Writing for myself.

I have just finished a long six hour straight article writing session for my job, now it's time to write for myself before I end up punching the screen of the laptop.

I am currently sat on the couch of my living watching The Magnificent Seven, one of the only westerns that I like while drinking coffee from my Thomas the Tank Engine cup. I have now decided that I must learn how to ride a horse.

In some of my previous posts I talked about how I was writing a novel. That has now become a radio play thing, no doubt that this will slowly morph into a film script then into a video series and back around to novel. To save some face, I decided to design one of the star-space ships that would be in the universe-galaxy thing, it is needless to say that I failed art for a reason. This picture below is the view from the front. The idea is that there is one command pod and other pods can be changed around so that the ship can perform different tasks.

However, I appear to have drawn (at least to my immature mind) a cock and balls. What does that say about me? Instead of drawing a ship of incredible speed and wonder, I draw an object of incredible speed and wonder, shame it's not a self portrait.

Today I found a random stick of ram.

Jamie Cullum and my iOS 7 review will have to wait, i'm too tired right now. Apart from that, it's been pretty uneventful.  

Realigning my moral compass

In my last post I had a bit of a moral ooh-la-la. While writing that post, I was watching Star Trek (yes, I know) and it got me thinking, the majority of my moral compass, landscape thing came from the huge collection of videotapes that I used to watch as young teenager because I didn't like going out and I was way too shy,

Couple that with being the most irritating teachers pet and having bucked teeth that are so bad they make Bugs Bunny look like a model, I was clearly not one of the cool socialaties. 

Annoyingly, my lazy eye came in when I was eighteen, where was it when I was 13? I could have dealt with everything together, then I would be sane, right up until the moment I go on a rampage and brutally murder everyone who has ever bullied me. (I wonder if this paragraph will get the CSA's attentions. I assume my next post will be from a hotel room in Hong Kong.)

But I'm going off-track. The reason that I wanted to write this post was to share with you what the characters from the different series have taught me, this is in no particular order, it's just the order that it comes to my brain.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard: It's cool to be patient, not everyone is as awesome as you, it takes time for them to think of the right reaction, and if it all goes wrong, just put your hand on your forehead, lean into it and sigh. 

Commander William T. Riker: While I'm never going to have his allure, I have picked up The Riker Maneuver, if I am ever on some kind of date and you do not understand and appreciate it's majesty, we are not meant to be together 

Captain James T. Kirk: Don't worry, it's ok to pause...

Lieutenant Tasha Yar: Kindness and compassion will make you one of the most likeable members of the crew, however this will get you killed off in season two, but you do come back as a kick-ass Romulan.

General Martok: If 'please allow me to hand you your rear end on a plate during which I will be dispensing life advice to Sisko while being loyal, battle savvy, cool, brave with just a touch of humble' had a definition, it would be this warrior. He would never lead his troops into a lost cause. I just wonder what he would have said if he was with me when I was coming of Westminster. Would he have told me to be wise and stay away or would he have lead the charge.

Captain James T. Kirk: ...in the middle...

Guinan: " I picked this up on Mangus three, that was setting number one, would anyone like to see setting number two?"

Jadzia Dax: Excuse me, I’m trying to put Worf in his place. Oh yes Benjamin.

Captain James T. Kirk: ...of sex with 75 more orions then Riker (sorry man, he just has less regulations)

Chief Miles Edward O'Brien: Not only do we share a middle name, but we are also both incredibly awesome. This legend worked his way up from the dangerous path of the red shirt to one of the most loved characters in the whole franchise. This man could shut down as wormhole while repairing the Defiant and somehow keeping DS9 from falling apart.

Commander/Captain Benjamin Sisko: If you are looking for cool, he is your man. He can take a tiny little starship and destroy an entire fleet, while playing baseball, chilling with gods and hopping over the mirror universe so he do stuff to his bridge officers that would normally be against every regulation in Starfleet.

Wesley Crusher: The only reason that 'SHUT UP WESLEY' is on this list is because I used to be just like him, annoying, bright and useless, expect I am control controlled by my puppet masters known as the CSA who will chase me to Hong Kong should I publish this article. Don't get me wrong, Wil Wheaton is awesome, it's just that I'm not as awesome as him.

I'm getting distracted, but I've slept between starting this post and writing this paragraph, and I've realised, there is no point worrying about whether I went to the protest or not, what has happened has happened, I can't change that.

But I can start to be awesome, you watch this space, this time next year I would have had a DNA and found out that I am the estranged love child of Wil Wheaton and Neil Patrick Harris. At which point I would start to embrace the side of me that loves to wear suits while hacking into the mainframe of the FBI.

I just didn’t inherit their good looks

Yesterday, I failed you.

Let me lay down some groundwork, yesterday I took a trip to Parliament, don't worry I'm not arranging an uprising against David Cameron just yet, I'm too busy. I was on an assignment, In Monday I got a text from my editor asking if I was free for a committee meeting in Parliament the next day, as a power hungry little sob, I said yes, after I woke up and four cups of coffee.

I will add the link to article that I wrote here when it is published, but this blog post is about what happened before and after that committee meeting. The first thing I did as soon I walked out of Westminster tube station was turn my phone on. It's an iPhone, I was trying to save to battery life.

A force of habit of mine is to check twitter every 5 minutes, just like everyone else. All those tweets, all those thoughts, all those voices, I don't know about you but I think that the human race might be the Borg.

On twitter I saw that Occupy Parliament SQ replying to one of our Shout Out UK tweets, (it wasn't one of mine, I was in the underground at the time.) Their reply was simply put "breaking?" 

This was my call to action.

This perked my curiosity, I took the weekend off, from doing anything, I hardly went on the Internet, and I spent most of it sleeping or writing my series of stories that I had been working on for about three or four months. I really know how to pick them, with Bilderberg, the protests in turkey and Edward Snowden, I missed quite a lot.

So I made a mental note, the G8 protests were only five or ten minutes away, as soon as I'm done with this committee meeting, I'm going to make my way down there and report on what is happening because it is my job.

Instead as soon as I left Parliament, I checked my phone again, saw that the protests were growing bigger and I turned into a coward. Instead of waking past Westminster tube station and going up to Piccadilly, where according to Twitter, the protest were. I went in the station, put my headphones in and made my way home because I wanted to write my committee article.

It's my job to tell the world what is going on and instead I was selfish and just went home. 

Granted, it was the safe thing to do, it was the sane thing to do, and it's what most normal people who want to stay out of the way do, but it's not what I should have done. 

For me, I have to play by a different set of rules, I have to run in the opposite direction to everyone else, and find out why they are running. It is my job to report on what is happening, it is not my job to run off like a coward, and read it all on Twitter, being tired is no excuse. 

It is because of this that I am no better than the CSA. I committed one of the few acts that I consider evil, I stood by while people were in trouble, while people were being stamped on. I may have only been one drop in the ocean, but I had my phone, I was able to record video. A video that I could have recorded, could have a been used to show police brutality, it could have been used to clear someone's name, it could have been used to show the world and future generation what was happening in London.

Someone like Edward Snowden is a hero, he gave up paradise, to tell the world what had happened, he is now on the run. I turned my back on my fellow man because I failed in my job, I'm now sat at home writing this.

I've wrote on this blog that I wanted some excitement in my life, well there is was. Excitement looked me in the eye and I turned away.

Today I failed not just as a reporter, but as a human.

Jamie Cullum can wait.

I don't think that this post is going to score me many points with Jamie Cullum's p.r company.

To make up for the unfortunate lack of posts on this blog, I was halfway through a mega album review for Jamie Cullum's new album Momentum.

However Facebook got in the way and I started sharing pictures of funny cats, posting slight political rants and killing the next person who sends me a Farmville request. But this morning, my friend shared a demo that my other friend has released with his new band, The Sliver Tongue Bandoilers.(It is also clear from that paragraph that I only have two friends.)

Long story short, I love it. In fact I love it so much that it has just knocked Mozart's House by Clean Bandit out of the slot of what I am listening to right now. Take that, Clean Bandit. It only took them two and a half years to get their song into the mainstream.

Click here to go straight to the Soundcloud page
Click here for their Facebook page
Click here for their Website

This is only a short post, I wanted to get something while I've been extra busy with my new job at M.I.6. Normal service will resume on 6th June with my Momentum album review.

I have eight years

You know what I really need to do. I need to start living life. I have always been a little bit reserved and played it safe, and that has given me a very dull life. Although I have noticed that over the past year or so, I've been a little more willing to go exploring and find out about this strange thing that you humans call life. You could say that I am a alien who is just stepping out of his star-ship for the first time.

The first thing that I need to do is take those chances that come along, I'm already doing it to an extent but I need to do it more, for example, last week I had a interview to work at a Apple store. Unfortunately I didn't it, but I am glad that I went along. It also sparked an idea to write a detective mystery series video thing. I've got a few off the characters, I've got an idea of how the events will unfold, and I've got the setting, I just need to put pen to paper, then call my friend and say 'hey, lets shoot this'

Also last month, I auditioned to go on The Chase (ITV game-show that is hosted by Bradley Walsh) and I'm though to the past where we could get called up at any time to go on the show. I don't know how I pulled that one off, clearly, I didn't get through on looks.

If you want this guitar, you are going to have
to prize it off my cold dead hands.

I need to start that band, you know, the one that I've always wanted, the one with my best friend, the drummer who we hardly know but ends up having a brilliant solo career and the one who ends up sleeping with everyone, including his fellow band mates, The maid at the hotel, Her Majesty the Queen, Brain May, Barrack Obama, Jeremy Kyle, David Letterman and whoever is reading this post.

I of course will take care of the main guitar duties, the one who is very serious but has moments of craziness where people turn to each other and say "......................................................................."

I really want to learn how to code, put simply, I want to learn how to make my own programs. No much more that I can add there. Mostly because I haven't got the foggiest idea of where to start.

I really want to travel around the world, I have a few cites in mind, I've got Paris, Berlin, New York and San Francisco.

I need to stop worrying about the things other people say. The people who matter don't mind, and the people who mind, don't matter. (I stole that from Charlie McDonnell, I'm sure he won't mind)

I really want to set up my own publication, no idea what it will about, I just want to do.

Surprisingly, this list ends here. I really expected more when I started wring this.

The eight years thing, Lets make it six.

I wasn't nervous, I was more apprehensive

I wasn't nervous, I was more apprehensive. Today (Friday 26th April) was the first interview that I had conducted in about 5 years. One of the last ones was with a councilor from Boston, England. We talked about waterworks for a report on BBC Radio Lincolnshire, I was 15 at the time and manageress to persuade my headmaster to let me out for lunch to meet the councilor  I owned a Nokia 3310, which had three phone numbers on it, My own, My home number and the number of my school.

The very last interview that I did was with Jake Humphrey, I so wish that I had the original recording.

Fast forward to today, I'm now twenty, and I work for a independent youth newspaper. I'm sat on the train looking over the questions while adjusting to the pressure of the tunnels that come up, all while making my way through the every one of The Who tracks that I have on my iPhone, the one with a hundred contacts from those who I met very briefly during the course of my business, to my best friends some of whom I have known for about eight or nine years.

But back to the train, I'm (was, its now Thursday  on my way to Bite the Ballot HQ to meet with there founder and director, Mike Sani. I met Mike last week at the Why Should We Care? Event in Harrow last weekend and we had a good chat, but of course we both busy men, I mean, he runs a huge organisation, and I write about people.

Mike is a very interesting man, and I really want to delve deeper, but I need to stay on topic, I need to talk about Bite the Ballot, although I can afford my self the luxury of sneaking a few questions about his career at the end of  the interview. Let me put it this way, he studied Business Management and Finance in Southampton, became a banker in America, gave it up, when traveling for a year and then became a teacher and later set up Bite the Ballot.

Of course being the complete idiot that I am, I arrive at Southwark and hour and half early. How did I pull that one off? The journey was meant to take 3 hours, it took 90 minuets. I'm impressed, I felt like I have just outrun The Flash.

With 90 minutes to kill, I did the only sensible thing a person like me could do, I got coffee.

I decided to turn up 20 minutes early, that I feel is a sensible time to turn, early enough to show that I'm professional but not late enough to say 'oh my god, taxi'

The rest is here: http://www.shoutoutuk.org/2013/04/29/bitetheballot

I know, I should have put this post up when the interview go published, but I have been really busy. Please forgive, I have Cookies.

Why should we care?

Those who regularly read my blog will know that for the past few months I have been working with a organisation called Shout Out UK. There purpose is to give give young people a voice who are otherwise ignored by traditional media. 

I have also been working on the 'Why Should We Care?' event (ran by shout out uk) which aims to get politics onto the national curriculum and to show people that it is more then just arguing in parliament, it is about them.

This Saturday (20th april) I got to finally see the launch of the campaign and see a lot of hard work start to pay off. Of course the work has only just started, and this event will be the first of many. I wrote about the event on the Shout Out UK website, which can be viewed here.

The event started off with a simple networking session for everyone to get to know each other, then everyone took there place in the chambers and after a short film were welcomed by Marsha Thompson. The debate then started. Everything about the debate is in the article so I don't need to go into details here, but the main talking points were, the rise in tuition fees, the loss of the EMA, the relationship between media and politics, the cost of travel for young people and the role of the UKYP.

It was clear that everyone was passionate about the days issues, but there was also a great deal of respect between different parties, Of course there were times that I forgot that I was reporting on the debate and I had to join in, but before you give me that look, I did manage to plug Shout Out's twitter.

The debate lasted almost two hours before it brought to a close, and it was clear that we all could have talked all the way into next week.

I got involved with this campaign because I know that the young people of this country are fantastic, and they have the ability to change the world and make it a much better place, they just need a little nudge and the right tools. This campaign will give them those tools to get involved with politics and change the world.

One of the most stupid things that you can say is, 'I don't care' or 'I don't find it interesting  because it will not make you immune to the governments. Politics is not like football or a soap opera, you can't just ignore it. You should know how your country is run, and what the people running it are doing, that way you can hold them to account when they step out of line.

This bit is the blogging equivalent of a YouTube end screen. The bit that is in the background while you choose the next video.

If you want more information about the why should we care campaign you can go to shoutoutuk.org

You can follow Shoutout on twiiter or facebook

If you want to get involved with ShoutoutUK or want to help spread news on issue which affect or interest you, or if you want to launch your own campaign, send a email to editor@shoutoutuk.org 

You can also follow me on twitter