Apologies for the lack of regular posting but I’ve been really busy the last few days.
I’ve just installed Ubuntu on my laptop (alongside XP) and I’m tinkering with the default Firefox 3 web browser. Annoyingly, it seems that the fonts or something are slightly different than in Firefox 2 on Windows, so the title of this blog is somewhat askew. That was always something I was going to look at anyway, once I found a theme I liked.
Even more annoyingly, it’s broken the theme I have for the travel blog by dropping the final “tabbed” link at the top to a new line. Grr. Time for some fixin’…
Just curious… did anyone reading this get an email from PayPal in the last day or so saying there was a problem with their account and that access had been restricted?
I ask as I got one this morning saying that I needed to log on to remove the restrictions, which I did – by changing my password and security questions. However, I’m puzzled by their reason for forcing me to do this: that someone they suspected may not have been me had accessed the account.
Note: “accessed”. Not “attempted to access”.
Now, if they had accessed the account, why didn’t they take the small amount of cash I have sat there? And if they did get in, then why would PayPal suspect it’s not me? It’s not like a bank where they ask you for further ID once you’re inside and realise that the photo on the passport doesn’t look like you.
Had they hammered the login several times and not got the right password, then why make me change the one I had? It was obviously good enough.
But what’s really made me ask this question is that when I mentioned it to Joleen this morning, she said “I got a message like that yesterday!” – only hers was slightly different. The mail itself stated that they suspected a dodgy credit card transaction in relation to her account (again, no details at all) and for her to regain access, she has to fax them a copy of a statement or something. Which seems pointless as well as pretty annoying and inconvenient in this day and age.
So I’m curious… has anyone else had anything like this happen in the last few days? Because the cynical part of me is wondering if there’s really nothing at all wrong with any of the accounts and PayPal are instead just trying to look like they’re being secure by inventing problems that they’re “saving” us from.
I’ve got an issue with Nationwide at the moment. They’ve not done anything wrong. They’re just trying too hard to protect “me” against fraud to the point where they could potentially make my life very hard indeed.
Recently they sent me a little card reader. If I want to transfer money online I have to use this, in conjunction with my ATM card, to generate a code. Fine and secure.
Problem: when travelling, I take two cashcards – one for Nationwide (free withdrawals) and one for emergencies (Lloyds TSB). When in Vietnam a year or so ago, my Nationwide card was nicked along with the rest of my wallet contents. A pain in the bum, but all I had to do was pop online, transfer some funds to the Lloyds account and 3 days later I could withdraw cash from there.
Can we see a problem? The time when I’d need to transfer money – when I’d lost the Nationwide card – I now need the damn card to perform the transfer… There’s no option with this card reader. They send you it even though you’ve not requested it and then you have to use it. I think I may get in touch and ask them what I’m supposed to do int he situation listed.
Actually, I also need to try and find my Lloyds bank card. Eek.
Finland trounced the Eurovision Song Contest a couple of years back with Lordi‘s amazing Rock and Roll Hallelujah. They tried again this year, but fell for the “they’ve done this before” attitude and their vastly superior act was rejected in favour of some trash from Russia voted for by all the ex-colonies/ states/ gulags/ whatever.
Australia’s version of Pop Idol (or is it Fame Academy? Same ****, different channel)is routinely filled with people singing the likes of Nickelback and RHCP rather than Bros.
And now Pop Idol Bulgaria has been won by a self-confessed metaller singing renditions of songs by Whitesnake and Deep Purple. The video’s below – watch out for the judge who looks like an old Maiden roadie.
So when will people learn? Metal ******* rules over that boring pop *****.
Just to show I’m not biased for/against groups of people, but prefer to judge individuals, there are two stories in the news over the weekend relating to the whole “emo” thing.
First up was the so-called “Black Parade” in London, where a load of emo kids marched in protest against the Daily Mail’s comments about their music and lifestyle. OK, it wasn’t an enormous protest like the ones around the time of the fox-hunting ban, or the whole Ban Trident thing back in the day – but these are teenagers we’re talking about and it was a Saturday morning.
Full marks to them organising it, and attending it and – by all accounts – not causing any bother. The Mail’s response was typically bullshit, though, as they attempted to defend themselves and say that they were reporting accurately. Which would be a first, let’s face it.
Let’s take this in sections:
“The Daily Mail‘s coverage of the ‘Emo’ movement has been balanced, restrained and above all, in the public interest. Genuine concerns were raised at the inquest earlier this month on 13 year old emo follower Hannah Bond who had been self-harming and then tragically killed herself.” [Daily Mail statement]
First off, the Daily Mail has never – in my view – been balanced. Nor has it been restrained. And the only interests it has is in selling papers and making money. After all, it’s a business. It has to to survive so they can hardly be faulted for it. However, I’d say that their coverage is usually biased and alarmist. If they’re to be believed then there’s a paedo under every bed, Al Quaeda live next door and anyone with a Black Sabbath album is a potential serial killer.
Recording a verdict of suicide, coroner Richard Sykes said: “The Emo overtones concerning death and associating it with glamour I find very disturbing.”
The “genuine concerns” were raised by a pathologist. It doesn’t take a huge leap of faith (and as ever, I am more than happy to be corrected) to assume this gentleman is likely in his 40’s or 50’s. Much as I’m certain he’s a qualified coroner, I’d not really want to listen to his views on modern-day popular culture. He’s entitled to an opinion, sure, but don’t paint a whole subculture with one brush-stroke, Richard.
“In common with other newspapers we ran an accurate news story recording the Coroner’s remarks and the parents’ comments.”
Now I’ve not read the parents’ comments, but bear in mind that these people had just faced a horrific loss. As is natural, they’ll have been looking for someone or something to blame. Music and lifestyle seem to top that list all the time. Don’t forget that Marilyn Manson was to blame for at least one gun-rampage in a US school, Ozzy Osbourne’s at fault for a handful of suicides and Judas Priest should all burn in hell because one of their fans attempted to blow his own head off with a shotgun. And missed.
In each and every one of these cases, the band/artist has been found not guilty in a US court (I don’t think we’ve ever been stupid enough in his country to actually take it that far) and the parents have instead just looked like idiots. Idiots who’ve lost any sympathy by trying to get a huge cash settlement in return for the death/injury of their child.
It’s not the accurate reporting of the comments that’s the issue. It’s the spin put on them and how they’re followed up. Somehow I can’t see the Daily Mail saying that they disagree with the coroner as it suits their agenda to stir up suspicion against a perfectly harmless group of people.
As a partial aside, I’ve been told by people more closely linked with the genre that My Chemical Romance aren’t even an emo band. I’m not one to pigeon-hole music myself – it’s too hard to compartmentalise with so many crossings-over and changes in style between albums. So I just wanted to make it clear that at leasy I have done a little research.
I also seriously doubt that the Daily Mail’s taken the time to look into the band itself. I can’t find the web page I looked at a while ago, but they’d picked out some lyrics from an older album as “proof” that the band were all about death, dying, killing yourself, misery, depression and so on. Strangely, I recall one of their reports from maybe 15 years ago after a young lad was killed. His killer had one – one – Sepultura album in his collection. The Mail went on an anti-Seps kick, quoting lyrics from a different album and taken completely out of context with the rest of the song that they’d picked. Accurate? Or manipulative?
Go and take a look at the lyrics sheet for MCR’s current release, The Black Parade. Yup, there’s a miserable song about a guy with cancer. But does he kill himself? Erm, no. The hook of the song is that “the hardest part is losing you”. In my interpretation, the guy doesn’t want to die. He’s clinging on to spend as long as he can with his family before he carks it. Depressing, yes, but poignant. Aside from that, the rest of the album’s pretty upbeat. The message throughout, to me at least, is “don’t give up; whatever’s happened, brush it off, stand up and fight on”.
If we’re going to all have to avoid songs about depression and how much you want to just roll over and give up then I suggest the Daily Mail takes a long hard look at the evil that is country music. Pick a random selection of albums and you’ll have warblings about spousal abuse, murder, divorce, infidelity, incest, child abuse, bestiality… But the audience is mainly adult so it’s not so “scary”.
After all, here, we’re dealing with a newspaper that just fell for a fake news report that Al Qaeda are spending time generating CGI images of destroyed US monuments. I did post a comment on their story, but I doubt it’ll get published:
Hahaha! You do realise the image is from a computer game? Unless you’re going to start a campaign to get the entire staff of Bethesda and anyone else linked to the release of Fallout 3 shipped to Guantanamo for “questioning”, I think your reporters should start checking their facts for a change.
Do you honestly believe Bin Ladin is in a cave somewhere with a huge computer system running mock-ups of destroyed US monuments? The guy’s a nut-job, for sure, but he’s obviously not stupid. Unless he wants the US to find him by looking for the cave with the highest electricity bill.
Oh yeah, that other story
From emo kids doing the right thing, to one being a numpty. And his mother. A dopey little sod in Newcastle has launched an appeal over a £50 littering fine after he was caught dropping a burst balloon in Old Eldon Square.
His argument for the defence? “I know I did something wrong, but if the warden had asked me to pick it up I would have done. But it was just a balloon.” So he admits it, knows it was the wrong thing to do and was aware of the fine… but reckons he should just be told off while everyone else gets away with dropping stuff because it was only a balloon.
OK, drop a McDonald’s cup holder and you’ll get the same fine. Difference? Cup holder is biodegradable low-quality paper/cardboard. Balloon is non-biodegradable rubber which will never mush down and which could choke a bird if it ate it. Remember kid – and you might learn this if you ever lose your virginity – it’s not the size that counts.
His mum, the deluded soul, says “I think it is vindictive and just a way of trying to break up the kids who hang around Old Eldon Square.” They’re trying to break people up and move them on by fining them for dropping litter?! Are you mad, woman? If they wanted to break them up, they’d use anti-loitering laws.
I’m not having a go at the kids on Old Eldon Square. For enough years I was one of them. Which is why I know there are bins around there. And, if they’re still there, signs telling you that if you didn’t use them you’d get fined. I also recall the place being a tip by a Saturday evening because so many people didn’t use them.
All that’s changed is that the council have hired someone to keep an eye out and catch the litterbugs. £50 seems excessive, but he won’t do it again.
