Monday 22 April 2013

The homeless problem?

This isn't a moany topic for me to ramble on about at all and of course will always do what i can to help people who find themselves without a home for the night, or even if it's a long term problem.

I'll begin by explaining what happend. I have wanted to record a video for youtube about this, but i've never found the right words to explain to you what has happend, which lead me to take the actions i have done.

Basically, while on a night out, during the cold winter the UK now seems to be getting over, me and a friend made our way over to the local train station, to phone for a taxi. My friend wanted some chips, so off we went to the chippy near and while she was inside, i stayed out in the street. I noticed over the road that someone was getting settled in a doorway, as in, settled for a night there. He wasn't one of the town's drunk party people, judging by his clothes, he was homeless on a long term basis.

I made it inside to ask my friend for her phone and through google i managed to find the none emergency police telephone number for the area and gave them a call. I explained what i'd seen and gave a description of what this man was like. About 15 minutes later, as our taxi pulled in to take us home, i saw two police officers go over to the man, presumeably prompted by my call. We got into our taxi and as we drove off, i saw this man getting up to go and walk with the officers. It was only a few days later that i'd called back and i was told that they found him a shelter to stay in for the night.

It felt kind of good, knowing that i'd helped him without him even knowing me or speaking to me.

Since then, i've seen more homeless people in this local town and of course spoken with the police many a time about getting them some help and i've got to say, it's really heart warming to see the police helping out these people. Fair enough, i may make the calls, but they're the one's who actually go out to these people and get them the help they need.

But is this a growing problem?

In my experiance, yes it is. Statistically, i'm not too sure because how can you measure how many people are homeless? But it is something that needs to be delt with.

Of course people are going to be homeless for all kinds of reasons. The most common excuse people assign to homeless people is drugs, but in most cases it'll be something like financial status', family issues etc. While yes there's help out there for these people, is it enough?

I personally wouldn't have a clue where the nearest soup kitchen was or where the nearest homeless shelter is, if i was to be made homeless right now. I know that charities exist to help homeless people, i wouldn't know their names etc.

So what can people like me do?

On a serious note, some of these people may not know where to turn and it may fall down to a little nudge from you for them to get the help they need. Never be affraid to contact your NONE EMERGENCY police department, unless of course there's an ongoing incident in which case then yes, use the 999 number in the UK, 911 for America etc. Speak to the police and ask them to help, when they have available officer's, they really do send some people to help. These officer's are able to not only take these people somewhere abit safer, but they are also the one's who can sit down with these people and try to help them tackle the issues that are keeping them homeless.

If we all did a little more, then we ok, wouldn't get rid of homelessness, but we'd certainly reduce the numbers of people at risk every night. It doesn't cost much to make a simple call and you never know, you could just save someones life :)

Sunday 21 April 2013

Why i tested on camera...

Yesterday this video went live....


It's where i got tested on camera for all to see, for HIV. Some people have already put into question my motive for doing this so i want to take this little bit of time to explain it...

Basically, since to took Life With Bev from being purely on youtube to this blog, i have called many time for people to know their own status when it comes to sexual health. Yet i myself haven't always known what my own status is. I'm also aware that some people didn't quite know how HIV was tested for, or may have been afraid of taking the test themselves. I'm a complete wuss when it comes to thing's like this, but if i can do it... anybody can.

As this is being typed, i've got the packet here to send off, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow now before it'll be sent off. I should hear back within about a week of me sending it off and as i said towards the end of the video, i will be posting my results in the info section of the video.

Today, my finger knows what has happend to it last night, so i still don't like using it, but it's not too painful to stop me from doing anything, infact i bleached the kitchen from top to bottom before and my finger didn't hurt, so you've nothing to worry about after the test.

I hope that this clear's stuff up for people and like other's have said, knowing your status could lead to HIV being stopped from being spread, take the test and KNOW YOUR STATUS!!!!

Can social media make and break you?

The short answer to both of those is, yes, but of course this is a blog post so you know i'm going to ramble on about the different side's to social media.

Truth of the matter is, social media itself has changed lives for better and for worse in too many different ways, because we let it.

Such is the case of the teenager who is currently (as this is being typed) being interviewd under police caution for homophobic tweets. This incident alone is almost certain to ruin her career in politics, something she was probably wanting to get into as she was the UK's first youth commisioner. Since she was in the role (to which i still don't see what the point of it was) of course her social media accounts came under scrutiny by people which is where these tweets have been found and of course, the news then followed.

I think when signing upto social media, none of us are aware of what can happen. Such is the case of my online friends Jay and Bryan from the depfox channel. All them years ago, all's they did was upload a simple video to Youtube, yet all these years later they've had tv interviews, speeches at rally's, a film made about them and of course been able to feel the love and respect of people who look up to them. Of course they're different in the way that if they don't like what you say, they may rarely make a comment which is a respectful way of saying "f**k you" but without actually saying that. I think this may be why they're good at social media, they can put their points across over any topic really, and not have too much of a back-lash.... although if we all had a dollar for the death threats and hate mail they get, then i'm sure the recession would be over within a few minutes.

Social media is a risky game that we all play and no longer can we admit that it hasn't changed the way of life for us. These day's, many employment contracts come with statement's that you mustn't post anything defamatory about the company etc... even if you don't use social media, you're held into this contract.

Myself? I've felt both side's of social media. It's gotten me into the news (several times now, which i love since i am abit of a media whore) and of course i've been threatend too, just for simply posting comments about my dislike for certain music artists, or having a different point of view to someone else.

Do i let it bother me? No. For the simple fact that i don't take everything on the internet to heart, if someone was to turn up at my door, it'd be different, but until that happens, i'm pretty safe online.

So what would i advise?

Look, the internet can be a pretty violent place as it is at the best of times. Over the years i've been using it i've seen video's of people throwing dogs off bridges to their death's (remember that one? yeesh! Long story short, they found them and are still serving their sentence i believe), girl's sucking on used tampon's, people shoving several dildo's up their rectum and of course the violent attacks (even people having their head's cut off). Would you honestly like your child to be exposed to that? The answer by most people reading this would be a resounding, no, but yet still i hear of cases of kids as young as 8 being groomed online by pedophiles etc. You see as much as you can put blocks on certain website's for kids not to enter them, there's more sites that pop up almost daily full of vile content that hasn't been blocked by either your own system, or a network provider's system. I personally wouldn't let my child use the internet until they could cope with me using bad language around them (presumably that'd be when they were in high school, moaning about home work, while i'm trying to cook their dinner or something).

I think it's also wise for many parents these days to also know what their child is upto online. Don't be fooled parents, us kids know how to wipe the search history and website's visited log... we know you may learn how to check them in the future! So, how do you get around that?

Spend time with your child actually sat at the computer with them, explain about how there's certain website's you'd rather they didn't visit and why... lay down the rules!!!

As for social media, yourself and for your children... know that what you post can now and may well in the future be seen by the police. Comments which you wouldn't normally make in public, for fear of being over-heard, can be seen by many other people and it can cause problems. While yes, Justin Beiber was found via social media, every single day someone is going through his social media accounts trying to find something he's posted, so they can say what a nasty person he is... even if it's just to sell a few papers, or even better, get him into legal trouble... he's got to be very careful... and so have you!!!

I personally think it's about time we saw some police action online and certainly as a regular twitter user, i've seen the police jump into action over some things that have been said on the website. They can track you down and will pay you a visit if they have to. It doesn't scare me, because i don't take part in stuff they could arrest me for, but if for example i was a huge drug exporter or something like that, i know they'd be working on tracking me down at some point and paying me a visit.

Also remember that what you post can be used against you by your boss even. So if you've had a really horrible day at work, because the fatty next to you ate all your dinner, think twice before you post about that person and how bad it is where you work, because even your boss is watching!

Social media as a whole is there for us to use it to our advantage, but don't be fooled, there's people always waiting to catch us out. Use it to your advantage, not any other way.

Thursday 18 April 2013

Sexual Entertainment Venue's.

To sum up, a lap dancing bar or pornographic cinema is today's hot debate topic with the news saying....

"On April 6 2010, the Policing and Crime Act 2009 came into force and amended Schedule 3 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982, which has historically controlled sex shops and sex cinemas.
Tower Hamlets Council is considering whether to adopt new legal powers relating to how it regulates sexual entertainment venues (e.g. lap-dancing and pole dancing clubs) following changes to legislation.
A sexual entertainment venue is defined as a premises at which entertainment of the following kind is provided, before a live audience, for the financial gain of the organiser or the entertainer: –
a) any live performance; or
b) any live display of nudity;
which is of such a nature that, ignoring financial gain, it must reasonably be assumed to be provided solely or principally for the purpose of sexually stimulating any person in the audience (whether by verbal or other means).
In order for the new provisions in law to take effect, the Council will need to formally adopt the provisions of the Policing and Crime Act 2009."

For me, i don't see this as too much of a problem as it currently stands, i don't quite understand where the change's are happening and what it is that is the problem, however, these venue's often make money on people's sexuality... something which a little closer to home to me is under threat.... and i can't say i'm too botherd by it all.

Through the world "canal street" may well be a recognised street, during the 90's it was home to one of TV's most ground-breaking shows "Queer as folk" (Later re-made as a US version). Canal street also forms as the back-bone to Manchester's "Gay Village". Why do i mention this though?

Manchester's gay village has been put on a 5 year improvement scheme, with the warning that if the area does not improve, licenses will be removed from bar's and the council will disband the gay village. Shocked? ... I'm not.

Let's go back a little here in history....

During the 1960's in Manchester, a pub called "The new union" found itself at the centre of attention, when the landlord was arrested for owning a "public house of ill repute". You see back then, your typical gay bar was designed to house as many people as it could in a safe way too, they were safe haven's for gay people who wanted to go out for a drink, maybe even hold hands with their partner in public, but do it all without being judged for doing it, or worse, be arrested and possibly sectioned (Being gay at the time was classed as a mental health problem, so it wasn't rare to find gay people in mental asylums because they'd been found to be gay).

Over the year's since as gay pride came along and acceptance of the gay community has grown, the needs of having a gay bar have changed. These days, i can go to alot of mainstream pub's, bars and clubs and hold hands with my partner, even kiss... basically act the same as we would if we were in a gay bar... but there's 2 thing's that go with this that some of you might be thinking right now....

1) Few gay bar's are able to offer the protection they once could. Be it because they've fallen on hard times because of the economic downturn or because of the laws the way they are, alot of them have now had to become "gay friendly" which has resulted in some of these venue's being written off by the gay community, owing to the fact that you find hen parties in their because they "love the gays" or stag parties in their because they want to prove they're "ok with the gays" but truth of the matter is, they spend alot of time looking at gay couple's holding hands, or worse, if they are come-onto by a gay person, then they're shocked and disgusted, sometimes ending in violence, which as sad as i am to say it, is now becoming something regular to the gay village, where it once was never seen.

2) People's opinion's have changed and while yes there's always going to be the threat of something happening to gay people, these incident's are few and far between.

So in essence, the gay community doesn't really have a need for the old style gay bar any more and based on what people have said to me over the past few weeks, it seems that some people, like myself, don't like to attend the gay village anymore, because it has come to the point it feels like a freak show and if you're the gay person, you're the freak that all these people have been wanting to see.

Sure, if Manchester was to close it's gay village it would be a shame, but as it currently stands, i won't be attending the area for a while, like i would once years ago, be over the moon at the thought of going to the area.

What has brought on this 5 year warning for the gay village though?

Good question! It's been brought down to the fact that the area now offer's cheap drinks and some very laid back door policy's on what people can wear and who they're letting in. With that, the area has also seen an increase in violent attacks over the past few years, which has stopped alot of people going to the area. With these being the facts, the police and council have worked together to try and bring the area upto scratch, but they've had enough because they're not seeing the results they wanted (and neither are we). This 5 year warning is to act as a wake-up call to everyone in and around the area, saying if you want to keep it, then improve it with us.

If the area doesn't improve, it will simply fail to exist, one way or another. Gay pride would still take place one would presume, but it could be re-located to a different part of the city, should the gay village no longer exist.

But what would happen to our little friend with history, the new union pub?

One can only presume, for history reasons alone, it would be able to keep open and doing what it does. It was the first one their and has already with-stood the test of time... but who knows what the future holds for the area?

Tuesday 16 April 2013

I'd still turn straight for pink....

Let me tell you about my day and night that i think has suprised me and my friend in literally every way it could.

First off, a few months ago, my friend booked tickets to go and see "the truth about love tour" by the singer P!NK.

I'd already seen her "I'm not dead tour" in person, that was amazing by itself. I wasn't able to go and see the funhouse tour, although i think by far that's been my fave show she's done to date.

Over the coming weeks and months, the pair of us looked up youtube footage of the tour, to see for ourselves what we were in for, of course, coming across the opening night of the tour video footage, which shows that in the first song, the computer system for the band went down, leaving pink and her backing singers with nothing but a drumb beat to try and carry on with... which they did!

Our time was to be a little different....

You see, with most artists on the road, they will from time to time change their set-list, maybe drop a song, add a song etc... not pink, she can and will literally change a whole show apart from a few key performances, but is still able to leave the crowed amazed at what happens....

So my day?

Well, we went to see the tour as it rolled into Manchester on the 2nd night (15/4/13). In the afternoon, my friend Sian arrived at mine, so i finished getting ready and off we went, with the plan of, try and get something to eat, maybe a drink or two, then onto the show and train home... only we should know by now that our plans never go as we want them for one reason or another....

We got into manchester and headed over to pizza hut, on the way though, we decided we'd try somewhere new... well, not new as such, but somewhere we've never been before. It's at this point i should probably not admit to it, but i am so i'll tell you... i'm dribbling at just the thought of what i'm about to tell you.

So we go to... The Hard Rock Cafe. Yup, known world over and their Manchester CC site didn't fail. Ok, maybe the wait time of just over an hour was abit of a bumer, but during busy times, it's kind of got to be accepted that you'll wait a little bit. We eventually got seated and orderd our food... I orderd the grilled beef wraps... they just sounded nice.... THEY WERE AMAZING AND I WANT THEM NOW!!!!

We both finished our meals and headed over to the arena. We found our way over to our seats and to say that we were high up.... if you stood upright, you'd have poked your head through the roof... yeah, THOSE seats. Don't get me wrong, there was an extra screen on the side of the stage for us and an extra rack of speakers, but when you work out you're paying the same as others who are facing directly to the stage, and you're almost sat behind it, it does make you wonder how desperate these promotion companies are to make money.

Anyway, we sat down and within a few minutes the lights went down and the support act came on. The support act for us was... new moon? walk the moon? ... something to do with the moon, Great for if you're into indie kind of music, but i wasn't really feeling them, infact if anything, i was begining to lose any sort of feeling towards the show. Me and my friend literally sat there, watching and thinking "oh".

They finished their set and me and Sian both looked at each other pretty bumed out... how to sort that? DRINKS!!!

Sian went off to the bar and i stayed in the rafters looking after the seats and bags etc, only while sian was gone... and alot of others were gone, would i see the start of pinks show....

The arena lights all stayed on, but the screens around the stage turned onto one of the camera's that was pointed at this walk way, some of the spot lights then focused on this man, who i knew was a part of the show... but only because i'd seen the youtube video's.

He made us laugh for a little bit, then went off.... then literally 2 minutes later showed up on the other side of the arena doing the same sort of stuff.... then went off... then again, 2 mins later, he shows up in the walk way which is almost next to the stage... and he makes his way down to the stage.

After a few minutes and some more of that music they play, to "keep you in the mood" or something, eventually the screens begin to play a music video, which is 3 people, played by this man we've all just seen going through the crowed. He makes his way onto the stage and begins to talk to the crowed, only this is where the first difference was.... you see, in past shows that i'd seen on youtube, pink appears on the screens and talks to him, which is the start to the show... only tonight, pink didn't appear on the screens, infact, even what this man was saying, wasn't what i'd seen before.

He hyped us all up, by asking if one of us wanted to be picked to come and learn about love on the stage, of course, that sent us crazy and by looking at the screens, you'd think that the camera was filming the audience... only it wasn't... no camera was. It's actually abit of VT, that part way through shows pink, of course he picks her out of the crowed and you then hear the arena's roof being blown off, followed by the start of "Raise your glass" the show's opening number. While i won't say what happens... i will say, it's amazing.

You wanna see it now don't you?

*Sigh*

Ok then....


Amazing right?

The show then carries on to some of her new album tracks, mixed with with what can now only be refferd to as "classic pink", along with the usual comments from pink about how we're loud and she's in a good mood.... yey us!

If this is a show you're going to see in the future (there's billions of more dates coming up for the tour all over the world) then this is probably some of pink's best live show work to date. Wether it's the breath taking version of "try" or the dizzying "sober", you really are in for a show and a half.

My only regret is being where we were in the arena, we couldn't see most of what was happening on the stage and yeah, it did make it abit rubbish, but still... amazing show to be seen.

I can't wait for the DVD to come out!!!

So, until the next posting, i shall be dreaming of them beef wraps... oh god they were so good...

Tuesday 9 April 2013

What Thatcher's death taught me.

A few hours ago, i came in after a night of visiting family and sat down, with the full intention of making a video to explain my full feelings on this whle issue and what my day has actually been like.

To say that i've known some bigot's is a complete underestimate. It seems that i've been having contact with some absolutly vile people and so today was them showing exactly what they were like, which is perfect, because my facebook friends list needed shrinking a little bit.

As the lady herself used to say, facts before debate.

Born Margaret Roberts on 13 October 1925
First stood for Parliament in the 1950 election
Married businessman Denis Thatcher in 1951
Elected as Conservative MP for Finchley in 1959
Named education secretary by Ted Heath in 1970
Defeated Heath in Tory leadership contest in 1975
Became first female prime minister after Conservative election victory in 1979
Sends taskforce to regain control of the Fal...klands Islands in 1982
Wins landslide election victory in 1983
Fights year-long battle with mining unions in 1984-5
Survives IRA bombing of Brighton hotel during 1984 Conservative conference
Wins third general election victory in 1987
Resigns after facing leadership challenge in 1990
Stands down as MP in 1992 and awarded a peerage.
 
For those of you who are seeing all the dates and knowing my date of birth, may well be able to notice that i was born only 4 years before she was voted out of government. I don't remember those years, but i was slightly involved in what was happening.
 
You see, aged 19 months, i was involved in a car accident which basically resulted in me being between the wheel of the car and the hubcap of the car, broken bones everywhere and as my dad once put it to me "Half of your face was hanging off" which explains the scar that is still there to this day. I wasn't aware at the time, but my parents were, that the ambulance emergency service was on strike at the current time, but human decency meant that i was still seen to by paramedics and taken to the hospital etc.
 
Why were they on strike though? We shall come to that in abit.
 
What happend on the 8/4/13 then?
 
Baroness Thatcher died. Simple as, she sufferd a stroke and she couldn't survive it. In the most simple terms i can put this, a daughter and son, lost their mother. Their children lost a grand parent. True to modern day british life though, did people see it like that?
 
Not at all.
 
Within minutes of her death being announced, my facebook and twitter exploded with comments such as "ding dong the witch is dead" or "i cannot wait to actually piss on her grave" and such.
 
Of course, we cannot ignore that mrs Thatcher's job, was of course to do with politics and that when it comes to politics, very few ever see eye to eye on every topic, it was of course only her job, but very few could see it as that today, they saw it as her life, which it wasn't.
 
I could easily sit here for hours upon hours, trying to portray to you exactly what her career was like in the political field, i could give you billions of facts and figures, but with people these days, their minds are set to one way of thinking and that seems to be that they're glad she's died, because apparently, since she was voted out of government, she's done loads.... apparently.
 
A point got made to me earlier in the day that i hadn't really thought of before. During the olympics, of course it was the time to have the bunting and the balloons out and be proud to be british, so of course when on twitter, one of our diver's father's name was brought up, in a negative way, people were all over it, about how bad it was to speak ill of the dead and how nasty this person was. A shark difference to what you see on twitter now however (even by some of the same people).
 
If you wish to look up Thatcher's career, or indeed more details of her life, i can only suggest to you to search google and find the answer's yourself, But there's one point i must make very clear here and i know i speak for others when i say this.
 
With every person that dies, someone will miss them. We all have loved one's in our lives and of course, there comes the time when we must say goodbye to them until we meet again. Posting hateful messages about any person's passing, gloating about it, isn't a good thing for people like me to see you doing. Nobody thinks anything more of you, infact the only thing people can think, is less.
 
When it comes to our loved ones and them being taken out of our lives, none of us would like to be confronted with nasty comments or remarks, yet in a few hours, when Margaret Thatcher's children and grand children wake up, this is exactly what they'll face and from alot of people, does it seem fair? What would you do in that situation? Would you be happy?
 
The resounding answer is no.
 
Of course people will be tempted to try and make smart remarks back to that question, but in truth, that's just a way for them to cover up how they would truely feel.
 
Finally, i would also like you to keep this in mind. There's always going to be people who will think differently to you, have respect for them. We get nowhere fast if all we can do is send each other hate-filled messages over and over again. Boasting your joy at someone's death, by karma's rules, will mean that someone will boast about their joy when you pass. While some of you may brush that off with a simple "I don't care" have a little think at those who you leave behind, would they be happy?

Monday 8 April 2013

Another one knows the secret.

It's a weird saying isn't it that "another one knows the secret", but it's a saying that my nana just used, when we were talking about the currently breaking news about the passing of Baroness Thatcher.

"She'll be with her Dennis"

It is true that today is a great loss for a major part of UK history, let alone politics as a whole. Her incredable career literally broke records and turned heads, but remember, this lady is not for turning.

She still holds the record for not only being the only female prime minister of the UK, but also being the longest serving one too, before being voted out by her "peers". I've alot of respect for her and what she managed to do and i still have been saying for some time now that we needed her back in as Prime Minister, only knowing my wish could never be granted owing to poor mental and physical health... but why would i want her back in.

When mrs Thatcher took to office, alot of people forget about the state the UK was in. Financially, the country was in recession, workers losing their jobs hand over fist and thing's were not set to improve for some time. Yet it's only her ability to cut straight to the point and play the politics game to her advantage, she was able to lead the way forward for the country and make change happen in a positive way.

But why do people dislike her?

As with all political figures in the UK, not everybody will agree with their action's, even when it works and is proven to have had the country's best interest at heart. Some people play what i call, political blindness, in which they stay faithful to their political party and see them having done no wrong, ever. Much is the case with Margaret Thatcher. She was made unpopular because she stuck her neck on the line alot of times and took decisions not many people were brave enough to take.

Take away her political career and what are you left with? You're left with a mother and a grand parent. Today, that's exactly how im looking at it. People are posting on social media about how happy they are, we'll see how their attitudes change then it's someone near and dear to them that passes shall we?

Is greed slowing progress for the economy?

This is a question i've found myself asking more and more often recently and i think i'm slightly afraid of what the answer might well be, even if there's excuses for what that answer could be.

For a loooooong time now as we've known here in the UK and to an extent, in the US too... certainly in places in europe, our economy's are in meltdown. Political people claim to be setting the seeds for a better economy tomorrow, but when is tomorrow going to become today and what is slowing progress.

This is what draws me to the question about big companies.... are they swallowing up the money and making the best out of a bad situation?

You see, like today, my friend went off to KFC to go and get some food, now based on prices for those same items 4 years ago, the price has gone up, infact doubled in some cases, yet the product has remained the same and the cost of buying in the product hasn't gone up much too. Fair enough, the costs of running a KFC has, like paying for the water, gas, electric, staff etc... but not that much.

KFC itself does generate ALOT of profit, infact profit wise, it beats it's main bit of competition mcdonalds hands down. While mcdonalds may make more money, once everything has been paid for, KFC are left with more profit.

But this is exactly the problem you see. KFC has fallen victim (not in a major way) to having to lay staff off and not hire in new ones where needed, because they "cannot afford to", yet the profit margines have rarely dipped, because of the recession.

Where exactly IS this profit going?

While i dread to think it, it is very possible that the money ends up in either an off-shore bank account, gathering interest and dust OR is going into the back pocket of a very happy man (or woman).

The government here in the UK don't seem to be doing much in the way of investing in what people need.... jobs, but at the same time, neither do these big companies.

Put simply, Costa coffee (a coffee shop chain for anyone who doesn't know) advertised 8 new jobs only a few weeks ago, they recieved well over 1,100 applications from different people who are looking for work. We, as a country are desperate to get back into work and start earning more money, to put the great back into britan. Yet where are these jobs? Where's the boss who takes a risk, gives people jobs when times are bad and gets thanked for it when the times are good?

It'd seem no-where and i'm starting to get bored of it all now. While i do understand that the country's finances are in a mess and that times are to be tough for a while, i am starting to grow bored at the lack of progress we're seeing here. Told about this defecit that we're to pay back, otherwise the country's finances grow worse.... you know what? After 3 years, how bad do you expect my finances to be?

Grrr!!!

The offers i've had over the past few months of working in other contries are unbelieveable, but stupidly tempting at the moment. While progress is slow, i'm growing more and more tempted to take people up on these offers....

Sunday 7 April 2013

A month live on youtube?

A few of my youtube friends have done it now and although their experiance may have differd each time i can honestly say with most of them i've enjoyed watching them do what they do best.

I think my fave one that i could show you would be Josh Rimer. Now although he's not the most popular youtuber in the world, i think it's clear to see that he enjoy's being on youtube, either infront of the camera doing what he does or simply working on the "behind the scene's" bit, like video editing etc.

He went ahead and did a month of uploading daily video's to youtube (apart from a sunday if i remember rightly) and i really enjoyed it! He had a wide variety of topics to talk about and activities to do, which meant each day the viewer was treated to something a little more special.

So, why am i thinking of doing this?

Even i don't know. I know it could be abit of extra work to do, ie, filming, editing and uploading in the same day, isn't something i would usually do, it's normally when i've got the spare time to do it or i'm in the mood, but going ahead and doing daily uploads seems like a new challange and something i could enjoy doing. So what would be on the week, would people get to see what NSR actually is?

Yes!

It would all be happening in the summer, so we're a few months off it happening yet, because other people do have commitments they have to stick to, so working out a filming time for everyone can be abit tricky, but i'm sure we'll get around that. NSR is a new blog type thing which has been advertised on the FANNYLEROUX channel now for quite some time, but nothing has ever come of it... until now.

NSR stands for "Not So Right", It's a review based blog, but you shouldn't always trust these reviews. Like, this will be the blog to review a blender and tell you how great it is for a hand massage or it may review a film that gives a completely wrong review, claiming the wrong celebs are in it, or giving you a completely false storyline. There's a lot of potential in it, so i'm looking forward to eventually be getting around to making a start on it.

Onto what the week would look like then....

Monday - Life With Bev. A not-so-popular blog, which follows me around doing my daily kinda stuff.

Tuesday - Factoid. Giving you completely random facts that you've never been interested in before and will probably never care about again, but for a split second, you might be interested.

Wednesday - Bev & Ian. Helping you to look lovely on the outside and the inside. Bev & Ian video's are already being uploaded and worked on, on almost a weekly basis now and people seem to be enjoying it!

Thursday - News Review. Seeing what's been in the news over the past week and picking out things of interest.

Friday - Follow Friday. Yes, the idea was totally stolen off youtube, but i subscribe to alot of good people on youtube and now's the time for me to explain why you should follow them too!

Saturday - NSR. The review team will take you through some of the best products and services around every saturday!

Sunday - The rest of the week. All of the weeks outtakes from filming and the bits you didn't see!


So as you can see, it'd be a pretty packed week and i'm looking forward to getting started on it. I'm not too sure when this will start yet, but keep an eye on the FANNYLEROUX channel and details will be posted closer to the time. (You can get to the channel by clicking on the channel name).

Are we about to see the end of HIV/AIDS?

"An amazing discovery was made at a research clinic in Nairobi in the 1980s. While scientists were studying the outbreak of HIV and AIDS among the country's citizens, they came upon a group of female prostitutes.
These women who should have been the most susceptible to HIV consistently tested negative for HIV over the years.
It turned out that this small percent of women coming into the clinic, about 5%, had somehow developed an immunity to HIV. Their immune systems were able to recognize and then kill HIV. This was a remarkable discovery.
Scientists ruled out the possibility of these women simply being extremely lucky by looking at the statistics. They found that most of the women had had between 500-2,000 unprotected sexual encounters with infected men.
In fact, the scientists found that the longer a woman had been a prostitute, the less likely that she would be infected with HIV/AIDS."

While that is a report about some VERY rare cases and most of us these days wouldn't have the time (or money) to sleep with over 2,000 HIV+ people, it does bring the question forward to me... How far are we from finding the miricle cure?

Over the past several months we have seen more and more news reports about babies that seem to be able to be cured of AIDS or people who have grown immune to either HIV or AIDS.

I think this is a topic i'm going to spend more time looking into, where in the past i'd simply brushed it off with the conclusion of "They can't cure it, but there's medication available", it is a very serious possiblity that a cure might just be around the corner.

Now a "miricle cure" won't be a new thing, i've spoken with many a person, who have been basically the tester's for some of the medication available today for people who suffer with either. Most of this medication has come with the title of "the next miricle cure" and while yes, it can help to prevent the symptoms, none have been able to actually get the human body to recognise the infection to the body and fight it off. Yet i can't really sit here much longer and turn my nose up at the current news which has been happening more and more recently that a cure might just be within our grasp.