Its all about to kick off...
Tonight will be the start of a triology of debates during the election campaign and that seems to be a national occasion of monumentous proportions... so monumentous, I have returned to my blog once more.Yes, today the main leaders and Nick Clegg will debate on such issues as the economy and welfare and pensions and the banks and the list goes on. Already the claws have come out from the Tory party with their rather funny 'reverse psychology' (I think) take on the Labour Party and Gordon Brown's rather poor handling of just about every single issue to do with government.
It is, as every single one of us interested or with any care in politics know, the Tories to lose. It is nigh on imposssible, inconcievable that David Cameron would waltz into the studio in Manchester, without an idea in his head on the issues to be raised. But this still may not be enough. Voters are starting to realise something which the Tories will fear most, the Hung Parliament. If Nick Clegg decided to team up with Gordon Brown and play Cameron in the middle, the Tory leader would be a dead man walking.
Nick Clegg is the most powerful man in this election. If he tilts either way then he could effectively finish the hopes of either of the two leaders. But if he seemed to make a stupid, lewd, crude remark through the debate, then his presence could become a burden on the party he leans to.
Gordon Brown on the other hand, all his words will have been fed to him from Lord Mandelson, who he regularly boards the Death Star with. Don't get me wrong, I think Gordon Brown is an honest man. He's just a lousy Prime Minister. He has steered us wrong, not on purpose, but somehow, every time an important decision has come up. And I will never forgive Labour for going into Iraq on false pretences with America. That is more of an issue with Labour than with him.
At the moment, I have to admit that I am gunning for the Tory party. But Nick Clegg, will he the most important man in the room. His favour will decide the debate.But if he were to make one mistake in the debate then his career is over.
So, all in all, what I'm trying to say, fundementally speaking, when we look at all sides of the argument, it is obvious that, this debate could decide the course of the election and the course of each and every one of their careers. Which we already knew (See this is why teenagers don't vote...). But to me, the most worrying scenario out of all of this hyperbole, is that all three leaders turn up and instead of going out and trying to make politics an interesting and important issue once more, go on the defensive and just fire out lines from their manifestos or use phrases which they have used more then twelve times. If that happens, then none of them deserve to win (the debate, but if it continues for the next two, the election).
Some will ace them, some will fail them, all will suffer them
31/01/10
If anyone looks at that and starts panicking about that, I do apologise. It's just that, in the run up to the GCSE choices for next year, I have to make calls about what I want to do for a living, how much I want to earn, what career I want to go into, what A levels I want to do etc. And that can be quite over whelming. I worry about making the wrong decision when it comes to choosing what dessert I should have after dinner, so this is a nervous shock at times.
Don't get me wrong, I know I have to make these choices and I have to put everything I have in resources into those subjects but that still makes me scared. I pretty much know what I am going to do as GCSEs. BUT (and there is always a but with me) are they the right choices for me.
I think they are but you never know until you actually start doing the courses. Which won't b until next year. Which is too late to change. So if I hate the subject I'm dead in the water. Which is scary. Very scary.
And it has kind of started already. the work load has increased spectacularly in the last week. I have 5 project in for this coming week or something ludicrous like that. But I don't mind that. I'm okay with the hard graft and the long nights with little or no sleep. That I can handle. What I can't manage is the fact that for everything we say from now on in we are now judged, marked, graded, valued and put under the microscope for. So a harmless comment can be turned into a supernova.
And in the end, what ever you want to do has to be checked carefully by your teachers and you have to consult their 'professional opinion' which is all very well and good but some children step up to the plate for GCSE years... usually.
In the dilemma of the two or three sciences, I want to do three, mainly because I'd like to have the option to do medicine but also because I think I'm good enough, but if I make too many general mistakes in a difficult Biology paper, or I get mixed up between a proton and an electron in Chemistry, I'll be doing two.
I just think that we as students should have more power over our future. Because most of us can be quite smart if we want to be...most of us. http://www.berro.com/joke/bestGCSEanswers.htm
Obama's First Year.. B+ sounds about right to me
24/01/10
It really is quite ridiculous how much we expected of this man in such short time. We expected him to come in and blast his way through the recession and wave his magic wand so that the conflict in Iraq would end. But of course, he hasn't. While we taken in 2008 by the fact that he was arguably the most convincing man on the planet, there was no way that he could do what we all expected him to do. They're were always going to be at least some people who were disappointed with his performance over the year. It was inevitable.
But what has he done? What has Barack Obama done in his first year in office? Well, for starters, on his tour of the Middle East, he got them to support him and when it came for him to deliver his speech, he was met by rapturous applause. Which doesn't seem like much but that means that he gets their support so that when a new President comes in, voters will have to think carefully - hopefully - if they can have a good relationship with the Middle East with the new President. Obama inspired change and in this case, the change was good. The change from Bush - who, if I remember correctly, got a shoe thrown at him in the Middle East - to Obama inspires hope for millions of people around the world.
Then of course there is the stimulus package which some people ahev forgotten about. He got this plan ready reasonably quickly and while I agree that, as an outsider looking in, the economy of the world is still not in what you would call great shape, it's a lot better than it was when he first came in. And he has taken on Wall Street in the last week but I would have to admit, that may be something to do with Scott Brown being elected into Congress.
Then there is Guantanamo Bay which he closed down which is a huge step in the human rights campaign and is a huge step forward as a country as a whole.
So yes. I would agree that a B+ is about right. Room for improvement though.
The greatest social experiment in the world
21/01/10
Went onto the school's forum showing all the changes that everyone wants enforced. Obviously, the main concern amongst most pupils is technology and that there should be more computers everywhere and that there should be better access to the internet and so on and so forth. But they want it all to be changed, weirdly as it is to do with technology in the library.
Let me paint you a picture. People have been complaining constantly without fail, every day of the week, that there has to be less censorship on the internet as it stops basic research projects and means that most of the work would have to be done at home. Recently, a girl complained that she was stopped from doing her art research as the images were blocked and censored.
There was a similar but not entirely the same system at my previous school, Clifton Lodge. Boys had their own accounts and we could all tell who had been on it last but there was a quota time on the blocked sites that we used on the internet. To cut an extremely long story short, the system walked almost flawlessly until one day in the Summer term, my friends and I walked into the lab to find 'The Sun' opened on the computer, with a Page 3 model opened up in full view of the door. Oh how we laughed, until we realised that we were the prime suspects to do this.
Fortunately for us, nothing was proved, or disproved, so there were no repercussions for us. However, it shows that without constant supervision and a proper boundary system that there are problems. The difference here, is that at St Benedict’s' there is a way to find out who did what when, what he or she had gone on before3 doing so and so forth. So there is an easy way to track people.
The important thing is that there was a quota time at my old school so people could access personal email accounts, watch YouTube videos, play games in their free time. Obviously, it can be argued that there is no need for such things, but if you don't allow certain circumstances to be passed then the amount of cases rises, as we can see from the fact that people in the school are still trying to find ways to sneak a peak at their personal email accounts when the teachers aren't looking and always want to try and play games when nobody is aware.
The quota time idea was flawed as there was no tracking system and while hate having my privacy invaded, at school, there is no such thing as privacy as everyone is watching each other. It's like a survival instinct at times. Some people watch others react to different situations and try to do the same thing, as shown by the competition level in school for exam grades. Imagine if you tell your best friend in school your secrets, the secrets always get out somehow.
Going back to my original point, imagine that the quota time is put in place. And the teachers can watch, you friends can watch, you know they're all watching you but you still play games. The fact that you can do it almost makes it lose its appeal. As some old saying goes, which I heard from a maths teacher many years ago, "The thrill is in the chase.”
The quota time gives you the freedom you want but the privacy you can never really have in this environment. So the people who still end up going on internet games all day, when they're supposed to be working almost get shepherded away from the crowd. And if they do this then at least the teachers can deal with the problem knowingly and easily.
So, my conclusion, fundamentally speaking is that by giving just a bit of freedom to people, the excitement of doing something wrong is lost and therefore, theoretically the amount of problems should decrease.
Am I right? Or have I got this hopelessly wrong?
Step 1 in life... I guess
17/1/10
This Tuesday, all the department heads at my school will be attempting to woo me and my friends into doing their GCSES.
This is very helpful in some respects. We learn what courses we would be taking, what we would do with these pieces of knowledge in later life, what careers we can consider doing. And this is all very well and what I would call 'interesting' in some respects.
But to be completely honest, at the end of the day, if you end up with your masters or PhD in an otherwise completely useless subject which is now a derelict career. And then you realise that what everybody had told you, that what you are doing was the hard part and when you get your qualifications you will get a job handed to you, you realise they were lying.That was the easy bit. I have to find a good job. I have to set up funds for university for my children and so onm and so forth.
So, I don't want my teacher to tell me what subjects I should do but what I can do with these subjects. I want them to fight tooth and nail over me, so that my friends and I do their subject. I want them to treat us like the most important people in the world (. I want them to make us feel special as if what we do will change the world. Which must of us obvioucly wonj't but for those of us with the potential, we should be given the best possible chance by ourselves, our teachers and parents. We step up (usually), our parents step up to let us come here and the teachers have to do their bit. Which, by the by, they usually do. But for us to choose their GCSEs, they have to lay out all the pros and cons of the situation and give us the best possible chance of choosing the right GCSEs for us.
Selfish? Obviously. But that's how we should be treated. As if our opinions matter and what we choose will change everything.
My learned blogging superiors...
13/1/10I have to make a few confessions before this goes to far. I do not have facebook. I do not have twitter. I do not have any social network sites whatsoever.And at the moment I don't want any. Firstly, my mother is not totally sold on it so even if I want facebook, the likelihood of me getting facebook is about as likely as me winning the lottery... ther's a better chance a shark will chomp off my leg.
My mum is not to keen on this blog either. She hates the idea of it. Well, hate is a bit strong. I think you would call it a suspicion and a weariness of the blog. And I don't mind that. I've been expecting this blog to get some uncomfortably close attention put on it because she has strict rules on the whole internet scenario.
Let me set the picture. I'm not allowed Facebook until after GCSEs. You t ink I would mind but honestly, I couldn't care less... for now. I know eventually that will change and I will request time after time after time. But she will stick by it until the very end. And for that, I thank her. Now, I'm not what those street hip people would call a 'mama's boy' but I do listen to her. Because she and my dad know me well enough to stop me from doing that to myself. Because when I get it for the first time I will be on it 24/7. Which worries me because I don't want to be a Facebook addict. I don't want to be talking over the internet. Because, when you think about it, it lacks some real crucial elements. Such as spontinaity, facial expression, improvisation. Sure, you can have fun on the internet but you can't have anywhere near the same level of communication as meeting your friends in a Starbucks with a cup of espresso in one hand and a Metro newspaper in the other. And even if it is a waste of time and you talk about nothing of any significance, what do you remember more? A facebook wall comment and chuckling quitely to yourself or the laughs at the park after you fall over a tree stump (which by the way, is not a nice feeling in the driving rain...which was when I chose to do it).
That is why even though everyone willl marvel at the wonders of facebook and be baptised in all its glory, I will be waiting for my friends at the park. Until I turn 16 and pass my GCSEs so I become the same as every other teenager...reclusive, dull and ever so slightly dull at times. Can't wait.
Blog Ettiquete... No idea what so ever
11/1/10
Did some research today on how not to offend any other bloggers in the cyber world that we are now so absorbed in. I was told numerous amounts of things, all slightly different but coming to the same points as each other. These are the ones which were continuously repeated.
Whenever using someone else's work that you must acknowledge it and pass over some credit to the actual person who did the work. Perfectly acceptable statement and common sense. Otherwise its plagiarism. Probably.
Then there is the whole point of not mixing opinions with fact. Again perfectly acceptable. You preach the Gospel not the summarized pocket version. But the whole point of a blog is to put your opinion out there. (I think. Not totally sure but I'll stick with it.)
Never get into a war with other bloggers on differing opinions. Which makes sense. If you get into a fight then there will be casualties. Mainly your pride and self dignity. Fortunately, I lost all of that a long time ago.
Don't get into insult wars with people you don't know. Same as the previous rule but not the same. If you get into an insult fight with people you don't know and publicly insult them for all the world to see, then your blog can be shut down. Apparently.
Make it clear and simple for the reader to read. Again, acceptable. It won't be easy, but if you're bothered to do this then you may as well do it right. That probably means I'm doing it wrong.
Stick to your point and let anyone be able to read it. This one interested me. While the Internet is all very 'young' and 'hip', older people do use it and they do read blogs. So they have to understand what I am writing or there is no use in the blog. As well as that you have to stick to the point and be quick and sharp as a knife.
Listen to your comments and feedback. So obvious apparently but never done.
So in essence, the rules of the blogging world are the same as the rules of the school yard. Don't try to nick somebody else's work because you will be hunted. Don't put what you think over the truth because it'll put you back a few steps. Don't try and be clever and get ahead of the game by slating someone off because you will be kept back for a while behind the school bike sheds (in this case, the Facebook wall). Don't try to fight with the older kids because they'll tell you to 'shove off'. When talking to your mates, don't try and speak to quickly and rush your point, when you're telling a joke or a story keep it short and simple but interesting and let others into it and listen to anyone who gives you advice on how to keep up with the 'popular' kids. (These metaphors may not work exactly, but they simplify it for my miniscule pea sized brain.)
Which is probably what I haven't done here.
My First Picture Post
10/1/10
I took this when the Summer holidays had just begun and my family had gone out for a special occasion which I can't remember (...I think it was my dad's birthday). I saw this car, a Corvette, which just bowled me over, the sound it made when it revved... it was like nothing I had ever heard out of a car before... something you only hear about on Top Gear. I would like to make it clear that I am not a car nut, I have no idea what the entire name of the car is, I don't completely understand how he engine works, I don't keep an archive of books which I turn to on a rainy day but I take an interest in the machines as they are the most reliable, most used and most convenient ways of . That started to make me want to take more photos for a photo montage which I could assemble for the end of the holidays. Alas, like all things I think of on a whim, I realised that my home would be the place I would spend a lot of my time and therefore there were very little interesting things I could take pictures of. So like most things that I come up with on the spot, my desire fizzled out and I had a very enjoyable, stress free holiday... (although how stressed can you be when you have no work to do?).
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