Salutations!

Bonsoir!

My my, hasn't it been a while since last I wrote?
Indeed it has, I agree!
Why is that? I hear you ask. Well, I'll tell you.

Ooooh, do tell!
Well, it all started when university finished and I entered the real world. It was an uncomfortable sensation, like your entire body having a really big poo.
Isn't that horrible? I thought it was.

I had a few weeks respite before I started to panic about what to do for the rest of my life. (Never ever try to imagine what you're going to be doing when your forty, when you're only twenty one at the time of pondering.)

So, I was feeling rather worried and sorry for myself. I had to move house and uproot the life I'd built for myself, before even thinking of doing anything else. I found that unpleasent and, it must be said, rather upsetting, too.

The daft thing is, most people, if not everyone,experience this at some point in their lives. It just so happens that I'm being a little bit of a fuss-pot and decided to write about it here, where everyone (who can be bothered to look) can see.

Ahem! (If you could kindly note)
The title of this blog is "Philosophical rants and nonsense Whinings", so I'm doing exactly what it says on the tin.

Aha! I have you foxed!
I'm not going to dwell overly long on the nonsense whinings part, I'm going to try and inject a little philosophy here, so here goes!

Here's the product of overthinking a situation!
Well, I set to thinking, as I often do (not something that's overly marvellous, most people think, obviously, but I'm going to splurge my thoughts out onto the world wide web to make people look at them. Cheeky bugger, I am.)

Firstly, I thought that my life would be an awfully boring one if I had a rigid and unyielding plan for my future. I have vague aspirations for what I want to achieve in my life, a rather liquid set of goals and benchmarks I hope to reach. One of my lecturers once told me:

"My partner thinks that you don't know what to do with your life until you're forty."

Obviously, I can't comment on this yet, but I can tell you that I'm concerntrating on small, temporal projects, as opposed to lifelong goals, which may change. (Small in the scheme of things, such as a year or two ahead, not meaning that I get up in the morning, scratch my arse and wonder what to do.)

I hope this next bit makes sense, or I really shall look like a Silly Billy!
If you think about it, a person develops so much throughout their life, that you can have a completely different outlook from one year to the next. I think that life and people are very dynamic entities and although I do not suggest that they are fluid and unstable on a consant basis, they are far from definite and set in stone.

With this in mind, then, you could almost say that this blogger now will not be the same blogger in a few years time. Physically I will have changed and perhaps mentally, too. My core will remain, that part of me which is intrinsically myself, otherwise I would be little more than a vital hitch-hiker. What changes, is what my "core" wishes to achieve, the relationship between it and the physical, tangible world.

(Get on with it!)
My point is this; we all change throughout our lives in various ways and for various resons. The important thing is to not over-burden yourself with futile attempts at shaping an unknowable future. Yes, plan, have dreams and goals, but do not force your life to conform to projects, force your projects to conform with your life.

Ouch! I fell off my soap-box!
Well, the hole in that particular theory is that, if it's true, I may disagree with myself in a few years time! Oh dear, isn't that an embarassing conundrum!
Thank you for reading.
I'll try to be more reliabe with the frequency of my posts from now on. TTFN.

The Next Chapter

Into the Real World
(there's no place like home, there's no place like home)

I've finished Uni! After seventeen years of education (pre-school counts, so stuff off!), I'm in a situation, where control over my destiny seems more real, because it's not a case of choosing which modules I'll study, or whether or not to go to lectures or to the pub, it's a case of am I going to choose a career, or a job? Am I going to take a year out? I can't afford to really, but then again, do I want to sign on the dole and be an even bigger waster than a student (because students are potential valuable members of society, "doleys" are just lazy wasters who drink too much Oranjeboom...that's the stereotype not my view by the way)? I'm going to have to sign on anyway, otherwise I'm not going to be able to afford things like food, clothes and whiskey (the basics), but this will all be happening in the process of my finding a job.

You tricksy Bastards!
(Yes you, the ones with all the money and sense!)
I have started to think about the education system, the work sector and the harmony between the two. Actually, I have started to think that there is no harmony between them (aren't I original?), due to the fact that during your time at school, you are told that you need a degree in order to gain a "real job" and that without such a qualification, it is nigh impossible to achieve the attainment of such a socially required, yet intangible object. However, upon the completion of my degree, after three years and at least fifteen thousand pounds of debt, I am faced with the fact that having this qualification means naught, as i have not actually worked in an establishment of business for any length of time (I'm not lazy and if I am it's not my fault, it's glandular).
Ultimately, then, I am faced with a dichotomy of opinions, that being the opinion of Alan Buffer (my old head of sixth form. He was called this because his first name is Alan and he is bald, hence the reference to him buffing his head, also a play on words, as he is also a wanker) and the opinion of everybody else. Could he have been lying? Was it all a plan so that he could have people who were subservient to him and therefore make himself feel like a God? Or is Alan Sugar (a well known entrepeneur who requires no explanation, but I enjoy writing small asides to you, because you're my favourite) really the nemesis of Buffer and is therefore fucking everyone over in an attempt to prove that Buffer is a dick? If so, then why is it alway the little people who have to suffer? Couldn't his name be enough proof that he's a dick?

Oh, The Humanity!
(This is really getting quite pathetic, because the more I go on, the more I'm getting annoyed at myself)
I can't help but feel that those pathetic weeks we spent in shitty offices, one in year ten, the other in year twelve, was an attempt by our school to modernize it's view towards academia and applied knowledge, or even it's attempt to give us all a thirst for knowledge and a drive for work by giving us a week to spend in what was actually, when it all came down to it, very boring and unfulfilling jobs. Maybe I have higher expectations than I realised, or maybe I'm not as realistic as I thought. Either way, I'm not entirely happy with the outcome.
I half think that there should be some sort of universalised standard by which these things should be measured, like some sort of official balance struck between employers and educators in regards to their expectations of each other. I know that this can easily been seen as me being lazy, but fuck it. On the other hand, if there was such a balance struck, then that would just lead to more beurocracy and legislature which in turn would result in fewer civil liberties, such as some sort of compulsory quota of employment or work experience to be fulfilled by a certain age and would therefore undermine civil liberties in exchange for less hazy standards. If I was in charge, the world would be a much more definate place, because I would understand it (it doesn't matter if anyone else doesn't, this is my blog!) and then everybody would be happy, because I would prescribe everyone with a dose of happy tablets and the country would be in a terrible state because nobody would have any actual experience of the work they were doing, they would just be snooty University graduates who have a store of theoretical knowledge. Thank God! I've managed to convince myself that the wiorld is better as it is! (I haven't really, I'm quite pessimistic at times, but it certainly is more practical to have experience in the are of employment that you seek, it's just that I'm very frustrated at my lack of the afore mentioned quality)

Introductions

Hello and welcome to my first blog!
(That could possibly sound like Sir David Frost had read it out, if it makes you feel any better you can read it out in his voice and I won't judge you...I did and it sounded good.)


This is the first of what I hope to be many potentially pointless blogs. I'm writing this more for myself than anyone else (not that I particularly expect to draw an audience, although it's my pleasure if I do) in order to lay out a few plans for the future in regards to what I aim to achieve and also why.

My aim is, essentially, to explore a few meaningful and a few menial topics that excite, enrage and puzzle me. I may toy with some ideas and come back to them, I may just spew them out once and find them to distasteful to even approach them in a fighter jet and drop wet nappies onto them. Either way, I'm going to write them and see what happens.

First off, I'm just going to ramble about myself for a while.

A little Waffle about myself

I'm a 20 year old student from Wales and I'm studying English studies and Philosophy in University. They're absolutely fascinating subjects and I can't imagine myself being satisfied with only attaining an undergraduate level of education in them both. Ideally, I would like to get a P.h.d in at least one of them, or an interdisciplinary one in both, if possible.

Perhaps the title of my blog is slightly more understandable now. I hope it is.

My friend once said that a philosopher strips everything away and questions everything, what makes us what we are, what makes reality real, how countries should be governed, what is moral and what is immoral. He was right, that is precisely what all philosophers should do (or at least attempt to do) in today's society. My lecturer believes that a student of philosophy should have no prejudices towards any particular philosophy, however, i will, no doubt, write about some of my own prejudices and beliefs as I embark on questioning everything that may or may not exist (it might take a while.)

What else
I'm also going to be a little more pompous and assume that if anyone does read this, then they are going to expect and may even enjoy hearing my opinion. I'm going to talk about books, music, films, and other everyday annoyances and silly things (the nonsense whining aspect.) If you don't enjoy hearing, or disagree with my opinion, then please comment, I'd love to have some feedback -good or bad- and consider all points of view of anything that i write and publish here. I believe in freedom of speech wholeheartedly, which means not only am I able to have my say, you are able to question and criticise that which I am saying, so please, fell free to do so.

I'm done
(I bet you're relieved, but not too relieved, or else I've just written absolute arse-water for nothing.)

Thank you for reading this and I hope you've enjoyed it. If you like it, then have a gander at my blog now and then, just to see if I've whined or discussed anything you may be interested in, or interested in discussing.