The rants of a constantly ticking mind, combined with a mess of reviews and obscure titling methods.

Monday, May 09, 2005

"Warning: Product may contain small parts and functional sharp points." - Taken from Pizza Hut packaging

Hello hello hello to another rant, this time (hopefully) with full colour pictures! Why? To make my point more clear and to break up my long chats about randomness, giving people a better link to what I'm talking about.

Quite a lot has happened since I last put fingers to keyboard (which now has no feet due to a freak keyboard moving accident ie: I have no idea where the foot has gone), so let's play catch-up!

Right, so I haven't told you about anything since I got back.... hmmm..... This is a little difficult then, so I'll try to be as brief as possible. First up, I realise I missed out a film I'd seen before I returned to uni. Me and Chrissey saw Hitch, that new comedic-romance film starring Will Smith.


Basically, it tells the story of Alex Hitchens (played by Smith), a 'love' consultant who tries to teach men how to get on the first rung of the ladder of a relationship. Trouble is when he falls for gossip columnist Sara (played by Eva Mendes), he can't get any higher off the first rung without falling off and having to start again. As they say in the business, hilarity ensues. To be honest, I was very impressed by this film. I expected a slushy bout of nonsense, and what I got was a genuinely funny film. I think this is the first role I've seen Will Smith play where he's just playing himself for a very long time (possibly even his days as The Fresh Prince). It's almost like he's acting the side of him that makes his music; smooth, cool and funky.

I think that this is a great film for taking your gal out to, as it contains enough amusement so you both enjoy it, but enough slushiness to get some good ol' fashioned cuddling. 4 stars.

Anyway, just recapping what's happened since my last post. Well, I got my personal story handed in on time, had a disasterous piece for an art exhibition (just to explain why: nothing went right, and it downgraded from a full sized art piece with built-in display and jazziness to just another video being displayed on a big projector. At some point, I may let you see it. Thus, I also finished my course for the year.

Also, at some point in this mess, I got a start on designing the new Goulds website, which is a bit like trying to convert the bible into Swahili whilst you only know the word 'hello' in that language, and never really believed in the bible. If you get my drift. To be honest I only 3/4 believe the bible, as I believe that it was, of course, written by humans and not the devine spirit, and then translated into a language that didn't exist at the time. Thus, I feel that some of it is part 'lost in the translation' and part written by people who believed they were being told the devine information, when in fact it was their imagination. Take Genesis for example. This suffers from both parts of my statement.

1) It contains mis-translations, like the 7 periods being mis-translated as 'days'. Later scientific proof states that it is 7 periods of about 1/4 of a million years IIRC; and

2) that the person who wrote it may have been suffering heatstroke, and so believed that the lord was telling him this great true story.

I wish I didn't have to be branded as a Christian sometimes. The term Christian is far too generic in my opinion to state your beliefs. For a start, I am not a 'happy clappy' (though I have been to evangelist churches on 2-3 occasions in my life; they are very 'uplifting', if that's the correct word), I don't believe the same things as my parents when it comes to religion; especially in regards to churches (I believe in the part of the Bible that states that a church is just a building, and that your faith is what counts), I have my own beliefs; but because I believe that there was a guy called Jesus Christ who could easily have been the son of God (because, let's be honest here, the Bible states that we are the sons and daughters of God), I am immediately branded a Christian. I wish I didn't have to be branded by religion. I want to one day be able to write 'independent' as my belief. Now that would be cool.

Actually, speaking of being able to write 'independent', tonight is the count of the UK's general election (for everyone who doesn't live round here, that's when the Prime Minister is elected. Happens every 4 years, and tends to be a very one-sided affair. Currently, Labour (and the current prime minister) Tony Blair has 105 seats (3 lost since 2001), Conservative (and the forever smirking Michael Howard) have 12, (gained 3 since 2001), and the Liberal Democrats (and 'honest' Charles Kennedy) have 8 (lost 1 since 2001). This is changing as I type, so I'll keep summing up every so often. The winner has to get 324 seats to win the election (there are 646 seats in Parliament up for grabs). Currently, I'm sitting here feeling bitter because I was unable to vote because no registration forms turned up, and I was too late for getting a postal vote for back home. Hmph. It's not like I'm expecting a huge difference in either Plymouth or Portishead to be so close that there is 1 vote in it. Plymouth is a Lib Dem hotspot, and Portishead is Conservative. Very Conservative.

{Days pass}

Anyway, I digress. Labour won, if you didn't know. Oh, and Michael Howard of the Conservatives has decided to quit. Whether that's because he lost, we'll never know. All we know is that in 4 years, there has been 4 leaders of the Conservatives.

My computer has started crashing for no apparent reason. Maybe it's a wiring fault. I'll check that out at some point.

I wonder what the world would be like without labels. I know the human brain enjoys labelling things, categorising everything we see into little boxes. But what if we didn't? What if we made it non-PC to categorise people. Would that break barriers of race, religion, creed? Chrissey knows plain well my current thoughts on equality. That feminism is a part-failure because whilst men still dominate some fields of business, some women are getting paid more than men just for being women. And, more importantly, that hiring has become a case of quotas. 'We'll have to hire her; not because she's better for the job, but because there are too many men in our office and we'll be lynched for not being fair.' This, capped with a discussion on 'Loose Women' on how women should be allowed to play men's sports has made me think. Now, my thoughts on this is to scrap feminism. It has sadly turned putrid in my opinion. If a woman isn't employed in a role now, it's sexist.

So, how about a new movement? Not a masculinist movement, that would be a leap off the beaten track. How about, a movement of equality? A movement not to say 'we're being discriminated' but to say 'we're all equal'. That, in my opinion, would be a step in the right direction. Instead of grading someone on their sex, grade them on their skills. Instead of saying 'you can't compete', grade them on their physical ability. How strong they are, how fast they can run. How about that for categorisation? No longer would roles be dominated by sex. Sex should be irrelevent. A good example is a case from the last Winter-X Games. One of the women was so good in her field, they put her with the men to make fair competition. And what with women wanting to play men's games (one case in point is women playing in future golf tournaments) sex is less and less important.

I think one thing that will have to be key to this equation is people's gender. Just a quick biology and sex ed session here for the confused:

Sex defines their physical sexual make-up (whether you have a penis or a vagina, basically).
Gender defines your mental sexuality (whether masculine or feminine), your personal behaviour, how you act, etc.

Basically, people's gender is an important thing to sexuality and personality. A person's sex is less and less important, especially with the new political-correctness gay, lesbian and bi-sexuality has gained in the past 20 years. Your gender is what makes you attractive to the opposite gender. In most relationships, there is a masculine and a feminine element, even some cases of half-and-halfship, whether both partners hold elements to both genders. Anyway, without gender, relationships would probably be fruitless and worthless, and so cannot be lost. Meanwhile, just imagine what would happen if sex was no longer relevant? Everyone would have the same opportunities, regardless of which way fate threw you before you were born. Girls wouldn't be shyed away from hard labour roles as a child, boys wouldn't be instantly pushed off from stereotypically female roles, such as nursing, handicrafts, and so on.

But why should equality be limited to sex? Race is also a barrier in the world, and the same symptoms occur. Race has become a quota of people that should be employed. Equality could wipe racism out. Heck, equality could wash out all of society's borders, leaving just the human race. Now, if only people would believe it would work, then the world would be a happier place to be. But maybe, as Chrissey says, I'm a dreamer. That stereotypes in the home would still occur. But you have to remember that in 50 years, roles in society have changed dramatically. Maybe, if we sow the seeds today, in 50 years time society will have changed for the proverbial better.

Anyway, I'll tell you all about my life another time, only because if I keep rambling, then everyone will have fallen asleep before I get any further. I'll do a write up of my antics, films I've seen, my eye operation, and so on, by the end of the week. Bye for now.

 
All contents (C)2004-07 Rich Jeffery & Chrissey Harrison. Please ask permission before copying.