Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Anonymity

Being a computer nerd I spend an inordinate amount of time on my Xbox 360 or, to a lesser extent, my PS3. As we all know these consoles have internet capabilities where one plays against gamers from all around the world. As such I converse with, sometimes hundreds of people in the space of an hour, as one might expect, online-gaming is the perfect forum to trash talk and bitch at other people anonymously. What one might find particularly distressing is the number of people who are openly racist to others they encounter online. To be clear, when I say racist in the context of online gaming I’m using it in the broadest possible sense, including xenophobia and prejudice against others’ religions.

Now, as an Englishman I come under a constant barrage of insults and jibes about my “bad teeth” and such, most of which is as water off a duck’s back to me, as I understand that those who are doing the persecuting, are on the whole, arrogant and ignorant fools. However this is not the extent of it. More often that not, I find it is the case that white Xbox live subscribers are extremely intolerant of other races. The sheer number of times I have heard in adenoidal American tones “shut up you fucking nigger” is appalling. I don’t claim to understand the political climate or views of others across the pond, but I’m assuming the percentage of people who are openly racist to members of the black community cannot be as high as it is over the internet.


I have a number of friends who subscribe to Xbox live as well as i do, and it shocked me that even one of them acts as i have described above. In my opinion, such behaviour is unnaceptable, the flippant use of a racial slur is perhaps permissable in a stressful situation, but the concentrated verbal assault on a person by 3 or 4 others based n their race and their race alone is simply cruel, i have bared witness to such attacks many times, and as a bystander i find them hard to stomache. I will often try to step in, because at worst their focus shifts to me, being called a limey, which i find laughable, but when its one of my own friends who is calling those he encounters online "niggers" and asking americans if they "remember the world trade centre" is completely out of order.

If it were up to me, we'd name and shame people, and after one incident of concentrated racial attacks on a fellow human being people would be outed on xbox live and removed from Microsoft, who would use their records to stop the same IP registering again. I'm not a bleeding heart liberal, and im not rightwing, and i do think that if a person holds racist views that is entirely their perogative, and nothing can change that. But when a person expresses these views in a manner that is only intended to, and can only serve to disparage people it is in my view unnaceptable.

I know i've gone off on a tangent about racism, but it's only to highlight my point about the danger of anonymity. When people are given an anonymous profile and free roam of the internet their views, which should be kept internal are externalised. For those of you who do use either Xbox live or Sony's online internet service my tag is "raggamuffin8t8" on both platforms, add me if you like. Take it easy ladies

Monday, November 5, 2007

My life in music; a networking nuisance

Ok, this is one of those BEBO things that everyone has, and since i dont have a blog on bebo i thoguht it pertinent to add this to my Blogger blog, even if all it serves to do is give you a tiny insight into my life and/or tastes.

Opening Credits: Brianstorm, Arctic Monkeys, I like it because it's fast, frenetic and energetic, the way i kind of hope my life is?

Waking Up: Kashmir, Led Zeppelin, I like it because its a classic, i cant explain more than that.

First Day At School: hundred mile high city, ocean colour scene, it's fast, its disjointed and its hectic, like the first day of school always is

Falling In Love: Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morisson, EASY

Fight Song: Raining Blood, Slayer, listen to the riff and it will be apparent why i chose this song.

Breaking Up: Don't want to miss a thing, Aerosmith, because it's the song that got me during my breakup

Prom: Wonderful tonight, Eric Clapton. Duh

Life: Master of Puppetts, MEtallica, because its what life is, a struggle against the puppet master

Mental Breakdown: Brain Damage, Pink Floyd, The clue is in the title

Driving Far Away: Riverboat song, Ocean Colour scene, because it feels like a driving tune

Flashback: Every Rose has its thorn, Poison. Because it is such a sexy flashbacky song

Wedding: White Wedding, Qotsa Cover. Because its the only song thats weddingy

Birth of Child: Enter Sandman, Metallica, Because it reminds me of children

Final Battle: Those Who Fight Further, Black Mages, play final fantasy 7 and then tell me this wouldnt be your choice

Death Scene: Who wants to live forever, Queen, because it was sung at my mothers funeral

Funeral Song: Highway to hell, AC/DC, because its where im headed

Reincarnation: The View from the afternoon, Arctic Monkeys, because its about how things look differently given time

End Credit: Wake Up, Rage against the machine. Because tell me its not The SHIT

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Podcast

I want a Podcast. I'm currenty listening to Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier (acclaimed film duo who brought you Clerks------Clerks 2)'s "SModcast" and it made me realise that i want one. Is it just me, or could anyone do a podcast, it seems such a fun way to pass the time, and maybe even make a cuppla quid on iTunes! The second i get enough people viewing my blog i may have to start advertising up in here, got to finance my drug habbit somehow. I joke, my drug habbit is well funded. Being paid to do a podcast or a blog, seems like such a cathartic and enjoyable way to make your money! So if you're reading this, and you want to help me out, LINK YOUR FRIENDS HERE and I'll send you $1 for every 100 people linked to me :)... ok, no i wont, but you should help me out anyway because i would very much appreciate it! If anyone out there knows a medium where i could post a podcast I'l do it and I'll link you to it so you can see what you think. As of now i am actively trying to get enough of a following to start advertising and maybe earn enough money to give up my part time job and maybe focus on my studies (yea right!) It is now your duty to go out and recruit for me Danny Wallace style.

Now then loyal followers, commandment Number One, is "I must link my friends to this Blog"
commandment Number Two, is "I must link my friends t this Blog"
commandment Number THree is "Ignore Commandments 1&2, just do what you want!"

take it easy fellow Bloggers/Voyeur loving freaks!

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Why being a computer geek is so cool now-a-days

There was a time when being one of those people who sat at their computer doing... anything other than work seemed nerdy, those of us who sat at their Windows 95 crappy PC playing doom or Fury 3 recognise the stigma associated with those passtimes. However, things are not the same anymore! I'm not sure precisely why, but i have a strong suspicion that it has something to do with the media. If we look at the medium of film, it is easy to pick ut at least a handful of positive role-models, who are pasty faced computer nerds, and dozens more who are muscular toned sexy computer nerds (do such nerds exist?, i hope so it would make me happy to think some of us out there are actually getting laid) For instance, the film Swordfish, Hugh Jackman (the same actor who plays Wolverine, possibly the coolest character ever written) plays a computer hacker, THE computer hacker, and pulls it off with a never-before-seen degree of suave-(ness)? This example is but the first and probably the worst example, for a better one, one needs only look as far back as 1999, with the release of the Matrix and the casting of Keanu Reeves as Thomas A. Anderson Alias Neo, the most awesome computer hacker/cracker known to Man. It's hard to get any cooler than Neo, i mean he's the ONE for crying out loud. But is this media representation of 'hackers' really enough to account for the shifting views of society as it pertains to pasty thin reclusive uber-neeks? My answer, No.

Perhaps the reason people are more accepting of computer geekism is that a growing number of people are becoming computer geeks. People are drawn into the internet world by networking sites such as Facebook or Myspace, and prefer to spend hours at a time messaging contacts and bad mouthing others anonymously than going out and interacting with real people. Who am i to talk though? I'm here, im writing a blog, i have a facebook, i even use it occasionally. But am I infact indicting the system? No. I believe that in some strange way, the internet has brought people closer together. Using my own diatribe here as an example, this is something that I think, but i dont rationalise until i put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard. And so this diatribe is a stream of consciousness that did not exist until i typed it down. Therefore i can never have shared these thoughts with anyone before. YOU are the first people i have ever shared this with. You ought to feel honoured!

As I'm writing this the world is a changing place, its late 2007 and I'm pretty sure that within the next 10 years government and international watchdogs will monitor everything on the internet, scanning for piracy, references to terrorism and the like. Recently a website (www.tv-links.co.uk) was shut down by English Police and F.A.C.T. for linking to websites containing copyrighted material. TV links itself contained no material which breached copyright laws. It is this world which i believe ought to lead to an increase in hacker activity. That means that those of us that arent currently up to the same standards as super hacker Thomas Anderson will need to step up our games, otherwise lose the ability to watch prohibited material forever! That's a right im not willing to give up! If i want to watch a film thats not released for 6 weeks on the internet, i will, if i have to break any number of laws to do so.

As i sign off i urge you all, pick up a copy of "Hacking for Dummies" because in 10 years, you wont be able to surf the net how you do now without it.

Me

Ok so since i've started a Blog i guess i ought to tell you all something about myself? I Hope you don't mind if i dont tell you all my dirty little secrets, of which i have many, perhaps a small portion will suffice? If not, tough luck!

My name? Do we give real names or do we use pseudonyms? I suppose it doesn't really matter. My name's Ben (not Benjamin... never Benjamin) but my brother, aswell as other people who know me call me Raggamuffin, or Brain. Raggamuffin 'cause im scruffy, or Brain 'cause im short(ish) squat and appear rediculously intelligent (however that is merely when compared to my friends, who like me are all council-housed retards with less hope than a Jew in a Nazi concentration camp)

I suppose im average height. About 5'10". I weigh like 200 lbs, so im not exactly slim, but im a little muscly with it so im not 200 lbs of flab, maybe 180 lbs of flab and 20 lbs of muscle. I have scruffy/curly hair that's a colour a find hard to define. Blonde? Dirty blonde? Brown? In spite of being almost 20 i have practically no facial hair, but i have a strong suspicion it will be ginger when it does infact begin to grow in earnest. I Take most after an older brother and his facial hair is ginger so i suspect i will follow suit. I'm well spoken; to my working class friends i sound like a ponce and to my middle class friends i dont sound working class, but i definately identify more with my working class roots than my university friends.

Speaking of which, i'm a student. I am a second year philosophy and theology student at a college in London. I know what you're thinking. PONCE! right? i think that myself sometimes. Don't get me wrong, Philosophy is awesome, if you're looking for something to engage with and lose yourself in, Philosophy is what you're looking for, but Thelogy, Whoo how i wish i was not studying that. I know i shouldn't complain, in a third of the world people would kill for the opportunities i have been given simply because i was born in a developed country, what right do i have to complain that the workload is too much to handle or that learning about Jesus and how he died for MY sins is boring when in some countries people have to walk 6 miles to get to fresh water. Well to tell you the truth, were they in my situation, they would probably be complaining too.

My life revolves around my Xbox 360, my hacked PSP, my friends (both university and hometown) music and long sessions of drinking and drugs. If im not at university i'm doing one of three things. Playing on computer games, playing/listening to Music or drinking or smoking. I'm a man of simple pleasures, why spend thousands of pounds jetting to Hawaii when i can spend £1000 and buy a big TV and i can sit in front of it night after night wasting my youth away? I dont see the point in saving for a rainy day because if i do that i cant enjoy the present. I live from payday to payday buying takeouts and rounds of drinks down the pub, when the money's gone, i do without. My DVD collection reached around 350 recently, that is 349 DVDs and 1 Bu-Ray Disc, Casino Royale, it came free with my PS3 (complete waste of money - but at least i have a Blu-ray player now) I'm the biggest film snob i know, although this only developed recently, i used to be into mindless american teen comedies and coming of age pieces like Porky's or American Pie. Dont get me wrong, i still adore these flicks, but now my tastes have matured, and my favourites are now classics or art pieces, cult smashes or iconic films. Clerks, Apocalypse Now, Memento, Remember the Titans, American beauty. Films such as these are now my passion, no specific 'genre' per se, outside of the definition 'FUCKING AWESOME'. A film that i can quote is a film that is worth seeing, films containing long diatribes about issues which matter as opposed to a teenage boy fucking a pie are now more my cup of tea.

Although i am extremely respectful of other cultures and other religions, i cannot help feeling a modicum of superiority. Don't get me wrong, im not a racist, in fact i'm quite the opposite, which is, strangely, what makes me feel superior. I'm not implying that im the only person without prejudices in the world, what i'm proud of is being a typical product of my society. My society being liberal Britain, specifically West London suburban working class society. I'm not the world's best travelled person but i've been to my share of places, and in few places have i witnessed the same racial diversity/acceptance as exists where i'm from. That's not to say that you dont get the odd prick here-or-there. People are people, people are ignorant, so of course you get wankers who think they're better than the blacks or the polish by virtue of the fact that theyre white and "they" aren't. Or indeed the odd black bloke who thinks hes better than all the whites! I dont associate myself with wankers like that, and it's apparent to anyone with half a brain, that those FUCKTARDS are in the vast minority.(can one say vast minority, or is it only vast majority that works?) England's not really a flag-waving nation. Ideas of Empire and "for Queen and country" are long dead, but what exists in its place, national pride, rather than a belief in national superiority, is in my opinion, a much greater, and far more humble position to hold. I hope this paragraph makes sense, that i have a strange sense of personal superiority because as a rule, Brits dont consider themselves superior? perhaps personal superiority is the wrong word, perhaps, self belief would be more appropriate. I'm proud to be who i am because in England, the notion of national superioty is all but deceased, and in its place all that is left is pride, pride in one's self or pride in one's nation or community. I'm not sure if its like that elsewhere in the world, if you're in Germany and you're in the same vain as I am and i'm incorrect, let me know! But it does seem to me that the obvious standpoint for a person to hold, is the position of national superiority, so i completely understand all those of you who DO infact believe "God bless America, the greatest country in the world", i just disagree with you, completely.

Religion! I'm devoutly atheistic. When i was younger i was open to the concept of God, but as i've grown up, my cynicism has increased by leaps and bounds and now the mere notion of God is laughable to me. I'm not anti-religion, i believe that religion can be a perfectly healthy, creative and beautiful thing i just dont subscribe to "christ weekly" However, i am a firm proponent of personal choice, and i do see church, or mosque, or gudwara as a method of indoctrination. I've been to church twice in my life, and both times i was dumbstruck with the ammount of singing and jubilation and exaltation of God. I fail to see how in a child's eyes this can be seen as anything less than, pardon the pun, the Gospel truth, leaving a child completely unable to make a decision for themselves. My friends laugh when i say this, being predominately christian or muslim, they consider the idea of a child coming to the conclusion of God on their own laughable, which is precisely my point. I was given the opportunity by my parents to believe what i saw fit to believe, and i turned out fine... i think? If a person believes in God, because they have weighed up arguments and decided it is what they believe, or if they just BELIEVE, the way i just disbelieve, then that is in my opinion, justifiable faith. However, if someone believes in a specific religion because they have never been given the opportunity to consider any alternatives, that is surely indoctrination? In George Orwell's 1984 people are happy that free thought is being eradicated because as long as they can remember free thought HAS been discouraged and viewed as wrong. In this context, one sees the administration as oppressive, borderline evil, but in the context of religion, people are given no choice but the methods used are acclaimed. To me, this makes no sense at all.

1/2 past 2

It's half-past two in the morning and ive just watched the matrix; revolutions. I watched the other two yesterday, i have no idea why i have such trouble sleeping, perhaps its because i stay up watching action films when i should be actively trying to sleep, perhaps not. I've chosen to use "Arial" as my font for my Blog, it was never in doubt really, i think i have OCD, if i'm typing, it has to be in Arial, i can manage about three lines before it irks me to the point where i need to change the font. It doesn't bother me though. It could be worse! I could have an irrational urge to switch a lightswitch an even number of times (which would stop me turning the lights off or on!) now THAT'S an OCD that messes you up! All mine does is prevent me from using notepad on my laptop, which as far as handicaps go, is pretty minor.

take it easy fellow bloggers/ voyeur loving sadists!

Pow! I've got a blog.

! It's amazing, just when i thought my life couldnt get more boring! I've decided to keep a blog, at least some good may come of this, at the very least i hope to entertain some of you, perhaps for a short while. I was going to say "at least" again, but that would have been three times in as many seconds, perhaps thats a few too many eh? Thats something you will learn about me if you deem to carry on reading, and i deem to carry on writing. I'm mercilessly pedantic when i choose to be, which is the majority of the time. Anyway thats enough of an introduction i suppose, lets get right down to business.