Thursday 10 May 2007

Response Two: To Dave Evans

Dave (Alfredo Garcia) wrote:

""I'm leaving because I'm bored."
Actor George Sanders' suicide note.
Killing yourself; there's a bit of aberrant behaviour we haven't had a lecture on. Everyone's thought about it, but there's a line between 'I wish I was dead' and 'I wish I was dead, I'll do something to make it happen.' Very few people cross that line. What's going on in the head of someone if they're prepared to take that step? Is suicide just the ultimate selfish act? If you're thinking of topping yourself http://www.satanservice.org/coe/suicide/metaguide.html covers the common methods and your chances of success.
Picture is the actor Al Mulock in the opening sequence of Sergio Leone's classic Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). After finishing filming, Al went back to his hotel and killed himself by jumping from a window, still wearing his cowboy costume. Cool, huh?"

My response:

Suicide is a very serious subject. I read a comment from someone today on a website that said something along the lines of "I hate emos and goths. They hang around talking about how many times they've tried to kill themselves. They can't be that smart if they haven't managed to do it yet." Talking about suicide and attempting (or succeeding) to commit suicide are two very different things. I know some people think it to be 'cool' to talk about killing themselves, and many use it as a threat, especially after a row with parents or a partner. I recall not too long ago that a young boy, he was, in fact, in his first year of secondary school, hanging himself with his tie. He had told his sister to call his mum just as he tipped the chair so that she would come and see what he was doing. His sister called and his mum didn't hear. She walked into that room to see her 11 year old son hanging from the lamp fitting. Not a nice image, is it? I know that there are some people out there who do want to end their lives.

But I urge people to think about any other options there may be first.

Over and out.

~Meg~

Friday 4 May 2007

Response One: To Kathryn Melluish.

Kathryn Wrote:
“I think people who get pregnant are stupid. Yeah, okay they can't help being stupid. They only have sex because they think everyone else in their school/year group is doing it. It's goddamn stupid. Kids get this idea into their head, that they have to fit in. And most parents that have kids young, are stupid or uneducated. Okay, you have some that have a baby cause they love each other and for the right reasons. But then, sometimes, they end up resenting the child cause it stopped them from doing things that they wanted to do, stops them from having the career they wanted. People should wait till they've been to college and been to Uni or left college and gotten a good job. It's insulting more to the child to have it young, and make it go through life without things they need and thinking down of their parents.”

I on the other hand, think that it is personal choice as to when people get pregnant. Yes, some people are too young when they conceive, but by the same token, there are older parents out there who abuse their children. How do they have more right to have a child than young people who will, quite probably love that child? My friend is 19, and is currently seven months pregnant. She has been with her boyfriend for a year, and they are currently engaged. Yes, I was shocked and yes, I was disappointed when I first found out, but when I realised how happy she is and how much she’s going to love her little girl, (she’s found out for certain) I couldn’t help but be over the moon for her.

That's all I have to say really.

Over and out.

~Meg~

Thursday 3 May 2007

Bad Music? O_o

The end of my last post led me nicely onto this one, bad music. And by bad music, I don't mean rubbish music, I mean music that has been labelled "bad", such as rock, metal (my two passions) and rap.

Rock and metal have been branded "bad" and "dangerous" and parents have discouraged their children probably for as long as it has been around. I only have to mention Ozzy and the bat incident to make most people squirm or heave. Many rock/metal stars have been involved in drug scandals, and then of course you have Sid Vicious, the punk star, accused of the murder of his girlfriend. He later died of a drugs overdose. But does this make the music itself bad, or are the people who make it bad?

People don't like the thought that their children admire people who behave in such a "bad" way, but can any music be classed bad or good?

Wait, classical music...And pop *shudders*.

Anyway, back to my point. My nan personally is terrified that I listen to music produced by people who look like this:

But by the same token, you can't judge on looks. I'm sure she'd actually empathise with their music if she heard the lyrics to BOOM!, which is one of their more controvertial songs.

"Manufacturing consent is the name of the game,
The bottom line is money,
Nobody gives a fuck,
4000 hungry children leave us per hour from starvation,
Whilst billions are spent on bombs,
Creating death showers."

Yes, I'm sure she'd like the lyrics more if they were set to violins and flutes rather than harsh guitars, but still, why should that make the message they send out any different?

I'm sure by now everyone has heard about the massacre at the Virginia University, when Cho Seung-hui killed 32 of his fellow pupils. But how many people know what they are now blaming for this unspeakable tragedy?



Yes, Guns N Roses 1987 album Appetite For Destruction.

Why?

Because Seung-hui once wrote a play, entitled 'Mr. Brownstone', which is also the name of one of the tracks on the album. How this connction was made I do not know, but this is now the theory that is passing around. Does this mean Guns N Roses influenced Seung-hui? Or are people just looking for someone to blame? In my opinion, the latter is most likely. You can read more about this here: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/virginia-tech-blog-roundup/

Music and murder have been conected before, most famously by Bob Geldof and The Boomtown Rats, who wrote a song called "I Don't Like Mondays" after 16-year-old Brenda Spencer walked into her school and killed 13 pupils and her headmaster. Her reason? "I don't like Mondays. This was a way of cheering the day up." This song was, though written some time AFTER the murders.

So is music bad? Are the artists bad? Or is music just easy to blame for certain things?

I'll leave that one with you.

Over and out.

~Meg~

Monday 30 April 2007

I don't f*cking swear you lying !@?*

What?! I don't f*cking swear, you lying ****!
I would safely bet that WAY over half of the people on the Being Bad module have sworn at some point or another. WAY over half. And I for one have sworn enough for the half that haven't.

But why exactly do people swear? And what making swearing so bad? What is it about certain words that makes them unsuitable to say? To certain people especially. I for one want to yell "FUCK" at a Vicar simply because I've been told I can't do that for so long, but that isn't why I swear. I'm not comdemning swearing, that would be exceedingly hypocritcal, I'm just trying to work out why some words, seemingly ones that express our anger at things, are considered to be such a taboo. When we do tend to swear, we seem to apologise afterwards, particularly people of the older generation. My Nana for one always makes me laugh, cos instead of just swearing, she spells out the word, like, "Oh... D.A.M.N." I think it was because she didn't want to swear in front of me when I was little. I haven't got the heart to tell her that I'm 18 and have been swearing for around 5 years now...

Another thing that I would like to bring up is swearing in songs. Any songs that have cuss words in have to be edited, and the albums they appear on have to have the "Parental Guidance" stickers on. Has ANYONE'S parents EVER listened to an album with one of those stickers on, then turned round and said "No, you can't have that, it's too rude." Cos I know mine never did. In fact in America, particularly in WalMart stores, they refuse to stock albums with cuss words on. The Darkness had to change the lyrics of their song "Get Your Hands Off My Woman" from

"I've got no right to lay claim to her frame,
She's not my possession, you cunt!

Get your hands off my woman, motherfucker..."

To:

"I've got no right to lay claim to her frame,
She's not my possession, you coconut!

Get your hands off my woman, mummamumma..."

So that it could be stocked in stores in America. I've just realised that I'm totally screwed if we're not allowed to swear in these blogs... Oops... Also, yes, I am a fan of The Darkness =P Say what you like, I like them!

But it's not just swearing in songs that we are supposed to avoid. If I ... say... drop a tin of Whiskas on my foot then dance around screaming "Sh*t sh*t f*cking hell, that really p*ssing hurt, you stupid tw*t!" I get sufficiently yelled at by my mother. It does however, make me better knowning that the can has been throughly sworn at.

Why?

I guess we'll never know. But it makes us feel good and bad at the same time, which can't be a truly bad thing, can it?

Over and out.

~Meg~

Also, another good song for swearing is "F*ck The System" by System Of A Down. Why? If you can't guess from the title, here's the chorus and one of the verses:

"Wh*re!
F*ck the system!
Wh*re!
F*ck the system!
F*ck the system!!
Who*re!
F*ck the system!
Wh*re!
I need to f*ck the sys.
I need to f*ck the sys..
I need to f*ck the sys..

You need to f*ck the sys.
You need to f*ck the sys..
You need to fuck the sys...
We all need to f*ck the system!

(Source: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/system+of+a+down/fuck+the+system_20134798.html)

Thursday 26 April 2007

Murder: About as bad as it gets, isn't it?

Another blog that is one of my own ideas, this time not drinking alcohol, but something more than just a little bit worse really. Murder.

I have a personal interest in murder, although why I'm not really sure. I know it scares some people, but I'm just fascinated by it. So I will give a brief run-down of my... er... I'm not gonna use the word favourites, cos that's kinda bad.... er... The ones I have a particular interest in. Yeah, a slight warning, if you're squemish, I'd skip Ed Gein, ok?

Ted Bundy.



Theodore Robert Bundy is one of America's best known serial killers. Between 1974 and 1978 he is estimated to have killed around 30 women, although the exact figure was never specified. He is believed to have been a sociopath, as those who knew him described him as a charming young man. Ted Bundy escaped from police capture twice, but was re-arrested both times. He was sent to trial twice, pleading not guilty on both counts. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. While on death row, Bundy received about 200 fan letters each day from various women. He was executed in the electric chair on the 24th of January 1989.



Ed Gein.




Ed Gein only committed two murders (God, I just said ONLY two murders O_o), but he has achieved fame as one of America's most prolific murderers. The crimes he committed shocked the small town of Plainfield in Wisconsin where he lived. Eddie Gein was well known in the town, said to be a gentle man, though slightly odd. No-one could have known what was going on in his twisted mind. His mother had been a religious fanatic, and had instilled the fear of God into Ed from a young age. When his mother died from a series of strokes in 1945, Gein seems to have lost his mind completely. He bagan to read the obituaries in the local paper, searching for the deaths of women around his mother's age. He would then go and remove their bodies from the graves and take them home to make clothes from their skin, bowls from their skulls, and in one case, a lamp from their spine. Gein's two murders were those of the owner of the local general store, Bernice Worden, and the barmaid of the local tavern, Mary Hogan. They reminded him too much of his mother for them to live. When police broke into Gein's house when they realised he was the most likely suspect, they found the body of Bernice Worden hanging upside down in Gein's garage. She had been decapitated, gutted, and strung up by her ankles like a hind. Her head was found in a seperate bag. Gein was arrested in 1957, but was declared unfit to stand trial until 1968, when he stood trial but was declared not guilty by reason of insanity and spent the rest of his time until his death in 1984. Staff declared that Gein was a model patient whilst in hospital.
By the way, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Leatherface was based on Gein.



Hmmm.... Two men, so let's make the last one a woman, shall we?



Aileen Wournos.


Again, an American (sensing a worrying pattern here...) serial muderer, a killer of seven men. A prostitute from the age of around 13, Lee Wournos never fitted in with the other children. She was abandoned by her mother at the age of fourteen when she fell pregnant. She became a full time prostitute, and was raped repeatedly, causing her to lose her trust in men and begin to have feelings for women. She began to date a woman called Tyria Moore shortly before she shot her first of her seven victims, all men who had flagged her down and picked her up. She was evetually arrested in 1992, after being detained multiple times for various other crimes. Wournos was found guilty of the murder of Richard Mallory, at which point she screamed at the jury "I'm innocent! I was raped! I hope you get raped! Scumbags of America!" Aileen Wournos was executed by lethal injection on October 9th 2002.

So those are three murderers I have a particular interest in =D Call me scary if you like, but I think you smell =P I would say maybe you'll think I'm glorifying them, but they are all in fact dead, so I'm sure they won't think I'm admiring what they've done. Which, by the way, I'm not! I just find them interesting...

If you're as interested as me in things like this, try this website: http://www.murderuk.com/

Over and out.


~Meg~

Monday 23 April 2007

The EEEEEEEEVILS of alcohol.

No, it's ok, I don't think it's evil either. But I had to find something to blog about!

So, anyway... Does anyone out there think booze is bad? Cos I know quite a few people who really don't... And I REALLY don't...

I know there are obviously lots of people out there who don't drink, and that's their choice, that's fine by me, but has anyone else been accosted by someone trying to get them to stop? I remember my friend Kate and I were in a pub once, and this random woman came up to us and started telling us how evil alcohol was... I don't think either of us knew what to do, we just kind of sat there nodding until she went away. Whether she was once an alcoholic who had given it up, and therefore didn't want to see other people ruining their lives, or whether she was some sort of crazy cat lady I guess we'll never know. If it's any comfort to anyone, we carried on drinking till we'd forgotten all about her. Don't worry, we are NOT traumatised.
I don't think drink is too bad in moderation (or in copious amounts, really), it's people who wake up and have a breakfast Vodka that I could never understand. But by the same token, these people have a problem, so who am I to judge at the end of the day. If the only way these people can cope is by being constanly intoxicated, then they should probably get help of some sort. I'm pleased to say that I'm not an alcoholic (yet... ), I drink for recreation... Which I shouldn't, according to CCL (Crazy Cat Lady) but at least it's only in moderation. Most nights.


But, of course, joking aside, there are problems with alcohol. The obvious ones being:

  • Liver damage
  • Other organ damage
  • Drink drivers
  • Rape, street fights etc
  • Drinks being spiked.

Most things can be avoided, of course, by drinking less than an entire... er... paddling pool... of alcohol, and the inevitable "DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE!" message plastered on every single motorway board from here to Zimbabwe, but they can't be eliminated completely. Drinks being spiked is of course what every girl fears on a night out, but drinking from bottles whilst keeping your thumb over the top (Whilst you're not drinking, obviously, otherwise you'd get very thirsty) is always sensible. But I'm not here to give you advice, I'm here to moan that drink is EVIL! (Pfft, Hypocrite...)

I... I can't do it... I can't say booze is awful.. Not when I love it so... However, as a scare tactic, you can find statistics about the number of alcohol related deaths on this website: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1091

Over and out.

~Meg~



BASTARD... HAS... MY... BOOZE!!


Saturday 10 March 2007

I know something bad!

Leaving essays that are due in on Thursday until Saturday, when they've had five weeks to do them, that's bad. Three guesses who does that.



1. Gandhi?

No, not Gandhi!


2. Angus Deyton?

No, not Angus!


Hmmm....



Want a clue? Ok...







3. Me?



YES! Well done! You win... F**k all!

Yes, it is Saturday night, and I think it has just dawned on me that I have around four days to do an essay or short story and critique, and I've done NOTHING towards it.

Why have I done it?

The simple answer is cos I haven't been arsed, and I've been putting it off for another time repeatedly, I'm not going to lie.

The complicated answer is... Well... There isn't one, I lied. Oh well.

Better get back to my essay. Dammit.

Over and out.

~Meg~

P.S Yes, I am posing on that picture =P

Friday 9 March 2007

Pretty Boy Floyd

(This wouldn't fit on my other blog. I won't count this as one of my final number...)

Pretty Boy Floyd by Woody Guthrie.

Pretty Boy Floyd

If you'll gather 'round me, children,
A story I will tell'
Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw,
Oklahoma knew him well.

It was in the town of Shawnee,
A Saturday afternoon,
His wife beside him in his wagon
As into town they rode.

There a deputy sheriff approached him
In a manner rather rude,
Vulgar words of anger,
An' his wife she overheard.

Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain,
And the deputy grabbed his gun;
In the fight that followed
He laid that deputy down.

Then he took to the trees and timber
To live a life of shame;
Every crime in Oklahoma
Was added to his name.

But a many a starving farmer
The same old story told
How the outlaw paid their mortgage
And saved their little homes.

Others tell you 'bout a stranger
That come to beg a meal,
Underneath his napkin
Left a thousand dollar bill.

It was in Oklahoma City,
It was on a Christmas Day,
There was a whole car load of groceries
Come with a note to say:

Well, you say that I'm an outlaw,
You say that I'm a thief.
Here's a Christmas dinner
For the families on relief.

Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.

And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.

(Source: http://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Pretty_Boy_Floyd.htm)

~Meg~

Everyone loves a good bandit. Or outlaw...

So many famous bandits and outlaws. I bet you could name five just off the top of your head. I could, but crime and murder and... other stuff like that... is something I'm interested in anyway, so I dont' count.

Anyways. It could be said that there are "good" outlaws, and of course, when a "well-intended highwayman" is mentioned who does everyone immediately think of? All together now...

ROBIN HOOD.

Yes, of course, Robin Hood, the fox... sorry, slipped into Disney mode then... man who robbed from the rich to give to the poor with his band of Merry Men. Whether he really existed or not no-one really knows, but he has over the years become somewhat of a poor man's hero.

It is people like Robin Hood (read about him at http://www.robinhood.ltd.uk/robinhood/index.html)who have come to be known as "social bandits". These are peasants who during the pre-capitalist rule broke away from their masters, the lords and landowners who ruled over them and became bandits, like Robin Hood supposedly robbing from the rich to give to the poor. However, although they were hailed as heroes in the villages around them, it was not just the rich they stole from. They may not have stolen from their own village, but they had no qualms with stealing from villages further afield. They helped their own villages, but ransacked and destroyed others. They were also, in many cases, not as against those richer than them as it may have seemed. They often worked for the lords and landowners that they had supposedly broken away from, even killing members of the peasantry for them.

However, it was not just people who broke away from the peasantry who came to be seen as "good bad guys". The most famous outlaw of all time has to be... JESSE JAMES.

Yes, Jesse James, hailed as one of the greatest outlaws of all time, and known for standing up for the little man, a product of the plains of the Wild West.... Except.... Not all of that is entirely true, really...

James wasn't a poor man who wanted to stand up for his own people, and he wasn't even a product of the Wild West, as he is so popularly depicted. He was in fact an articulate and political man from Missouri. His family were wealthy land owners, and were highly politcally active, particularly when it came to the abolition of slavery, which, being land owners, they were against. When Civil War broke out Missouri was divided between the confederates of the South, with whom they shared a border, and the unionists surrounding them. James decided to join the confederates, and joined the army aged just 16. Manyof the activities James was involved in were known as "political cleansing", which involved the murder of unionists within the town. It was therefore during this time that he committed his first murder. James emerged from the war as a hero of the confederates, despite the brutal attacks he had carried out. It is after the war he robbed his first bank, and it was not conincidence that it was one affiliated with the republican party. James continually claimed that his party were victims of the republicans, and he was merely retaliating. He continued with this argument until his assassination in 1882.

There are other examples of people who were hailed as heroes despite the fact that they killed many people to gain the notoriety they did, including Ned Kelly, the Australian who robbed banks, killing many in the process, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, and 'Pretty Boy' Charles Floyd. More people turned out to 'Pretty Boy's funeral than to one of his victims. Over forty thousand people attended. The Kray twins Ronnie and Reggie from the east end of London could also be considered in the same field.

There is of course arguments within each of these cases, and as none of these people are around to tell us their reasons for their crimes.


At the end of the day, I suppose you have to believe what you want to believe.

Over and out.

~Meg~

Thursday 8 March 2007

Infidelity. A posh word for being a cheating git.

Infidelity, or cheating, to you and I, was the topic of the week five lecture. For starters, just to help get your brain going, I encourage people to look at the results of this survey to see how many people, on average have cheated: http://ezinearticles.com/?Infidelity-Statistics:-The-Results-Are-In!&id=549915 The first discussion (or debate, as it more turned into...) was about what aspects of 'being bad' were involved. The final list included:

  • Lying,
  • Scheming/Calculating,
  • Using another's vulnerabilities to one's own advantage,
  • Hypocrisy,
  • Keeping up appearances/Wearing a facade,
  • Selishness,
  • Risk taking.
So that's quite a lot of being bad, really, isn't it?

There was also a discussion (again, read argument) about whether in some circumstances cheating was acceptable. There were arguments that if the partner knew that their er.... partner... was being unfaithful, it wasn't quite so bad. This is presumabl because they can then turn around and say "Well it's not like you didn't know" or something along those lines. But by the same token, is that not rubbing it in their face a bit? Sort of "Heh heh, not only have I got you, but I've got ANOTHER one on the go, cos you're not enough." That would, in truth, make me feel pretty shite. But knowing that someone had been going behind my back for months would also makeme feel shite. And also stupid for not noticing, but that would, I guess, in part be my own fault....

Man, it's a confusing topic. Which makes me grateful that I've never been tempted to cheat. Or never been cheated on. Except once. But he was an idiot.

Anyways, I gotta go before my head explodes...

Over and out.

~Meg~

Tuesday 27 February 2007

Field Trip.

Let's go to... er....

Ooh, let's take it literally, and go to a field! One where they grow BOOZE!

Wow. I want a booze field. Make me one!


Is a booze field just a pub with a bunch of plants? Or a bunch of plants with a pub? Or... Yeah, I think I should stop. *brain expolodes*


Anyways, I think we should go to a pub, and truly examine the badness (yes, badness. What? It is SO a word!) of alcohol. By getting very VERY drunk, then complaining about how BAD we feel the next morning. (See what I did there? See what I did? =D)


Or, we could go to a tattoo parlour and examine.... Stuff, in preparation for week 8, about tattoos and body piercing. We could make someone get a tattoo and see if they feel badderer (ALSO a word.) afterwards....




OR

We could do none of those things, which is more likely.


Over and out.

~Meg~

Masturbation - It Passes The Time...

So our week four lecture was about masturbation, and it's.... origins? I guess... There was also discussion of what it could lead to if it wasn't taken in hand. Oh good God, I could NOT have phrased that in a worse way... >_<

I know I wouldn't. But, my dear wankers, you are in luck! For there are ways of preventing this affliction. These include:

A small strip of leather with spikes in it that can be tied around the penis that will cause extreme pain when an erection occurs.

An all over body suit that prevents the man from being able to reach his penis...

And many more! All at low low prices! Well, I'm sure they were. When they were available...

I can't say masturbation is something I've thought about a great deal, but after leaving that lecture there were many things in my head. Mainly about the different phrases I had heard, many of which sounded painful... The most baffling one perhaps being "choke the chicken". Someone tell me how that sounds pleasurable. Please, I really want to know! Cos I think it sounds rather... er... violent, I guess...

Er... I kinda ran out of stuff to say now.
But if anyone would like 'handy'(Heh) hints on masturbation, try http://jackinworld.com/

Er....

Over and out.

~Meg~

I don't want anybody else

When I think about you I touch myself

I don't want anybody else

Oh no, oh no, oh no

The Divinyls - I Touch Myself.

Thursday 22 February 2007

I once did something bad...

The first week's work shall be my third blog... Logical I know.

So in the first week we were introduced to the topic, but that, I have to admit was the boring bit. The first activity however, perked everyone up.

We had to write down something bad we had done once upon a time, and then put it into a big box, which was then shaken and scattered around the room. Well, not really, more passed around the room for everyone to take one, but my version's more fun. When we all had a piece of paper with a confession on, we had to then discuss what it said with a neighbour. My "bad" thing, incidentally, because I'm good and lovely, *ahem* was that there is a rather a large hole in my wall that punched there when angry... It is now covered with a poster, and my mother will one day get a shock when she moves it... Anyways, most of the confessions seemed to be as boring as mine, or indeed very similar,except for the one which was being passed round...

"I once shoved a dildo up my dog's ass."

Yes. That was what I thought too.

Whether this actually happened or not is obviously debatable. But I bet your eyes started watering when you read that too, eh?

The confession got many different reactions, horror, amusement, disgust, cries of "That poor dog!" and some people (my boyfriend included, I am ashamed to say) began discussing just HOW this would be done. When this one was read to the entire class, I think it was fair to say EVERYONE was silenced for a few seconds whilst what had just been said sunk in. Then there were many different variations of the reactions above.

Anyway, now that I have shocked and disgusted anyone who missed that session, I shall sign off, leaving you with the two inevitable and ponderous questions...

HOW and WHY?!

Over and out.

~Meg~

Wednesday 21 February 2007

Smokers... er... smoke.

The week two discussion was all about smoking, which in all honesty isn't something I know much about. When asked to write down my own experiences with smoking, all I could think of was:

Er... I've never smoked. My mum used to, but she gave up before I was born, and my nan gave up when my dad died.

That was it. Not "I tried it once and saw a giant purple fox, then figured I'd best not do it again", I've never tried it. I guess it just doesn't appeal to me. I think it scares me slightly that my dad didn't really smoke or drink and had a heart attack and died at the age of 47, so I don't wish to give myself even LESS of a chance by smoking.

I can't say it bothers me if people smoke, I'd rather they didn't, but at the end of the day it's their choice.

Also, glancing over my notes just now, when asked what "cool" was, I appear to have written:

COOL = SLASH

in big letters at the top of the page. Hmmm... That'd make me a good anti-smoking campaigner... Has Slash (if you don't know who Slash is, you must DIE. Or listen to more Guns N Roses anyway) ever been seen without a cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth as he plays? If he has, I've not seen it. Not that that's what makes him cool, but you know what I mean. Just look at him!




Look me in the eye and tell me that's not cool personified!

Anyway, smoking, wasn't it? Got kinda... distracted... by Slash there...


I can't think of much more I can say, not being a smoker and not having a strong opinion on it... Um... What about the smoking in public places ban? Good or bad? I can imagine you can ask someone if they smoke or not and automatically know what their opinion is from that, can't you really?

I was always anti-smoking when I was younger, I think it was drilled into my brain by my family, none of them really smoking since before I was born, apart from my nan, who gave up when I was 11, but I think as time's gone on I've sort of given up caring. If people want to smoke themselves to death, let them do it. As long as they enjoy themselves doing it, you can't really judge them. It's like saying people can't eat chocolate cos one day it MAY give you cancer. You can't live in fear of what MAY happen. Well, you can, but if you do, I'm fairly sure you'll die pretty young, as EVERYTHING is bad for you now... Oh well.

I guess I've made no sense for long enough!

Oh, but if you got bored reading that, you can have a go at this game: http://www.bhf.org.uk/smoking/swi_three_minute_game.asp
It's Tetris, but with fatty deposits from cigarettes instead of blocks...

Over and out.

~Meg~

P.S..... Slash is a God. But Freddie Mercury (who also smoked, but I didn't think of that...) is THE God.

Friday 16 February 2007

Weeeeek threeeee.

As I explained, I make little sense, so it seems only right that my first post should be about week three of the module. Well, I did warn you.

Anyways, week three, we had an hours session whilst we were waiting to set the blog up, (which I must have done right, cos TA-DA!) and during the session, we watched three clips from different films and TV shows, then answered some questions.

The first clip was from Family Guy, (Yes, watching Family Guy in a lecture. Aah, it doesn't get much better than that) which showed Lois shoplifting. The questions that followed asked whether we thought that shoplifting was different to any other kind of theft, and why we thought people who can afford to buy things shoplift instead.

I personally think that shoplifting is the same as any other kind of theft, for you are still taking something that doesn't belong to you. People tend to think that stealing from a company or even a corner shop, is different, as they make enough profit not to notice, but this isn't always the case. There is also the fact that if people keep stealing one particular product, the price of that product will have to rise to accommodate the company's losses, making it more expensive for the consumers who actually buy the product.
I think that people who can afford to buy things tend to shoplift because they feel that it is ok to do so from large companies. It could also simply be because they can do so, so they will, as illogical as that may sound. They may also get a thrill from the thought that they are getting something they should be paying for for free instead.

The next clip was from the 1960's film Breakfast At Tiffany's, starring Audrey Hepburn. The questions that followed were:
Is it prostitution to take money from someone who is expecting sex, but then not to supply it?
If it isn't prostitution then is it more or less socially respectable?
If it is prostitution, then how much is a respectable charge?

I believe it is still prostitution, as the intention to have sex is still there. However, it depends whether the expectation is known, as if someone has taken the money not knowing the person wanted sex, for example if they bought them dinner and they believed that it was out of courtesy rather than thinking that it was because they wanted sex with them, that is not prostitution. It is a difficult question to answer, but I think it more or less hinges on whether the lady knows of the expectations.
Even though I believe it is prostitution, I think that if the itention is known, then it is even less socially repectable, as someone is being led on and spending money on something which they are not going to get, making it similar to someone offering someone something like a chocolate bar, taking their money and then not giving it them.
I can't really answer how much I feel is a respectable charge, as it could be dependant on many things, such as what WAS required.

The third clip we watched was from the tv show Peep Show. It depicted Mark trying to hack into someone's e-mail account to try and find out more about her. The questions that followed were:
When does a concerned interest in someone's activities become stalking?
Are some kinds of obvservance allowable and appropriate?
Which aren't?

I think that this is quite a difficult question to answer, as different people like different levels of privacy. For example, some people don't mind others asking about their familes, but others may see this as an intrusion. I think it depends more or less on the person and how much privacy they like, but hacking into someone's e-mail account could certainly be counted as stalking.
Again, this is a difficult question, as it depends on what is meant by observance. For example, it could mean someone watching someone walking home and following them, or watching them in their garden from a window, both of which are clearly unacceptable and inappropriate. However, it could mean checking on someone now and again to make sure that they are ok, for example watching someone who may be struggling with something that you could offer to help them with.
As for what isn't appropriate, there are too many things to list, but a few examples are things like watching someone from a window whilst they are in their garden, or following them through town.

Well, that's it for me for blog number one.

Over and out.

~Meg~