I'm not exactly sure why i decided to add a weblog to my site. To be completely honest, my life is rather ordinary. On a daily basis, it pretty much consists of going to work, coming home, eating dinner, watching tv, doing more work, then going to bed. I love going to bed - especially in winter. In fact that may be on the only thing i like about winter. However, it's only because i have an electric blanket that makes getting into bed in winter something to look forward to. But i digress.
I guess...the only reason i thought i'd add a blog to my site is so i can have a good ol' whinge about the world in general :) These are my opinions only. I don't exepect anyone to agree with any of them. But if you read something that you think is totally right or totally wrong, please feel free to send me an email. I don't claim to have all the answers to everything and am always willing to listen to someone else's opinion.
This is my biggest whinge. I believe all the world needs is - more respect, more consideration and more honesty. Respect for other people and other people's property. Consideration of the actions you take don't hurt others or yourself. And plain simple honesty in what you say and do. This doesn't only apply to the common pleb in the street. It also applies to people in power - in fact, especially the people in power. I believe if more people had these qualities, the world would really be a better place. So how do these get qualities become a part of people's everyday thoughts? I believe it has to start at a young age. The parents, the teachers and anyone else who is responsible for raising children should instill these morals into their upbringing while they aren't yet fully independent and still look toward their elders for advice and guidance.
Essentially, 'good old fashion values' should be promoted as much as possible. I believe most people know the difference between right and wrong. And it just takes one person in a group to remind the others that it's not uncool to do the right thing. The more people there are who think this way - taking responsibility for their actions and looking out for others - the less they will need to rely on other people (solicitors, etc) who take financial advantage of irresponsibility. This is not a proposal for a solution as things stand at the moment...it's a proposal for prevention, before it becomes a problem. For example, if you see a cliff edge, you don't go jumping over the edge, just because the local council hasn't put up a danger sign. It's plainly obvious you may get hurt if you jump off the edge...that's if you stop and think and take some responsibility. Likewise, if there is a wet floor in a supermarket, you don't go running through it just because there's no 'may be slippery when wet' sign. It's common sense. However, if the supermarket management also took more responsibility, they would first look for a mop to clean it up, rather than first looking for the 'slippery when wet' sign. But it can traced back further. If the wet floor was due to a bottle of liquod falling off a poorly stacked shelf, then the person who stacked the shelf should've been more responsible and taken more pride in their work. If the bottle of liquid was stacked properly, but leaked due to damage when packed from the factory, then it should've been the responsibility of the factory worker to remove the damaged bottle. But this is not case of trying to trace back who's fault it was for the wet floor. This is a case of showing if everyone took more responsibility and considered the next person in the chain, there wouldn't be a wet floor. No one would slip on it, break their arm, then want to sue the supermarket for negligence. It wouldn't go to court, no solicitors would be involved, there wouldn't be new laws introduced, the supermarket wouldn't need to pay millions of dollars for insurance, the price of groceries wouldn't be increased to cover the insurance, both parents wouldn't need to go to work to be able to afford to raise a family, so at least one of them could be at home when the children finish school, instead of them roaming the streets getting into mischief, and help teach them respect, consideration and honesty. No more wet floors. Of course the company who makes the 'slippery when wet' signs would need to find something else to make. Maybe a sign that says 'floor dry - run if you like'.
My opinion on this is unfortunately not very positive. The government is not going to do anything to stop the rising cost of petrol for obvious reasons. The problem is not going to go away anytime soon. Not until all the oil on the planet has been completely exhausted...or very slowly, as common sense and honesty prevails and car manufacturers turn their backs on the oil companies and start to fully embrace building cars which run on alternative, clean, efficient fuel. If the choice of fuel power type was as readily available as colour choice, i have no doubt people would buy the cleaner option, providing the performance of the car was not compromised.
If the authorities were really concerned about everyone's health, - as they pretend to be from the millions of dollars they spend on anti-smoking advertisements - they would make smoking illegal. They would ban the manufacture and import of cigarettes. But they won't. There's simply too much money involved. It's the same reason why if a cure for cancer is - or has already been - found, it'll never be released to the public. There's too much money to be made from 'treatments'.
It might be something i shouldn't admit to (at my age)...but i watch The Simpsons every night. And even though i've probably seen every episode several times, i can still sit there and enjoy it. And if they don't don't have it on one night, i almost feel lost. The detail in the animation is a credit to the makers, if you ignore the fact that the characters only have 4 fingers on each hand. Alot of it is simply amusing to watch...but there are some gems of pure genius which are as funny as anything could be. For example, the episode where Homer and Mr Burns are alone in a cabin during a employee binding weekend and at the end they give each other the evil eye, between laughing together. Trust me...it's funny. No really. Well...it's about to come on...so this is all i have to say on the subject.
I've just got my PC back from the repair shop. A few days ago after installing the latest update for my anti-virus program, the PC became completely unstable, making it useless. As i found out from the repair guy, the anti-virus software had congested the PC's processor and essentially made everything, from a desktop photo, running any application to simply copying a file, unuseable. Once the anti-virus software had been uninstalled, everything on the PC worked again...and much quicker. The repair guy mentioned he has seen this same problem with other PC also running the latest versions of popular anti-virus software. When i say popular, i'm talking about Nortons, McAfee and TrendMicro PC-cillin. It's utterly frustrating that the only reason i installed anti-virus software was to protect myself from viruses, and yet it's the actual anti-virus software which has caused the problem. A problem which was so destructive that the PC become inoperable. There's something seriously wrong with that picture. So, after that little episode, i've decided to move completely to Mac. With the new intel Macs, which will allow Windows to be installed as well, it will allow me to run the few windows-only programs i still use. But the beauty of the Mac, is that i won't need to install any anti-virus software on it, which from first-hand experience can be just as bad as getting an actual virus. It's just a shame that the people who write viruses - who are obviously quite intelligent (albeit lacking morals) - don't put their talent to good use instead.
I'm really disappointed that it seems people can't be bothered with helping out anymore. I say 'anymore' ...but i don't know if it's always been this way. To better explain what i'm talking about, i'll give an example. I collect music...so i visit a few cd music stores regularly. And more times than not, if i go into one of these music stores and ask for something, because i can't find it myself, the assistant very confidently and without hesitation says 'no, we don't have that'. Now i'm trying not to be too cynical, but i find this disturbing. These stores have hundreds, if not thousands of cd titles...and for someone to reply so quickly with 'no' is quite amazing. I find it very hard to believe they've committed every title in stock to memory. What i do find it easier to believe is that they just can't be bothered helping out and find it easier to simply say 'no, we don't have it'. Or in other words, 'find it yourself'. And sadly, this doesn't just apply to music stores. Most other stores i go into seem to have a similar lack of customer service. It really seems they will only help you after you've found the item you're looking for by yourself and then come up to the counter with your purchase and cash in hand. I don't know what these people get paid...it may not be much...but the mere fact they are in a customer service industry, they should be hired for their willingness to actually 'help' the customer. And i don't think it's just me who feels this way. I say this because i work in an industry that is essentially 'customer service' ...albeit mainly by phone. And not wanting to blow my own horn, but i have people going out of their way to thank me for my help, because it's - as they say - so refreshing and unusual. This is clear evidence that they are receiving the same lack of customer service from other people. It's a shame. A real shame. Because, i know when i, on the rare occassion come across someone in a store who offers to help more than just take my money, it puts me in a good mood. If other people are similarly affected, wouldn't that put more people in a good mood? And wouldn't more people in a good mood be better for the planet? I think so.
I'm Generation X. So i guess that gives me grumbling rights of the next generation, being Y. One thing i've noticed is that they seem to be obssessed with quantity of quality. For example, mobile phone texting. They will prefer to text (sms) a hundred messages to their network of friends, rather than sit down and have a conversation. Another example is Facebook. All the messages seem to be mostly inane comments about how busy and wonderful their lives are, but without any substance. Of course, Facebook is not the place to be telling people all about your personal stuff. But the messages do seem excessive - as if they feel a need to be in constant contact with a hundred people to talk about basically nothing. It seems shallow. And their command of the language, grammar and punctuation appears to be sadly lacking. This may the fault of the eduction they receive, which from observations, seems to be more concerned (this includes teachers) about being a social gathering rather than actually teaching the basics. I can understand on a mobile you tend to abbreviate things to make it easier...but the lack of punctuation make some messages near impossible to make any sense out of - even in emails. It's like they don't even know there is a caps lock, full-stop and comma key on their keyboard. And strangely, even though mobile phones have automated features to help with punctuation (like it will make the next letter after a full-stop a capital automatically), because they don't use the full-stop, the feature is useless to help them. It might be just a phase they're going through growing up, but what worries me is that they will never know any better, because the education system has failed them and probably most of them simply don't care enough to learn themselves. And having all the automated features of software (especially Microsoft) will only let them get away with not bothering to learn themselves. The worst bit is, it won't be fixed, because like too many other things in the world, it's out of control. It's too big a problem for anyone to even think about trying to correct.
If i was given the choice between fame or fortune, i would always choose fortune. It seems fame is not a advantage but a hinderance - especially with the obsession of today's media. I don't believe complete lack of privacy should be the price celebrities pay for being famous. It's a job like any other. If they are actors, musicians, or celebrities (politicians/royalty), they should be given privacy when they are not promoting their products. We don't have a right to invade their personal lives. And anyone from the media/papparazzi who says they only do it because it's what everyone wants is full of it. If there weren't 20 magazines dedicated to reporting - most times falsely - every single minute of someone famous, the general public wouldn't all of a sudden fail to function. They might actually pay more interest in their own lives and be better people for it. And those magazines might think about printing something more worthwhile. What they could instead print, is a whole different subject. I understand that some celebrities are only famous because of the media attention. They don't actually do anything productive. And for them, if that's what they want, then that's fine. But for the actors and musicians who actually 'create' something and would prefer to have a private life, it's not fair to hound them endlessly. We don't 'need' to know they are pregnant. We don't 'need' to know who they're dating. We don't 'need' to know they've had a breakdown because of the pressure being unfairly placed on them by the media. It's true that most have a wealth most of us can only dream of. But that also doesn't justify intruding into their personal lives. There are other professions which earn similar amounts, but they're not in the spotlight 24/7. There are also other insanely beautiful people who are even more charismatic than a lot of famous people, and they don't have to suffer the insensative attention of the media/papparazzi. I also understand that the media is a good thing when promoting a new movie or new CD...but that's a totally different situation. That is part of the actor/musician's job - to promote their latest work. And that's what it is - work. Once the promotional event is over, they should be left alone to live their personal lives. Is it any wonder that some celebrities can't cope with the constant, invasive attention. It would be nice to subject some of the papparazzi/media to the same scrutiny and see how well they cope. So all i can say in closing is 'wake up world' ...we have no need or right to know what celebrities do in their personal lives.
|
