modern era where the internet provides the basis for almost everything we do and when we can access just about anything we want (from the past and the present) at the click of a button. We have access to brilliant education and we are encouraged to thrive by our elders instead of being ignored. The question I then ask is this: why do some people think we've got it bad?

Tell It How It Is Or Suffer The Consequences

It was only a matter of time before I started to take inspiration from Eastenders. In general I think that most people have 'their' soap and mine, for as long as I can remember, has been the goings on in Albert Square. It provides a nice break from university work or just lets me get away from everything for a couple of hours a week. Escapism is something that I'm always interested in findings new forms of but this is my constant and the thing I can always be sure to make me feel a little bit better - call me sick because I've been called worse in the past! Anyway what inspiration did Eastenders provide me with this week? There is currently a storyline about Phil Mitchell (everyone must know Phil!) and his son Ben who has recently realised he's gay. The thing is that Ben is petrified of him finding out and only him and and an old dude Patrick (who caught him kissing a guy) knows. Phil thinks that Patrick is picking on Ben and subsequently Phil is going crazy with people calling him a racist and other such things. The thing is that this is having an affect on lots of different people in the show and this is where today's message comes from.

The One-Upmanship Complex

It doesn't take very long before university students get down to the conversation of how good their respective universities are. If there happens to be a group of people coming together from various establishments then that particular conversation tends to occur sooner rather than later. The usual spiels relate to some kind of ranking system where someones university is 3 places above another out of 1000000 and for someone looking in from the outside it just wouldn't make any sense but I've come up with the reason why people do it. It's not because they want to make other people feel bad about their university, it's not even because they are going to gain anything from it; it's because they are proud of their university.

Could Face-to-Face be Phased Out?

As the dulcet tones of one of my university lecturers echoed through the corridor of my flat this afternoon, it dawned on me that personal contact isn't quite as important as it maybe once was. We (that being myself and 2 of my flatmates) had a lecture today that was replaced by a recorded lecture which was online. It was the same stuff that we would have been told had we all trudged over to the lecture theatre as our timetables tell us to but this week the lecturer in question was unable to attend and so made a digital version instead. It's a curiosity of the modern era that, in a time when we are told as youngsters to get away from the computer screen and become more sociable, we are being fed more and more information via the internet. Personally I like it because it adds a new level of flexibility to your day - something that I'm starting to feel is essential after only 3 days of 2nd year - but its long term affects could be perilous.

Wounds That Might Not Heal

The sad reality of life is that you have to witness or suffer loss before you can truly appreciate what you have. I wrote in my last post about 'reality' and the pitfalls of ignoring it but I suppose when it's sad and negative it's often very tempting to turn a blind eye to it. The inspiration for today's post (even though it's a bit crass to be inspired by this) is the fact that the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is in a few days time. There have been lots of programmes on the TV this week and the newspapers have been packed with pictures and stories which are as harrowing as they are important. I've read a few of the stories of survivors, people that lost family and friends in the attacks and of course the rescue personnel and each of them pulled at my heart strings. Some of the pictures that have been brought back into the media is recent weeks speak a thousand words and then some more - still images that will be burned into the memories of victims and onlookers alike. If there is one thing that I've learned in the past week from all of the coverage of the anniversary is that the wounds from 9/11 will take many year to heal.

My Favourite Day of the Year

For people that are not fond of football or just don't follow it as much as most people, today will be like any other day of summer to them. Depending on where you are reading this the sun might well be shining and whatever you had planned for today will invariably have been pretty common - it's only a Wednesday after all. The thing is however, that for football fans across the globe and particularly in Britain, this day carries a lot of significance: it is (of course) transfer deadline day. I'm writing this post at about 5pm on the 31st August 2011 and it's killing me that I'm away from the TV at the moment. There are very few days like this that will capture the imagination of so many people and I, unashamedly, can admit that it is my favourite day of the year.

London Riots: Who Picks up the Bill?

I felt like a ghoul when I stayed up until the early hours of Monday morning watching the live news coverage of the riots in London. It was almost addictive watching it as streams of breaking news rolled slowly along the bottom of the screen to reveal where the violence had spread to. The urge I had to avoid sleep to keep up to date was fueled by the hope that the next update from the terrified and bewildered reporters on the streets would be a positive one - they never were. Monday night produced pictures that will be burned into the memories of millions of people, especially the ones that were there and (more specifically) the ones that have been affected so terribly by the criminality of mindless youths. The harrowing stories that have emerged over the last few days have hit home harder than any of those pictures ever could. They provide a background to the smoldering buildings and ransacked shops and tell of the prevalent fear that London is currently awash with. Those pictures and stories, however, are not able to explain to us how things are going to be fixed. Will insurance policies provide the necessary payouts to get home and shop owners back on their feet? Do the police have a duty to compensate those who have lost so much? Can those people's lives ever be the same again?

The Weekend the World Turned Blue

I find it funny when someone is asked if they watch the news and they say no because it's all depressing and there is never anything uplifting about it. I'm sorry but that wasn't in the mission statement when Sir Trevor MacDonald tapped his first pile of news on the desk all those years ago. Surely nobody can think that the world is a perfect place where only good things happen but to be able to accept that that is not true yet still not watch the news is simply a crime. News is what drives our days: it gives us things to talk about and debate, it provides us with a view of what the world is really like and for this reason it keeps us firmly in reality. The news should be watched, listened to, read and digested by everyone in the world because we learn from it as much as we create it. That 'reality' that I mentioned before was firmly bolted onto everyone's conscious at the weekend with the terrible news of the tragic murders in Norway and then with the sad news that Amy Winehouse lost her life. People should watch the news even if these kinds of thing are prevalent - there is no point in ignoring it because things are always going to be like that.

Different Years, Different Ears

You might have noticed that there is now a new tab residing at the top of my blog - 'Taste of the Moment' - which has come as a result of a shift in the music that I'm listening to at the moment. I've always been one to have one of those music libraries that almost makes no sense; a mix of almost everything is something that I've always found myself with. I take great pleasure in putting my music on shuffle and seeing where it takes me but recently I've started to do that a lot less. Instead I've become an album listener (that being the whole album in one sitting) which somewhat signals a change in my approach to music listening. And it's not only the way I'm listening to music nowadays, it's also what I'm listening to as well. I've found myself going back to my Dad's music collection again for more Bowie, Clapton, Young etc and I've certainly been rewarded. In today's post I'm going to talk about a couple more artists (on top of the ones mentioned above) that I've taken a real liking to in the last few months.

Red-Top Ruckus on the Newspaper Stands

It feels like the privacy of the public has been hacked off at the knees. And the elbows. And the neck. Recent revelations about the dealings of the News of the World newspaper has shocked the nation and the fine people that reside here. Heck, the whole world has been shocked by what vile atrocities have been glooping out of the news as of late - the News of the World has, for all of the wrong reasons, become world news.  Personally I've never been a bit fan of the red-tops anyway and have only even bought a single copy of one of them - and only for a laugh too. I can almost see where the appeal comes from and where the high sales are achieved but I'll never be converted. I'm more of a Guardian/Observer man myself and you can call me a snob but when it comes to journalism and newspaper production, quality always beats page 3 for me. I like to be able to read a paper where I know that I can trust and believe 99% of what is written - something that I don't believe ever has been the case with tabloid newspapers and has been diminished further in my eyes due to recent, shocking reports. 

The Internet: The Third Arm of Society

You learn a lot about people when you travel. I'm not talking about the people that you are traveling with in particular because you are bound to get to know them better; I mean the people that you encounter along the way. Traveling appeals to lots of different types of people and therefore when you stay in hostels all over Europe you get to see a very clean cross-section of the 'world society'. Anyone who has ever been in a hostel (either at home or abroad) will understand the kind of mix of people that can be found in places like that - it's all very interesting. One of the main things that I observed about these people when I was on holiday was that they all had one thing in common: they all wanted access to the internet. No matter what type of person it was or where they were from, everyone hovered around the computers in the hostel until there was one free. Most of them were looking for their fix of Facebook but no matter what they wanted to do online it struck me that whatever it was, it was vital. It brought me to the conclusion that most people (particularly young people) can't live without access to the internet for longer than a few days. I'm no different and I knew that I was going to struggle but it's nice to know that I'm one many who need to have the internet at their fingertips whenever they desire it.

The Tourist Psychology

Living in the capital of Scotland I encounter my fair share of tourists. You can usually spot them a mile off with their cameras pointing up at some unknown building ('that's just a Greggs mate!') and a map sprawled across their face because of the relentless gale blowing at them from every which way. In fact the easiest thing you can do to identify a tourist during the week is by asking yourself if they are either a student or a businessperson; if they are neither of those then it is highly likely that they are in town for the sights and sounds. I love seeing tourists because they all seem so happy - they have every right to be, they're on holiday after all - and they make you see your home city in a whole different way. For example, I saw a group of tourists (it was the camera thing this time that gave them away) standing at the top of one of Edinburgh's many steep closes and I thought 'what in St Giles' name are they looking at?': it turns out that if you stop to look down those steep piles of steps, it's something to behold. Instead of getting your head down to avoid eye-contact with the junkie standing on one of the steps, have a look past him (or the ever increasing number of 'hers' I see at the side of streets) and appreciate how cool these places are. If it turns out that there wasn't much to look at then the chances are that the tourists were in fact taking pictures of said junkie - they are (sadly) a part of our culture after all.

A Life Without the Monarchy

You know you have problems when even your habits (good or bad) are over taken by exam preparation. I've been writing two blog posts a week for quite a while and I was starting to find it something of a habit on Monday and Wednesday nights to sit down, write a post and then see what people thought - this did not happen on Monday. For those of you that have found themselves looking out for my posts (and I know that there are at least a few) you will have been scouring your Facebook feed, looking in desperation for what I promised a few people would be an interesting post. It wasn't there, as I imagine you will have noticed by now, and for this I apologise. It wasn't until I was settling into bed for a well deserved sleep that I realised I had forgotten something. I had a strong taste of mint in my mouth so I realised that it can't have been my teeth and so I quickly realised that I was without a blog post - that and I could hear the sound of crying coming from some of you die hard readers as you refreshed your feed over and over again. I'll try and not do it again without prior warning but my head is fairly mushed up with other stuff just now so no promises! Today's, I can happily inform you, will be on your feed. In fact that's probably how you got here so of course it was. I've been looking forward to writing this post for a multitude of reasons, some of which I am going to cover in this, my (recently changed) views on the British Monarchy. 

A Life Without Newspapers

I suppose I was being a little ambitious when I asked for some form of debate on my first 'Life Without...' post last week. In fact I am perfectly aware that people don't really like to comment on the sort of stuff that I'm writing about because it's there to be read, not ripped to shreds. I'm happy that people take time to read my posts; it might be a little to much to ask them to take even more time to write about them as well. So with that I'll move on to the second of my 'life without...' musings - newspapers. It strikes me that I am becoming a part of a rare breed that actually do read the papers. Of course there are people that have been doing it for many years and will continue to do it for as long as newspapers are available, but how long will that actually be? With the growth in the use of the internet and, in particular, portable devices that can access the internet anywhere and any time, where does that leave the good old broadsheet? How long will it be before the only thing that newspapers are used for are as a novelty lining for a bag of chips? In many ways it scares me. 

A Life Without Celebrities

Aren't you all just so excited by this new series of posts that I'm going to do? Well it's yet to be seen whether or not they are going to be any good but I'll have a stab at them and see where it takes me - or us (profound huh?). The first is a constant subject of conversation amongst just about every group of people - celebrities. How different would our lives be without constant speculation and news about the same people, about the same stuff? When you watch 'celebrity' versions of game shows and see the people that the production teams have chosen, you really have to wonder if one person's idea of a celebrity is the same as the next's. The stock lines that I hear when a program comes on is 'who are they' or 'what have they done to make them a 'celebrity'? It often makes me laugh (as I'm sure it does you as well) when you compare yourself to those famous people. What have they got that we don't have? What do they bring to the world that is so much better than we can? I certainly believe that we could live without them in our own lives but still I think I might be in the minority with this, my first 'life without...' post.