Taxes to beat to earth the evil destroyer of freedom and peace!
Tags:
Sunday, 13 May 2007
Wednesday, 9 May 2007
Ohemgee;
Somebody wrote about Internet changing language and they didn't come off as a presumptuous over-educated asshat pandering to the lowest common denominator within an academic circle?
//
edit: note to self --
//
edit: note to self --
Tags:
Truth Hert's Donuts
How Can I Use Feminism To My Advantage?
Via Infinate ThØught
Four years old, and still making me laugh.
I just like accented characters in blog titles, obviously.
//
Sometimes I'm afraid a rabid pack of feministbots is going to descend upon me and rip me apart for not doing my gender justice, or something. Certainly I am all about gender studies - but kinda like some people are into Spartan politics or Victorian etiquette.
It's really awesome we came to the conclusion that all humans should be treated equally -- now can some of us stop defining themselves socially by the parts they were randomly allocated at birth, and can we like, start worrying about other stuff now?
ktnxbai.
Via Infinate ThØught
Four years old, and still making me laugh.
I just like accented characters in blog titles, obviously.
//
Sometimes I'm afraid a rabid pack of feministbots is going to descend upon me and rip me apart for not doing my gender justice, or something. Certainly I am all about gender studies - but kinda like some people are into Spartan politics or Victorian etiquette.
It's really awesome we came to the conclusion that all humans should be treated equally -- now can some of us stop defining themselves socially by the parts they were randomly allocated at birth, and can we like, start worrying about other stuff now?
ktnxbai.
Tags:
Things I am Missing While I Procrastinate Getting Ready for Today's Meeting
J.E. Gordon writing on physics & stress & tension.
zefrank.
Bad American Food.
elephantitis of the mind
Tags:
Monday, 7 May 2007
2+1=3
It's my birthday on the 10th. I will be twenty one years old.
Finally. When you add me together I equal three.
I haven't been this excited since I was 12.
[[Enter worry here.]]
Finally. When you add me together I equal three.
I haven't been this excited since I was 12.
[[Enter worry here.]]
Tags:
Friday, 4 May 2007
Advanced Western Capitalist Society, AHOY!
Right now at this moment in time, I'm trying to do some research - not for any academic purpose, but an attempt to prove to myself a statistical sociological fact. It's been bugging me for weeks and weeks, and I have to find some hard evidence.
I want to see if suburban New England's stance on having some commercial retail spaces open to 9-10pm on most evenings adds a significant boost to the local economy, while also lessening crime rates and anti-social behaviour.
See, I live in Surrey, UK at the moment -- most retail spaces are shut by 5pm every day, and most aren't open on a Sunday. Exceptions to this are restaurants and, of course, pubs.
So I am trying to do a comparison of statistics between to townships of similar size: Framingham MA (pop. 65,598, 2005) and Guildford, Surrey (pop. 66,773, 2001).
//
I wonder how advanced capitalist societies are supposed to grow; I would imagine along with more complex issues it would include:
A: assure the population has expendable income, via healthy employment
B: create public spaces with various retail outlets tailored to a wide class spectrum
C: encourage spending with retail opening hours of 9-to-9, for students, 9.2.5ers, etc.
With my personal experience of being a student in the UK, I find it really fucking difficult to become a good little active advanced western capitalist consumer, as I: Don't Have Enough Opportunity To Spend, & Don't Have Enough Disposable Income.
I go to skool weekdays, 10-5. When I leave, all the shops on the high-street are closing, including the book stores and cafes*, so the only opportunity I have for a social space outside of my (non-existent) living room is: The Pub, A Restaurant (Expensive! Bad quality!), A Park, Someone Else's Living Room.
Social aspects aside, it also limits my job opportunities: I could get a job at: A Pub or A Restaurant, but because I cannot work retail hours during the week, I am pretty unhireable anywhere else. Some stores will be looking for weekend help, but that would be working one single day a week at minimum wage. (Which I will add, is £4.45 for 18-21 y.os in the UK: see link.)
So lets say I get a job at the local greasy cafe getting £4.45 an hour, and on a Saturday the cafe is open from 9am to 4pm with an hour lunch break - I would be earning £26.70, not including tips -- but let me remind you that tips don't exist in the UK.
£26.70 is $53.05 as of today, yet that seems a bit extreme - living in England is different. £26.70 will buy me two weekly bus tickets to school, and leave me with 70p for a cup of machine coffee when I get there. I like to think it doesn't cost $26.52 in the States for a bus pass, but I can't remember.
Anyway, I get off track.
I don't yet understand why suburban England adheres to these retail hours. Is this my American adolescence showing through? Perhaps -- but I am not looking at this from a problem of retail spaces offering places to be for people on a social level - not just as consumers, but as a place where they can spend leisure time that aren't a pub. Cinemas, bookstores, cafes, stupid-random-shops, galleries, music shops, etc, etc, etc. Britain is having a huge problem with binge drinking and antisocial behaviour in teenagers and young-adults -- is it because there is nowhere else to go but the pub, or the local park at night?
I must investigate...
Or maybe I could go to the pub.
Yech.
*Oh how I miss the book stores and cafes. ::weeping::
[[Edit: oh man, my blog homie Frank has some sweet things to say about England as a security state. I can confirm this all as true. I will be sending the tapes as evidence.]]
[[Edit II: if I lived in Tokyo, I know who I'd consider voting for. At least he is honest.]]
I want to see if suburban New England's stance on having some commercial retail spaces open to 9-10pm on most evenings adds a significant boost to the local economy, while also lessening crime rates and anti-social behaviour.
See, I live in Surrey, UK at the moment -- most retail spaces are shut by 5pm every day, and most aren't open on a Sunday. Exceptions to this are restaurants and, of course, pubs.
So I am trying to do a comparison of statistics between to townships of similar size: Framingham MA (pop. 65,598, 2005) and Guildford, Surrey (pop. 66,773, 2001).
//
I wonder how advanced capitalist societies are supposed to grow; I would imagine along with more complex issues it would include:
A: assure the population has expendable income, via healthy employment
B: create public spaces with various retail outlets tailored to a wide class spectrum
C: encourage spending with retail opening hours of 9-to-9, for students, 9.2.5ers, etc.
With my personal experience of being a student in the UK, I find it really fucking difficult to become a good little active advanced western capitalist consumer, as I: Don't Have Enough Opportunity To Spend, & Don't Have Enough Disposable Income.
I go to skool weekdays, 10-5. When I leave, all the shops on the high-street are closing, including the book stores and cafes*, so the only opportunity I have for a social space outside of my (non-existent) living room is: The Pub, A Restaurant (Expensive! Bad quality!), A Park, Someone Else's Living Room.
Social aspects aside, it also limits my job opportunities: I could get a job at: A Pub or A Restaurant, but because I cannot work retail hours during the week, I am pretty unhireable anywhere else. Some stores will be looking for weekend help, but that would be working one single day a week at minimum wage. (Which I will add, is £4.45 for 18-21 y.os in the UK: see link.)
So lets say I get a job at the local greasy cafe getting £4.45 an hour, and on a Saturday the cafe is open from 9am to 4pm with an hour lunch break - I would be earning £26.70, not including tips -- but let me remind you that tips don't exist in the UK.
£26.70 is $53.05 as of today, yet that seems a bit extreme - living in England is different. £26.70 will buy me two weekly bus tickets to school, and leave me with 70p for a cup of machine coffee when I get there. I like to think it doesn't cost $26.52 in the States for a bus pass, but I can't remember.
Anyway, I get off track.
I don't yet understand why suburban England adheres to these retail hours. Is this my American adolescence showing through? Perhaps -- but I am not looking at this from a problem of retail spaces offering places to be for people on a social level - not just as consumers, but as a place where they can spend leisure time that aren't a pub. Cinemas, bookstores, cafes, stupid-random-shops, galleries, music shops, etc, etc, etc. Britain is having a huge problem with binge drinking and antisocial behaviour in teenagers and young-adults -- is it because there is nowhere else to go but the pub, or the local park at night?
I must investigate...
Or maybe I could go to the pub.
Yech.
*Oh how I miss the book stores and cafes. ::weeping::
[[Edit: oh man, my blog homie Frank has some sweet things to say about England as a security state. I can confirm this all as true. I will be sending the tapes as evidence.]]
[[Edit II: if I lived in Tokyo, I know who I'd consider voting for. At least he is honest.]]
Tags:
Tuesday, 1 May 2007
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