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")

Assignment progress, university meetings (some pointless), ridiculous advertisements...

Was rather proud today! I had a productive day! I woke up at 9am, tweeted from my bed for a while before getting ready for the day ahead! I enjoy talking to those on twitter. I am fortunate to have a good bunch of followers to converse with. I decided to get started with my assignment at 10.45am, a nice round interval on the quarter of the clock, but after viewing at 10:46am, this was put back to 11am. It would be odd to start on such a number, although deep down looking back, it was just an excuse to have 15 mins to readjust myself and round off some pleasant tweet conversations. So I started. And made progress. Although it was only slight progress, I feel more confident with my capability to now proceed in typing up. I have a good plan and structure in my head. So this can now wait for another time.

I travelled into university this afternoon for two meetings. The first was constructive. My dissertation supervisor discussed with me topics for my dissertation, Urban Logistics within the Manchester region. It seems more capable and achievable now after speaking to him. He puts things in a different perspective, showing many different alternatives. The second meeting on the contrary was ridiculous. Basically my group (the idea of the project is that you don't pick your peer group members), are lazy. It annoys me so much as I always like to maximise my potential. We met with our tutor and got constructive feed back but the personality mix poses many clashes. Lazyness. Effortless. Segregation. All detrimental combinations.

I also saw a ridiculous advertisement as shown in my picture. In some ways it disappoints me. It was an advertisement by GM Police saying how they intend to respond efficiently to residential concerns. This is something which I expect, and not would like to be told. It makes me think that they actually realise they aren't doing this and have only just realise, now, they have to. I find it rather obnoxious how they then play on this inefficiency to boost their media presence. Typifies Britain today.

"Talk to me softly. There's something in your eyes. Don't hang your head in sorrow. And please don't cry"
- Axl Rose (Guns N' Roses - "Don't Cry")

Photo: Ridiculous advertisement in Manchester by the Greater Manchester Police (Apologies for the bad quality).

Bad weather, international strategy assignment lack, unproductive day...

I was rather determined to get up bright and early today to start work on my assignment. It didn't happen. The alarm was set for 9.30am. I was awakened by absolutely awful weather. Lashing down with rain. Strong winds. It happens often in Manchester, but I found this to be largely deceptive considering the clouds wasn't grey in the slightest. Anyhow, the alarm was quickly turned off and I eventually stirred at 11am-ish...

Rather inevitably looking back on it, I was avoiding doing my International Strategy assignment, based on Walmart. Although it isn't due until 27th April, I was eager to get a quick start on it as I have a logistics group report, individual portfolio, group presentation and report also to complete, along with two exams late April. I had books at the ready, research ready to be undertaken on Walmart, the discount store industry in 1950s, their business model sustainability within their international strategy and their key sources of competitive advantage. I just couldn't bring myself to become motivated. Hopefully tomorrow will prove otherwise and I can complete some.

I usually feel guilty on days like this that I have wasted a day. I then try and reduce those emotions by doing some work of some sort, so I decided to plan for it instead. I have a picture in my mind of the end result. The problem is initiating the process and putting in the input towards getting to this end output. Instead, I spent much of the day on the Internet. Twitter. Facebook. general news pages. At the time it wasn't considered wasteful, but if I'm truly honest with myself, it was for the period of time I was on.

I shall try and search for some journals this evening so the day hasn't been wasted, ironically using Internet search engines towards getting my academic sources as we do nowadays. Perhaps I should have thought of combining this with my afternoon's activities to increase my productivity...

"When you are with me, I'm Free. I'm careless, I believe. Above all the others, we'll fly. This brings tears, to my eyes. My sacrifice."
- Scott Stapp (Creed - "My Sacrifice")

Photo: Research book sources on Walmart ready for exploration.

Manchester nights out, university, football and no place for hooliganism

Hello all!

Firstly let me apologise for the lack of updates since I first opened this blog. I've had so much uni work to do its rather untrue, and it is still mounting. I shall try and blog more often, but I suppose I should firstly give an update and catch up blog since my last. So what have I done of any interest?. It ranges from a night out, uni work, football managerial change and an encounter with football hooliganism

Well last week it was my one of my best friend's 18th. We hired out a "Lucky Voice" pod (Kareoke basically, but thats branding for you) at a club in Manchester. It was rather fun and allowed me to portray my vocal 'talents' on numerous numbers such as "Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O Mine", "Lionel Ritchie - All Night Long" & "Right Said Fred - Im too Sexy" to name a few. We then went onto a Manchester indie club and as they say - the rest is history!

It was also nice to have the weekend off work. Being the PT work uni bummer I am, I hear shouts of "You barely work anyway". The weekend off was gratefully received. Rather tarnished by Oldham's hammering by MK Dons but uplifting at the appointment of Joe Royle as manager. John Sheridan had took us as far as he could, and I will forever be grateful of his service to the club as player and manager.

This past week has mainly been rounding off uni lectures. I had to give a group logistics presentation during the week which went as well as could have hoped! We pulled it off! Excellent! I also received my feedback from a graduate job assessment centre i attended early February for lets say a company in the automotive industry! I was told i did an excellent presentation, started off well as a leader but could have maintained throughout better in the group exercise and I could have structured answers better in Interview. Feedback taken on board ready for the next challenge!

Finally, this weekend was back to work. I have moved sections from knitwear to t-shirts. Was I bad on knitwear? or are my talents merely required for transferal elsewhere? I'm rather philosophical, but as long as I'm still collecting my wage, I'm not bothered! :)

I also encountered a bout of football hooliganism. After the euphoria of welcoming back Joe Royle, it soon drifted to deflation of losing 2-0 to our rivals Tranmere. Deservedly so. We lacked passion but we know Joe Royle's challenge wasn't going to happen overnight. For my family, attending football allows excellent bonding time with my brother and dad.

It was disturbing to hear fellow 'fans' discuss "are we going to charge them then?" after the game. Football hooliganism has no place in football. Tensions are high on the terraces but that's where they should remain. Football allows congregations of fans, sat with others who have the same passion and spirit for the end result. It allows us to vent our anger and rejoice in joy. Saturday was a combination of these. To avoid such conflicts, I left the stadium via another exit. But is it my duty to go out of my way to do so? Sadly not, but i realise at the end of the day it's just a game, regardless of how down I felt. There are more important things in life.

"Sound of the drums. Beatin' in my heart. The thunder of guns. Tore me apart. You've been - thunderstruck"
- Brian Johnson (AC/DC - "Thunderstruck")

Welcome

I used to blog under an old pseudonym many moons ago, and after reading other blogs, I have decided to blog once again.

I used to blog about anything and everything, but I think this blog marks a new chapter. After thinking about potential names for this blog I decided upon 'Gibson Dynamic' for a number of reasons. Firstly, my passion for music (Gibson). Music plays a big part in my life in all formats, especially Guitar playing. Secondly, "Dynamic" I feel is the correct adjective for the nature of my blogs. I like to speak my mind, talk about anything from current affairs to musical album reviews and I think the contents to a blog are endless.

I hope you find my blogs to be of interest and I look forward to speaking to you on Twitter and through other mediums :)

"You rise, you fall, your down, then you rise again
What don't kill you make you more strong "
- James Hetfield (Metallica - "Broken, Beat & Scarred")