Journal Entries
The Gospel According To Manchester
Posted Jan 26, 2006
This story from today's 'Guardian' has made my day. http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1695198,00.html
It's so great that I didn't believe it until I'd checked it against the BBC site, but it seems that it's true: this Easter, the BBC is screening a TV special called 'Manchester Passion', telling the Easter story via the songs of Manchester bands of the past 30 years, including Oasis, The Smiths, Joy Division, New Order and Buzzcocks. The actor playing Jesus will sing 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now' and 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' alone, and then duet with Judas on 'Blue Monday' and with Pontius Pilate on 'Wonderwall'. Mary Magdalene, meanwhile, gets to sing 'Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't Have)'. And Bez, the Happy Mondays dancer turned professional celebrity-without-portfolio, plays a disciple! 
Sounds fantastic - but surely some other songs must be included? How about New Order's 'Touched By The Hand Of God'? Or Morrissey's recent hit 'I Have Forgiven Jesus'? And best of all - especially given that Ian Brown is also involved with the show - The Stone Roses' 'I Am The Resurrection'? 
Discuss this Journal entry [11]
Latest reply: Jan 26, 2006
Cruel and unusual exams
Posted Jan 17, 2006
I don't much like mornings at the best of times. 
I never usually hand-write anything longer than a postcard. I hate writing quickly - I take a pride in my use of language, and prefer to craft my words carefully. I like to check my facts and consider whether things might be better phrased before presenting a piece of work as finished product. Given that opportunity, I can generally produce something pretty good. My University marks for essays I've written in this way have ranged from 64% to 85%.
You can probably imagine, therefore, how I felt today about having an exam starting at 9:15am in which I was required to hand-write two essays in quick succession in two hours. This is a totally unnatural way of working for me, and I can't accept that it's the best way for my knowledge of a subject - in this case, Modern Social & Cultural Trends - to be assessed. It is surely far more of a test of my ability to function under great pressure - and I readily admit to being fragile under stress. 
I scribbled out some sort of something for two hours. My essays were collected. At the end, the invigilator said something to us that I couldn't take in; I was so stressed out and exhausted that my capacity for comprehension had vanished. I staggered off to the Student Union bar in a distressed daze, and almost got in trouble by absent-mindedly going to the wrong table after a visit to the loo and picking up someone else's 
. (Fortunately, I realised before I drank any. 
)
Why is this mind-warping horror known as exams visited on innocent people? Aren't there supposed to be international agreements prohibiting cruel and unusual punishments? 
Discuss this Journal entry [29]
Latest reply: Jan 17, 2006
Ormy's New Year Resolutions 2006
Posted Jan 1, 2006
Here are some of the dos and don'ts I hope to enact during 2006...
1) Keep in touch with my oldest friends - the three guys I've known since 1971. But don't try to match them for when we go out. This is a lesson I've learned painfully during this festive season. 
2) Get fitter again. Sometimes it takes a lot of willpower to get myself up to the gym, but I always feel much, much better for doing so. I have slacked just a little in the latter part of the year, and when I went for a strenuous afternoon clambering around Malhamdale the other week, I realised that I needed to try a bit harder. It was a great day out - but I didn't half ache the next day! 
However, this leads neatly on to...
3) Get out to the Yorkshire Dales and the moors more often. There's a lot of stunning scenery a short train journey away from where I live, and it's time I saw more of it. It's time to get on Ilkley Moor again, with or without headgear.
4) Carry on succeeding as a student. The best thing that happened to me in 2005 was getting the chance to be a full-time University student for the first time in my life. My average mark is currently just over 70%, which means I'm on course for a First. This must be maintained - starting with the exam I have looming on January 17. 
However, at the same time, I want to...
5) Learn to relax more and worry less. It's amazing how often I end up thinking 'God, was *that* what I was so worried about'? I should be taking the hint by now!
6) Do some more acting. Because I enjoy it, other people seem to enjoy watching me, and I'm getting better at it the more practice I get. And last but not least...
7) Get some 
in my life. Dammit, I'm too good to go to waste! 
There, that little lot should keep me entertained...
Discuss this Journal entry [21]
Latest reply: Jan 1, 2006
A happy Christmas to all my readers
Posted Dec 24, 2005
The shopping is all done, the 
are all wrapped, and all I have left to write are one or two more gift tags. I went out with a couple of old friends I've known since about 1971 last night - one lesson I shall take into 2006 is that when I see those guys again, trying to match them for is not a good idea.
But I am having a good Christmas already. I have really enjoyed the pleasure of giving this year - I've handed out a record (for me) number of Christmas cards, many of them with messages thanking people for the good things they have done for me, and the appreciation I've had for the gesture has been heartwarming.
Tonight I plan to stay in and watch my nice new DVD of Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' 
, a celebrated movie that I missed out on seeing when it was released some years back. If it's anything like as good as his recent 'The Corpse Bride', I'll love it. Then tomorrow I'll go and exchange with my parents; and I realise how lucky I am to be able to do that, especially after reading some recent postings from hootoo friends who've lost loved ones. You know who you are, and I hope you're finding some joy in the festive season. 
Whoever and wherever you are, enjoy the holiday, and here's to 2006.
Discuss this Journal entry [12]
Latest reply: Dec 24, 2005
Murder close to home
Posted Nov 20, 2005
I heard the news of the murder of Sharon Beshenivsky in a panicky phone call from my mother on Friday evening. She’d seen the news on TV, and was immediately worried because she knew that the policewoman’s murder by armed robbers had taken place in a location I know very well. I turned on my own TV, and was chilled to see a reporter standing in a very familiar scene.
Morley Street, Bradford, is 10 minutes’ walk away from my front door and a minute’s walk away from the University where I spend a lot of my time. I’ve just been over there today. I stood outside my favourite city centre pub and gazed sadly at the still sealed-off street where the robbery and shooting took place. Police and broadcasters’ vehicles lined the kerbs near the barriers guarding the murder scene, and a police helicopter circled overhead. Suspects have apparently been arrested, which is good to know, but the search for evidence clearly goes on.
Who’s to blame for this tragedy? Well, of course, first of all it’s the scum who carried out the robbery and killing. May they rot in jail for decades, starting as soon as possible. But I also blame an entertainment industry that now glamorises violent criminality to an unprecedented degree, and a consumer culture that tells people that they are utterly unworthy of respect if they don’t have the latest expensive car/designer clothes/ostentatious jewellery. In this cultural climate, is it so surprising that some resort to the most extreme measures to get those ‘must have’ props? Sure, there were gangsters long before there were gangsta rappers, and there have always been status symbols and gold-diggers eager to flock to those who flaunt them; but it really feels to me as though amoral avarice has never been so shamelessly promoted. And one of the troubles with ‘get rich or die tryin’’ as a philosophy is that sometimes it’s other people who end up doing the dying.
Given the Blair government’s general enthusiasm for importing bad ideas from America and adopting simplistic populist solutions, I’m relieved to see that the notion of routinely arming the British police appears to have been rejected. This is in accordance with the reported wishes of the majority of the police themselves; they believe that for them to carry guns would have a disastrous impact on their relationship with the rest of the public. I entirely agree.
Meanwhile, I grieve for Ms Beshenivsky, her family and her injured colleague. I also grieve for my home city, once again in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Bradford city centre is currently being extensively rebuilt. A lot of new shops have already appeared, and a lot more new amenities are promised. I was just starting to feel that the old place was looking a bit brighter; but this dreadful story has served as a brutal reminder that new buildings do not immediately produce a new outlook.
R.I.P. Sharon Beshenivsky. May those who were close to her find strength and peace. 
Discuss this Journal entry [11]
Latest reply: Nov 20, 2005
Ormondroyd
Researcher U95721
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."