Perspective March 24, 2010
Posted by Sharny in : Essay,Politics,Rants,Society , add a commentThere’s been a lot in the British media lately about the fairly new legal drug mephedrone. Charlie Brooker did a humourous piece on the fuss being made in his Guardian colomn and his points very accurately demonstrate why making it illegal will do nothing to help. However, under our current classification of drugs in this country it should be illegal, the effects are similar to those of a couple of class As and Bs.
The recent furor has come about after the deaths of two young men. Naturally when people’s kids start dying you get sobbing parents explaining how their kids didn’t think it was a risk and about how lovely their children were which throws anyone middle aged, middle class, or both into something of a rage against the drug. What people seem to completely wash over is rather an important point: they didn’t just take mephedrone on it’s own, they took as part of a cocktail with the opium substitute methadone, which was also combined with alcohol.
So a couple of idiots take a load of drugs at the same time, and of course it’s not the legal high alcohol that is targeted, woah no, it’s the legal high mephedrone. There has been so much in the media lately about “legal highs” as this scarey word. Oh my god, people are getting high and it’s not illegal! We must put a stop to this! No one should be allowed to get high! Not ever! It’s morally wrong!
Not once have I ever seen mention in a news article of the most highly consumed legal highs in the world: Alcohol and Tobacco. Or for that matter caffeine, which many people in the western world rely on to get them through the day. If people were relying on mephedrone or even something like cannabis to get them through the day it would be calls for a intervention. But not goood ol caffeine. When it comes down to deaths, mephedrone can be associated (but not even be declared as the main cause) for no more than a handful of deaths in the short time it’s been available. Tobacco on the other hand is responsible for the deaths of one jumbo jet full of people every hour, every day, 365 days a year. 5.4 million people.
Alcohol doesn’t look much better in this standing, claiming 1.9 million lives every year. As a direct result of it’s use. Not combined with other things. We’re talking over 7 million lives claimed every year from legal highs. And you know why that doesn’t get on the news? Because there aren’t sobbing parents. Because it’s not new and it’s not scary. But it should be scary. 7 million deaths is scary. The fact that our drug classification is based not on science, not on health risks, not on dependence. Not on anything other than supersition. That’s scary. That is petrfying.
The trouble with radio February 8, 2010
Posted by Sharny in : Essay,Music,Rants,Society , add a commentI’ve avoided music radio for a long time. From when I was young I knew how important music was to me but I found it nearly impossible to find stuff that I liked and listening to the radio never helped. I did for quite a while, as you do when you don’t own any music or have any other channels to hear it. It left me entirely disatisfied and I stewed in some kind of musical no mans land for a long time.
Recently however, I’ve found myself listening to rather a lot of radio (for me, anyway), not through choice but because it’s on where I work. Now, it’s not local or national radio like you’d typically listen to, but actually it’s very similar in style, it just has adverts for products from the store rather than from other companies.
Listening to it more and more has really brought me to realise just why DJs let down their audience time and time again. Indeed, it’s such a deep betrayal that no one even knows it’s happening. Every day I find myself hearing the same songs. The same bland, un-musical pieces of factory made pop music.
I’m not about to suggest that DJs not play chart music, as much as I would like that. No, instead all I ask is that DJs do what I percieve their job to be. Not everyone has time to seek out music, to dig and listen and cast away and listen and love and seek and find and pour themselves into. It’s their job to not just play what people already know they like, but to play them stuff that they may find they like. To open new doors, to new and interesting places. To introduce people to worlds they never thought existed.
Music has incredible power. You ask almost anyone and they’re likely to say they like music. As a species, we are built to enjoy music. But some of us more than like music. Taking my average tracks per day (from my pretty damn accurate last.fm profile) and the median (since the mean would take a ridiculous amount of time to find) length of songs in my music library we can calculate that on average I spend 4.725 hours a day listening to music. Ish. Of course, that’s not exclusive (and doesn’t include when I’m at work, or when someone else is playing the music). Doesn’t sound like the hugest portion, but bare in mind that’s over 4 years that average, and includes times when I’ve been working or at school full time. It’s been slowly rising over the past year as well.
Now I’m sure there are plenty of people more obsessed with music than I am but I’m pretty deep in at this point. Most of me is focused around it. And it’s damn important to me. Because of the effect it’s had on me, I want to share that effect. I want others to feel it and to know it. That’s why it annoys me so much that DJs are always playing the same songs, they never give your average every day music liker to become a full blown music lover because they limit them to the top 40, or even smaller groups of songs.
I think that’s fundamentally wrong, and something of a moral injustice. There’s a further element that I’ve become more and more receptive to further reaches of music and I want to have another source to say “Hey, listen to this, see what you think”. I want to be able to trust that DJs are playing music because they think it’s interesting and good, not because it’s what’s been handed to them by their major record label funded bosses, not because it’s what we’re being told to like.
I do have a big problem with pop music, I hate about 99% of it. Mainly because it’s pretty much all the same. Doesn’t matter what genre it claims to be. If you think of all music as coming from a centre and spreading out in different directions all around as different genres then what’s played on the radio accounts for the tiniest spec in the middle. Yes, some of those bits are on the bit that starts to be come Electronic, or Blues, or Rock or Punk but ultimately it’s so close to the middle that it shares almost nothing in common with the further reaches of the genre.
And that’s my problem. A lack of variety. Currently all we get is a tiny spec of all the music out there and that’s not fair on anyone. Not fair on the listeners who never have the chance to discover music that could change the way they see the world. Not fair on the artists that work so hard to produce original and interesting and likable music that goes entirely ignored by the mainstream population. And more importantly, not fair on me for having to listen to all the shit they do play.
Ain’t life grand? December 14, 2009
Posted by Sharny in : Essay,Life,School,Thoughts,Work , add a commentSo this is the updatery and depressive post that will explain why I’m posting here again and why I have relaunched durka. It’s not exactly going to be much fun but I kinda want to write some things not addressed to myself and explain the sudden reappearence of posting.
As planned, this year I started higher education at Nottingham University on the 21st of September, after moving in the day before. Things didn’t exactly have the easiest start, you hear tales of university being so much better than school before hand and people really finding themself and such. I didn’t get so lucky. All of it was a massive struggle and it was all a very depressing and downtreading time. As a few weeks went by and routine began to set in things did get better, as they surely do.
Then, something rather unexpected happened. Essentially, in the space of a day I realised that Chemistry was not the course for me. It was a real epiphany moment, and not a moment I wanted to have. There were other doubts around it, including ones about whether being at University was even the right thing for me to be doing. Through talking and thinking and thinking and talking some more I got some plan of what to do.
Toy Commander: The most local multiplayer fun you’ll ever have (that isn’t an FPS) July 22, 2009
Posted by Sharny in : Entertainment,Essay,Fun,Gaming , 2 commentsThe Dreamcast is in many ways considered to be a failed console, and indeed, it did spell the end for Sega in one way or another. Many say it failed due to a huge amount of the market wanting to wait till the PS2 was released. Still, it was the first console to have online multiplayer features and it was the first new console I ever received and therefore will always hold a special place in my heart.
Toy Commander has a similar personal connection. I can’t remember where or when I got it, only that I had liked the idea behind it from when I first heard about it and was willing to pay the above average price for a Dreamcast game to get it. It certainly was worthwhile. As a single player game it held up very well, the missions were interesting and varied, even if a few could get a bit frustrating. For a game of it’s time though, it was very well done.
But the real strength came in the multiplayer, me and my best friend played that game to death in two player battles. How we managed to remain interested in it for as long as we did is a complete mystery to me but really says something about what a fantastic multiplayer game Toy Commander was and still is.
The reason I’m writing this post is because recently the topic of retro games and old games that had a strong personal connection to us came up in conversation, I remembered Toy Commander and how awesome a game for multiplayer it had been but more I remembered how I had longed for another two controllers as I thought the fun would be multiplied greatly with two more people. So I went on eBay and had a little look around for Dreamcast controllers, they seemed pretty inexpensive and I picked up two of them for just £8.50 with free P&P.
When they arrived we immediately cracked out the old games, Toy Commander at the forefront and experienced the fun it brings.
What is so fantastic about it is that it’s a completely different game to any other of the games we’ve played local multiplayer on in the past. For one, it’s not a first person shooter. Mostly though, it comes from the pretty simple system combined with wonderfully intricate and detailed levels. The thing about normal flight combat in games is it takes place in massive areas which are all pretty much the same, there are no obstacles as you’re out in the open. Toy Commander brings the dog fights inside, into your living room or bedroom. Fights take place dodging behind chairs and curtains, into cupboards and under tables, around ceiling fans and through fire places. It is this aspect that really gives Toy Commander it’s wonderful originality and fun.
As with every great game, it’s easy to pickup and start playing but difficult to master. There is no other game like it. Which is really why I’m now imploring the game industry – someone please pick up the rights for a remake/sequel. This game would work so well on modern consoles and PCs. If it were done well, the levels would be expanded and more fun details added and the missions would retain their fun whilst hopefully losing some of their unclear instructions and frustration. Moreover, the game would work fantastically well online, with either Xbox Live or regular PC online gaming being perfect. I can just imagine the possible fun having a toy commander battle with 8 or even 16 players. The dog fights would be so tense, the battles could be raised to an epic scale. The fun would be multiplied even more.
I know the chances of remake or sequel are minute but it would be truly such a great game. It was a fantastic concept and I have no idea how it possibly dyed with the absolutely awful Toy Racer, what seems to be one of the most rushed games I’ve ever played. Even to just see it appear on the Xbox Live Arcade would be awesome, even in it’s original form. I’d love to see how my skills match up to others around the world.
Really, if you have a Dreamcast and don’t own this game you need to try and get your hands on a copy, it is THE most fun multiplayer experience on that console, if not any console ever made and probably the most original and fun multiplayer game you’ve ever played.
Educating Adventures Instructor Internships: What you should know (Review) June 20, 2009
Posted by Sharny in : Essay,USA Trip,Work,World , 1 comment so farI wanted to write this post in order to give people in my position of a little over a year ago the information that I would have liked at the time, or at least what I would have liked before arriving at the training. I am not in any way affiliated with Educating Adventures, I’m writing this completely freely and because I’d like people to have a bit more information about what they’re getting into, an apposing viewpoint if you will although I make no bones about how amazing my season was and the major part that Educating Adventures played. I also have to say that this is just what I experienced and may or may not be what they do in following years, I doubt it would change that much though.
Presumably you’ve already been browsing through EA’s information and are trying to find a bit more about it, you conscientious consumer you. As far as I know, EA still have the monopoly on what they offer, a training course followed by a job offer. Plus they offer their course at a much lower rate than the many other competitors that have longer training programs but no work. Much cheaper in fact. Of courses, the EA course is a lot more intensive. Which is where I will start.
They advertise their course as a 3 week program designed to train you to level one ski instructor standards and get you qualified before you actually start work. In reality, what we received was 6 days of on snow training and 1 day of off snow theory. Even including the exam it doesn’t really come into 3 calendar weeks either so I’m not entirely sure where they pulled that number from. Either way, that’s what you’re getting.
In the days that we weren’t training they pretty much left us to our own devices to get things done. Which was kinda sucky to be honest. No help getting to Reno to apply for social security numbers (wasn’t an issue for me personally as I came out early and already had mine) or really any help with transport to get to anywhere we might want to go. It really wouldn’t have been that hard for them to arrange a bus to get everyone to Reno and back but they seemed to be taking the cheap way out wherever possible. Various figures for how long the walk was from our accomodation (on the edge of King’s Beach) to the nearest supermarket were quoted, usually between 5 and 10 minutes. In reality it was more like 15-20 minutes but of course the reason that they got this wrong is because they had a car and so didn’t have to walk so wouldn’t know how long it took.
It’s true to say that there is a little grumble in a lot of all this and I am just saying the negative stuff first, the other element that added to everyone’s general sour moods was the lack of snow. The 08/09 season was a bit late in Tahoe and when we all got to the training there wasn’t a patch of snow in sight which was naturally pretty depressing and caused us to be much more critical of everything else that was happening. Things did actually work themself out and we didn’t lose any time on snow due to the magical powers of man made snow.
So after arriving and being given a few days off we had one day of theory, nothing wrong with that, it included some fun little bits and pieces. After that we had another couple of days off hoping that Northstar would be able to make the snow for us to start training on Saturday. It’s worth noting that the way they put it to us was that if there wasn’t snow falling then Northstar would make snow for us. In reality, they were making snow just to try and get open and start being able to make some money and we had no exclusivety whatsoever, other than the fact that we were in ski school. It meant that when we did finally start the training it was very crowded and pretty limited. This isn’t EA’s fault of course but you should be aware that the weather could really screw your experience over, hopefully you will be lucky, obviously there’s nothing you can do about it, it’s just a risk that is inherent in a sport such as ours.
The other thing that became obvious to different people at different times was that the training they offered over this intensive course is in fact offered for free by our resorts in order to train their instructors. Of course, you don’t get a nice intensive course leading straight into the exam but don’t be under the impression that this training is more special than it is, both Northstar and it’s sister resort Sierra (my resort) offered weekly clinics to work towards exams.
One other little thing to note is the 98% pass rate and the claims that people of any ability are welcomed. Nothing wrong with that pass rate, indeed in Tahoe the pass rate was actually 100% as far as I’m aware but it says as much about the nature of the exam than it does about the quality of the training. I’m not saying the training was bad by any means, it really wasn’t, but the reason the pass rate is so high is because the exam is set up for passing and not failing candidates. The first two days are designed to be learning as well as examining experiences so are more like extra days on the training but with a different trainer, a feature that is no bad thing. It’s only really the last day of the 3 day exam that is an exam and even then it’s pretty relaxed.
The other part of that is any ability being welcomed. The 98% pass rate didn’t include the people who deffered their entry because they were advised not to do the exam. That included a decent percentage of the “beginner” training group. It would be true to say that actually most of the people who chose not to do the exam would have passed if they had done it but they didn’t feel ready and so chose to wait. The point being if you haven’t done much skiing but still want to do this (awesome) don’t necessarily think you’ll feel ready to sit the level 1 directly following the training. You can still do the course and still have the job but chances are you won’t feel ready to do your level 1 until a bit later in the season.
One other little nit pick is that if you make alternate travel arangements to arrive at the training don’t expect EA to make things particularly easy for you. I happened to luck out and get a ride up there and had a place to stay due to knowing some people up there due to the pre-season training I did but if you’re thinking of doing something different instead of going to the San Francisco stop over be prepared to get yourself to the training off your own back entirely.
It’s also worth noting that although the EA representatives guiding you through the training are perfectly friendly and try to be helpful they are a tad useless in a practical sense, which is a bit difficult to describe and probably just something you’ll realise when you get there.
One last bad part, this time about something outside of EA control: Visas. I can’t say about Canada (although from what I gather it’s a safer bet) but the US are limiting the amount of visas at increasing rates which is a real danger to the EA model: their training course isn’t nearly so unique if no one can get visas to work afterwards. In order to guarantee the visas got through for my season my resort and it’s sister held a mandatory (but not actually mandatory) “pre-season training camp” in order to say they needed their instructors early and therefore letting them put their applications in early, meaning that many other californian resorts had no H2B visas. That’s probably not what will go down this year but with the visa situation as it is the course is a fair risk. Even returning employees already qualified have been warned that the visas may not be available for them if they get unlucky so for unexperienced level ones the chances are even lower. Really, you are only above the uncertified locals and they don’t need visas, as there aren’t really any uncertified foreign instructors. Essentially: Be wary, you may not get your visa, and the risk is only increasing. Hopefully the visa cap will be raised with new legislation some time soon but for now your chance to work is at risk.
In conclusion, the opportunity Educating Adventures gave me to have the best experience of my life but it’s not the only way to get the preciously advertised level one. There are other options and if you are considering EA you should consider them too, just to make sure that spending the $4,000+ is worth it for you. For me, I think it was and I hope to do seasons again in the future, by which time I may just about get my investment back.
Just remember, you can’t really put a price on good experiences. Despite all the negatives of the training, it really wasn’t all bad and enabled me to have a fantastic time.
A more realistic look: The best thing in the world August 8, 2008
Posted by Sharny in : Essay,Life,Ramble , add a commentIn case you hadn’t guessed, this post is a follow up to my last post “The best thing in the world“. My idea here is to look at it in a more realistic way, to look at the problems associated with it, what might stop it from coming true etc.
First of all, it’s important to note that I wouldn’t have produced a post on something I knew to be impossible to happen. I’d love to be able to fly but I’m not gonna dedicate much time to that because it’s never really gonna happen, unless they invent some kind of commercial jet pack type system.
Given that I need some kind of way of working through the different things I’ll start at now and move forward.
The underlying realism is of course, everything here assumes that at least the majority of us stay friends. As it was pointed out to me, it’s very unlikely the group will look exactly the same in future years but at the same time it’s pretty unlikely that it will look all that different either. The same person that pointed that out also pointed out that we are at a prime point in our lives to make lifelong bonds and the evidence that is possible is all around. One post I have yet to write will perhaps look at that a bit further.
So, Road Trip ’09. Overall looks quite good, we should have a decent number of drivers by then and a few cars to boot. The only real issue comes to parental consent, which for most of us isn’t a big problem but it only takes one person to mean we can’t do something because we’re not gonna be leaving anyone out. I’m pretty confident we can get around this issue one way or another, even if it does require some pretty heavy bargaining. It also requires a certain amount of general planning which will most likely be left to just a couple of people but this is nothing too difficult. We can get through it, I’m sure.
Then comes Ski ’09/2010/2011. The dates are a bit vague because we’re not entirely sure whether we would require everyone to be 18 before we could pull it off. Again, this is basically a parental thing but understandably taking people into Europe is substantially more difficult in bargaining terms. Although actually, it could be easier organization wise. The idea is to get some kind of package holiday, probably with a chalet, and lets face it, package holidays are pretty simple things. That’s the beauty of them, everything is pretty much sorted for you. Originally I had worried that some people might not be too keen on going but so far results from the Sideroom Survey show a great deal of support for the idea of a ski trip and convincing the unbelievers shouldn’t be too hard.
Hurdles of the next few years. The most obvious particular hurdle is the university one. Although I chose to go to Nottingham to stick with the band and with my friends, Nottingham was where I had my eye on for a long time anyway and it is a pretty good university. Top lists puts it near the number 10 in the country, so getting in there is definitely something to be proud of. Of course, we don’t know until I have my results that I am actually gonna get in there. Anyway, the point is that the others in the group that will likely go to university may not want to/be able to go to Nottingham or Nottingham Trent. There are other reasonably local choices though so it shouldn’t be disaster but it’s a point in the future where there is potential for trouble.
The next hurdle comes at the end of university, when our freshly degreed up comrades go out into the world to look for work. This search for work could indeed drive them accross the country, or even potentially to different countries entirely. It depends entirely on who goes where doing what exactly what we’ll do about this. There is basically no planning that can be done, other than to be aware of it’s existence and to sort of know that 5 or 6 years from now is a critical point in our friendship.
University has the added hurdle of a whole new friendship group that will mean time split between the new people and us old reliables. I hope that everyone will understand this, it’s likely to happen to all of us (as long as we do something, if some of us never get jobs and just leech at home then they are gonna suffer from this and never really benefit) and that we can still use the crew as something of unloosable friends, even if we don’t have all that much time for maintenance of those friendships. Still, I imagine we can handle that, given that our beginnings are based in something that has a long distance element.
Then there’s gap year excursions, which are a possibility for many of us and could put a bit of stress on things. Not too bad though, I would think it wouldn’t be too challenging.
Once we’re through all that, the risk is simply that we may have been dragged too far accross the country for reasons of work, work of significant other, family or something I haven’t thought of to really enact quite what we were thinking of. I don’t think by any means we’d stop being friends, really, if we get past all that then I doubt there would be much short of illicit affairs that could pull us apart.
Despite all this, I remain optimistic. In fact, there isn’t anything there that is too difficult to overcome, my idea here was simply to recognise the difficulties ahead so that I (and anyone else of us that reads this) can be a bit more prepared.
It’s an interesting life we’ve got ahead of us…
