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1 Mar 2006
Guess who just got paid.
Another paycheck like that, and my holiday will be paid for - admitedly, nothing's finalised yet, but it's good to have the money in advance of any "hard" planning.
Meanwhile, I could buy myself a little something...
...well, maybe not just yet.
Another paycheck like that, and my holiday will be paid for - admitedly, nothing's finalised yet, but it's good to have the money in advance of any "hard" planning.
Meanwhile, I could buy myself a little something...
...well, maybe not just yet.
Arm Rant Torpedoes...
1 Mar 2006 19:26* rant *
PM under pressure on video games - I've covered this case before, back at Diary-X, so I guess it's fair game again.
"Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" - my ass. Things have gotten a whole lot worse with Blair "in control" of Britain - and this is the government that has said that a certain drug that's becoming increasingly popular with stupid teenagers is effectively legal. This is the drug that is hardly ever mentioned in the infamous Stefan Pakeerah/"Manhunt" case that's the focus of the news story above, and was conveniently ignored as a factor when Scottish teenager Jodie Jones was murdered by her boyfriend.
The boy who killed Pakeerah was a druggie, desperate to pay off a debt to his dealer. The killer held up his "friend" to get money off him, and when the boy didn't hand over any cash, he was killed - could the killer have been "high" at the time?
The killer of Jodie Jones, when arrested, was found to have a significant amount of his drug of choice on his person, and apparently admitted to consuming enough of it in a week to be almost perpetually "high". The influence of drugs on these cases cannot be so casually dismissed - yet that's exactly what happened.
Instead, popular culture was heavily implicated in both cases - in the Pakeerah killing, it was the video game "Manhunt"; in the Jodie Jones killing, it was Satanic/Goth/"black" metal. Surprise surprise...
Another very interesting point: the mother of Stefan Pakeerah has been very vocal in her campaign to ban violent games - but who, might I ask, allowed her fourteen year old son to own a Certificate 18 game in the first place...?
Pakeerah died two years ago. Just how many people have been "killed by video games" since? And how many young lives have been ruined by drugs in that same period?
Perspective is needed here, not headline-grabbing - but to which option will Tony Blair resort? Killers addicted to drugs, a prime minister addicted to column inches in the papers...
*end rant *
PM under pressure on video games - I've covered this case before, back at Diary-X, so I guess it's fair game again.
"Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" - my ass. Things have gotten a whole lot worse with Blair "in control" of Britain - and this is the government that has said that a certain drug that's becoming increasingly popular with stupid teenagers is effectively legal. This is the drug that is hardly ever mentioned in the infamous Stefan Pakeerah/"Manhunt" case that's the focus of the news story above, and was conveniently ignored as a factor when Scottish teenager Jodie Jones was murdered by her boyfriend.
The boy who killed Pakeerah was a druggie, desperate to pay off a debt to his dealer. The killer held up his "friend" to get money off him, and when the boy didn't hand over any cash, he was killed - could the killer have been "high" at the time?
The killer of Jodie Jones, when arrested, was found to have a significant amount of his drug of choice on his person, and apparently admitted to consuming enough of it in a week to be almost perpetually "high". The influence of drugs on these cases cannot be so casually dismissed - yet that's exactly what happened.
Instead, popular culture was heavily implicated in both cases - in the Pakeerah killing, it was the video game "Manhunt"; in the Jodie Jones killing, it was Satanic/Goth/"black" metal. Surprise surprise...
Another very interesting point: the mother of Stefan Pakeerah has been very vocal in her campaign to ban violent games - but who, might I ask, allowed her fourteen year old son to own a Certificate 18 game in the first place...?
Pakeerah died two years ago. Just how many people have been "killed by video games" since? And how many young lives have been ruined by drugs in that same period?
Perspective is needed here, not headline-grabbing - but to which option will Tony Blair resort? Killers addicted to drugs, a prime minister addicted to column inches in the papers...
*end rant *
...and don't get me started on these f**king ad banners with sound effects. I nearly crapped myself when one of those thrice-cursed things started ringing all of a sudden, and there was one occasion a year or two ago that I was wondering if my PC was picking up other people's phone calls when one ad banner started muttering to itself...
I'm kinda sensitive about these things because, way back in my early computing days, I was sitting up late playing some game or another, with my Amiga hooked up to the TV, and I'd just switched the machine off when mysterious voices, kinda like "Poltergeist" start coming through the TV...
There was a taxi outside, with what I can only assume was an iffy radio. Even so, I hate computers making unexpected noises.
I am going to start making a list of companies that use these frigging sound-banners, and I shall swear, right here and now, that they will never get any business from me. Especially if that sound is the F**KING Crazy Frog...
On A More Positive Note... there was an excellent programme on this morning (yes, I am in a position to watch morning TV) that went into considerable detail about the musical methods employed by The Beatles to revolutionise popular music. Normally, I have little time for programmes where "the arty set" show off how they "understand" art and music so much more than the rest of us, but this one didn't talk down to the viewer, and took its time explaining what it was trying to say, with plenty of examples.
I guess intelligent TV isn't dead - but then along comes "Desperate Housewives" or "B*g Br***er"...
I'm kinda sensitive about these things because, way back in my early computing days, I was sitting up late playing some game or another, with my Amiga hooked up to the TV, and I'd just switched the machine off when mysterious voices, kinda like "Poltergeist" start coming through the TV...
There was a taxi outside, with what I can only assume was an iffy radio. Even so, I hate computers making unexpected noises.
I am going to start making a list of companies that use these frigging sound-banners, and I shall swear, right here and now, that they will never get any business from me. Especially if that sound is the F**KING Crazy Frog...
On A More Positive Note... there was an excellent programme on this morning (yes, I am in a position to watch morning TV) that went into considerable detail about the musical methods employed by The Beatles to revolutionise popular music. Normally, I have little time for programmes where "the arty set" show off how they "understand" art and music so much more than the rest of us, but this one didn't talk down to the viewer, and took its time explaining what it was trying to say, with plenty of examples.
I guess intelligent TV isn't dead - but then along comes "Desperate Housewives" or "B*g Br***er"...
