Dear World - Insults

Note - There is some swearing in this. I cannot shy away from using such language. To those who are offended, please don't be. I thank ye in advance.

Dear World.

I am all for social networking. I have Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Foursquare and Formspring. The latter, which is a website that allows people to ask you questions, has sparked the need for me to write this to you. 

A little side note before I continue, I would like to state that I only have MySpace so then I can use it when I think Facebook is too mainstream. I also use Foursquare ironically, as I hardly go out. Forever alone.

Forgive me, I'm babbling on…

Recently, I've began to receive an escalated amount of questions (just under a thousand questions in a matter of days is rather a lot of questions), most of them are from people telling me that they admired me and wanting more information of the workings of Wicid.

Though, in the past few hours, I have had someone ask me a question - Why are you a twat?

It made me think, why am I what that person said I was? Did I do something to this person, behave in a wrong manner to them? Then I thought, why did the person think I am a twat?

I questioned said person in return, inquiring why they believed I am a forest clearing (well, that is what one meaning Wikipedia suggests it is). That person did not budge, only adding that we met once, while, before stating that I write like Shakespeare for some reason, returning two more insults to me - wanker and gay.

Now, it also occurred that this person has only met me once, so I find it rather bizarre that someone could form an opinion of hatred for me through only meeting me the once.

The other thing I rather don't understand is how the word gay is used as an insult.

I will be honest, when I was in secondary school, I was verbally bullied of sorts, with nearly every day at least one person calling me gay, with me defending myself the best I could by just saying "I'm not gay".

It has been over three years now since I've last been called gay… until today. I did not take it as an insult to myself like I did when I was younger. All it really made me do is to wonder why gay is now used as an insult. Well, that and the fact that the youth these days cannot think of interesting and humorous insults that the likes of today's comedians use.

I will be completely honest, I really don't understand why people use gay as an insult. I thought that gay meant happiness, being carefree, only recently (well, in the last few centuries) has the word been linked to homosexuality. So, how exactly is being called gay an insult, exactly?

Thing is, to me, insults have become less intelligent and extremely lazy. Gone are the clever and interesting insults that make the person who was receiving the insult both offended and bamboozled by the content of the insult. No, our ears are surrounded with lazy insults such as "gay", "wanker" and "prick" flying around the airwaves and into out ears.

That said, I do not believe that every one should begin to insult everyone in the world. I think that, if you can, everyone should be nice to one another. Though, I do understand that sometimes some people snap and use language as a weapon. All I ask, Dear World, is that you do not fall to the empire of laziness and end by releasing a "twat" from your mouth. Think of your choice of words, use your linguistical abilities to confuse your target instead of down right being a meanie head. 

I thank ye, world.

Dear World - The Afterlife

Dear World

I find myself revisiting a subject matter that creeps into my mind nearly everyday. Death.

Yes, I've discussed this with you before. Though, that was only about death itself, I believe. Not about what comes after it.

It's rather interesting, I find, what many people think of what comes next. Some say that we will be greeted by a higher power to welcome us into the afterlife, while others say that we will only enter a state of darkness unknown to man, woman and Katie Price.

To be fair, I'm not entirely sure what to think or believe. Saying that, I have thought of what lies in front of us after we close our eyes for the last time. Then again, everyone has an opinion, and this is (one of) mine.

I don't really think that religion is right, neither do I think that we just die when we die. I do think that there is some sort of level system when it comes to life. You know, you start off on a neutral world, then if you were good in that life, then you go up a level, and the reverse would be true if your life was filled with evil.

After you've leveled up enough times, the next life would be the afterlife - Heaven. Meaning, those who have done good in all (or most of) their lives, they will be welcome to a place of eternal loveliness and all that.

If you've been demoted too many times, or have been consistently evil in all your lives, then you will be sent to Hell, a place where you will be tormented for your wrongdoing until the end of time.

I know, this is crazy talk. It's just one idea of mine of what the afterlife holds. Imagine if this is true. If so, then it would be interesting to see what level this life would be - close to Heaven, Hell, or maybe we're at the beginning…

I know, I make no sense. That's just what I hope the afterlife consists of, and not the inevitability of blankness.

I return to the past, world, to a time where I wrote to you about my opinions on God. To be more precise, a comment from a fellow Clic user, Pasternak, where he introduced Pascal's wager. This wager, which he claims is the first thing they teach you in Philosophy of Religion classes, is a summing up of belief in God as if it was a gamble.

If God existed and you believed in him, well done.
If you believed in God and he turns out God's not real, then you've at least done well in this this life.
If God existed and you did not believe in him, then you'll burn for eternity.
If you didn't believe in the almighty and you were right about it, well at least you can be smug those few seconds after you've died.

Now, after reading more about it, I came across something that made more sense to me than Pascal's wager. It's basically the same thing, but about being a good person, and it's called the Atheist's wager.

Simply put…

If you do good in this life, and there is a God, then your gain is infinite (meaning a long stay at the Heaven Inn).
If you lead a good life and there is no God, then your gain is only within this life.
If you do wrong in this life, and there is a God, then your loss is infinite (meaning you'll be in Hell).
If your life is one of evil and there is no God, then your loss is only within this life.

That sounds like a more sane train of thought than Pascal's wager. I don't like the fact that you should be forced to believe in a God just because that has been the believed for generations before my grandparents. And even though God seems to be more likely to allow in his believers than good people, I'd rather known that I've lived my life in a good manner and believed what I believe other than live a life where I feared a being that does not walk among us.

A lovely thought for this week.

I thank ye, world.

Dear World - Education

Dear World

I sometimes think to myself, "did I make the right decision when it comes to my education?"

I have done ever since I had the choice of subjects to study for my GCSE examinations. I ended up studying French, Electronics and Design and Technology. I sometimes wonder would it have been beneficial for me to have studied Music instead of Electronics, but what's done is done.

The second time where I questioned my decision was for my A levels. I began my final hurdle of secondary education studying Art, Chemistry, Physics, Music Technology and Media Studies. A month later, I dropped out of Media since it was heavily essay-based, and I found it awkward to write essays. Nearing the end of the year, I was kicked out of art, but that's nothing to cry about.

One thing that I'm questioning, nearly one year after I made the decision - was university the right decision?

I'll be honest, I thought that heading to university was the next logical step. I thought that's what everybody does. 

I turned into a mindless sheep of UCAS' bidding. Everyone in my year was talking about it. "Where are you heading for university?" a question I heard rather often, with the others being "What courses?" and "Fancy coming down to the Chinese later for dinner?" 

I didn't really mind that nobody from my university applied for the same course as I did. I even though "get in, I'm unique". Well, not really. I thought it will be the best stepping stone for me to get into the world of graphics and design.

Now, nearing the end of the year in my course as I don't have exams this year (get in), I wonder, did I make the right choice?

Look at the facts, the only real things I've learned from this course is to design stuff for web by using code and Flash, while brushing up on my editing skills on Photoshop. Theory wise, I learned about internet safety, the science behind an MP3 file and the difference between high pass filters and low pass filters. And I think to myself, would I have learned all this anyway if I didn't go to university, only it would have taken a longer time for me to learn them?

I can't answer that. I wish I could, but alas I do not possess the ability to turn back time and redo my decision.  Maybe one say some clever Jack will build one, offer it to me because he likes the way I sit on a chair and allow me to see how things wool have turned out.

Come to think of it, is university for me the ultimate form of procrastination?

Confused? Allow me.

Just as I was writing all this down on my merry Mac, I wondered if studying in university was just my way of not getting a full time job. Look at the facts, I'm probably working half as hard as some people are working and earning more than some others. I'm getting a rather decent amount of money just to learn and live, while workers just get small streams of currency flowing to them to feed their needs.

Don't think I'm being rather idiotic here, dear world. I know that I will need to pay back close to twelve thousand pounds for university fees. It was just a thought.

Maybe it's the same reason as to why I have not learned how to drive yet - I don't feel old enough. Maybe university was not the best step to take logically. Maybe I needed to gain experience under my belt via college and the head into adulthood on the ship named university.

I know, I know. I'm going on here. Though, I vow to you now, world. I will not be dropping out of university. University is a big thing. I'm still going through with it. Maybe next year, I'll feel differently.

I thank ye, world.

Dear World - Careers

Dear World,

I'm nineteen, and as such I have thought about the ideal job for me.

When I was young, I thought about becoming an architect. I'll be honest, I was roughly six or so years old and I had no real idea what an architect does, I think it was just the fact that I liked the word architect.

The more I grew, the thoughts of an ideal job for me changed. At one point, I even considered ditching a normal job and head into a cricketing career, though that did not last long, and I blame some of the people in the cricket club that I attended for that fact.

As I entered the GSCE years of my life, I finally discovered the career for me - graphic design. No idea why it occurred, maybe it was the endless image edits that I did during the time.

Now, I'm on the road to have a job in the graphic design industry. I'm studying Creative Technologies inThe ATRiuM (the Cardiff faculty of the University of Glamorgan), which looks at the different aspects of multimedia such as video, radio, the internet and graphics.

I'm also rather involved with Wicid, which is helping me build my confidence up in writing and other stuff in a rather splendid manner. [And a very good job of it you're doing too, Crazy D! - national ed]

I watched a television show on BBC Three the other night. It was called Junior Doctors: Your Life In Their Hands, and it shows a group of student doctors and their journey to becoming a doctor in their chosen subjects, be that surgery or medicine.

It made me think, like many other things in life, what help will my job give the development of the human race?

Look at the different genres of careers that are out there. Doctors help to heal the wounded, while firefighters put their lives on the line to save people and to extinguish fires. The police make sure that everyone's in line with the law. 

Even musicians do good for humanity. Well, sometimes anyways. Some musicians bring peace and joy to the majority of people, while other, less talented musicians inspire other people to join the music career path to show them how it's done.

And there's me, sitting in my room, with Photoshop or Illustrator open on my computer, and I think to myself "what a wonderful world". Well, not really, I think "what am I doing?"

I know, I may be totally wrong with this, but the most I've seen that a web designer or someone has done is to inspire others to design websites or study the joys of typography. And yes, I speak from experience. All I will say on this matter is "Myriad Pro for the win". That and "say no to drugs and Comic Sans."

Though, this is not the only thing that has crossed my mind.

Now, if you have met me in person, it is rather plain to see that I'm not one of these people who takes pride in their appearance. I don't see the point, if I'm completely honest with you. Yes, you have to be presentable, but I wouldn't be far from the truth if I said that some people took it to the extreme.

In one of the ideal jobs of mine, being a graphic or web designer, my job would be making lovely-looking websites or graphics. I might even have jobs that involved airbrushing models. I find it odd that my number one job is a total contradiction to myself. The job is highly driven by the appearance of things, while I am not. Don't you think that this is a match made in Heaven 2.0?

Before I leave you, World, I must admit that graphic design isn't really my number one career of choice. No, it's the music industry, though it's always handy to have a back up plan, eh?

Ever since I learned to play an instrument - which was over three years ago now, seems like only two and a half… - I've wanted to be in a band. I have performed with a band, though playing in the school Eisteddfod isn't really the big time, but it's a start nonetheless.

In recent years, I've been looking for someone to help me with the songs that I've written. Yes, to add more drivel to the million terabytes of pointless content of the interweb, I've created and uploaded a few songs of mine. Though, they lack words.

Ever since the first song that I wrote (which was adequately named "Argh"), I've been looking for a singer/songwriter to help me write lyrics to my songs. Would you care to help me, dear world?

I thank ye, world.