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I've got me think like a shrink head on and am watching this big bro stuff - Trying to work out how the program makers have plotted it all up.

Bimbos, happy bunnies, plastic monosyllabytes, girl with big puppies, passive aggressive batswomen for the other side, WI stereotype woman, avered wannabe wag, tranced out never left the rave since Ibiza woman and lively old east london mum woman.

Wonder when they are gonna bring on the Y chromosomes. Are they gonna drip them in one by one or stick em in en masse.

Jesus why am I even writing about this stuff. No more I promise

Steph tagged me on a 7 random facts about me meme, so here goes

1. I'm a true Cockney born within the sounds of the Bow Bells
2. I am a 1st born Leo. As is my dad as was my grandad and  my great grandad, my son is also a 1st born Leo
3. One of my favourite cult comedy shows is the Trailer Park Boys
4. I once dropped a shovel on Concorde and caused a walkout at the aircraft hangar
5. I was a fully qualified Butcher at age 16 but gave it all up at 18 apparently bored
6. I have English, Irish and Welsh lineage - explains why I can be both fiery and dispassionate as well as have an affection for sheep Roasted of course
7. I cycle between 50 and 80 miles per week - but need new routes!

Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

I tag:hellome Joueuse  kevinwilson lledeb anywhichway nastrorosa Znethru

You may well know of a person who you care for somewhere who lately just gets on your nerves, rubs you up the wrong way, says mean things, acts in an offhand way. Don't get mad at them, don't shout at them, don't cut them off, don't push them away. You might just be all they have, you might well be the only person they feel that they can be like that with, they might be struggling with something deeply personal to them, they might just be reaching out to you hoping you can help or understand, they might find it all a little difficult so it comes out all the wrong way. Whatever it is, whoever they are if you really care you can make a difference, repair a rift, iron out a misunderstanding, swallow your pride and help them, 3 little words will make a difference, be they spoken or through deed - I and love and you.

Im listening to Radion 5 live, Richard Bacon.

He is talking about Chav towns. Seeking opinions from people on the places they live in.

Its interesting to hear the various voices and hearing what they have to say. You really do get a sense for the types of people who are phoning in and can almost see the big blue torches emblazoned upon their chests.

Anti social behaviour seems to be the biggest bugbear with most callers, although really people who dont really have a problem wont call in, its usually the disgruntled who complain, which is the problem with radio shows and phone ins and loaded questions.

So what of our kids? Are they in crisis, are they the cause and who do we blame even?

Kids in groups aged 12 up these days can invariably be pretty large and in groups, intimidating too, I accept that, especially if its dark and they are all hoodied up perhaps.

But really, are they as 'bad' as people make them out to be? Are our estates and inner cities out of control? Or is it just a skewed reputational thing brought about by the odd story here and there and then highlighted in the media.

We don't hear many positive representations about young people, it's how the media works.

Nice kids just aren't newsworthy, far better to create an idea of strife and decay, especially when viewed from a political perspective.

Politicians in need of votes and electioneering can't appear to be tough on the idea of out of control streets, if such a mindset doesn't exist. Far better to appear to be tackling a problem that is really in dire need of firm political policies and actions eh...

Of course, there are lots of young people who do behave in ways that for lots are just socially unacceptable, yet I have to ask, what is really achieved by seeking to marginalise these people with ASBO's and other higher tariff control mechanisms? How does the practice of socially isolating via ASBO an already dysfunctional socially isolated person, really help anyone?

Perhaps the ASBO approach is rooted in an idea of coercian - like some Skinner Box of positive and negative reinforcement of good and bad behaviour. Yeah that works, treat them like lower tier life forms, rats even.

Where is the work being done though, where is the investment in the environments that are breeding these people, where are the jobs, education, social work and services to help these people - would you know even? When was the last time you had any communication from national or local government on this.

Its largely left to our schools to socialise our kids in terms of play and work and effort and reward and responsibility and stuff like that, which is all well and good, but doesn't really deal with the problem kids who for whatever reason don't turn or or get excluded and no longer go.

What do we do with these kids? Who cares even? Is it right to just say, fuck em, just let them get on with, their choice their behaviour, let them pay the price for their actions. If they misbehave then let them feel the weight of the law? Or do we take responsibility for our communities and the people who live in them. Should we all get more politically and socially active in our spheres, or do we just up sticks and move to better neighbourhoods simply because we can, leaving ghettos behind us?

Maybe society is basically broke. Perhaps the old institutions that bound us and helped socialise us giving us a sense of community and compassion for others have waned to a point of irrelevance.

I cant help but feel that a hellava lot of our kids would rather watch telly or play on the xbox 360 or get a new pair of trainers or find a way of squeezing some money out of an adult for something else for them. Its a me me me world - created by the consumerist society that we all seem to like on the face of it, yet bury our heads in the sand when faced with some of its less appealling affects.

If it is creating morally bereft rudderless kids wanting it all for nothing then can we really be surprised when these kids grown into adult similars who then repeat and rinse the cycle.How does the already dysfunctioning adult raise children equipped with the skills to live a productive later life. A life enriched by knowledge and experience, reward and responsibility, love and compassion for their fellow beings?

What can be done to break the cycle how do you even begin to address such things. When did you last see any evidence in your home or community of intiatives designed to address?

I'd like to see the businesses that have flourished giving a whole lot more back. I'd like to see money taken from these brands.Mobile phone companies, retail outlets, computer games companies, sporting businesses etc contribute to local pots. I'd like to see democratic discussion of how this money is spent, I'd like to...

And here is the rub.

Perhaps its just all too late.

Perhaps money really is king, god is dead, consumerism and the mediums used to push it have won out, unfettered in its disemmination of thoughts and ideas that drive ideas of accummulation, selfishness and live for today for there may not be a tommorrow.

Can we blame our kids if the only real lessons they are being taught are those of fuck everyone else, its everyman for himself?

Herein follows a wee rant.

Numbskulls really get on my wick, those people who think they are amazingly clever and insightful but aren't!

Its even worse when I have to sit there and hear them out and listen to them wiggle and writhe desparately needing to be right.

Im a tolerant person, really I am, but some days it would be great to just say - sorry you are talking out of your bottom , I can't listen anymore Ive better things to do with my time, please just feck off out of it.But no, the reality is that seldom happens, I have to play that same old game of, 'well yeah, I hear where you are coming from, but....'

Ahhh thats better

We all have an opinon on lazy Sunday mornings, nothing new to report there. Wake up, have a snuggle or if one is so inclined a jodrell even, dependant upon ones circumstances of course.

But what about afternoons. Take today, picked up Amber at 10 did the dad thing for 3 hours dropped her off and duly fancied a beer. Rang around a few people met with a few hangovers and eventaully corrupted a couple into meeting me at Cafe Rogue in Hitchin at 8pm.

I've made the fatal mistake of getting stuck in to a nice drop of leffe Blonde, which for the non sophisticats amongst yous is a gorgeous tasting Belgian wheat beer. The consequences of which mean that I'm in a right mood for a nice beer and a cackle.

So, long story short, if you know Hitchin and fancy going on the lash, then it would be cool if you joined us.

Hitchin is 30 miles north of London , 30 mins from Kings X

Yeah ok, so if someone even turned up I'd eat me shorts, but hey it would be kinda random if someone did

Sometimes life sucks and thats really ok

Sometimes its great and makes you say yay

Sometimes its boring and dull and no fun

Sometimes its vibrant and sexy and yum

Sometimes its dangerous and fraught and just scary

Sometimes its nothing but grief and contrary

Sometimes its cool to just chill and sit

Planning next moves, getting on with it

...not very good, but I seem to end up watching it year on out.

Its like watching Royston Vasey on speed.

Oh hang on, the Russian group at least look the part - supermods in black, Robert Palmer addicted to luuuuurve anyone!

Oh jees and now we have the Germans...Germans really really shouldn't sing in their native tongue. Its as melodious and connected as ice cream on toast.

Sorry, but come on be fair, name one really good German song that went mainstream. Apart from 99 red balloons and Kraftwerk stuff.

Heh and now its Serbia. Hang on a minute, is that Joe Pasquale I see before me. Oh no, its a bird. Jesus, what a lot of shit! Serbia, that was really bad.

Ukraine now, prefaced by a moomin playing chess. Hold on - has some3one stuck an acid in my VAT? These Ukranians...I think I need to go out there for a laugh - this mob have a got a sense of humour. High tempo sue pollard sings folk ruski in ice maiden outfit with star on top of cannister. Honestly

Terry Wogan has got a great job. Sits there gets lashed and commentates, a bit like moi I guess.

Oh here we go its the UK..Flyyyying the flaaaaag..what camp nonsense. If they win i'll enage in a collective forfeit.

Romanians now - you know what, we Europeans are a bizarre mix, really we are. Did this mob have a little bet and say, yeah lets see if we can come last! Bizarre! Sounds like eeeny meeny miney mo. Nutters.

Hold on tight, its the Bulgarians now...bird with wind in her hair and a cow down her throat by the sounds of things. Hang on thats a digeridoo. Sheeez, its Draculas bird with a sore throat. Nuff said. Morag hah! Hilarious

Ok, what do these people on here do. Do they gather around in a little huddle and snort and cackle and say ..'yeah lets go on Eurovision and sing like 1st class James Hunts'

Ok, make way for the Turks - fit birds in gold, lead by a short arse ina red jacket who thinks he is George Michael oh hang on, Justin Timberlake even. Utter rubbish, are we gonna get even one good song I wonder?

Next up its...

Armenia! yay! Go menia, go menia, go menia...Oh well perhaps not,its a poorly sung ballad by an ooolio iglazy looky likey.

Fuk sake, but i cant turn it off, Ive gotta stick with it for the duration. Im like that icelandic geezer Magnus kin Magnusson, I started so I'll finnish, no mate ur Icelandic

Ooh its Moldova and its just dawned on me that Ive missed loads, thank god for that!

Moldova, not even gonna comment. More of the same old poo Im afraid. Herein ends my half cut alternative broadcast.

An annual event in Spain designed to draw attention to the thing that is Bullflighting. Its organised by PETA and whilst flicking through the site I found myself going through these bio's of various scantily clad runners all of whom were vegan. All of who were saying stuff about how they like compassionate people and don't hurt animals and all that stuff. Their obvious position is one of, if you are a meat eater then it follows that you must be a discompassionate brute with no sense of care or feeling to your fellow earth sharing creatures.

The point of using sex to push a message aside ( as clever as it is).Did get me thinking to a point of hang on, do I really need to eat meat? Do I ever even stop to think of the food product in between two buns or the chop sitting on my plate with a bit of mustard on, or the rasher of bacon nestled between two slices of mothers pride as the living breathing animal it once was - short answer no! Of course I don't, never have either, why would I even.

For reasons related to what Im about to explore there's this huge disconnect between how it ends up and how it starts out. Ive sat here and asked myself are we carnivores just some group of nasty so and so's who couldn't really give a stuff, or is it just a condtioning thing even brought about by a combination of some traditional marketing onslaught and meat feeding parents.

But then really are we not true carnivores? Isn't that why we have incisors? Look at the mouth of any omnivore then look at its teeth. An omnivores teeth are designed to chew and crush vegetation. Now look at the mouth of a cat or a dog, look at the sharpies, I might be wrong , but I'm pretty sure that they dont have any omnivrous type teeth. We humans on the otherhand happen to house a combination of both kinds of teeth. Is this nature saying to us that we should eat a diet consiting of both, or is it nature saying that we have a choice in the matter, and if we choose to eat meat because it happens to be so in deeply ingrained within our culture and society, then is it really such a terrible thing, and more to the point, should vegans and veggies be adopting some moral point of superiority over us? I think not, but I accept their right to choose too.

I knew veggies in school when I was a kid. They were invariably middle class kids whose parents lived in Hampstead and Highgate who were of hippy lineage and burnt josh sticks and wore colourful looking kaftans with plaited hair and bad smelling anti deodorants. Those negatives aside, they looked ok on their diets of grass and lentils. Hardly malnourished or looking like they were in need of a big pie or anything. Yeah generally, the ones I encountered and have since even, have been peace loving , nice people. Which kinda got me thinking about why can't we all be like them, not in any dress scruffy, smelly house, weirded out philosophical sense no, what I'm getting at is why can't us carnivores look at things the way they seem to do and feel that same level of repulsion. Are we in some way brutal? Why is it we can stroke our pussies and pet our dogs and love our fluffy rabbits, yet not bat an eyelid at the thought of some fluffly little lamb or some doeful looking calf being popped into the oven with some roast spuds?

Genuinely puzzled and um, off to book me a ticket to check it out 1st hand

I woke up today and said to meself, Im gonna do a little blog on something, knock up a bit of brekkie and think about what else I'll do after that.

Come the event of course, I find myself saying hmmn what shall I talk about? What am I going to write about! What do I WANT to write about even, and then just spend the next however long scrabbling about doing a bit of flicking through the tv , listening to the radio, scanning across a few blogs in search of that inspiration only to think, nah whats the point its all been said already, why do I really want to add anything to *that* mix, who'd care even, cobblers park it, I can't summon the enthusiasm.

So I whacked on my new Kings of Leon CD and bounced round the house like a big nutter, arms a jigging, head rocking as I threw sausages and bacon into the pan buttered some nice wholemeal organic bread, threw it all on the plate with a dollop of brown horse that rocks, nice cup of fresh coffee yum, it was damn tasty.

Sitting there oblivious to everything else as the scream of 'waaah she's such a charmer, oh no' banged out full bass through the speakers. If the phone had rang I wouldn't of heard it - for all I knew the world might have stopped turning, I wouldn't have known - I was too busy lost in my head banging, in bliss at the thought I haven't got to do nish. No kids, no obligations, no nothing just me and what I want to do.

Sometimes you gotta hold on to those thoughts and realise them for the privledge that they are. Seriously, lots of people don't have these luxuries. They have to get up and deal with young kids, or care for an elderley relative, or go out to a shitty job and work shitty hours for some obnoxious arse somewhere - I know see, been there done it. Others are even less fortunate, dependant upon someone else to get them out of bed or wipe their arses even.

Strange innit really, shit is good! Othe peoples and our own too, cos it helps us appreciate what we have and what really matters. For me today what really matters is my recognition of my own personal happiness and self determination. As paradoxical as it sounds and contradictory even, we actually need a degree of rubbsih in our life. We need struggle a little. if everything is too easy and handed to us on a plate then we stullify and shrink, we end up with all manner of superficialities and expectations. Go look at any spoilt little brat out there today and you'll find an example of what non struggle can do to a persons spirit.

I'm reminded that The Road Less Travelled is a great book for this sort of stuff. If you ever read it you'll get what I'm saying and might even be sitting there nodding saying, 'yeah hear dat bro, dat book is wicked innit' I read it a while back  at a time when I was kinda phuct really. I didn't think it was possible for words on a page to have an ability to slap me in the chops and really get me thinking about where I was and perhaps why I was there even. It taught me that there is a way of looking at things, and that like it or not, we all have a choice in deciding how we deal with scenarios and events in our lives. We can look at that catastrophe to befall us as a truly awful thing and risk drowning in a sea of self absorption or we can do our grieve bit and ask ourselves the question of now, what the fuck was I supposed to learn from that, and try and see the value within.

Anyways, theres a little lesson for me today - appreciate what you have and lap it up and enjoy it for what it is, cos the only guarantees in life is that nothing is guaranteed and its certainly gonna throw you a few more curveballs along the way.