Tuesday 30 July 2013

Raiders of the lost Childhood: Noughties Edition

So i'm sitting at my computer randomly trying to think up a topic for an exciting new post, when what do i see pop up on my Facebook profile... A friend request from a 9 year old. Yes that's right people... A 9 YEAR OLD. Not only do i not know this particular 9 year old but i'm sat there thinking to myself, when i was 9 my mum wouldn't let me chew gum, what the hell are parents doing leaving their kids unattended on Facebook these days. Now some of you may be thinking, 'god stop whining it's only Facebook' and yes, Facebook can be incredibly innocent. But the plain fact is, no one under the age of 13 should have Facebook and you are only one click away from a group that will start posting pictures of some dude with his cock stuck in a hoover on the internet these days. It's then that you start to wonder, how radically different are the childhoods of kids today, compared to only 10 years ago when i was just 9 years old.

One thing i notice today more than ever as i get older is kids in restaurants. I mean I've seen 4 year old's using iPads at the dinner table. When i was four you got a colouring picture and 10 broken crayons (never with a flesh colour by the way!), so i'm beginning to think to myself that the kids growing up nowadays are pretty lucky in that respect.

So kids nowadays are learning their ABC's from Apple technology and by the time they get to high school all the desks will probably come with touchscreens instead of paper and pens. Sounds pretty great right? Well yeah... Being born in the Noughties has some major perkage, but then again look at it this way. The childhoods of kids nowadays is also dramatically shortened. I mean i'm not being funny but has anyone been into Primark recently? They're selling bikinis and padded Bra's for kids who are barely old enough to be aloud to cross the street alone. We wonder why the amount of sex offenders has increased over the years. Could it be because of the sexualisation of our kids in which many are willing accomplices. I mean seeing little girls of no older than 7 wearing fake tan and nails and sporting t-shirts reading 'Future footballers wife' doesn't exactly give me hope for the future doctors and lawyers of this world. 

On lighter news the birth of Royal baby, Prince George of Cambridge has had the country buzzing over the past week. The funny thing is i keep wondering how old the little prince will be before he is graced with an iPad.... regardless one thing is for sure: That kid will certainly have an assortment of flesh coloured and unbroken crayons available at dinner!!!

What do you think about the reduction of the time in which kids can be kids nowadays? Is this new technology a powerful learning tool, or is it just a means to let kids see things they are way too young to see? Drop me a comment and let me know... i gotta get back to responding to the facebook request of a 9 year old!

Rant over people,
Atargatis, Over and out xxxx



Monday 29 July 2013

Peripheral vision,pretty little boxes and picket fences: The gender Divide

So being a bored student so far this summer, I've been doing what we students (supposedly) do best:  I've been thinking, asking the big questions and working the hamster that powers my brain via a super cute plastic wheel extra hard. The result for all you people out there who are kind enough to read my blog is the very post that you are glaring at right now. The focus of this post is about Men and Women and what makes us totally different. 

The amazing thing about Men and how their minds work is that they have these neat and quite pretty little boxes in which all their emotions, thoughts and feelings sit for each situation. When they are in the work box they aren't worrying about what to cook for dinner later that night or whether they've remembered to pick up the dry cleaning. They are purely focused on work (and possibly Googling cat memes) and that's about it. Sometimes i wonder if the increased peripheral vision of the fairer of the sexes means that our minds cannot only focus on one thing at once. It is said that women can multitask, but the reason we are so good at this is because we don't have all these pretty little boxes that neatly separate one aspect of life from another, we are at work, but we are also thinking about what we need to budget for with our wages, worrying about if we have enough toilet paper to get us through the week and thinking about what to wear for 'Girl's night out'. You could say this makes us less productive as we have all this crap floating around in our brains with no organisation but i think that it is less of a shit heap and more of an organised mess with a giant cable connecting each emotion or thought to the next. It could also be said this is why you can say something totally unrelated to what is stressing out a woman and suddenly be confronted with a very pissed off lady, not because you intended to be hurtful, but simply because of a chain reaction set off by the mention of something as simple as 'what are we having for tea'. It is safe to say we humans are complex creatures, filled with chemical reactions, hormones and pheromones that the majority of normal people on this planet just do not understand. However, we are not always as complex as it seems when it comes to base needs, as almost everyone can understand, when a persons mind is in the sex box or on the sex link in a chain your mind can't help but become stationary and very much stuck in the proverbial gutter.

That's the other funny thing about Men and women, the pretty little boxes that allow a man to be so organised in his thoughts and feelings actually inhibit the organisation of a little thing called life. That's the thing about boxes you see: its much harder to jump from box to box than it is to glide between connecting ideas as in a woman's mind so you find men that cannot get out of the 'Video game' box aren't really thinking about the future or planning for marriage and kids.

What is it about women that makes the majority of us hear wedding bells after only a year in a relationship. Most women will tell you, it's only natural to want to obtain that type of commitment from someone who you've devoted a year of your life to but i think its more than natural, i think it's nature itself. The biological clock is not a myth fellas, inside the minds of most women who want kids is the nagging question 'when will i get married?' followed by the inevitable 'how old do i want to be when i have kids'. Most men find this concept terrifying to even talk about like somehow just mentioning kids means you want to strap him down, straddle him and scream 'FERTILISE ME!'. In all honesty, isn't it best to get those talks out of the way early? Isn't it better to talk picket fences early than to end up 55 and picketing in protest about how you lost your chance to have a child?

So what is better? Boxes or chains? Drop me a comment and let me know what you think!

As Jims dad would say: 'Keep it real Homies',
Atargatis, over and out xxxx


Thursday 18 July 2013

The green eyed monster: Drive and destroy


So jealousy is a part of life. FACT. Through this most complicated and devastatingly unpredictable thing we call the human condition, it has happened to everyone. Best friend has a new car you wish you could afford. You find yourself coveting the kind of relationship your best friend has with her new boyfriend, her new £150 pair of UGG boots that seem to go with every outfit she owns. The thing about jealousy is, it causes one of two things. Drive or destruction, but can either ever be good?

There are two types of people, the type that see something they want and either act coldly towards the person that possesses it or destroy the object of that persons happiness. Or the type of person that takes that jealousy and coveting of such things and works hard to achieve them by respectable means. The thing about the human race is that enough is never enough. You have a great boyfriend? Well you don't have that dream job you've been chasing? Or that dream apartment you so covet? Therefore you can't possibly be happy. It's true that in the rush to find 'happiness' in things that we really don't need such as material items or stressful jobs that only seem appealing because of the salary that we in fact miss out on happiness all together. In pursuing such extras which we just 'have to have' it appears that sometimes the things we actually need take a back seat, or even worse are neglected all together.

So i can hear the ambitious among you sighing and saying 'If you don't aim high you'll never reach the stars' but the truth is, would you really be happy in the stars, or would you find yourself then wanting to visit other universes? The other thing is, each one of us is an individual and what makes one person incredibly happy, such as an expensive apartment or dream holiday may not be well suited to you as an individual.

So what is this focus on others, the comparison of ourselves to others can be both beneficial and destructive. There are many people who drive themselves through competition with other people. Nothing wrong with a little healthy competition now is there? Well no there isn't but circumstances may mean that in some ways you can never 'outdo' someone. Does that then leave you feeling like a failure even after achieving a reasonable amount? Is it not better to stop worrying about what other people are doing and concentrating on our individual needs and desires? 

The bottom line is, you could spend your whole life trying to hunt down perfection in your life. But odds are if you take a good look at it right now, you will find perfection everywhere that you just don't appreciate. At the end of the day the things we covet most, are the things we don't appreciate until they are gone. You could always go out and buy that new pair of shoes, or that great new car, but family and friends can leave your life in an instant and you can never get them back. 

As far as i'm concerned the green eyed monster can go to hell. Jealousy does nothing but make us seek fulfillment when we are already enriched. Wanting more and more and more can't be healthy right? So sit back, take it slow, enjoy the little things, and let the good times roll.

Atargatis, over and out xxx

Friday 5 July 2013

University:Anywhere but here


Whenever people ask about summer holidays for University they always say: "So you get three months for summer?" In response i nod my head and they smile back courteously. I can tell what they're thinking, they are thinking 'Three months? That's far too long!', you know what i think about this? I think they're damn right!

So when you are in High school, 3 months for summer seems like HEAVEN. However, when you are at university, your perspective on this changes a tad. For a start, all those great friends you made at uni? They now live half way across the country so forget about great nights out when its warm. That new guy or girl you fell for and have been getting attached to for a year? Yeah he's gone home to the other side of the country too, so you're left essentially bored brainless and possibly missing your university social life. The other thing is, unlike when you are in high school, at university you build a life that is far more independent from your family. You find that things that never annoyed you before when you lived at home start to grate your cheese and the inability to simply walk out of your door and have bars, clubs and pubs only a stones throw away leaves you feeling trapped in a very boring cage. Your social life at home also often seems banal to the group of crazy party animals you encounter at University. This is because people are Parent free and are more likely to fudge shizz up than they are when they have to go home to a house full of sleepy and possibly cranky parents at the end of the night.

So the thing people always say to students is... 'Why don't you get a job?'  Now that, especially in this economy is easier said than done, but i have to say landing a summer job is a fab way to keep busy and if they offer you hours at Christmas and Easter too all the better! The problem is with finding a job as a student now is that because there are so many more people looking for employment because of this recession our country has been in for what seems like forever. People who are quite overqualified are willing to take jobs such as fry cook at Mcdonalds and cashier at Asda, which when the pickings for jobs were better, would have been left to the university students. 

The other thing about coming home for the summer is that it isn't like when you come home for Christmas, because your parents will be most probably working most of the time and you somehow end up sitting alone in your house the majority of the time. It's interesting also to see the amount of people who stay in their Accommodation as long as possible at university to avoid such a thing.

I've been having this dilemma and have been thinking that the key to making the summer both productive and fly by is to undertake projects and develop skill sets you can utilise for your next year at university. Here are a few ideas to keep you entertained for the 3 long (but pleasantly warm) summer nights whilst all your friends are either at work or on summer holiday with the family!

1) Get in shape (the good weather makes evening runs more appealing)
2) Learn a new skill (Maybe knitting?)
3) Detox (lay off the drink for a while and give your liver a holiday and well deserved rest, this also means you may have to buy fewer drinks and thus pay less to get hammered come freshers)
4) Summer reading for your course (If you are really bored!)
5) Have a clean out! 
6)Get a Penpal
7) Research what societies you plan to join come summer.
8)Read my blog! (Cheeky i know, but you can't blame a girl for trying!)

Anyhoo, i have to go back to watching paint dry, so ill catch you later! Have you got any summer boredom busters you want to share? Drop me a comment!

Atargatis xxx over and out! xxx