Transferred to WordPress

Well, after becoming fed up and generally unhappy with the lack of, or limited, amount of features of BlogSpot, I have exported my blog across to WordPress!

I will still continue to post blogs over here, albeit I do prefer the features WordPress offer.

Look me up: http://gibsondynamic.wordpress.com/

Bank Holiday Weekend, Green Day, Cancer Bats…

Bank holiday weekend started with an early wake up call on Friday. This only tends to happen when one thing can occur….Gig Ticket Purchases. This time it was Green Day. Succeeded with two standing tickets for their Manchester gig on 31st October and I can’t wait! Was a little twitchy bum time for an hour but the sense of relief you get when the confirmation e-mail arrives in your inbox is golden. Just rubberstamps the whole affair :)

Bank holiday weekend for students with PT weekend jobs means one thing. Work. Not by choice. But contractually. And today, my manager was a right knob! At my place of work, we have set contracted hours. I was asked if I could do overtime, but I politely refused. As I clock off at the end of my shift and pass my manager, he puts his head down, shaking his head to himself in disgust. WHAT – A – COCK! I have completed my contractual day of work and even then the swine isn’t happy. For that, I will refuse tomorrow..

Oldham also capped off the season with a win. Not won since about February, so a great way to conclude the football before summer withdrawals!..

Just got back from seeing Cancer Bats at the Manchester Academy. What a great gig! Highly refreshing to watch a band with little light staging and keeping things simple. Crowd was immensely rowdy and it was just a thoroughly enjoyable evening on the whole! :)

I’m now back on MySpace also. www.myspace.com/laticste. Feel free to look me up :)

Gigs since my absence…

I have been to two gigs within the past month. AC/DC and Doves.

AC/DC was quite simply phenomenal. Angus Young is such an amazing guitarist with bags of energy that just feeds into the audience! Brian Johnson is also an amazing replacement for the late Bon Scott, but has carried on the AC/DC flag with his own stamp.

The set-up and entire show was fantastic! From a 50ft inflatable ‘Rosie’ to an actual train on stage. A show full of pure classic rock and pyrotechnics. Just an amazing evening!

On the contrary, Doves was mellow. Still good. They trolled through all the classics to get the crowd going and was a great homecoming gig in Manchester. I’d recommend their new album to anybody..

Sorry it's been a while!....

Life has been quite busy recently so I apologise for the lack of blogs!

The past month or so has been plagued with exams and assignments, so I haven't had much time to log on and blog much.

I had two exams. Both went reasonably well considering! Could have gone much worse. It's just a matter of waiting on results now.

Now I have more assignments to do before I have to write a dissertation over the summer. Oh joy! :(

Computers, university report, five-a-side football...

Damn computer! It's really on its last legs at the moment. However it's not the computer I am worried about. It's losing the GBs worth of files I have on it. I know the answer seems simple enough. Get a new HD right? I would love to. Even if they are cheap. But i just really can't afford that at the moment. Got a lot of outgoings. Grrr!

Been pricing up some Mac computers. Really impressed with my brother's one. May indeed follow suit. They just seem so much more reliable. I've never been a fan of such of laptops, so I'm looking into getting a Desktop mac.

Since my last blog, I played football for the first time in two months the other evening. Such a great runaround, socialising event it was! Four goals to the name. Team won. Good times. In university yesterday, we also finally finished our group report. It looks excellent. One task down, now onto the next challenge of assignments I am now required to face...

"My god. It takes an ocean of trust. In the kingdom of rust."
- Jimi Goodwin (Doves - "Kingdom of Rust")

Facebook, MySpace, Bebo: Surely the Government have better things to do?

After reading The Times and other news related press, I was rather astonished to read the following headline.

Facebook, Bebo and MySpace 'to be monitored by security services'

Is this an example of our nation going mad? Or is Facebook and the social networking domain becoming such a central core to our daily routines and lifestyles?

I see it as both. Rather than monitoring social networking sites, I believe our Government should emphasise their strategies for those situations which 'should' carry greater importance. An example of such naturally the present recession. Rather than outlining plans and policies to counteract and support the UK in this time of trouble, some obviously think social networking poses a greater threat.

"Social networking sites, such as MySpace or Bebo, are not covered by the directive. That is one reason why the Government is looking at what we should do about the intercept modernisation programme because there are certain aspects of communications which are not covered by the directive."

Not only is it an infringement on privacy, it is proof that we adopting a 'big brother' philosophy. Of course, many people have loved 'nosying' on Facebook profiles since it first became established and are the Government merely following suit...having a nosy?

"If national governments and law enforcement organisations truly believe that online criminals and international terrorists don’t know how to hide their online traces, then we have a bigger problem than we thought."

Or is it becoming much more serious to social security? Users of social networking sites always have to be cautious. It's like giving someone a key. A key to your life, enabling them to look around like a trespasser would. Only the user is giving them permission by enabling this. Considering this is one of the few modes of communication not covered in legal directives, maybe the Government feel as though they are missing out? Missing out on a desire to be all controlling...

Every reaction requires a prior stimulus, and it makes one intrigued as to what intelligence is out there that poses social networking as a threat.

"Nail in my hand. From my creator. You gave me life now show me how to live."
- Chris Cornell (Audioslave - "Show Me How To Live")

Article Source: The Times, March 25, 2009. "Facebook, Bebo and Myspace 'to be monitored by security services'". http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5973731.ece

New features, blogging desires and dynamics...

I'm hoping to make my blog appealing and interesting to read for all. I'm also interested in looking at similar blogs but I've not a clue how to go about following and searching these. I'm looking to add new widgets and hope this blog can be used as a space to vent my thoughts, describe my days and also act as a medium to interact with people via twitter.

Being a business student, I hope to perhaps vent some thoughts regarding current news and business press I have interest in. I have plenty of them. I hope you find what I write to be of interest. At the same time, I don't want to bore you by posting massively long, frequent blogs. For frequency I will use twitter, so I hope the two dynamics work well together.

"I don't ever want to feel. Like I did that day. Take me to the place I love. Take me all the way."
- Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Under the Bridge")