Money made?

I’m sure everybody reading this has had poor service at one time or another. But what is it that makes the service so poor?

Most of the time its because customers aren’t fully informed. People feel that they aren’t always told the correct information, when they speak to a company. Surely that is ridiculous, how can you give the money you earned to a company you don’t trust?

But nowadays, people are forced to accept these problems, as they HAVE to deal with companies. For instance, it is no longer possible for you not to have a bank account, whether you are on the dole, get a pension or work. Because money is now deposited automatically and controlled by the banks, and other companies. Too many people in this country never get to see a penny they have earned, because money is paid in and out of their bank account without them doing anything. We are forced into having bank account, because that’s how everything is done these days.

What about the people who don’t agree with the banks and how they act. There is no opt out. The banks earn millions of pounds day for looking after OUR MONEY. How is that fair? How is that looking after people? And to make things worse, you have issues and a change of circumstances, and you are punished with charges on your money. The banks run the world, because WE fund them.

I think that the economic crash, which has been going on for the last few years. The banks poor invested OUR money, lost it all, and the economy crashed. So you would think that governments would learn, and would give people more choice. But no, if anything they want to increase peoples’ reliance on the banks. That will not solve anything long term, and eventually there will be another crash.

We need to find a stable, better model for our society to run off. It is something that would take years, even decades to sort out, and I don’t even l know where we could go. Just it is obvious that the current model hasn’t worked, so we should look at something else to make our country successful, rather than just money.

But that is something that businesses and governments need to decide. Due to how society is now operated, a single person no longer has the choice to operate ‘cash in hand’. How is it correct that people are not allowed to take full control of their own money. If we can sort that out, I believe a lot of other things will follow.

To view more views on the state of our world, visit adbusters.

http://adbusters.org

Almost Normal

I kind of touched on this yesterday, but I love the feeling of normality that you get around people who are similar to yourself. The feeling that I’m not strange for liking the things that I do.

When I’m at this festival (Rebellion punk festival), I am not as out-there as some of the people here. Its a strange feeling, that as soon as I walk out out the venue and onto the street, out come the stares and whispered comments. The reactions themselves don’t bother me as much as they used to, in fact I get a sense of satisfaction about it. But sometimes its nice to not have bitchy whispering behind my back. I like that there is no negativity that comes with me being myself.

How much does that say about our society? We are encouraged to be ourselves, but then mocked for doing so. People are still so closed up in their opinions of others that they get all defensive when they see someone act differently to themselves. But this festival, there is none of that. The place is so friendly, and anyone is welcome. Be yourself because that is what punk is about, and to me, festivals like this celebrate that fact.

Forget the trends, fuck what anyone else says, listen to good music and unashamedly be yourself.

Have a good Friday everybody.

Welcome to Blackpool.

First day at Blackpool has been brilliant.

This year looks to be the busiest, if today is anything to go by. Thursdays are generally the quietest day of the festival, with a lot of people not coming till the Friday.

The place is looked upon as a massive punk rock reunion, and I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that is always a highlight of my year. People fly in from all over the world to the festival, as it always seems to manage both a great atmosphere and a fantastic lineup.

Some thing that also really amazes me is the variety of people here. There is no set age for the festival, you have a few guys in their 70s, and then the 16 year olds. It also seems to be popular with families, with loads of mohawked kids running around playing tig. Although most people have unusual hair and band shirts, there is no dress code and anyone is welcome. And it all means that everyone feels welcome and there is an awesome atmosphere.

Bands I’ve seen already today include The Kirkz, Rebel City Radio and Charred Hearts. A bit upset that Middle Finger Salute are on the same time as The Restarts, but that is life, I guess.

Oh well, gonna go and find my pint.

CHEERS

Me and My Blackberry

A few weeks ago, I got a new phone, seeing as my poor old Nokia had gone on strike due the neglect it received. Poor thing.

So when thinking of a new phone, I decided I needed something which would enable to answer emails and so things, such as blog, when I am on the move. Yes, you read that right. I blog a lot, so it is a relief to me that I can do it easily from my phone. So, I was advised that maybe I should get a Blackberry, as they are ace at things like that.

So a few weeks ago, I renewed my contract and got a Blackberry Bold 9700. I thought I would leave it a few weeks before I posted a proper verdict on the phone. And after a few weeks, I need to say that I am shocked at how well the phone fits into my life. I can now see why people say that smartphones are the future of people surfing online and things.

The first that concerned me, was the QWERTY keypad, as I initially thought it might be a bit small. But due to each key been angled in such a way so that all the keys are reachable, it is a practical size.

It does everything else just as well as any other phone, such as texting and calling. The apps available for the phone have been really good quality, and again very easy to use. The only app I had an issue was OpenBeak, which refused to upload tweets 75% of the time. I then switched to UberTwitter, which is flawless. The only other app which I was disappointed in, was the LiveJournal one, which takes you to the LJ mobile page, which sometimes just refuses to post entries. I am hoping someone comes up with a good one soon.

I got the phone on a 24 month contract with O2, for £25 with unlimited texts and 300 minutes. You seem to get more for your money, than what you used to.

Overall, I am very happy with O2 and RIM for giving me such a brilliant phone at this awesome tariff.

Music Makes The World Go Round

Tomorrow, I am away on holiday. I’m going to Blackpool for the Rebellion music festival.

It’s a punk festival, that I have been to the last few years. It is always really good and I get to see some fantastic bands. I mean this year, I get to see Stiff Little Finger again, and also Bad Religion. The atmosphere at the festival is always really amazing, and it’s like being near people similar to myself. It’s almost like a family.

I’m going to try and take a load of photos, and also take my sketchbook to do some work. I seem to be really inspired when I am down there. Which is awesome.

God, I am all excited.

Almost there

So it’s almost summer. Hooray.

When I say summer, I mean my summer, because as from tonight I am off work for almost 3 weeks. Which is brilliant.

Since I am on my Blackberry, I have already typed up what I have been up to over on LJ. So skip over there if you wish to read about what I have been up to. Sorry, I’m just not too keen on typing everything up again, especially using this tiny screen.

Visit my LiveJournal

For lack of a better title.

Though I’d check in on here, and say hey, because I am in one hell of a good mood.

Was paid yesterday, and paid all my bills today. Just have to pay for hotel, which I will do when I get to blackpool. I am relieved, and feel good that I am tackling everything head on. Going to take money out of the bank, so that I have everything to hand. And then all I need to do is make sure I don’t spend it all.

I know, personal finances is something I try to keep away from here, but I am so happy and relieved, I can’t help but share this elated feeling I have. It feels good to be planned and focused on things for a change. So hopefully this is a sign of things to come, that I will actually manage to keep my personal finances under control. The issue is, you miss a few months payments, and everything goes awol.

I am talking to a debt advice company, and I am looking to find a way to consolidate all my debt, so I just have to pay one bill a month, even if its a high payment, it can never be as high as what I am paying out already. And that will also allow me to afford to start some kind of savings. Which then all-in-all help me when it comes down to starting off the business properly. *thinks* I hope this works.

Well, I decided that this summer wouldn’t be all the usual me in front of a PC thing, and have decided to try and do things with people. Ok people, is Gemma, and ‘doing things’ is us doing anything to stop us dying of boredom. Yes, I know, not the levels of ‘high activity’ I previously talked about. But, I guess I can be a little bit lax on myself, seeing as I am on holiday from work next week. Once I have that out of the way, it will be easy to focus on work. *cough*

Anyway, one of the things that we decided to do, was to go on a drive to somewhere we hadn’t been before. So we decided on Loch Lomond. Let me tell you something, it is so beautiful. Makes me really lucky to live in Scotland. I think I touched on this on a previous post, but I don’t think people appreciate where they live. I mean, so many people I talk to want to live in LA or London, and I think as nice as those places are, it cant beat being able to visit scenic places and walk through the counrtyside. You can see places where people work with nature, rather than just destroying it. I will add the pictures later, seeing as I am struggling to get the pictures off my phone.

Anyways, hope everyone has a nice week.

Why am I excited over this?

The fact that I am now able to blog from my phone has me really hyper. That is obviously just how sad I am, lol. Seriously though, the first things I did with my nice new phone was download the apps for twitter, tumblr and wordpress.

Actually, it’s not that strange considering blogging is what I mostly do over the internet. What it has done, is make the prospect of heading to Blackpool without my laptop a reality, cause I can do everything I need over my phone. So I am received over that, as I really wasn’t wanting to have to leave it in my hotel room all day. I get nervous doing things like that.