Turning Twenty Five

Turning twenty five, Easter in London, travelling to Spain…… Well a lot has been happening over the few weeks and as per usual my blog writing has been absent.

All I can say is that I have this strange feeling of being an adult at the same time as being so far from being an adult it isn’t funny. I mean I feel mature, wise and all that stuff but I just don’t feel any of the needs for settling down and getting “on” with life, nor to I have the unending confidence in my abilities that I expected to have as an adult.. Go figure hey!?

I have quit smoking for the eightieth time so we will see how that goes. My parents gave me some money (thanks!), which I spent (some of it) on having a lovely hotel in Spain for Farah and I. People had a party in our building on my Birthday so that, I decided, would do for my party as after all I have never been big on parties for myself. Also went to the Messiah in Albert Hall on Good Friday… awesome!!!

Has my view on the world changed now I am twenty five? Hmmm:

Well I am as two faced as ever when it comes to my belief in the future of the human race. On one hand I am certain of the impending destruction; on the other the more people I meet the more I believe that the most of us are the same and that we will work it out somehow.

I still plan on becoming the first “world controller”, with Nick as my trusty advisor… and also will be a hermit for the last ten years of my life, when I plan to experiment with mind altering drugs.

I still long for the day that they put a computer chip in our brain, with wireless net connection and large storage capacity, which we can use to do all our work and other computer related activities whilst lying in a warm bed and thus avoiding the need for getting up for anything other than fun, like surfing and the like.

I still think God invented religion to ensure that Man would continue to fight and kill himself and thus never escape the monotony of daily life and become like God… God really doesn’t like to share the control of the universe, I mean doesn’t he trust us ;-)

I still think working 40 hour weeks for 40 years is insanity… think about it a little while and you will come to the same opinion.

Advertising is bad and marketers should feel ashamed of themselves as all they do is ensure people aren’t happy with what they have and hence force them to work harder in jobs they don’t like for things they don’t need. We are not “free”, as the sellers of capitalism would have us believe… rather we are trapped in a culture of expectations and image, where things are black and white… you fit in or you drop out…..

People are still pretty racist… and I guess this makes sense… we have hated difference ever since our cave man cousins saw some dude from across the river… different people want to take our stuff so we have to kill them… this is pretty much the same now… The Chinese want America’s lifestyle and the Polish want the British people’s jobs….

Sport should never have become professional as it allows people to “indulge” in sport without moving a muscle… fancy an overweight, unfit sports nut… how stupid!

Um… we in the west consume way too much and our day or reckoning is coming ever closer… Oil will run out in fifty years and wars will be the result…. Although hydrogen fuel cell technology is promising… this still is no excuse to waste what we have now…

Um… anyways that’s a little rant to show I still am as cynical as ever… But I know people are great all the same… we, myself included, just want to be loved and we do everything, from buying flowers for loved ones to going to war, to be accepted and loved….. I just pray that we express ourselves in more sensible, mature and sustainable ways into the future… If we don’t some species that can will replace us….

Thank you all for your birthday wishes and there are a few more photos:
http://lucas.intercate.net/gallery/april
http://lucas.intercate.net/gallery/art
http://lucas.intercate.net/gallery/barcelona

Oh and only two months left in London… YAY!!!!!

A theory on the United States

Nick and I were chilling after another nice gym session last night and I complained as to there never really ever being anything decent on UK tv…. I really wanted to chill for a few hours and watch some quality entertainment on the old tube… Thankfully my wishes were granted as “Super Size Me” was being shown on Channel 4. Sweet! Some quality American bashing… Nothing makes you feel better about the moral, ethical, intellectual, spiritual etc standing of your own nation than having a good old perve at American lifestyles….

Whilst watching the movie/documentary Nick, who hadn’t seen the film before, remarked on how stupid Americans are. And this is where I would like to commence my theorising.

Questions:

(1) Are Americans more stupid than the rest of us?

(2) If not, why do they seem so stupid?

Okay. Answer to question one is simple. No. Why, I hear you ask? Well unless you are racist you will agree that we as humans are all pretty much the same and given this the average IQ of America, as it is for the UK Australia and Bolivia is 100, simple as that. Fifty percent of people will be below that and fifty percent will be above that….

But surely the Japanese are smarter… they work harder… right!? Well no… although you can increase knowledge through learning your basic logic and hence intelligence is determined by genetics and cannot be changed no matter how hard you study…. Sorry Nick ;-(

So given that question one is sorted…. Why is it that every American we see appears to be dumb as a post? Well this is my theory:

We see most of our Americans on tv not in real life. Because America has such a larger media exposure to the rest of the world we tend to see a wider cross section of the American public on tv. Put simply we watch Jerry Springer, which shows the worst of American stupidity but we don’t watch Xian Chan (made up Chinese Jerry Springer style spin off) so we only see the higher/more intelligent people from most countries on tv… but for the US we see them all… from their best (insert smart American’s name here) and their worst (hmmmmm…Chuck Norris?).

Also, we associate wealth with intelligence. Given the United States is by far the richest country in the world we expect them to be the smartest. When we see that they are normal and not super smart they perform below our expectations and hence we are shocked and label them stupid. They are just like you and I… Sad but true my friends.

Oh… also maybe it is the accent and the fact that Americans tend on average to be more self centred … self centred being a characteristic often associated with stupidity…

Anyway check this just for fun...

http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/georgie.htm

Rest assured the States have the most nobel prizes in all categories… so they aint all dumb….

It's all about the weather!

What a difference longer, warmer, sunnier days make!!! We have passed the spring equinox and I am feeling great… Please note this attached link to SAD http://www.sada.org.uk/ … this is why these poms are such depressive whingers half the time… they have an excuse!

Well Nick and I have moved from our lovely little private apartment in Ladbroke Grove to Kilburn Park which is further to the North West. We are currently sharing with two Slovenian girls who will be replaced by two Canadian girls in a few weeks. The move, once again all performed on the Tube went well, and besides my duvee trying to explode out of it’s plastic bag on the tube and on runs between changing lines all went well. Thanks Farah for letting me stay somewhere warm and dry in between leases!

So the new area is lovely, a little less richo but a good mix and it is even closer to my work, only 25mins walk! Which is great esp. given the improvement in weather and longer days…

Well only three months left… Can you believe this!?! We have been here for like eight months already. Rocked up on the 27th July, which was like over eight months ago… almost enough time to have a baby… fingers crossed I don’t get any calls from South American versions of the CSA Argh!!! ;-)

I have been very lazy of late with the blogging… I guess I just never really feel like blabbing on about things…. All I can say is for the past few days post move I have been feeling great. Nick and I are having more fun together now we don’t live solely together and I feel Nick has overcome SAD (see above) and is getting back into fitness and health, as too am I and it is doing the both of us the world of good. Farah and I are going great, less stress and more fun…. Although we have our moments (Farah - you sure you're not 100% black African?!?!) I think we have both grasped the fact that we are both at interesting times in our lives and hence should hold onto these moments as they last and accept what the future holds….

Also Jess rang me a few times last week, which was great as I haven’t really spoken to her in like well.. for like over a year. So cool to hear from her again… It can be easy to forget you have a family and a baby niece when you’re so far away… Well I don’t forget!

Love you all and might write a rant about positional consumption and the failure of the counter culture to create anything meaningful in social progress in the past forty years…. Just a book I read on the weekend (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rebel_Sell ), which I followed by a walk to Camden town, where I saw hardcore punks holding up billboards advertising money changing and lunchtime meals…. How can one sell out when there is nothing to sell out… right?