This time I’m doing “No-Beer November”. I generally don’t drink tea or coffee and the cupboards are usually stocked with Pepsi Max, which is too fizzy. How anyone can drink that rubbish is beyond me!

I noticed recently, however, that I would happily drink 2-3 cans of lager 3-4 nights a week mainly because it was there and, as mentioned earlier, I don’t ‘do’ tea, coffee or Pepsi Max. There were no plans to get drunk, nor did I even get drunk, on such a regular basis; I didn’t (and still don’t) class myself as being alcohol dependent or an alcoholic.

So why am I forcing myself to not drink beer for a month? I suppose a part of it is to prove the above point – that I don’t need beer to get me through half of the week. However, if I’m honest, the main reasons are that Wii Fit told me I was overweight and both Mini-MaFt and Mrs-MaFt told me I have a fat belly. It turns out I am vain afterall!

So, wish me luck – I look forward to losing a few lb’s and gaining a few £’s too.

NB – there is one pre-planned day off later in the month for the PocketGPSWorld.com Christmas Bash. It’s not a failure if it is pre-planned!

Now, I’m not going to post my results here because there is one close family member who doesn’t want to know plus you’re probably not that interested anyway! But in the days before getting my results it got me thinking…

What if I DO have the gene defect…? Well, for one thing it would mean I would have an 80% chance of getting bowel cancer between age 40 and 60. It would also mean I could be put onto a screening program where every year or two years I would have a camera shoved up my back-passage to look for any signs of tumours. So while the risk of cancer would be dramatically increased, the risk of coming to any harm from it would be equally reduced owing to the screening process that I would be entitled to.

What if I DON’T have the gene defect…? Life would basically continue as normal. I would not have an increased risk of bowel cancer. I would be just like every other person, taking the same day-to-day risks and having the same risk of getting bowel cancer as everyone else. I could still get bowel cancer though, but it may not be known about until it’s too late as I wouldn’t be on a screening programme.

So,would it be better to have the gene defect? While the likelihood of getting bowel cancer is increased, there is a much better likely outcome if it did occur as it would be spotted early on. Or is it better to not have it to avoid having to worry about ‘when’ I may get bowel cancer?

Regardless of the outcome there is nothing I can do to change my genes, I guess the real issue will be how I will handle the knowledge I now have and how it may or may not affect myself and the people around me… If my brothers get a different result to me will there be any form of ‘jealousy’ between us? Would *I* be jealous of those with different results? Thinking of it this way makes me realise perhaps just why the ‘close family member’ may not want to know the results!

Apparently though, this response was incorrect so the BBC Editors set out to make an official statement of how they deal with such situations. You can read it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2011/08/use_of_photographs_from_social.html

So, what was I shocked and appalled by?

In terms of permission and attribution, we make every effort to contact people who’ve taken photos we want to use in our coverage and ask for their permission before doing so.

And so they should when using other people’s work! But that part is fine; now, read on…

However, in exceptional situations, where there is a strong public interest and often time constraints, such as a major news story like the recent Norway attacks or rioting in England, we may use a photo before we’ve cleared it.

Sorry, what?! You would happily use a copyrighted image without permission?! No, that’s just wrong! If you don’t have permission then you should not use it! It’s very simple.

We don’t make this decision lightly – a senior editor has to judge that there is indeed a strong public interest in making a photo available to a wide audience.

I think that makes it even worse. Whether you commit a crime without any care in the world or if you spend a short time deliberating over it, it is still wrong. Just because a “senior editor” says it is OK to steal, that doesn’t make it better. If a “senior mob member” said it is OK to steal I guess that also excuses the rest of the mob?

Imagine if I took that stance. There are a lot of British ex-pat’s that live in Spain that would probably love to see the current series of Dr Who (one of the BBC’s finest televisual outpourings). However BBC’s iPlayer does not work in Spain (it requires a UK IP address for obvious license-paying reasons so these people cannot see it). There are a lot of them so it could easily be argued that it is in the public’s interest for these people to watch Dr Who. So, I will email the BBC to ask permission to rip the video and post it online, publicly, for free for any member of the public who wishes to see it. I will give them a couple of hours, maybe a day at most, to let me know whether or not I can. It’s quite important, and in the public’s interest, to see Dr Who as soon as possible after broadcast as there are many online discussions that may provide spoilers for these viewers. If I don’t hear back from them then that would mean it is OK to act in this way.

I presume you can see the idiocy of this stance? I wonder if the BBC will…

The 2nd half of Dr Who starts again in a couple of weeks. I have plenty of spare webspace and bandwidth…

OFFICIAL LETTER FROM FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION FBI
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FBI FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
FBI.WASHINGTON DC.
ROBERT MUELLER III.
Email: Info888@federalbureauinestigationsoff.org
FBI SEEKING TO WIRETAP INTERNET

ATTENTION: 

FROM: ROBERT MUELLER III EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FBI FEDERAL BUREAU OF
INVESTIGATION  WASHINGTON DC. FBI SEEKING TO WIRETAP INTERNET

The federal bureau of investigation (FBI).Through our intelligence-monitoring
network has discovered that the transaction that the bank contacted you
previously was legal.Recently the fund has been legally approved to be paid
via Central Bank of Nigeria. So, we the federal bureau of investigation (FBI)
Washington Dc, in conjunction with the United Nations (UN) financial
department have investigated through our monitoring network noting that your
transaction with the Central Bank of Nigeria legal.

You have the legitimate right to complete your transaction to claim your fund
US$65.7,000,000.00 (sixty five Million seven hundred thousands United States dollars)
 Because of so much scam going on in Nigeria.We the federal bureau of
investigation decided to contact the Fedex Courier Service Company in Nigeria
for them to give us their procedures on how to sent this money to you without
any further complain or delay. We just got an information from the Central
Bank of Nigeria and they have loaded your US$65.7,000,000.00 in ATM CARD and
submit to the Fedex courier service company for immediate delivery to your
doorstep.

You are required to choose one option, which you will be able to pay and also
convenient for you, for quick delivery of your parcel containing your ATM CARD
and other two original back up documents.

Service Type | Delivery Duration | Charges/Fees

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Premium Express (24hrs Delivery)
Mailing $200.00 00.00
Insurance $150.00 00.00
Vat $100.00 00.00
TOTAL $450.00
$450(Four Hundred and fifty US Dollars Only).

......................................................................
Special Express (2 Days)
Mailing $180.00 00.00
Insurance $50.00 00.00
Vat $150.00 00.00
TOTAL $380.00 00.00
$380(Three Hundred and Eighty US Dollars Only).

............................................................................
Economy Express (3Days)
Mailing $100.00 00.00
Insurance$?150.00 00.00
Vat (5%) $50.00 00.00
TOTAL $300.00 00.00
$300(Three Hundred US Dollars Only).
....................................................................

You are hereby required to advice us, on your parcel delivery option by
filling in the required form stated above. Please note that the deadline for
claiming your fund is exactly one week after the receipt of this email. After
this period, your fund will be return back to the ordering costumer. That is
the instruction given to us .So take note.

We request that you reconfirm your mailing address to ensure conformity with
our record for immediate dispatch of your parcel to you. Only valid
residential/Office address and postal address are certified OK.

DELIVERY DESTINATION INFORMATION:

-------------------------------------------------------------
Receiver's Name :..............................................
Address:...............................................................
Tel/:......................................................................
Delivery Information/ Parcel Description

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Delivery Terms: .............. .......International Delivery
Condition Of Delivery..............Priority Delivery
Consignment Note No: ........... MI 49866-2110
Color of Parcel: ..................... Brown.
Total Weight: ..........................36.2 kg
Total Net Weight: ...................1.7 kg

We are here to protect you from any problem till you receive your package .You
can as well get in touch with the FedEx delivery company assigned to deliver
this financial package to your doorstep.

Below is the delivery companies contact information:
Companies Name: Federal Express Courier Service.
Directors Name: MR. ALLEN WHITE
Email: allenwhite.off@hotmail.com
Telephone Number:             +234-703-372-0754      

Looking forward to hear from you as soon as you receive this message
Best Regards,

Robert S. Mueller III
Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW Washington, D.C.
20535-0001, USA.
PHONE : 309 504 8079
Email: Info888@federalbureauinestigationsoff.org

I mean, do they really think people are this stupid?

@bettakultcha @racinghippo follow @bdjesusman – cannot believe I only just found this and site! As a Bradfordian, get Mr Jesus or site ppl!

to which @bettakultcha later replied:

@bdjesusman would love you to come and present about bradfordjesusman at #bettakultcha #Bradford

A few things struck me from these and a few other messages that were sent:

1. Random people were starting to find my Bradford Jesus Man website which means word is getting around without me having to whore it on The Facebook or The Twitter so much.
2. People actually loved the idea of the site.
3. I was being complimented on the design and functionality of the site.
4. I had no idea what BettaKultcha was…

Now, I was in Chorley at a friends wedding at the time with limited mobile data so couldn’t really look up that much on BettaKultcha at the time but when the data signal came back for a short period I would get PUSH messages through from the awesome TweetBot so I could still see what people were saying. However, as I was Des that night I was able to look at it all with fresh eyes in the morning.

The whole idea of BettaKultcha is, quite simply, to learn about new stuff – to get betta kultcha’d (better cultured, in case you couldn’t work it out!). This is done by way of numerous presenters each doing a five minute presentation with a few simple rules. The most prominent rule, and the one in CAPITAL LETTERS, is that the presentation must not contain pitches. There’s nothing like going to a fun, social event and it turning into a business networking event… The other three rules are what make it fun. Actually, it’s one rule but I think they wanted to expand on it somewhat!

The rules are:

• ABSOLUTELY no sales pitches
• 20 slides must be used
• Each slide must last for 15 seconds exactly
• After 5 minutes, the presentation is over

So I, perhaps stupidly, said I would do a presentation. Now I have a few things to try and work out. Mainly why I agreed to do the talk – I hate public speaking, I’m not a public speaker. One of my lowest marks at uni was when I had to give a five minute talk in front of 6 fellow students. This doesn’t bode well for the same length talk but in front of 100 people…

For a bit of comfort I dug up a bunch of YouTube videos filmed at previous BettaKultcha events. The themes varied wildly; Why Manchester is Better Than Leeds (amusingly this was at a Leeds event!), Magic & Conspiracy Theories, How Star Wars is based on Mills and Boon, How to Get Thrown Out of University, Ghosts, Dementia; each carried out with varying degrees of ability from the presenters. This is a good thing. I will no doubt be considerably lower down on the ‘ability’ scale than some of the presenters but the reviews and blog posts I’ve read confirm that this is probably fine anyway as the people who attend are pretty friendly and unlikely to start heckling. If a presentation is really terrible then they can at least sit safe in the knowledge that it will be over within five minutes. It’s hardly worth getting worked up about!

So, now I need to sort out what I want to talk about. Usually people ask to be a presenter at the events but in my case I was basically nominated, for which I am truly flattered! I think I will talk about a few different aspects of the whole Bradford Jesus Man thing; why I made the website, what the website does and, perhaps most interesting, as much as possible about the legend that is Geoffrey Brindley – the Bradford Jesus Man.

If you want to come along either to see me battling my inner demons or to hear the (no doubt fascinating) other presentations then you need to book yourself a ticket via BettaKultcha’s EventBrite page – tickets cost £5 and the event takes place at the Midland Hotel in Bradford on Thursday 11th August 2011.

As it’s autosomal-dominant there’s a 50:50 chance that each of my dad’s kids also carries this gene defect. This afternoon I’m off to see a ‘genetic counsellor’ who will talk through the process, implications and, at some point, steal some of my blood. If it turns out that I also have this gene defect then I will be able to have regular check ups every 18 months and would also be fast-tracked through the NHS for treatment if anything was found. It also means a 50:50 chance that my little boy and girl may also have the gene defect. If I don’t have it, then all I’ve lost is a bit of blood.

It brings some rather tricky questions into play. I was ‘lucky’ in that I was 30 when we found out about the gene defect. Old enough to understand what was happening and helped by years of study in this field (my degree is in Biochemistry with Biomedicine – a lot of focus on the genetics of cancers). Our kids are 5 and 4 years old at this moment in time. Far too young to really know the intricacies of what’s happening. If it turns out that I have the MLH1 gene defect then what is a ‘good’ age to explain it to them? For them to have a blood test to see if, they too, are affected? How would I feel knowing that I have passed on this 80% chance of colorectal cancer? When my dad first told me about it he apologised. I successfully told him he was stupid (by ‘successfully’ I mean I didn’t get a clip ’round the ear ‘ole!) and that there’s nothing he’s done that’s caused it. Yet, here I am thinking exactly the same things…

I regularly tell people to stop stressing about things they have no control over. I’m hoping I can take heed of my own words.

A friend of mine (@echoingsounds) asked if I’d seen ‘Abatoir‘ (I may have misheard him though) to which I answered “yes’ – because I have an I didn’t see the point in lying about such a  trivial thing. He then said “Oooooohhhhhh, wait until you see it in HD!” to which I responded “Why? does it make the story better?”. Completely missing the fact that I wasn’t overly impressed with the film he simply said “No, it just looks amazing”.

Now, my Toshiba TV has some brilliant up-scaling built in and even old DVD’s in SD (Standard Definition [720 x 576]) look great. If you look closely (see below) you can see some pixelation on the edge of Mr Herring’s (@Herring1967) suit and some of the strands of hair aren’t quite distinguishable from each other.

However, it’s very rare that I watch a DVD from such close proximity. Sometimes this might be my view:

Looks fine, doesn’t it? However, in general, this is my normal view:

The extra resolution, on a 42″ TV, is something and nothing. You don’t notice it or need it in normal, everyday use. Anything over 42″, in my opinion, does benefit from HD (although you obviously need a HD source – something else the salesmen never tell the often naive customers) as the pixelation gets to a point where it’s quite distracting.

OK, so, it’s clear I’m happy with DVD’s over BluRay but what about TV? Well, what about it?! I’ve started thinking up more and more random retorts to the Sky HD salesmen in the Kirkgate Shopping Centre in Bradford. Initially I started by being quite polite, “No thanks”, “Not for me” until they started really getting on my nerves by asking me 4 times in the space of 5 minutes – surely a bloke with 2 young kids is quite recognisable after asking them twice in such a short space of time? More random retorts include “I’m a virgin”, “Sky TV is of the devil”, “I already have a credit card”, “I don’t have a credit card”, “Don’t touch me there”, “Stop following me” and “Are you my mum?”. I need to think of a killer retort though for next time… I don’t need HD TV, probably 80% of the country don’t need HD TV. Yet there are a huge number of people forking out a small fortune for Sky HD and Virgin Media HD. In reality though most of the programmes are broadcast in up-scaled SD as opposed to actually being HD programmes. In which case, my TV does just as good a job. There’s an option on Sky HD box to have it display in the EPG which programmes are up-scaled and which are actually broadcast/filmed in proper HD. Last time I looked HD programmes were the minority – admittedly this was about 9 months ago so things may well have changed. The point still stands though that just because you have a HD TV, a HD digi-box (Sky HD, Virgin HD or Freeview HD) doesn’t mean that everything you see is HD.

We use Freeview for our TV – I’m from Yorkshire therefore I’m tight-fisted and, hence, reluctant to pay for extra TV channels that I will never watch. To be perfectly honest most Freeview channels look good on my TV (the ones that don’t are ones I wouldn;t normally watch anyway) – admittedly because of the very good up-scaling algorithms that Toshiba use. The ‘pixelation’ seen with Freeview isn’t so much the fact that it is not HD but more the fact that there are too many channels on a single multiplex. For those who are not aware how Freeview works, basically there are 6 frequencies/”channels” that are broadcast – these are known as Multiplexes (Mux for short). Each Mux contains multiple TV channels which your Freeview device decodes and splits up into the normal everyday ‘channels’ that you are used to. That’s why with a poor signal you don’t lose one channel – you lose a group of channels which are all broadcast on the same frequency. In order to fit more channels onto a single Mux the broadcasters have to reduce the quality of the video and audio – this is most noticeable via ‘artefacts of compression’. Have you ever saved a jpeg photo in really low quality and seen the ‘blocky’ effect that arises? This is caused by the compression used to keep the image file size small. Freeview images are, essentially, lots of jpeg images thrown together to make video and they suffer the same form of compression ‘blockiness’. See below for an example of jpeg compression (click it for full size!):

In the top photo you can make out a lot of the detail, you see nice gradual fading of colours and nice sharp edges. However in the bottom you can see ‘blockiness’ where the compression tries to reduce the number of colours; the end results are that subtle shades are lost, sharp edges become blurred and the picture, overall, looks pretty crap. Now, imagine this in every frame of a video broadcast – you’ve probably seen it yourself if you’ve ever had the misfortune of watching football on the telly. Sometimes the pitch is very blocky instead of a nice subtle, varying shades of green like it should be – this is due to the compression.

Now, different Mux’s have different numbers of channels and, therefore, different rates of compression – you can only fit so much data into a single Mux broadcast due to bandwidth limitations. Mux 1 with 5 TV channels (BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, CBBC, BBC News, BBC Red Button and a few BBC Radio channels) has noticeably less compression than Mux 2 with 8 TV channels (ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5, ITV 2, Channel 4+1, More 4, E4, ITV1+1 and a couple of text and radio channels).  [NB: I am in  pre-switchover area so these Mux's and channel listings will differ elsewhere]. HD TV or not, the Mux2 channels will always look worse. [For a fairly concise explanation of bitrates/compression/bandwidth have a read of this from UKfree.tv]. So when a salesman or demo TV shows you a comparison between a Freeview channel and their Sky HD set up you might like to point out that it’s not a fair comparison. They are implying that Freeview is bad and Sky is great – you would see exactly the same difference between normal Sky (not HD) and Sky HD – and seeing as a lot of Sky channels are actually really only SD, are they really any better than Freeview? They are selling you a few channels and programmes in HD but not everything you get will be HD.

I’ve heard a few people say that you need HD to be able to see the real beauty of some of the amazing BBC wildlife documentaries. I beg to differ. On Freeview (SD, not Freeview HD) on my 42″ TV those documentaries STILL looked absolutely stunning – a lot f it is the camera and filming techniques used. Admittedly if it was broadcast on, say, ITV on Mux2 with more channels resulting in more compression then, yes, the HD boys would have a point – the fact is, though, that ITV don’t make nature programmes like the BBC do anyway so it would never happen so it’s a moot point.

After the digital switchover (September this year for me) the analogue channels will be removed which will effectively give Mux’s 1, B, C & D 33% more bandwidth (i.e. they can use less compression) then Freeview video SHOULD look better anyway – i.e. the same as ‘normal’ Sky or Virgin TV. Still no need for HD.

Personally I think that HD is very over-rated. Most people simply do not need it and are buying into the very clever marketing people. The number of channels and programmes broadcast in HD is pretty small too so, in my eyes, not worth the extra cost to get it. There is a plus-side to this though – the more people that use BluRay over DVD, the cheaper DVD’s (both new and 2nd hand) are for me!

Well, as the title suggests, working at home this way has it’s pro’s and it’s con’s…

The Pro’s

Mrs-MaFt works shifts so child-care is relatively easy. If she’s working then I do the school/nursery runs and catch up on my work later in the evening once it’s passed bed o’clock for the kids.

If I’m not too well I can still get work done without worrying about infecting my fellow co-workers with the lergy. With an office job I would lose a whole day even if I would have been well enough to get some work done.

I could come to work hungover and no one would know.

I could come to work naked and no one would know.

I could come to work naked and hungover and no one would know.

If I lie in (unlikely, I have kids!) it takes me 12 seconds to commute down the stairs and open my laptop.

I can nip out to the local Farm Shop, Morrisons or Town during the day and miss the busy times.

I can listen to punk rock and metal all day long instead of the awful pop ‘music’ pumped out by Radio 1 and Galaxy (the requisite ‘entertainment’ in all the non-home jobs I’ve had)

Courier deliveries result in actually having your item when they deliver it rather than having until the weekend and then driving a 15 mile round trip to pick it up from the depot.

The Cons

It can be all too easy to waste too many hours dicking about on eBay or doing too much research on a gadget I simply can’t afford to buy.

People assume that, because you’re at home, you’re not busy and can jump to their every whim.

No ‘snow days’.

It can get quite lonely at times. A lazy, fluffy black cat and a handful of cyber-colleagues on instant messenger software just doesn’t match real, actual physical company.

On a morning if I have Mini-Mrs-MaFt then, generally, she will be watching CBeebies. That itself isn’t a bad thing – it keeps her entertained and she practises her dancing when there’s some music on. However, as pointed out by ‘Mrs TheBoyAndMe‘, it usually results in having “please tell me, please tell me, pleeeease teeeeell meeee your name” stuck in your head for too many hours.

It’s too easy to get lazy. Sometimes after Mrs-MaFt has taken Mini-Mrs-MaFt I can’t be bothered switching from CBeebies to Kerrang! Radio on the tellybox.

In Conclusion

Working at home has it’s pro’s and it has it’s cons. However, I wouldn’t change it for anything! Following various people on twitter and general day to day dealings with other real people it would seem I am in a minority – you see, I actually enjoy my job and the work I do. I work with some great people spread out about the world in various different time-zones yet still get time with my family. A lot of jobs can’t offer that flexibility – if I had to commute more than a staircase away then that would, straight away, remove 2 hours of available time from the day. And I’d like to keep those those 2 hours, thanks!

Postscript:

Well, in case you were wondering what brought this post about, it was the result of a brief conversation on twitter with @TheBoyAndMe. Click the image to the left to see the whole thing. It’s a quite tenuous link once you actually read it, but that’s what made me think of writing the post! Having CBeebies songs in your head is definitely a ‘con’ of working at home!

* Top left image from MediaMonkey

Anyway, this random musical ‘knowledge’ helped pass the time on more than one occasion. The premise was simple – say a few words from a Green Day song and the other person would have to guess the name of the song. Because both Neil and I were sad/anal (delete as applicable) we were able to dig up such random lines as “silhouette of your dreams” and the other, after some thought would correctly says “1,000 Hours”. See, it was fun and a useful time killer. One other time killer I remember was twanging elastic bands at ‘Lars’ so called because he looked like Tim Armstrong from Rancid. Yes, I know, that doesn’t make sense but we always used to get Tim and Lars from Rancid muddled up…

So, the years went on, and the size of my record collection grew fairly steadily and the number of bands I had seen live grew too. It got harder and harder to keep track of all the great music I had access to and, gradually, I started realising that I couldn’t sing along with every word at a gig. Initially this threw me somewhat; I felt like an imposter, a ‘kid’ who’d just discovered this ‘new’ band (that had been around for years) and had gone to see them live solely because they saw the name drop in Kerrang! magazine. Surely a real fan would know all the lyrics? Looking back I think I was just as bad as the kid who went to the gig on Kerrang!’s orders – I was too concerned about knowing all the words and band history so I could ‘look’ like I was a better fan; that, perhaps, I was more deserving of the hallowed ticket than the other people in the sweaty circle pit.

Eventually I had seen so many bands and owned so many albums that the number of times I didn’t know the words far outgrew the number of times I did. I just got used to not knowing it all, to be totally honest I didn’t even attempt to try and know it all. It just wasn’t as important. Don’t get me wrong, I love my physical CD collection primarily because I love reading the liner notes and the lyrics sheets – but I no longer remember them all. There are some bands that I ‘grew up with’ such as Therapy?, Green Day, The Offspring, NOFX, Terrorvision, Metallica, Megadeth etc who’s lyrics and random facts I can still sometimes recall but anything after 1998 I struggle with…

Fifteen years ago if I had gone to a gig not knowing the bands entire back-catalogue I would likely have come away feeling a bit short-changed. In 2001 I saw The Offspring supported by A and AFI. For some reason I hated AFI; I think partly because I’d only heard one of their older albums before they went sort of ‘gothic’ and partly because I didn’t know any songs to sing along to. Today, they are one of my favourite bands and would love the chance to go back to 2001 and see them again and actually enjoy the music without being so strung up on knowing the words! On the opposite, more recent end of the spectrum last year I went to see Paramore at the Sheffield Arena along with 11,999 other people – a band who I would class as being one of my favourites at the moment. I have all of their albums but seeing them live I could genuinely only sing along fully to a small number of their songs. It was a great gig though, very tight as a band, great performance and visuals and simply awesome music. The day after that we went to see Demon Hunter at The Well in Leeds (a tiny little back room – there were about 60 of us!). I only own one of their albums and knew about 5 of the songs they played. Did it bother me? Nope. It was probably one of the best, most intimate gigs I’ve been to in my life. So, I couldn’t sing a long to every song but I got to actually enjoy the music, have my ear drums pummelled and have a brilliant night out with my mate and my brother.

So, has my love of music faded? No, certainly not. Has my method of appreciation changed? Oh yes! I can actually enjoy the music and the whole album without worrying about the bands history or line-up changes or wanting to know every single word to the song. If I go see a band live I do my utmost to simply enjoy them and have fun. Who cares if I know the words or not – I’m not 15 anymore, I have far more pressing things to worry about!

Luke Macgregor/REUTERS (via Guardian)

These kids are only out for one thing – to cause havoc. Why else would they need to cover their faces and hide their identity?

I’m all for students having a moan about tuition fees although I completely disagree with their thinking that uni should be free. They have a right to protest, but not to cause criminal damage and to assault people. They have a right to an education too. The thing is, they’ve HAD that education. You see, education is only compulsory up to the age of 16 and it is paid for by the government. Not everyone in the world has that privilege even though education it is one of our human rights. On the subject of human rights, today is actually Human Rights Day; Another human right is the protection of your own property – something the students seem to forget about when they start breaking stuff!

Further to the free education that the government pays for from the age of 3 to 16, they also give you an extra couple of years in 6th form or college. Again, this is generally free and certainly beyond the call of duty. Going to University is not a right, it is a privilege and one that I was lucky enough to have had, although it was expensive!

When I started uni in 1998 they had pretty much scrapped the grant system; I got about £500 in my first term and that was it. The rest of it was paid for with a £9000 student loan (that I’m still paying back), some money from my parents towards accommodation and a part time job helping run a punk-rock mail order catalogue and working at record fairs around the north east. The working part was the best part – it felt good to be able to pay for some of my education myself. It’s surprising how much difference £50 a week can make.

What annoys me most about the current violent protests is not just the fact the students are clearly looking for trouble, but that they think they have a right to a university education. Sorry, but if you want something extra then you have to pay for it!

When I planned on going to uni I had a career in mind – I would study biochemistry with biomedicine and then go work in research labs either for a pharma company or at a university research lab. I pretty much fulfilled this although my current line of work is as detached from biochemistry as Jordan is from Peter.

I think one of the bigger issues about the whole fees debate is the reason WHY these students want to go to uni. Is it to further their education in order to get better jobs? If so then really, these days, a degree isn’t going to make much difference except in certain fields like medicine or engineering etc. I frequently hear of people who went to work straight after 6th form that have better jobs/careers than those who went to uni. When I went to uni it simply wasn’t possible to get the jobs I was looking for without a degree – hence I got a degree. Some of the courses on offer these days are ridiculous and have no practical value. Perhaps if the students were to do proper courses then 1) there’d be less people in uni ‘just for fun’ thus allowing more funding per student and 2) they might actually be able to get a relevant job at the end of the course! Are they going to uni to learn or to avoid having to get a job in the real world for a few more years? Whatever their motives, it’s clear that they’re not bothered about their education – how else would they find time to travel to London to protest? My degree involved, from memory, 12-15 hours of lectures and 6-8 hours of practical sessions every week; At the end of my first year, when everyone else had 6 weeks of dossing about before Summer, we started our 2nd year modules so that we could fit everything in; I also had to do 2 dissertations.

So, there you go. Stop your whining and, if you want to study, then go and do it instead of messing about starting fights demanding you get everything for free.