It has been one month, to the exact day, since I last updated my blog. There hasn't been a new post for numerous reasons. One reason is that I am back at school so the only times I can update the blog during the week are after 4PM, but I am busy for two hours on a Monday and Wednesday so that also takes up time. Then taking homework and other daily tasks into account, I only really a have a few hours each day that I can update the blog.

Another reason is that I still don't have a good idea for a blog. I don't want this simply to be a diary of events in my life, following the format of "Today I did this, then this, talked to him, talked to her, went to see film x, then went for a meal at restaurant z..." because that isn't interesting to write about. I apologise to all two of my followers for the lack of updates, assuming you even care or noticed lol. Right now I've got a history essay to write but I think I have an idea for something to write about so I'll see how that develops and will possibly update later this evening.

Maybe I'm just neurotic. Maybe I'm not. Maybe it's actually something that is actually bothering me and something to genuinely get upset about. Or maybe people just don't really understand me.

I fucking hate this house. I hate it so much. It’s a complete impossibility for at least one day to go by in this house without some argument breaking out and everyone in the family becoming enemies. You know it’s actually really hurtful to see a sibling treat a parent like shit then see that parent completely break down right in front of you. How the fuck are you supposed to react to that? I have never been scared of my parents doing anything very extreme but today I don't know what the fuck happened. I don’t care if you laugh at me and say I'm stupid and blowing something completely out of proportion or getting worked up at the slightest things but trust me you don't have a fucking clue how I feel.

I'm quite scared that something serious is going to happen here. I hate it when my family argue; I just don't see what the need is. But today I’ve realised that everyone in this house is stupid. Even me. For the sake of not naming these people I’m going to keep them known as A, X and Z.

A is a selfish prick who constantly has to borrow money from people and get them to do things just so that he can hold his head above water. I gave A £100 last September because A had no money when A came back from America because A didn't have a job. A's had a job since around November. I'm still waiting on that £100 which is a fucking joke. But I've realised A’s a selfish prick who only really gives a toss about A’s self and as long as A’s ok and fine it doesn’t matter if A has to take money from other people and let them land in deep shit so I’m not going to bother helping A unless A really needs it.

Another member of my house, X, happens to do too much around the house which means X’s just piling on the stress and give going to give X’s self a fucking heart attack. X just gives and gives to the A all the time which has left Z with no money to pay off bills and debts and stuff. So because A is a selfish prick who has no conception about money management and because X just gives A money all the time X is going to end up in deep water.

Then we have Z. Z isn’t stupid like the other ones. Z just ends up making things worse between X and A when they argue. Which happens like almost every week at least once. After all of the arguing Z ends up shouting at X and getting very angry at him which doesn’t really improve things. Z also doesn’t really help because Z constantly does fuck all around the house which leads to X getting stressed and more arguing breaks out. There is other stuff but I'm not really going to post that online for the whole world to read about.

Then we have me. I’m stupid because I actually do stuff for A when A asks and A does fuck all for me. I get pissed off at X when X tells me to do things and because I don’t jump up and do them instantly I get my fucking face destroyed for nothing. I get on rather well with person Z but when Z gets drunk Z becomes a complete prick and I end up arguing with him.

But today all hell broke loose. I’m not going to go into details cos I really cba but basically I have realised that this house is stupid. People don’t bother to think about things enough and they are really most of the time only out for themselves. They get worked up at the most ridiculous of things, they don't give a shit about how they talk to people, they verge on alcoholism, they do stuff that has no need, and they are all fucking pathetic just like me.

Oh well, I don’t really care what you think tbh. If you read this and think I'm stupid, pathetic or anything insulting then fine. Have your opinion. I honestly couldn’t really give a shit right now cos I’ve got a hell of a lot more important things to worry about that what some person sitting at a computer screen has to say about me. You can only really judge me if you know me and there are only a few people out there that really know me and really know how I am, how I react to situations etc. And also you don’t know shit about what has happened so if you knew that it would help. But that’s not any of your concern and there is only one person who is reading this blog who will know what has happened. Maybe they will understand. I might end up telling someone one day if I’m drunk cos I tend to spill things to people.

The Gig-goer's Worst Enemy: Booking Fees

First of all I would like to say that I have no idea if Gig-goer's even makes sense. But basically for you rather silly people out there it means someone who goes to gigs.

This morning when I was thinking about something to write about I looked at my bookmarks bar on Safari and saw “Ticketmaster” and suddenly the idea hit me to write about how much booking fees annoy me. And possibly millions of other people who go to gigs/concerts/events around the world.

As an example to prove my point I’m going to go to Ticketmaster and pick an artist who I could possibly go and see at some point this year or next. For the sake of not being able to think of anyone that great I’m going with “Trivium” who are playing a show at Barrowland next year in March. To start off with a ticket costs £16.50. This is a reasonable price for Barrowland because it’s not a huge venue and its standing only. I’ve selected 1 ticket and after going through the near impossible CAPTCHA checks I’m taken to the page where I select my postage method. At this point it displays the service charge and postage costs with the service charge being £2.75 and postage being £2.50. That means that the £16.50 ticket I want to buy actually costs me £21.75 which is £5.25 more expensive than I thought. £5.25 might not seem like a lot but it’s almost one third of the price. As an actual percentage it’s 32% more expensive than I thought. So it’s as near as makes no difference 1/3 more expensive than I thought which is quite annoying.

I don’t understand where the hell they get £2.50 for postage from because it’s standard delivery. Not special delivery which would cost me around £5. I don’t where they get their stamps from but someone is being ripped off. And that someone is us, the gig-goers.

Let’s try another artist, someone who will be playing at a larger venue, for example, U2 at Hampden Park.

For this event the only tickets left are £150 each which is a fucking rip off in itself before we even get to the service charge which is £13.50. Because this is a large event I am being forced to choose the special delivery postage which is £4.95. So the total is now standing at £168.45. when you consider paying £150 for a ticket I'm sure that if you can afford that £15 pound won’t be too much of a reach into the wallet but that isn’t the point. The point is that you have to go through pages of information and filling in details to find out at the end that your tickets are costing you at least 10% more than you thought.

Maybe everyone should take notice of the Kilimanjaro Live event organisers. They are the people behind Sonisphere, the rock/metal festival touring across Europe this year. A weekend ticket cost £67.00. With no booking fees. I don’t know why they chose to leave out the booking fees but there is an article in Classic Rock magazine that explains why.

I don’t know how well I have put across my point, probably not very well at all, but what I am trying to say is that booking fees are ridiculously expensive and just an excuse for ticket sellers to make a tasty profit. When booking through Tickets Scotland the booking fee for larger events peaks at £1.50 from what I have seen. Even though it is still a booking fee it is nowhere near as ridiculous as £13.50

So people maybe if you complain a little and tell a friend to do so we might get somewhere eventually. Postage costs also need to be brought down, I mean how dear can a stamp really be?

Facebook & Things

I worry myself at times. I sign up to way too many websites for my own good. Seriously. In the past year I must have joined almost every popular site there is. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, and also this one. What the hell is it about these sites that I, and other people, like so much? What is it that draws us in, makes us feel warm with its friendly interface and then gets us addicted with all its features to be discovered?

Its easy to understand why YouTube is so popular. It has a a simple concept: people can upload videos to the internet and they can watch other videos uploaded by other people. If you like a particular user's videos you subscribe. And then you think, oh this is good to have a few subscriptions. Then you see your subscription box is blank and go looking for other videos. You watch related videos, featured videos. Before you know it your subscriptions box will never be empty!

MySpace took off in America very early but I don't think it quite caught on as well here in the UK. Again it is a simple concept however with the HTML customization etc. some people are thrown off.

Step into Bebo which is a very simple site. It's now owned by AOL and has changed very much since the takeover but the same idea still remains there. You create a profile page, find friends, a cool skin, write a bit about yourself, write a blog post here and there. Search for videos, leave comments and Luv. Then they introduced the apps to try and copy Facebook. Facebook's apps are so much better.

Facebook... I don't really know much about this one. I'm new to it but already I fell like im becoming as addicted as I did with Bebo and Twitter.

Twitter is a very simple concept: post what you are doing in less that 140 characters. But its not just what you are doing. You can post links to YouTube videos, blogs, general internet stuff! And the fact that a lot of YouTubers use it is good for me, because I like to know a bit more about people outside their YouTube world. Celebrities use Twitter too. Like @StephenFry for example.

Blogger is self explanatory, although I struggle to find interesting things to write about. I might do an app review one day for Pocket God for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Or I might write about some crazy adventure I go on, if that should ever happen.

Well, by now I've realised what I have said might be a load of bollocks but oh well. And just for the record, I don't think I'm some sort of crazy guy who knows everything about all the latest websites because I'm not. I'm just one of the sheep who joins the latest craze. But I actually continue to use it after it dies so I'm a little bit of a different sheep. I keep on going when its not "cool".

Tbh, if you think I'm stupid because I use a particular site that is perfectly fine. I won't really care much because at the end of the day it comes down to this: I do things in life to please myself, not to please you, pal. So if you think I'm uncool because I use Twitter or have a YouTube account or use Facebook rather than Bebo I'm really not fussed because as I said, I'm not doing any of it to please you.

Goodnight people, or goodbye depending on the time of day/night.

Chicken or the Egg?

The Egg.

Eggs have been around since dinosaurs existed so the egg came first. Unless people are talking about an egg which hatches into a chicken, in which case I'm not sure. But people don't really specify which kind of egg. It is logical to think people are talking about a chicken's egg, but they only ask about "the egg" which refers to eggs in general.

I actually found something interesting on Wikipedia which shows a few valid points about the argument with regards to what is regarded as "the egg". Here is is.

But what do you think?

Quick Question

Chicken or the Egg?

DISCUSS

Religion and how it is fucked up.

Religion is fucked up. And it is also full of flaws, as are religious people. Well not all religions are, but at least the most well known ones are.

I have noticed that a lot of Religions have a set of rules which people are encouraged to follow if they want to avoid a date with the Devil when they pop their clogs. They also have a list of things people shouldn't do to avoid this date as well. Here are a few examples.

In Christianity, in the Bible, I am sure that there is something which condemns homosexuality and says that homosexual people are sinners. It also says that you should not murder - which I agree with, for some people anyway - and that you should on the 7th day that people should rest and should not take part in any form of work or that you shouldn't use the Lords name in vain.

People who follow the religion of Islam are forbidden from drinking alcohol and taking part in sex before marriage. If you do and you want forgiveness you need to pray to God. Who doesn't exist.

So there I have presented you with a few examples of "laws" which religions have in place. If you don't stick with these laws you’re going to piss off the Big Chief and when you get to the Pearly Gates you better be saying your Hail Mary's.

But one thing confuses me, it shows complete idiocy and lack of logic and I really don't understand in the slightest. It's another question and one that I would like to present to some high up religious leader one day, just to see what his answer is. Here it is:

If God does not want people to do these things which are sinful, and wants people to follow his every rule then why the hell would he give us the ability to break these rules?

It defies logic! The guy is a bloody tool! I mean he can create a whole planet in 7 days so don't you think he could take maybe a few minutes of his time to make it impossible for people to do any of these things that make him so mad?

If anyone can answer my question then please, PLEASE do so. Because I am clueless as to why this great powerful man can't even take the time to perfect his planet and its people

Another thing has just popped into my head that also kind of proves the Bible is flawed. What the hell happened to the dinosaurs? I know we didn't know about them back then when the Bible was written but surely there would be some mention of them? I don't know what religious people say about dinosaurs but the fact that they existed and didn't get a mention in the bestselling book of all time is a bit disrespectful.

I mean Mr. T-Rex and his buddies didn’t really have a choice when that meteor hit the Earth a few years ago but it would have been nice to give them a little dedication in the bible. Maybe Jesus didn’t die on the cross but maybe he got his head chewed off by a Velociraptor. Shit I forgot, Jesus is a fictional character in a book.

I'm sure there are more flaws out there with Religion but I’m getting bored picking them out just now so I’ll leave you to go and do whatever you want now.