A rather long entry about how things are never how they seem

Over the summer I read a book called 'Freakonomics', which is fairly well know, and ever since I've read their blog when I've had a chance. I'm a big fan of the idea of looking at the whole picture and accounting for trends in society in ways that you wouldn't think of. I think it links back to Psychology A-Level, where you spend half an essay talking about why a study was really flawed and how you could never draw a solid conclusion from anything. At the moment there's a really interesting bit about two things. The first is about South Africa driving laws. Driving tests are so difficult in South Africa that they actually have really dangerous roads. People are actually more likely to drive without a licence or get a fake driver's licence than try the real test. Not what you'd expect to see really. Similarly, America has spent $1 billion on sexual abstinance-only education (shocking in its own right) which actually leads kids to have just as much sex as other kids except that STD transmission is worse in the former group as they don't learn about contraception. it's really interesting.

However, on the flip-side, sometimes I sit back and just thinking - 'is it just me, or is everyone just really stupid'?! That's not meant in an arrogant, teenage way, but sometimes I just cant get my head around people's ignorance sometimes. Thsi goes back to something I was saying to Eleanor a few weeks back - 'I always thought that things that I consider common sense aren't actually common sense for most people' which is very true. And it's not as if I'm super-genius-intelligent either. I'm not stupid granted, but I educate myself and make judgements on sound common sense (but of course I'm not perfect) so people - pick up a book now and again! Or something. God, I don't know where that came from! Ranty Rand makes a return.

Another thing that's in the Freakonomics blog is about digital music. Now I'm quite a firm believer that hard copies of music will still be made no matter what happens with digital music and it's quite interesting what people attribute the decline in music sales to. The factors mentioned include:

1.  That the music industry hasn't found genres that capture the interests of consumers. Think about it, over the past few years guitar music has become really popular, even parents are listening to The Killers now. Popular music is no longer pop any more and so I think it marks a shift in the market, that record companies don't quite know how to profit from. It doesn't help that music seems more disposable now.

2. There's been a hell of a lot of industry cost-cutting lately.

3. Other forms of entertainment have seen a rise in sales. DVD's and coputer games for example. 

4. Online sales mean that people may tend to buy individual songs whereas before they may have had to buy a whole album for the one song they liked.

I mean, they're just a few examples but I think it really shows how the bigger picture is more complicated than any Daily Mail headline can make out. I've no doubt that online and 'real' shops can co-exist and I've said it for years. However, this is down to what decisions are made out in the 'real' world regarding these issues.

Anyway, that stuff aside, I can't say I've been doing much really. Work is fine although it really is funny how days I think are going to be awful turn out ok in the end, I'm glad to say. Things really start to be calming down thank God! And I don't feel half as stressed as I did. Funny really, considering that I've got an essay due in a week. I'm not worried about it though. I was making soe noted last night and I think I have enough to talk about. However, I have another one due in three weeks which is really difficult. But once this one is out of the way I'll really crack on with it all.

Here's a funny story. The other day at work Debbie came into my office and said, 'I bet you like 'Rock Lobster by the B-52s' (obviously continuing a conversation she'd had with someone else, it wasn't that random!' to which I said 'Hell yeah, I love the B-52s.' Talk turned to Sophie-Ellis Bextor who I said had written a song with Fred Schieder. And then Debbie said, I bet you like The Sundays too. I said that I'd never been a fan and she said, 'but you're their target audience!'. This is going to be good I thought - 'and what audience is that?', 'Fey boys!'. Fey boys! Needless to say I wasn't happy and pretty much conveyed this to her. 'But wouldn't you say you were 'fey'?'. I've been called many things in my time but fey isn't one of them :s I can cope with being called things, but when it comes to stuff linked to my sexuality it usually pisses me off because of the connotations associated with being 'camp' and the like. There's more to me than that. I rarely come into contact with direct homophobia but my God, am I endlessly patronised.   

I occurred to me yesterday that I really ought to crack on with the book for my book group meeting. It's next Wednesday I think and I'm still reading my book about the kings and queens of England, which is really interesting. I've learnt a lot.