Thursday 10 May 2012

Just get it done... If you agree, please pass it on..

This may well be my one semi-positive post, so humour me!!

I'm sat in work at the moment (I WAS, but now I am off work for a little while a few days later) doing a job I've lost all interest for, and resent, because I want to be able to spend the time pursuing setting up my own business to give me and my wife a more comfortable, debt free life, that I truly and honestly think we deserve. (That's not the only reason out of the many that I'm off, but it's relevant).

Neither of us have ever been work-shy. Plenty of times in our lives we have worked two and even three jobs to get by, doing 60-70 hour weeks relentlessly. It's time we were able to put the hours into something we want to do after 20 years of working out of the 35 years we've been alive. I don't think that's too much to ask.



Seeing even just a picture of a good friend that I've known for years on a hospital bed with huge post-operation scars and a bald head from chemotherapy certainly makes everything seem completely different. Things are well and truly put in perspective, whilst I feel a mixture of anger, upset and desperation.

Every day counts doesn't it...
It really does.
Not knowing what will happen next, tomorrow, next week, next year should be the catalyst for doing things now. Sod the consequences, just get it done.

Set up that business you want to do. Go to those places you want to see. Treat the people you want to treat well, do it now. Forget things that have gone wrong, have got messed up, have made you suffer. Today is a clean slate. Today is the day to start afresh. Today is the only day you have to make tomorrow better. If you have an issue with something that someone did, forget about it, start from scratch. Say hello, and if they say hello back, then move on. It's a new life.

Sometimes doing something is hard, but it's not as hard as the regret you feel further down the line if you don't do it. Trust me.



Friday 27 April 2012

Look at me being all social! Where's all the misanthropic media sites?



I have recently set up a couple of profile-y type pages on relatively new social sites. One is just for photographs which am starting to get into more, and trying to make regular posts. My wife is on there and has a profile full of awesome pictures and well over 3000 followers at the minute - http://sarahp77.lightbox.com - and there are loads of other talented folk on there posting up weird and wonderful pictures from all parts of the globe. It mainly started as an Android app, and I got involved on it when I got a Samsung Galaxy S2 phone, but the website is there for you to use as well.

http://pauldavidpriest.lightbox.com/



The other is Pinterest, the site that's currently one of the biggest growing sites on the internet. It's pretty simple to use, great for collecting all the immense, stupid, funny, weird, dark, interesting pictures, videos and links on the internet (and your own computer) and almost literally pinning them to separate noticeboards. Mine is in the early stages, but I intend to fill this up full of utter nonsense, amusements and things that will make you go 'hmm'.

http://pinterest.com/paulrawnerve

It's insane how much social media websites have taken over the entire planet. I've been reading an incredible website (aimed at people in and setting up business mainly, which I am in the middle of) called Clickz.com. It's full of articles and reports about all things digital and how it relates to business, and there is a lot on social media on there. The reports about Facebook are astounding. In the last two years they've made very close to a BILLION dollars each year just on the adverts on the site. That's astronomical, but shows they must be something brilliantly right.

It's said that there are over 500 million daily users of Facebook around the world, and with the latest world population reports saying that they've just hit 7 billion, that's 1/14th of the entire world population are hitting Facebook every day! I didn't think that would even be physically possible.

There's loads of social media sites, as in hundreds, maybe even thousands. On that Clickz site, they have a little button you can click that brings up a window so you can share the article on your preferred pages, a list of literally hundreds! Most of which I've never heard of, and, more over, have no intention of joining, but someone must be.



It was a shame that Myspace royally screwed themselves over. They had the social media world covered, and then they made change after change after change, and make a total mess of it. The last redeeming feature was that it was great for finding bands, and when they made an utter mess of profiles for bands as well, and made it very difficult to get your page looking good again, thousands of bands migrated over to the far more band friendly BANDCAMP.



I've not bothered with Google+, much as I have an appreciation for all things Google, I'm happy just having my Facebook, which I just annoy people with links to gigs, bands, youtube videos, funny pictures, and things I'm involved with. The occasional rant about wet feet or insomnia. Oh, and Lightbox now, for pictures... oh, and Pinterest for collating all the tiny shards of the internet that entertain me, oh, and Stumbleupon, for finding randomness I wouldn't ordinarily find, but, that's it! Oh, and this blog!

I can see how it's easy to get sucked into it, but I've decided I'm not going to. I was reluctant to join Pinterest and haven't filled it up as much as I know I could, but have had a couple of sprees on it, adding some nonsense and wonders, but it will be sporadic, much like this blog. It is a fantastic idea, simple but infinite and addictive as hell!

Okay, so this post may come across as a chunk of products placement the same as in films, but, hey, this is all stuff from daily life, so I can't help but mention them if I'm talking about things related to what goes on in my life.

I did hear something that made me a bit annoyed, about how much product placement can take over when money is involved.



I've never really been a major fan of James Bond films, I've seen a few, can't say I've ever followed it, but when you think of partnerships and institutions that border on cliche, you've got the 'Martini, shaken not stirred' drinking and Aston Martin driving Bond in all the films. Now though, he's going to be drinking 'cold filtered Heineken'... It just doesn't seem right, but, they had the most money so there it is. What next? Driving a Ford Fiesta because they could afford 50 quid more than Aston Martin? Report on the Telegraph website about it...

I'm really looking forward to watching one of the Morgan Spurlock documentaries about such the thing, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. I'll report back once it's been watched.



This blog post has been brought to Asda and Morrison's Smart-Price Teabags, Cheap White Bread and Crunchy Peanut Butter and Digestives. Give me a sponsorship deal ya swines!



Sunday 22 April 2012

'Sir' Stephen Fry... Absolute legend.

Today, I've spent most of my time deleting all the big 700mb+ files of music dvds, full live sets, documentaries etc. off my computer, and replacing them with loads of 1kb links to them (mostly on Youtube), so I can fill that space with all manner of other films, TV series, music related stuff, until I can afford to get more 1tb sized harddrives. It's insane now how many things you can find now on the net IN FULL, now that they've relinquished the 10 minute upload limit on Youtube, and (despite a load of file sharing sites going down and other people getting in trouble) despite the fact that copyright rules seem to be more lax when it relates to streaming stuff.

In the hunt for things I already knew about, I found loads of things I didn't know about, and I'm currently listening to a load of Stephen Fry interviews. The man is a true legend, and if you don't like him or appreciate things that he is saying, then you are wrong, it's as simple as that.




I could go on a bit of a ramble now about loads of things he's been involved with. On the surface he is a TV entertainer but there's so much more to it than that. If you don't believe me, or think my claim that he should have the title of 'Sir' before his name is a little far-fetched, then here are a few links to things you should watch...

32 minute interview called 'All About I'
20 minute interview on QTV
50 Not Out
Secret Life of a Manic Depressive part 1
Secret Life of a Manic Depressive part 2

and if all THAT isn't enough, there are all 6 episodes of his 'In America' series!
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6

About 10 hours of watching, and it originally took me about 3 minutes to find the entire lot!

The internet is a miraculous place.
How anyone has an excuse to be uninformed, stupid or bored in this world anymore, it's beyond me.

Let's keep it going... have a read of everything Stephen Fry has been involved with on wikipedia.
Read this and THEN somehow try and tell me that the man shouldn't be given a knighthood.



Finally, to show you that the internet still also has a ridiculous sense of humour, and isn't the best thing in the world for learning about pretty much everything, here is an animation of a cat wearing socks slipping across and off a table... Yes, really!



 

Saturday 21 April 2012

Now where did I put that blog? Ahaa, here it is, was in my head all along!!

I know, I know... I failed...



It was all going so well on here, and then, like everything else, it went astray and got pushed to the side, forgotten about, unfinished, unresolved.

Well,
I need to do this again.. it's time to dispose of all manner of horror thoughts from this dumping ground of nonsense I call a brain. Nothing particularly has prompted or triggered this, I just found myself thinking of paragraphs or sentences I WOULD have posted had I been doing a blog, so, after that happened a few times in a few days, I decided it made sense to resurrect this once more and carry on.

Of course,
now that I've sat down to write an entry,
I can't think of anything I was going to say.

Senility has already set in, and I'm only 35 years old (and 112 days, I think that's an important part of the equation). If the average life expectancy is 3 score and 10 years, then I am currently on the downhill half of my life. I am more than half way through my days.

What a scary thought.
Yes, I've done quite a lot in my time, but nothing compared to what I thought I WOULD have by now, and nothing compared to what I think I should have, but... (maybe this is the important bit upon that realisation) nothing compared to what I WILL do with the rest of my days.
So much to do. So much to put right. So much to learn. It's time to enjoy it rather than dread it. Try telling my 6.30am self that when I've just had another horrible night and got 10 hours at work in front of me. The only way I can survive THAT is to have my own business, which, hopefully, with the help of others, will be occurring, soon.

Here's to the second half of my life.