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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.
Here It Goes Again
Nov. 5th, 2007 08:23 pmRight, I need to write an entry because my entire life is getting on top of me and I've not had chance to sit down and do one for ages. Damn queen? Moi? I really do feel like that at the moment though. I wasn't even that busy this weekend but it just seemed to fly by doing stupid stuff like going recycling and shopping. Anyway, more on that sortly.
On Friday I basically got a day off work to go and help with the College's graduation. Because we're a small Uni we have our courses vaildated by Leeds University and so our graduation was there, in the Great Hall, which is a really nice venue. It was also really good that it was a beautiful day, untypically mild and sunny for this time of year (so that's where the summer went, we're having it now!). Anyway, there were two ceremonies and me and Liz marshalled one each. I shepherded people in the morning which was fine and then we went to a really posh lunch/buffet that the Uni had done for us. It was so lovely that we all just wanted to stay there. I have to say that the whole day was really enjoyable. I got to chat to other work people who I wouldn't normally see that often. I chatted to Amy about her new job and others so that was nice. In retrospect that glass of wine at dinner followed by coffee wasn't such a good idea. Not just because I spout rubish when I've been drinking but I needed a clear head for what the hell I was doing at the afternoon ceremony! So, after lunch (and God that lunch was good!) there was the second ceremony which I did. I had to wear a gown and carry a medieval stick too! So bizarre. And just like my own graduation there were all manner of costumes that people were wearing. It was great! Walking through everyone with my stick and then sitting on-stage wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. I'll probably end up doing next year in an attempt to attend a Graduation every year. The year after will be my own though! Someone took a photo so I'll try and get hold of it soon.
As previously mentioned the weekend was mostly taken up with house stuff. We did a lot of this on Saturday because we cooked for James' parents in the evening. We had a deal that James would do the main course and I'd do the dessert and it turned out great! I'm still really pleased with how it all went actually. James did baked cod topped with tomato and breadcrumbs and I did banoffee pie (on recommendation from James as her banoffee pie is legendary for being chewy as hell!). We even did melon as starter. So yeah, it was a sucessful night! Hoorah.
Over the course of the weekend we ended up watching some films. 'My Little Eye' being the first one. I wasn't going to watch it but made the mistake of sitting downstairs when it was on and got sucked into it! I'm not really a big fan of horror movies anyway so wasn't all that keen. Nothing seemed to happen until the very end (which I liked) although the tension was held high throughout, but I felt that because of this structure it dragged a bit. It wasn't bad though, although it wasn't my kind of thing. 'Dick Tracy' should have been more my kind of thing but it was just odd! It was enjoyable and the look of it was great but there was something not quite right about it that I can't quite figure out. Maybe the structure? Maybe Warren Beatty's face not being able to express emotion (was botox invented in 1990?)? I wish I knew.
Time just feels like it's flashing by at the moment and it's making feel rushed. I don't feel like I have time to sit down and do anything that isn't controlled by extraneous factors. Work's the same. I've been in meetings alllllllll day today, graduation on Friday, off last Thursday. I don't feel like I've done any of my own work since last Wednesday. Everything needs to slow down and I really need to start doing Uni stuff *cries*.
I must say that this is the first year in a while that I've not done anything for National Terrorist Day, sorry, Bonfire Night ina while. We were going to go to Bolton Abeey which would have been great but James isn't feeling too great. I don't mind but I do miss it. I like fireworks!
Ooh, Dragon's Den's on now!
On Friday I basically got a day off work to go and help with the College's graduation. Because we're a small Uni we have our courses vaildated by Leeds University and so our graduation was there, in the Great Hall, which is a really nice venue. It was also really good that it was a beautiful day, untypically mild and sunny for this time of year (so that's where the summer went, we're having it now!). Anyway, there were two ceremonies and me and Liz marshalled one each. I shepherded people in the morning which was fine and then we went to a really posh lunch/buffet that the Uni had done for us. It was so lovely that we all just wanted to stay there. I have to say that the whole day was really enjoyable. I got to chat to other work people who I wouldn't normally see that often. I chatted to Amy about her new job and others so that was nice. In retrospect that glass of wine at dinner followed by coffee wasn't such a good idea. Not just because I spout rubish when I've been drinking but I needed a clear head for what the hell I was doing at the afternoon ceremony! So, after lunch (and God that lunch was good!) there was the second ceremony which I did. I had to wear a gown and carry a medieval stick too! So bizarre. And just like my own graduation there were all manner of costumes that people were wearing. It was great! Walking through everyone with my stick and then sitting on-stage wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. I'll probably end up doing next year in an attempt to attend a Graduation every year. The year after will be my own though! Someone took a photo so I'll try and get hold of it soon.
As previously mentioned the weekend was mostly taken up with house stuff. We did a lot of this on Saturday because we cooked for James' parents in the evening. We had a deal that James would do the main course and I'd do the dessert and it turned out great! I'm still really pleased with how it all went actually. James did baked cod topped with tomato and breadcrumbs and I did banoffee pie (on recommendation from James as her banoffee pie is legendary for being chewy as hell!). We even did melon as starter. So yeah, it was a sucessful night! Hoorah.
Over the course of the weekend we ended up watching some films. 'My Little Eye' being the first one. I wasn't going to watch it but made the mistake of sitting downstairs when it was on and got sucked into it! I'm not really a big fan of horror movies anyway so wasn't all that keen. Nothing seemed to happen until the very end (which I liked) although the tension was held high throughout, but I felt that because of this structure it dragged a bit. It wasn't bad though, although it wasn't my kind of thing. 'Dick Tracy' should have been more my kind of thing but it was just odd! It was enjoyable and the look of it was great but there was something not quite right about it that I can't quite figure out. Maybe the structure? Maybe Warren Beatty's face not being able to express emotion (was botox invented in 1990?)? I wish I knew.
Time just feels like it's flashing by at the moment and it's making feel rushed. I don't feel like I have time to sit down and do anything that isn't controlled by extraneous factors. Work's the same. I've been in meetings alllllllll day today, graduation on Friday, off last Thursday. I don't feel like I've done any of my own work since last Wednesday. Everything needs to slow down and I really need to start doing Uni stuff *cries*.
I must say that this is the first year in a while that I've not done anything for National Terrorist Day, sorry, Bonfire Night ina while. We were going to go to Bolton Abeey which would have been great but James isn't feeling too great. I don't mind but I do miss it. I like fireworks!
Ooh, Dragon's Den's on now!
