Ooo, I've never got to write a blog before still feeling the same way I did when the 'injustice' was inflicted upon me. This should be interesting...
You know, coming of age is meant to be a big thing. It's meant to change alot. I mean, you're now *18*. That magical, amazing, fascinating number of beauty and depth, that means you've finally stepped down from being a boy and become a man.
Well, it's done stuff all for me. My life has changed very little since turning 18, almost one year ago. I suppose it's the fact that I don't indulge in the things that are too unhealthy to expose to little kids: I don't drink because of health reasons and also I think it's a bloody stupid thing to do (yeah, there'll be more on this in the future; count on it), I don't smoke because I can't imagine anything stupider and against blatant nature and common sense than setting something on fire then inhaling. Seriously, who thought this up in the first place, and why wasn't he put to the stake for it (despite, you know, him probably getting some type of pleasure out of that), and I don't drive. At all. Don't mix your sexual similes in here, I meant a car. I'm clumsy by nature. People put away plates when they see me in their house; so why in God's name would I be trusted with a one tonne hunk of metal that moves over 100 km/h and is known to have people die because of them (and stupidity, admittedly) just because I've reached a certain age?
The only things that have changed for me is that I now have to write *18* in that little spot next to my current age on a census form or the like.
And this all equates to one thing: I don't have any I.D. I don't do any of these things, so I don't see why I should carry around proof of age to prove something that many people are already quite aware of. The only problem emanating from this is that I can't be let into pubs after dark.
I rarely go out to pubs; after all, they mean 'somewhere you can drink and smoke because it's not safe nor right to do it in public', you know, much like the function of a brothel.
But whenever I'm with a group that doesn't share this view; this group quite often consisting of everyone else; I can't get in. The whole function of the checking of the IDs is to make sure that only people who do drink and smoke and do all other sorts of idiotic things can get in, so even despite the fact that I don't do these things, I still can't get access and spend time with my friends in said alcohol-brothels. Where does that support any type of law? I'm not going to do anything wrong and so I'm not allowed inside the place where I wouldn't do it even if I have the opportunity. If I go to get a bloody drink and look too young, then the people at the bar can ask for I.D, that's meant to be part of their bloody job.
And now for why I'm wrong.
Fact is, it's a matter of security. They don't know what age I am, nor what I'm going to do once I'm inside the club. Sure, they could check my I.D upon going to the bar, but that doesn't mean they can be sure that I'm not going to get someone to sneak them to me (assuming that I'm underage). It's not a foolproof system, of course; I know plenty of people that had fake I.Ds some years before they turned 18, but it's the most convenient way to go about ensuring a sense of security for the bar.
I may not normally need I.D, but if it's something they need, I have to comply, if only to continue ensuring such security.
Stay linked, hopefully I'll have a less 'personal' topic in the near future.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
MPI104 Assessment 2
This is a post for MPI104, for which this blog was created, second assessment.
The aesthetics used in this blog were created mostly for ease of use: There are in fact but a few changes from the original 'Minima Black' template provided by the BlogSpot. However, I have changed the colour of the text from a faint gray and the heading from a greenish colour to pure white; creating a greater constrast between the black background and the text, making it more striking and easier to read. The link colours however show a darker blue and purple, as to be distinguished from the text, but also is bright enough as to not be confused with the background. Also, the heading has been changed from the original plain text into a more 'personal' partly handdrawn heading. While the 'My Opinions' is written in my handwriting, giving it that personalised touch, the 'AND WHY YOU SHOULDN'T LISTEN TO THEM' is written in a far more mechanical font, giving it a boldness and harshness, because blatantly, that's what it's meant to be.
The posts, as stated in my first assessment is about why I am wrong in my opinions, and is an exploration of looking at things in a different light. My recent Harry Potter topic post is a good example of myself getting quite annoyed at the way I think, and my 'Chocolate Day' post details my own thoughts and beliefs about complexities, but then causes me to rebuttal them through simplicity, and to think of the whole, instead of the groups. The way that this works in my aesthetics is that the colours are divided; light and dark, black and white. While I may think one thing, there's always another side to it; something else to see it against (the background against the foreground).
The text is kept slightly to the left, as that is where the eye immediately searches an image or book, at least in our culture, as we read left to right (if you do not do this, then this blog will be a lot harder to
The aesthetics used in this blog were created mostly for ease of use: There are in fact but a few changes from the original 'Minima Black' template provided by the BlogSpot. However, I have changed the colour of the text from a faint gray and the heading from a greenish colour to pure white; creating a greater constrast between the black background and the text, making it more striking and easier to read. The link colours however show a darker blue and purple, as to be distinguished from the text, but also is bright enough as to not be confused with the background. Also, the heading has been changed from the original plain text into a more 'personal' partly handdrawn heading. While the 'My Opinions' is written in my handwriting, giving it that personalised touch, the 'AND WHY YOU SHOULDN'T LISTEN TO THEM' is written in a far more mechanical font, giving it a boldness and harshness, because blatantly, that's what it's meant to be.
The posts, as stated in my first assessment is about why I am wrong in my opinions, and is an exploration of looking at things in a different light. My recent Harry Potter topic post is a good example of myself getting quite annoyed at the way I think, and my 'Chocolate Day' post details my own thoughts and beliefs about complexities, but then causes me to rebuttal them through simplicity, and to think of the whole, instead of the groups. The way that this works in my aesthetics is that the colours are divided; light and dark, black and white. While I may think one thing, there's always another side to it; something else to see it against (the background against the foreground).
The text is kept slightly to the left, as that is where the eye immediately searches an image or book, at least in our culture, as we read left to right (if you do not do this, then this blog will be a lot harder to
dnatsrednu).
Any further information, such as links or the blog's archive, are kept to the right, due to them taking a secondary status of importance to the actual posts. The order of the information on the sidebar is kept in priority of what I believe the readers need to know; first they of course need to know about me, to inflate my enormous ego, but also so they can judge just what type of writer I am, and how that will reflect in the posts, followed by the blog archive, to make assessing past blogs simple, finally followed by things that are related to the site, but not entirely relevant such as my favorites, my recommended sites and technorati.
While my del.icio.us is rather immune to having the template updated, it shows reflecting my own interests and what I use daily through the internet, showing my involvement and investment in the entire internet community. However, Flickr is another case. There was no real theme for the photos I used, but they all reflect something of me. There are pictures of my drawings, pictures of landscapes that fascinate me of the time it would've taken to capture them, and other things such as celebrities , pets and friends , so the only aesthetic value I can divulge of this account is that it's about what makes up and interests me, and I can only hope that other people can find something of interest to themselves within it.
While my del.icio.us is rather immune to having the template updated, it shows reflecting my own interests and what I use daily through the internet, showing my involvement and investment in the entire internet community. However, Flickr is another case. There was no real theme for the photos I used, but they all reflect something of me. There are pictures of my drawings, pictures of landscapes that fascinate me of the time it would've taken to capture them, and other things such as celebrities , pets and friends , so the only aesthetic value I can divulge of this account is that it's about what makes up and interests me, and I can only hope that other people can find something of interest to themselves within it.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Atcote Blogger and the Deathly Topic
That's right, I've given in; I'm going to write something on Harry Potter.
If you plan to read Harry Potter in the future, but haven't yet, don't bother reading this for its spoilers, though I've no doubt you know them all already anyway.
Ah, Harry. Ol' Harry Potter. Good ol' Harry Potter.
How I hate him! (If you can figure out the comic strip I'm referencing here, you win a cookie).
Well, it's not so much the books I hate, nor the character, that whiny, depressive, self-concerned bastard; I find him to be quite an accurate depiction of teenagers of this day. It's the fans. I don't ever seem to get along with fans of a particular series very well, despite me being a member of it, I suppose.
Okay, okay, I concede, I've had the 'Is Dumbledore still alive?' and the 'Did Dumbledore plan it?' argument... For a lasting matter of two and a half hours. I honestly can't even remember which side I was ever arguing for. All I remember is feeling slightly relieved afterwards.
It's more or less a scenario of 'Okay, I've got the Potter-Freak out of me, now I can go and actually read a book again,' but then I realise the fans keep coming back for more. And more. How can there be an entire website dedicated to this topic? How can people think about it that much if you're not J.K. Rowling, in which case she's actually making money off it and, I don't know, has control over the topic? Just what is the appeal of dressing up like a Hogwarts student just to buy the freaking book?
And what's even worse is the anti-fans. The people who ruin it for the actually, and freakishly, committed people. I'm talking about the people who went around at the launch of the sixth book and shouted the various 'Snape killed Dumbledore!' spoilers. It's one thing to be bothered to waste your time for something you really seem to love, in hopefully no more than a freaky fan type way, but to put yourself out and run around streets at midnight in order to ruin it for them? Now that's a whole new level of patheticness... patheticity.... (Damn you the English language...)
Honestly, while I've enjoyed the books, and will definitely read the final in its series, but I don't see the point of the hype, nor the anti-hype.
Okay, time to say why I'm wrong, otherwise this blog would lose all context (and we'd hate that, wouldn't we?).
Do you even know any actual fans like this? I mean, sure, there's a rather scary fanatic in your MPI104 class for this sorts of thing, but while they are out there, they're not exactly affecting you, are they? What right have you to ask why they should show such enthusiasm to a series of books that they love? I daresay someone who's written over 100 pages on a Legend of Zelda fan-fiction can't go around fan-ship bashing, now can he?
And also, it's the talking about the series, the skepticism, the wonder over Dumbledore's fate or Snape's intents that keep the series really alive; if you read a book and didn't think about it, then what was the point of the narrative? You should know over as well as anyone that a book is there for interpretation and to learn from, and who says you can't do that with a Harry Potter novel? I mean, the knowledge of the uses of the mandrake root may not be totally important, but it's the thoughts your mind creates around those things that sparks your own imagination, and if you enjoy talking (or arguing) about this sort of thing with your friends, then why not? If it's fun, it's fun. You're being nearly as bad as the spoilers for thinking there's a reason to deny people any enjoyment they may get out of it.
...
Man, I'm a really mean person to myself when I want to be. Anyway, keep linked, I'll be back soon!
If you plan to read Harry Potter in the future, but haven't yet, don't bother reading this for its spoilers, though I've no doubt you know them all already anyway.
Ah, Harry. Ol' Harry Potter. Good ol' Harry Potter.
How I hate him! (If you can figure out the comic strip I'm referencing here, you win a cookie).
Well, it's not so much the books I hate, nor the character, that whiny, depressive, self-concerned bastard; I find him to be quite an accurate depiction of teenagers of this day. It's the fans. I don't ever seem to get along with fans of a particular series very well, despite me being a member of it, I suppose.
Okay, okay, I concede, I've had the 'Is Dumbledore still alive?' and the 'Did Dumbledore plan it?' argument... For a lasting matter of two and a half hours. I honestly can't even remember which side I was ever arguing for. All I remember is feeling slightly relieved afterwards.
It's more or less a scenario of 'Okay, I've got the Potter-Freak out of me, now I can go and actually read a book again,' but then I realise the fans keep coming back for more. And more. How can there be an entire website dedicated to this topic? How can people think about it that much if you're not J.K. Rowling, in which case she's actually making money off it and, I don't know, has control over the topic? Just what is the appeal of dressing up like a Hogwarts student just to buy the freaking book?
And what's even worse is the anti-fans. The people who ruin it for the actually, and freakishly, committed people. I'm talking about the people who went around at the launch of the sixth book and shouted the various 'Snape killed Dumbledore!' spoilers. It's one thing to be bothered to waste your time for something you really seem to love, in hopefully no more than a freaky fan type way, but to put yourself out and run around streets at midnight in order to ruin it for them? Now that's a whole new level of patheticness... patheticity.... (Damn you the English language...)
Honestly, while I've enjoyed the books, and will definitely read the final in its series, but I don't see the point of the hype, nor the anti-hype.
Okay, time to say why I'm wrong, otherwise this blog would lose all context (and we'd hate that, wouldn't we?).
Do you even know any actual fans like this? I mean, sure, there's a rather scary fanatic in your MPI104 class for this sorts of thing, but while they are out there, they're not exactly affecting you, are they? What right have you to ask why they should show such enthusiasm to a series of books that they love? I daresay someone who's written over 100 pages on a Legend of Zelda fan-fiction can't go around fan-ship bashing, now can he?
And also, it's the talking about the series, the skepticism, the wonder over Dumbledore's fate or Snape's intents that keep the series really alive; if you read a book and didn't think about it, then what was the point of the narrative? You should know over as well as anyone that a book is there for interpretation and to learn from, and who says you can't do that with a Harry Potter novel? I mean, the knowledge of the uses of the mandrake root may not be totally important, but it's the thoughts your mind creates around those things that sparks your own imagination, and if you enjoy talking (or arguing) about this sort of thing with your friends, then why not? If it's fun, it's fun. You're being nearly as bad as the spoilers for thinking there's a reason to deny people any enjoyment they may get out of it.
...
Man, I'm a really mean person to myself when I want to be. Anyway, keep linked, I'll be back soon!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
mpi104 - Counters
Hello all. I haven't been posting 'interestingness' posts lately, but I'll make up an excuse for that later.
What I'm here for today is to explain something that I'm sure we're all VERY excited about: website counters.
These marvellous devices that give us that all important non-caffine based ego boost are very popular among the concited and lonely, and tell us how many people are visiting their site, and give them the one glimmering light of hope in their otherwise dreary, pointless existance.
But enough pointless insults to those not totally unlike me! Site Meter allows us, to track where those that visit our sites are coming from to get to our site, what they 'google' search to get there, where they're going afterwards, how long they've been there, and which pages they looked at; everything the digital stalker needs in their day to day life!
I've only just signed up with Site Meter due to the demands of MPI104, so thus my view count will be very low; even lower than the one before then, which read 134 visits; fifty of which appeared in the past three days! Huzzar!
Anyway, I'll get back to toiling in the boiler of my own lost hopes and dreams; if the situation demands it, I may post again today with something made, you know, for entertaining purposes, as this blog was created for.
Away!
Edit 14/6/07: Okay, I've had my technorati counter but for some time now, and these are the statistics about my readers that I can gain from it: Most of them are from Australia; the addresses that are listed are mostly in NSW, so it's nice to see I get a home field advantage (though I'm sure plenty of them are actually me), but I also have a few readers in Europe (notably Spain, something which surprised me) and a couple from America. Many of them seem to arrive at my site from 'edu.au', something which by itself doesn't seem to exist... so thereby, if people can find my blog through being nowhere, I should be plenty of new readers!
- Atcote
What I'm here for today is to explain something that I'm sure we're all VERY excited about: website counters.
These marvellous devices that give us that all important non-caffine based ego boost are very popular among the concited and lonely, and tell us how many people are visiting their site, and give them the one glimmering light of hope in their otherwise dreary, pointless existance.
But enough pointless insults to those not totally unlike me! Site Meter allows us, to track where those that visit our sites are coming from to get to our site, what they 'google' search to get there, where they're going afterwards, how long they've been there, and which pages they looked at; everything the digital stalker needs in their day to day life!
I've only just signed up with Site Meter due to the demands of MPI104, so thus my view count will be very low; even lower than the one before then, which read 134 visits; fifty of which appeared in the past three days! Huzzar!
Anyway, I'll get back to toiling in the boiler of my own lost hopes and dreams; if the situation demands it, I may post again today with something made, you know, for entertaining purposes, as this blog was created for.
Away!
Edit 14/6/07: Okay, I've had my technorati counter but for some time now, and these are the statistics about my readers that I can gain from it: Most of them are from Australia; the addresses that are listed are mostly in NSW, so it's nice to see I get a home field advantage (though I'm sure plenty of them are actually me), but I also have a few readers in Europe (notably Spain, something which surprised me) and a couple from America. Many of them seem to arrive at my site from 'edu.au', something which by itself doesn't seem to exist... so thereby, if people can find my blog through being nowhere, I should be plenty of new readers!
- Atcote
Thursday, May 24, 2007
mpi-104 Technorati
Technorati is a special search engine site that allows members to claim their blogs, see their connectivity status with othersites via an 'authority' system, mine of which is currently a WHOLE '7'.
My overall ranking for the site, which ranks my position in the site to that of everyone else's, is a phomenal '707,903', which of course means if somebody says, 'Man, I'm looking for something that not many people like or even know about, I think I'll go for something in the low sevent hundred and ninty thousands', I'll be one of the first to jump to their minds!
Technorati is different from Google in that it only really searches blogs, as opposed to many different kinds of sites.
This post was made by a machine, not unlike a robot, for the purposes of passing MPI-104.
My overall ranking for the site, which ranks my position in the site to that of everyone else's, is a phomenal '707,903', which of course means if somebody says, 'Man, I'm looking for something that not many people like or even know about, I think I'll go for something in the low sevent hundred and ninty thousands', I'll be one of the first to jump to their minds!
Technorati is different from Google in that it only really searches blogs, as opposed to many different kinds of sites.
This post was made by a machine, not unlike a robot, for the purposes of passing MPI-104.
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