I wrote an essay on youth unemployment (for one of my degree modules) the other day and it was quite depressing. I'm currently nearing the end of my degree, I've got a few more weeks left of lectures and seminars and then that's it, exams, graduation and I'm done. I'm at the third best university in the country, am on track for a 2:1, and yet I'm pretty sure when I'm finished here my employment prospects won't be much better than most.*
However, I'm doing so much work at the moment, it's very stressful and I feel like I never really escape working. Obviously sometimes I may go out, maybe watch a bit of TV and just slob out for a while; but there's a horrible guilty feeling I get when I don't spend my time working. It's made worse by the constant news stories on youth unemployment, they just totally demotivate me. (I feel like I should cut bit chunks of my essay for you all to read, but that would be quite odd, (and I probably wouldn't appreciate any criticism on an essay I've already handed in). )
The constant news stories and blogs on youth unemployment are slowly getting to me, I'm really worried about what I'm going to do when I'm finished with all this studying lark. It's getting to that point of the year where everyone is doing the "what are you doing when you finish?" chat, and everyone sounds so miserable, most people I've spoken to are hoping they can find a job at home, whilst fully acknowledging that they'll probably end up working for minimum wage and living with their parents to try and save up. It's a reality that a large majority of us are only now really coming to terms with.
I'm not at all 'bashing' jobs that pay the National Minimum Wage here, I'm just highlighting that we all went away to uni so we didn't have to end up on the NMW. Going to uni and getting into thousands of pounds of debt, only to get your degree and still live with your rents whilst you pull pints (if you're lucky) is not what any of us expected. I just feel a bit cheated, that's all. My school, sixth form and parents constantly pushed this idea that if I got a degree then it'd be so much easier for me to get a well-paid job, and here I am, 2011, worrying I won't even be able to get a job that pays the NMW, it's just ridiculous, demotivating and depressing.
* I'm aware of the presumptuousness of it all, but I do think it's quite necessary.
I get very tired of defending things, I can see why people tend to sit on the fence rather a lot. There's no defending any particular point of view, there's no arguing, you can see both sides, it's all plain and lovely on the elevation that is 'the fence'.
I however, am not a fence-sitter*, pretty much never do I place my arse on the Lib Dem fence. Annoyingly, actually making up your mind about something comes with issues, as once you pick your side you have to stay there (could make another 'lol the Lib Dems' comment, but two in one paragraph is just distasteful to be honest). This 'side' that you pick will then be a source of great annoyance, as everyone ever will blame you for things because you're a representative of that 'side'. Pah.
Occasionally you'll be the only person of this 'side' in a group of people, and suddenly everyone is Mr/Ms. Inquisitive. Urgh.
I always seem to get "So you're a [insert group-type here], right? What do you think of [insert random thing that said group has done that was 'bad' or something the 'crazies' of that group think]?" ALL THE TIME. It's like people think I'm a walking manifesto of what a specific group of people think. People also seem to assume that I'm just going to blindly support something that one person in a group has said, it's ridiculous. I'm only one person, not the collective thought of a huge, diverse group of people.
After a while you get sick of hearing the similar list of arguments (e.g. 'You're a feminist so you hate men (/must be a lesbian), right?', 'You're a Labour Party supporter, but what about the Iraq War/immigrants/the recession/tuition fees and higher ed etc?'). Genuinely drives me potty. I'm relatively calm with people in debates, which is working well for the groups I've attached myself to (be grateful, feminists. I defend feminism a lot).
I have no problem with people asking me questions, that's not what I'm complaining about here. I'm complaining about people making me a spokesperson for that group of people. People shouldn't be so gullible to believe that just because you subscribe to a particular group, you automatically subscribe to all the views of said group.
And if anyone comes back to me with 'well if you don't support [insert a singular thing the group has done], then why do you support them?' Please go away, that's an awful response to this whole post and you have no real approach to life.
*I will mention, the only time I am a fence-sitter is during discussions on religion. This is because I'm an agnostic, the ultimate fence-sitter.
I finally, FINALLY, told my Dad that I am a Labour supporter. This is really deserving of a whole blog post by the way. The reason this is a big deal is because my Dad is Tory voter (along with the rest of my Dad's side of the family). I KNOW, RIGHT?
I've been slightly scared of telling him for a while (and not because he'll cast me out of the family and make me walk into the Irish Sea, he's not mental.) My reasoning is, once you side yourself with a group, you then become the "go to person" for the opinion of said group... and basically, I really don't want that effort when I'm at home. Really, I don't. I know I'm an argumentative shit, but I don't want a debate when I'm in my jammies lounging around watching the news.
Part of me thinks he may have already known, maybe...probably not. I still have his "why you always going on about that equality?" line in my head. Absolute classic.
However, I'm pretty sure I dodged a bullet by combining the "I'm a Labour supporter" speech with the "I have an internship" speech. Smart move.
This will basically be my life at home from now on.
Now, before I actually write what I want to write about, I usually love Mary Portas. I thought the series she had done for the BBC on independent shops (last year) and on charity shops (the year before last) were both amazing. Ok, not amazing like Planet Earth amazing, she's no Attenborough, but they were good TV shows.
Portas has now moved to Channel 4 and has a new show called Mary Portas: Secret Shopper, in which she dons a wig and parades around being outraged at the state of our beloved high street. By the way, I don't plan on doing some hideous review of it as such, as the show itself wasn't actually that bad, and it'll probably get better throughout the series; however, I do have a few gripes, and I shall explain them now...
The whole show is based upon what Portas calls the 'shopping experience'. The 'shopping experience' consists of four rules, I can't even remember them, they were boring and a bit "well, duh". What I don't understand, is how she thinks it's even possible to extend rules that's she's obviously taken from the independent stores she usually frequents, to the high street, where the shops are busier, larger and have a higher turnover of stock *sigh*.
Obviously if you're going to make any form of film about something you don't want things to look "a bit shit" and "bordering acceptable", you wanna go all out and show some eXtremes. So naturally she heads to Primark, the one place on the high street officially void of all organisation. A bit of covert filming of the staff and messy shop-floor takes place, she counts people in the queue and then at the tills, it's all very scientific. I think this may have been the first time Portas has ever set foot in a Primark, as everyone knows you don't go into Primark for the 'shopping experience'. Experience, yes; shopping experience, no. It's more of an 'ordeal'. She goes on to complain that staff don't know where things are, but really, come on? If the staff in Primark did know where everything in Primark was, they wouldn't be working in Primark, because that would make them fucking geniuses. GIVE THEM SOME BLOODY CREDIT, PORTAS.
There are a series of vox pops with "normal looking people on high streets" and they're all pissed off at their lack of 'shopping experience'. Again, seriously, who are these people? I was discussing the whole being-approached-by-sale-assistants thing with one of my flatmates, and we decided that no-one likes it. I like walking in, having a browse and not being bothered, and I'm pretty sure most people (in Britain, anyway) are the same. (If you like being approached by helpful strangers in shops, then let yourself be known, freaks).
She then settles on revamping Pilot, which I have only just realised is quite funny, as it's the first episode, and it's called Pilot because of the shop she revamps, not because it's the pilot episode. The mind boggles. Pilot only has 44 stores, so it's possible for her to have her wicked way with them all, unlike Primark, where she hasn't got a batshit chance in hell of even making them pick their dirty bras off the floor (literally).
Anyway, the point of this blog was/is, whilst Portas does have a point, that the high street rakes in massive profits and we (the shoppers on the high street) get poor customer service, I just don't buy into her idea of the 'shopping experience'. I think most people appreciate a nice changing room, some sales assistants bobbing around, and not to have to queue for an eternity. I think that's fairly reasonable, and some shops do it well (Monsoon and H&M particularly)....
And despite what the crappy people in her vox pops may have said, I don't want people asking me what I'm looking for, I don't want people to be all "HELLO" when I walk into the shop and I don't want a fucking tweet mirror.
I have recently been walking more, mainly because I'm lazy and it's the most exercise I ever can muster up without wanting to die. However, today was freezing because of a horrendous wind (and because this is a seaside town in the North West of England... so it's always bloody windy). Anyway, to my point, I thought I'd walk a little bit inland to avoid being abused by the wind on the seafront, this - and my life being the way it is - meant I'd obviously get abused by something else, as that's how the world works, right? Now Blackpool is, erm, *achem* a wonderful place and a lot of the abuse you get is usually mildly funny, not because of what they say it, but because of how they say it (I'm aware that me saying it's how not what they say makes me a bit of a stereotypical woman).
Any conversation (/them saying things and me just giving them weird looks) that I have had with anyone under the age of 16 in the past couple of years* has always started with this, and tonight's weirdo child was no different...
A boy outside Tesco Express said "Oi, my mate thinks you're** fit." Now, I think if I was in need of a self-esteem boost, I'm not going to get it from someone who's voice clearly hasn't dropped yet. Obviously I just have to nod at this comment and give them a look of "urgh, but you're children". I'm not gonna be all "fanx, bbz, mebs gimme a text in 10 years time wen u don't sound like Justin Bieber", as that would be sick. Note the Justin Bieber reference, I'm so hip***.
This then turned in to him saying "love, will you get me some fags?", and because I'm still arsey about ever getting anyone fags (even my own parents, cos I'm that much of a bitch), I obviously said no. HOWEVER, this is where I get confused, in what world, seriously, do you then bargain? I said I wouldn't get him fags, and in my mind, if you were gonna bargain (which no-one would, because that's just insane) you could at least go down a level to something, like, I dunno, some super glue or a permanent marker. But clearly not this child...
He then said "well, you could at least give me a blow job." Now, because I went to a school with morons I'm very desensitised to these kind of comments, so much so I actually just said "pah!" in a humorous (and probably a bit mean) way and walked off (the whole time this was going on I was walking, but you get what I mean). I didn't even feel abused, ya know, as a woman just minding her own business down the street and then being hit on BY A CHILD.
This is why Blackpool is both hilarious and awful.
*This obviously doesn't include my sister and her friends, as they have a non-threatening approach to my life
**let's not lie, they probably wouldn't have used the correct "you're".
**Obviously saying hip makes me not hip, but whatever, I can try.
Seen as it is January 1st I thought I'd do a beginning of the year post, which - because this is me - will probably turn into some chat about crap. It's fine, let's sail through...
For starters:
- I broke my laptop charger because I'm a clumsy idiot.
- My camera broke and now takes well fit pictures of pink blurs. Everything is a pink blur. Fascinating.
- Pokemon is a life-sucker-upper.
Right, ok, now for the new year crap. I don't really do resolutions, mainly because I have very little motivation to do anything that doesn't come under my "really important shit" category; and a change of calendar will not make me less lazy, as much as I'd like it to. However, I will continue with my life thing of trying to make the best of life and I'll try to continue writing in my journal....possibly. Very much a land of 'possibly' and 'try'.
For New Year some freaks and I ventured about drinking wine and whiskey. This is all I'm going to say, as no-one wants to hear what I did. I'd just be typing it all out and I think I'd get bored writing it. Not to say it wasn't a good night, it was a really good night, but - as with most nights out - it's boring to relay the events back to people who don't know who you're on about. There's nothing (/a lot of things, but I'm exaggerating) worse than having to listen to a load of anecdotes about people you don't know/just don't care about. I sound miserable, I'm not, I just get very bored of "lad" stories and such.
Speaking of New Year's Eve, people who are like "I'm not going out on New Year's Eve, fuck NYE, it's not important", please shush, nobody cares if you stay in or not. It isn't some act of rebellion to stay in, it's perfectly normal. You don't need to justify the fact that you're not going out, it's finnneee! Not judging.
I'm now going to sit about for the next hour until this Father Ted night starts on Channel 4, how lovely. I may read my book.
Nikki: "I think I'd want my husband to have footballer's legs"
Me: "But then he can't wear skinny jeans?"
Nikki: "Yeah, ok then, rugby player's legs."
Me: "Yeah, but then he really can't wear skinny jeans..."
Nikki: "Can you not see I'm trying to emphasise how much I don't want him to wear skinny jeans?"
Me: "Oh"
Sometimes I think I need to get out of this "type" I have selected for myself. It isn't healthy.
I saw this video a while ago and at the time was a bit like 'meh'. Literally that was all the emotion I could sum up. However, I was reading Guido Fawkes, as you do...and I came across the video again. But because times are as they are (what a stupid saying) then I figured I'd just highlight odd bits of its hilarity.
I wouldn't bother watching it all (/any of) the 8 minutes and 40 seconds of it, it's so dull and tedious. I've seen it twice now and I'm about to watch it a third time, FUN.
Right...ARE YOU READY FOR HILARITY?
At the beginning they ramble on about how they've been on the side of progressive change for YEARS, years guys. Progressive conservatism, because an oxymoron is where it's at. The thing more hilarious than that statement is that they say "Look at all the wonderful things our party has done, isn't it fabulous!" and then at the end they say "David Cameron has brought change to the Party". You can't spend a whole video telling people why you're so brilliant and then go "...ah, well all this progression throughout the years of the Conservative Party just wasn't working, ya know? We need a change in direction (but not really), so we become even more progressive than we were (actually weren't)."
If you don't like actual policy shit skip the next two paragraphs. I'M SO NICE FOR TELLING YOU THIS.
I generally just despise the whole "Look what we did" feeling in this video. The legislation they introduced wasn't put through because they had the interests of the people at heart, it was put through because they had no other choice, as so many people were campaigning for change; whether that campaigning was by some feminists or moral purity campaigners (re: the many acts of the 1880s, specifically this one, even though that's hideousin many ways) or campaigners (for example, re: working class men getting the vote).
They also say that in 1923 that Stanley Baldwin came up with a comprehensive old age pension. For starters, we (Britain) got Old-Aged Pensions in the 1908 Act under the Liberal Reforms. It wasn't that good, considering you had to be 70 to claim it and bugger all people got to that age. And yes, I'm aware that pensions underwent reform in 1923 and the Tories can cling onto that smidgen of progression, but to be honest, our pension system is piss-all in comparison to many other countries at this period, so they can piss off. AND they state unemployment benefits as their 'thang' too, that comes under the Liberal Reforms too, I'm afraid, there were reforms to it in the late 1920s/early 30s, but they just made it all worse (because unemployment benefit was cut after the Wall Street Crash, smart move). AND they state health insurance as theirs too...achem...again, Liberal Reforms. Any increase in provision is mainly because they had to...can't fight a war with a sick nation, right?
Are we picking up a pattern here? Any idea who's interests they have in mind? Anything at all???
I'm missing out a massive chunk here because it's SO.VERY.BORING. But basically, we have an NHS (Labour's doing), some Education Reform and apparently some new homes to live in. How dandy. AND women can vote, jeeez, it's all coming up good for Tory governing! (Not really though, let me emphasise that).
NOW FOR SOME THATCH. There's a change of music and everything before she comes on waving her witchy arm about. My favourite bit of this whole video (as I'm sure you can guess, there are many *rolls eyes*) is where they say "SLASHED PENAL TAX RATES" and a bit of red-tape is cut and floats away. Ahhhh, what imagery.
I'm ignoring John Major completely. You wouldn't have noticed unless I'd said, don't lie.
The only bit William Hague gets is HELPED SAVE THE POUND *snorts*. Well done, Will. I found this bit almost as funny as the red tape bit, not quite, but nearly.
At the end they have all the images of the Conservative leaders moving from left to right, so it's like you're going back in time but actually you're going forward in time because the leaders are going forward in time. I don't know if that's just me being picky, but I dislike that. I'm probably the only person in the world to have noticed this.
(EDIT: This is not what my life solely consists of, but you all don't need to hear how much of a mess my life is, thankyouverymuch)
It's been a while since a did a chatty blog. I've been ranting about something or other in all my past blogs. Shame on me. Well, here is a nice blog full of things I've been up to. EXCITING (it may not be very exciting, as I haven't been up to that much).
It has been rather chilly here, just like everywhere else. I'm sure you've heard about the country being quite cold, right? I know, I know, there is nothing more newsworthy than the snow/cold in December. It's a shocker every year. Leamington Spa -being the aesthetically pleasing place that it is- looked even prettier in the ice and snow...I say snow, the snow here was pitiful. It was literally just ice and I dislike ice (does anyone actually like it?). My dislike is mainly because I'm not the most graceful of people and I'm generally quite clumsy...so I slip a lot. The other day I managed to slightly trip on air (because for some reason I don't need things to actually trip over) and I landed on a Postman, that was a hideous moment. I was in a rush to get to the bus stop so I just ran off saying "Thanks for saving me from the floor!" So embarrassing.
I and few of the Warwick Labour lot ventured in to the depths of a snow-covered Coventry to do some leafleting the other week. It was freezing with actual snow. I obviously wasn't dressed appropriately, as I'm never dressed properly. I wear what I wear in summer during winter, I just add/remove cardigans/leggings. It was fine. Ben and I looked suitably frozen by the end. It didn't help that Ben posted our map in someone's house, ha. Also, people in Coventry, why do you all have stairs going up to your house, it's such a massive effort and it's terrifying during icy-snow-times.
I've just realised that I'm going backwards in time. Basically, the further down the blog you go the longer ago it happened, understood? This picture (in which I have gum in my mouth, not some weird protruding tooth) was from the first lot of student protests, ya know the ones. If the words "Siege of Milbank" don't mean anything to you, then quite frankly, you're very out of the loop. This was over a month ago, where have you been? I, along with the majority of people there, enjoyed a bit of peaceful protest. Again, it was freezing. The day was rather hilarious (not the cause, the cause is anything but hilarious, condem wankers). We ended up going to King's College SU and having some food and alcohol. We were sat in the warmth watching the coverage of the protests on Sky News and the BBC (which is quite weird when you've just been stood right there) and we saw the headlines about something was being broken into. We weren't that pleased at the time, as we thought it'd make us all look like student wankers...then we found out it was Tory HQ that had been 'seized' and all was well. However, I will highlight something...Baroness Warsi, the ultimate Wicked Witch of the Tories, was apparently in Tory HQ at the time. To those of you that know about her you'll understand why we were quite happy that the building was being ransacked. Bitch. (I have more opinions on the violence -in this demo and the ones that have succeeded it- but quite frankly I can't be arsed writing them).
Good day to you all, it's quite nice to have a nice chatty blog again :)
