After a while of the whole 'no blogging' thing, I have decided that it is time to jump back on the bandwagon. So many things have changed since my last post, I'm now in my final year at University and I have applied for a Masters (which is an uber scary concept). I can't believe just how quickly the time has flown by: it seems like it was only yesterday, when I was starting life as a first year undergraduate student at Leeds Trinity University, now I'm planning graduation and the next few (which I hope to be amazing) stages of my life.

In a way, this is all scary stuff. The simply fact that there is no definite path for me at the moment, everything is literally resting on ifs, buts and maybes. As scary as this is, part of me actually finds this ride, a rather excitable one. I know that the majority of us third year students are in the same boat at the moment, all asking the same questions: where do we go from here? What sort of work do I actually want? Have I done the right bloody degree? The simple fact that there are more people other than myself who are going through the same thing right now, makes me feel better about the whole situation. I have uni friends who didn't know what they wanted to do when the graduated, and many of them have now got jobs or gone into further education, so it just shows that you don't always have to be stupendously organised with life.

I guess that another thing which relates to the whole 'scary stuff' is not knowing what results I'm actually going to come out with at the end of these three years! I mean, what happens if I don't get the marks which I need to continue on to postgraduate study? Will there be other options awaiting me if I don't succeed? Naturally, these questions make me worry, but I guess that my response is always the same: things will work out for themselves, even if I don't take the path which I thought that I would originally. At the moment, everything seems to be going rather smoothly, apart from a few glitches. It's time to get motivated, get my head down and work my fucking arse off for the next couple of months. At the end of the day, as scary as this whole malarkey is, the only way which I'm actually going to achieve something, or anything at the end of it, is by putting in the work which is necessary. 

Oh, hello there cold.

It's come to that time of year, where we all get the spontaneous outburst of the much hated cold. It leaves you in the shittiest of moods, and with the drive to do barely anything. It's something that we try to avoid and get rid of through the use of Beechams, Lemsip, Halls, you name it, I bet that we've tried it. A cold makes the sinuses so erratic, one moment they're the blocked, and the next they're fine and you led into thinking that you're cured. A bad cold affects your sleep during the night, meaning that you can't be as focused on things as you would like to be during the day.

A chest infection is the worst

Having a cold seems admirable in comparison to a chest infection. First of all, you already I suppose have the cold, or at least the symptoms of it, with the blocked sinuses and the never ending runny nose, which means you end up spending more on toilet rolls than you do throughout the rest of the bloody year.With the blocked sinuses, comes the headaches: I myself have pressure right on the top of my head (it's not pleasant!), and finally, the constant sensation of wanting to 'pop your ears.' The ear thing is maybe one of the most annoying, because it limits your hearing. It doesn't sound very pleasant when you're at work and are constantly pardoning the customers because you genuinely cannot hear what they are saying. I'm pretty sure that the ear popping thing has also led to myself being more imbalanced and more prone to falling over, but then again I'm a clumsy sod anyway ha! 


...... And so, after all of the horrible icky cold stuff, a cough develops, sometimes it may be a tickle cough, and at other times a far more dry cough. I think that mine is more of a dry one, it sounds a little like a smokers cough, but I don't smoke! The coughing fits are not pleasant by any means, they often leave you gasping for breath and give you a choking sensation: NOT NICE. 


So here I am, sat in my Pj's with dressing gown on and extra socks: heating on, and still absolutely fucking freezing. Two days off work and I'm actually genuinely missing the place, (yes, I do quite like my job:)), and all because of a stupid chest infection. 

What Alcohol Can Do To You

It's a sunny afternoon, and you're feeling like the concept of a few beers at the pub is a good one. A few turns into alot and before you know it, you're already half way there to being pissed out of your tree. The drink keeps flowing, and the drunkeness keeps on coming. The sober world which you are so accustomed to slowly disappears, and you enter the world of pissed-up-ness. You become less concerned about the things you might say, your voice becomes louder, and your personality more projected.

After the pub, it's time for town. There's an array of sights to be seen; from the girls who flaunt every inch of skin on their bods, to the men who are trying to chat those girls up. Quing up ready for the club, you try and act as sober as possible so that entry won't be refused. If you manage to get inside, it's straight to the bar, followed by the dance floor.

The dance floor is where it all happens: there is a serious projection of shape throwing here. You always find the one person who has had far too much to drink, and they think that they're the next Michael Jackson with their (not so good) dancing skills. You get those like me, trying to throw shapes like Miss B, and the shy ones in the corner who have clearly still not had enough to drink.

Alcohol makes you feel invincible, when you're most vunerable

It gives you the confidence to do things that you otherwise may not, such as call somebody a 'twat' for the laughs, or strike up a conversation with a hottie. I wouldn't say that alcohol makes us feel absolutely invincible. We're never going to be Superman, and even if we could be, the Kryptonite would eventually get the better of us. I'd say that alcohol rather, gives us the opportunity to liberate ourselves from the constraints of everyday life. I mean this of course, as drink in the enjoyable sense of it; I'm not dismissing that there are people who have problems with alcohol, or judging them for it. I'm looking at the use of alcohol simply in the social (pubs, bars, parties, clubs etc) regards.

ESSAY.ESSAY.ESSAY

When someone begins to speak about an essay, what are the first things that come to mind? Nervousness, the thought of having do a shit load of work and assuming that you haven't done the best you thought you could?

What about the submission of your essay? Do you become scared of being accused of plagarism? Scared that you've missed out something extremely important?

As you've already more than like deciphered for yourselves, I've just submitted an essay. Not just any essay, but one worth 50% of my overall peace and peace-making module. This means that failure is not an option. Nowayhozay! Instead, the goal had to be to strive (with a little laziness of course), and do the best that I could do in the essay.

I'd say that the most nerve racking part of any work submission isn't the submission itself, but rather the waiting around for the results. For now, it's time to party and enjoy the few days of freedom which I have before returning to the wonderful world of university work.

Religion.Religion.Religion.

Religion.Religion.Religion.

Are all religions different? Or do they fundamentally follow the same rules and principles? Of course, I'm not going to say that there are no differences at all between religions, but it amazes me at the similarites which one can find between them. Divine rules such as 'thou shall not kill,' are rules which are found in many religious text. Religions often stem from the same relgious text, and so they follow similar precedences, they have simply changed overtime due to becoming more widespread.

I look at the concept of God, and realise that the concept of what 'God' is remains the same in more or less all religions. God is often seen as a transcendent being, creator of all, and ruler of all. Different religions can be catergorised into two sections; polytheistic and monotheistic. The first follows the concept of many Gods, the latter simply one. In many polytheistic religions, the Gods are representative of different things in the world. such as life, or fire (yes, those examples are a little crappy, but they're off of the top of my head:)).

Does this seem like a good proposal?

In my eyes, there are too many similarities between different religions, and not enough differences to propose that religion may have stemmed from one placed, and globalised itself over time. The simple prospect that religion even exists, and not only in one place but all over the world, shows that this could be true. It cannot be known how it became widespread, possibly through travelling to countries such as China for trade and becoming open to new experiences, and the colonisation of other countries such as Africa and America. America especially, as the protestants who went over were often regarded as fundamentalists, they wanted to revert back to the very traditions of Christianity and believed in a far more literal interpretation of the Holy Bible. Anyhow, the more globalised religion has become, it appears the more it has been altered to suit the needs of the people in societies. I do think that all religions are different, as they all have different beliefs, follow different texts, and simply have different namses. But this does not mean that they cannot have derived from one place, when the many similarities between different religions are taken into consideration.

Philosophy Lecture

Philosophy is one of the most confusing modules ever.. FACT
Today at University, we had a lecture on the topic of Heidegger. Apparently he's an phenomenological existentialist who was primarily concerned with the concepet of 'existence over essence', (or so I think). The whole existentialist topic is confusing, but of course I mean this in a good way. Philosophy enables you to think about and questions things that you may not usually, such as the self and how parts of the world work.
In terms of existentialism, I guess that the work is harder than last semester, but I take this as a challenge accepted!

Philosophy is an amazingly diverse topic, and there is so so much to learn about! The question of the existence of a God, the problem of evil, dualism, material, reductionism! SO SO many interesting things! I have to say that one of my favourites philosophers so far has to be Nietzsche who proposed a concept of 'the death of God.' This shouldn't be misunderstood, as he doesn't mean a literal death of God. Instead he is arguing that due to Westernisation and the changes which Christianity has made in order to fit in with modern society, it has removed itself from the God that society once knew. There is much more to this, but I won't babble rabble on.

I'm now sat in the Libz with Hannah (I hate that girl), just kidding, I love her really (in a non-lesbian way)! We're all set to do more Uni work, if we don't make it in for the lectures tomorrow, it's because our brains have all gone to mush mush and we are no longer function human beings!

Peace out:)

Mr Taxi Driver

Today, I had a rather interesting conversation with a taxi driver on my way to work. He'd noticed the bible which I had in my bag (he wasn't being nosy, it was just too hard to miss), and struck up a conversation about how similar all religons were. Throughout the journey, Mr Taxi driver explained to me how 96% of all things in each religion are fundamentally the same, for example 'Love thy neighbour,' is a commandment which many religions follow.

The main aspect the taxi driver was able to point out to me, was how a minority of religious people do not seek to find the similarities between their own religion and others, but rather the differences, and it is here where conflict begins. This form of exclusivism is one which poses a threat to societies, and to what people may stereotypically think of different religions. What the exclusivists and fundamentalists should seek to do, is not focus on the differences between religions and perceive these in a negative way, but rather become more open to the differences in a positive manner, and also reflect on the similarties and use these as a reminder that fundamentally, all religions have pretty much the same meanings.