Got back from Wales on Thursday. Well back to lovely, sunny (may not be true) Hastings, I didnt actualy end up getting home until late Friday night. Wales was as hilly as I remembered from the past, and Aberystwyth turned out to be quite a nice place, the university looked good too. The added bonus is its miles away from anywhere, as someone once said "isolation is paramount". Damn straight.

Friday involved trekking down into the town, and to be pleasently surprised that shops actualy had copies of GTA: San Andreas in stock. The way people had been going on, I thought they would wither have sold out by lunch time, or they had all been pre-ordered or something. Apparently not. Suffice to say this game "rocks" (not literally, no matter how I have tried, standing the game case up on one side does not enable it to move in a rocking motion). At the moment I'm trying to get to grips with some difficult early missions (I suck), and the fact that the map is far bigger than anything Ive ever seen. And thats not counting the other 2/3rds that are still locked. This morning was spent rifing through the countryside on my bike, stopping at farms and gas stations brifly to set fire to things. Yep, definately a bloody excellent game. However, this unexpected purchase has left me with a little dilema, and that is shall I do my coursework like Im supposed to, or just play San An? I think we all know the answer to this question....

Tomorrow its off to London, for no real purpose. Unfortunately this does mean even more train journey's, but watching people's terrified faces as we get on the underground should prove to be priceless.

One last note, if I'm not on the internet anymore, Im busy playing GTA: SA, I'll be back once Rockstar has relinquished my soul....

Now Playing: Queen - Bicycle Race [01:05/03:03]

Where are we going again?

So tomorrow its of to Wales to visit the university in Aberystwyth. 6 hour train journey, and a 2 night stay, so if anything it should prove interesting. Most likely i'll come back absoloutley shattered, and still with a ton of coursework left to do. Oh well, I choose to get myself into all of this I suppose, although I do wonder sometimes quite why.

Anyhoo, I shall update this when I next have access to the internet. No net for at least 3 days, I think I'll probably end up going crazy. Oh wait that's already happened......

Since no one reads this (:D) I shall see none of you in a couple of days time.....

Now Playing: David Bowie - The Jean Genie [00:28/04:07]

Proving that I do occasionally manage to pry myself away from the internet, I actually went outside earlier. You know, to do stuff. Scary I know.

Now the idea of a bike ride may sound pleasant enough, and it probably would have been a nice leisurely outing. That is, of course, if it wasn't for the fact that was raining, cold and very windy. Therefore I was taught a lesson into why cycling into oncoming wind is bad, and why baggy clothing should be avoided in these circumstances, as they do have a nasty tendency of acting as an impromptu sail and blowing you of the road, and into a rather large and muddy puddle, which thankfully was narrowly avoided at the last minute.

And on the subject of road shenanigans, I get to have my first driving lesson next Wednesday. People living in the Hastings area should be afraid. Very afraid }:-)

Now Playing: Dire Straits - Heavy Fuel [01:11/05:01]

MSN Messenger Down

Since precisely somewhere around tea-time yesterday, MSN seems to have gone off for a pint or 20, and didn't bother to tell anyone when it would be back. Watching people make thread after thread on countless forums across the internet has proved to be rather amusing. MSN is down, so get over it and stop whining. Christ, you'd think people didn't have anything else to do with their time. In other IM/Interweb/geek related stuff, I have managed to lurk on IRC for at least a week now, which I'm pleased about as I've always prided myself on my lurking capabilities.

Back in the real world, the stress factor appears to have been turned up to 11.5. Pretty high, I'm sure you'll agree, especially as the scale only goes up to 10. I'm currently trying to find a driving instructor so I can, surprisingly enough, learn how drive. I always thought that my PS2 and a copy of Gran Turismo was tuition enough, but apparently not. Meh. I'm also desperately trying to find universities to go to in a couple of years time. The only place I know I want to go to for definite is Aberystwyth in Wales, which I hope to be visiting sometime at the end of October. Its getting to the point where I will just have to use a pin to chose places at random. Which come to think of it sounds like quite a sensible method of selection...

Now Playing: Various Artists - Jailbreak - Thin Lizzy [02:33/04:00]

File-Sharing

I have'nt updated in ages, but I wanted to rant a bit about this article which I found doing my usual tour of news websites.

The article refers to the recent development of British music companies seeking compensation for music files that have been illegally shared on the internet. Now this may sound fair enough, after all the general consensus with most people is that stealing is wrong. However, calling the sharing of music "theft" seems a little too harsh to me.

Music is, and should be something that is made to please those who listen to it, and for the most part this is the case. We hear songs played, say on the radio, like it, then perhaps go and buy the album. And although we have always had to pay, the prices of albums have never been as extortionist as they are today. £18 for a piece of plastic. Add together the costs of producing a CD, add on little extra as pay for the artist, and I still fail to see how a price of £18 is justified.

It is an age old expression that music should be about the music, and not about making money. And as cliche as it may have become, I still very much agree with this statement. Of course I'm not denying that artists should be rewarded for their work, far from it, but when it comes to what we have now, where people are being sued, I think its a pretty dire situation. The amount of money being lost by file sharing is minimal, compared to the money they are still making through record sales. Also take into account that file sharing does not mean that when someone has downloaded a song they are not going to buy it. Ask anyone and they will tell you that if they really like a song they have downloaded, they will go out and buy it. After all, nothing beats physically holding a new album in your hands. If anything, file sharing is a new, and since it matters so much these days, free advertising medium. And moving back to my original point, surely it should be enough satisfaction to artists that people are listening to their music, and enjoying it. After all, isn't that why they do it? According to the article, it seems not.

Pete Waterman, the hitmaker behind Kylie Minogue and Steps who was on hand for the announcement, said: “This is industry, not the National Health Service. This is music. You buy it.”

To me, that is typical of modern music. An industry. To be produced, and bought. Call me old fashioned, but isn't music an art form? A form of expression, something that can be enjoyed by everyone? It always used to be, until certain people realised that they could capitalise of the popular love of music. Thus was born the record company, and turning music from art into industry.

“There is only a relative handful of people in the music industry who ever make much money — 95 per cent of musicians out there can’t afford to buy their guitars and this kind of theft hurts them as much as anyone else.”

Okay, fair point, but this isn't new. There have been a lot of bands in the past who struggled to replace the strings on their guitars when they were starting out, but they carried on due to their sheer love of playing music. And I am fairly confident that lack of funds were not due to a slump in CD sales, considering CD's hadn't been invented in the 1970's.

Which brings us to the slump in sales. Perhaps this slump is just a result of high prices. A lot of the people buying CD's are teenagers or younger, and are not going to have a lot of money to spend on new albums. The fact that file sharing is to blame is typical of the record companies attitude - prosecute any who will cost them a few pennies, compared to the revenue they are still receiving.

I am not condoning theft, and I am not saying that all music should be free. I realise that would be lunacy, but all I am saying is that shouldn't the authorities being trying to tackle real problems, rather than prosecuting 12 year old kids?