Should've gone up yesterday...

St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
Ah, February 14th is upon us again and for singletons like me it’s a chance to wallow in self-pity or go out there and do something about it. That is if you believe the hype. It amazes me how each year Valentines Day becomes more commercialised. Yes, if did have a girlfriend then I probably would take them out for a meal (unfortunately McDonalds and Burger King don’t count), buy them some chocolates and some flowers. However, the way society is at the moment, it’s as if we’re under some mystical pressure to do all of these things, and if we don’t then we’re a “bad boyfriend”. I simply shake my head and sigh at this sort of thing sometimes.

England = Poo
Oh My God. England lost to Australia last night in a football match (though to call what England played last night “football” is an insult). Not that Australia didn’t deserve to win. They played extremely well and fully deserved the plaudits. But England were abysmal. No, they were worse than that, they were the pits. I’m not 100% certain whether I think this is a worse result for England than their 2-2 draw with Macedonia or whoever the hell it was.

Playing one team for 45 minutes and another entirely different team for the second half worked about as well as a solar-powered torch. Sven, you have messed up bad, and I understand you’re under pressure from club managers but something needs to be done. I feel like creating a blueprint and sending it to the FA and FIFA on how they should change the game so that the debacle that happened last night never happens again. Rant over.

Quote of the Day
“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far” - Theodore Roosevelt 1901

Gulf War Mk II
Tony Benn, staunch left-winger and former Labour MP came to to do a talk on behalf of the "Stop the War Campaign" on Thursday, just days after conducting his interview with Saddam Hussein. I went to watch him and he was an excellent public speaker, made some good points about Saddam Hussein, and put forward his views on why we shouldn't go to war with Iraq. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and it was well worth it. The highlights included him being told he was not allowed to smoke in Central Hall, to which he took out his pipe and lit it, and then when he received a phone call in the middle of his talk from CNN to do an interview via phone to 25m listening Americans. When they asked him where he was and he said "York", they thought he meant "New York". You just gotta love that.

In a related tidbit, here's something that was originally on the Internet and became famous from the Daily Mirror stealing it for a front page recently, just seemed germane in light of recent developments:



Quote of the Day
"So I drink a lot, have casual sex and swear, and suddenly I'm cast as a bad boy" - Rising British star Colin Farrell on his 'angelic' lifestyle

Illness and the Beast
I can’t believe how little I blog now. It always seems to me that I blogged just a couple of days ago, and then when I actually check it turns out I haven’t blogged for a couple of weeks. I really can’t account for this. Just one of those things I guess. To be honest, I have been much busier this term at Uni than previously, in fact I seem to be going to the library almost every day.

At the moment though, I’m feeling quite unwell as I seem to have developed a horrendous cold and cough that is making me feel rotten. I was going to go out tonight but instead I’ll be reduced to watching Steven Spielberg’s Taken and the football on TV (not a bad alternative admittedly).

America’s Finest
This week saw the return to terrestrial TV of two of one of America’s highest-rated shows and the start of a new “must-see” American drama. I’m talking about CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Boomtown. Because both are on Channel 5 (which is Britain’s sort of low-budget, soft-core porn channel) neither will get massive ratings, though I’m sure they’ll both do well respectively for Channel 5. I’d never watched CSI before and I have to say I really enjoyed it. As you’d expect from America, very slick, well-written, well-acted and just generally of a high standard. Boomtown too was very interesting, it takes a crime each week and sees it from 7 different perspectives so you get the full picture. I guess the closest you thing you could compare it to would be… er, Memento? I don’t know, but it works.

Land of Hope and Glory
Just like most other American shows (e.g. Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, 24), they’re all of a really high standard. Now I appreciate that we tend to get only the best stuff from America, but the point I want to make is that America’s best is by far superior to Britain’s best. The closest thing Britain has to 24 is probably Spooks, which I thought was alright but nothing compared to its American counterparts. Again, something like Ultimate Force with Ross “Grant Mitchell” Kemp and Red Cap with Tamzin Outhwaite are, frankly, poor.

Why is this? Basically, it’s money. American shows get massive budgets compared to the crap made by the Beeb and ITV, they have a writing team (emphasis being on “team”) rather than just 1 or 2 writers, and they usually get biggish name actors (the best example being Kiefer Sutherland in 24 or Donnie Wahlberg in Boomtown). Think of one of my favourite TV shows, Star Trek. Imagine if the BBC made that. It would just be awful. Dr. Who may be a cult show, but the production values are laughable. I really enjoy all the American imports, don’t get me wrong, I just wish we could produce something with the same style, slickness and all-round verve of our neighbours across the Atlantic.

Insight into Advertising
Because I have no idea what I want to do with my life, I attended a couple of Careers Workshops this week (before being struck by illness). The first was by Norwich Union, one of the UK’s largest companies, and although interesting, the most enticing aspect of their presentation was that if you join their graduate scheme, you get a starting salary of £20,000 a year which is pretty good. (Not that I’m motivated just by money or anything, but, you know, it’s a consideration).

However, the second workshop I went to was presented by an advertising agency called Lowe who are based in London and it was really inspirational. I basically only signed up to this one because I thought it might be interesting, however, it was a real eye-opener. The two people who came in were recent graduates, and, although I understand they were here to do this, they really did make working in advertising seem like an attractive proposition. It certainly made me evaluate what I want to do after Uni. Although everyone wants to work on the creative aspect of things (i.e. dreaming up adverts and getting to film them), most of what they described sounded pretty exciting as well. Plus, 75% of the people in the workshop were attractive blonde women. (Not that I’m motivated by pretty women or anything, but, you know, it’s a consideration).

Quote of the Day
“It’s like a cross between Marx and Nietzsche, with added Hun-hate and a bit of Susannah Constantine and Trinny Woodall”” - Zoe Williams of the Guardian assesses the state of videogaming today