Om nom nom!

Om nom nom!

I have the worst sweet tooth in the world, I must confess this. Whether it was because I was born in the year of the pig or I’m just plain greedy or both is still undecided!
I’ve had a slight obsession with sweets for the past 3 months, I know what they say, any infatuation that lasts longer than 3 months is more than just a crush 😉
Anyway, its bad enough where I live has one of the largest Tescos in Europe, I also have a mini local Tescos that stocks the full range of Tesco own brand 3 for £1 sweets. I love them all and its only recenttly I have become like that.
I believe that, what with the rising cost of fuel and the fact that chocolate has to be imported, I have actually gone off the solid brown menace in a brightly coloured wrapper, I was never a large fan of chocolate. I would eat it because it was there, though I didn’t like the way it made me feel, I felt sluggish, sick and like I was getting a cold after eating it. Sweets that don’t contain chocolate or only chocolate flavouring have never made me feel like this.
I think that just like cupcakes have made a boom in the food industry, candy will made its lasting mark too! Prepared to become obsessed!

What is determination?

I have a thousand and one questions about determination, is it something we are born with, something we grow in to, something we become, what is it?
The reason I have chosen to talk about this is because, about 6 months now, I took up Romanian and now I am flagging, I get so annoyed at myself, as the same happened with Spanish, I tried and tried and it was like doing the flick test with un cooked spaghetti, nothing stuck! Infuriating doesn’t even describe how annoying it is.
I try so hard, but nothing works, I’ve even tried sticking post it notes around the house, but still it doesn’t work.
So now, I’m starting to question determination, if we are born with it or if its something we grow in to as a human.

Do people really care anymore?

Have you ever posted a one off sad status on Facebook, or been feeling really miserable and the closest people to you oblivious to how you’re really feeling?
I watched a 6 part BBC drama called The Tube earlier this year, it was real, non staged drama with scenes of how the London transport ticks along day by day, one of the most profound scenes, was this woman who was standing on the platform waiting for the train, the influx of people made her lose her footing on the platform and she fell on to the lines as the train was coming through and no one cared, it was their fault she fell on to the tracks and no one bothered to raise the alarm, if it wasn’t for surveillance cameras, they wouldn’t have known if it was another suicide or not. In another episode, a man was having a heart attack on the platform and people were stepping over him just so they could get on their train, yet again surveillance cameras played a key in it all, because they are watched 24/7.
How can you just step over a dying man?
I’m not trying to seek attention, but whenever my friends update social networks, I’ll message them to see if they’re alright, they thank me and tell me they feel better and yet when I’ve ever seemed upset, none of my ‘friends’ come running to me, I’m wondering if we are losing our ability to care? Of course, as always I will blame Facebook (but I’ll leave my facebook lambasting for another day), I also blame the government because they are the ones practically forcing parents to go to work more or less as soon as the child is born, so that key family bond and interaction is essentially lost, I know I can’t really sling the mud at the parents themselves because, what with the rising cost of living, being a stay at home (unless you have a very successful at home business) parent simply isn’t feasible anymore.
But growing up when the only times you see your parents for anything up to 8 hours a day, means they see more of their job than they do of the child!
Recently I have become obsessed with watching hit 70’s show Little House On The Prairie, its so refreshing, that in the old days, people weren’t the headless buck chasing chickens that you see running around nowadays, I was watching an episode today called ‘A matter of faith’ and I actually laughed when Pa Ingalls admitted that ‘the world is a terrible place’ and I instantly thought, that their time compared to ours, their time was heaven! No pollution, no excessive taxes or bills, only a small amount of keeping up with the Jones’es and the children were allowed to play outside and down by the stream without fear of Herbert the Pervert kidnapping them. They all had strong family ethics and not one of them texted underneath the dinner table whilst saying grace! If they had guests over they would always offer a meal before they left. Little House On The Prairie is a true story, based on the journals of Laura Ingalls Wilder, she documented how fine and loving her childhood was growing up in the late 1800’s, so I’m not just making a fabricated show of greener pastures up!
Ironically, I’m doing all this ranting on a BlackBerry®, king of the ‘why the heck haven’t they answered yet’ mentality, only difference is I put my BlackBerry® down when someone wants to talk to me (unless I dislike the topic or person).
When was the last time you wrote an actual letter? Typing one off the computer doesn’t count, so literally when was the last time you put pen to paper, and more to the point, when was the last time you had a handwritten letter opposed to the standard bills and junk mail you get on a day to day basis? Now when you file off an email or text you’re instantly sitting their at your phone like a demented dog waiting for you to chuck their favourite toy.. Ping me, ping me, ping me is what you start to think and symptoms of a. Text not replied to in that golden ten minutes are irritability, anxiousness and grumbly grinch.
So, I’ll give you a little test, see how long you can go refraining from texting, facebook, emails and generally other virtual correspondence that encourages us to become more and more antisocial! Comment below and tell me how well you got on, normally, the first 3 hours (if you’re a regular every 15 minute phone checker) will be the hardest, but persevere, because at the end of it, you can say you escaped from your antisocial zombielike state of button stabbing!

Good Luck! 🙂

Backtracking over ‘Why I love England’

This is slight backtrack from all the lovely things I was saying about England a few weeks ago something I forgot to mention that I HATE OUR WEATHER! this outburst is a little sudden, but its well deserved, seriously, how much rain do we need? Its the beginning of May and it still feels like November (May if you are reading in Australia). I have had enough of all this cold weather and to be quite honest, its starting to get really depressing, there are only so many times you can snuggle up on the sofa and watch a movie! I have had enough and if I had the money, I would be taking a very long holiday in Moldova (which is currently 27˚c) here in cloudy London is a glorious 8˚c, 8freakin˚c! What have we done to be given such bad weather and more to the point, which country did this weather come from *sideseyes Antarctica*.. We have had non stop rain for a month now and I haven’t seen any sun for a month and a week!

Rant over!

What do you suggest to do in this horrible weather?

What were you scared of when you were little?

When you were little, did you have any rituals to keep the beasties at bay or things you would do at night?
To be honest, I still class myself as a kid, even though I’m 16, but for purposes of this article, I shall say when I was a kid!
So, when I was a kid I had a huge fear of the dark, I even had a night light to banish the imaginary beasts! As soon as it was dark, I would refuse to look out my bedroom window, or any of the windows for that fact, I always thought that there would be a menacing looking gnome/gargoyle hanging upside-down peering at me with teeth flashed. Boy did I have a vivid imagination! I also haven’t gotten over that fear of looking out the window at night.
I also used to think that if you were on the toilet mid poop, a hand would grab you and pull you in to the toilet..

I was kept away from horror movies when I was a child, so none of them ever messed with my thoughts, I suppose, I just had very creative thoughts!

So, what were you (or still are) afraid of?

Reasons for keeping Twitter

Here are 10 reasons why I kept my Twitter account:

1. Its Public, only Direct Messages are hidden.
2. Contacting Twitter is effortless and I’ve had replies within 48hrs.
3. Anyone can look at my page, interact with me and follow me.
4. Its not a breeding ground for ‘like for a status’ or ‘all likes returned’
5. You don’t have to upload photo albums, if you have a picture, you upload them to your photo hosting site and they’ll appear on your Twitter.
6. There are less duck pouts and fake tans on Twitter display photos.
7. Twitter all around isn’t intrusive with a billion questions like interested in, relationship status, quotes etc..
8. If someone unfollows you and then follows you back, its not as blatent as some unfriending then sending a friend request.
9. Following (unless the account is set on private) is instant, you follow and its done, no waiting around for accepting!
10. Trends and Hashtags are awesome and actually mean something.

Facebook is becoming intrusive.. When I signed up to Twitter, I was surprised at the lack of questions, because I was used to facebooks 10,000 questions and what colour are your grandmothers eyes! Setting up was easy, the only downside to Twitter is a lack of Chat, though if you have 1548 followers that you don’t know, I understand why there isn’t a chat application!
All in all, I feel much safer on Twitter and if I am being watched I prefer to be watched on something the whole world can see, rather than something that I believe is private, but is being snooped on through curtains.

Are you a Twitter user? Comment below on why you like Twitter! All comments can be anonymous if you’re comment shy, but if you include a name that would be really cool 🙂

I have nothing to hide, but I still feel like my space is being encroached if I am being told something is private when its quite the opposite

I have jumped off Facebook Island!

Today, I had had enough of Facebook.
I’ve deactivated* my account before, but never stuck to it, peer pressure got the better of me! But this time I think the abstinence is for keeps.
Everything just came to a head, when I realised that no one really cares, a handful of people would like something, but no one really bothers to make a conversation anymore. I feel that Facebook has killed friendship and instead has replaced it with a hunger for ‘likes’ and comments.
Once, I actually caught someone that was really close to me out on a lie, she forgot, that if she commented on someone’s status, that I would still see it, I saw what she really thought of me and that her events for the day, were a total fabrication.
Another reason, why I’ve had resentment for this social gremlin, is because in August, I had a really important issue, I looked everywhere to get hold of an email address to contact them, in the end, I got 3. They seem to be a use each email once kind of site, as I mailed the 3 that I got and they all came back with a failure to deliver attachment. The addresses weren’t even that old! Eventually, I managed to find a part of the website (that was well hidden) to submit a ticket to complain, I got an email reply that was the standard generic reply which was basically ‘sorry to hear about your dispute, we do hope its sorted now. Best regards The Facebook Team’, so I filed another ticket, under a different subject and they had the exact same thing to say! They really have no idea of customer service, every time I have had to email Twitter over something, they have always replied within 48hrs, been pleasant and even fixed the dispute for me, rather than giving out instructions. I would hate to think how much difficulty I would be having if I had to report a paedophile!
I bet you didn’t know how much of your details and personal information was being watched and saved either, I mean, who really has the time to read through all their pages of crap? Well, I did and it confirmed everything I thought, http://www.facebook.com/full_data_use_policy is the link to what they do with and how they see your information, scary isn’t it? I apologise for the link not being ‘clickable’ I tried 7 times to make it blue, but it is refusing to work for me today! Don’t hesitate to copy and paste it in to your browser though as I reassure you that its virus free!
The worst part is if you ever decide to permanently delete* your account, I don’t think it really is deleted, my Aunt tried to delete* her account and even after phoning the lovelies in California I think her account is still floating around in cyberspace.. So really and truly, whether you like it or not, your virtual life is on their for the longevity of facebook.

*Deactivating and Deleting are supposedly different.
Deactiavating: you can always log back in to your account, there is no time limit until your information is permanently removed, so 10 years later, you can just log back in!
Deleting: Removal of everything, with no going back switch, but I and people I know have had bad experiences with is and to be quite honest, its about a useful as a chocolate radiator!

Now, the serious bit I am not exactly saying boycotting facebook would be for everyone, in fact I think if I started saying that everyone should leave facebook, I would get in to a lot of trouble probably and quite possibly I will reactivate in a few months (hopefully not).

So, how do you feel about facebook?

I hate Mondays.

A very famous newspaper cartoon that goes by the name of Garfield, started the ‘I hate Mondays’ saying.
But why do we hate Mondays?
Personally, I love Mondays and the thrill of an up and coming new week to commence, who doesn’t love that fact? I am very much like a bull, I face things head on, so there is no beating around the ‘this is why I don’t like Mondays’ bush. Sometimes, I do resent Mondays though, especially if something I dread is coming up, like the dentist or a test.
But, what’s your reason for loving or hating a Monday? 🙂

Rich but Poor in happiness, or Poor but rich in happiness?

Rich but Poor in happiness.
Having millions in the bank, but never feeling the joy of not having to pay another bill in your whole life ever again, or feeling the happiness, when a butterfly lands on your nose.

Poor but Rich in happiness.
Barely having enough money to get through aa week, but smiling all the time at all the good things in life, your kids, your friends, nature or even sunny days.

Difficult choice isn’t it? But I know which one I would choose, if I was sitting in a room with that ultimatum, a lifetime supply of money sitting on a desk and next to it, a chute for all my money and assets because I chose happiness over wealth.
I would choose that chute.. Not being able to even express the love and warm feeling I get from just my dog telling me good morning, would kill me. Sitting at a 24ft long table, pottering around at what to do next with limitless money would be exhausting, because you couldn’t even enjoy donating £1m to the RSPCA or Save The Children.

Given the choice, what would you do?

When does Facebook get intrusive?

In an exclusive interview with ABC at Facebook HQ, founder Mark Zuckerburg revealed how he was going to add a new feature to Facebook.
In the next Facebook update, you will have a chance to tell the word (or your select audience) whether or not you are an organ donor.

My view.
This to me, is really intrusive and pretty pointless.
Because if a person dies, they organs have 8 hours before decomposition sets in. Are they going to track the recently deceased that inconveniently didn’t take their organ donor card with them? More importantly, would they just be allowed access to see this, or would they have to ask a distraught family member to check their page?
Another reason why I’m against this new policy is because it allows other people to guilt trip the non donors.
We can imagine it now, a facebook spat, all because so and so, didn’t say yes to being an organ donor.
I believe its extremely intrusive, what will be next on the ‘about’ section? What car do you drive? Who do you bank with?

So that’s my view on the whole thing, don’t get me wrong, I am a member of facebook and I quite like it, but sometimes, they demand too much personal information.
As always, feel free to comment on what I have to say and let’s have a mass debate*!

*No puns included.