Problems, issues and the ultimate search for the 'good life'

    Yesterday I tried fixing a problem. A lovely person was caught in an unprovoked attack and I stepped it to stop it. I informed the person of the attack as a friendly warning, basically saying 'look out, I don't want you to get hurt'. Somehow this spiralled out of control and the problem has been taken to a 'virtual court' which takes the form of a discussion forum which has the aim to fix the issue.
  
  One reason I feel it went out of control is that I published the letter I wrote; why? Because a little voice in the back of my head said 'this is literary genius, share it!'. So I stubbornly did a 'copy paste' manoeuvre  and clicked 'publish. DAMN, the person's name was now in the public domain and inextricably tied to the problem! This was no longer a friendly warning but a call to mutiny! As my letter's popularity shot skyward I ripped it off the web, partly because of a mix between a friendly phone call and a gut feeling.
  
   I still think it was a rather good use of the English language, so here are a few snippets:
   
    1- 'am I just another digit? A number? An insignificant piece in a global arena of static post-modern nothingness? is it advised that I let my dreams and hopes die and wither away while I become just another employee with a decent house and family, left to continue my life living with low expectation and ultimately die unhappy surrounded by loved ones who themselves work endlessly to supply a crippled economy and disappear into the blank pages of history that go between war and genocide?'
    
   2- 'Who on earth wants a dead-end job that ends with unhappiness? When one is as confused and perplexed as I am, is there nothing here to help me achieve my goals? Am I alone in this institution of excellence and achievement to think that a university that consistently ranks in the top 20 educational institutions of the country, a country that has thousands of years of progress and greatness on a planetary scale behind it, has no advice to give me about what I can do with my life?'
    
    You can probably tell I was being a tiny bit cheeky and ill-informed with the second snippet :)
   
    I do think, however, that I've raised an important issue: the pursuit of happiness. But that's another topic for another day; this entry is mainly to keep me thinking of freedom of expression. 
A ring-leader in the attack told me 'where has freedom of expression gone?' (Not quite as politely though); my answer is that freedom of expression is still present, it's just we have to accept there are laws and boundaries. For instance, I am allowed to voice my opinion on an attack, however I broke privacy laws by naming a person directly, putting that individual 'on the spot'. If we can do anything we want then anarchy will take over.
    
   We have freedom because we accept it’s boundaries, that's democracy, it is just and it works. If we can all live with this acceptance then the pursuit of happiness may not be ever-ending.

Blog Power

I recently wrote a letter to a member in an administrative role to prevent more useless and repetitive emails from clogging everyone's inbox in my university. I published the letter on a student blog. The most popular blog entries usually get 100 hits in a week, I got 100 hits in an hour. I was advised to removed it before it got me and the person involved into trouble.

It got me thinking about the power of blogs...

Family Research

I know I'm not a poet, but I want to convey my frustration at family research:

Family research consumed my time
To point at dead people and say they're mine
I've spent two years pursuing this 'art'
And had different rhythms in my heart
I've had times of joy and times of sorrow
For people that I'll never know
And always had a lead to keep me on my feet
For people that I'll never meet.

'What is the point?' is what I'll try answering in my next post :)

Very Fast Life

My laptop has decided being slow is very 'uncool' (because it overheats!) and now is lightening fast. It seems I spend most of my time trying to make it faster by downloading new pieces of software, altering my settings and shouting at it. I recently bought a readyboost 4GB USB drive which is working wonders on my girlfriend's laptop, it didn't do much on mine so I bought Windows 7; now that I've settled into the new operating system I'm noticing some mind-blowing differences. Notably the difference in my wallet, although I bought the update with 57% off (offered by amazon.co.uk) it still stung the savings account. Why did Windows charge us for this upgrade, which is overdue and meant to fix Vista?

The amount of stress relating directly to my laptop is incredible; the best ideas I can suggest to speed up your life is a readyboost enabled stick, cleaning up your desktop and gadgets, configuring your start-up settings through (Windows Button + R) and typing MSCONFIG.EXE, find the start-up tab and untick things like Skype, MSN... (things you really don't need when your computer is just starting up.

At the moment I use my laptop for university work, blogging, checking the news and doing family research. What would be really useful right now is two extra large screens on either side of my laptop so I do much work at the same time, one thing at the time is just not good enough!

A Reason for Blogging

Hello to whomever reads this! As a second post I'd like to start with a current event, the earthquake in Haiti. So far it's the 7th most devastating earthquake on record. The UN has branded the country as 'decapitated' since most of the infrastructure needed to run a country has collapsed. Hopefully aid will rush in a fast as it did in 2005 in Sumatra (GB£4.3 billion/US$7 billion donated worldwide), I'll be watching the rebuilding closely.

I've just read a very good article on the BBC talking about the long history of relations between the US and Haiti, very rocky if you ask me! This history lesson seems to be another attempt by the US to expand power and influence without using the word 'colony'. Just look at Puerto Rico, they actually have a say in the US elections and seem stuck between independence and being a US state; if anyone argues it's a 'commonwealth', so are Virginia, Massachusetts, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. At least they get a star on the flag!

The First Post

Finally! I am beginning to 'blog'.
The aim is to share my thoughts, to point out some issues I feel are important and are being ignored; for now however, I'm just beginning...
I'm willing to take suggested issues and thoughts and research them to advance discussion, I'm a history and politics student in the United Kingdom, so my time is spent faced with thought provoking material I think should be shared. So watch my blog and feel free to contribute!