Faith Misplaced?

Once again, this topic was started in the car journey to/from work... is there any topic that we don't cover?!

Several of my colleagues have young children and a number of them have sent their children to faith schools and the question was should kids be sent to a school based on the educational standard and in a mixed cultural/religious environment or a single faith based school which would tend to have a limited demographic.

Arguments put forward were that, irrespective of which faith, kids were brought up with morals and in better behaved culture but a counterpoint was that these kids would have a limited growth being around only a certain type of people and stunted development as 'kids just don't get to be kids' and are uncannily angelic.

My background was going to a Roman Catholic school and I can compare my junior school to one 2 blocks away which was a normal mixed state school and the difference was remarkable. We were in uniform, better behaved and performed better in exams. On the other hand, I had to attend all the Christian religious ceremonies, including several masses and even eating the wafer representing the body of Christ... despite being of a different religion!
Due to the confusion caused amongst children of other beliefs, other faith schools have opened up to cater for the different needs but are children going to these schools not having the best childhood?

One of my friends went to a mixed school and he claimed that he preferred it as from a young age he was in a multi cultural society and although it was less behaved, the lessons learnt from the social aspect was irreplaceable. Kids should be able to be kids and if they don't get to any trouble, they're not having a fun time. They should learn the boundaries of their behaviour and learn early on how to deal with situations like bullying, being with girls (some faith schools separate the genders) as well as understanding different cultures and becoming more tolerant.

If you have kids, where would you send your children? Or where have you already sent them and why?

Traditions of Stupidity

On the daily commute to work, my friends and I always have some long and thoughtful debates/discussions such as the consistency of poo and Thursday was no exception... we were talking about St George's day and the statement said by one of my friends was that all people who celebrate St George's day are stupid.

The other two passengers were taken back by this broad sweeping generalisation and were arguing against him but I couldn't help but agree, to some extent. Christianity is in a declining state with few people attending church yet everyone would celebrate St George's Day but would they know the significance of the man?

A brief history of St George... a man born from a Roman father and a Palestinian mother who had never set foot in England and died as a martyr for not renouncing his faith. Well, I did say brief history! Oh, legend also has it that he once came across a pagan town sacrificing a girl to appease a dragon and he slay the monster and all the people converted.

So why do the English celebrate St George's Day when most haven't set foot in a church? How many believe that St George was in England? Or that he had a Palestinian mother? The day is to celebrate the life of a man who died for his faith... and in this modern age, many people who do this are labelled as either nutters or terrorists.
Has the meaning lost got lost in translation through the ages and they celebrate St George's character of bravery in adversity? In which case, why not change it to someone else that everyone can relate to?

Can anyone name other traditions that are carried mindlessly?

Sequels and Disappointments

It seems many sequels and remakes walk hand in hand with a Raspberry... the latest instalment of failure to make me cry a little inside is Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li.

The Street Fighter series has a rich background and lore which is quite interesting and much to explore and the game does well in teasing with snippets of the characters past or possible futures and there have been animés that continued this trend of leaving you hanging and wanting more and when I heard that they've made a new movie of it, I was struck with both trepidation as well as excitement... would it be like the cheesy Van Damme version or will the producers come out with the current trend of excellent remakes (Batman, Watchmen, X Men). I started sniffing around on the interweb and found Kristin Kreuk would be playing Chun Li (she plays Lana in Smallville, I think she's hot but not as much as Allison Mack - plays Chloe Sullivan) and began to start salivating... yes, I'm a bloke, what do you expect?

I've been waiting keenly for the UK release but haven't heard any rumblings and so I had another look and found out that it's been such a flop over the pond that they may not release it here! What... The...

So yes, I've been majorly disappointed again.

Thing with Street Fighter is that although it has a great story, it just may not work as a normal movie and perhaps needs to stick with being animated so you can enjoy the effects more. This is the reason I'm really looking forward to seeing Dragonball and seeing if they can actually pull off animation->movie conversions... bets on another disappointment?

Let's celebrate 'special person appreciation especially for this day'

I know Mothers Day has gone and this post is late, but I still want to get this off my chest.

Why have Mothering Sunday?!

What is the point in celebrating a living person for just one day? Does it give you license to be an ass through the rest of the year or is it because you feel guilty of not treating your mother well daily that you must concoct a 'special day' just for mum?

Only my mother could verify but I'd like to think that I've been good to her everyday. Sure, there have been some bad patches when I was young but that's part of growing up and part of being a good mother is to grow you out of the immaturity and I'd like to think I have and more than made up for all my past misdeeds. I treat my mum to random presents or surprises, help her when I can or when she least expects it etc - I know I'm not the perfect son and I could do a lot more but I do appreciate her every day and she knows that ... yet I still am 'forced' into getting something for one particular day of the year.

I say forced because although it is indeed optional, we've been brought up as children to participate in this farce. From nursery, kids are helped to create gifts to their mothers and the cycle from kids to parents can never end!

Of course, this isn't the only 'treat some especially on this particular day'... you have Fathers Day and Valentines ... the cynical part of me leads me to believe that these are just marketing tactics used by companies to charge 5x for the same goods and the only difference is it's wrapped and has a ribbon on it. A commercial day used to boost sales of otherwise unwanted goods to be bought by suckers.

And yet there I was on Saturday, shopping for my mother and continuing this facade of special appreciation, guilty at betraying my thoughts because I'm part of the system.

Another sucker.

Rules and Tips for Flying

1. Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory.

2. If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the
stick back, they get smaller. That is, unless you keep pulling the stick all
the way back, then they get bigger again.

3. Flying isn't dangerous. Crashing is what's dangerous.

4. It's always better to be down here wishing you were up there than up
there wishing you were down here.

5. The ONLY time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

6. The propeller is just a big fan in front of the plane used to keep the
pilot cool. When it stops, you can actually watch the pilot start sweating.

7. When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No one has ever collided
with the sky.

8. A 'good' landing is one from which you can walk away. A 'great'
landing is one after which they can use the plane again.

9. Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to
make all of them yourself.

10. You know you've landed with the wheels up if it takes full power to
taxi to the ramp.

11. The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of
arrival. Large angle of arrival, small probability of survival and vice
versa.

12. Never let an aircraft take you somewhere your brain didn't get to
five minutes earlier.

13. Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about
might be another airplane going in the opposite direction. Reliable sources
also report that mountains have been known to hide out in clouds.

14. Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal to the
number of take offs you've made.

15. There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing.
Unfortunately no one knows what they are.

16. You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The
trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.

17. Helicopters can't fly; they're just so ugly the earth repels them.

18. If all you can see out of the window is ground that's going round and
round and all you can hear is commotion coming from the passenger
compartment, things are not at all as they should be.

19. In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminium going hundreds
of miles per hour and the ground going zero miles per hour, the ground has
yet to lose.

20. Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, the experience
usually comes from bad judgment.

21. It's always a good idea to keep the pointy end going forward as much
as possible.

22. Keep looking around. There's always something you've missed.

23. Remember, gravity is not just a good idea. It's the law. And it's not
subject to repeal.

24. The three most useless things to a pilot are the altitude above you,
runway behind you, and a tenth of a second ago.

Who Watches The Watchmen?

I'm a self professed 'geek' (- a term used derogatively by the masses but in fact just highlights their own shortcomings) and I clearly remember being 11, going to the library and finding the graphic novel section and wowed that comic books were in the library!

From that moment on, I was immersed in a world of Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Green Lantern, Flash, Nexus... I was living a kid's dream in the company of superheroes but as I satiated my childish glee, I became interested in more thoughtful plots - true graphic novels which would be insulted being referred to as a comic. One that remains still clear in my mind is the Watchmen, which I have picked up several times between these years and I hoped that the movie did the book justice as there have been countless Hollywood attempts at bringing life to comics with eye-bleeding results (does anyone remember Halle Berry as Catwoman?!).

This was the first graphic novel that opened my mind to other aspects of the superhero life, more than the super powers and heroics - the humanity of heroes. It is quite dark and gritty, shocking scenes of violence including abuse to women would knock you out of your comfort zone and when you see it happen in a movie as opposed to drawings, stunned is an understatement.

Watchmen is about a group of people with power and ideals doing what they believe is right and just for the world and how everyone's opinion of righteousness differs. You have those that fight from the bottom up, cleaning the streets of crime and working upwards, those that want to start from the top and bring crime crashing from it's heights, those that don't care as long as it doesn't affect them and finally those that think they can save the world in one act. Yet all of these people are on the same team.

The dynamics between the different 'heroes' is interesting and you couldn't help but sympathise with aspects of everyone's views as you watch the powerplay amongst them but unlike the book, you could tell who the 'bad guy' was. The essence of the story is "the end justifies the means" and to how far you would go down that path. Would you sacrifice a handful for the peace of a city? A million for the world? Or would you stick to your guns like Rorschach and "never compromise, not even in the face of armageddon"?

Those of us who have read the novel will know the difference in endings but it essentially brought about the same end and in honesty, I preferred the movie's ending as it didn't seem as far-fetched as the novel. The only gripe I would have was that it didn't leave you in as much suspense as to who the mastermind of this was. Also the frequency of full frontal male nudity was a sight I could have lived without!

The movie is pretty true to its origins and is done well, in fact it was more shocking for me than the novel and viewers must be warned beforehand the nature of this movie :- cold, brutal and brilliant!

of excess and idiots

Firstly, this morning as I was on the motorway, a driver or passenger in a car ahead of me threw out his cigarette which flicked onto our windscreen and my friend who was driving started cursing them because it is dangerous - natural human instinct is to avoid something coming fast towards you, which is not something you would want to do on a motorway travelling at 70mph!

I won't be ranting at smokers, that's definitely a pet hate (so ladies, if you're interested, make sure you kick the habit before seeing me :p) but litter bugs. Why do some people think it's perfectly ok to just throw away rubbish into public space? By all means I have nothing against you littering your private house, I won't be going inside there, but don't you dare punish me with your lack of decency. It's not difficult to hold onto waste until you find a bin, heck I carry food wrappers with me until I find a bin!

Litter just brings down the area and seeing rubbish blowing on the streets is unsightly and is also damaging to the environment. Wildlife suffers as vegetation is ruined with salty food, birds die from swallowing objects, pests such as rats are drawn to it. Just think, people!

Secondly, I think in this time of recession and cut-backs, my mum is single handedly trying to reinvigorate the economy!

So the other week I come home and my mum greets me in the usual manner by saying "you need socks right?" ... this is one of those questions that women so often ask that there is only one answer to... "yes".
Then she picks up a bag with ten packs of socks in them... each pack contains 10 socks... so mum has just bought 100 socks... I could wear a new pair of socks for a third of a year without needing to use the washing machine! I look at my mum questioningly and she replies with "guess how much they were"... "oh I don't know... £1?" ... mum looks well pleased as she tells me "no no... I got them for 10p per pack".

And two days ago, I come home to find 7 mops propped up in the hallway. Once again I'm thinking "oh mum!" but I think "no, I have 3 aunts and she could be giving 2 to each of them"... I wait for my mum to return from wherever she's gone and once she does, I immediately greet her with "what are those for?". My mum always knows how to surprise me, she says "they're for us".
Yes, that's right folks, we need 7 mops in our house, our huge 3 bedroom terraced house needs these many mops. Else I'm thinking that perhaps mum now thinks I am of age and need to be trained in the secret staff martial arts that have been passed down generation to generation, I always knew there was something cool about me but could never put my finger on it.

However that wasn't the case, once again mum asks "guess how much I got them for?!". I had seen the price tag for them was £4 so I guessed at £1 each but she has a mischievous smile and says "no, I got them for 2p each".

Seriously, I think my mum can run classes on Bargain Hunting!

Now this brings me on to the point, why do some people purchase things just because they're bargains? We don't even need all of these socks and mops but because they're at such a reduced price, my mum had to buy more and yet this same woman has instilled in me the virtues of spending only what I have, throwing away unused/unneeded items, using only what I need and not giving into excess but here she acts in the opposite.

Similarly with vouchers, why do you have to use them because you have them?! Just because you have a £10 voucher for John Lewis that expires at the end of the week doesn't mean that you have to buy something whether you actually need it or not! It is not a bargain if you buy it because it's reduced, it's only a bargain if you buy something that you need that is reduced!

Is this part of a woman's psyche? Do they just disengage their logical thinking and turn into impulsive buyers? I am not the tidiest of people, in fact I'm a bit of a hoarder but I'd like to think that compared to most guys that I'm pretty good and well trained. I like to maintain some sort of order and it's not chaotic and to help, I only purchase items that I need and so my stuff doesn't pile up. But I've found guys in general are similar in that we're sensible for bulk purchases and only go for necessary items whereas women just lose the plot.