Gary Cunningham's Blog

I AM MOVING THIS BLOG TO WORDPRESS.COM

2013-09-08T11:01:00.000+01:00

Hey Guys,

As of today, this blogger blog will no longer be in use. After much consideration I have decided to move from Blogger to Wordpress. All of the posts that are on this blog have now been transferred to Wordpress. The new blog address is www.garyrcunningham.wordpress.com and after 3 weeks I am deleting this blog permanently . Thanks for all your support and be sure to go to the new address so you cam keep up to date with what I am writing!

Are British soap opera’s becoming too predictable?

2013-09-07T19:28:00.001+01:00

Britain has become famous for many things throughout the years and one of those things is the good old British soap. All families love to gather round the telly in the evenings and watch the latest scandals and tragedies unfold on Eastenders or Coronation Street. Soap opera’s have been around for years and are a great way to get the family together!

It has also been known that some storylines in soaps have helped viewers resolve their problems and sometimes even recognise the symptoms of an illness they never knew they had in the first place! Who knew programmes on the telly could be so useful?! However, as good as programmes like Eastenders are, I feel that they are becoming a little too predictable.

For example, during one of the recent episodes of Eastenders, as soon as Phil and Carl got into the car and started to argue, I knew there was going to be a car crash. I think the reason why soaps are becoming so predictable is because they are basically running the same angle again and again! I have seen so many car crashes, fires and killing during my time of watching soaps that it is very easy to predict when they are going to happen!

I know it’s sometimes hard to come up with different ways of “killing off” characters but come on, why can’t they come up with a more inventive way of doing it? How about having just scripting them in to walk away like a normal person would do, I know it would be boring so wouldn’t really fit the image of a soap but at least it’s somewhat new! Or if the writers are dead set on having the characters die in some horrific way, why not have them drowned or buried alive? And if that’s not gruesome enough why not have the character cut up with a chainsaw! It may be hard to watch but at least we haven’t seen it happen a million times over, in fact, we haven’t seen any of those ideas played out on any soap ever as far as I know!

With these ideas, you might have people writing in to complain about the episode giving their child who is 10 years old nightmares, well I’m not being funny but a 10 year old shouldn’t have been watching soaps in the first place! That’s why they are put on quite late, the younger kids should be in bed!

Having said all of this, I sure hope the producers of Corrie and Eastenders don’t read this article and use the chainsaw idea otherwise even I will have nightmares! I wouldn’t be able to sleep for a month! Leave your comments below and let me know what you think.

Miley Cyrus – Another innocent pop star turned sour by the modern music industry

2013-09-07T13:20:00.001+01:00

Lets be honest here, it was only a matter of time before another innocent girl was turned into a monster by the many powerful record label owners and agents that have taken over the American pop music scene. What has happened to the girl who starred in Hannah Montana and recorded motivational songs such as “The Climb”? I can tell you what has happened, her fame and fortune has corrupted her and turned her into the monstrosity she is now!

That is, sadly the way of the world nowadays, everyone who makes it into the big time of the music industry feels they have to conform to stereotype. Miley has unfortunately fallen into that trap, she feels she has to wear loads of makeup, sing outrageously dirty songs and act and dance like a slut! To a certain extent, this saddens me a lot because, although I didn’t watch Hannah Montana (obviously) I remember what Miley used to be like, she used to be someone for young girls to look up to for inspiration, she used to convey good messages to the public about how not to act! messages like, go to school, be respectful to your parents and all the usual stuff and now she has completely turned that message the other way!

As a musician myself, I have aspirations to make it to the big time an be famous and all of that but I certainly don’t want to end up having to conform to the “standard” that has been set nowadays, it is a very low standard and it makes me cringe every time someone says to me, “I really want to be famous like Miley Cyrus or Justin beiber or One Direction” because they, unfortunately, have no true idea of what the industry is like and are looking to all of the wrong people for inspiration!

Whenever I have a gig, the first question my friends ask me when they come to see me perform is “are you getting paid”? and when I say no they say “what’s the point in doing it if you don’t get any money out of it”? and no matter how many times I try to explain to them that I perform for the enjoyment of performing and showing people my talent they just refer to the usual famous pop stars saying that Miley Cyrus would never do a gig if she wasn’t getting paid and I reply simply it’s because she is doing it for the money and I don’t think she has any talent anyway.

Unfortunately, I think it is clear to everyone that Miley is a lost cause that has been poisoned by the industry, this is sad but there are plenty of other musicians that can be steered away from the people that have infected Miley and be shown the right way of doing things!

I have a solution to prevent the constant fire station closures around the UK

2013-09-05T16:33:00.001+01:00

About a year or so ago, I wrote a post on here giving my opinion on the fire station closures that were happening in London and around the UK because the government does not have enough money to fund the firefighters.

I was walking my dog the other day (as you do) and was thinking about all of these closures and what a negative effect it has and will continue to have on the British public. Then it hit me, there is a very simple solution to stop these closures from happening! In America, the majority of states have a volunteer fire department that is staffed mainly by college students and other people looking for work. I don’t see why we can’t have a similar system over here because if the firefighters are volunteer’s then they won’t have to be paid so the government would be saving money. Also, if you allow students of the age of 16 and above to join the fire service as volunteers you will also be keeping teenagers from hanging around street corners, it’s a win win situation!

Allowing teens to join their local fire station as volunteers will also give them essential life skills. Such as teamwork, respect, discipline and the ability to work under pressure. They have this system in America as I have already said and as far as I know, not one fire station has been closed!

Leave a comment and let me know what you think about this idea! I will also leave a link to my other article about station closures below.

Original article about the station closures in London

My thoughts on the current situation in Syria

2013-08-29T18:01:00.001+01:00

As the days,weeks and months go by, Syria is turning more and more into a warzone. Many world leaders (such as the British Prime Minister David Cameron and the president of the USA Barack Obama) have been having several meetings to discuss the best solution to the ever growing problem that is Syria. Until recently, the leaders have decided to just keep an eye on things and have tended to stay away from getting physically involved and sending troops into the country to calm the situation down. However, upon the recent discovery that Syria’s government have chemical weapons at their disposal (which they have already used) all leaders are in a state of debate as to whether they should intervene. According to BBC News, a final decision still has not been made and many of the leaders want to stay out of it for fear of another “endless war” like Afghanistan.

My argument for this is the following, Troops should have been pulled out of Afghanistan a long time ago, with the death of the taliban’s leader osbama bin laden they are going to crumble under their own strain anyway so there is no point in fighting them anymore and with the death toll rising day by day the right thing to do would be to pull our troops out whilst there are some left. The only reason the fight in Afghanistan is endless is because both sides are refusing to give up and leave, the soldiers should teach the friendly forces in Afghanistan to defend themselves competently and move out! Also, a country with chemical weapons is far more dangerous than a country with a crumbling enemy who don’t have the technology,knowledge or nerve to fly bomber planes over to our country and our allies.

However, there is nothing currently stopping Syria from flying chemical weapons over to Britain and America and all the other countries, detonating it and devastating the lives of it’s inhabitants,that’s why we need to destroy the threat before it becomes too big to handle, I’m not saying we should send troops there permanently, just send a large enough number to send a strong enough message to the government to leave their people alone and destroy the weapon.

I’m not sure about you guys but I think the time for words is over, it is time for action!

David Cameron needs to move the winter Olympics away from Russia!

2013-08-10T16:25:00.000+01:00

Broadcaster Stephen Fry has called for David Cameron to move the winter Olympic games to another country after Russia had announced it's new anti-gay laws. He compared the treatment of gays in Russia to that of the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany and from what I've heard I would agree with hm.

Openly gay Russians are being severely beaten and ill treated by the Russian government and quite frankly it is unnecessary and uncalled for! I know Russia's politicians operate in a different way to that of the UK but surely they are in the 21st centenary too? also, If I am not mistaken it was Russia that joined us in the fight against the Nazis in World War One and Two, I know that Russia's leader has changed since then and that their current leader has different views but he should keep them to himself and not take it out on his people!

David Cameron always says that people should be treated equally no matter what their religion, race or sexual preference yet he refuses to move the winter Olympic games away from a country that is beating gays? it really does baffle me and it also proves that all politicians are two faced hypocrites! Cameron may feel that it is not affecting his country so it is not his problem but what about the athletes from his country that have to go over to this dictatorship and hell of a country to compete? what if one of the athletes is openly gay and the Russian government find out and have him/her beaten, will it be Cameron's problem then? OF COURSE IT WILL because the victim would then come from his country which believe it or not is his responsibility!

During an interview with BBC News earlier today, Fry said the following very true statement "If no one tell Putin no, sooner or later then the man will go mad". I don't think anyone could've put it better. Yet again we are being let down by our Government when we need them most and I've had enough of it! It's about time we as a country took action along with Stephen Fry and the rest of the people that are protesting today! We need to tell David Cameron to do the right thing and not stop protesting until he does!

It just doesn't sit right with me that there is a country in trouble due to a dictator of a leader and our Prime Minister who is supposed to protect us is letting our athletes go into this country to compete when they could end up getting hurt just for being gay. It's about time Cameron woke up, smelt the coffee and took action!

Do parents know enough about social networking sites to keep their children safe?

2013-08-02T18:04:00.000+01:00

After watching an episode of Supernanny last week where a 10 year old girl was talking to sixteen and seventeen year old boys on Facebook without her parents knowledge, it did make me wonder if parents really know enough about social networking sites to keep their children safe when they are using them and why did these parents not research the site and perhaps sign up for the site themselves before allowing their children to have access to the site? The mother didn't even know what the age limit was!

My mum is on Facebook and she insisted that I add her if she was to allow me to use the site, at first I thought this was out of order and an invasion of my privacy (as every 13 year of boy does) but now that I am older (15) in hindsight I feel that this was possibly the best thing that my mum could've done to ensure that I was being safe and responsible.

I feel that parents that do not research a social networking site, videogame or any type of software that their children are downloading are irresponsible parents, I am not saying that their overall parenting is bad but I am saying they are irresponsible for not conducting research on the site beforehand. Luckily, I am responsible enough know what to do and what not to do on social networks and have the knowledge and capability to sort my own privacy settings out without any help ( I did however let my dad look over them, just in case).

There may be a very simple reason as to why parents are not doing research. maybe it's because they don't really know how and have know way of being taught. In this case, the simplest solution would be for some companies to offer free courses that teaches the parents about the "scary" world of social media and schedule the classes for in the evening so that working parents are able to attend. Or maybe Facebook should offer a free course on their website that the parents could either watch and participate in on the internet or attend a venue.

There are many ways to allow parents to learn the right skills and have enough knowledge to keep their children safe, all people need to do is make it accessible enough for the solutions to be put into practice.

Twitter doesn’t have a report abuse button? I thought that was standard nowadays

2013-07-27T18:00:00.001+01:00

The Majority of social networks have “report abuse” buttons on their sites. This is for obvious reasons, it enables someone to report a user if they are being abused online. It seems that Twitter are yet to catch up with the expectations of the public when it comes to online safety. Twitter apparently do not have a report abuse button on their site, this is a very serious issue and it needs to be resolved straight away. No wonder, cyber bullies turn to Twitter to harass their victims, because the victims have no way of reporting it to the company.

A petition has received thousands of signatures calling on Twitter to rectify this somewhat dim witted error immediately after Caroline Criado-Perez who successfully campaigned for women to appear on bank notes in the UK has received various threats from members of the Twitter community. The threats ranged from threats of violence and rape threats which, quite frankly is vile and disgusting.

Twitter UK’s Tony Wang later said the company was “testing ways to simplify reporting abuse”. Well, I’m sorry but what could be simpler than clicking a button and filling in a few boxes? even most non tech savvy people could mange that. Mr Wang is simply trying to worm his way out of not having a report abuse button by making up some lie filled story to throw the public off of the scent, This is uncalled for and will not make this pressing issue just disappear into thin air. Twitter need to take action and they need to do so now!

I had an amazing weekend at Sold Youth Festival 2013

2013-07-16T16:58:00.000+01:00

Hey Guys,

This post is going to be something a little different to my usual ones. Rather than going on a rant about something I've decided to tell you all about the amazing weekend I had at Solid Youth Festival 2013 at Stubbers Adventure Centre. This was my second time at Solid and just like last time I loved every minute of it! The weather was great (unlike last year) and everyone had loads of fun.

We got loads of freedom during the day and in the evenings which was really cool because we didn't have to worry about adults getting in the way, the only real rule we had in the evenings was be back at half past midnight which wasn't too bad. On Saturday night, I went to see this band that were playing called Fire Fall Down and I have to say they were OUTSTANDING! Their energy was amazing and everyone really enjoyed it. After their show, I went backstage to meet them and congratulate them on a great gig. I spoke to the lead singer and guitarist mainly and he was really cool, I mentioned that I was in a band myself (Powercut) and he was really impressed. I also got a free CD out of it which I will be reviewing soon so keep an eye out for that!

I will be back with my normal posts soon, just thought I'd give something different for you guys to read :)

The Billericay School care more about students haircuts than their education

2013-05-31T17:17:00.001+01:00

The Billericay School in Essex clearly cares more about how students look than they do about how good students’ grades are. The headmistress of the Essex school, Sue Hammond has recently imposed a ban on haircuts inspired by The Only Way Is Essex star Joey Essex stating that the haircut is untidy. I attend The Billericay School and the majority of the students do have the pompadour haircut and they will not be happy about this!

I don’t have the pompadour style because I personally don’t like it. However, I feel that it looks nice on the majority of students in the school. I really don’t see how a hairstyle effects a students education and feel that the teachers have no right to tell a student how they should look, it’s out of order and against human rights because everyone has the right to look how they choose to look, anyway no parent has ever complained about students have that particular hairstyle so why do the school feel it necessary to complain about it and make an issue?

The school rules regarding hair state that no “extreme” hairstyles are allowed,the “extreme” term applies to brightly coloured hair and hair of extreme length (too long or too short) and the pompadour style is neither of bright colour or too long or too short so there is nothing in the school rules against the style as far as I am aware.The school tries to promote individuality and yet they try ban a popular hairstyle that is different from the conventional styles that were popular during their school days which for most of the teachers was a hell of a long time ago!

The school should focus more on their grades than the hairstyles of their students!

SEEVIC college Basildon

2013-05-31T16:59:00.001+01:00

Students that currently attend SEEVIC college and go to their Basildon campus will have to look for another college to attend after the current academic year because the Basildon campus is closing down due to lack of funding. I have a friend who currently attends the Basildon campus of SEEVIC college and she has been told that she must either attend the Benfleet campus of the college or find an entirely new college and redo her first year all over again.

The college needs a massive 1.2 million pounds to allow it to stay open. The worst part of this extremely messy situation in my opinion is that the principle of the SEEVIC's Basildon campus has known about the lack of funding since January of this year and has tried to keep it under wraps! My friend found out about the closure of her college through the confirmation of a rumour by college staff who had only just found out that morning!

It also seems that the college’s senior department are not going to even try to do anything to raise the 1.2 million pounds and have effectively given up and thrown all of the students and staff under the bus! It is just disgusting that teachers who are supposed to care about pupils’ education have known about the closure since January and kept it under wraps when the students are taking their exams with the mind set that they will be staying at the college for the whole of their two years and completing their A Levels which clearly is not the case anymore

Thank God for the British education system NOT!

My thoughts on the Woolwich tragedy

2013-05-24T18:40:00.001+01:00

First of all, I’d like to express my condolences to the victims family, their son was a very brave man for serving his country and he didn’t need to die like he did.

When I heard about the tragedy on the news on Wednesday I felt sick, the fact that two people could have the audacity to cut a serving solider into pieces in broad daylight and then turn to a camera and try to justify their actions! It is clear to me and probably to everybody else that these two men are not mentally stable because no mentally stable person would even think about cutting up another person let alone do it and then try to justify it.

Many news sites have said that they two men were of the Muslim religion and before they started to attack they cried out “In the name of Allah”, it has been confirmed that one of the men was brought up in a Christian family and was baptised as a Christian but converted to Islam a few years ago. Before you get the wrong idea, I am not about to go on a rant saying that all Muslims are terrorists because I am educated and I know that not all Muslims are bad people or extremists.

I do feel sorry for people of the Muslim religion because they are all feeling the backlash from the event. Members of the public are targeting Muslims to try and get justice for the soldier, I also want justice just like everybody else but targeting Muslims who haven’t done anything wrong by attacking mosques! Those mosques are a place of worship and should be treated with the upmost respect, how would they feel if the Muslim community decided to attack a church?

We live in a multi cultural society and there are going to be people living here of lots of different religions and ethnic backgrounds, its about time that people started acting responsible and mature. The majority of Muslims and people of other ethnic backgrounds have come here to escape the dictatorship and disgusting living conditions of their country, if we as British people treat them the same way that they were treated in their homeland then what sort of country does that make us?

However, I do feel that those two attackers and alleged terrorist should not be using our health service to get patched up. I’m not saying that we should have let them die because otherwise the police or authorities wouldn’t be able to question them. The fact that we are providing them with free health care after what they did does make me feel a tad uneasy, although they are British citizens and are entitled to the use of the NHS, they do not deserve the treatment they are receiving. Lets hope that a conviction is brought from this and the victim’s family get the justice they deserve.

Once again, my condolences go out to the family and friends of Drummer Lee Rigby and to Lee, thank you for brave,dedicated and loyal service to our country

My thoughts on the proposed station closers for London Fire Brigade

2013-05-18T14:59:00.001+01:00

First off I would like to say how much respect I have for fire fighters worldwide and I am extremely grateful for what they do to help protect our country. Recently I have started to consider becoming a retained fire fighter for Essex County Fire and Rescue when I reach the age of 18 because I have always wanted to work in the emergency services and fire fighting seems the best route to take for me because I also want to be a music teacher.

I cannot believe that the government are even considering closing fire stations around London! London needs all of the fire stations that are currently open because they are an integral part of keeping the city safe. If stations start to get closed down not only will this increase unemployment even more but it will also increase fire service response time by a lot because another station from another part of London will have to attend the emergency all because the station nearest to that emergency got closed down.

We all know why this is being considered, it’s because of the recent enquiry made into that fire in a block of flats a few years ago. That was a terrible tragedy, yes it could have been avoided if there had been better planning and communication between fire fighter and civilian but unfortunately there wasn’t and an actual tardis hasn’t been invented yet so we can’t go back and change it.

I’m sure there are many other things the government could cut down on to save money rather than put the public’s lives at risk by shutting down fire stations and making it harder for the emergency services to do their job.

Michael Gove has finally lost the plot!

2013-04-26T17:01:00.001+01:00

You know, when Michael Gove decided to go back to the old ways with GCSE’s I really thought he had gone as far as he could go on his crusade to destroy the current education system! but NO! He has really outdone himself this time!

His latest not so bright idea is to make school days longer and make school holidays shorter, this means we might as well kiss goodbye to our long six week summer if this gets approved. At this point a lot of you may be asking why Michael Gove wants to do this, well I’ll tell you why, his reasoning behind this is because he thinks that summer holidays are old fashioned! He’s the only one who’s being old fashioned here, he doesn’t have a clue what his talking about, his had no teaching experience or even worked in a school serving lunches to the children but he still thinks he knows enough about schools to decide what’s right for students and teachers!

He just isn’t making any sense whatsoever! I can’t even begin to imagine what life would be like if he was in charge of the entire country let alone a very small but very important part of parliament, part of me really just wants to shoot him so badly because this is my education and my future his messing with every single time he makes a stupid decision.

Am I saying that making the school holidays shorter will make my chances of getting into a music college any slimmer? No I am not saying that, however, what I am saying is that Gove deciding to make the holidays shorter is blowing up my social life with a 12 foot cannon and you NEVER mess with a teenager’s social life EVER!

If this decision is approved (and with David Cameron in charge it probably will be) then all hell will break lose! every single student and teacher will riot directly outside Downing Street and they won’t stop until the decision is reversed!

My thoughts on the passing of Baroness Margret Thatcher

2013-04-12T15:03:00.001+01:00

I’m sure everyone will agree with me on the fact that this topic has sparked up a lot of controversy all over the news. Margret Thatcher was known worldwide for the changes she made to British politics, not all of them were good changes but they were changes none the less.

One of the things that Thatcher is known for is covering up evidence relating to the Hillsborough disaster. I am a Liverpool FC fan so the fact that Thatcher covered up some evidence relating to the tragic event that day does make me sick to my stomach but I am not glad she is dead and certainly don’t agree with some people holding parties to celebrate her death and playing ding dong the witch is dead!

My condolences go out to Thatcher’s family and I hope that Margret can be laid to rest peacefully with no interruptions from bitter Liverpool fans. It really does sicken me to my stomach to know that members of the public think its funny and OK to have parties to celebrate Thatcher’s death! She may have made some controversial decisions during her time as Prime Minister but she doesn’t deserve to have her death celebrated by members of the public! It makes me ashamed to be a Liverpool fan when I hear of these parties!

R.I.P Baroness Margret Thatcher

Have companies taken advertising campaigns a little too over the top?

2013-04-03T14:32:00.001+01:00

I have just read an article from Doug Brown, he is a advertising and marketing blogger from Victoria in British Columbia. The article was about “marketing terrorism”. Like many of you I was wondering what marketing terrorism actually meant because marketing and advertising isn’t my area of expertise. From what I can gather from Doug’s post, marketing terrorism is when companies hire actors to do something in the middle of a public place, the stuff they do can range from flash mob dances to a live action scene from the film they are promoting.

An example of a live action scene in public would probably be the time that two actors started a fight in the middle of a lift and started to strangle each other with some wire. All this was done to promote a film called dead man down and the fighting was a re-enactment of a crucial scene from the film.

The picture above is a screen grab from a video of the public elevator fight that was part of a promotion campaign for Dead Man Down. As you can see, this does look very real and actually terrified members of the public, some people stood frozen in shock whilst others stood and took pictures of the incident.

I must admit that it is a good way to get the public attention and would definitely get a lot of media coverage which is obviously excellent for the film crews and production companies but as Doug said in his post this sort of thing could de-sensitise us to real crimes and some people could be witnessing a real kidnap and think that it is just another silly film promotion prank and pay no attention to it, thus putting the life of the kidnap victim in danger. The criminals must love the idea of this development, can you imagine the amount of crimes they could get away with by just pretending they are actors promoting a film or videogame!

It’s obvious that there are good and bad elements to things like this but just like anything dangerous or daring, it will always end in tears.

Visit Doug’s blog for his article on this subject and here is the link to the video from the telegraph’s Youtube page

Have America learnt nothing from the Sandy Hook Shootings?

2013-03-29T17:16:00.001+00:00

I’m sure all of you know about the tragic massacre that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary school in America that took place last year. After this happened I wrote an article about a conference that was held by the Nation Rifle Association in which they encouraged American people having guns in their possession to defend themselves. I disagreed with this because over here in the UK guns are illegal and we all survive without them.

Well it seems that Shaun McClusky has learnt nothing from the Sandy Hook massacre because he is actually giving away free shotguns to residents in his district because he wants them to be able to defend themselves! I manage to defend myself when push comes to shove and I’ve never had to use a gun or any form of weapon for that matter and I am 14 years old so I don’t see why grown adults need to use deadly force to do the same. They are more than likely a lot fitter and muscular than me so shouldn’t need a weapon especially not a gun!

I partly blame president Obama for Shaun being able to give away free shotguns because Obama should have banned all uses of guns other than law enforcement immediately after the shooting because it should have been a wake up call for the whole of the American government! He should have realised that it was down to the government that this shooting was able to take place with such ease in the first place because there were no gun restriction laws in place the shooter was able to walk into a gun shop and buy a military standard gun!

If McClusky goes ahead with the free shotgun giveaway all hell will break lose and there will be more gun related deaths in America than ever before and McClusky and Obama will have to live with those deaths on their conscience!

My thoughts on the upcoming tube strikes

2013-03-28T17:41:00.001+00:00

Yet again, Tube workers are having another melt down and are proposing to strike on the 2nd April and 2nd May 2013. The reasoning behind the strikes is apparently because the workers mess hall is messy and tube bosses haven’t done anything about it. That is the stupidest reason for a strike I have ever heard in my life! Surely, the workers should take responsibility for their own mess hall and ensure that it is cleaned up after each time that they use it. Another reason for the strikes is several allegations of bullying have been made against tube bosses and yet again no one has done anything about it.

Well, I highly doubt that these allegations of bullying are as severe as they have been made out to be. I think that some tube employee’s have made stupid mistakes and have been given a stern talking to that they couldn’t handle and take on the chin. Bob Crow also said that the bosses had a go at workers in front of the entire mess hall and deliberately humiliated them whilst doing so.

All of these reasons are not good enough for a strike in my opinion and I think that Bob Crow and the rest of the workers and unions are making a big song and dance out of all of this just so they can have a day off! what they have clearly failed to realise during the proposal of these strikes is that many commuters and tourists are going to have to re-arrange their travel arrangements which could possibly make them late for work or any other important appointments that they have!

I have always said that workers are very selfish and if any of you have heard of the song London Underground then I think that all of us would agree that the song is a very good interpretation of the way that many London commuters feel about the tube service at the moment! It’s a good job I don’t have to go into London for my gig on 2nd otherwise there would be serious trouble for the striking workers because I would have such a big rant at them that they would NEVER want to strike again!

Why Ask FM is the biggest social media fail of the 2st century

2013-03-22T16:18:00.001+00:00

There have been many new social networking sites cropping up over the years and many of them have been very successful. Take blogging platform Glipho for example, the objective of their site is to cater to independent writers and bloggers (like me) and to give them a free space to publish their thoughts. I am a Glipho member and have found it very useful when trying to engage with my readers because there is a very easy comment and sharing system available to use and it allows me to get into discussions with other writers with the same interests as me. The best way to describe Glipho is that it is a playground for writers and that’s why it has been so successful, simply because it has focused on one particular target market and stuck to it plus their niche isn’t very full so they have lots of free space to move and gather users.

However, as with anything amazing there are always those things that are terrible and quite frankly rather pointless. This is where Ask Fm comes into the equation, for those of you that don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, Ask FM is basically a site which allows users to sign up and receive questions from anyone around the world and answer them. This does seem like a good idea on paper and I’m not going to lie to you, it is used by lots of people but for me it’s the fact that the question asker can choose to remain anonymous and doesn’t even have to have an account to do so.

Some of you may be starting to see where this is going, the fact that the question asker can remain anonymous is a perfect opportunity for a cyber bully because they can say whatever they want to whomever they want and can be safe in the knowledge that their identity won’t be discovered by their victim which means they won’t get into any trouble over it. I have a friend who I won’t mention the name of who was told that he is “going to go to hell just like his granddad” and obviously he didn’t have any idea who said it which made it worse for him!

The Ask FM team have been told that their site gets used for cyber bullying and have said that they are trying their best to prevent this from happening but it is very obvious to me that they are not trying hard enough because there have been countless cases of bullying that have started on Ask FM and then sometimes even progressed to physical bullying. This is totally unacceptable and it must be hard for the creators of Ask FM to know that the site that they put a lot of time and effort into is being used for bullying.

I think that the site should just be shut down and then maybe these cowardly cyber bullies would think about what they have done and start trying to find the guts to face their victim face to face and apologise! I know it’s easy for me to sit here and suggest the shutting down of a website that has probably taken a lot of time and money to make successful but if I was in their shoes I would see that shutting down the site is the only way to at least decrease the ever growing use of social media as a weapon in a bullies arsenal.

Technorati Tags: Ask FM,Social Media,Social Networking,Cyber Bullying,Bullying. Glipho

Why I think Britain should stay well away from the Cyprus Bailout

2013-03-19T16:40:00.001+00:00

It looks like another country has fallen on terrible economic times despite their popularity as a holiday destination. Cyprus is now in a massive debt and it looks like they are heading in the same sorry direction as Greece. Well, that would be the case if it wasn’t for the good old Euro zone poking their noses into the business of other countries yet again! I really wonder how David Cameron and the rest of the Euro zone leaders fail to comprehend the fact that their country should be their top priority!

Don’t get me wrong, I agree with Cameron agreeing to help countries like Haiti who have been struck by a terrible natural disaster that they are still recovering from and that they couldn’t predict or prepare for in the first place! In the case of Greece and Cyprus, they have managed to get themselves into this mess through their own silly mistakes and not being careful enough with the money that they had. The British government are having enough trouble with working their way around the recession as it is so surely it would make perfect sense for them to stay out of this bailout? Well it doesn’t seem that way in Mr Cameron’s dumb mind because as usual he can’t resist wasting all of our money and flogging it away to other countries.

I do feel sorry for the people of Cyprus because it is possible that their government won’t be able to get hold of the money without the help of other countries which will cause the country to collapse therefore forcing the countries people to migrate to other countries like Britain and America for example and considering that Britain already has people from countries like Afghanistan and Iraq because of the war I don’t think that we will have enough room at the inn so to speak.

I think that for once David Cameron should let other countries deal with their own mess and focus on his own people and his own messed up economy otherwise we will end up just like Greece and Cyprus, No money, no jobs and quite frankly in a huge pile of doggy doo doo!

Technorati Tags: Cyprus Bailout,Eurozone,David Cameron,Britain,Politics,Economy,Greece,Money

The good and bad things about social media

2013-03-17T15:02:00.001+00:00

Over the years more and more people have been signing up for social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and are enjoying the fact that they can communicate with anyone from anywhere without paying a single penny. Businesses have also started using social media to connect and communicate with their costumers worldwide and promote their products and brand, many business gurus have said that social media is the best way to promote and grow your business or brand.

Those the good things about social media but what about the bad things? Well if you do your research you would know that one of the biggest problems that comes with social media is cyber bullying. Statistics show that about 42% of children and young adults have been bullied whilst being online, many people wonder why cyber bullying is so popular among bullies and the reason for this is simple, the bully never has to say anything to their victims face and some sites even allow them to post anonymously so their victim doesn’t know who they are being bullied by. I have always hated bullying and I believe that cyber bullies are cowards, I have always said to anyone that if they have something to say to me or about me then they should say it to my face. Cyber bullies use the fact that they are behind a computer screen and a keyboard to say absolutely disgusting things to people.

See, social networking isn’t as safe and amazing as some people like to think it is. That’s another issue that has been raised recently, the fact that not everyone knows a lot about their privacy settings and tend to ignore them which leaves them open to things like hackers. Lots of people think that because you have to approve a friend request on Facebook that it is private and that no one can contact them without being on their friends list. This is completely false and misleading, if you don’t adjust your privacy settings then anyone can write on your wall and even gain access to your personal information like your email address, your phone number and sometimes even your real address! I know it’s a scary thought and it sounds like I am trying to scare you away from social networking sites but that is not the case, I am just pointing out some of the avoidable dangers of social networking sites. Notice I said AVOIDABLE dangers.

If you don’t know a lot about your privacy settings and things like that then get your parent/guardian or a tech savvy friend to do it for you but make sure it is a friend you trust otherwise they could pretend that it is all safe and be lying and because they know more about it than you, you would take their word for it.

However, social networking is fun and really useful for bloggers like me and businesses owners because it allows us to promote our blog/business to everyone around the world which gives us traffic to our sites and possible new costumers. Just remember to be safe and think about the things you put online, I have Facebook and Twitter and neither of them have my address or phone number on there so only people I know in the real world can contact me.

Technorati Tags: Social Media,Facebook,Twitter,Social Networking Sites,Privacy,Technology

Has Justin Bieber gone off the rails?

2013-03-16T12:43:00.001+00:00

I’m sure most of you have seen or at least heard of the video that showed pop star Justin Bieber going to hit a member of the press during his most recent visit to the UK. I must say it doesn’t surprise me that he eventually cracked under the pressure of being a worldwide superstar, the amount of times he gets a camera shoved in his face everyday wherever he goes it must be hard for him to have a normal life.

However, he has been famous for so many years, you would think that he has got used to be followed and photographed by the press by now. I know that we are all human and we all have our breaking points but he should not have under any circumstances got out of his car and tried to attack the photographer! no matter how much he tried to provoke him by using bad language, It was totally uncalled for and unprofessional of him to lose his temper like that when there was loads of cameras about and members of the public walking around the streets, surely he must have known that the photographer in question was trying to provoke him to get a good story for the newspaper he worked for so he could some sort of reward or pay rise!

Part of me feels sorry for Bieber because he had already had a tough time from his fans and the public for showing up 2 hours late for his concert at the O2 because of apparent technical difficulties and then he had this wombat breathing down his neck and hurling insults at him a few days later. Granted, at the concert he could’ve done an acoustic set and asked the audience to quite and I’m sure they would’ve happily obliged and the technical team could’ve been sorting out the issues in the meantime which he didn’t have the brains to do.

Because of this, after the concert the press and the public were speculating as to whether there was a more serious reason for Bieber being late and considering there had been a video leaked onto YouTube which showed him allegedly smoking weed everyone jumped to conclusions which could have been true but nobody knows.

Many people reading this are probably thinking that I am some sort of deluded fan trying make Mr Bieber look better by blaming the press. I must make it clear that I cannot stand his and think it is utter rubbish! However, I don’t think he deserved any of the abuse that he received from the photographer that day and the photographer should’ve kept his mouth shut in the first place but like I said, chances are the photographer was just doing his job to get some dirt on Bieber to earn himself a pay rise.

One last point before I wrap this up, we all know that if Justin didn’t have his bouncers with him then the he would’ve just got knocked out by the photographer who was substantially bigger and more muscular than him but the photographer probably wouldn’t have hit him anyway because he would’ve had a massive lawsuit hanging over him which he obviously wouldn’t have been able to pay.

A link to the video will be provided for anyone who is interested in it and lets hope that Bieber learns to control his temper otherwise he will end up in prison very soon.

Technorati Tags: Justin Bieber,Entertainment,Photographer,The Telegraph,Music

What has happened to our health service?

2013-03-15T16:55:00.001+00:00

Over the last few years, many stories have come to light about corrupt GPs and doctors allegedly sexually assaulting their patients. Each time stories surrounding this topic come up in the news it never fails to confirm in my mind that the government need to consider an urgent reform of the NHS, how can we trust our doctors and GPs when we constantly hear about terrible things happening to patients behind closed doors?

I have decided to talk about this topic today because I have recently read about a GP named Davinderjit Bains has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting patients and filming it with a camera hidden inside his wrist watch, the age of the victims ranged between 14 and 51. Bains pleaded guilty to 39 separate counts of the same offence.

This just makes my skin crawl every time! to think that girls my age were going to see this man and telling him about their illnesses in confidence and then being sexually assaulted, like I said at the beginning our once trust health service is writhe with corrupt and disgusting creatures like this man. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that every GP is corrupt and sexually assaults their patients because my GP is really friendly and I know that I can tell him everything in confidence but people like Bains give GPs and the NHS an extremely bad name which is why I feel that there should be a full scale investigation in to the conduct of certain GPs and those who are found guilty of partaking in such a disgusting crime should be weeded out and jailed for as long as the courts see fit.

I’m pretty confident that if that was to happen and there was a full scale referendum that people would start to trust the NHS once more. According to the article on BBC News, the hospital that Bains was working at have written a letter of apology to all of his former patients and set up a help line to allow victims of Bains’ crimes to come forward and talk about their awful experience. I honestly don’t think that a letter of apology and a helpline is enough, to be honest, no matter what the hospital does the memory of the experience will never fade from Bain’s victims minds and I’m sure they are going to feel very let down and traumatised for the rest of their lives! Granted, there isn’t much more that the hospital can do apart from offer counselling and so forth but this whole thing could’ve been avoided if the NHS had looked into the background of Bain’s properly and had been more careful when thinking about employing him.

Technorati Tags: NHS,Davinderjit Bains,NHS Reform needed

What sort of impact will electing an African Pope have on the Catholic Church?

2013-03-04T16:49:00.001+00:00

Now Pope Benedict XVI has officially stepped resigned as leader of the Catholic Church, The Vatican now must start looking for a successor. Many people have been speculating at the prospect of having a Pope of African Origin for the first time.

I see this as an amazing prospect for the Catholic Church and the Catholic people in general because I feel that it will allow the Church to allow some cultural diversity within the Vatican. Also, it may give Catholics a chance to live under someone with different opinions to previous Popes in the past. I’m sure many people will agree with me when I say that the Catholic Church needs to be completely reformed after the terrible sexual abuse scandal.

I think that they need to elect an African Pope and possibly let him replace some of Benedict’s previous advisors with his own because this will mark the start of a much needed change and may even convince Catholic’s that anyone connected to the sexual abuse scandal is completely gone, not that I am accusing all of Benedict’s advisors of partaking in the scandal I am just merely saying that some new faces would be a welcome addition to the Vatican.

On the other hand, some Catholics may feel that elected an African Pope would be neglecting certain Catholic traditions and may take a certain dislike to him which will cause even more turmoil within the Catholic Church and community because some of the Cardinals will be conflicted because they will want more than anything to serve their new leader and remain loyal to him but they may also want to do what is right for the people.

We won’t know who the new Pope is until next week but I’m sure that whatever decision is made will be a good one for the Church and the people.

Technorati Tags: Catholics,Catholic Church,Pope,Vatican,African Pope,Religion

Why did the pope really resign?

2013-03-03T15:05:00.001+00:00

As I’m sure most of you know, Pope Benedict XVI has now officially resigned as leader of the Catholic Church. He is the first pope to resign in many years and it has come as a shock to many Catholics around the world.

Benedict’s reasoning behind his resignation was apparently his age (85) and the fact that he felt that he no longer had the physical or mental strength to continue in such an important role. At least that’s what he told his closest advisors in the Vatican anyway. Some people (including me) are wondering if there is a far more sinister reason for the Pope’s unexpected resignation. Throughout Benedict’s reign there have been many controversies surrounding the Catholic Church and the main one that had every Catholic feeling ashamed of their religion was the big Sexual abuse scandal in which many Catholic Priests in training claimed that their teachers were sexually abusing them during their time in training.

During my music lesson the other day, we ended up discussing this very topic and we were wondering if someone had threatened to dig up some unwanted dirt on the Pope and accuse him of being part of the sexual abuse scandal unless he resigned. Before you start writing a comment having a rant at me I must stress that I am not directly accusing the Pope myself, I am just speculating like everybody else! However, If you sit back and think about it then you will see that what I am saying actually makes sense.

During the whole scandal, many people accused Benedict and the Vatican of not doing enough to investigate the scandal and expose partakers in this scandal. Maybe didn’t

put much effort into the investigation because some of them knew that Benedict had actually abused some Priests in training and they didn’t want it to get out because they didn’t want to tarnish the name of the Catholic Church and the Vatican anymore than it had been already thanks to journalists doing their own investigation and maybe the Vatican even threatened or paid off some newspapers not do publish anything connecting the Pope to this outrageous,disturbing and disgusting event that had occurred.

Obviously, we will most likely never know if Benedict was involved or not because the Vatican wouldn’t dream of bringing up the subject again, let alone saying anything that might implicate the former Pope into it!

There is another point I would like to discuss regarding what sort of impact it would have on the Catholic Church if there was a Pope elected that is of African origin and if it would be a good or bad thing and judging by the latest news surrounding this topic, it seems very likely that Catholics will be under an African Pope. I will write an article about this topic either at some point today or tomorrow so keep an eye out for that.

Technorati Tags: Religion,Pope Benedict XVI,Catholics,Catholic Church,Vatican,Resignation,Sex Abuse Scandal