‘I’ve been busy’ is thrown around a bit nowadays, if someone says ‘why didn’t you text me back last night?’, your instinct reaction is to say ‘I’ve been busy’, when really you mean ‘I couldn’t be bothered facing the keypad for you, someone who means emotionally and physically nothing to me what so ever’; but we’re to polite as people do that aren’t we?
I’ve been asking myself have I been busy to excuse my serious lack of blogging on this website, partly it’s because I’ve been busy with sixth form, work (which because it’s the summer holidays, that’s where I’ve been spending most of my time), exams and exam results. It doesn’t seem like much, but for the all to brief moments where I have nothing to do, I’m usually sleeping.
This, however, should change starting next week. Sixth form is resuming as I start Year 13 and my work hours are being cut down to around three or four shifts a week, this should leave plenty of time between coursework to blog about my musings and television reviews (which seem to be making up most of my latest posts recently). It’s what I like to do.
Regarding my website, I’m pleased to announce that over the past five months that we’ve tipped over 5,500 unique visits. However, this is mainly due to my XFM Download Vault page that is attracting the thousands of The Ricky Gervais Show fans out there; but this of course directs traffic to my blog so all is fair, thank you to everyone who has visited this site.
Since June, each month has caused the percentage of visitors to increase every single time – at one point reaching 180% but that’s slowed down to a steady 30% which is good because it shows that people are still interested in what the website provides. Even if it may not be this blog all of those visitors are coming here for.
I have lots of ideas for future blog posts including product reviews, television reviews and general musings; let’s hope I find the time to write them which is what I love to do.
I’ve come up with a theory – it’s my first theory so don’t be too harsh. I’ve called it the iComedy theory because it revolves around how I think new technology and social networking is changing the face of humour and how this change has allowed anybody to become their own comedian.
In the old days, if you wanted to tell a joke to a lot of people you’d have to find work at a comedy club and get yourself a five minute slot after convincing the management. Then you’d probably stress over your material for hours on end by trying to get input from everyone and anyone to reassure yourself that the crowd will love you and your jokes – remember, these people probably haven’t paid to see this new talent so they won’t hold any bars if they don’t like what they hear and probably wouldn’t be above heckling until the act broke down into tears.
However, in 2010 and with the introduction of Facebook and Twitter I reckon that the whole aspect of comedy is going to change, where instead of being talent spotted in a dingy bar at 2am sweating like a Liberal Democrat realising a hung parliament is inevitable while being covered in urine thrown at you by drunk truckers who think they’re attacking a The Who support act, that you’d instead catch the eye of an agent with one simple Tweet.
For my theory to have any basis I need to further explain why I think social networking is rapidly evolving comedy… I’ll try my best. Picture this: you’re sitting at work or at school, twiddling your thumbs trying to make one go forwards and the other one go backwards but you instead see something happen in the class or office you’re in and bam… You’ve thought of a great observational comedy joke, or overhear a funny conversation that you can take out of context, or you’re browsing BBC News and you’re able to think of a dark joke about a murder or a rape or something. If you have your phone or a computer handy, you can simply type out the joke and send it off to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. There you have it; it’s done, no trucker’s urine on you and hundreds of people have now read your joke, and if they enjoy it then they’ll either ‘like’ it, comment it or send you a Tweet back. Instant gratification in action.
This goes one step further with Twitter though, if people really like your joke – they may retweet it for a whole new audience to read and reply back to you, this again creates further feelings of instant gratification – and this time from people who you don’t even know. However, let’s say your joke does not go down well, no-one comments on it or you re-read it and think that you can make it better. No problem, you can simply delete it and start all over again without the fear of getting further backlash because you physically retract your actions.
I do this all the time and therefore have firsthand experience with the iComedy theory, I often think of funny quips that usually involve dark humour to the extent that I often refrain from publishing them such as the following joke: We should elect a black man to become the new Labour leader, you know, it’s ironic… Slave labour. Usually when I publish a joke, 99% of the time people comment it, ‘like’ it or reply which gives me instant gratification because I wouldn’t say such jokes in real life for fear of them not working out which isn’t a problem online because I can simply delete and refine. With everything, however, there are some down sides.
Even though I feel this new wave of comedic expression is a good thing in order for comedy to evolve beyond that of a theatre stage, it all relies on one thing: the published jokes have to be funny, if they’re not funny, (which is obviously subjective, but you know the sort of people I mean), it leads me to think that maybe some people, some time, should shut up.
It’s been some time since I’ve posted a blessay on my precious little blog – mainly because I’ve been very busy with 6th Form work and haven’t found a spare two hours to do so. However, I thought seeing as it’s been around three weeks and that I have lots to write about, that I should write a blessay.
So, where should I start? Well, my last post was about the weekend of brilliant television. I thoroughly enjoyed myself – I got prepared by buying copious amounts of Coca Cola and Kettle Crisps to gorge myself on whilst the programs were flowing effortlessly into my bedroom. It was brilliant. The main two programs that were on that weekend were the Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars and the new series of Top Gear. Doctor Who was actually brilliant; I was going to post a review of it but I lost track of time and now it’s too overdue to write one. But it was brilliant, wasn’t it? The tenth Doctor’s story is ending and I cannot wait for the Christmas special. Speaking of which, you can watch the preview for The End of Time that was released during Children in Need below.
I would embed this with my own video player – but I’m currently uploading something.
So yeah, that weekend was a very good one for amazing television, but soon we’ll all be graced with the pinnacle of television seasons: “Christmas tele”. Christmas television is that one thing that I’m sure everybody, no matter how young or old, looks forward to this time of year. There is something for everybody and it really does allow the whole family to just sit down and watch something, while the grandparents are sleeping in their chairs, while parents are preparing Christmas dinner, while the children are playing on their new toys and while people like me are writing a new blog about the presents and memories of that Christmas. Last year I posted the BBC’s trailer for “This Christmas on BBC One”, so I thought I’d do the same for this year as well.
Drama on BBC One this Christmas.
Comedy on BBC One this Christmas.
Looks fantastic, doesn’t it? I really cannot wait. Other television news includes the triumphant return of Scrubs, which is now in it’s ninth season. You can read more about the changes at a post I made earlier. One of the changes that I will mention now is the new opening title sequence, which you can watch below.
Anyway, enough about television, what has happened in my life that’s worth noting? Not much really, if I’m honest. I’ve been up to my neck in 6th Form work, it’s always in the back of my mind that I have something to do; and most of the time, I do it.
Last weekend I went to Milton Keynes for some ice skating amongst other things with some friends, specifically Luke, Ben, Kyle, Helen and Lauren. It was very fun actually – you can see all of the pictures on my Facebook profile. Now, I thought I was brilliant at ice skating, (why wouldn’t I be?), but apparently all I seem to do is furiously move my arms to go really fast, then stop myself by crashing into the barriers. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be done? Well, I think it is anyway. Then we went for a well earned drink in Starbucks, I went for my usual Caramel Coffee and a muffin, which was then followed by shopping, including the Apple Store – which we were all in love with, playing with the new Magic Mouse and iPhone 3GS’s.
Something else I haven’t said, I’ve sold my reliable laptop of two years, my Dell Inspiron 6400, I mean, do… did love that laptop because it was my first proper laptop of my own, but it’s time to move onto bigger and better things. Well, when I say bigger and better… I mean smaller and faster because my new laptop is a lovely Dell Studio 15, (picture one and picture two), which I’ve always wanted because it is the mid-range Dell, (in between the Inspiron and XPS ranges ). However, I do play by the rules of Christmas, meaning that I cannot get my laptop until Christmas day – which is why in the mean time I have to use a very, very old Dell desktop tower in the mean time, which is painful to use, but it will do me just fine.
Now, Christmas is fast approaching and I need money in order to buy friends and family presents; so Clear:Both is working alongside Initial Sketch this Christmas in order to do just that. We have our first joint client of the season next week, so that should get the ball rolling.
Nearer to Christmas I will try and get out a special Christmas blessay like I did last year, and I’ll try not repeat the same messages and things that I went over last year.
Enjoy the run up to Christmas, Steven – Administrator.
Published on December 5th 2009 / Filed under Blessays
I’ve been away for so long that you may have forgotten who I in fact am, well let me remind you: I’m Steven Knight. I’m now 16 and I’ve run this website single handled for the past three years which I use to document my life and post bits of designing and developing work that I’ve done. I also now run Clear:Both, my brand new web development company in my spare time, when I’m not doing coursework, of course.
So, now that you know me once again, I think it’s time for a very overdue blessay. So, where should I start? Should I start from what I did over my summer, (or what I didn’t do for that matter), or from the beginning of my first year of Sixth Form, or from my miscellaneous observations? I suppose I shall start in chronological order, so, I it’s time to talk about the summer then.
My summer started off, well, not very summery to be honest. I ended school on May 15th, (which seems like a life time ago now), which marked the end of Year 11 and potentially the end of education all together. But, it’s not that simple; I still had to come back in to take exams for another month before I was completely free. I think the last exam I did was Design Technology, and after two hours: that was it, I was free – that marked the start of my 14 weeks off, (18 if you start counting from when school ended). Now, you’re probably reading this thinking, “14 weeks! How lucky!”, well you may be correct if I actually had anything to do for those 14 weeks. Besides setting up Clear:Both, which I designated as my summer project; going on the occasional walk in the sun with an audiobook playing and having the odd friend over, (odd as in less frequent, not that the friends I had over were literally odd, of course), I in fact did nothing at all. If anything, I was longing to go back to school because I was so bored. At one point, I realised that I had watched over 15 films that I hadn’t seen before in the space of two weeks, and by then, I knew that I was bored.
I would say as the summer started, it ended, but it didn’t: it carried on… and on. But, as the end of summer approached there was still one of blockade in my way: results day. August the 27th was a date that looked so far in the future when I finished my last exam in early June. However, time soon caught up with me, and there I was: at school with people I hadn’t seen for three months, queuing up standing nervously in line to be handed a sealed brown envelope with my name printed wonkily on a sticker in the all to familiar Times New Roman font face. To tell you the truth, I was one of the first in line. People were too nervous to go inside and simply queue, but there really is no point in putting it off, because it’s going to happen. Several seconds after being handed the aforementioned envelope, I briskly escorted myself outside into the optimistic sun light and found a quiet little area to peal open the seal and read what was basically my future. Now, I’ve been over my results in greater detail in another post, so I’ll go over it quickly here: 2 A*’s, 1 A, 3 B’s, 2 C’s, 2 D’s and 1 E. I had passed all of my major subjects, minus one or two minor disappointments, (which to be honest I wasn’t warranted because I did leave revision until the last week), I was very pleased with my results; and so were my family.
Less than two weeks after breathing a sigh of relief and signing up for Sixth Form, there I was standing outside the Andy Todd Sixth Form Center on September the 7th 2009, waiting eagerly to be taught exciting, new and prosperous subjects that would keep me happily occupied for the next two years. I had new pens, pencils, A4 pads, binders and plastic sheets while wearing brand new clothes with a crisp new hair cut, I was ready.
Oh, in case you don’t know what I did indeed chose to study for the next two years, I’ll tell you: English Language, Media, I.T and Psychology. According to various teachers, my choices were very varied, which I’ll assume is a good thing.
Even though I was at the same school that I had been for the past five years, (Wollaston Secondary School), with basically the same people, it for some reason felt like a completely new school. I don’t know what it was, perhaps it was the different lesson structure, or the extended responsibilities, or the greater trust between teachers and pupils, or the noticable absence of school uniform. What it is exactly will still keep me thinking, or perhaps it’s just an mixture of all of the above that’s resulted in an unidentifiable feeling.
Anyway, lets talk about the subjects. I’m only just getting started of course, so it’s too early to tell how things are going to pan out in the long term, but all of the subjects are living up to what I expected. English Language is as enjoyable, exciting and as informative as I imagined it to be, learning all sorts of rules and the rights and wrongs of Standard English and how this can differentiate between various dialects. Media is more or less the same as it was in GCSE, exploring the ways in which films are constructed to please their target audience and explaining how they accomplish this by using Media terminology. I.T is a dreary but as necessary as it has always been to me. We have to do more practical and real world things compared to GCSE, for example, for most of this year I have to come up with a 50 to 100 page report on how various companies use I.T in different ways, terrific. Psychology is the only subject that I haven’t done before, but it’s really interesting to study human behaviour on a different level compared to what we all do all the time, i.e. make judgements and assumptions about two peoples relationships based on body language.
Two weeks in and I’ve already adopted a lever arch file after a standard binder could no longer do the trick as the plastic sheets kept slipping off the metal rings when they were prised open to force more work on top of other sheets. I just hope that I can keep up with the work load, I’ve been doing well so far. All of my set homework’s have been completed on the same day as they were given out which of course leaves me more time to relax when I get home. It’s the little things I look forward to know, such as a nice meal that I know is coming my way or a T.V show that’s on later that night.
Speaking of T.V shows actually, it’s the Autumn T.V season, so lots of my favourite shows are coming back to keep me happy. Peep Show, Mock the Week and Shooting Stars are already back, with QI and Have I Got News For You are waiting to be broadcasted. T.V shows from over seas are also finding their way onto my desktop the day after they have been broadcasted, such as The Office and soon Family Guy will be doing the same. So yeah, it’s the little things that are keeping me going.
I think that I’ve gone over as much as I want to in this blessay without becoming boring and repetitive. I can’t promise that I’ll be doing this often because obviously I don’t know what I might have to do from day to day, coursework or otherwise. Thank you for reading, it’s just good to write about your own life experiences because you can go over certain parts and work things out, why don’t you try it?
Steven – Administrator.
Published on September 22nd 2009 / Filed under Blessays
I haven’t updated my blog in a while, so I thought I’d post a blessay. This is what I recently wrote as part of my summer work for 6th Form. In case you haven’t guessed, this is for English Language. This is activity two of three for that particular subject, activity one is nearly done while activity three will take a while to do as it involves collecting certain things, anyway, I hope that you enjoy reading this.
MY LANGUAGE, ACCENT AND DIALECT.
I was born and raised in Andover, Hampshire with my Father and Mother until I was four years old. As I was at a relatively young age when I was living in Hampshire, I can’t recall recognising or questioning my accent or those around me, but it all became apparent to me when I moved in 1998 to Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.
I attended Irchester Primary School at the age of four in September 1998. For a while I assumed that I spoke normally, just like everyone else assumed that they spoke normally, however it was during the latter half of Year Two and beyond when I started to realise that I didn’t speak like everyone else.
It’s not an accent or regional dialect per se, but I do have a stutter which affects the vocabulary that I use and the dialect I use to convey those words. For example, when I try to put a point of mine across, I usually have an intelligent array of words and phrases that I so desperately want to use, but it is usually the case that that does not happen. Instead, the words and phrases I would have liked to have used are usually substituted for easier to pronounce synonyms that nine times out of ten make the pronounced sentence appear unorganised, unsought and very unintelligent as a result; to which point I usually give up all together.
Because of the social stigma attached to a stutter, those uninformed about it usually assume that I am incompetent and uneducated when simply trying to talk; which deeply upsets me because beneath the audible exterior there is a colourful rainbow of rich vocabulary, phrases and philosophies that want to be used so very, very much.
Pushing aside my substituted choice of words when talking, there are often a variety of different ways that I speak. For example, sometimes I find it easier to talk slowly so I don’t trip myself up, sometimes I affect a lisp which for reasons beyond my control, also help me talk. Other times I talk fast until I’m out of breath so the stutter doesn’t catch up with me. Whenever you talk to me, the real Steven is never the one you hear.
Perhaps that is why I am in love with language of the written form, it allows me to use the vocabulary that I wish I could use flippantly on a spoken day to day basis. When writing, there are no social stigmas attached, for example, lower and upper class writing. Of course we know that there actually is a person behind the text, but we don’t think of their accent, dialect or class unless they specifically reference it, do we? We only judge of what’s on the page, what’s in front of us. Isn’t that brilliant, and after all, isn’t that how it should be?
