Archive for the ‘Thoughts’ Category

Having cleared up some unfair slander of my character in recent times and eaten a rather enjoyable sausage casserole courtesy of Michelle, the final preparations began for this weekend’s AHS conference.

The delegate packs are looking reasonably flash if I do say so myself and everything is now in place for tonight’s One Life which should produce some interesting discussions. I think this weekend is going to be very exciting given we are watching history in the making with the ratification of the constitution.

I am also very much looking forward to getting some events planning done and the live from the AHS conference podcast should be fantastic also.

Having got my radiator working last night I finally woke up this morning being nice and warm. It was well worth waiting for. Well, it wasn’t actually by any stretch of the imagination but the point is, it was most pleasant to finally not be quite so cold on a morning. Money well spent.

I didn’t do any work on Sunday. Well near enough anyway.

And I didn’t do that much work on Monday either.

It was really weird. I spent most of Money sitting around feeling guilty that I was only doing a bit of work. But I recon if I could get rid of that feeling I could really enjoy days off once again.

Myself, Norm and Michelle went for lunch at the Deer Park which was good. Not just because you can never, ever go wrong with a mixed grill but also because it was a re-discovery of the ability to just go for a pub lunch in the middle of the day, something we used to do like every day but never really do anymore. Or, if you will, back in the day.

Emily Barran has written an excellent feature on how capitalism is being blamed for the economic crunch in the October 24th edition of LS2.

While it’s easy to blame banking executives, she rightly points out people aren’t pointing the fingers at themselves after taking out 100% mortgages that realisticlly, they could never really afford. I was listening to a woman who is now a single parent complaining the bank was repossessing her house. Of course they are. Indeed, as a shakeholder in Nothern Rock now it has been nationalised I insist they do repossess your house to get their money back. You can’t afford your house, move to a cheaper one, they are desperate to sell them at the moment.

And what exactly is the result of the credit crunch anyway? Having discussed it on my podcast, neither myself nor Gijsbert said we had changed our lifestyle because of it. How has it really affected your life? Probably not that much. A capitalism economy fluctuates, that doesn’t given you an excuse to take out a massive loan then complain when you can’t make the payments. That just makes you an idiot.

As I previously mentioned, I am now fully caught up with the latest adventures of Doctor Who.

I originally had a rant about the series finale, which I stand by though having talked to Rich last Tuesday I think he nailed it when he said it’s just generally a celebration, especially given it is the last series to be masterminded by Russell T Davis and you just have to talk it with a pinch of salt, sit back and enjoy it.

It’s been a good return for the show. I think the first few series really nailed it as they had consistently good episodes which I was less true of the later series though they never the less featured some very good episodes.

End of the day, it’s good to see we still produce good cult television. Only two months to the Christmas special, that’s something to look forward to in the holiday season at least.

I’m just listening to the news on 6Music and they are talking about the fact the MOD has lost loads of personal data again.

The story leads, “serial incompetance is how the Conservates described it.”

I mean, what is the point? Who cares what the Conversatives think? If you give it some thought, they are obviously going to be condemning it. But why make a big issue that the Conversatives happen to say that? I’m sure most people condemn it. How is such news reporting doing anything than stiring up trouble?

Surely if the BBC wants to report on the issue as unbiased balanced report should be the way forward. Why don’t they get someone on to say “actually, I think it’s great the MOD lost everyone’s personal data.”

Obviously the answer is, because that’s just retarded. Nobody would say that because it’s not an issue, it’s something that happens and the fact that the Conversatives also happen to condemn it along with everyone else in the country, isn’t news. It’s just cheap, intellectually bankrupt journalism.

Hmm, this isn’t good. My reasonably early night because all I was doing was going to a Christian event turns into me not even sitting down to look at my emails and get some work done until half twelve. I feel this is bad news.

I’m going to make a more general post about the show later but for now I want to get some thoughts of my chest. I’ve just polished off the 4th series of Doctor Who and it was, well, interesting.

I did enjoy the series. But not as much as the previous ones. It really felt like a new series and so the criticisms I have of the new series really came through in this one. I prefered the first few series of the revival because they tended, or at least felt like, they had more mini off world adventures. I know the show has always spent a lot of time on Earth but these days it feels like it’s too focused.

The problem with the revived show is that every week it’s the end of the world. There just isn’t some problem on a distant world The Doctor has to take on, he has to stop some mad invasion force from destroying the fabric of reality. Also, I think it is far too open and well known these days. There is massive news coverage of what is going on. The whole world knows that there are alien invasions and that The Doctor saves them, which I don’t think is a good thing, it kind of ruins the magic.

Also nobody dies. The problem with doing some huge world ending story lines is, it is supposed to end something. Fair enough if you have a skirmish with the Darleks or the Cybermen and then they later return, that’s fine. But when they are wiped out of existence and then come back, that is just bad storytelling.

Finally, the whole thing is just a bit cheesy. I mean, bringing everyone back for one final happy ending? Come on, it’s just awful. The Doctor has a companion for a series and then moves on. They don’t just keep getting pulled back again and again in some kind of sitcom style guest appearance, it just looks tacky.

So that is what I didn’t like. But then I guess that is to be expected with Doctor Who being a BBC One show which needs to score ratings. I suppose I can live with such flaws because, as I said, overall I have really enjoyed the new series, including series 4. And I now have something to look forward to at Christmas now.

These past few days have been fairly laid back. I’ve not felt too well so I’ve taken it easy. Next week is going to be rather busy though. With A-Soc’s meeting, A-Soc’s social, Pro Life Through Pro Choice meeting, I-Soc’s freshers’ dinner, the Alpha course I’ve been invited to, podcasting, One Life, Liz’s houseparty and the TKD social I recon it’s going to be a rather tiring week.

It’s October 3rd.

I’m listening to a feature on the radio about Christmas.

That can only mean one thing. It’s almost that magical time of year again. The time where you can spend weeks, maybe even months, moaning about how early shops have started their Christmas preparation this year and how wrong and annoying it is.