Times are hard, writers block has set in.
Research has found me some exercises to have a go at, let’s see if they work.
[43 Folders] Hack your way out of writers block.
I am, however, reading a lot more than usual.
Plus, the shared links that you see on the right sidebar are updated mutiple times daily with favourite reads, keep an eye on those, there are some real gems quite often, I only share the best.
Wish me luck.
Pro-suicide is such a crude term and begs the question, “Are expressions like pro-bullying or pro-domestic violence valid in the same way?” Probably not. With that being the case, why are the national press compelled to use this term when broaching the subject of websites that give advice or guidance on the act of seppuku?
There have been calls from the usual backbench suspects - who clearly have very little to do outside of election year other than to stand up in the house and make absurd suggestions - to consider laws that could never possibly be implemented. Not without severe repercussions on freedom of speech and monstrous infringements of civil liberties.
For a government to inhibit the circulation of the theory of practices that are not punishable by law, but rather frowned upon by society, would make the position of countless other publications, unrelated to suicide, untenable. This would of course be across all mediums; print, online, television, radio. In essence, to prevent access by force, as is being suggested, to websites that glorify or ‘normalise’ suicide, would open the flood gates to all those who feel the desire to complain about anything that aggrieves them in the media.
As an example, citation of this proposed act could have been used in the case of The Christian Faith vs. Jerry Springer The Opera. The BBC received 55,000 written complaints when it was due to be aired on the BBC2 channel in 2005. Would this have been enough public outcry to warrant invoking this act, leaving us instead doomed to ‘Allo ‘Allo repeats (which itself could be censored if enough French people claimed racism) on that Saturday night?
Legislation is no substitute for treatment or prevention. If there was enough attention focused on mental health treatment, which there is not, then perhaps there should be no need to consider absurd censorship such as this.
In my county, Cardiff, there is currently a six month waiting list to see a councelor courtesy of the National Health Service. This has been same since at least 2001. I can tell you this from personal experience. If a person seeks help from their GP citing issues of mental health, they are first and foremost offered anti-depressant drugs and then asked if they would like to be added to the waiting list to see a specialist for counseling. For some people half a year is too long, but have no other choice. Private counseling is an an option that is not always viable, for a multitude of reasons.
It takes a lot of courage for somebody experiencing mental turmoil to turn to somebody for help and for them to be dealt with in such a manner when they do, even more so with the state of mind that they are in at that time, can be horribly detrimental to their health.
In the wake of the Bridgend crisis the UK government should take this opportunity to improve the mental health services available to these vulnerable persons who feel the need to visit ‘pro-suicide’ websites, before it’s too late.
Since I don’t drive, whether I eat or not is reliant on a supermarket delivering to my door.
As part of an advertising campaign by ASDA earlier this year, statistics from the independent grocery shopping website mySupermarket.com were used to prove that ASDA were cheaper than Tesco on hundreds of items, despite an identical television campaign by Tesco claiming the same about them compared to ASDA just a few months prior. In fact, the Tesco price checker is still online and claiming to have 2274 items cheaper than ASDA, so, with two of the major players sending conflicting messages, who actually is the cheapest supermarket to shop from?
According to mySupermarket comparisons, when shopping like for like, ASDA is the cheapest of the 4 supermarkets (Tesco, ASDA, Sainsburys & Ocado (Waitrose)). This is probably the fairest comparison to use, as when taking into likening ’similar’ items (ie. own brands), there can be big differences, in size and weight or in quality which make the matches inequitable.
I had never considered using another supermarket, I was stuck well in there with Tesco, believing that they were the best value, plus of course their service wasn’t too bad, but then after some bad experiences (three failures to show, in fact), I made the decision to investigate alternatives, which is where mySupermarket came into the frame.
When shopping initially signing up with the website, you have the ability to import your favourite items (items you have bought before) from Tesco.com, you then choose from these and it will fill your trolley, all the while keeping a running comparison total from other supermarkets. If you are choosing own brand items, it will choose comparable own brand items. As you can see in the above graphic, my shop at ASDA will save me a cool £40 over my usual choice. This is a grocery shop for a single person for about three weeks, so the savings could potentially be much higher if you are shopping for a family.
Low prices aren’t the only thing to think about when making your grocery choices, because of course, if your driver regularly turns up with items missing, broken or just doesn’t turn up at all, wasted time, effort and eventually the need to go out and buy products elsewhere could completely negate the point of shopping around in the first place.
In summary, using this website could save you a small fortune, but do choose your supplier carefully, I have not used Sainsbury’s or Ocado, but I did switch to ASDA for my February shop and was quite pleased. With only a few missing items, which the difference was quickly refunded to my card, I shall be using them again this month. I don’t feel the need to rush back to Tesco.com any time soon. Being the biggest doesn’t necessarily make them the best.
To cement my position in the league of Welsh bloggers, I would like to offer a quick round-up of the news coming out of Wales in the first half of this week, flanked of course by a bit of my own banter.
Traffic ban to stay in force despite appeals
Cardiff’s St Mary Street will remain closed to private cars for at least another year – despite calls for the link to Cardiff Bay to be reopened.
With work about to start to demolish the old terminal building at Cardiff Bus station it would be foolish to re-open any part of St Mary Street to private traffic. The bus network has had to be re-jigged to move buses away from Wood Street, where demolition work is to start imminently, congestion around Westgate Street and Castle Street is eased by the fact that buses have free-run of St Mary Street. If cars are allowed back on it, buses will be held up, causing more congestion on the aforementioned streets; Castle, Westgate and Wood, making it counterproductive in the long term.
Logo aims to ditch ’sterotype’
Promoters say a new logo to market Cardiff marks a departure from the stereotype of daffodils and dragons.
Stereotypical daffodils and dragons? Are “Cardiff & Co” (who came up with this name?) worried that when people think of visiting Cardiff, they will picture it as one huge field with daffodils and roaming dragons? Instead, we get this new logo which is indistinguishable from that of a company or even web 2.0 site. Perhaps they should rename the city too, in line with current trends, CardiffR beta, perhaps? In fact, it’s also a complete rip-off of the Greek tourist board logo.
Call to limit anti-terror control orders
Terror suspects should only be placed on control orders for up to two years unless there are exceptional circumstances – and some should be given Asbos instead – the Welsh peer in charge of monitoring the Government’s terror legislation said last night.
Well, in a way he is right, terrorist plotting is anti-social, but surely Lord Carlile is not so imbecilic as to suggest that we hand out ASBO’s to vandals, drunks, abusive teens and suicide bombers?
Dilapidated shed on market at £150,000
It’s partially covered in plastic sheeting and even the estate agent trying to sell it admits it’s “dilapidated”.
And who said that Wales’ housing market was on the verge of crashing? Ideal student accomodation perhaps?
Cardiff club is bought for £700,000
A watering hole opposite the Millennium Stadium has netted four South Wales councils £700,000.
Exactly what Cardiff city centre needs, another faceless chain pub for the drunken masses to congregate.
Criminals rewarded with free rail tickets
Commuters have voiced their outrage after young offenders were given free rail travel by a train company.
Money saving tip: Spend your weekends causing criminal damage to get free rail travel to work in the week.
Assembly staff tell of workplace bullying
National Assembly staff have made an average of one complaint a month of bullying or harassment to their bosses in the last three years.
Just more fuel to fire the argument that the NAfW really is just ‘jobs for the boys’.
How can the Assembly Government be involved in promoting equality and bullying schemes to private companies when they have not even got their own staff under control?
Their next step should be to launch an initiative within the organisation and publicise this, to prove that they are taking steps to clear out the chauvanists, racists, bullies et al. Every large company that I know of has a policy and/or scheme to counter or take action in situations involving sexism and bullying, does the Assembly Government have these facilities to their staff? If so, they could deflect criticism by making light of this, they need to lead by example.
Mum may sue cinema after her daughter falls 14ft
A mum has said she is considering legal action against a cinema operator after her daughter fell 14ft from a balcony.
I’d love to get the inside info on this case, where she fell from etc.
The Vue Cinema complex is ultra-modern, only completed in 2002, and the barriers over the fantastic drops are chest height for me. So for a 14-year old girl, let’s assume she is average height, to be able to ‘fall’ over one of these, she would have to have been very stupidly climbing over it.
If the case does come to court, it would be interesting to see if what the cinema company says is true, that the injured girl refused treatment. Of course, they would have the upper hand in any case, assuming they’re innocent, as the building is covered with CCTV cameras.
When robots are given the job of choosing advertisements, unfortunate placement is one of the risks.
On the right you can see one example, found on icWales.co.uk, a Trinity Mirror group website, that in the age of keyword based selection, things can sometimes go wrong and insensitive or inappropriate advertising can be displayed, something which would rarely happen in a newspaper or on television, where advertisements are placed manually by humans.
One way to counter this would be to use blacklists, as well as a keyword list. A list of words which, if found on the page, should prevent the advertisement from being served, instead, moving to the next in line. For most, this would be a very simple piece of code to implement and would do wonders for the credibility of the advertiser.
Google adwords already has this capability and would imagine that Yahoo!’s answer to the Google service, Yahoo SM (Search Marketing) would employ a similar facility.
However, it seems that Trinity Mirror control their own advertising using scripts and pulling banners from DoubleClick. Perhaps this is a feature they should look at building into their back-end?
A few of you have messaged me asking where the shots of the Northern Lights are, after-all, this was the entire purpose of my trek to Iceland.
Unfortunately, during my visit the country was experiencing its worst snow in eight years* which created sufficient cloud cover for the trip to be called off.
So, I arrive back wonderless. Am I disappointed? Mildly. But, it was made up for by a great night out in Reykjavik on Saturday night, where I found out first hand that it really is as trendy as I heard it was, think Greenwich Village but smaller and of course colder.
This of course gives steam to my plan to visit Canada, where aurora borealis is of course widely visible in the Northern territories like Yukon and Manitoba.
*According to a local taxi driver, the capital Reykjavik usually has some snow but it rarely sticks, not often do they have this much.
Stuck in Limbo for 24 hours, I’m finally on the last leg of my journey home.
Airports are devilish places, being in a world where the proprietors of business are deluded to the point that a cheese sandwich is worth £5, but worse still, normally sensible people, myself included, become convinced that this is fair and reach for the cash. The surroundings, by design, break you down to the point that you’re completely at their mercy.
After a two hour delay at Reykjavik, due to adverse weather conditions (it was blowing a 100mph gale, literally), subsequently missing my connecting train to Cardiff, I found myself at the Paddington Hilton, trying to catch some ZzZ’s, but finding the bed rather too large to get comfortable in. Eventually though, gladly, it happened.
Iceland is a beautiful country, when covered in snow. Draped in rain clouds however, as it was on the morning of departure, it became all too familiarly drab. But perhaps I’m being too pessimistic? After all, is anywhere picturesque when lit through grey storm clouds? Not my favourite backdrop, I will admit.
A most perfect Saturday morning was achieved at the Blue Lagoon spa, undoubtedly the most relaxing experience that I believe I have ever had, and this is a high honour coming from someone who has been to some of the most peaceful and beautiful corners of the world.
The water being geothermal, seawater heated naturally underground to 39c and being high in mineral content, the experience was delectable. The salt content also being so high that it was almost possible to float completely unaided only adds to the sense of pure relaxation. I could be forgiven for assuming that it in some way contributes to the fact that Iceland has extraordinarily low crime rates. If only this kind of therapy could be attained here in the UK, road rage and street violence would be unheard of.
My favourite SLR-bridge camera stopped working just a week before the trip, I was rewarded for investing in a new one, however. Some of the shots that I managed to get are spectacular. They are currently up on Facebook, and after being cropped, re-touched and made into ‘final’ shots they will appear on my FlickR photostream. Oh, and there’s a mildly amusing video too which will be YouTube’d as soon as I get home.
Ps.
Commiserations to all those supposed to be enjoying Morrissey at the London Roundhouse on Thursday, Friday and Sunday, only to have him cancel and send on Russell Brand, Jonathan Ross and David Walliams to explain the situation. Being ill is fine by us Mozzer, but for heaven’s sake, don’t send out those cucumbers to settle a crowd of mostly 30-40 year old male’s!
How many times have I wanted to ditch Wales in favour of a warmer climate, a new life, away from everything? A smidgen more than most, I would be willing to bet.
Today I took it one step further than a dream, packed my bags and headed off to the airport, destination; Reykjavik, Iceland.
The snow laden runway was the first sign that I had arrived somewhere new, somewhere away from the mundane surroundings that form the life that I lead.
I work, I eat, I sleep, I go out, I have the occasional manic episode, and the cycle starts again. But, I’m making it sound worse than it is, I do enjoy the times that I have, but perhaps it’s time to find something new. Let’s rephrase that, somewhere new. Or is that just running away?
The snow is really coming down now and it’s -4c, it really makes me revere being a smoker, seeing as they have a smoking ban here too, so I’m banished outside.
After a total of 14 hours of travelling, I’m winding down now with a beer, or three, in the hotel bar, at almost 430am. It’s pleasurable, if I block out the amazingly drunk Icelanders who are hanging around, undoubtedly because it’s one of the only bars around that is still open.
Somehow I managed to pack 25kg in my luggage, not including hand luggage. This includes pretty much all of my camera equipment, as tomorrow I shall be taking a trip to see Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. Tripod, new camera, lenses, all will help me to capture it in all of it’s glory for you, and who knows, I might have some kind of an epiphany?
I write this from International departures, Terminal 1, Heathrow Airport, London. Late passengers are being called, but I’m just relaxing with a hot Latte from Starbucks, I have over two hours until my flight boards.
The train was delayed, which would have jeopardised my plans had I not given myself 6 hours between leaving Cardiff and take-off time.
Maneouvering my huge luggage case through Paddington station to the Heathrow Express platform was a trip in itself, weaving in and out of the London commuters, trying not to scoop any of them up in the process.
Security at “the world’s busiest airport” was surprising easily passed through, although I’m still not a fan of the ‘remove your shoes’ policy, at least I was allowed to take two bags through and into the cabin with me, and my laptop was allowed to stay in my bag, it’s such a palava taking it out and putting in those trays.
My destination? I’m keeping it a secret for now.
I’m using it as time to get away from life and shall be traveling alone. Perhaps I’ll let you know when I arrive there, later this evening.
