Wow, I have the blogposting consistancy of George Bushs' foreign policy. I should also really stop with the crap political jokes Anyway, while on the subject of the Bush, let's hope the Russians don't invade Poland and turn the missiles around.
American government makes me laugh. As does the rest of America. Having spent 15 days in the South West (California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada), I think I am perfectly qualified to make such judgements. Said holiday was a nightmare. Our flight from Heathrow was delayed because the flight before us, to New York was late arriving because of turbulance over Manchester (this probably means that the flight strayed over East Manchester and caught a few stray bullets in the wing), and a plane aborted take-off thus delaying us by an hour...
Anyway, about halfway over Greenland, my mp3 battery runs out, so I'm left with a book, and a few in flight films. Luckily for us, we were upgraded to World Traveller Plus, because BA oversold the flight, so at least I had some space to breath. Our pilot was very chatty as well, which was nice, compared to the normal dryness of it all. Landed at LAX, and the first thing I thought was "Wow, what a shithole". Seriously, LAX terminal 4 is not a good introduction to California. Then spent a while going through two security gates and passport control, and waiting for our hotel shuttle bus. They use such weird busses, dammit. They all look like they have the fuel economy of a hummer, and are from the 1950s. Our first hotel was pretty big, unfortunately it seemed more quantity than quality. It wasn't bad though - I've seen worse. We met our tourguide from ati (AmericanTours International) who immediately displayed the sheer ineptness of her company by looking at the single supplement voucher we had and going "whoops". She then went and haggled another room from the front desk. This problem will return later.
One thing about America that I do like, is the amount of free WiFi. The first few days went swimmingly. Free WiFi at the Hacienda, nice day trip to San Diego, decent food, more free WiFi, awesome tourbus driver (who has yet to email me ...), and breakfasts in America.. they are orgasmic. The next hotel was absolutely amazing. It was a resort, in the middle of the desert. I mean that quite literally. About 20 miles north of Pheonix, sweltering hot, nothing for miles, but amazing. There were huge cactuses that looked like erections! Our rooms were awesome! Comfiest bed ever. And we had evening entertainment from Pioneer Pepper and the Sunset Pioneers (google if you want to know more), who, while really not very funny, weren't bad singers, this was along with an all you can eat buffet, which wasn't gourmet, but was damn close.
Unfortunately, things were obviously going too well for me, because the next day I managed to lose my phone in Sedona. Brand new phone. Silver Nokia N95. For those who don't know me, my phone is my life, it means everything to me. (If any Sedonians are reading, do tell if you find my phone, I'd like it back =]) As if that wasn't enough, upon arrival at the hotel in Grand Canyon, our tour leader couldn't get another room for us, so I had to put up with my sister trying to console me about my phone, shouting for no reason, and being generally annoying. Next morning, just to add even more fatal injury to already rather nasty would, my laptop died. Vista deleted itself, and packard bell recovery deleted the entire contents of the hard drive.
Grand Canyon helicopter ride was okay, I was expecting better, to be honest, though. We did a selection of tours and stuff over the next two days, (the next two hotels weren't able to let us have another room either, so three nights with an annoying sibling was not doing much for my already sour mood). It didn't help that we were up at 6am every morning, so my entire family was getting rather ratty. So naturally, they took it out on me. I won't go into details, but put it like this: I can normally accept being told off for things I've done wrong, and am quite mature about it, but this was just plain out of order.
Vegas was hot. And Circus Circus hotel was okay, until we saw the rooms, which weren't. For such an impressive hotel, the rooms were rather lame. But let's forget that trivial matter. As with most hotels in Vegas, the inevitable casino is the real money maker, the casinos in which anyone under 21 mustn't stand still for more than 10 seconds, nor must they walk past the slot machines or games tables, etc. It's pathetic. So, if a kid stands still for more than 10 seconds, they become addicted to gambling and will immediately run off and waste their life savings on the nearest slot machine? Or, if I go anywhere near a game of poker, I'll instantly join in (in which case, I'm sure the dealers would be more than able to get rid of me) because it looks so FUN!? No! Nevada state law is pathetic!
We did a raft ride down the colorado river the next day, which was very awesome. We had a really good captain. Really fun guy, and really into throwing water at us. Got pretty wet, but dried almost instantly in the 40/45 degree heat. After we'd gotten back to the hotel, we spent the evening in the largest indoor adventure theme park in the US. Which was conveniently attached to our hotel. Was pretty fun, not enthralling, but some of the rides were half decent.
Then we left for Death Valley, and the California border. Death Valley = hot.
Yosemite national park = boring.
We stayed in a little ski resort in the Sierra Nevada, which wasn't bad, had a good steak and argument for dinner, and then went to the hotel bar with some of the more awesome members of our tourgroup for a drink. Including Bruce. Most hilarious Aussie guy ever. He just sat there mercilessly taking the piss out of our tourguide (who was infact Swiss and not american, and should learn English properly before trying to do tours for english speakers in an english speaking country - his words, not mine.).
San Fransico was full of wierdos,fog and a holiday inn in the roughest part of town. We were actually warned not to walk down a certain street. Seriously, random people would just stand there in the middle of the street all day screaming "OHJAARRGHOOOOUUUAAAAAAAEERRGGGHHH" at the top of their voices. One cripple in a wheelchair chased me down the road wanting anal sex, and a tramp swore at my sister, for which I kicked him.
But we did have the nicest chinese food in chinatown, and the entire bus was singing folksongs during the night tour, much to the surprise/amusement/shock of Yvonne, our guide.
Next day we went to see some big trees. Redwoods. In Muir woods. *yawn*. Really not all that enthralling, to be honest. Then spent the afternoon wondering around the city and avoiding weirdos.
We continued down the west coast road (highway one) towards Los Angeles via Carmel, and an overnight stop at Pismo beach, where we got free drinks, computer room and breakfast. I milked the computer room for as much time as I could get, having to rely on crusty hotel computers is somewhat like waiting for a bus, you never know when one will turn up, and if you'll have to pay or not. So I was doing all I could
Got to LA the next day, saw hollywood, and beverly hills, and was somewhat unimpressed.
Very unimpressed actually. Hollywood's really lost its glamour, it's dirty, and overrun with tourists, and fakes trying to cash in on the stupidity of tourists. Beverly Hills: my reaction was "Well, wow, aren't you all pretentious pricks. Enjoy your earthquakes". Celebrities really don't excite me, I'm afraid.
Went back to the Hacienda, saw a few low flying aircraft going into LAX (these were just about the most interesting thing Yvonne was able to point out on the way to the hotel, rather says something about LA..). Had food at a seafood/steak restaurant in Santa Monica, which really wasn't particularly tasty. Went back to the hotel, my room smelt of cabbage, and slept.
Woke up, got the Hacienda shuttle to the shopping mall after a lovely bacon waffle, and then got an ocean express bus from the shopping mall to the beach. Funny thing was, this ocean express bus actually went back past our hotel. Once again, I blame Yvonne for bad instructions. Saw the beach, marvelled at a beach party full of hot girls, had a coke, decided that we'd seen enough water and sand, so went back to the hotel and did nothing until we had to leave for the airport.
The departures area at LAX T4 is mo more impressive than the arrivals area. There are a total of 6 restaurants, 3 shops, and two sets of restrooms. None of them Airside.
Once you go through the security gate, there are about 3 vending machines. That is all.
Plane delayed by 35 minutes, so I sit and look out of the window, watching the baggage handlers playing around on their little quadbike things. They were chasing each other.
Got on plane, took off, read, watched some good films (thankyou BA) and then we suddenly dipped 2000 feet and did lots of shaking around. Sister started crying, and going "We're gonna die!" which only upset the kids in front who set off crying, thus worrying the adults, and the chain reaction began. Whole plane screaming and shouting, me sitting there smiling, and the pilot going "alright, alright! don't get your knickers in a twist! It was just Martin here doing a fart". Funny guy. In reality, it was just a bit of nasty turbulance over Mount Rushmore.
Rest of the flight was really rather uneventful, apart from the disgusting food (I blame the fact that it was loaded in America). T5 at Heathrow really puts LAX to shame, and I was glad to be home, even if our taxi was 35 minutes late, and didn't seem to know his way around London, as he managed to get us into just about every traffic jam concievably possible along the route.
Anyway, tl;dr Not an impressive holiday, lost phone, dead laptop.
Will do a post or two about work experience, but for now, Seany out.
xx

Hi internet!
I do apologise for the lack of "Sean"ness recently. My blogskillz have been required elsewhere, namely the blog for work.  Anyways, this post will have to be another ranty one, I'm afraid. Alternatively, ITV are inevitably screening some mindrape right now, if you want to go and watch that instead =]
Apart from the fact that I've been busy elsewhere on t'interwebs, I've also been away quite a bit recently. Firstly to Snowdonia for a geography field trip, and then on my D of E bronze expedition, last weekend.
Snowdonia was ... urgh. For want of a better word. The food was actually comparable to the shit they inevitably serve in US Federal prisons, we weren't allowed to go into any shops (when we happened to stumble across them. A remarkable fete as it is because the ratio of sheep to shops is something like 15000:1), I got SUNBURNT in WALES, I sat on a beach for two hours measuring rocks (I kid ye not), there was virtually no mobile signal and the only computer (about 10 years old) with internet access broke after 2 days.
Doctor Lear tried his ninja skills on us on the last night. He crept into our room, under the impression that we were asleep, then crouched in the darkness behind a bed. He got a lovely surprised when I casually asked "Whassup Doc!?". He jumped up in surprise and turned the light on. Never have I seen that guy look more embarressed in all my time at Davenant.
So, snowdonia = not cool.
D of E - better. The (boil in the bag) food was 20 times better than that of Rhyd-y-Creoue field centre, there was plenty of phone signal (thanks to the lovely mast on the hillside opposite), and I had a grim sense of satisfaction in that I got my walking group to come second, despite the pouring rain.
One clever girl managed to set fire to the grass on the campsite (the campsite manager happened to see this, and got very butthurt, and now wants a letter of apology - His poor poor innocent grass...), and who would build a campsite next to one of the busiest railway lines in the North of England? Every five minutes we'd get woken up by a passing Northern service between Manchester and Sheffield (who needs a two carriage train!? So pointless!) that sounded more like a car with an ancient engine, or, if we were lucky, we'd get a 3 carriage Transpennine Express which was obviously lost, because, to my knowledge, the Pennines start a fair few miles north of where we were. It was either that, or a 24 carriage freight train that came twice a day, and seemed to go on for ever and ever and ever and ever .... and ever.  Anyway, 19 miles in total - I am proud.
Angst below is marginally less pressing now. Not because it's gone - it hasn't - but because it's all just numb. It probably helps that I've had other things to concentrate on, like other peoples problems, and a fucktonne of schoolwork. I do apologise most sincerely for it.
What else..?
Oh, those people (you know who you are) who're upset and need a cuddle, right now - just remember, there's always a tiny tiny tiny speck of hope. Always.
What's more, those of you who are anybody, will have my mobile number, and seriously, anytime, anywhere, text/call whatever, I don't care, I'm always here. ... credit permitting xD
Bai nao.
Seany Out.

xx

I'm going to give all the arrogant, government-bashing, conservative-voting, crap a rest for this post. Simply because I need this little white box for a different purpose. I'm going to rant and rave about my live, because apparently it makes things better when complete strangers can read about your personal life. Yay. 4chan are firing up the paedocannons, I expect.
March = Epic win/Epic Fail.
I'm not entirely sure what the fuck March actually was. I've told about 4 people exactly why I'm so 'angsty' (for want of a better word) of late. I prefer to keep it that way, so I'll kindof gloss over this a bit. I haven't seen my two littlest sisters since August, since my stepdad decided to disappear with them. You know what? That's just rude. I miss them. March saw me being told some shitty news that I'm not entirely sure what to make of. I'm not even sure I beleive it.
Said piece of news led to complete communication breakdown for a week, and (now ex)girlfriend thinking I was ignoring her because I said I hadn't realised how long it had been since we'd spoken... We .. resolved... it, I never told her exactly why I hadn't been speaking to her. I regret that now. I still don't think I can, though.
Then school started getting ratty, and just generally an inconvenience.
"You haven't done this..", "you need to do this", coupled with "why haven't you done this?" and a sudden discovery of sarcasm by my foster parents, I was (am) just sick of everything.
You set 4 pieces of maths homework in as many days, what the fuck do you expect?
I'd learn more in English if there was a fucking lemon sitting on the front desk, than you're insane ramblings, and pseudo-witty commentry on everything I fucking do!
And, for fuck sake, that man CAN NOT TEACH GEOGRAPHY. How the fuck do you expect a class to learn when you spend 47 minutes of an hour long lesson (yes, I counted) ranting and raving about respect, and about how Jakes behaviour "stinks". I don't think Jakes behaviour smells very much... in fact, it's contextually impossible ... LEARN ENGLISH BEFORE TEACHING KIDS ABOUT ROCKS, YOU FUCKING PILLOCK.
And please, how the fuck can you justify sending someone out of a classroom for putting their hand up!?

Oh, and note how I didn't use any teachers names their. There will be no facebook stalking here.

Moving on.
April.
Friday 11th, to be precise.

I get led half way across London by bus, then cried on and dumped. Then invited 'round to watch DeathNote ... eh!?
(Sorry, if you're reading this, but try seeing it from my perspective...)
Talk about timing, as well... not that she knew.

Anyway, for the first time in years, I've been wondering what the fuck is the point anymore. Vague consolations from friends (in fact, I tell a lie. Everyone's been fucking wonderful, and I'll never forget it) help a bit, I guess. But this last two months have been the most desperate for a long time. Yet, I still parade this happy facade at school, and at work. Becuase about 95% of people at my school are complete wankers anyway, and at work, I'm a proffesional, right? Not some angsty teen with personality issues.

If you've got this far, I congratulate you.

I'm going to sleep now. .I might wake up. I'd rather I didn't. But, I'm British. I carry on, right?

Hello dear crawlers of the interwebs!
It's about time I gave you something long and boring to read, so here it is.

For the last week or so, I've been up 'til around 2am day. Why?
Because I'm a nutcase.
No, really.
Who else would deprive themselves of that much sleep, to do work they weren't even being paid to do? (if you answer "me!" to that question (Marianne), then you can join my small and exlusive club)
Last Sunday I had nothing to do. I was sitting there at the breakfast bar, dead bored. The previous night, I'd been skating around the interwebs looking for free hosting and domain names - more out of curiousity than anything. Upon mentioning this to a friend, albeit, a friend with lots of webspace, he offered me hosting if I ever needed it. I then found a free domain name.
Anyway, back to Monday morning. Munching away at my bowl of Wheetos I suddenly though "I know... I could make that website for work that everyone suggested, but no-one did!". And so, the saga begins.

Day 1

I hastily dash to my laptop, grab my phone, a cup of coffee and some food, before settling at my desk. Ready. Vista takes an age to load, as if teasing me. I log on to msn and, to my releif, my friend is online. The conversation goes something like this:

Me: Hello Josh =]
Josh: Oh, hi!
Me: Remember you were offering me webspace ...
Josh: Yeah sure =]
Me: Iloveyou.

So, I dive into dreamweaver, before realising "hang on ... I need a background image first"
So, I dive into paint, before realising "Hang on ... I'm in paint. Bad!"
So, I dive into a better photo editor and start beavering away at a banner type background image. Back into dreamweaver, and I discover the cool flash buttons. In they go. I upload the logo, pester my friend for the details for his FTP server, and I'm away - the first page is up! (time not to scale)
By now, it's lunchtime. I eat.
I repeat the same process another 5 times throughout the day, constantly updating the other pages as well, as I make them look better.
Bed - 2:18am

Day 2

I'm straight onto my laptop. Josh offers a bit of help, becuase I don't know how to use css stylesheets. Josh sorts the css out for me. Wow. It all looks so much better!
Today, I continue editing pages to make them look good, and upload another page.
Bed - 1:08am

Day 3

Monday morning sees me waking up at about 1pm. I eat lunch, and get to work. (note, I am still wearing my PJs)
Today I realise that I've only been testing the website on my laptop, in firefox. So, today, I hastily open up IE7 on my laptop and log on to the main PC. To my horror, IE7 and big screens appear to mess things up. So, today is full of making thigs compatible with different screens and browsers. I email my team lead, saying something along the lines of
"Hey, Lynds! I'm making a website for us! It works, kind of. See you tomorrow".
To which, she phoned me back ... and asked for someones phone number.
Bed - 10:45

Day 4

Shopping with family for most of today. I get home at 3:45, grab my laptop and head straight back out again. To the town hall for our monthly team meeting.
I show everyone the website, they love it! (I am muchos pleased!) Ideas arise about getting a blog put in, and getting a proper domain name.
I go home, and perfect it a bit more.
Bed - 12:39

Day 5

Today, I'm off paintballing with a few friends. We loose. Dismally. But it was fun.
Get home at about 5:45 ish. Eat.
On computer, get hold of Josh and pester him about a blog. He complies. Quickly set up the blog, run by wordpress, and make some sneaky edits to the default coding for it, so that it looks more like part of the main site. Upload new copies of everything, with the link to the blog. A bit more tweaking.
Bed - 2:13

Day 6

I wake up, an hour before I'm meant to be at the other end of the borough for work.
I rush out of the house, before realising that the rough school down the road aren't on half term. So I take a detour, to avoid the hoards of kids going to school, to the bus stop.
Spend 49 minutes on a bus crawling through the borough (frankly, I could be walking faster).
Best friend texts me, she's away in West Sussex with my girlfriend. Spend the journey texting her. Get to work, dash down the corridor, emerge into a big conference room. They're running late. I'm fine. I train some foster carers, eat, train some more foster carers, then get in a cab with some collegues and go back to the office, where I bump into my sister who is being trained to do something. Get paid, and get on the considerably faster bus home.
On to the computer. Decide to fiddle around with Google apps to give everyone "name@domain.co.nr" email addresses. Realise I can't do this with free domains. Sit there looking dejected. Discuss with Josh. Out of blue, he goes, "I'll buy a proper domain name now and you can use that!".
Me: "O.o You'd do that!?"
Josh "Yeah, sure"
Me: "How much do I owe you?"
Josh "£5:18"
Me: "Make it £40"
Josh: "Whaa?"
Me: "That's for hosting, domain, and an unprecidented amount of help"
Josh: "You really don't need to"
Me: "Yes, yes I do."
Josh: "Mmmkay then. lovoo"

Set up proper email addresses for everyone, note down passwords, then use the same passwords to create individual accounts on the blog (so everyone can update it). Compile all information into a spreadsheet, attach to an email, and send to all my YA collegues. At 3:12am.
Bed - 3:23am

Day 6

Today, I get woken up by screaming kids. I yawn and drag myself out of my bed. Miss breakfast.
Make some last fixes, and make sure everything works, in all the browsers, on all the screens.

IT DOES.
Finished. 4pm.

and now .... I give you ...

www.wfyoungadvisors.org.uk

If you're still reading, congratz.

Bai.

x

Well, in all honesty, I have nothing really to blog about. But, uh, I'm going to anyway as I realise I have neglected my poor pretty blog. You can blame a friend from work for this - she started blogging again, and I felt I should probably register the fact that I can still type in a vaguely coherant manner.
Basically, I have a cold at the moment, so I'm a little bunged up/runny depending on what my biological makeup feels like. But, I'm fairly content xD Some good news at work - insofar as things are actually working again, thanks to a team lead who is actually competant and suited to the job. On top of that (despite my school being generally full of complete idiots) my social life has continued on its upward trend (y'know, the one that started back down there \/ somewhere, in december?) with my nice set of friends.
In yet more news, (as you might've realised from my other blog) our battle against the oppresion that is Scientology is going well. We have another protest tomorrow. (Queen Victoria Street, Blackfriars, 11am, 15th March).

Those of you who know me, will know about my various jobs in and around my borough, and you'll probably also know of my bragging about getting Wednesday off school to host a CHALLENGE event. But yeah, days off are cool. That means I get a 3 day week, as we also have Good Friday off. As a result of all of this, I'm going to be rich soon. Drinks for all!

Oh, and once again, I'll continue my plea for blogfriendship, coz I'm a lonely child.
Love you all, (unless you're a 56 year old paedophile - all other ages are fine).

Monday nights programming on terrestrial TV was diabolical at best. But whoever was responsible for this needs a brick shoved up there arse.

Panorama: One Click From Danger was broadcast much to the dismay of most of the internets younger users. The aim was to make parents more aware of the threats that there kids face on the internet. The reality was mindless scaremongering and lies.
For starters, Panorama seemed to promote the stereotype that young people are naive and stupid on the internet. It told parents to monitor kids online activities and move the computer. What made me laugh the most was the opening line by Jeremy Vine. "Is your child in his or her bedroom right now, on their computer? If so, this is the programme for you!". To be honest, the whole programme was perfectly lollable. They were training aging parents how the internet works, and they taught the parents what "asl" and "pos" meant. That was funny in itself.
They also decided to create decoy accounts under the name of Jane Brown on Myspace, Facebook and Bebo in an attempt to see how many paedophiles tried to make contact. All fair enough, apart from the fact that the person behind the Jane Brown alias obviously didn't have a clue about teenagers. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7174814.stm
That should show you what I mean. 14 year old girls are really not that frightened by the prospect of sex.
Panorama, basically mislead the public, the facts and figures they used were all grossly exaggerated and manipulative. It was a full on "Parents, save your children" propaganda punch.  The interviews were all biased, they only interviewed people who had somehow gotten into some sort of problem on the net. They didn't bother with the majority. For instance, I've met people from thei nternet at least 15 times. The thing is, we have enough common sense to meet as a group in a public place (as I've mentioned before in this blog). That's all it takes, common sense.
The comments page was overflowing with comments from angry teenagers (a lot of whom, I know) and naive parents.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7176709.stm

I also posted a rant on the BBC parenting message board, which pretty much sums up my feelings and argument against such programming. Here it is:

http://seanywonders.blogspot.com/2008/01/panorama-paedorama.html

So, any parents reading this, please do take these points into consideration if you intend on doing such things to your teenagers. Any comments welcome, I'll answer as soon as I can.

Right. Let's go back to early December.  Happy days for most of us, yeah? School was drawing to an end, Christmas was getting closer, everyone had myspace christmas countdowns, everyone was out buying presents etc.
It was pretty great for me too! I suddenly had a social life! Had 2 christmas parties, missed loads of school because of technical crew and rehearsals for the upcoming school concerts, finally had my life in order.
Then it was christmas, I got some good presents and had a generally alright time, albeit missing my girlfriend a lot. It wasn't the best christmas ever, but I've had worse. Then, boxing day.
I stayed in bed the whole day, simply because of the fact that if I tried to get out, I would go all dizzy and then faint. It's the worst I've felt in my life. The day after that, I went out with my church choir, ice skating. While still feeling generally dizzy and rather out of it, I managed to force myself to have a good time, and surprisingly, given my dizziness, managed not to fall over once while skating. Then followed a trip to the cinema, and I Am Legend. A genuinely scary film, when watched at 3am (as I had done a week previously), but on the big screen, it played more like an average zombie movie.
Then, I was taken away. To the New Forest, of all places. Now, I don't mind the area, christ, I lived in it for a year, it's lovely!
But when you're stuck in an isolated holday cottage along with various other friends and their families, no internet, no London New Years party (which I intended on attending) and missing a great day out with other friends, it can get extremely, extremely tiresomely boring.
On New Years Eve, I sat watching the TV. Watching the fireworks in London. Missing all my other friends. I've never been so close to tears in the last 2 years. I think what annoyed me most was the amount of walking we did. I lived there (as I said), and every day, I did nothing but walk. So going back on "holiday" and walking every single day was not my idea of fun.
Anyway, got back from there on the 2nd, and spent 3 days with my girlfriend. ^____^ That was good.

Then, today, (Monday), back to school. That, is not good. It's fucking depressing. To add insult to injury, today we had Maths, English, Science (Bio), Maths Science (Chem). Fucking awful.

I'm sure there's more I could moan about, both politically, socially and personally, but my fingers are aching now. So I'll be back sometine soon with something else to rant about.

Bye bye!

P.S. Someone please befriend poor little me!? It get's lonely!

Hello dear readers!
You may have noticed a distinct lack of my ramblings recently.
There are three main reasons for this.

1)There's not much to ramble about lately, bar the government data losses and the football tradjedy.
2)I'm a lazy tosspot, and I forgot
3)My internet time is being spent much more effectively, recently. Her name's Sinéad.

I tell you that, becuase everyone knows now anyway, although, I've managed to keep quiet since September ...
According to my friends, she's in fact called Dave, has a beard and originates from Cosovo. None of this, I assure you, is true.

Enough of that.
 
I need something to rant and rave about, so first, I'll pick on our diabolical excuse for a government. In the last 3 weeks, government organisations have managed to lose two sets of data. HMRC lost details for child benefits (although the figure of 25 million was rather exaggerated), and this week, the DVLA announced that they'd lost details of over 6000 car owners in N. Ireland. What amazes me is this:
In a world of high technology and easy-to-use ICT facilities, why the fuck would a government send personal details around on unencrypted CDs in public mail? If it's absolutely necessary to send things, I'm sure any government organisation (there's an oxymoron for you) can cough up about a tenner for a special delivery.
That aside, you'd have thought that the DVLA would've maybe decided to at least encrypt their information, after only weeks before, HMRC made the same mistake.
So, what the government have pretty much proved is that they obviously can't be trusted. Yet, they wonder why less people are voting these days. They've also proved that they have a knack for employing stupid people and a have a blatent colective lack of common sense.
What really gets me is the fact that the DVLA addressed everyone affected as "customers". Customers are people who go to a business or agency to pay for their services. If that service isn't good enough, they can take their custom elsewhere. We, on the other hand, are stuck with an incompetant and unreliable "service" that we have to pay for whether we like it or not.

On another note ... I'm standing here in the pouring rain, where the fuck's my fucking train!? ...
All they say is "please mind the doors" , and they learn that on the two day course ...
So don't tell me to "mind the gap", I want my fucking money back!
Awesome song, I'm sure most Londoners would agree. I know a few tube drivers, they say they find it vaguely offensive, and naive, but, nevertheless they see the funny side.
Never in my life, did I think I'd actually find a real excuse to draw any real comparison to the song. Needless to say, I did on Saturday.
After going to the Hyde Park Winter Wonder Land, we decided to go to Namco (something to do with the fact that WWL wasn't really that good ) . So we thought we could rely on good old London Underground to provide a service that vaguely suited our needs.
Never have I seen such a total fuckfest. Hyde Park Corner station was packed. The platform was literally packed, full of screaming kids, grandparents, mules, and generally wet people.
Yet, the twat who LU had let loose with the station tannoy announcer system saw fit to inform us of this :

"You are causing an obstruction on the platform. Please turn to your left and move down. Put on foot in front of the other and move.
Please don't delay this train from leaving, otherwise the next one will take longer to get in, besides, if you didn't get this one, you're unlikely to get the next on, let the customers behind you get on. Your next train has just left Knightsbridge, it will arrive shortly. By the way, it's just as packed as the last one, you probably won't get on, so just move further down the platform"

Condesending prick. That wasn't the worst of it either. So we wrote a sign saying "Have a nice day" and held it up against the CCTV camera. Before getting the train in the opposite direction and taking a long winding route to Namco.

Anyway, that's me for today.
Oh and guys, add me as a friend for gods sake! I feel like a complete loser!

Well, upon looking through the Greenpeace website yesterday, while doing a bit of research, I was reminded of all the cool stuff they've done, and, pretty much why I'm a member. During my little forage, I can across a link to a website : www.blogactionday.org  ...
"Well" I thought "that's tomorrow!". So I decided to register and join in. So, here we go. Blog Action Day!
Basically, the idea of today is to raise awareness of our enviroment and why we should take care of our planet.
My particular musing on this was "What can one person do? Is it worth it? Have we already killed our planet?".
And, once again, I found myself reading through the Greenpeace website. Well - that pretty much answers the first question. Greenpeace is the result of lots of "one person"s put together. On Monday they took over a coal power station in Kent, in protest to Gordon Browns seeming "green light" strategy to polluting the planet. That takes some guts. Not only that, it takes a lot of care as well. Greenpeace activists put their life on the line just trying to make the world better for us all. So, maybe you don't fancy doing that? Well, there're plenty of other things you can do. If you were to replace 2 light bulbs in your house with energy efficient ones, not only would you save £30 a year, you'd create 3 cubic tonnes less carbon dioxide every year. So once again, that leaves you on your own. Wrong. Let's say 6 people see this blog, and change their light fittings, already that's 18 tonnes less carbon dioxide. Now, combined, every blog on Blog Action Day, takes around 30 million veiws. Maybe only 1 million of those veiwers will take action on what they read, but still that's a reduction of 3 million cubic tonnes. Gettting the jist now?
Is it really worth it?
I mean, by the time anything serious starts happening, we'll be dead, right?
Wrong.
In the next 5 years we WILL start drastically noticing the effects of climate change.
I suggest, along with the other 6000 bloggers postng today, that we all start taking this seriously. I mean, is it really so much trouble to switch the heating down by a degree, or turn off a light? If we carry on like we do, live will not be so convenient.
Have we already killed our planet?
I'll be blunt here: possibly.
But that doesn't stop us trying to make it better. Perhaps, when we start getting tornados ripping down the thames, or snow falling in Egypt, people might start taking global warming seriously.
People refuse to help with the effort to reduce climate change becuase of "money" (no names mentioned, America) or simply because they can't be arsed. I feel ashamed to be human, if that is indeed what the human race dictates.
Maybe tomorrow, you can walk out of a room smiling, having turned a light off. I know I will.

Yeah. Right.
I spent five minutes last week literally crying with laughter after David Camerons speech to the conservative party conference.
More specifically, his approach to gang culture and behaviour in the UK. Which seemed to be "I'm going to stop the gangs! Just like that! All you need is love! and lots of money .." .
I work for my local Childrens Rights Service, through which I end up sitting through countless meetings and seminars where some bright young spark has come up with suggestions like "If we just pump it full of money, it'll go away" or "they have nothing to do! Build the poor lads a youth group and they'll all play happily together and not shoot each others heads off!". Or even one councellor who came up with the gem of "Send them all back to Africa where they came from". I should note, that I actually asked him to leave the meeting becuase of that.
Waltham Forest (my local authority) recently commissioned a bloke from some university or other, to compile a report on the cause of gang culture in London. Yes, he did it. Came back and presented it to the council. They, and the media lapped it all up. However, when our team analysed it, we found that most of the information was incorrect. Such as gang names, the reasons people join gangs, the number of people in each gang, the amount of gangs, where they were getting there weapons from ,etc.
We were able to do that, because we are young people. We know what happens out there better than any adult ever could. Amazing, isn't it, how a team of dedicated young people can pretty much pull a 50 page report to tatters?
And, that is the way forward. Gangs won't stop being violent simply becuase some kind soul builds a youth shelter or starts a youth group. It's down to the young people who get involved in gangs, and those who know them, to gradually slow it down. Yes, authorities would never use such tactics, because it puts young peoples lives in danger. But I can tell you now, it does work. We've tried it (off the books of course), and it worked. It's time that society in general started to wake up to the fact that young people should be listened to and valued just as much as a guy with a PhD in social science (or whatever he had), because, more often than not, young people know the things that adults won't. Such as the "grass phenominom" where, the police in their upmost naivity tell young people to come forward and divulge information about gangs and drug suppliers, under the promise that they'll be protected. 38% of these young people end up either shot or stabbed within the next two weeks, a further 9% of these will die from their injuries.
That's my rant for today, in stark contrast to whinging about mobile phone masts.
Do think about it, and take it seriously, trust me, it may safe you one day.