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[Sep. 30th, 2008|01:30 am] |
I.
Why do we need a Watchmen movie? I really enjoyed The Incredibles. |
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[Jul. 8th, 2008|04:05 am] |
<b>I.</b>
Yes yes, I know I've been neglecting you.
But I've been a very busy man. |
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[Jun. 22nd, 2008|09:03 pm] |
I.
I'm free!
{Well, besides the imminent theory test...} |
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[Jun. 17th, 2008|02:10 pm] |
I.
I think that I shall read V for Vendetta today.
It's been a while and perhaps I should be focusing entirely on work in the few hours I have left {especially considering how utterly my past last few days have been squandered} but given that it is filled with references to obscure anarchist philosophy that don't even turn up in my textbook {or perhaps instead of filled I should say centred around} it seems apt and appropriate.
The marvel of that work is that the more it is considered, regardless of how much you have done so previously, the more it reveals. Every time. Without fail.
Today for instance I considered V's victims, or rather the targets of his vengeance. He kills a nurse, a priest, a policeman. In the narrative of course his reasons are personal but an ideological explanation is also implicit: unlike the Marxists anarchists, especially Bakunin, have always identified oppressors as not solely those being in possession of wealth. Instead they see any sort of authority as corruptive and thus anyone who holds it as a potential {or, more commonly, certain} source of oppression. This is a more rich, sophisticated approach, which allows for far more nuance. The Pope's words can reach even more than those of Rupert Murdoch.
So V does not stroll around killing purely the rich. No, he slays a policeman who used state provided power to become a tyrant thug, a woman who used her position as a trained medical professional to inflict state-backed carnage and {most interesting of all} a man of the cloth who allowed people to soothe their consciousness with twisted theology.
Furthermore he targets, but does not leave dead physically, a broadcaster. A single man placed into a place of power through being the only one allowed to contact the entire nation in an authoritative and definitive format. The Voice of Fate works as a representative for all establishment media through effectively being the epitome: he is briefed on what the people are to be told to think, rehearses and performs without challenge or hesitation. The stumbling supplanters brought into replace him falter and thus the system he supports does to.
This is the sort of stuff that Marxism misses. Money isn't everything.
Anarchism is the only philosophy that has deeply thrilled me during my studies of politics this year for tomorrow's exam. I do not consider myself an anarchist and have ruled out any such possibility since my family's immediate reaction to the house being broken into last year was to phone the police, an action I realised I approved of and would have performed myself had I been awake. However it is a far superior philosophy to that which I imagined it to be, as well as unquestionably the one with the most interesting set of writers and thinkers to have engaged in promoting it {quite an achievement, given that liberalism had Bentham}. |
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[Jun. 6th, 2008|10:15 am] |
I.
Another exam today, this time it's R.S. and I have 2/3 of the exams, both the Ethics and etc topic {which I'm gonna nail</b> and John's Gospel {which I'm gonna fail}.
I had imagined I was going to be late on the way in, and indeed I would have been had I not forgotten that this exam was in the afternoon instead of morning, making me four and a half hours early instead of a few minutes late. This would have been great if I hadn't of gotten to sleep so late last night {this morning} and had found out a little sooner than when walking into the exam hall.
At least it gave me a few hours more to revise, but for St. John that simply isn't enough. For example none of the scholars know quite what to make of the Holy Spirit's nature in the fourth gospel and no one can explain why Jesus goes around sprouting contradictory nonsense like him being here to save not to judge one minute and here sent from the father to judge the next. No one at all. So what chance do I stand?
I doubt any of you will read this before I take the things but if so, you know what to do. I need it now more than ever: Paraclete? Wtf?
II.
Oh yeah, and the school network updates to IE 8 {in all its tabby glory} right after I leave the school forever.
Typical. |
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[Jun. 3rd, 2008|11:26 pm] |
I.
History tomorrow and I'm actually going to fail. The time I had has been frivelled away into nothing.
Wish me luck, faggots. |
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[May. 20th, 2008|01:03 am] |
I.
Exams, exams, exams, exams...
II.
Four of the fuckers today, four!
First up sociology, the last two of them. I managed to turn up just in time for these, although it was quite a nail-biting ride as I set out a lot later than planned. So I ended up running to the exam, leaving my laptop for the time being with the office staff.
The first was on the family and caught me rather unawares on a question concerning the social position on children. The second was about education and had a mean question concerning functionalism as the last 20 marker.
Just FYI the format tends to roll:
2
4
6
8
20
20
So these two I nailed so far as I could tell but when I read through some notes somebody abandoned before crithink I noticed that I'd missed a lot of names, most notably Althusser, the neo-Marxist. Hopefully that didn't affect my mark too negatively, I managed 6 pages in 12 font Garamond in the hour and thirty five for the second exam and perhaps more for the first.
The first critical thinking I would be lucky to scrape a U, and the second one I have some hopes of securing an A.
Basically for the former I was constantly made uncertain by references to criteria of credibility, which I knew not the meaning of. This was largely because the Critical Thinking lessons were a mess:
Teacher had operations at two points and wasn't there, they were after school on Fridays {I could have left at 3 if not for fucking...had a free period...grr...*grumble*} and were with upper fifths who ended up not even taking the fucking thing on account of having exam double-bookings all around with their GCSEs that the exam board neglected to tell anyone about...
...but also because I didn't try at all, focusing on the Sociology, which actually matters in that in to get my place I have to get an A in it while the Critical Thinking nobody really cares about.
So the one which I had to know anything for was fail but thankfully the second needed just a general logic puzzles and the multiple choice section was surprisingly taxing but basically required no in-knowledge except for the meaning of an "Underlying assumption" in terms of critical thought. Which is pretty much identical to the usual understanding.
Not certain if they will balance out. I can hope.
III.
In slightly worse news my laptop is all over the place, with some severely fukt internet previously and the battery having decided to break itself again. Pretty agitating, not to mention concerning. A laptop you have to leave plugged in is basically a lighter desktop that takes up a little less room.
IV.
Anyway.
Four less exams still to be done. |
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[May. 14th, 2008|09:13 pm] |
I.
First off, apologies to Ben for the blanking on MSN after quite an important question. I was off having dinner before filing stuff and when I returned you were gone.
II.
As it happens that question is one I am now going to answer for you all: the Sociology went well but I suspect that I fouled up the last question at least a little. As far as I could tell about the time it was asking about how theory might influence sociologist's methods, but according to the post-analysis performed in promptu by the class {they're a fun bunch, for the most part, perhaps the best class I have, from the year below} I should have been talking about ethics and logistics as well.
Which I did, but perhaps not as much as I could have.
There is moar on Monday, which is rather shocking given that I, with my astoundingly poor maths, thought that the 19th was somehow 8 days after the 13th instead of six. So much more work to be done!! |
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[May. 2nd, 2008|07:27 pm] |
I.
Ah, May 2nd. For some reason I deem this a glorious day.
Not the day itself, mind, I've been pretty tired. But the name. May 2nd. It feels good.
I just hope that it isn't sullied forever by being the day that I discovered Boris Johnson was the new Mayor of London. I really have no idea if I could stand four years of Tory rule. I hope that I don't have to find out.
II.
My mouse is broken. Sort of.
Even as I type it drifts across the screen, where it lingers and grows beyond my control. The weird blue dot thing has come in useful but that's pretty irritating to use as well. What's additionally annoying is how sporadic it seems to be, occasionally working fine and at other times being a right cunt and requiring a stand by or screen closure in order to return to working state.
III.
Having banned one of my accounts and then left my second active but deleting all posts I made on it, then banning that one as well and IP blocking me, Spirit Quest showed mercy by removing the "Board Message" block, only to return it on all three accounts I'd tried to access it on. I did enjoy posting there, so it's a pity, but as always it's worth recalling my e-motto: "There's a whole internet out there."
If not the same people anywhere else. *sigh*
IV.
Also a source of mild irritation {I don't know if there's quite a word for the sensation, suggestions appreciated but prepare for brusque dismissal if you get it incorrect} is the piece of Satyr sci-fan fiction that I've had in mind for a little while but never quite gotten around to pulling off. I have the second part done already, in fact, but it's no opener. For some reason I'm struggling a little with the mid-way point of a technique I'm not sure exactly sure of the name of. In film it would be a distant shot gradually zooming in but I have no idea what you refer to that as in literature. The idea is definitely that you begin distant and then advance to personal intimacy, however.
Again, suggestions much appreciated.
V.
I voted yesterday.
First time ever and all that, in the school one I had attempted to make something called "The Left Alliance" that eventually settled on the tactic of trying to get the LibDems through to the last round and then to victory via Tory 2nd prefs. I made four posters featuring Soviet propaganda {although one of them was not a Bolshevik original it was sexy enough to warrant inclusion} and created the motto "Socialism in One School!" as a nod to Stalin. That this was all in aid of the distinctly bourgeois Liberal Democrats made my efforts especially amusing, or at least as far as I was concerned.
The humour was lost on some people.
As it happened the Liberals got to the 2nd round but still lost by a good hundred votes. I suspect that the entirely futile presence of the Greens {who's leader was not even in the country, having attended a Rugby tour in Japan instead} no doubt contributed but my school is so right-wing that is most likely would have been a Tory win anyway.
Actually getting in to vote was a struggle as it was in morning registration, which I can honestly not recall the last occasion I attended prior to yesterday. Somehow I got there, making it up for missing an entire period and a half this morning.
VI.
The real vote was back in Shepherds Bush, since the electoral register hadn't updated our location.
I managed to get the wrong bus and thus was forced to leg my way through very heavy rain that left me thoroughly sodden but thankfully inspired my swift rush towards the station in narrow time to catch a bus. As I hurtled through the rain I decided that this was what democracy was all about, making the worst of a poor situation. In hindsight I am thankful that I didn't have to go through worse to register my view, as is untrue of many nations.
The only problem which presented me was uncertainty over whether in the London region I was in Labour or the Liberal Democrats were more likely to win against the Tories. Given that the region of West Central includes Kensington and Chelsea I feared that it might have been something of a moot point but given that Shepherds Bush {a polar opposite to their excessive affluence} and Hammersmith {less so, but still a worthwhile counter-weight} were there perhaps things would become balanced.
For those of you interested I eventually opted for Labour and GLA vote went to the Greens, with my Mayoral preferences going 1st to Sian {pronounced "Shan" I learnt today, much to my surprise, from someone who's name is spelt Sinead but said very differently and thus would know about such matters} and 2nd to Ken.
For those of you who don't know the system a 2nd is worth just as much to anyone who get's into the last round of voting, as Ken did. Whether he actually got enough to win remains to be seen but I truly hope so, his vision of what the city needs is perhaps the finest around and his knowledge of our happy capital is second to none, besides perhaps the taxi drivers who loathe him so. From the tax upon 4X4s to his plans to increase the quantity of affordable housing in London his ideas have been strong and sound and would clearly be to the benefit of the place, while matched with rich-friendly right-wingery from his rival.
He's made errors, but he's the man for the job. Boris has just made errors. |
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