Chavtastic July 15, 2008
Posted by Sharny in : Essay, Rants, Society , add a commentI was just reading this article and it kinda gave me a good talking point for something I’ve wanted to write about for a while because I had heard it elsewhere and really wanted to take issue with it.
Here’s my problem, the authors of this article basically make the point that the word Chav is about class hatred, from the middle (and possibly higher I suppose) to the working class. But the thing is, I’ve grown up as the whole concept of a Chav has been born, I’ve gone to school with them, I have been friends with them. Don’t try to tell me that some middle aged journalist has any kind of clue about what a Chav really is. I’m making a few assumptions here (I don’t know how old the writers are, or that they are necessarily journalists) but actually you can’t get that much closer to the experience than people my age so either way I’m more qualified.
A Chav is not, as this article seems to be saying, a derogatory term for the lower classes. No, it’s a social stereotype.
Now, the thing about a social stereotype is that it involves choice. Chavs choose to wear track suits and strangely angled baseball caps, ultimately they choose to do the things they are often criticized for (vandalism, teenage drinking etc), even though I know most of them have plenty of fucked up behind their actions.
Admittedly, the working class and chavness is far from mutually exclusive but it is not the same thing. So really I’m just sick of people who clearly have no clue what they are talking about putting forth their opinions to the world, trying to convince the politically correct that chav is some kind of no no. Discriminating against someone for something that is neither a fault nor within their control (eg Skin colour, social class) is completely wrong, there are no two ways about it. The examples in the article include Faggot, Pikey and Nigger. These are all words based around insulting someone based on something that is not only unchangeable but also is not wrong in any way. But a chav puts themselves into a stereotype, they weren’t born that way, they don’t have no choice and yes, there are a lot of negative connotations to the chav image, connotations that you have to accept when you take on that image.
As someone who is into metal, I wear darker clothes and band t shirts to indicate an allegiance, I buy into a stereotype in order to tell those around me something about myself. Usually it’s that I don’t like the same shit they listen to (which does include probably the majority of the general public’s view of metal but I deal with that). But I’m perfectly aware of the downsides of stereotyping myself, I choose to do it though, anyone who buys into any stereotype chooses to do it and if that choice results in criticism then you just have to deal with it.
No one should need political correctness to back up their choices, you can either try and explain to others your choice or ignore what you know is their ignorance. In this case, it would seem like the ignorance is coming from those that claim to be politically correct, which, isn’t very surprising to be honest. Personally, if I felt that I were lower class (I’m not rich but come from a reasonably middle class background so I’m not really one or the other) I would be offended by the fact that this article makes the assumption that Working Class = Chav, when in fact that’s just not the way things work.
The what? June 28, 2008
Posted by Sharny in : Entertainment, Rants , add a commentThe Happening has to be one of the lamest serious movie titles I’ve ever laid eyes upon. It’s possibly the exact opposite in movie titling mistake to Snakes on a Plane.
In the first, you’ve got the most general title for a film/book/play ever conceived. I mean seriously, how many of these things are there were there is no happenings, no events? I can’t think of anything where something doesn’t happen, where there is no happening. Things must happen in order to create something interesting, it’s just the way these things work!
On the other hand, you’ve got Snakes on a Plane, which essentially sums up the entire movie before you’ve even planned out your weekend. I’ve not seen it, so I can’t be sure but I must assume that there is a plane, which through some kind of event (happening if you will) has been filled with, presumably, many snakes. Samuel L Jackson, being the bad ass that he is, will somehow save the day and get rid of said snakes, probably with some tasty phrases thrown into the mix. I don’t really think I need to see the movie.
Back to The Happening - you may aswell have just called it “Event” or perhaps even “Title” or “Movie”. Seriously guys, lets sort this out, maybe it was just an attempt to make the title so vague people would go and see it just to find out what it’s about, on a whim perhaps, I can’t imagine that anyone is going to assume some kind of original and mind bending cinematic experience with a name like that.
Ok computer, it’s on June 2, 2008
Posted by Sharny in : Gaming, Instances, Rants, Technology, World of Warcraft , add a commentAfter buying a new graphics card and then finding out that I don’t have the right slot for it. Simply put I made a bad assumption that my computer was built at all in a way that would allow it to be upgraded when in fact it seems more like they cut as many corners as they could. I was hoping to get a quick and cheap upgrade to my computer to keep it going till at least this time next year but it wasn’t to be. As I essentially spent £50 on something useless I decided that now would be a good time to do what I’ve been saying for a while that I would - build my own computer.
Doing some eBay based price research revealed that the cost of buying the parts to assemble myself came up to about the same amount as buying a computer of the spec I want but without the graphics card (or actually just with a not very good graphics card as all the ones I’ve seen have ones included), perhaps a little bit more. I figure that paying a bit more to get exactly what I want as well as the experience of putting it all together is worth it.
Todays raiding experience has highlighted the need for this new computer.
As I had not been experiencing the persistent crashes - the computer just restarts for no good reason, error report contains the most useless crap reason it pulled out of its “We dunno what happened so here is something random we noticed” bag - recently I kinda thought maybe they had fixed themselves, as these things sometimes do. Alas today I was shown this clearly wasn’t the case. Before the raid started I got the first restart, then again after releasing spirit after the first wipe and then a further time after just having got back into Serpentshrine Cavern (my first time in there, kinda cool, didn’t down any bosses but that’s the way it is sometimes) again after a wipe. This combined with the other graphics card bugs puts a level of urgency on a new computer.
Not to mention, <20fps looks fucking awful.
Hi Big Brother May 22, 2008
Posted by Sharny in : Essay, Rants, World , add a commentSo I’ve just been reading this and it is worrying me greatly. I’m gonna quote a bit from the article and talk about it general because the whole idea is quite simply ridiculous and I definitely need to point it out.
The proposal will raise further alarm about a “Big Brother” society, as it follows plans for vast databases for the ID cards scheme and NHS patients.
Further alarms about a Big Brother society? No, this IS a Big Brother society. The moment that the government holds records of all digital activities a person makes is the moment that we become a Big Brother society. It’s quite simple.
And then of course, there is the governments excellent track record when it comes to data security. It’s actually more a case of What data security? This is the same people that lose disks filled with personal information on a regular basis and they think they can look after every detail of every communication any person makes? They must be fucking retarded.
Actually, on that note, I think they are fucking retarded. Other ingenious ideas for stopping crime and terrorism included putting microphones in lamp posts. I think I can sum up the problem with that in a single quote from satire quiz Mock the week (slightly paraphrased, it was a long time ago) “Lets go and discuss our evil plans in this brightly lit area”.
Exactly how stupid the government think terrorists and criminals are continues to astound me. Do they somehow think that just because they’re on the internet that they can openly discuss their next targets? Are they silly enough to think of email as a secure way of discussing their dastardly deeds? OF COURSE THEY DON’T. The literal bumbling idiocy of our aged and confused government officials never ceases to astound me.
I cannot see what right the government have to do this, not only would they be unlikely to keep the data secure but all it would do is breach the privacy of 60 billion people. Along side that you might catch Johnny who has been selling a bit of weed on street corners and Rob who vandalized a signpost. Yeah, that’s really worth the privacy of those people.
I don’t want this “safety”. Of course I don’t think that terrorism should be overlooked, of course people’s safety is important but lets face it, we’ve had a hand full of terrorist incidents in this country with relatively low death counts. Terrorism is only threatening if you let the fear control you. That is what terrorism is. Terrorists want to destroy our society and our freedoms and that is exactly what you are doing for them. They sacrifice a few bombers, kill 50 people and suddenly its time to watch every citizen of this country so closely that you can tell everything that’s happened to them.
No. That’s not what’s going to happen. As a people we must be stronger than this, as easy as it is to piss away your personal freedoms and let Mr Big Government protect you with their shiny database and nifty lamp post mics we can’t let it happen. Why would we want to live in a country where every innocent person lives in fear of being dragged away because of a joke in an email?
Again, I’m not saying we shouldn’t try and stop terrorism. I’m just saying that there is no reason for us to lose personal freedoms over it. In fact, the best way to beat it is a united front of positivity.
Take away your fear and the terrorists lose.
They are May 20, 2008
Posted by Sharny in : Internets, Rants , add a commentScientology is a cult.
I really don’t know what to think of this. It’s the kind of thing I expect to happen in other countries (read: America) where they like to go around suing each other but I really can’t believe this. How can calling something what it is possibly be a prosecutable offense? It just pisses me right off.
I really feel like this would be a good time to write an angry letter but given that I have no idea where exactly I would send such a letter I’m not going to. I’m not gonna ramble about Scientology because I doubt that anybody much on the internet still thinks they do any good in the world (other than perhaps taking money from stupid people…) but the fact that they have this kind of grip makes me angry and not just a little scared.
I’m not about to go quietly however…
Setting the tone May 15, 2008
Posted by Sharny in : Rants, School , add a commentSo I just got back from my first exam of the season, Maths Pure Core 2. I suppose I can sum it up by saying I’ll be lucky if I even get a grade. Yes, it was that bad. Turns out when I said I was going to fail this exam I wasn’t actually that far off.
This exam was so bad it was almost spooky, it literally included everything in the syllabus that I don’t know, twice if it could manage it. I’m not sure I’ve ever had an exam so tailor made to my failure. At the moment I’m just so pleased that none of my university offers include maths, it doesn’t matter how well I do.
At this point I’m contemplating whether I should even try for the next exam. I already know I’m not gonna get a good grade in maths and since it doesn’t matter…is it even worth trying? I’ll probably do ok in the exam with little effort because it’s Mechanics and as such is quite physics based, I tend to find maths quite hard in some areas because the use of the maths seems to be lost somewhere along the line and things I can’t put to a use I forget.
If anything this is a testament to just how hard you have to work to do well in Maths AS and A level. I did about a bit less than half the work I should have done and missed a good few lessons and I’m pretty bright but have almost failed. I can’t imagine how hard it would be for someone who wasn’t so bright, you would just have to work so ridiculously hard. Let this be a warning to anyone planning to do it, you’ve got to work. If you’re reasonably intelligent you can get a C in GCSE maths without really trying (or you could two years ago, some things have changed a bit but I doubt this has). When I did it a C was 15%. Come on. At AS level, a C is 60% and the maths is substantially harder. It’s a massive leap, perhaps the biggest of all the subjects I’m familiar with.
So yes Mr Maths exam, you have successfully set the tone for the entire exam period, the tone of sweet sweet agonizing failure.
