Life's simplicity...and why it seems oh so impossible

Hey guys.

So it's now the Christmas break and well...the social life is dead (it only came back after a week or two yesterday after I finished my media law). Anyway today has been a pretty long day to be honest, with a detour to Cardiff on the way back to Shotingham...a place that to be fair, is totally not me! But I've been thinking how life isn't simple. Now I must explain, I don't really seem to be that much of a positive person in Nottingham, like the attitude kinda changes. It's like here I know nobody and have a lot of time to ponder. And well with the rest of today as well...I really have had a lot to ponder.

1. Moving
One thing I've hated through my life, is leaving friends behind. To be fair when we first moved to the Isle Of Man I was four. Anyone knows that at four you're not going to really understand the concept. I just knew we were moving to an Island where I was gonna go to school as Dad had got a job there. And to be honest, unlike anywhere we have been before, Redruth and Cornwall that, as a family, there are links that mean that these places are visited still. Unfortunately, that is not such the case from that point. I mean we moved to Cambridge where I had a pretty great batch of friends through year 5 and 6 and well, now I may have one or two on Facebook or follow them on Twitter or Instagram. I don't talk to them and I've only been back to Cambridge two or three times since and I've not seen any of them in any visit. The Isle of Man I've seen less of since, we went back once. Again my contact with all of my friends there seemed to die. I wish I still had contact with both groups of friends, but in reality, when you're that young and before even video messaging. You want to go out with your friends have a laugh with your friends, not compose an email or MSN with them. It's not fun at 11. To be fair it's not really fun at 18 or 20 but I guess now, like with friends from Bideford, especially +Ryan I get to like play games and voice chat. But that brings me onto my worst move. Like obviously now when I move I fear losing contact more nowadays, because of the Isle of Man and Cambridge, especially when it's hundreds of miles. So moving to Nottingham was a nightmare.

When you spend 7 years making an extensive group of friends and you're forced to just walk away from them, when you've lost all friends like that before AND when you're 18 and meant to be having some of the best times of your life, it's quite bluntly shit. Like, you know some you will lose, because when you have a fairly large load of friends, you can't just Facebook or Tweet every single one regularly. You only keep your closest. Which is rubbish when you think if you still lived there you'd still have the more peripheral friends, because those people have a positive impact. You lose a number of them and that's a big thing. It's horrible. I can name to you a list of people that due to moving I have no real contact with who I would still like to have contact with.

And now my parents are probably moving to Cardiff (leads well to the next subject :L) so once again I'll be moving. And well it means less to me this time, a lot less, because I haven't really made friends in Nottingham (another subject I'll get too) and by all accounts, I'm a southerner.

2. Relationships
Not exactly the most prime concern in the world. It's probably more my idiocy with them. I'm more frustrated by the way like you can't really pick and choose who you like. And what if you don't stop liking them? What if you see a chance? It's more the confusion in not knowing what the bloody hell to do with it. Like I've been single since June 2012 and since then has a girl who really interests me come along? No. It's kinda shit this one because I don't even know what to say or how to put this on paper. Living in the same city as the girl who I was last in a relationship with is something that would be interesting. Even now it's just a difficult subject. I'd like the right chance to come along generally. It isn't in Nottingham and I would say it isn't in Plymouth really. To be honest this is a subject where really I'm mindfucked. Don't even know what to do in this subject. It frustrates me. But there's nothing I can do about it.

3. Friends where there is no school/uni and no jobs.
Okay, to an extent this one could be argued to be a fairly big one. I spend most of my year at Uni, which is awesome. I live in a house with my best Uni friends on the whole. And well it's great. But like whereas people go back to where they went to school, I don't. I never went to school in Nottingham. Never set foot in a school in Nottingham. I've applied for countless jobs, but there hasn't been a proper job. ASDA seem to essentially employ family members of it's current staff I swear and besides, due to cuts loads of people who probably had better jobs beforehand now have to work in these places. There is nothing for a student to do here unless you want to knock door to door for a charity getting abuse shouted in your face (I tried, but I got to a point I was going to shout back at the next dickhead who came up with abuse, plus it was pay per sign up. People don't generally want to sign up to direct debit £10 a month to a charity at the moment! Overall it was a humiliating form of job). Therefore I don't get a social life. And yes, my parents are good and all that, but you can't spend all day every day with the same people, same interests etc. It just doesn't work. I get bored. Then I ponder. Then I feel shit. It's how I work. To be honest, it's how I feel right now.


So yeah, basically, if 2014 could like make itself simple. I'd be bloody grateful. If the end of 2013 would sort itself out to give the year a bit more of a positive edge after a pretty negative 2012 as well I'd also appreciate it yeah? So if there is a factor in making fate, please, positive? From now? 

So yeah, comment below with thoughts, I'll admit in areas I've kept vague and some people may know more than others, so if you are a close friend and want to comment I ask you to respect that.

Thanks

Route 39 Academy - Why?

Hey guys,

This is kind of a niche post I guess being it is about a new "academy" near Bideford where I went to school.

This is the new Bideford College. The building part opened in September 2010 to students. At a cost that can be rounded to £50 million the school was built to be able to hold a capacity of around 2,000, more than the actual amount of people who went to the school by a couple of hundred people. The school was built to be state of the art with great resources including lecture theaters that would put some universities to shame, a sports hall and a gym of great size, fit for sports including basketball, netball, indoor football, tennis and more to take place. Of course with a new school came up to date computers that worked efficiently, everything had just become better. A school that once had little hope, a school that at one point wasn't allowed to exclude pupils had just got the chance of a lifetime with the new school. Despite the name having a bad reputation from those darker days, the school could now potentially achieve huge success given the right elements of support for staff and pupils.

This was a building to be proud of for the people of Bideford and the surrounding areas for people to be able to say their children went there proudly to the parents of those who may have went to private school or further afield from Bideford. There wasn't a reason to stop your child going to this school now. Obviously though, the money had come just before the financial crunch we have found ourselves in and money has been cut from a lot of things. Although I am adamant that we should not cut education but spend as much as a nation as we need to to provide everybody a top quality education (not just your average Eton snobs like David Cameron and George Osbourne - one of whom doesn't know what "lol" means - which mean you have to come from ridiculously wealthy, sometimes partially dodgy families). This gives the poorer children a chance to achieve their dreams, possibly become an MP one day...make a change from what we have now yeah? But it seems when the economy collapses, the rich decide on state schools not doing great to face cuts. These are the places where increases in expenditure is needed most!

That said...when you've spent £50million on a new school, why support the idea for an "academy". Now from what I understand (I come from the stone age of schools...often called colleges) an academy is what is a school or college, just under a name you would more associate to a football club and it's young players. I don't understand why we had to move from school or college to academy. It's a pathetic name change to be honest. They don't teach to the same regulations sometimes, which is very strange if you ask me and needs looking into. Then there is the fact local/national government paid a lot into this unnecessary "academy". The fact of the matter is, if this is so much more "state of the art" than Bideford College, why the hell did the Governments locally and nationally not think of including them into the normal state school trying hard to succeed but include them on the "academy" that they will try to plug over the College only a few years later. It isn't on. 

Plus schools funding often comes from the school having high achieving children, what's the betting we go back to the dark days where the more intelligent, higher achieving children go off to this "academy" and Bideford College see's its reputation fall as the students that would have been there achieving pretty much the same as they achieve in this "academy" and therefore a possible funding cut. The better teachers could go too if there is a better wage. This "academy" should not be there. It is only going to negatively effect the College that was there at the start. There shouldn't even be academies. It isn't good for anyone in the long run and is almost a privatisation of schools that will see another gap like the one between Etonians and the human race.

I would send this to the MP for the area, Geoffrey Cox QC, but as he presumably doesn't have the time to reply to all my issues with him and his parties politics, he has blocked me on Twitter. Maybe he's to busy being a QC rather than an MP? if someone would send this to him via that it would be cool, I doubt he'd bother to read it though. 

If I could be somebody.

Hey there,

So I was talking the other day about who I would be if I had the ultimate choice. And I thought wouldn't it be cool to share some of these ideas to this blog so everybody could read them. I had come up with a few ideas so I thought I would share my top few. The realms of possibilities are endless, with me also choosing fictional characters into my selection.

5. A Wizard (from Harry Potter)

Who wouldn't want to be a wizard? Like I mean being able to fix things with a couple of words, have moving newspapers and the answers to many different things, including to an extent death with the philosophers stone. Wizard sports also look like they'd be pretty amazing, I mean look at Quidditch. How awesome would it be to play that!? Or to be able to summon things to you. Invisibility cloaks also look cool too. Although one thing I could do without is Lord Voldemort trying to kill me all the time. I'd rather just be a wizard without the responsibility Mr Potter seems to have.

4. Stand Up Comedian.

Because who wouldn't want be able to enter a room of thousands of people and have them all laugh at their jokes? It must be fairly amazing. Being able to just have the wit to regularly come up with some of these peoples stuff on panel shows for instance must also be pretty cool.

2=. Lead Singer Of A Rock Band.

So second and third have to be equals. The feeling of writing a song, having it released, having people buy it and then buy tickets to see YOU live must be amazing. But really, it's that feeling of having thousands of people sing the song you wrote with you in a stadium or major festival. That must be the best feeling ever. Why not just a pop band then? Because those at rock concerts are most commonly a far more up and at it crowd, a louder crowd and usually a longer lasting crowd. And how many pop bands have you seen last from the early 90's until today without splitting up at some point?

2=. A star footballer...for Liverpool.

Clearly this was going to come up. I'd just love to get my name in Liverpool's history books. I mean to be mentioned as one of the best players for Liverpool ever is like being compared to one of the best ever players in the world. Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard have walked onto that hallowed turf and really that says it all. World class. And the fans, they're some of the best in England. The only club with a comparable atmosphere in this country is Newcastle with teams like Celtic, Rangers and Dortmund being comparable in Europe. All you'd need to do is get the club back into Europe and win a major trophy to go down in history. There would be no humanly better honour than to put on the Liverpool jersey and represent them on the turf of Anfield where once the King Kenny played. No better honour.

1. I'd like to be....doctor who....

There is one thing that beats Liverpool or having thousands sing songs you have wrote. It just isn't a human thing. And that is being able to travel throughout space and time, to see things that in reality are not humanly possible. To visit other planets. To have a TARDIS. It would be insane. But I guess I'm gonna have to settle by watching the 50th anniversary show...which proves to be pretty awesome.

Got anything you wanna be? Just leave a comment below or tweet me @jamesmartinlfc

"I Give Up" - A blog on bullying.

Hey guys, thought I'd blog after a fairly long hiatus about bullying. This post was inspired by a poem by a girl named Izzie Dix who killed herself after writing it. From what I understand Izzie Dix was a 14 year old girl who had the hope of one day going to Oxford University. A girl who was bullied day by day at school to the brink. A girl who had people sending Facebook invites to her funeral. And another girl who had a membership on the website Ask.fm, a website mentioned on my friend +Danièlle Owen's blog. She however left the world with an emotional poem I have left below.

So generally this has led to me deciding I shall tackle the issue of bullying on my blog. Especially when it comes to bullying in schools. 

Generally when you go to school, or at least if you had went to my school you could see bullying happening every day and anybody could be bullied if the right people turned against you. The right people weren't even those with hope after school in most cases, but they were those who had little hope. In year 8, I remember being one of those people that the "right" people turned against. This seemingly happened after I had reported one of these people had assaulted one of my good friends after a PE lesson. To be honest what he did looking again at the injuries would have seen him possibly behind bars (it's not like he eventually ended up there...) for at least a Section 47 offence, the school should have excluded him, but for some strange reason they gave him another chance, before giving him what must have been another 25 last chances at least (but then what do you expect when they were more bothered about a nice new building than the wellbeing of their students half of the time?). With the months that followed I can understand what lows bullying can give you, your friends can easily be turned against you and different people will always snap in different ways. However all of this was before really before the rise of technology. Okay Bebo was there and I remember some girls being told off for having a nice little bitch-fest on Bebo at some point around this time by the school as well as an attempt to stop students using the website, however I didn't really use these websites back then myself. 

Technology, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or especially this Ask.fm means that bullying from school can basically go inside your home. Your home is where you are meant to feel safe and away from the rubbish in the outside world. It may sound sad but when I was bullied, I'd go home, I may seem low I remember my parents saying but I could get home for a weekend, watch Liverpool in that seasons FA Cup (which they won!) or Doctor Who and just forget the world. I could play my own taste of music, if I talked to anybody I could be selective regarding who I decided to talk to from home. It was a safe haven. Albeit getting up for school with all of it going on was hell. And I'd count the hours till I could get home and the days till the holiday. So imagining if I couldn't get away from it, if I went home turned on my PC and found more abuse, it must have been horrible. I did have MSN, but there was a block button, there is no block button on Ask.fm. People can also ask anomalously on it too. I can only guess the questions people who were bullied by the same thugs as me would get if they were 7 or 8 years younger and where it would push them too. It often was people with prospects they'd bully, them or the people that may seem a bit "strange", maybe geeky people, people with a low temper. I remember one person walking through the school site to get to a lesson after lunch and three of these low life's walking up to him with crisps in their mouths and spitting it at him. Honestly, this person was a person who it was "unpopular" to like and I was just fed up of trouble with them, as much as I hated them (and still blamed the school for not excluding at least one of these people when he clearly should have been, but I'm not writing a post to discuss what my head teacher did wrong in my opinion, I'd be here all day!) I just walked past and ignored it. To this day when I think back to this I feel like I was in a way one of the bullies. It immediately made me feel sick, it was one of the lowest forms of humiliation I had ever watched and I had walked past and what had I done? Fuck all. And those people that ignored and went on with it, well we were all the bullies. At the time when somebody needed a friend, or needed to be stood up for, but had already lost the confidence from years of torment from these people, many of us walked past and not one stood up for him. Not one would be seen asking if he was okay. Nobody even reported it. We just all watched it happen. Maybe it's an unpopular opinion, but if you watch somebody get humiliated like that and you do nothing, you're just helping the person get bullied. If you help them, whether it be like nowadays when they're bullied online (I kind of have a perception that a lot of this is girls, and then the physical actually physical bullying, whether it be a punch, threats or spitting crisps at a person is most commonly guys, if you disagree with this perception, please comment) or bullied in a face to face physical concept then you are essentially offering the person some hope. Believing there is no hope at all, to the extent where you decide to attempt to end your own life must be a horrible thing, yet if we didn't stand there and let it happen then maybe it wouldn't. If we didn't give a damn about our friends popularity and actually stood by them rather than disown them at least publicly as a friend then we'd be giving people at pretty low moments some hope. 

It's horrible to see in the news that somebody has taken their own life due to bullies and we always say "we need to do something" to the extent that we don't. And it has to change. We need a zero tolerance policy when it comes to bullies. My school gave these people chance after chance. They can't have this. The people they bullied don't suddenly get left alone if the bully returns the next day because somebody has had a chat with the them. And offering to put a bully on some register isn't a way to stop bullying, there needs to be a substantial punishment. Besides when it came to that, they didn't offer me the chance to put the main bully on the register, just my friend who at that time had just conformed to the main bully. I wouldn't put him on, but the other, should have been, mind you, he should still be in her majesties pleasure for something completely unrelated. Maybe that's another failure. 

On the whole, don't let somebody suffer from bullying, don't let them hit the low where they consider their own life. But help them, stand up for them and give them hope. Does it really matter if they're fat, if they're a stick, if they have a different taste or merely that they have the guts to stand up to the group of people where the bully(s) come from. Don't let another person like Izzie finish their own lives because of some idiots. 

RIP Izzie Dix & Hannah Smith. 

Reading 2013 - The Review

Hey there guys! I've been away recently, in a land of tents and music! Yes that's right, I've been to Reading Festival. And this year the line up was as epic as ever with Green Day, Eminem and Biffy Clyro the three headliners as well as a host of other great bands including Fall Out Boy, White Lies and Bastille.

Pre Festival Opinion

Regarding the line up, I was very excited to hear Eminem had been announced, mainly because I listened to him years ago and still loved tunes like "Not Afraid" "Lose Yourself" and "Love The Way You Lie", I also as many people will know, estatic to hear that Green Day were playing...although I did buy a ticket days before the announcement to see Green Day at Reading as they weren't rumoured to be there. So that was £60 down the pan really! Biffy Clyro I was reserved about, not because I don't like them, on the contrary I love the Biff, they're one of my favourite bands, definitely up there for my favourite British band with Muse, Arctic Monkeys and the Vaccines, but really because I was doubtful that they were big enough. Although they had 6 albums, only three were particularly heavily well known. That said, as the days before the festival came, the excitement grew. Rather than boring with you I shall now go onto actually reviewing the festival.

Friday

This was Green Day day for me, but there were other bands playing. One band that excited me on the line up were Bastille on the NME/Radio 1 Stage. They were not a disappointment either, playing songs from their debut album as the crowd went far outside the tent. An incredible crowd for such a new band. And a crowd where pretty much everyone left saying how good they were. Another artist witnessed was Frank Turner, he put on a show considering his current back injury, with his Mother getting him on stage, on a wheelchair before he launched himself off the chair into 40 minutes of rock 'n' roll. 

So then at around 7pm we found ourselves at the main stage, 2 hours before Green Day, System Of A Down were about to come on. Now here is where I shall get ripped by friends who read this, but I actually enjoyed System Of A Down, maybe because I found the lyrics for the song "Needles" particularly funny as well as the Walter White lookalike bassist man! 

System Of A Down - Needles (Lyrics Video)

System Of A Down - Needles (Live @ Reading)

I know right, a man in a chair reading a paper in the air at System Of A Down, it really was great to see actually there too. That 5 minutes must have been up there for the top 5 minutes of humor at Reading (although Saturday's trip to the alternative tent has to compete closely).

Anyway System Of A Down finished and there was then an hours wait, before Green Day graced the famous Reading Festival Main Stage, following up an epic secret set on the NME/Radio 1 Stage from a year before. As usual the pink rabbit ran around the stage to the Blitzkrieg Bop (of course after the crowd, like at the Emirates performed a rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody). A performance starting with 99 Revolutions started with some Green Day hits including "Holiday" and "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" and songs from the new albums such as "Let Yourself Go", "Stay The Night" and "Stop Before The Red Lights Flash". Then up came the Dookie banner, now usually as a fan of the band I check out all the rumours, this time I hadn't. I wasn't expecting Dookie in full, this said, they had been doing it throughout their tour...although not in London. For a fan this was insane, I guess if you weren't a fan there must have been five or six songs that you'd never heard of before and you wanted Green Day to revert back to the hits. However like Origins Of Symmetry you could also argue this was musical history, a band playing their album in full isn't particularly common and an album with the sales and success of Dookie, it can be quite incredible. Anyway after finishing the album (much enjoyed by the Green Day fans, a bit less so by casual viewers I would guess) they went back to some more hits before really storming the Encore with American Idiot, Jesus Of Suburbia, Brutal Love and of course the acoustic Good Riddance. Unfortunately the BBC only showed an hour of the Green Day set, which doesn't include Dookie in it's entirety, so I've included one somebody filmed in Belgrade, apologies if the quality is rubbish!

Green Day Play Dookie In Full (Belgrade 2013)

BBC Three's coverage of Green Day's Reading 2013 Performance

Boulevard Of Broken Dreams Live at Reading 2013

Saturday

Well this was gonna be one unique Reading Festival day. In my years going to the festivals we'd had various different types of rock bands at the festival, but we had never had a rap artist headline. This was to change with the performance of Eminem, the biggest rapper in the world and to be fair, the only one I've commonly listened too. Also on on the Saturday were Imagine Dragons and Chase and Status were both acts playing. Unfortunately we felt that our experiences at Imagine Dragons and Chase and Status were partially ruined by crowd crushes, one that notably left loads of people on the floor in the middle of the NME tent, although from what I heard of Imagine Dragons they were good live. Chase and Status on the other hand I didn't enjoy. I know many people did, but having your foot trampled on enough that it's as flat as a sheet of paper, I'm also not a fan of that style of music and was only where I was for Eminem. But watch the videos and decide for yourself.

Imagine Dragons live at Reading 2013

Chase and Status - Count On Me (Reading 2013)

So yes, then came Eminem. Starting with Survival and then moving onto huge hits, especially towards the end with songs such as Not Afraid, Love The Way You Lie, My Name Is, The Real Slim Shady and even getting Dido for Stan. The encore was incredible with the mega hit Lose Yourself. I would say more and include a video but unfortunately the BBC now ask artists whether they can show them, despite having the rights to show the festival. You can thank the Rolling Stones for that! The Mail reported he may have mimed at Reading and Leeds, however without video evidence it's impossible to tell. I'd like to therefore think he didn't and not have a good show by Eminem ruined by this.

Sunday

There were a lot of doubts about Sunday's acts, generally I heard various friends say "Biffy aren't as big for the headline act as Green Day and Eminem". I kind of agreed with this, but I was looking forward to a band I very much enjoyed seeing twice in 2010. Also playing that day were Fall Out Boy, in what seems to have been of recent a return with a new album being released as well as some new shows. The Lumineers, The Editors, Nine Inch Nails and Dog is Dead also all performed. The latter two we didn't see much of. Fall Out Boy through we did, although sitting down. They played a variation of their new stuff and some of their old classics such as "This ain't a scene" and "Thanks For The Memories". It was generally nice just to see them back, although not knowing much of their new music I generally preferred it when they played their older stuff. They certainly drew a huge crowd considering the time of their performance. Generally afterwards we explored the arena, we did see a snippet of Dog Is Dead (and +Ryan Steppel asked the ice cream van staff about the ketchup on their van) and Nine Inch Nails whilst we got a drink. 

Fall Out Boy - My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark

Then it was time for the finale of the acts. Biffy Clyro. I can tell you this. After seeing them this time I would now write MON THE BIFF rather than Mon The Biff. The performance was like a statement, a "We've made it" and they had, after various performances at Reading they were headlining the main stage on finale night of Reading Festival! And despite fears boy did they not let us down! Playing for 90 minutes they did a set including new and old songs. The crowd went mental for them as they continued. The special effects were amazing, the fireballs on the top of the arena stage and the fireworks at the end. Reading Festival was their moment, they made sure of that. One thing is for certain, of all the acts I have seen live headlining the main stage, they were not a pushover for any of them. They were up there. It's hard to pick a number one with the differing bands, songs and genres I mean Blink-182 in the first year were great, Green Day this year also were, then there are the Foo's who were simply amazing and Muse and their album Origins Of Symmetry played in full. One thing is for certain, these bands have all proved on that stage at Reading that rock is very much still alive and kicking. But Biffy Clyro made that statement bold!

Biffy Clyro Full Reading 2013 Headlining Performance

Biffy Clyro - Mountains

So overall yes, it was incredible and way worth it! 

If you saw it on TV or like myself attended and have an opinion please comment!

Thanks guys! Until next time!

Student Loans - Need For Reform

Hey guys! So this is spontaneous, although I would like to write this well as I am to send this blog off as a link to many different people including some MP's as I think it's important that they at least have the option to see an average students view of the Student Loan. I am also aware that some people don't go to university and they may see it as a choice that we have made, including the financial burden of the loan, for you people, we do choose to go to University, we don't choose to receive what we do from the student loan. Anyway, here I go.

I believe the system that Student Finance England use at present an unfair way regarding the way loans are given out. Now there are reasons why I regard this the case and I shall be explaining them and then what I would change about them. I shall also be making an e-petition which I shall link at the bottom of this blog for all you people who agree with me to sign.

Student Loans and The Means Test
My generation seem to come from an age where everything has been means tested around our parents income. I can still remember EMA and what I remember from this are the people that received the £30 a week. I remember a lot of the people who got this bragged about it, unfortunately the people that bragged about having £30 to go and spend (and 99% of the time not a penny of this expenditure was on educational resources but the latest games, alcohol and cinema tickets) had parents that didn't work. I had a friend who was one of these people and what annoyed me most wasn't the fact he got £30 a week but that his parents didn't work out of choice and he was being rewarded over people such as myself getting considerably more money than me, which he spent on games, because my parents worked when his decided years before to give up employment years before. My parents weren't earning particularly much, especially after tax, my dad being a Methodist Minister whilst my Mum worked part time as a care worker. This prevented me from EMA but my parents couldn't afford to give me £30 to support me. And my opinion stands now with the student loan.

The same person I mentioned I can use as a classic example here with their student loan. We are both going to the same University and last year we lived together (although he has recently decided not to talk to me as I asked him back to help when it came to cleaning the flat). He got around the £7,000 mark, yet he also got a bursary from the University of Plymouth itself because of his parents low income, his bursary was over £900. Now fair you may say, people need money to get by at University, yet I got a £300 bursary and a loan of less than £100 over £6,000. My parents can't afford to make up the difference so once again it feels like he was getting rewarded for the fact his parents don't work. At the end of the day, just because someones parents earns so much it doesn't mean that the student profits thanks to their parents. We aren't our parents, the money they earn therefore doesn't go into our bank accounts and when we're not at home it's not money that buys us food. Therefore how is it even fair to give us so much less because our parents have jobs, not amazingly well paid jobs at that. I also have friends at Uni who I am living with next year who get even less. Around the £5,000 mark. Now after rent, that would be around the £600 mark over three terms, a whole University year, now Ian Duncan Smith may claim he can live on the costs of benefits, but try living on less than £20 a week and tell me it's fair.

So what do I think is fair, I think the only fair way is removal of the means test. All students should get the same amount, it therefore means that there are no people showing off that they have more money because their parents don't work, it also will mean people aren't struggling on less than £20 a week relying on family handouts to survive at University. It would solve the issue of parents having to give money to their children constantly because they are earning money, not that much money at that. It's ridiculous. The system needs to be fair. That is my aim to get through whilst writing this post. The one thing I would add in is that I also know different people have different distances to travel and I believe that the majority use trains, I do think that regarding termly trains a system where a percentage of the train journey can be claimed back from a system would be beneficial for students especially given the current system where many people get very little.

Before I move on to my second part, I noticed this is an area where people will go and say "get a job", well I tried all summer so far in the Gedling/Nottingham area, I looked and could only find commission jobs, I did have a go at it, but I wasn't skilled at selling a charity door to door, only a few people can and if you can't sell it enough you actually end up losing more than you earn as you are paid per sale. I have my opinions on these companies which I will keep mainly for another day but I thought being paid on commission whilst doing twelve hour shifts and a lot of the time losing money on transport etc was fairly degrading especially when you knocked on the doors of those people that were just incredibly foul and rude, which unfortunately you get. There were no jobs going that were willing to give me a chance (if you're reading this and thinking "your CV must need major improvement, I assure you I believe it is very good at saying what I have done, however I am more than willing to send it to you should you email me). But I do agree that for many people who get these jobs on commission, it can feel degrading, especially in an economic climate where people don't want to sign up to give £10 more a month to a charity however good they may be.

Student Rent Regulation
Now I believe the first idea I gave is a fairly simple and logical idea to implement, now although I feel this is not as simple I feel that this may well be one of the only fair ways to go regarding how much rent students are paying. First of all I am going to give you a simple sum of my rent next year per term.

Student Loan: £6004 / 3 = £2001.25
Rent: £1440
Student Loan - Rent = £561.25 (rounded to £561)
Term 1 - Four Months - £561 / 4 = £140.25 / 4.5 = £31.16

That folks is my weekly budget before I take out a £40 train journey, my railcard (which comes up for renewal in December) and any course costs such as items for my dissertation, lectures and seminars, which would considerably lower that £561. You probably notice that the main expense here is clearly the rent of my room within the house. A huge amount. Now I remember hearing that rent should be about 50%, it is now way above this. My theory for this is that the houses should all be checked by the University. The houses ranked A (the ones in very good condition) should charge a maximum of 50% of the student loan, a house ranked B (good condition) should charge a maximum of 42.5% of the student loan and a house ranked C (satisfactory condition) should charge a maximum of 35% of the student loan. A radical change? Yes, but one that see's that students get two things.
1) Enough money to live on for the year from their student loan without to much panicking.
2) The option to save more money by going for a lesser property and essentially getting what you pay for (this comes from living in a property that was not as good as first thought with the viewing etc last year).

Conclusion
Both of these policies together create a feeling of safety for students, a feeling that is lacked with some students at the current time. I believe many students including myself spend a long time worrying about how much money we may have for the next week. Whether we can go out and do anything enjoyable, whether it be a trip to the pub or hiring a 5-a-side pitch for an hour, I'm not talking about really expensive leisure. As I'm sure you agree, it is nice to go to sleep feeling financially safe. Something students don't get to do a lot nowadays, especially on loans like myself (or like some friends, even less).

I am also aware of two facts people may say, so I shall answer them now.

How much should this Student Loan without Means Testing be?
Well I look at the rent in Plymouth first, I gave you a pretty average amount in the £1440 per term, that's less than what my rent was last year marginally. However there are 9 people in this house and lowering the rent to £1000 would still see the owner receive £27k a year just from one household! If it was £1500 per term we are talking of them receiving in excess of £40k a year for a 9 person house. A lot of this is due to inflation and the factor that the competition rises together there is no competitor trying to give a good house for cheap rent in a decent location for students really. So although I don't think landlords should lost too much, I don't want to see many thousands of people in debt they'll never get out of (although with £9k tuition fees it could be argued this is the case), therefore I would say between £2200 and £2400 per term. I would look at the first term though and be aware it is a month longer than the second and make sure that the student loan realises this. If the first term was £2400, the second £2200 and the third £2000 the rent would be a maximum of £3300. Not bad income for a landlord I would presume and not too badder sums for a student.
Therefore in answer to the question I am going to say around between £6600 and £7000 with a rise with the rate of inflation every year. It isn't much more than we are giving to some today. The loan would not decrease for third year (I have learnt that this happens, for no legitimate reason either, apparently our term finishes earlier, funny the exams often finish later than first and second years, making the year longer)

Landlords aren't going to be happy with this proposal
When it comes to this comment, I have to be honest, the landlord is still making a huge amount of money. The landlord often charges for the unnecessary months in Plymouth of June and July, exams end in May, the summer ball is in May 90% of the time, so why do we pay two months more anyway. Therefore I think if the landlord feels they are losing money, perhaps the contract can be shorter and end at the end of June, given I am unaware of University's hosting exams in July.


Do you feel the same way about the student system as I do? Do you feel that Student Finance needs some reform? Then email your MP, you can even send this blog and hopefully the issues with the current Student Finance system can get some recognition.

PLEASE NOTE
I have created an e-petition, however I am currently waiting for it to be approved. I shall be adding the e-petition here when it is done. If you want to sign it please follow me on twitter @totalJPM and I shall let you know the link when it is ready.

Remember, there is no way that anything will happen about this if we do nothing, act now!

Things I'd Tell My Teenage Self: Part 2

Hey there!

On Sunday I FINALLY published the first "Thing's I'd Tell My Teenage Self" but there was so much that I decided to turn it into a two part post. So here is my second part. If you haven't seen the first post it covered Relationships and Girls, Money and Friendship, you can read it now by clicking here!

So onto today's post. This post will cover family before going on to just general shorter bits I would tell my teenage self. To get all interactive and stuff please comment below or send a tweet to (@totalJPM) or use the hashtag #JPMTeenSelf and we can have an uber-cool discussion!

So sit back, put your reading glasses on if you need them and enjoy the post!

Family
Well this is one that can be a little strange. With family you can't choose them, you accept them. Obviously saying "accept" sounds reluctant, however that is not the way I mean it. You usually share things in common with your family, whether it be through living in the same enviroment as them or whether it's biological. But all families do have clashes from time to time and all of us may well have things we wish we could change, decisive decisions for instance. The one thing family can have over some friends is that family unconditionally look out for you in most instances, they're there to help you in that time of need. Well mine are. So yeah.

That said, we've had our fall outs. I mean there have been clashes, me and my sister can clash over what is on the television, particularly as my TV actually gets no channels since we moved to Arnold. Which sucks, but it's livable without the internet! I think that a lot of the clashes come because of an incident that I mentioned, the move to Arnold. Not gonna lie, I'm not a big fan of the north and I'm also not a big fan of being 250 miles away from the friends I made during the school days. I'm still not, but what can I do? This said when I find a day where everything seems wrong, that is ammunition that seems to come out. And in a way maybe it has stretched everyone with incidents during it. But it's not the first time we moved, it won't be the last time my parents move. Although they possibly won't have the hassle of Kaye and myself so much. One can at least hope one finds a job after Uni anyway! I think the whole point of the paragraph would be that yeah, the family stretched and I think at points that led to issues and really I'd look back at it and say, I didn't like it but maybe I should have accepted it rather than let things go to shit. I have Plymouth now, most of the year. So yeah.

I think the other thing is, my ambition for a fair part of my life was to be successful but in the country so we could have a lot of contact, however I think now I see a possible life afield from the United Kingdom. To be honest I've become more and more disillusioned with the country and I would now love to go and work abroad after Uni. However this said, my Dad has concerns that we could "not see eachother at all" if I did go to the other side of the world. Now here comes a balancing stool, I mean, do I go and put my ambition first or that concern first. As I've grown up technology has become better. I also have had conversations with other members of my family about it. I think I'd tell my teenage self, the sky's the limit. Look afield, out of the box and consider these options. Don't be held back by concerns, but find ways to deal with them, the only person who would regret not looking abroad is myself!

I would say, whatever family you have, the important thing is to be yourself, just because your whole family live somewhere doesn't mean you have to live there, just because all your family have had one profession, doesn't mean you need to be of that profession. Go where suits you, do what suits you! Just don't forget where you're from.

All of that is kinda what I'd tell myself now. But here are some short things I'd tell my teenage self:

1) Just because life has taken a shit turn, does not mean that it's the end of the world.
2) You're gonna make mistakes, so rather than cover them up and try to make the mistakes correct, face it and learn from it!
3) Go outside that comfort zone more.
4) Be ambitious, you're young, so yes, the sky is the limit.
5) Put more effort into everything, good grades are something that can be shouted about later even if its "geeky", winning something can be shouted at immediately.
6) If there is a problem deal with it don't just sit and watch it grow. This applies if it's physical, medical or emotional.
7) Going to Dr Ankers Geography class when you've made a piece of homework she's set in the 5 minutes before school is not a good idea!
8) Don't live in a bubble around yourself, friends go through shit too, maybe it's worse than your situation, be a proper friend and help them as well!
9) If something happens you're against, stand up. Regardless.
10) Be yourself and things will come!

Things I'd Tell My Teenage Self: Part 1

Okay guys, so earlier on +Danièlle Owen posted about the things she would tell her teenage self. She also included that I would do this from a male viewpoint. So here I am. Like her blog for the female viewer my post's will analyse items such as relationships, money, friends and family as well as others that are more unique to my teenage self. Obviously some of you reading may be teenagers, some will be older. If you have an points about the post that I write please send a tweet to (@totalJPM) or use the hashtag #JPMTeenSelf. So yeah here we go!

Relationships and Girls
Yeah obviously a big one to write about first haha. And to be fair, not even the me now could claim to be anything close to an expert on either of these. However I did have a close to 3 year relationship in my teens. I don't really know what to think about this nowadays really, like would I change stuff? Yes. But I guess there were the best and worst moments in hindsight. I know I would say to my teenage self "Don't be taken as a fool by a girl", as well maybe if I didn't have an element of naivety then I would have definitely noticed the end. It's important to not be naive, things can be great for 18 months, then something can ruin them, especially such things as lies. Trusting after the other has done whatever is incredibly hard, it's probably over from there in reality. Unless you can be a very forgetful person just to try to keep the relationship. Although back then it must have been the fact of really wanting it, really liking the person and therefore being willing to try to forgive.

I'd probably also tell myself that, hey, a relationship ending isn't the end of the world, it may seem like that initially, but it isn't. The single life is free and provides different opportunities and can save money as well! To be honest going the seperate ways and then looking back at the person also showed me how much they changed. I don't think I've changed (you'd have to ask my friends in the past 12 months if I've changed!) but she certainly has. Just wouldn't have been interested at all if we had a conversation for the first time now.

I'd also tell my teenage self here, that there is no rush. Life comes at you and shit happens. You learn from it. You don't need to run from one relationship and jump into another. Hell no, take a step back look at it, the good and the bad and take something from it. Probably should tell the person you're in a relationship with to log off Facebook on your iPod...especially if they're sending sexual messages to someone from the United States (or anywhere else, but in this case...yeah). Probably should stop here with this....

To be fair, regarding relationships, you probably have to go through the shit to find the green grass at the end of the road and that right relationship!

Money
Haha, what a subject. Well Uni has told me a lot about conserving money and budgeting. I think simply with money, it's just learning the value of it. I mean for instance before Uni you go out and £4 for a pint of Brothers Cider at Crabby Dicks in Bideford seems okay. Then you go to Uni and live under a budget and you think "wow this is a fair bit, I could buy lunch with this" until you're really drunk. I used to be way happier buying any skint friend a drink or something, now that isn't so much the case. I would say use money sparingly. Yes buy friends stuff, not every time though. I dunno, I also would buy pointless goods. So I would say think twice. Budget yourself. Don't take a card on a night out, you'll be an idiot. C103 last freshers proved that when I took out an extra £30 in there paying a fee of £1.75 to use that machine. And I soberly refuse to use them. Mind you that was an exceptionally drunk night!

So really, I'd say budget, there's always a goal, a big event. You don't wanna miss it!

Friends
This is one place where I don't think I've went too wrong. I mean at school I was in W1 where essentially I was in a friend group. Unfortunately some have gone their ways and we've lost contact. I mean James Ellis, where are you now mate? Then there's some which I clearly barely see because of moving after my A Level results, despite this I would still regard them as good friends if we met up.

I also am lucky enough to have one friend who comes down to visit me when I'm at Uni +Ryan Steppel as well as Craig who I get on better with at Uni than I did at school! Pretty awesome mates. I also have Elliot who goes to the same Uni from my school, still good friends. These are people I feel lucky to have, as these people I have been friends with as we've all matured from GCSE students all the way to...well, adults. Student adults, but adults. I've also done really well at Uni with friends. A base of friends who I am living with next year (plus ones that will essentially live with us, by that I mean Vikki and Milky....again) that are all individually amazing in their own ways is really a great marker! I mean I feel lucky to have met all of these people and that I really hit the nail on the head when it came to friends in the majority of cases. I don't really like to group these people. I've found that in general with these friends, each one is a great friend for a different reason, each friendship was formed in many ways, half of them wouldn't have happened without one of the other friendships. Sometimes though I feel they may know me better than me! Which can be a tad worrying guys ;).

I will briefly say about the 10% I get wrong. These are generally people with a lack of ambition, a lack of attitude, generally quite negative about their prospects and not willing to help other friends at a small cost. There are people reading this knowing I could be meaning them, or feeling they're so perfect in a world that really is their own little bubble. That bubble might be Xbox Live or whatever it is.

I'd like to elaborate on the negative about prospects. Many of you will think I'm a negative person and yes, to a degree you are right. I shout my opinions out loud, I am not one who will sit back at something that annoys me or something that has angered me and stay quiet. That can be football or a cult like Beliebers, it could be David Cameron's next stupid idea, however the point being, I will say my opinion. This is not what I regard as negative, I regard this as opinionated. If something pleases me I will also say it. Sometimes I will only say it for the reaction! Negative attitude or negative about prospects regards those who are quitters, those that don't have the ambition to do well but the ambition to just stay in the same place doing sufficiently.

An example could be a placement year at Uni. Don't just apply for where you live if you live in a small town with little prospect. Reach out. Go and at least attempt to get something that is ambitious. Otherwise why are you at Uni. You have no ambition, go back home. It irritates me. I don't get this chance with my degree, so I'd like to see those who do take it, it shows ambition, pride, an attitude and I respect this and therefore would find it easier to be a friend. My teenage self had some of these friends. I don't really know what I've done wrong in the year but they have got to the point where they have decided not to reply to me even on their world (the gaming networks). They do of course like to try to put down those who are more ambitious than them, to a point that insulted me and the people involved. This happened over years in honesty to different people. However I have kept the friendships that mean something to me.

However I'd say regarding friendships, my friendship with +Ryan Steppel was the start of the me that showed ambition, pride and the attributes I have mentioned mainly because it is a friendship of two big personalities with a get up and go, an ambition and some drive. I would say before some of my friendships were settled, especially with those that shared my initials. It doesn't bother me now. As since the friendship with the Milky Bar Kid I've also made some equally awesome friends who also share the attributes that make them ideal friends, best bit is, I live with some from September!

Anyway, I shall post Part 2 in the next few days depending on work! So cya guys later!!!!

I'm back!

Hey guys! First of all I must apologise that I haven't blogged for a week, sometimes I have just forgot other days I've been busy. When I say busy I've been:

1) trying to get a job - I've recreated my cv and sent it to loads of people in my battle to get a job over summer as I need money for next uni year as well as some more for Reading...I also want a PS4 so like I guess not the cheapest taste but ya'know! Interview tomorrow, so there is hope!

2) I've taken up trying to become good at darts, as many will know I'm useless, well my doubling is very slowly mildly improving as well as well as power scoring, although it would be nice to become consistent! That's a target, maybe by the time I'm back in Plymouth I can throw decent scores and win a few games against mates! I haven't seen much to claim that I will be beating Philip Taylor anytime soon though.

3) I've watched the sport keenly on tv. Now this involves Wimbledon which of course ended with an an epic finale as well as the European Darts Championship which Adrian Lewis has won and more recently I have watched the Ashes a bit. 

4) Who can resist watching Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares USA. I mean if you haven't watch the one about Fiesta Sunrise, the Mexican guy is a hero! I'm not joking! 

Anyway I shall post some better stuff here shortly but for now ill cya all later!

A Response To Professor J Meirion Thomas' Article In The Daily Mail.

The NHS, in my opinion the greatest thing that this country has ever done for it's people. From a day when Governments may well have seemed to have cared. Free healthcare within the United Kingdom for the poor as well as the wealthy. As well as the British, the National Health Service has cared for many people who have come to our shores from different nations around the world, these people often have come to the nation looking for a better life, a better job and various other incentives that the United Kingdom can offer. Many are willing to take jobs that us British see below us. A very small percentage may move to the country purely to get help from the health system, but it would only be a small amount, just as a small percentage move here because it is unsafe for them to live in their country anymore, I've met people in that situation before and I've got to say, considering sending these people back to a land where they would surely die shouldn't even cross the minds of people within this country. It's inhumane.

So imagine what I thought when I read a consultant named Professor Thomas writing an article for the Daily Mail, a paper known for scaremongering the people within this country about the Governments plans regarding the NHS for people who are from countries outside the European Union. First of all I was not actually aware of the Governments proposed policy, but secondly this so called Professor's opinion, which I found totally absurd.

The NHS is one of the things this country has got right since the Second World War, that statement could be regarded as opinion, but I would regard it as a fact, even more so when you look over the Atlantic at the United States where healthcare is paid for. You hear stories of people from the USA regarding people who can't afford healthcare. For instance, twenty percent of people did not get the needed specialist care that they required because of the expense. Possibly more worryingly twenty-eight percent of these people who had a chronic medical condition (such as diabetes and heart disease) did not actually fill in their prescription or skipped some of their doses because they couldn't afford for these drugs (Source:UPI.com). Now I'm glad that right now Britain has not gone down a route that America has, my Grandparents are diabetic and luckily thanks to the way we run our healthcare at this current time, they can have regular check-ups and get their prescription, for free thanks to their age. The current prescription cost should they have been under 60 and working is £7.65. Personally I believe prescriptions should be free for all people and not just have groups of people exempt from the cost, however maybe I'm wishing to much from this Government in this economic climate. The fact that some people don't pick up their more expensive prescription in America is genuinely incredibly concerning. People with diabetes who don't get their prescription and take the right doses of insulin for instance can end up in a diabetic coma, which could possibly lead to death, all because healthcare companies have made the price out of these peoples reach. The possibilities of what can happen to people taking medication for heart disease are quite obvious and can also lead to death. Therefore charging beyond reach for anyone isn't humane, it seems like it's an indirect version of manslaughter.

Getting through that then, why should workers outside of the EU be paying for healthcare from this country. Well for a starter, let's say the person comes over from a country like Iraq or Afghanistan, both countries named because we have injured many of their civilians since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. How can we go humanely go to people from these countries and refuse them healthcare. We owe a duty to these people because we decided to go in and bomb their homes, the argument of the legality of either war is invalid in this, the fact that we have injured and killed many people from these countries is however valid. So imagine if we went to these people and charged them £200 of more for their healthcare in this country. It's wrong, especially if they had something severely wrong with them, whether it was picked up before they were in this country or not. Some of these people who settle from foriegn countries have spent so much getting here and trying to find somewhere to live that finding £200 (or more as Professor Thomas would suggest) would be difficult. People from poorer countries may also have big families, having done geography at A Level one of the modules we studied was to do with population, it seems that poorer countries have a higher birth rate (as well as death rate in the majority of these nations), which is why the population of the world is increasing. So for a hypothetical case here, let's argue a family comes over from Egypt, the family isn't well off but has a desire to get away from all the troubles going on with the confused leadership of the country as well as the violence that has seemed to trouble Egypt on and off for the last few years, this family has a father and mother along with four children. This family would have to fork out £1,200 for their healthcare after the struggles and stress of moving over to the UK, pressures such as claiming their visa's, finding a home and actually getting across to the country, all of these not being cheap.

Another issue for people like the family I have created for this point would be the fact that this Government doesn't want to give them benefits, not in the same way as they would give benefits for people who come from the United Kingdom (who have already suffered benefit cuts, regardless of how hard it is to get a job at the moment), so finding the £200 each would be even harder to do, after all these people need to buy food and pay for electricity, water and gas as well. So for some people who move to this country it's making life even harder for them. How is this fair? These people didn't choose to be born in the countries they were born in, some didn't have much choice in leaving and many of these people aren't particularly well off.

And what if these people can find jobs, earn money and pay taxes? Should these people who then would be contributing as much as the working British person have to pay for a service that the people born in the country, or a EU nation get for free? Surely the answer is no. These people are carrying out a job, maybe not for high wages, but still a job and with a job comes tax. The only way it could even be considered fair for these people to have to pay for health care on top of this is if they have a large chunk of their tax taken off, because if they're paying for their healthcare on top then why should they be made to pay taxes that people who get their healthcare without directly paying for it, have to pay to keep the service running? There is no reason for these people to have to pay taxes and a fee. It's simply not fair.

They may have chose to come to the UK because of a reputation of the country being fair, a reputation that lies deep within the foundation of policies such as the National Health Service and Legal Aid. Being a Criminology and Law student I am aware with the cuts surrounding the Legal System as well as these proposed changes to the Health Service. These are two of the areas where Britain made it's name for being a fair country, why should we change these things, things we're proud of?

There is an alternative I can think of, an alternative that wouldn't be popular within the millionaires who sit on their green bench, soon to get a pay rise. The alternative would see either a tax rise for people earning a high bracket of income, or maybe these people would like to pay £200 each extra towards their healthcare, unlike the people that they are actually trying to make pay this money. As for Professor Thomas, I'm sure he can take his scaremongering and use it to encourage Parliament to vote for the richest people in the country to pay more towards their health. If I was in the richest ten or twenty percent I would have no problem paying towards healthcare. You may ask why and I shall answer that. This country should be looking out for everyone within it, now that means the homeless, the people who have settled here from another country and the poor. These people are just as important to the name of Great Britain as those that are rich, whatever profession any of these people are in. If Great Britain stops looking out for these poorer people, whether they come from this land or another, the the Great in Great Britain should not be used anymore.

One thing is for sure, we can all thank the National Health Service for something, the people in many of these hospitals do a great job every day saving many lives. I thank them for this, without them my Uncle would not be around anymore. Therefore I would like to dedicate this blog post to the people that work in these hospitals, the doctors, nurses, receptionists, porters, the lot. I would also like to dedicate this article especially to those at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth who saved my Uncle's life. Thank you.

Ultimate Blog Challenge - The 31 things I find most annoying - Number 30 - Kayne West

Hey guys! It's time for my second ultimate blog challenge post. Yesterday I discussed the 31st most annoying thing, the television "talent" shows. Well today I have moved to what the 30th most annoying thing, this is a person and his name is Kayne West. That said I can see this one bringing up the Kardashians, or at least Kim, this said I don't know anything about how the Kardashians are famous and have therefore done a Wikipedia before I start, I hear they are in an American tv show that sounds one of these unintelligent awful fake reality shows and a short marriage involving Kim. But thats pretty much it. Oh and a huge ass that apparently competes with Britain's own Pippa Middleton. You can discuss if you like these asses in my comments if you so wish! Alternatively you can share my rather confused thoughts as to why an ass increases someone's fame into the big time, however nice the Daily Mail and The Scum may find this!

But onto Kayne now! As I'm sure most of you know Kayne is a famous musical artist in the rap genre. Selling many albums he originally came on the scene releasing singles such as "Golddigga" and a cover of "Diamonds Are Forever" by Shirley Bassey. Now this didn't any me. It's what has come regarding Kayne in the last few years. 

I'm not a fan of Taylor Swift or MTV however I seem to remember a moment in an awards ceremony where Taylor Swift won an award, on came to stage this American rapper claiming that the award should have been that of Beyonce's. Now given his relationship you'd expect this to be Jay-Z, however it was not, it was Kayne West. Later on Beyonce won the best artist award, which explains why she didn't win the best female. I'm not sure how Kayne failed to notice this award, unless he thought he was going to be the lucky man to win it! 

So what next for Kayne, time to calm down? No. An album with Jay-Z. What was the lead track on this album? The racial song "N*ggers In Paris". Now I realise both artists are from the USA and I'm from the UK. But I would presume that like the UK the USA don't accept racist language. I also realise that both Kayne West and Jay-Z are black and therefore able to get away with these words to an extent. But who buys the tracks? When I was young "American Idiot" was released with the words "Fuck America", the line these words in was my favourite, because it had rebellion, plus it was the time of the Iraq war and not many people actually liked America. But these songs bring in words to a young persons vocabulary. In Britain we saw various racism arguments over the last few years, from the Jade Goodie big brother row years ago on channel 4 to the more recent alleged cases of Luis Suarez and John Terry. So whilst punishments for the latter two get carried out and remembered a song is released using words that incite racial hatred in this society, words that shouldn't be used. I don't know why the song was allowed to chart when in the charts songs like "My Ding-a-ling" that were much less offensive.

And now the last 6 months. Kayne is now a dad, but as I previously stated on a earlier post he called his child "North". To me this implies that he may well see his child as a joke as think of North West's days in school! Embarrassing. Then there's his comment that he's fighting against the dumbing down of society, (for those that wanna see I'll link my blog post about this when I'm on my iMac, I'm writing this on an iPad), he claims this is in his music. "I am Yeezus" makes a mockery of this comments, how would this be intelligent? The man is an irritating musician in society, with lyrics that mean nothing or, to his credit in the song "Golddigga" persuade one not to o out with a woman like Kim Kardashian!

Okay so I shall stop here, even though I could go on forever. Please comment your opinion ofmKayne West, his music and the genre. Is he annoying or am I completely wrong? 

Thanks for reading! 

Ultimate Blog Challenge - The 31 things I find most annoying - Number 31 - TV "Talent" Contests!

Hey guys!

So first of all this is my first Ultimate Blogging Challenge post, and it shall be the main concentration of my blog over the next month. Now for this month I decided that I would write about the 31 things that I find most annoying. I have done my best to put in some kind of order but I have found this quite hard as all these 31 things annoy me. Some of them you may like, many you will disagree with, some you may think it is typical of me given the things I like. But I can assure you the number 3 to the number 1 you will find very very hard to disagree with and you too may well think they are mould on our society of today.

So Number 31 is these Televison "Talent" Contests that seem to have come a must have in every weekends scheduling. Now the ones I shall focus on mainly involve the normal "wannabes" but these do include those celebrity shows...however later this month they will appear again in a different category. Now although these shows have been around for years they have become more serious, I mean we used to have Stars In Their Eyes which was a great watch, but now we have the X Factor which is hideously annoying and really a sign of meaningless tv. I have two issues with shows like The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, one is the judges, the others are the contestants and the aftermath of their experience.

So lets start with the judges and the X Factor. Now I'm aware that the X Factor has changed judges over the years but let's go through a few of them and suggest what gives them the right over the common person to judge the mediocrity that enters the show. The first judge that comes to mind when you think of a talent contest is the one and only Simon Cowell. Now it's not hard to see where I am going but I am going to judge Simon's credentials, as he judges other. Now judging is something I have never done, just as singing to a decent standard, or showing any form of talent (other than dressing up as a dog) is something Simon has never done.

Simon Cowell's Got Talent?

This is the man who is the face of Saturday nights on both sides of the Atlantic ocean and honestly it's a shame he has. You can also judge his ability to judge by looking at some of the awful acts he has managed to give us lucky people. These acts have led to a decline of bands that write, create and record music. Especially the genre of rock music. Because rock music is not as smooth as Cowell wants and his hold on the music industry we now see many groups from the X Factor and bands that sound like this is where they have come from and have them forced into our ears wherever we may go. I am a fan of music that is wrote and produced by a band and this is what any of these acts lack, they can sing to a standard that is really below par with those at the top who made it the hard way, they haven't wrote their own songs, spend 10 weeks singing covers and get a contract. Forgive me if it's harsh but whoever they are whether they be One Direction, Shane Ward or Alexandra Burke they have had a very easy way to the top. It's not right. Then theres flops like Joe McEldrey, suddenly he gets on every celebrity show but lacks the ability to maintain a place near the top of the chart after this easy route he never really deserved. The real way to get to the top is to get noticed by playing live or with your unsigned albums or albums with a small label and to move up going round, staying round a fans house, maybe the only fan in that area, or sleeping in your cars playing gigs and getting just enough to live and get by but to get noticed. Bands have done this and succeeded and they've also had longevity, something all acts from the X Factor and other shows lack.

Another judge that has judged the X Factor is Tulisa, more famous for a sex tape than for her horrendous deafening "music". Honestly, I may go and say Simon has never sung, but I wish to God that Tulisa had never sung! And then you place her on TV and say she has the right, the nerve, to judge people who are better than her. Unfortunately for Tulisa, Simon finally found some good judgement and has kicked her out, where the police have picked her up to question her on helping supply people with drugs, something she's clearly guilty of looking at the evidence but something that reality friends say would be incredibly harsh to find her guilty of. Reality friends like Celebrity Big Brother (and apparently X Factor) contestant, as well as friends with the undesirable, unlikeable, many-times-a-wife, bully Katie Price. Now I'm sorry but if reality TV and talent contests bring prats like this to the forefront of our culture and society they should be made illegal. 

How the world feels when this person is a "popular" within society.

In contrast The Voice picked singers as judges, however one was incredibly unknown, despite being in the script, another had had success for barely a year and therefore didn't really warrant being a judge. The other two Will.I.Am and Tom Jones in fairness have kept coming back and selling well. Although I am not a fan of Will.I.Am's solo music, the man has sold his music and his bands music for many years successfully, reinventing himself at times, although some acts he's signed are useless to be honest. Tom Jones has every right to be a judge. The issue with this show is it's quite frankly boring. It lacks drama once they've stopped turning their chairs round nobody watches it. And it's main issue is what happens to the contestants afterwards with the winner of the show not even having her album in the top 100. Mind you the X Factor had Steve Brookstein who now seems to just abuse people who don't like him via his twitter, such a career he won!

So yeah, I could go on forever  but I don't want to bore you. Hopefully my second post will come earlier tomorrow, but for now enjoy. Agree or disagree please leave a comment, and discuss this. alternatively tweet me and use the hashtag #31annoyingthings and I shall get back to you!

If You Have The Time To Listen To Me Whine

Hey guys! Me again! First of all sorry for no James' Today on Saturday! I was pretty occupied, I mean Laura Robson took two hours to win! Then I had a couple of pints so yes. I have a few things today that I want to rant about and I am going to put them all in one post.

So the first thing I wish to rant about and it is a thing, is Katie Price. You do need the time to listen to me whine here really! Well today I read an article about Ms Price saying her husband will get "fuck all". Now I can understand trust must come a big deal when you are as utterly detestable as the thing that seems to be in a state of permanent jealousy of Kelly Brook, so much so you send a picture of her bare breast thinking the whole of Britain will be in shock and say "she's not all that". But no, this backfires as Katie is the only person who thinks plastic is a good look.

This is a thing that works for The Scum newspaper about issues that deeply effect us like "Where will we get our make up if Bangladesh gets flooded?" along with many a story about Peter Andre and how he's a horrible person. I'm afraid to the woman who claims she can count the amount of men she has slept with using her fingers (yes I know, she must be severely dyslexic), having so many husbands and relationships that end in tatters, I can spot one similarity...Katie Price is involved. I am fed up with having papers and news websites telling me what bullshit she's up to now. I don't care if she wants to be in Eurovision, she can't sing and we'll come last because Europe hates her. So why do people follow her, or want to be like her? Why have Sky been rumoured to commission a show looking for the next Katie Price? Is this country really this stupid? We want intelligent, funny, confident women, not women who have to try to look as much like Barbie as possible. Katie Price is just a signal for men to continue to be sexist, that's all she's good for, sorry to be blunt but it's the truth. It's just a shame The Scum newspaper would rather publicise this than tell us about these smart, funny and confident women we would rather hear about.

To be honest, the fact that Katie Price is so popular within society shows me society is dumbing down which leads me onto my next point. Text language needs to stop. I'm fine with the odd use of "lol" and "tbh" in a text conversation but today I found out thanks to +Danièlle Owen that "NVM" means Nevermind. Now what the hell is that for text language, stop using it and write the word. That word was the name of one of the greatest albums of it's time, by a band called Nirvana, I'm sure Kurt Cobain would have been thrilled to call his album "NVM"...and then there is "IMO" which means "In my opinion", why? This makes no sense whatsoever! Stop using slang and text speak and speak in normal English. It's what we all learnt in school. I mean we use this rubbish and then complain that foreign people don't know English, well right now some of us look to also be struggling with the mother tongue! I would prefer this generation not to be the generation of TOWIE, Geordie Shore, Justin Bieber and One Direction, not just because all of these are generally unintelligent television and music with little meaning, but because none of those things has an ounce of real personality within it. Now I can respect people listening to One Direction the odd time, it appears in the club as much as I personally loathe it, but I can only stand that if it's a light sprinkling on top of what I would call far better more intelligent bands. Bieber is also a far worse role model than One Direction, although both fan bases are some of the most scary things you will ever get to cross. Personally I would advise not liking either. But to my point, we need to have an intelligence around, personality, TOWIE and stuff like this just make people sit back and do nothing other than be stupid all day! It's a pathetic excuse for a television show. Mind you I could go on about how the BBC have dumbed down the shows I watched when I was a child, such as Blue Peter now, which went from a reasonably intelligent show to a show that's stupidity is beyond itself, on once a week, mainly so shows about red dogs etc can be shown.

Finally I watched the Rolling Stones tonight, to be blunt it was pretty diabolical considering their reputation, in fact it was an embarrassment to their reputation. Jagger looked like he was a walking skeleton. The dancing was abysmal, all I can say is you expect better, especially from a band that charge £190 for an arena gig. But then some fools must pay that much and then wonder why it was worth it. All I can say is thank goodness a band like the Ramones or the Beatles couldn't embarrass themselves in this way. If you want to see an older artist I would recommend Bruce Springsteen, his Glastonbury set looked incredible, plus everyone I know who has seen him has commented on how good he is and his music is most certainly on the same level (personally I would say far higher) than the Rolling Stones. This is not to say I hate the music the Stones produced, some was reasonably good, but honestly guys, you should have split up decades ago, fans who pay huge sums of money to see that rubbish are being victimised by your greed to make a few more quid. And regarding comments about not finding your careers mentally stimulating and making it sound like such a bad life, look at yourselves and your bank accounts and shut up. If you want to be mentally stimulated and a musician think more about the lyrics, there are many bands I like with lyrics people can relate too. Not just think "this is a good tune and I can know the chorus".

The concludes my rant, which could go on forever to be honest.

No offence was meant regarding the dyslexic comment.