Frugality

I have never been able to spend money with the reckless abandon of some of my peers.

There always seems to be some reason to save money rather than spend it. Over the many jobs that I have had, I have compulsively saved. In my current job (lucky that I am to have one) I am saving approximately 90% of what I am earning. This has gotten to the point that it feels like I am working for no actual reward. A bank balance becomes a meaningless number that rises and has no real consequence.

Why do I constantly avoid spending money? While the cliché of saving for a rainy day may ring true for me, I think it is a more complex process. Abstract rainy days are easily ignorable. What is not so easy to shrug off is predictable events in ones life that will require money. There is always something on the horizon that may need funds. This is even beyond recessionary scaremongering. We always find a reason to save.

Sometimes this frugality seems like an excellent idea. It is a practical application of forward planning and thinking. Yet at the same time, working and using up precious time for no real reward, or an imaginary one in the future is more than problematic. Money controls us in this way and we cannot escape its grasp while we allow it to dictate our lives. Money is simply a medium. When we earn it we should spend it and make those imaginary numbers mean something.

I am not saying that we should all drive ourselves into poverty with excess, simply that we should enjoy ourselves more while retaining our forward thinking.

-The English Student

Changing Game Genres

With the release of Bioshock 2 recently, I have begun to play the original game that I had missed upon release.

In some respects the game is a formulaic, on the rails first person shooter. For the purpose of this discussion I should really clarify what I mean by these terms. An 'on the rails' game is one that funnels the player through scripted events and challenges. This is the original type of game going back to the advent of gaming. The development company will set up certain atmospheres, knowing that the player has to access them to progress in the game. This is the contrary to the increasingly popular 'sandbox' game that allow people to roam around an open world making decisions about how the game will progress.

These games have been frequently identified as stale in this gaming generation. The question can certainly be asked, what can a on the rails game actually do to become fresh? On a basic level, Bioshock is brilliant at setting up tension and excitement through these scripted events. This however, is nothing knew. However, about half-way through the story the entire foundation of this dynamic changes. Without spoiling some of the story, the game becomes a question of why your character has, without any hesitation, done exactly what he has been told by the various authorities in the game.

This brings the whole question of scripting into account. Why indeed has your character done what he has been told and why do we as gamers follow the same pattern? For a second the game seems to collapse on itself, revealing its nature as a simple "start at point A, go to point B via route C" pattern. Yet for all that, it is highly enjoyable. These questions show the strength of scripted games. The developer is still creating a highly enjoyable experience without having to give the player a (obviously false) sense of freedom. We know this is a crafted form of entertainment and yet we still enjoy it.

So maybe we should just drop these pretences of freedom and let these artists manipulate us and entertain us.

-The English Student

A Thaw

Finally, we have some relatively good weather.

It seems like the winter would never end and with the horrendous weather we were enduring I had actually forgotten what it felt like to be warm. It seems that as a nation we had collectively forgotten the hope of spring and the warm embrace of summer. It seems that this week it has suddenly pounced upon us.

The 'recession' and economic hardship over the past few months has been compounded by depressing weather. While people may diminish the effect that weather has on national feeling I really do believe that it is quite important. In practical terms, the cold snap forced us to stay inside and avoid spending money. We were also less inclined to invest emotionally or place trust in each other as the cold moved in.

With the thaw in the weather I do hope that these patterns will reverse and they do seem to be. People seem happier and economies are to an extent, picking up with the better weather. However, thaws and freezes are cyclical. While we may not have saw an end to this last freeze it was certainly coming and while we may think this thaw will last forever that is not the truth either.

We should make hay in this weather, as the cold will come again.

-The English Student

Naive Politics

Many politicians inside and outside of the government have retired in the past month and they left office due to an unexpected failing.

It really does seem that politicians suffer from two major instances of naivety. On the one hand, these people seem to completely misunderstand why a career in politics is a good idea. Coming through college these people become empowered by the open environment and energised by an apparent will to create change. The assumption is that these patterns extend to a wider social level and that a politician can enter government and reform the entire system.

The other example of naivety comes from politicians that are already well acclimatised to the system. These people have been in the politics game for a long time and realise that new blood coming in is foolish to think that they can affect great change. However, the show naivety in other ways. These politicians believe that they are above the laws that they have sought to uphold. The system has obstructed all attempts to change so the rules are circumvented. While this may be done with good intentions it circumvents the entire basis of our democratic system,

Perhaps there is an even great example of naive politics in these areas. The belief going in to every election that we the people can actually affect life and policy is time and again proven to be false. It really does seem that it does not matter who is driving us forward, as the route has already been defined. It really is a case where the blind are leading the blind and we have given a mandate to be lead in this way.

While politicians may be naive, perhaps we are far more naive for actually believing in them.

-The English Student

Dubai Controvesy

An international crisis is looming as a murder plot in Dubai is unravelled.

Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service has been identified as the perpetrator of a murder in Dubai earlier this year. Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas military commander was assassinated in his hotel by a group of professional killers. These people held false European documents that they used to gain access to the country and perpetrate the murder. These revelations have lead to widespread condemnation of Mossad's tactics and its strategy of making citizens of others countries suspects.

What does not seem to be condemned is the actual assassination itself. On the contrary, this act has been identified as highly professional. Various news sites have interviewed ordinary Israelis that believe the assassination to be a point of pride for the country, while Arabs have been quoted as have grudging respect for high level of skill and organisation displayed by Mossad. By all accounts, the main international point of contention is Mossad's use of foreign passports.

My point of contention has to be the heinous lack of justice that is displayed on all levels of this act. al-Mabhouh was a criminal and wanted internationally for weapons smuggling. He should have been imprisoned for his crimes and at the very least faced a trial. Mossad acted with legally and yet with just as much disregard for life as any weapons smuggler. They committed a disgusting act, regardless of legality. The international community seems quite inept at taking action against Israel or Hamas for their mutually horrendous acts and so the cycle will continue.

Expect vengeful killings and attacks in response to this assassination and expect real justice to remain perpetually distant.

-The English Student

A Retail Rant

There are certain complete lies in the world of retail.

This 'customer is always right' stuff has to be our first port of call. How can this possibly be a truism? Not even me, the great and modest English Student gets everything right one hundred percent of the time. In fact, this statement is almost never true and often equates to downright disgusting behaviour. If the customer is always right, then they have no need whatsoever to show respect to others. Anyone working in retail becomes an obstacle to what a customer wants and as such, can be treated like the scum that floats up from the river of our capital city.

So what's the solution? Companies try to emphasise this basic tenet of retail and customers are determined to believe it. Perhaps if they understood that people working in retail are no different from themselves they may be more inclined to give respect. So I propose that everyone that would like to buy something from a retail outlet must work in a retail outlet also. Each member of the public would earn points based on the hours they do in retail and this can be exchanged for hours they spend as a customer. Not only would this force people to see the other side of the coin that they so readily ignore, it would result in truly idiotic shopping focused psychopaths like Paris Hilton working eighty hour shifts in the local newsagents!

Ok, perhaps it is best to take a few steps back from the precipice I have charged at here. I do not hate my job (temporary that it is) and I do not hate the public. In fact at times I absolutely adore my job. It is quite amazing when you can really make someone's day by helping them and the people that I work with are absolutely brilliant. So for all the abuse and hatred that get's hurled my way at various times in the day I certainly consider myself very lucky to have a job and miraculously lucky to have a job that I can mostly enjoy.

But at any rate, I will certainly be more inclined to respect others that work in retail.

-The English Student

City Conspiracy

In my spare moments in the city I have found myself becoming a bit of an amateur detective.

Two separate people have drawn my attention. Throughout the masses of the capital city, the bustle of every day life and the fast pace of the metropolis two people are recurring characters in my daily routine. The first is a somewhat elderly woman. My curiosity about her was aroused when I saw her trendy runners that were completely at odds with the rest of her austere clothes. She wears a dark coat and trousers and is invariably at my bus stop at 20:54, every day. I actually stumbled into her in a café at about 20:00 earlier in the week and subtly observed her from the other side of the room. An elderly man that she knew by name visited her and gave her newspapers, to which she said "I don't rely on anybody".

The second person I have seen less frequently. He is fairly heavy set and wears a dark jacket and jeans. His untamed hair and somewhat vacant stare draws the eye. He gets on my bus at various times in the evening and sits on the top floor of the bus in the second row from the front. One stop before his, he bows his head forward in a crouch while sitting and all of a sudden springs upright and marches straight off the bus. If I had to guess his mantra, it would be "I don't perceive anybody".

What has made me to make these bizarre observations? Am I simply deranged? Do I get some kind of sick pleasure from observing people? I would naturally be inclined to defend myself on these fronts and in any case I feel that there is something more systemic going on. The Panopticon society that we live in truly has begun to infect us all. We're Baudelaire's detective, as we walk the city streets not making any personal connection with people and thus, inventing one.

We observe all and are observed by all.

-The English Student