Christmas, ah, the time of family, the time of thinking about others: the time of celebrating that finest tradition and watching awful films we have all seen a million times. The time of Santa and stockings filled with a few quids worth of goods—but it made the children happy…

Or not. Another person’s similar views on Christmas and the amount of money we willingly chuck down the collective drain.

And it is thoroughly disturbing, isn’t it? It really is not good at all. Throughout the year we worry about cutting cost, saving money and energy, and then Christmas comes and we toss aside all these view-points for the sake of a few days of celebration which have become so distant from the original ideals that modern Christmas and past Christmas can’t be reasonably compared. Why? Well, to be honest it is much more fun to celebrate, isn’t it? If we all sat in the dark that wouldn’t produce much good cheer. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas at all then–

But we’ll need to meet somewhere in the middle in the future, I think. Because with all our ridiculous Christmas lights we’re wasting all the money we’ve saved being good throughout the year. It’ll take some time but as things get worse for our society—terrible weather, financial crisis, drought and famine all being increased as a direct result of Climate Change—we will hopefully learn to make lights that don’t waste as much energy, and maybe even the people who produce video-games consoles will look into ways of making their gadgets more energy-friendly.

I’ve always been a terrible haggler. I want to get a good deal but every time, without fail,

I give in and think that by pushing the price up the guy behind the counter, shivering and weather-beaten, will have to get a small mortgage out to make it through the winter. Then, invariably, a Mercedes pulls up behind me and the partner of the Man / Woman behind the counter shouts, “shall we have caviar tonight or are you bored of that?”

In other words, haggling sucks; much better, as the following link discusses, is social-networking through the world-wide-web.

Though this is the case, many people don’t know how or where to begin. And I blame the name. If ‘Social Networking’ was actually called ‘Mad Fun And You Can Make Money!’ then, just like with what happened to Opal Fruits when they became the legendary Starburst—because let’s be honest, how many people out of ten could say what the hell an Opal is?—everyone would be out there going for it. But alas it is not. So unless a minor miracle takes place we will have to put up with the rubbish unenthusiastic name and just learn to live with it.

Enigin has all kinds of advice on S.N. matters—as you would do if that was your job and you knew it like the back of your hand. They can put you right if you haven’t got a clue. If you have got a clue then you’ll be even more sorted once you’ve visited the site.

And he did it quicker than most people can have a shower.

I don’t know why I should be, but I was astonished when I saw the article. There was no reason for this to be the case, of course; for years people have been selling things which appear to be perfectly normal for extra-ordinary prices. Ebay is one such example of how anyone, in any part of the world, can turn a simple object into a large amount of money, simply by pressing a few of the right keys: the modern equivalent, if you will, of turning water into wine.

As much as I do actually think that the sculpture in question is a great piece, does it really justify commanding a country-sized price tag?

There in lies the problem: art has been slowly changing and morphing for some time; it’s become something different, something without definition, something without rules; and by doing so it looks like the boundaries are being stretched further and further, something which disturbs me to some extent.

All good things, in the main, have rules, and that is the difference between art and the rest of the world and society. Take a poem for example. It’s born out of definition and parameters. Take that away and the thing would fall to pieces, the magic lost.

So is it right that art should be allowed to exist so loosely, whereas everyone else has to play by the rules?

A question we will probably never really know the answer to.

Before I go I have found a great new blog by the digital department at enigin PLC. If you are into digital design you should all really check it out!

The research, conducted in Belgium and the UK, is possibly some of the most interesting / disturbing to have come to light in recent years—scientists say they can now look inside people’s minds and accurately detect a number of things. Nothing less than mind-reading, the stuff of science-fiction fantasy.

The question that springs to the front of my mind is this one: is this technology actually new? Considering that nearly every government in the world has some kind of history of concealing knowledge of technology—most famously in the case of Area 51 in the united states—should we really believe what the experts tell us?

I’m having trouble working out what the point is of being able to read someone’s mind; of course, it has to be a good thing in some respects—like finding out that someone in a previously thought ‘vegetative’ state is actually aware and communicable—but what about the other things which aren’t being talked about? Who’s to say that someone being arrested for a traffic offence won’t, in the future, be forced to undergo some kind of forced mind-reading experiment?

Or maybe that’s just me being paranoid.

In some ways, this can be compared with hypnotherapy; many years ago, when it first began, most were highly skeptical of this brand new unfathomable thing—terrified of their deepest thoughts somehow manifesting themselves while they lay unconscious and unable to do anything about stopping it. Eventually the worries passed, maybe not completely, but enough to allow business to prosper.

Chances are that we are still a way off being able to read minds properly, anyway. To be honest, no matter what the benefits, I think that’s how I’ll like it for the time being.

I couldn’t sleep last night and decided to go skulking round the web for something to keep me engaged, turns out the Heroes Forum is not only a remarkable way to waste time but also fairly diverting!

Written merely weeks after the event took place—an event which killed eight people and left several badly injured; shaking the climbing community and the world into realizing that nature would always hold the upper hand where mountaineering is concerned—the book, and the subsequent media frenzy surrounding it, caused a great deal of anguish and distress for years to come; the climbers who survived, and the families of those deceased, felt the story capitalized on the tragedy: that by relaying the events from one point of view (though Krakauer went to great length to consult others for their opinion, the book ended up relaying mainly his point of view as he remembered) it promoted a single way of thinking, inferring that the responsibility of the tragedy should be laid on the shoulders of some of the dead.

It was with these things in mind that I watched the film of the same name, and was greatly dissapointed; it made me truly wonder how it could have been allowed to happen, and what the film-makers were thinking in terms of paying respect to those in question.

Made for a smaller budget than would ever have been enough to accurately relay the events and featuring wooden acting, a poor story-line and a disjointed chain of events which only offer a vague interpretation of what happened on that fateful day, I can’t help but think that the film has added yet more controversy to a subject matter that already had enough on its plate.

I have just updated the images on the homepage for adblue, I know that it may surprise you that I am doing some work for an oil company; but I don’t think they are as environmentally negligent as I once supposed. Plus, I’ve sold out, I need the money!

Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll is the acclaimed biopic of Ian Dury, the gravel voiced poet who found fame as frontman for the New Wave group Ian Dury & The Blockheads.

Dury’s music was a pleasure to listen to bringing a ska rhythm and danceability, as well as a music hall lyricism, to the post-punk era and formed an integral part to the soundtrack of my student years. The music has proved to be enduring and songs such as ’Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’, ’Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3’ and the films title track remain firmly ensconced in the public consciousness a decade after Dury’s death. The film however, while well intentioned and eminently watchable, remains as flawed as Dury himself.

The fault with this film lies in the fact that very little attention is given to the music itself. We move swiftly between rehearsals in the 60’s. the last gig of former band Kilburn & The High Roads (erroneously referred to as The Kilburns within the film) in the 70’s and finally achieving chart stardom with The Blockheads in the 80’s but absolutely no background is given to this remarkable rise from local zero to chat hero. When the music is grudgingly given time within the film it plays second string to film trickery or made up plot devices. For example, ’Sex, Drugs & Rock n Roll’ is bizarrely filmed underwater and ’Hit Me With Your Rhythmn Stick’ is interrupted after a few moments by a fictitious bust up between band mates. Chaz Jankel is the only Blockhead given anything to say in the film, with the rest of the band being rarely seen and silent extras.

The director, Mat Whitecross, instead prefers to concentrate on the human side of Dury, a move that does Dury little favour given his selfish, driven and womanising nature. The two main themes of the film are Dury’s complicated relationship with his son Baxter and his battle to overcome the polio that he contracted as a child. On both of these counts the film is an unqualified success, but it fits rather too neatly with countless other films dealing with triumphs over adversity.

The film is undoubtedly moving and Andy Serkis is fantastic in the lead role, rightfully garnering a Bafta nomination for carrying the whole film on his shoulders. The lasting impression is that Whitecross didn’t like Dury’s music and wanted to make a different film altogather. He comes out of this with little Directing credit as he almost manages to turn a potentially stellar success into a failure and is only rescued by a great performace by Serkis and the enduring appeal of the music of Ian Dury & The Blockheads.

How does a three valleys ski contest sound ?? All of you must put your names in, I am convinced we need to win this so we can finally have an excuse to get out of the city for a little bit.

Firstly, it is good that MPs are trying to do something about Britain’s booze culture. Whether or not this latest idea is enough, is another matter altogether.

But it will be the responsible drinker who is hit as well. Why should everyone have to pay more (or get less) because of the people who drink too much and end up causing trouble? It is the same as ordinary folk having to spend 20p to spend a penny (there is a paradox there). Why should you be penalised because of people who enjoy smashing up public toilets?

Drinking is something that a lot of people enjoy without bothering anyone else, but there are others who use it to cause many problems in our society.

At the moment, the amount of cases of hospital staff being attacked by drunks is horrendous. Doctors and nurses who work in the accident and emergency department of a hospital are there to try and save lives. Being hindered in their work by people who have drunk too much is dangerous and unacceptable. When you think about problems like this that are being caused by binge drinking it is obvious that the government needs to do something; but it has to target those who are most to blame.

The other thing to consider is this; if someone wants to drink badly enough they will not be deterred by prices! It may make them swear and complain, but they will still go ahead and buy it.

I think that the best thing the government can do about the binge drinking problem is to spend more time educating people. If a greater number of drinkers are made aware of the damage they are doing (both to themselves and to others), then it may just serve as a wake-up call.

One final tirade that I feel I must have is about microdermabrasion. I mean, why is it that we are in a society today where this is passable, and where you can ride the tube in rushhour and look around you and see about a million ads for different kinds of cosmetic surgery. And now they are directing these ads towards adolescent people. Really there is no cause why someone in thier twentys should even consider ’having to look years younger’, I mean don’t people have better things to spend thier time doing or fretting about these days? If they don’t then I really think we need to look at what we consider important!

If you have an interest in social matters then I would strongly recommend you read a couple of books by George Orwell; ‘1984’ is one of them and the other is ‘Animal Farm’. There are some very interesting things to think about in both of these and they are also brilliantly written novels.

We are strange creatures who can come across as being very complex and difficult to understand but at the end of the day there are a few basic things which make us all tick. George Orwell could clearly see this and made it the foundation for some of his greatest stories.

I’ve started to help out at a reality TV forum so if you want to talk to me in a more active area please drop in.