boredom

I have spent countless hours, staring at my computer screen, sat behind a desk, entertaining myself though Youtube, games, e-mail, movies and the other million things to do on the internet. Right now for example, I am watching the Monaco grand prix, have the French open on mute, have Youtube open, am chatting on Facebook, and have my iPod touch in front of me with Final Fantasy II running. Now under normal circumstances this is both adequate and interesting entertainment. However, this is now the third day in a row where I have been confined to my room, stuck in the E-world. I am bored. The English weather has restricted my choices, my mates are all recovering from last night, which I could not afford, and frankly have no time for a sober, energy filled individual inflicting on their hangover. Fair Enough. So I am stuck, blogging to no perceivable audience, listening to F1's flying around the track, brooding in my own solitude. However, this has given me the chance for doing the little things i do not usually get around to. I cleaned my room, organised a house for next year, and have been cooking myself increasingly original meals (anybody ever had tuna and sausage melts?).

Anyway, just a short entry to validate everything going through my head at the moment, this is now my fourth post on this blog, and still no perceivable audience commenting of following, very interesting...

Mac > Windows

Well, perhaps this post is slightly less of a big issue than the topics explored in my previous two comments, but this blog is merely an outlet for my thoughts and ideas, and hopefully somewhere that other people may find interesting.

Now, i have owned both a Windows and a Mac now. My previous computer was an HP, with windows vista, basically a modern desktop with decent specs. In between that and my current laptop I also used a HP with windows 7. Now I have to admit that until I owned a Mac I was a staunch fan of Windows. The are more compatible with many programs, play games (specifically MMORPG's) extremely well, and as a novice user, never let me down. If you are looking for a user friendly computer experience, then windows is the way to go, they are easy to learn your way around and once you are good with the machine you can do lots of fun stuff. I remember days playing around on command prompt and making my friends computers mess about, send messages and even control others screens. Furthermore I am a BIG gamer, and this was one of the reasons windows always appealed to me, my previous computer has 6 MMO's on the desktop and 20+ regular games, I also had emulators for PS1, Gameboy advance, Ps2 and DS (though it never worked properly). However, as a become more and more used to the machine I noticed the major faults in them aswell. Despite a clean bill of health every windows computer I have owned has blue-screened, this crash has plagued me for so long, that if my mac were to EVER blue screen i would throw it out my window this instant. You cannot rely on a windows, you might leave it on to do something and find it off, and your work gone when you come back. Windows loves to lagg, freeze and glitch at every opportunity, how many times have you tried opening a browser and have to wait minutes before you feel safe clicking a link, how many times have you booted up and have to wait 10 minutes for pop ups to come, programs to start and even your desktop to load before you can start doing you business. AAARRRGGHH frustration to the maximum!

Now with macs it is an entirely different situation. Macs are renowned for reliability and speed. My mac is four, coming up to five years old, i am running an outdated version of OS X currently (soon to upgrade) and I am wholeheartedly happier with this machine than any windows computer I have ever owned. It is reliable, first off, when i ask it to do something it does it, it doesn't waffle about and lagg, then shut down and ask if i want to send a bloody error report, even thought i have already sent ten and nothing has changed. The navigation of the machine is faster, more thought out and, once you get used to it a very useful tool when juggling a lot of programs at once. Another aspect which I adore about my mac is the support. Apple has done a great job, not just on their computer but on all their products by providing quality support and software from their site. I own a Ipod Touch and a Macbook Pro, and Apple have gained a customer for life through their great service and great products.

Just as a footnote I wont just slag off windows, macs have their issues, I cannot play all the games i would like to, though many are cross compatible. The fact that the windows disappear and come back when your mouse hits the corner of the screen is pretty damn annoying at times, especially in the middle of an essay, right as your getting to the point! And of course the fact that many programs are only windows compatible, due to the fact that windows represents 90% of the market. However these are besides the points, an experienced mac user can find ways around all these things and whilst I could I don't feel the need to.

Let me know what you use, Windows or Mac?

Modern Racism is Funny and Dumb

This is quite funny, I was walking throught own just two days ago and stopped to get a coffee. I stopped at a crosswalk and waited for the little sign to turn green so that i was then 'allowed' to walk. I noticed a woman in her fourties standing on the other side, very posh, unbelievably English. At that moment three large black men walked up to the crosswalk next to her, she looked over to her right slowly, and then to her left and looked at the men, she looked shocked, and stood still staring then snapping her head forward quickly. The light turned green and the men started walking, she didnt. the turned back and noticed her stood still, one walked back, and asked "Do you need any help ma'am?" To which she smiled, Genuinely, and walked across.

This, is very dumb. The modern world has become afraid of racism. Yes, there are those who genuinely are racist, and those are people i do not associate with. But, without realising it so many people are racist in subtle ways, and some people are so afraid of being racist that they in turn are acting racist. Its things like being afraid to say BLACK, and calling people African-American, or coloured that bug me. Black is a colour, it is not a slur, it is not a bad thing in the slightest way, so why avoid saying it like some sort of taboo. Remember that stereotypes breed this type of behaviour, because somewhere, we believe there to be a grain of truth in every stereotype.

I come from Barbados, and I lived in Thailand for eight years of my life. Back in the islands people are not afraid to say black, white and even red. In Thailand the local term for foreigners is the Thai word farang, which translates directly to white potato, but there is no prejudice in the word, because that is all it is.

Osama bin laden

I am not American, lets get that out of the way, but I remember 9/11, I was quite young but I still remember it. In fact I was 9 years old at the time and remember the buildings coming down and the sudden lump in my throat when I realized i had just watched the deaths of thousands of people. Then i remember the Anger, as millions of people rose up and demanded bloodshed in return, they called for the deaths of the perpetrators and everybody involved, and what did it lead to? A war which has been going on for a decade now, nearly 5000 American soldiers dead and absolutely nothing to show for it except a bigger military budget and most recently, the successful assassination of Osama Bin Laden.

Now, call me crazy, defend your ridiculous "Operation Enduring Freedom" (Haha!) all you want, but somehow I fail to see how this old, most probably senile man, could have been the US's biggest security risk at the present time. Since 9/11 we bolstered our airports, beefed up our security and put walls in place to make sure that nothing of the magnitude of that day could happen again. Our biggest security alert is now internal. Here in the UK, you hear every other day of suspected terrorists being brought in, or barely being caught in time. It is only a matter of time before a sophisticated internal unit has a good plan, and the government doesn't catch on quick enough.

But to say that his death was a complete waste of time would be a lie. His death is symbolic, it kind of says to the people "Good prevails, Evil will pay!" and even I gave a little fist pump and thought that just maybe the war was coming to some sort of end. Alas, how naive, War is money, and to end such a lucrative war would be both anti-productive to the US as well as create an even larger unemployment line. Though I bet there will be another problem which the US will stick thier noses into when they don't need to ( A la Vietnam and Libya).

Which brings me to safety, and whether the world is safer without good ol' Osama and his plans to destroy the world. Personally, I don't think so, the fact of the matter is that the moment on person is taken out of power another takes his place. The War we are fighting is self destructive. In an ideal society the world would all just get along, but the fact of the matter is we don't. We are all subject to the primal urges of human nature such as jealousy and greed. Osama bin Laden represented what was wrong with this world, and now he is gone, the rest of his followers will drift off into animosity.

Tell me what you think in a comment below, is the world a safer place with out Bin Laden?
Thanks for reading

*Edit

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-13485267