A New Year

And so another birthday has come and gone and it's one that I'm unlikely to forget for a while. In the last couple of years I started to feel like things like birthdays and Christmas are losing their magic and fun - this year proved me wrong. In fact I did have a great (and very memorable) birthday a few years ago but for reasons which no longer really mean anything to me - hence the memory becomes less important as well. Yesterday (well the whole weekend actually) was one of the nicest days I've had in a long time and it has affirmed to me why people enjoy their birthday so much. I don't feel any different - why would I? - and the only thing that I'll have to get used to this time is instead of putting my old age down, I have to put my new age down - it's just a number at the end of the day. 

A Letter to No One

After what can only be described as a challenging read on Monday, I feel it is time to lift the quality of this weeks blogging back up - by have a guest writer post. It has been a long time since my last one of these simply based on the fact that nobody, no matter how many times I bring the idea up, seems to want to bite. People may very well enjoy my style of writing but when it comes to quality then I am of the belief that we all have it. Granted, if I wasn't a good writer I wouldn't be writing this blog but at the same time, everyone would have a blog if it came down to being good at it. It takes a passion for writing which I feel is lost by people when they are asked to write essays from a young age that they just don't care about. Of course there are people who just don't enjoy reading and writing but as someone who writes a lot, I would love to get to read more stuff by my peers. Today's post comes in the form of a passionately written letter which I'm sure you will all enjoy...

Policy and Operational Decisions

Yes, it was only a matter of time before I started to use analogies relating to the stuff that I'm learning at university. It's a habit that I've developed and I'm not surprised that its managed to worm its way into my blog - for better or worse, I'm yet to see. I don't actually think that this can be a bad thing however as it makes me feel like I'm challenging myself intellectually and that never hurts anyone. As the title of this post suggests, I am going to talk about the decisions that we all make and the effect that they have on us. Firstly I should probably just provide a little bit of background as to where this analogy comes from before I just fire into metaphors and the like. In public authorities you have what are called policy decisions and other things that are called operational decisions. The policy ones are the high level decisions that are made which affect everything, meaning that they have a long term and wide effect on things. Operational decisions on the other hand are the ones that are made 'on the ground' and apply only to the situation in hand and the best way to deal with that situation. The analogy I'm going to draw from this is that the decisions we make in life fall very much under these 2 categories. Firstly you make huge choices that affect your future and then you make those day-to-day choices that only really apply to that day or at the very most, your short-term future. Let me explain further...

When What is New is Old

When I sat down to write Monday's post, I wasn't really all that sure what I was going to write about. I guess the idea stemmed from the topic that I had in mind for today's post in that there is 'listening' aspect to it. When you think of listening, the first thing that pops into your head are ears - not in the literal sense obviously unless your whole body started to turn inside out! Through this wonderful connection I managed to produce one of my favourite pieces to date, proving that it can often be the most simple thought processes that produce great things. Today's post topic has been in my mind for a while which in itself is quite funny because since I spawned the idea, things have changed and continue to do so as I write. I've never been one for the top 40 music chart. On the rare occasion I do look at the chart or listen to the radio show on a Sunday, I find myself hearing the same song about 5 or 6 times in a row. Then I'll hear a little bit of genius from someone such as the wonderful Ellie Goulding; but then it'll go back to rap songs about someone's mum or 'saucy' songs by the latest, flash-in-the-pan, girl band. It is at this point I usually consult my iPod in an attempt to re-gain some sanity. If anyone has ever heard me dismiss another person's music taste then I would like to take this opportunity to revoke any such statement because a music taste is one of the best things that people have as individuals. I'm always a bit skeptical when someone's iPod is filled with chart music, but I'll turn a blind eye (or ear if that's possible and no I honestly don't have a fetish) to those ones then go and put some of my own music on.