The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth.
I like this quote, it's taken from the rather impressive Rocky movie from 2006. I wanted to write about how life can change and yet at the same time we can extract the positives and not let life get to us. To say that this week has been an eventful one for me would be a massive understatement! To go into following working all of last weekend only to be told the next day that your job is no longer their is a bit of a hard pill to swallow. No doubt the next few days were a bit of a blur.
When the worst things happen in life we can take one of two options, we can either curl up in a ball and let life kick us into submission or we can keep moving forward and taking those punches on the chin we can move on. So I dusted myself down, started to bombard other competitors of my previous employer and after the first few days I have two interviews next week.
It was the continual and helpful advice of friends that kept me in a positive frame of mind, there are some former work colleagues that are nice and I will keep in touch with, their are others that have shown their true colours being two faced people. I would always like to talk in high regard to those that I have respect for but the ones I thought I could trust, I have no respect for them at all.
I've never lost a job before so no doubt it hurt but after seeing the things and events that had affected my friends lives recently I knew that I was still lucky. Some have not only lost jobs but relatives, friends, irreplaceable possessions and that makes my scenario not seem so bad. I will be concentrating hard on these next two interviews in order to get my life back on track. No doubt this time next year I will have forgotten all about my former employees.
Like the quote above nothing hits harder than life, but it is all about just keeping optimistic and moving forward. Nothing else will do for me. Life is one unique opportunity for us to explore and enjoy. I don't believe in life after death nor in reincarnation so what we have is what we make it.
Even in the darkest of days, there is always hope.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Well the worst thing happened yesterday, I became part of the ever growing list of people who have lost their job.
During the last eight months the "Credit Crunch" has just been something that I have ignored in the newspaper or just thought "It would never happen to me". Well it has. For the first time in my life I find myself out of work and facing a situation that I have never been in before. Now suddenly I am worried, worried about what the next few months holds. When I think of the money I have spent going to Sweden in the past few months it only makes me wish that I had hindsight.
I don't care who you are nobody is safe from the worst financial situation the world has ever seen. So I applied for 75 jobs in my field today and thus far not one phone call back. No doubt I will continue over the next few weeks.
Will keep you all informed!
So I read today that the founders of Pirate Bay have been sentenced to one year in prison and fined a rather heavy amount of Swedish Krona.
A decade ago I was a strong campaigner for the protection of material and, as a writer myself, was paying such a large amount of money for the copyright of my own material. I have been a victim of having material stolen and used without my consent, and yes at the time I was livid.
The internet changed all that.
Think back a decade or so ago, 1998/9. The Internet was popular but most people were on dial up, broadband was still in development and the old whir and buzz of a modem was a common sound in most peoples homes. There were sites such as Napster and Kazza that were offering file sharing and at the time it was a crime that was frowned upon. If you admitted that you had downloaded a music file you were treated as being something of a leper. Using dial up it was almost impossible to download a whole album of music, if you did you would take hours and if the connection was broken you were stuffed.
Broadband soon came along and changed all this, download times improved, the number of Internet users tripled in a few years and soon the sharing of files became as popular as email. Napster were forced to change, Kazza shut down and the corporate media giants were rubbing their hands with glee. Then enter the torrents.
Torrents combined with Broadband meant that file downloading was quick, easy and did nost cost anything, but it was indeed still illegal.
Meanwhile the corporate giants finally dragged their heels into the 21st century and offered their artists music on download but at prices that were way to excessive. With the availability of torrents most people I know were not downloading illegally because they could, they just refused to pay the extortionate prices for the music that they were listening too.
Many artists complained, but many also said that it was time the music industry got with the times. Artists like Radiohead offered users the choice of how much they paid for their new album, from free to the standard cost of £8. Though most people chose to pay nothing, the numbers that did pay was higher than Radiohead's previous album. This just proved the point that people were still willing to pay for music but not at the unrealistic prices that were on offer.
With the growing number of popular artists supporting the sharing of music it is only a matter of time before the music industry wakes up and smells the coffee. Pirate Bay may have ended but sure as the sky is blue another file sharing company will begin, and another and so on.
I like most have downloaded music for free and if you have not then your either a good liar or work for EMI ;) but it's not a habit of mine.
I hope that somehow the music bigwigs and the torrent sharers can work something out as until then the downlaoding will go on.
There is a line from one of my favourite movies, The Breakfast Club, that goes “In 1000 words I want you to write down just who you are”. Not to spoil the movie but let’s just say is does not happen. Even in reality that would be impossible, do we actually know who we are?
This whole question arose from a conversation I had in a bar in Stockholm on last Saturday. After walking around for the entire day it was time to rest our feet. During the next seven hours the conversation turned into just who we were as people. It is a really tough thing to talk about your inner feelings.
From the moment we are born until the day we die life will always be a learning curve, with each passing day we expand our minds and increase the abilities that we possess. As each year passes I believe that we as humans become calmer people, the adolescent rage that burns up in our teens becomes more subdued as we move into our twenties, the thirties are a period of reflection and making life what we need it to be, the rest I have yet to experience.
Not knowing who we are is not necessarily such a bad thing as not only do we learn more each day about exactly who we are it also allows those who are close in our life to get to not only know but influence the person that we can become. When I look at my parents as an example I have seen them change so much in life that they are more different and relaxed now than I can ever remember. This only a pure reflection of how they have had to adapt to each other from their own individual personas.
Love is all about learning, adapting and helping each other to ensure that not only the relationship is the best it can be but also a indication that you love the relationship more than you love yourself. It ensures that the heart of the other person will never be less than your own in terms of value.
In an ever worsening world there is little that is provided free that can change our lives and make them better. Love is one of those precious areas that is an exception.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Leaves of spring gather on the last winter chill
A new day now beckons time can no longer stand still
The past is eroded like an extinct decay
Future approaches direction is set in my way
Church bells of laughter ring out in this room
A collective emotion echos through out with a boom
Solitary confinment transforms into a door now ajar
A future of hope that is near yet so far
Optimism in one heart can equal despair in another
A stare full of hate can turn stanger into brother
Do we dare challenge destiny against the tide of hard times?
If we love someone that deep shall it become a tree of crimes?
Listen to the wind my friend, it shall play a tune
A sunset of symphony a chorus of moon
Dance to the sound that you hear in your soul
Nothing is impossible, let's just take control
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