Musing about sh*t.

A friend of mine named Mark Weaver wrote this, and I found it, well... 'thought provoking' and wanted to share it.
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I have been motivated to write something about this after hearing of a situation somebody I know is dealing with. The specifics of her situation need not be mentioned as this doesn't relate directly to it but the broad subject it brings to mind is a cause of much frustration to me so I feel compelled to write down some of my thoughts on the issue.

Here goes.

I have noticed that whilst people in the less affluent lands of this planet are making things happen (earning a living, fleeing a war zone, finding water for their cattle, hunting for dinner etc) people in the richer countries are finding things to be miserable about. Have you ever heard anybody say things like “I don't feel fulfilled”, “the spark has gone from my love life” or “my life sucks”. It seems strange to me that somebody with the benefit of a political representation (even if it's not perfect), a social security system and (in most western countries) free health care really have that much to complain about.....but we do (yes, me too) and I'm interested in why we do.

You could say that we're spoiled by all this, that people always want that bit more than they have. Maybe we are and that's a pretty easy factor to pick out but I think there's more to it than that.

Maybe one part of the puzzle is the fact that we're encouraged to talk too much. To open up, to share our feelings and lighten our psychological burdens. It never used to be like this, and still isn't in poorer countries. If you can't be bothered to get up and go to work in rural Rwanda my guess is that eventually you're going to starve or become infected by your own bacteria from shitting the bed. In Milton Keynes (if you hold out long enough) you're likely to be assigned a social worker, sent to a specialist and asked to talk about how you feel when you picture yourself in the work environment. You may be told that you've bottled your emotions up for too long and it's resulted in a breakdown, you need help...........or.........

.maybe you're just a lazy cunt, and if these touchy feely options weren't available you'd be at work, feeding your kids and wouldn't have time to dwell on problems that aren't really problems.

It's possible that if you beat somebody up in a pub toilet for no good reason that you'll receive counselling to work out why you lash out at people and be encouraged to get in touch with your feelings. All this is very nice and may well have some benefit to tackling the problems but sometimes people are just wankers and need to be treated as such and I think this is at the heart of the problem.......the government, authority figures, celebrities, anyone in the public eye is afraid to discount anyone as lazy, or an arsehole or stupid. Everyone has to be saved right? Well some people can't be, so give them a chance, maybe give them another one and if they still can't get it together then fuck them.

I think another part of the problem of dissatisfaction in the west is due to overly high expectations. I think most people understand that you have good days and bad days, that's accepted. What people seem to dread the most are mundane days though. Life is not just a blend of positive and negative, you must never forget we need a liberal sprinkling of neutral. Life is boring some of the time, you wake up, do a shit, wipe your arse, eat some tasteless breakfast cereal, go to work, wish you could go home early, go home, eat some more tasteless shit, watch some crap telly, go to bed and then do it all again the next day. You know what though, that's great....OK, it's not all that great at the time, but it means you notice the good days and the bad days, if every day was one or the other then you'd have bi-polar disorder. Accept the grey and you'll start to see all the colours.

There are other factors that contribute that may be out of our control but for the most part getting the most out of life is tackled by setting your expectations right. Don't expect that high paying job when you're 22, don't expect a whirlwind romance to stay all windy and romantic forever and don't ever expect anybody to do anything for you. It's your life, you fix your problems, you make things happen......or you don't I'm certainly not going to do it for you, I'm a cunt like the rest of them.


Peace
Weaver

My Top 40 Albums of the Noughties

In a rough order, my top 40 albums of the noughties.

The Southland – Influence of Geography (2005)
Gary Jules – Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets (2001)
Richmond Fontaine – Post to Wire (2004)
Drive by Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark (2008)
Jack Johnson – Brushfire Fairytales (2001)
Candidate – Under the Skylon (2005)
Fugazi – The Argument (2001)
Midlake - The Trials Of Van Occupanther (2006)
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (2008)
Red West – Red West (2003)
Postal Service – Give Up (2003)
Band of Horses – Cease to Begin (2007)
Minus the Bear – Planet of Ice (2007)
Iron & Wine- The Shepherd’s Dog (2007)
The XX – XX (2009)
Jason Mraz – Waiting For My Rocket to Come (2002)
Remy Shand – The Way I Feel (2002)
John Mayer – Room for Squares (2001)
South – From Here On In (2001)
Thievery Corporation – The Mirror Conspiracy (2000)
Dinosaur Jr – Beyond (2007)
Kings of Leon - Only by the Night (2008)
Breaks Co-op – The Sound Inside (2006)
Swell Season – Strict Joy (2009)
John Martyn - On the Cobbles (2004)
Fat Freddys Drop – Based on a True Story (2005)
Jazzanova – Of All the Things (2008)
Bloc Party – Silent Alarm (2005)
Joseph Arthur – Our Shadows Will Remain (2004)
Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street (2004)
The Photographic - Pictures of a Changing World (2005)
Ray LaMontagne – Trouble (2004)
Benjamin Diamond – Strange Attitude (2001)
The Lemonheads – The Lemonheads (2006)
Mos Def - Only by the Night (2009)
Emiliana Torrini – Me and Armini (2008)
Yeasayer – All Hour Cymbals (2007)
Bedoiun Soundclash - Sounding a Mosaic (2004)
Little Dragon – Machine Dreams (2009)
Vetiver – To Find Me Gone (2006)

Getting Audio Files off a CD or DVD into your iTunes Library

1. Open iTunes and click Edit > Preferences… then select the “Advanced” tab.

The location path under “iTunes Music folder location” is where all your music will be kept, make a note of it, you’ll need to copy files into it later!

Typically it is something like this C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\Music though it can be changed to whatever you like.

Put a check in the “Keep iTunes Music folder organized” box.

2. Insert the data CD/DVD into your computer, click on “My Computer” and locate it, double click to see its contents.

Highlight all of the folders on the CD/DVD and right click selecting “Copy”. Now browse to the iTunes music folder we identified in step 1. Right click New > Folder and name it “_NEW” open the created directory and right click within it selecting “Paste”.

N.B The files will now start copying across, before doing this it might be worth checking you have sufficient hard-drive space on your PC!

3. Now go to iTunes, select File > Add Folder to Library… browse to the iPod music folder, as previously identified (step 1) and select the folder within it we called “_NEW” and click “OK”. iTunes will now begin to add the files to its library whilst simultaneously renaming and filing them.

After a couple of minutes the music will be transferred from the CD/DVD to your PC’s hard-drive and you’ll be able to see it in your iTunes library ready to be copied to your iPod, Touch or iPhone, through synchronisation or by dragging and dropping if you’re manually managing your device.

Copying the Music on your iPod on to your PC

I think it’s crazy that Apple don’t allow this to happen in iTunes with a simple drag and drop, it’s probably down to DRM and legal stuff. But there is a work around which is useful particularly if your computer has given up the ghost and the only copy of your library you have is on your iPod!

1. Open iTunes and click Edit > Preferences… then select the “Advanced” tab, within the Advanced tab select the “General” tab.

The location path under “iTunes Music folder location” is where all your music will be kept, make a note of it, you’ll need to copy files into it later!

Typically it is something like this C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\Music though it can be changed to whatever you like.

Put a check in the “Keep iTunes Music folder organized” box.

2. Connect your iPod, once it appears under DEVICES in iTunes click on it to access the controls, on the Summary tab ensure there is a check in the “Enable disk use” box.

3. Click on “My Computer” and locate the iPod device, double click to see its contents.

Typically you’ll see folders for “Calendars”, “Contacts” and “Notes” and nothing else as the music is hidden.

To locate the music we need to make it visible. In the explorer window click on Tools > Folder Options… then click on the View tab, under Files and Folders / Hidden files and folders make sure there is a check next to “Show hidden files and folders”.

You should now see a folder called “iPod_Control” within the folder is another directory called “Music” which contains all of the music files on your iPod, however these files are randomly named and randomly placed into directories called F00, F01, F02 etc. so there is no way of easily identifying specific songs or albums

Highlight all of the F## folders and right click selecting “Copy”. Now browse to the iTunes music folder we identified in step 1. Right click New > Folder and name it “_IPOD” open the directory and right click within it selecting “Paste”.

N.B The files will now start copying across, before doing this it might be worth checking you have sufficient hard-drive space on your PC!

Once the files have copied into your new “_IPOD” folder, select them all and right click selecting “Properties” remove checks from both the “Read-only” and “Hidden” boxes and apply the changes to all files and folders.

Now go to iTunes, select File > Add Folder to Library… browse to the iPod music folder, as previously identified and select the folder we created called “_IPOD” and click “OK”. iTunes will now begin to add the files to it’s library whilst simultaneously renaming and filing them.

Done.