In similar fashion to a year ago, these are my new set of resolutions for 2012. Pop back on 31st Dec 2012 to see how I’ve done… I need to complete 5 or more to be more successful than 2011!
Start wearing contact lenses again
Start eating less trash and more variety of foods
Go swimming or to the gym more regularly
Drink less alcohol unless it’s a special occasion
Do more work experience with media organisations
Work towards a 2:1 for my Year 2 University results*
Use Facebook less*
Enjoy being at, and working with, SUSUtv even more than in 2011*
Do something big to raise money for charity
Not to lose any friends, and become even better friends with the ones that I really love.
*these are gunna be the hard ones!
Other things I’m looking forward to this year…
SUSUtv’s Elections coverage in February
SUSUtv’s trip to see our friend Talty in Ireland on St. Patricks Day
My geography field trip to Picos de Europa in April
So 2011 is over, and it’s been an absolute riot! Here’s a round up of the best bits…
Went to the National TV Awards at the O2 in London with this lovely bunch of people:
SUSUtv outside the O2 Arena in January....we'll be picking up the awards in there someday
Took part in an epic SUSUtv Elections broadcast
Went on a seriously cool surfing trip with SUSURF to Newquay with this lovely bunch… should really go again!
Just some from SUSURF...
Attended the NaSTA Awards and Conference in Loughborough, in April. Petty Crimes won best comedy amongst a few awesome awards at SUSUtv!
Andreas and I picking up the award for Petty Crimes!
Get very, very, very drunk for the Royal Wedding
This photo was taken at lunchtime. I fear I was already tipsy off champagne...
Became the new SUSUtv Co-Head of Production along with my bestest companion Carly (the one who looks/is exceptionally drunk in this photo)
Carly: "Where are weeeee? I can't seeeee...." - Gotta love Jesters!
Speaking of Carly, there’s us celebrating our birthdays with the first annual ‘Gingerfest’ celebrations…
We were all ginger. Our bedsheets weren't best-pleased...
Went to Beach Break festival, had a blast whilst filming for SUSUtv!
Had a holiday in Cornwall with this lovely bunch of people…
Cornwall 2011 with my new 'children'...
Celebrated my ma’s 50th birthday in Londaaaaaaan.
My mum doesn't really look 50, does she? Far right...
Ran the New Forest Half Marathon
....all 13.3 miles.
Moved into my new house, started a new year at University, lept back into Uni life with…er…FreshersTV!
Aren't we a sexy bunch? Brownie points if you can see me...
Continued working, getting drunk, being a student, etc. until Christmas. Here is a lovely bunch of geography people to demonstrate the awesomeness of Uni.
YAY Geography, at the Geography Ball.
Update on 2011 resolutions
Update this blog regularly…SORT OF – I’ve posted to this blog somewhat, but not what you’d call ‘regular’!
Write down my best memories… FAILED – I’ve had far too many good memories to keep a track of!
Start some sort of part-time web design business that will make ££… SORT OF – I’ve been working on a web design freelance website, but I’ve yet to start it and it’s not made me any money!
Build an iPhone app… FAILED – Not bothered trying.
Continue work at SUSUtv and make Petty Crimes one of the best shows EVER… SUCCESS! SUSUtv has been incredible this year! Petty Crimes won a NaSTA, and Episode 2 is watchable here.
Attend the gym (or other exercise) twice a week… SORT OF – In the summer I trained for quite a bit for my half marathon, but have failed this winter
Continue to meet new and awesome people… SUCCESS! I can safely say this has been done.
Keep an organised diary/calendar to help my shocking memory… SUCCESS! You should check out iCal on my Mac…
Spend more time reading around my subject at university… SUCCESS! But still got some more to do…
Do something that will make me feel warm inside (that can be anything)… SUCCESS! Of many things, I ran a half marathon… which literally, made me warm inside, but also emotionally warm for all the money I helped raised for Help For Heroes.
5/10. Not bad.
Have a wonderful, wonderful 2012 and all the very best to all
I can’t think of a man on this planet that has had more of a profound effect on the way we live our lives than Steve Jobs.
Go on, call me an Apple fanboy. Go on. The fact that I heard about the passing away of Steve Jobs last night on a device he invented, pretty much says it all… and I am not the only one.
In fact, I would bet that the vast majority of people who really cared about his death read the sad news on their shiny “i” product or Mac.
I’m sure you have heard all this before – but the man was a visionary. Not often does a man die and gets reactions from Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, Steven Spielberg, Rupert Murdoch, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the founders of Google among others. The very way we live our lives today was effected by his decisions at the company he loved working at.
You remember the iPod? It was a revolution. The very notion of wearing white earphones now completely embodies it’s own meaning. The whole success of the iPod was based around the simplistic nature that “things just work”. The way that iTunes, the iTunes store, and the culture of it all was part of one genius plan to build up the brand of the “i” and Apple.
There are some remarkable things that aren’t even Apple-made but still had a profound impact on us. Take iTunes – which was said to be the “greatest bit of software available on Windows” – which has changed and dominated the landscape of the music industry like no other. The fact that iTunes and it’s success merely existed was seen to actually save music in general, from the fears in the early millennium about mass-music piracy.
Even elements of the Windows came from Jobs. Typefaces and fonts were first introduced on the Mac, so was the point-and-click mouse. Even the very nature of looking at a screen with a graphical user interface was put into place by Steve.
Jobs always went by the methodology that Apple doesn’t sell ‘junk’. See this video, where he explains exactly what Apple’s goals are – to make products that they are proud to sell, and happy to recommend onto their friends and family. It is remarkable for a company goal to not have any financial incentive at all – it simply wasn’t at the front of Job’s approach to Apple.
The fact that the company genuinely cared about the products they were selling showed. No other company was about passion, quality and care as much as Apple, rather than hardcore nitty-gritty financial stuff.
Similarly, Jobs’ attitude was that innovation had nothing to do with how much money you had for R&D. When Apple first came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. “It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”
I believe that it was this approach that made Apple so successful today.
When Jobs came back to Apple in 1997, when the company was on the brink of collapse, a new Apple age begun. Steve was not a man to worry about competition or defeat. You may have seen this rather awkward address back in the day when it was Bill Gates that came to Apple’s help. Notice too the boos from the audience. They were right to feel the competition, but wrong to underestimate how incredible the deal was and how it would literally save Apple – something that Steve could predict, and something he had to do no matter the corporate opinion.
It was because Steve thought differently. In this famous Apple ad (above), the quote “the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are usually the ones that do”. I don’t think that at the time, anyone could have envisioned where Apple would be in 14 years time.
But yet, there was still something about Steve and Apple that made us all want to buy. Unlike any other company in the world, Apple is like a faith. We believe in the products. There are some folks out there who buy Apple gadgets on the basis that they know their life will change if they buy the product – and if I may say so, fair play to them.
To that ‘following’ – Steve was their leader. The showman. Every keynote performance was genuinely something to get excited about, and Jobs knew this.
So his obituary on BBC News concludes, Jobs was a man who had total belief in his own abilities and a shortage of patience for anyone who failed to agree with him. His great gifts were an ability to second guess the market and an eye for well designed and innovative products that everyone would buy.
His commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005 makes a great read and shows the personal side to Jobs’ life. One particular quote stays in my head “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” Think about that – just imagine how productive the world would be if we all stuck to that ideology!
I’ve owned many Apple products over the years. Mainly of course is my MacBook Pro – supplemented with a couple of iPod’s, and iPhone and even an iPad. Does this make me a fanboy? I have these products because by following Apple’s own ethos, I would be happy to recommend them to friends as they genuinely are fantastic products. I love Apple because of the genius of the company and the products they deliver… something that Jobs was part responsible for, I’m sure. Is there anything wrong with that?
Of course, debate goes on about Apple’s future minus it’s figurehead. Nothing will change on a day to day basis – but frankly the company will never be the same. I fear that there simply won’t be the same ‘spark’ in coming up product launches, but there again we can only but learn from Steve’s unique way of doing things.
I don’t usually admit to things I did wrong, however there is one memory I wish to forget for ever. Before my older sister got her first iPod – so this must have around when I was 11 – I took the attitude “Apple sucks.” It was a car journey, and the argument broke out between my sister and mum about Apple. A company that I had no knowledge of, and a judgement based on nothing.
Since then, my attitude to brands (not just Apple!) have changed entirely. No longer will I ever say that something sucks before I have a go.
I don’t think we will ever see another inventor, creative, genius or businessman like Steve Jobs. And through all this, the man had continuing health problems – even a liver transplant. He was also behind Pixar, creators of some of my all time favourite childhood movies, like Toy Story.
More so, he could have thrown in the towel ages ago. He made millions in his life – and many were shocked he didn’t just retire after his first health scare in 2005 – yet he continued on fighting and working for the company he loved right up until the last few months of his life. For this, I have the most respect for. My money is on the fact one of the last things he watched was the keynote coverage of the iPhone 4S product launch.
Of all the realistic and possible ways of governing a country, it is clear that a capitalist democracy is the best, and many would agree.
However democracy in the UK has it’s limitations, and I intend to make my thoughts clear here. You may remember that in early May, we had a general election. People voted in their millions, all picking MP’s from their constituencies to help govern the country. It worked, turns out the Tories got the most votes, but whilst doing so, lacked a majority, and instead took the Lib Dems in with them forming a coalition.
And now they are demanding five years of this. Great, an election with 29,691,780 votes, and not one of these actually voting for the coalition we got. Not to mention it was Nick Clegg who chose to join the Tories in coalition, shaping the future of the country – a decision so massive for the future, and was conducted by a man who’s party shares only 8.8% of the seats in the House of Commons.
Some people think that Proportional Representation (PR) is a good alternative to the current first-past-the-post system. And whilst it may deliver more proportional results for the winning party, PR increasingly opens up more opportunities for smaller political parties (such as UKIP, Green Party, BNP, Independents, etc.) who will gain more MP seats, reducing the number of the main political parties – meaning it will be even less likely for the main two parties, Labour and the Conservatives to get their crucial majorities.
The other reason for my dislike of PR is that voting in a general election will require you to indicate in a rank order who would like to see as your next governing party. This may be ok for some, but my idea of voting is to vote for the ONE person I would like to see in power, simple as that. In constituencies where political parties, such as the BNP, which you may highly disagree with – you will be forced to vote for them somehow in that rank order.
Not even to mention that given the votes in the 2010 election, the BNP gained twice as many votes (563,743) in the popular vote than the Green Party (285,616) did, so who would you expect gets the elected MPs? The Greens got 1, but the BNP got none. If these results were under proportional representation, the BNP could have ultimately got 2 or even 3 MP’s into the Commons for this government. Think of it like that.
Aside from PR, I think the coalition is doing well. It is about time that we had a strong government trying to structure a decent economic recovery.
However Monday’s news was the “Big Society” plans being announced by David Cameron. I admit that I am more a Conservative supporter than any other party, but this Big Society bullshit is really rubbing things in. I, as a citizen on this country, do not need to be told how to live my life – let alone being part of a voluntary group that takes control of certain public services – which I personally feel is an insult to those hardworking people that do this already as their paid job.
And then it raises the question about who is right for what job in the cabinet, and it doesn’t take long to see that what we see in some positions is clueless people making huge decisions about sectors they know nothing about. Take for example, Andrew Lansley, the current Health Secretary – who has never been a doctor, nor has ever studied medicine. The closest he gets is his father, formerly a pathologist. Therefore how are we meant to believe for a second that he knows what’s best for doctors and nurses in the NHS? Surely a better person to ask would be Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary… He was a GP before becoming an MP, and he read Medicine at university, but no, Fox now has a job controlling the armed forces – something he knows nothing today.
The same goes for Micheal Gove, the Education Secretary. Never a teacher, nor head teacher, examiner, schools governor, etc. The closest he gets is an arts collection and a wife whose a journalist – surely he’d be better suited as an advisor to the Culture and Media Secretary?
I could go on, and turns out Labour was even worse. Over the past 13 years they had charge, cabinet ministers dotted between jobs all over the place in different sectors, as if they were teenagers looking for work experience in different industries.
So this is it. Democracy, where the cabinet contains people that can only presume what’s best for the sectors the instruct. Great.
We all know the real musts that you must never do while drunk (eg. drink and drive), but in this post I would like to share some things (from my personal, and others experiences) that you should not do while drunk, except the obvious. This is absolutely not a post to persuade people away from drinking – that’s just mad and a huge kill joy – just advice for what NOT to do when you get hammered. Enjoy.
Take a mental note of these things as what NEVER to do once you’ve been drinking!
1. Send text messages from your phone.
This is my number one rule – after you get your lift back home, turn your phone OFF, and give it to someone you trust who is not drunk… otherwise, the consequences can be disastrous. I speak from personal experience when one time I texted my dad when I was extremely drunk asking if he had any beer I could drink (incidentally, he was four thousand miles away at the time… on holiday…), and another time when I texted someone that I had previously fancied… with embarrassing consequences. But the point is this; when you are drunk… you can text ANYTHING. There was some bloke in America, and I kid you not – triggered an FBI investigation when he rather drunkenly texted his islamic friend and talking about 9/11.
Taking a break from my normal technology or design related posts, I thought I would share my experience of Swine Flu.
Turns out that I caught the virus on the week of the 16th August, and I suffered from it on the Thursday to Sunday. I have to say – it was nasty. I had a killer headache, a massive fever, frequent chills, muscle pains and a rather upset stomach (mind you, I wasn’t sick, which I was happy about…).
Initially, I dismissed the idea that it was actually Swine Flu since I knew absolutely no one else with the virus, and even bigger give away was that I had suffered no such ‘cold like’ symptoms; such as coughing, sneezing, runny noses, runny eyes, etc.
However, a few days after falling ill, and getting better, it turns out I had passed the illness onto my mother – who, suffered a lot worse (probably because she’s a women and can’t deal with pain as well!). It was then we gave it the thought that we could both have had Swine Flu.
After ringing up the rather unhelpful Swine Flu Pandemic Service (England only), it turns out that there are strains of Swine Flu that are less serious – without the cold symptoms. We didn’t get sent Tamiflu, since we had both got better rather quickly.
To be honest, it wasn’t that bad – for me at least.
Here is a list of 6 of my favourite movies (in no particular order) in which the narrative follows the life of a certain character. All are well worth a watch – and made me feel so much better about my role in life.
Slumdog Millionaire
Ok, so if the number of awards and Oscar’s this one got doesn’t prove to you how much the hype is worth about this movie – well, just believe me when I say it really is. It’s a very powerful story following Jamal, a ‘slumdog’ from Mumbai and his life as a child. The movie begins where he is being tortured into admitting whether he cheated in a game of the indian version of ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’. As the episode of the programme is played back to us, each question asked has a story relative to Jamal’s life.
The Departed
This movie has probably the most confusing storyline I have ever come across in my lifetime of watching movies. Full of corruption, love, crime, family – the whole thing portrays the life of a police officer as he goes from college into adulthood, and, eventually, death (whoops, just given away a spoiler there – but it’s very predicable anyway!). All the actors have brilliant roles and the whole thing just works well.
Brokeback Mountain
Probably the most controversial movie in recent times, Brokeback Mountain was a fantastic movie. The movie follows the lives of two friends in a gay relationship over a 20 year relationship. Granted, it’s not everyones cup of tea – but the movie comes to an incredibly moving and sad close – definitely worth a watch, whoever you are.
The Shawshank Redemption
Currently the #1 highest rated movie on IMDb, it’s easy to see why. The movie is the life of Andy Dufresne, an innocent man sent to Shawshank prison, for a crime we are led to believe he never committed. He serves 20 years, and on the day he arrives, his soon-to-be best friend, Red (played by Morgan Freeman) completes his first 20 years of prison life. I can’t give to much more away, but the movie uncovers the corruption and life of Shawshank right up until the day he leaves. An amazing film.
Amélie (Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain)
A french film now, which you’ll have to watch with subtitles, is all about the ‘fabulous life of Amélie Poulain’ as translated from the french title. Starting at the opening credits with her birth, her alone childhood, moving onto her early life, and then onto the young woman she is now. The film is almost in a sense a diary or documentary (for example, the convention of using a narration) of her life in a matter of days where she uncovers the lives of others that relate around her. While sad and moving in places, it’s funny and feel-good in others.
To Kill A Mockingbird
I would strongly recommend you read the book first, then the movie. What people say about how the story of Scout and Jem being the children of Atticus, the only white lawyer ever to try defending a black man in a fair trail in 40′s deep-south America – is a fantastic setting for the film. The old black and white movie may not be up to specs on effects or quality – the life from the viewpoint of Scout is certainly very interesting.
Well, for those that haven’t been around the past couple of days, or just haven’t generally heard the news stories about Ross/Brand, this is a summary of what happened, and what I think should happen about it.
On the 18th October, Russell Brand with guest presenter Jonathan Ross presented a radio show on BBC Radio 2, which had be pre-recorded two days earlier. A really good timeline of events can be found here. Basically, the two presenters prank called actor Andrew Sachs and left a bunch of obscene messages on his answerphone about his granddaughter, who Brand claimed to have slept with. Since then there has been over 30,000 complaints sent to the BBC and Ofcom about the broadcast, Brand has resigned, Ross has been suspended for 12 weeks, and BBC Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas has quit.
In my opinion, this should never have happened in the first place. The BBC have a job to restrict pre-recorded content, and had 2 days to do so, but they didn’t… there should be stronger restrictions in place I believe. Ok – so they may have thought the show was funny, and a great laugh, but they team at the radio station should remember that their content should cater for all because of being license funded, and this clearly offended some… had this been broadcast on a commercial station such as Fox FM, there problem would be nowhere near as bad.
Although, having said all that, if I were to have listened to the show, I think I would have just laughed and enjoyed the show – thats just who I am. The Radio 2 team made a mistake – it’s over, learn for another time. Ross/Brand have clearly paid a fair price (suspension and resignation) and now things should just move on.
I was also interested to hear that only two complaints were received on the day of broadcast, and only a few more the following day. Infact, 9 days after the broadcast, there was only 1500 or so complaints. Only when the story hit mainstream news media, both print, e-media, and broadcasting, did the number really start to dramatically go up – which if I’m honest is a bit pathetic knowing that people are either reminded to complain, or complaining when the only hear about the news story. Quite honestly, those sort of people can just listen to something else if what they listened to they don’t like.
My name is Moggy, and I moan. My interests are web design, graphic design, technology, Apple products, politics, media and geography. Plus a few other random things.
I hope you enjoy all my posts. If you do, why not pass the word onto a friend, leave a comment, subscribe to the RSS, or even get in touch with me?
Lots of love all you gorgeous people!
Mogs
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