Stop Frowning At Me

Just watching tv, and realised how fake the entire system is. Grrrr.

There was an advert for some Loreal product for men which was supposed to smooth out lines on your face. The funniest but about it was that it was actually called " Anti-Expression Cream"! As if it's actually frowned upon (actually, that's a facial expression that presumably Loreal are trying to outlaw!) to show any form of expression. Buy this cream, smooth out all your features until you show no emotion and we all look the same

I think if this really does work, it's the sort of product that corporations and governments would be killing for! Anti-expression cream - removes all form of free expression, free thought, and protest. Imagine how easy it would be for them!

It would be the easy way of trying to create the kind of people that the big companies want - mindless automatons that just walk around purchasing their products.

Who Gives a Toss About Choice?

I don't know about anyone else but I get fed up when people constantly talk about choice. Whatever happened to just being able to get good stuff, instead of introducing all this "choice" which ends up meaning big corporations taking away products and services cos the "market" doesn't want them, and that the products themselves become of far lower quality as they try to maximise profits and minimise costs.

I heard someone on the radio talking about the royal mail, saying how great deregulation will be cos people will have choice. Surely I'm not the only one who just appreciates being able to pay 28p and send a letter to the other end of the country that will probably arrive the next day just by putting it in a little red letter box. As Jack Dee says, if you think it's too expensive, you go and take your letter and buy a 28p train ticket and see how far you get!

Or even more so, trying to introduce market forces into the NHS. Since when can (or should) the survival and well-being of humans be dependant on capitalism. Surely it is something that should be provided to everyone on an equal basis. Well, people say, it gives you choice within the health market. How many people fall over, break their leg and are then willing to sit and read brochures of the various hospitals before deciding which one to be taken to. No, most people would just like an Ambulance that takes them to their nearest hospital (if it hasn't already been closed down because it doesn't return a profit!)

Private enterprise and the market is only ever interested in making it's owners and it's shareholders, and cares very little about customers or workers, as they can always get cheaper workers from elsewhere, and they can spend all the money that should be going on improving it's service on advertising to get more customers.

Grrr!

My New Favourite Song

Hello there once again. I am here to tell you I have a new favourite song. Not very exciting I know, but trust me it's great, and you should get it!

These are the lyrics, and I love them!

Am I loud and clear, or am I breaking up?
Am I still your charm, or am I just bad luck?
Are we getting closer, or are we just getting more lost?
I'll show you mine; you show me yours first
Let's compare scars, I'll tell you who's....is worse
Let's unwrite these pages and replace them with our own....words

(Chorus)
We live on front porches and swing life away,
We get by just fine here on minimum wage
If love is a labor I'll slave till the end,
I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand

(Verse 2)
I've been here so long, I think that it's time to move
The winter's so cold, summer's over too....
Let's pack our bags and settle down where palm trees grow
I've got some friends, some that I hardly know
But we've had some times, I wouldn't trade for the world
We chase these days down with talks of the places that we will....go

(Chorus)
We live on front porches and swing life away,
We get by just fine here on minimum wage
If love is a labor I'll slave till the end,
I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand..until you hold my hand(Solo)

I'll show you mine; you show me yours first
Let's compare scars, I'll tell you who's is worse
Let's unwrite these pages and replace them with our own words

(Chorus)
We live on front porches and swing life away,
We get by just fine here on minimum wage
If love is a labor I'll slave till the end,
I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand
Swing life away, Swing life away, Swing life away, Swing life away,

Anyway there you go, just thought I'd share that with you all! It's called Swing Life away, and is by Rise Against!

Verbal Diarrhoea on A Sunday Night

It's amazing how a couple of pints and a couple of glasses of wine loosen up the old thinking chords, and allow you to come up with a bunch of stuff for a blog!

You'll have to forgive me if I go on a bit tonight. I reckon I have at least four topics to tackle, and they may multiply as I get going!

Anyway, let's get going. First off I'm scared! Not in a bad sense, but in quite a real and exciting sense. I;ve got a song by a band called Lit which has the lyric "I love the things that we should fear, but I'm not afraid of being here".That sums up how I feel right now. Was thinking about it last week, that I've never had anything like this before, where I'm going somewhere, and I'm not coming back after a week to carry on at work. I have no work, I have nothing out there, it's just going to be up to me to sort everything out. I think this is exactly why this is going to be good for me. I've never actually had to sort this sort of stuff out myself. I've had to sort out minor stuff out before, but never really something which affects the whole fabric of my life!Even if it doesn't work out for me over there, at least I know that I have it in me to make things change, and do things for myself. I think in some ways, mostly work related, I've been too safe for too long, and it's time I scared myself!

Of course thinking about this made me think about the other thing that was really scaring me!The most important thing to me has always, and will always, be my friends. This is going to be the first time for a long time, if not ever, where I know that I'm not realistically going to be able to pop over and see them. Even when I was in Aberdeen I knew I could just jump on a train or a plane, and come and see everyone. I think very much that the friendship bonds I have will remain the most important thing in my life, and that I never want to give them up for anything. I know I'm off and for a short period of time, in a way, I'm starting a new life, and I'll make new friends along the way (At least I hope I am otherwise I'm gonna have a really crap time!), but my friends over here will always be the most special people to me.

I had a wonderful day today. Just got me a new camera as I mentioned previously, and as I said I was thinking there wasn't anything to do with it till I left. However, I got the urge today to just drive round quite a large portion of this corner of the country known as Norfolk, and take pictures. It's such a good feeling on a Sunday afternoon to just not have anything else to do apart from look for pictures. I'd recommend it if anyone is feeling slightly jaded towards Norfolk. It makes you look around and realise that even if there's not anything that stands out, you can find beauty and interest in everything!

I apologise for my general outpourings here. Well, it's been a while since I posted anything!Firstly I've had some alcohol, and secondly I'm slightly on a high at the moment anyway! It's a silly reason to be on a high, but it's cheered me up!After being on a dating website for a long time with no reponse, no one has ever clicked on me. I thought I'd put a photo up on the site of me though, and it actually got a response.People may not realise it, but that's quite a big thing for me. So many times over the years, people have got to know me through emails or chatting or whatever without having seen me. I generally think (without wanting to sound too big-headed) that I'm a pretty good chap to chat to, and I'm quite funny and generally can hold my own on that side of things, but then they see me and they're a bit disappointed or whatever. However, this time it's ace, cos she actually saw a photo of me and was interested! Get in there. Back of the net. Cash back! Cos, I've just got to figure out what to say to her now!!!!

More Anticipation

Aaaaargh. It's still 3 months or so till I go, but the anticipation is getting stupid. Had another day at work where, despite working hard, managed to get absolutely nothing done as I was at everyone's beck and call! Nevermind, meant that I managed to get to drive around in the car for most of the time listening to random stuff on the radio. I even found myself listening to Radio Broadland at one point. I must have been desperate. I think it was cos I had used up the amount of interest I had in gay performance art in Lancaster, or whatever they were talking about on Radio 4. Didn't even manage to listen to the Archers tonight. Grrr.

Anyway, work at the moment is just emphasising my willing to get away, especially after the weekend. Bought a camera with which I've been thinking of photo's to take whilst I'm in Canada, only prob is I've still 3 months to go. Still having said that, I;m sure I'll be able to thinkg of some creative uses for a new camera (Any ladies in the area wanting to get into glamour modelling, please apply here!) Spent the weekend talking about what we're gonna do when we get over there, and I can't handle it. I wonder if my boss would notice if I hibernated till December?

Anyway, no matter anyhow as it's half ten, I'm about to go to bed and the whole charade starts again tommorrow!

Still at least I got to play cricket tonight, quite possibly the best game devised by anyone ever, so it's not all bad!

Look, just to add a bit of anticipation, I've even managed to figure out how to add photo's of mountains. Yay!

Friday Night, it's time to write

Well at the end of another week. As I wend my way slowly towards leaving for Canada I gradually get more and more bored at work! It almost seems like my boss realises there's no hope for me now! It all just seems a little casual, which would seem to be good, but actually it's getting really dull, and it's encouraging me to do less and less.

Think pretty much all arrangements are done now for Canada. Lift tickets bought, accomodation sorted, plane tickets bought. even got the tickets for the privilege of sitting on a bus for 6 hours to Gatwick.

I think tonight I heard the best quote I've heard for a while though:

"I can't imagine people from the West Country having sensitive teeth. It just doesn't fit."

I'm sure it has some hidden meaning, but I don't get it!.

Newsflash: Technology Reaches Rural Norfolk

Good morning. Incredibly broadband internet has finally reached this little corner of Norfolk. After years of having to go to the local library in order to use the treadmill powered connections, or the slightly more advanced steam powered connection at work (works ok, but the keyboard gets dirty as you're always going in between the computer and shovelling coal to keep it working). Anyway, it's all good news and I have a connection at home, so now I can ramble on for hours. Well, at least I would if it wasn't half past midnight and I didn't have to get up for work tomorrow!