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On living in a rural setting

Byrichard

Switzerland is a land of mountains, rivers, and lakes. it’s a great place for skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, walking, and sailing. Those are all sports I’ve done. When I was several years younger we had a day’s racketing: Racketting is walking with rackets attached to your feet across the trees up in the mountains. It’s fun, although occasionally tiring sport.

At one point we took a break for lunch. During this time a few of us were jumping over a young tree and someone was taking photographs. Within a period of weeks, one of those photographs was blown up to poster format and used in several shopping centres. it was also used for the cover of a local tourism magazine.

The picture was of a younger me in a ski suit with rackets attached to my feet. Many people have seen that photograph and I was a cover boy for at least one issue of the local magazine. Recently that picture was in a shopping center much closer to where I live and we recuperated it. It’s now sitting on my desk at home.

I’m thinking about going raquetting if there’s enough snow for it to be worthwhile. I haven’t done that sport for many years and I think it’d be interesting. It’s simple. No need to drive to where the snow is good, Thirty minutes and I’d be where I may be able to raquet.

If there’s snow that’s what I may spend a few hours doing.

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Over 400 views of the Sandstorm video

Byrichard

I’ve just checked the number of hits on the Silent disco hits and it’s now up to over four hundred views. That’s a nice amount. I’m quite happy with this number because it’s from my website rather than another source.

I’ve been posting videos on the web for many years and I’ve seen many projects start and fail and others expand. It used to be that websites would have just 5 megabytes and websites would be html based. We’re in web 2.0 now and it’s normal for me to download over a gig of data per day when I’m at home.

Some people say that video on the web is going to cause problems, that there are bottle necks and that’s it’s not built for live video. That’s because they’re new to the web and think they’re gurus after just two years of daily use. I remember when it was the 56k modems and use was paid per minute. I remember when short text pages would take a while to load.

I remember when chatrooms did not require you to create a profile which everyone could see. Where everything was fleeting, as bars are. You’d see hundreds of people but you had to converse with them. ASL used to be a popular question

Today there’s no need. Just click on the username and you find out everything about them that they want you to know, age, sex location, websites, groups they like and more.

For the past few weeks I’ve become really familiar with facebook and how powerfull a tool it is. I love it. It’s great because when you’re out meeting people you often get to meet up to 20 people in one night sometimes and there’s no way you’re going to remember them. Ragweek is an example of them. Too many faces. Not enough personal detail for the name to stick in my mind. Facebook means that I go online and I can review the night, see pictures of new friends and learn a little more about them.

When I was at the silent disco there are a few people I notice in quite a few shots and by posting pictures online they’ve presented their identity. They are no longer nameless faces that shall remain irrelevant to my life. They seek each other out and tag themselves in video frames I’ve posted. In so doing their friends can see them.

They enjoy it. It’s not a stalker medium. it’s about the McLuhanist global village. It’s about the extension and enhancment of social interaction. I was doing some research for an essay about technological determinism yesterday which explains the use of such terms.

When McLuhan talked about the medium as the message he talked about the media as a thing which acts as an extension. Imagine you go out and meet someone and you get their name and phone number. The phone number is great because you can talk to them live with no difficulty. A facebook account is greater because it allows you to understand their personality, their likes and dislikes and more. It’s a way for people to embelish on spontaneous meetings.

It’s the global village that McLuhanits have examined and studied. Since everyone knows everyone else facebook is the village taverna. It’s where you speak to your friends about other friends and a community forms. If you interact with enough groups then that village, that medium (facebook) becomes a family. There is nothing sinister about it for the simple reason that you do not remain anonymous. Everyone whose interest you have summoned will be able to feed their curiosity and the next time they go to an event they will invite you.

I love it.

When I was living in a small village in Switzerland I was afraid that technology was a great isolationist tool but that view has changed. What is isolationist about going online and sharing your interests with others. i created one group and 56 people became members. Those members are all fans of the Paleo Festival.

Events are shared and talked about. I may not spend every day around those at King’s but this does not mean that I have not been invited to their events. I was invited in person to the clavicle challenge but did not participate. I’ve been invited to parties via sms, bulletins on myspace and event notifications on Facebook. People invite other friends and you’ll see how many people are planning on going and next time you meet them you’ll be able to discuss that.

In other cases, as with the silent disco I was able to see an event and participate. Once the event was over I was able to share the content with many people. They come, they participate. They take pictures and upload them. I upload some as well. The event was only an hour long but the bond formed through the event is enhanced and perpetuated through Facebook.

There is a night at the SU bar tonight involving tequilla shots. Many people will meet but how many friendships will last beyond a night. There’s one girl who I chatted to at the beginning of the year but now she doesn’t recognise me. Similar things happen every year and it’s tiring.

Facebook has become the new social hub. I see how everyone is doing and they see how I’m doing. They post pictures and I’m reminded of how much fun was had at those events. It’s perpetual, a cycle of positive feedback.

Does technology determin how people interact? Yes because it helps them get to where they want to get and affects the comfort level but no because human nature is human. In other words the fundamental principles remain the same although the means by which certain things are done affects the interaction.

Why study the media? Because by studying the media you are studying communication between individuals, whether it’s the type of chair they’re sitting on or the type of alcohol they’re drinking. It encompasses our daily lives to such an extent that it’s considered a mickey mouse course. Why spend 30hrs in a library reading books that were written thirty years ago when the media changes at the speed of thought. I’ve seen the media landscape change so much within the past 10 years that every day I form new opinions and philosophies about communication.

Media studies are within every book about film, every photograph, every song, every bag. We’re saturated by the media around us therefore we discredit those who study the media. I don’t me we as in I but rather the metaphorical We of society as a whole.

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On Smoke Filled Kitchens

Byrichard

Last night I was sitting in my room surfing the web and thinking about a variety of things when I could smell burned so i checked the heater. Cold. Visual inspection of my room, nothing apparently a problem. I decide to go outside my bedroom towards the kitchen and open the door. Oh fuck, the room was filled with a dense smoke and a pot was on the hob. I rushed to the window and opened it to disperse the smoke. I then moved the pan from the hot hob to a cool one, turned off the power to the unit and opened the second window.

once that was done I opened the kitchen door and the flat door to create a draft that would take the smoke out of the kitchen. It worked. I checked the pan and poured water into it. Some idiot had left two chicken legs to cook without keeping an eye on. If I haden’t gone to investigate the fire alarm might have gone off and flames may have made this more serious than it was.

I really want to say that I believe at least one of my flat mates to be an absolute idiot for doing something so stupid but I’m afraid that individual will read what I wrote.

Apparently it’s not unusual for kitchens to be found extremely warm because students had left the hobs on overnight. Most probable cause, after reading certain threads on facebook would be drunk students. They think they’re sober enough to cook something so they heat the hobs and start to cook, decide to nap for ten minutes and fall asleep.

At least the only damage is to the pan and two chicken legs. No one was harmed, no going off of the fire alarm and no material damage to university property.

Happy Valentine’s

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Waking up to heavy metal

Byrichard

There is nothing more aggressive or stressful than being woken up by heavy metal. There is nothing but some idiot yelling into a microphone and other idiots calling it music. It’s not music so much as noise to me. I’d prefer to be woken to the sound of seagulls or the waves than music created by the disenfranchised youth of a bygone era.

In halls causes for being pulled from your sleep are numerous. On many occasions it’s people yelling from outside to windows, cleaning staff talking loud to each other, girls talking about subjects that would later embarrass them (hilarious though), and the clanking sound of kitchen utensils. There’s the sound of cupboards being opened and closed, of fire alarms, demolition, grating barriers and more.

I can’t think of anymore but those are a great method by which to make me appreciate the countryside all that much more. Nothing but the sweet sound of birds and wind in the branches, storm clouds, and more. Any noise that is not the result of some selfish person I do not mind.

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The aftermath of a night’s activities

Byrichard

In continental Europe there are a lot of people who go out and enjoy a glass or two over dinner and have a long conversation about a great variety of topics which they enjoy. In other parts of the world, for example, England you’ll find that the volume of night clubs has deafened the night revelers to go home speaking far louder than would otherwise be socially acceptable.

England is an extremely generous country in terms of educational subsidisation. Whereas the English only pay £1200 pounds per year for their tuition fees in America it’s up to 30,000 dollars a year. What this means is that the English student is rich. If I work one month in Switzerland and save that money I could pay the tuition fee. If I work for three or four I could live for half a year in rented accommodation.

This would lead you to believe that going out for a meal and living in relative luxury would be an integral part of student life in England but this is not so. A lot of time and energy is spent on encouraging people to spend money and time on drinking. If you’re a student in England how many times have you been invited out to dinner. How many times have people suggested social activities other than drinking to you? Tomorrow you’ll find that a large portion of those living in halls will be hungover from the amount they spent at the bar. I’ve heard a rumour that in some uni bars they can make up several grand in one night. If that’s true then it’s really depressing.

It’s depressing because if that’s what they make in one night then what money is left for more enjoyable pursuits are left for the rest of the week? Will some people go to the cinema or go out to dinner? How many of these students spend a week a month broke with hardly anything left for food because of their single night of excessive drinking?

It’s a serious problem in the whole of England and it should be addressed. Doing it once every few weeks is fine, and for special occasions. Doing it every week is counterproductive. Are universities not pushing students enough and that’s why they’re so willing to drink to excess?

What if they had to wake at 6 am and be in lectures by 8 am and out by 6 pm to do some research till 10 pm and sleep 6hrs?

In summary, I don’t care what people do in their free time as long as they don’t keep me up in their inebriated state.

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World’s biggest silent disco was small

Byrichard

The World’s “Biggest silent disco” was made up of only 200 people but they danced for over an hour to all the music they had on their ipods, mobile phones and other mp3 playing devices. It was very amusing.

I arrived over an hour early and scouted out the area seeing where the event would be most likely to take place. As I did this I looked around, seeing which people were likely to participate. I saw two or three groups of friends, then some more. Around 1830 a lot of people were standing around and waiting. Within a few minutes more and more people were coming and you could see them all watching the clock. They saw the counter switch to 18:42 but it took ten to twenty seconds before people started dancing.

My camera was ready and rolling as soon as 18:42 was on the clock. I was listening to my own music and was filming. I saw lot’s of people start dancing and laughing. I saw some individuals synchronise their music, others shared. Some came with only small earphones whilst others came with big headphones. Some of them danced in groups. Overs danced alone and many people took photographs and video.

Conga lines and waves were formed as the individuals listening to their music formed into groups of people who danced the evening away under the arches of Paddington station.

I filmed for fifty seven minutes and I’ve got over 300 individual shots of a variety of people dancing, interviews being carried out(I can’t be bothered with interviews and I didn’t have a mic anyway) and more.

There was a small police presence but they did not intervene until the very end when some musicians started to play. The crowd loved it though.

When I started editing last night was the first glimpse of how surreal the event must have been for the by-standers watching the dancers. I can hear lot’s of squeaking shoes and conversations can be heard loud and clear since there was no loud music. It’s hilarious to see such an event and when it happens again I’ll definitely participate in as many as I can.

I’ve been looking at what people say about it on facebook and there are many people that I recognise from the video footage.

Overall it’s a great bit of random fun at a random time on a random day and it’s great to see.

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Oversimplification

Byrichard

The more time you spend online the more headlines and articles you read, the more you see mass idiocy. Every time a phone comes out that’s slightly similar to the iPhone they rant about how similar to the iPhone it is. It’s not. There are several models of phones preceding it.

My phone is very similar in design to the Samsung f700 but I’ve had it since October/November of the year. It’s got a touch screen and the slide-out keyboard and it’s got all the synchronization features.

Why has Apple become the standard for a product they’re not even releasing to the market for another half a year. What a lot of excitement for a device that’s more of a gimmick than anything else.

The iPhone is for the myspace generation. Those who are looking for entertainment value in electronic devices rather than usefulness. How are you going to write notes in lectures with the i-phone?

One of the things I hate most about web 2.0 is that it’s all about hype, what’s popular, what’s not. What does the mass want, what doesn’t it want? Why is everything over-simplified to such an extent?

At the moment you can’t open a paper without the aftermath of the CBB article being rammed down your media-saturated throat yet intelligent articles like “Identity and Migration” by Francis Fukuyama published in Prospect for February 2007 goes unnoticed. It’s a well-written article that looks in-depth at the issues that are relevant to the future of the international community as a whole.

The disjuncture between one’s inner and outer selves comes not merely out of the realm of ideas, but from the social reality of modern market democracies. After the American and French revolutions, the ideal of la carrière ouverte aux talents was increasingly put into practice as traditional barriers to social mobility were removed. One’s social status was now achieved rather than ascribed; it was the product of one’s talents, work, and effort rather than an accident of birth. One’s life story was the search for fulfilment of an inner plan, rather than conformity to the expectations of one’s parents, kin, village or priest.

One of the strongest arguments within the article is this one:

The first prong of the solution is to recognise that the old multicultural model has not been a big success in countries such as the Netherlands and Britain, and that it needs to be replaced by more energetic efforts to integrate non-western populations into a common liberal culture. The old multicultural model was based on group recognition and group rights. Out of a misplaced sense of respect for cultural differences—and in some cases out of imperial guilt—it ceded too much authority to cultural communities to define rules of behaviour for their own members. Liberalism cannot ultimately be based on group rights, because not all groups uphold liberal values. The civilisation of the European Enlightenment, of which contemporary liberal democracy is the heir, cannot be culturally neutral, since liberal societies have their own values regarding the equal worth and dignity of individuals. Cultures that do not accept these premises do not deserve equal protection in a liberal democracy. Members of immigrant communities and their offspring deserve to be treated equally as individuals, not as members of cultural communities. There is no reason for a Muslim girl to be treated differently under the law from a Christian or Jewish one, whatever the feelings of her relatives.

There are some valid and interesting points within the article. Take a few minutes to read it.

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Rag week is fun

Byrichard

I was at the Roxy bar a few days ago in central London and people were cheering. They had just seen the proper version of the Rag week trailer and they loved it. I had been asked to shoot some material and edit other material for Thursday evening when the rag review took place.

I went to two or three of the events. I went to the school disco night and it was great fun, between people dancing, others being hit by the death squad and others just being really friendly it was a really good night. I met a lot of friendly people and there’s such a contrast to my own university. When media students see a camera they’re going to be so angry at you for filming, being to used to being behind they don’t appreciate it as much. I must admit that I feel the same way.

One individual that marked me is a girl that was on crutches who wanted to dance for the camera. there wasn’t quite enough light so we don’t see as much as would make the video great fun but it’s still entertaining.

I was on a platform and three girls came to join. Sandstorm was playing so I had to dance, in memoriam of when I was a fresher back in the South West of England.

A girl took the camera from me and I danced for her so I’m going to have to include that footage in the edit as a good laugh.

Moonragger had a different feel to it, partly because I was tired from the previous night. Some people needed to look futuristic and whilst some took aluminum foil and wrapped it around others took cling film. One person was in a spacesuit but I didn’t manage to get that on tape.

Lot’s of people danced, lot’s of people enjoyed the night. One attractive girl told me to “f off with the camera” so I moved away and filmed more people. She came back and told me to f of again. It’s to be expected but what people haven’t understood is that I film movement, I film when something interesting is in front of the camera. Turn your back to the camera or stop dancing and I’ll understand you’re self-conscious therefore the camera will stop rolling. There’s no point in filming people standing around.

I went to sit down and had some nice moments with people I had only briefly seen in the past. As a guest to the university, I really liked the way people were friendly and open. They want to chat, they want to be filmed, they enjoy the camera and appreciate my company.

It’s so refreshing.

I’m going to add the video within the next few days for people to enjoy.

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On an amusing conversation in Denmark

Byrichard

We had been walking around various parts of Demnark with a friend when he said that we should go to a bar. In some countries the name would not be allowed but in this part it is. It’s spunk bar. It’s located on one end of Westbork in Copenhaguen.

We were having a drink when a person with a chinese tattoo walked past and told us “this is snake”, a strange statement. He went and sat down for a bit, then came back and asked if we knew goose eye. Nope, first I’d heard of it. He went back to his seat.

Are you American? was his next question. No I live in London.

He went away again.

Hey, do you know how an ash tray flies. Both my friend and I were perplexed, wondering what he meant by that. “well I do”, back to his seat.

Do you know scientology, nope. Ok, yet again to his seat.

Where in London…

Do you know churchill park? nope, it’s a nice place. They bury people there.

This is probably the best example of surrealism I have seen in a long time. Those fragments are so random that we couldn’t help but burst out laughing. How often do you hear this type of statement?

After that he went away and the episode was finished.

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Wait in Terminal

Byrichard

Wait in terminal

And so the weekend came to an end. It began on Thursday with a trip around Malmo and dropping into two or three bars and a night club. Discussions were had and dancing took place.

The first day was about getting back up to speed with the friend and keeping to the promise that I’d made about coming to Sweden would come to fruition.

I was in the city of Malmo, across the Oresund from Copenhague, Denmark’s capital. It’s on the southern tip of Sweden. It’s a city of around 500,000 people.

We went to two bars before dropping into l’étage. A nightclub that wasn’t that busy. We met a few people of which a fashion student. I was interested in what she had to say but this was cut short by the boyfriend interrupting to speak about football.

The night ended early and I was exhausted.

The second day was more relaxed consisting of a meal at a restaurant I had been to previously where the food was good.

On the third day, we visited the city of Copenhagen. I had already been to the airport but it’s nice to visit the town and notice some of the atmosphere and the architecture.

There’s a circular ice rink where people can come and ice skate in a square. It’s some grass in the middle so it’s circular. Some people were enjoying the ice.

Back in Malmo we had some dinner before passing by a night club where we stayed till closing. It felt relaxed, consisting of a corridor and three rooms. One part was the restaurant, another the dancefloor and the other a room with table tennis. It lasted till three am and can’t think of any conversations

I flew the next day and I was writing this entry on my phone it seemed that we were chasing the sunset back to London. Those sunsets are always enjoyable and colourful.